Frenzic's Rule Set Proposal

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Frenzic, Mar 3, 2015.

  1. Frenzic Augur

    Many people have put out very good ideas for this new server. I've seen people compile information and it has been very helpful.

    I find myself having trouble sorting through all the different ideas so I can only imagine that the devs, who are actively working, are also having trouble keeping up. I'm going to use this thread to post my idea set for the server.

    Please feel free to debate any and all of my ideas and if someone comes up with something great, I will update my rule post. For now I am going to post Rule set 1.0.
  2. Frenzic Augur

    Frenzic's Time Locked Progression Server Rule Set 1.0


    Expansions will open on a set time release schedule. The release schedule will be decided on before the server is launched. This will allow players to know exactly when they need to take off work ect. An example of the unlocks could be:

    Classic- 2 months
    Kunark- 4 months
    Velious- 4 months
    Luclin- 4 months
    Ect...

    Fix up the servers prior to launch and remove out of era quest/items/npcs. We the players will help you with this task if you allow us. Hold a very brief beta or simply allow us to submit a list of broken/outofera content.

    Remove certain out of era mechanics from the game until they were released or the server votes to have them. Some mechanics that come to mind would be Out of combat regeneration, market place items, mercenaries, noobie armor quest, recruit a friend experience bonus ect...

    Slow down the experience rate by cutting a percentage of the experience earned across the entire server. Do not put in hard caps on experience per monster kill. Allow all the current exp earning bonuses such as grouping, just do a wholesale cut by percentage.

    Reduce the spawn time on NPC's for the first week of the server launch. The amount of players that will crowd the noobie zones is too much for the zones to handle. One week of increased spawn rates will allow players to spread out. Noobie zones should have dramatic increases while other zones perhaps double speed.

    Allow instancing of raid zones. Add in NPCs outside or inside the zone that will summon an expedition for the raid. A minimum of 36 players is required to get the expedition. Once an expedition is summoned, all players in that raid will be flagged for the lockout timer, regardless of if they enter or finish the raid. The lockout timer for each raid will be twice the regular spawn time of the boss.
    Elkay, Darigaz, Dandy and 2 others like this.
  3. Frenzic Augur

    Now for an explanation of my plan.


    Expansions will open on a set time release schedule. The release schedule will be decided on before the server is launched. This will allow players to know exactly when they need to take off work ect.

    I found that the voting process caused more grief than it did benefit. Players argued and the community suffered. If the unlocks were timed and known before hand, this would be avoided. Also I saw many complaints about people taking off work for an expansion launch, only to have it delayed for some reason. I think it's just better overall to do it time released.

    Fix up the servers prior to launch and remove out of era quest/items/npcs. We the players will help you with this task if you allow us. Hold a very brief beta or simply allow us to submit a list of broken/outofera content.

    Some items and content leaked through onto Fippy. On combine it was worse, but I still think we can do better.

    Remove certain out of era mechanics from the game until they were released or the server votes to have them. Some mechanics that come to mind would be Out of combat regeneration, market place items, mercenaries, noobie armor quest, recruit a friend experience bonus ect...

    I don't want an overpowered classic experience if it can be prevented. Things like out of combat regeneration hurt classes like enchanters by removing part of what makes them needed. Market place items can slip in that are over powered such as what happened on Fippy. Noobie armor makes some classic gear completely obsolete. Noobie armor came out much later and should not be there on launch. RAF experience bonus is something that came out much later and ruins the spirit of these servers. Players that have the bonus will be at a supreme advantage and it will cause a lot of strife. Add it back in when it was released on live.

    Slow down the experience rate by cutting a percentage of the experience earned across the entire server. Do not put in hard caps on experience per monster kill. Allow all the current exp earning bonuses such as grouping, just do a wholesale cut by percentage.

    Everyone agrees that experience rates should be cut. Fippy rates were alright but they punished groups that killed yellow/red cons and soloers. It was more about speed of kills on blues which is not the best way of doing things.

    Reduce the spawn time on NPC's for the first week of the server launch. The amount of players that will crowd the noobie zones is too much for the zones to handle. One week of increased spawn rates will allow players to spread out. Noobie zones should have dramatic increases while other zones perhaps double speed.

    They already reduced spawn times in noobie zones for Fippy release and I think it worked very well. I would ask them to step that up one more level and help players spread out through the world. Certain zones were extremely contested well beyond the noobie zones.

    Allow instancing of raid zones. Add in NPCs outside or inside the zone that will summon an expedition for the raid. A minimum of 36 players is required to get the expedition. Once an expedition is summoned, all players in that raid will be flagged for the lockout timer, regardless of if they enter or finish the raid. The lockout timer for each raid will be twice the regular spawn time of the boss.

    This has been the most debated topic. I think both casual players and hardcore should be able to enjoy the content. If you're capable of beating a raid that should be enough, not also being able to mobilize at 3am using external notifiers. Allowing instancing like this will not take away the hardcore guilds ability to compete with each other and contest the open world spawns. All this change does is add the casual guilds into the mix. More loot will be introduced into the game, but I believe that is alright because the timers on unlocks are so much shorter than what happened on live.
    Elkay, Darigaz, Zoggzog and 5 others like this.
  4. Hendar Augur

    I like those. I would especially urge Daybreak to go with the beta option (with wipe). The more eyes you have looking at things, the better it will be.

    I would add: no RAF ever.

    And make sure mage pets are not god-like (with insta-regen as an added bonus).
    Frenzic likes this.
  5. Maniacles Elder

    The main thing I'd like to see is that the faf and other xp bonuses not function. There's just nothing quite as disheartening as watching someone get triple xp while you are xping at the normal rate. Even playing with boxed players when you are a solo player is less annoying.
    Frenzic likes this.
  6. Maniacles Elder

    Err. RAF, not faf...
  7. Frenzic Augur


    Good point! I missed that one.
  8. Maniacles Elder

    edit seem broken on my computer, ah well. One thing that will be nice is the old school alchemy won't be messing with the economy like it did on Fippy. Be nice to see things not go for thousands of plat for once.
  9. Frenzic Augur


    That exploit was fixed on all servers and continues to be fixed. No worries good sir! I do think we should look for other exploits and broken content though. A small beta would be very good imo.
  10. Jezzie Augur

    Nice post Frenzic, would love to play on THAT server!
    /crosses fingers
    Darigaz, Soltara and Frenzic like this.
  11. Jagular Journeyman

    Nice post Frenzic

    allthough i would like to see a little longer time frame for Classic ( 4 month for that one to).


    Frenzic wrote:
    "Remove certain out of era mechanics from the game until they were released or the server votes to have them. Some mechanics that come to mind would be Out of combat regeneration, market place items, mercenaries, noobie armor quest, recruit a friend experience bonus ect"

    I couldnt agree more , tutorial zone, noob quest armor , RaF , out of combat regen and most of all Mercenarys ruined the EQ experience atleast for me.

    The only later tweak i like and i woulnt mind seeing implemented is offline trader mode in the bazaar (when SoL expansion hits the server ) and that in only because i cant have a computer with EQ running when im not playing :=)
    Frenzic likes this.
  12. Zinth Augur

    remove maps too and keep sense heading at 1 when we create a char ;-) max it out... and for the lazy ones they will get it maxed come LoY if it launches, else I like the list.

    I like the wholesale EXP cut, the cap on per kill hurt SOLOERS a whole lot while groupers just shoveled exp in because EACH player in the group could get the 2% from the same mob the soloer got 2% from, but they killed it "6x faster" aka levelled 6x faster too.
    Frenzic likes this.
  13. PathToEternity pathtoeternity.pro


    Heya Frenzic, Jain here. While I'm hoping for a seasonal server, rather than a more traditional progression server, but if we don't get that what you are suggesting is overall really good and I think you'd be hard pressed to find people who disagree. SOE did step things up between Combine and Fippy, and hopefully things will improve again between Fippy and the upcoming server.

    That said, are you suggesting all expansions get 4 months in the spotlight? I think that will cripple the server. Fippy/Vulak are over 4 years old now and still not caught up to live. Honestly I don't even know what the hell expansion they are on or how many are left, and I don't really care, Fippy got boring.

    If you are suggesting 4 month (and if Daybreak is considering them!) please think about the ramifications. If the server launches in the next couple months we'll barely be getting into Velious by 2016. We'll be messing around with LoY/LDoN (depending on how much time they're given) as we enter 2017. Dragons of Norrath won't be til 2018. In 2019 we'll be getting to The Serpent's Spine. Seeds of Destruction in 2020. Rain of Fear about 2021. Whatever expansion they are working on releasing this year we'll get to in 2022. Over those seven years they'll have released probably seven more expansions, and it will take two more years to get through those.

    I'm kinda roughing it on some of these dates, as expansions like LoY may not be four month standalone unlocks, but you get the idea. I love EQ, will always love EQ, and if possible I will continue to play on every new server EQ gets, but we cannot expect this server to be alive and healthy for the next ten years due to 4 month unlocks. If this is designed to catch up to live it can't wait until 2025 to do it.

    I'd really rather see a seasonal server where it's occasionally wiped and rebooted and we're thrown into an era with appropriate levels/gear (or naked level 1's - ha) and race to complete X number of expansions. I won't elaborate as I'm not trying to hijack your thread, but please please be careful before suggesting 4 month lockouts. I would LOVE to spend 4 months in all expansions through PoP but I suggesting a 10 year timeline for a server is just not realistic unfortunately.
    Irbax_Smoo, Dandy and Frenzic like this.
  14. beyrak Augur

    I could probably live in classic for two months without Kunark, but not much longer. Four months for Luclin sounds a bit long.

    LDoN should come out with LoY and PoP, or very, very close together. Four months there would be fine, but again, no longer. That was what hurt Fippy, staying in PoP so long when GoD was blocked.

    But there after, 3 months per expac is very sufficient without a vote, That saves two weeks off the polling time.
    Frenzic likes this.
  15. Frenzic Augur


    Hey Jain, nice seeing you bud!

    No I'm not suggesting 4 month unlocks on each expansion, that was just an example of what I was talking about. I think the devs could either put up a poll or decide on their own, but each expansion should be given a time period based on its content. Obviously 4 months is way too long for some expansions. Sorry for the confusion :)

    Edit- Well my plan was to edit the original post if new/better ideas came my way, but it seems that the edit feature removes itself after a certain amount of time. You can only edit recently made post it seems? No big deal I'll just post updates below.
  16. Stewgottz Augur

    I've suggested before two servers with different advancement mechanisms. By having two servers moving at different speeds, hopefully each server would attract like minded players so the population stays healthy enough to reach live, or perhaps more realistically HoT.

    Server A: Much like Frenzic described, have set unlock timers. This should appeal to the casual player and be a little more forgiving in terms of people sharing spawns and the like. The expansions can be longer because there are people that this model would appeal to, however not too long. Maybe 3 months each for classic, kunark, velious, and Luclin. That would be a year of pre pop content, and the server would be moving forward at a pace that most should be able to participate in. Then you can have a little more freedom with the unlocks, maybe 4 months of PoP/Ldon/Loy (staggered?) as this seems a very popular stopping point. After PoP is usually where the train comes off the tracks. I think once raids go to instancing in GoD moving to 60 days auto unlocks would be fair.

    Server B: Combine/sleeper rules. Beat it and move on. This should attract the player who lives for competition and bat phoning raid spawns and wants to move quickly through the content. This server should move fast enough that people playing in a guild that is not exactly at the top won't get bored waiting for the guilds in front of them to move on or praying a vote passes.

    The point of this idea is to create two different environments for two different types of players.
    Darigaz, Irbax_Smoo and Frenzic like this.
  17. The Broken One New Member

    for most things I agree

    except for instancing sucks, do not change it, that's not classic eq, don't care what people want. keep it as it was.

    short release on classic good. prefer even shorter on classic and longer on kunark and velious, 5 months

    tons of overpowered balance issues like dem mage pets and stuff, other classes suck as other posts have mentioned.
  18. Frenzic Augur


    So you want pure classic absolutely no instancing!!! But heck, let's have Kunark at release~

    This kind of wishy washy thinking is why we can't get a decent rule set in place.

    Also I quite like the "don't care what people want" comment. That's gold.
    Irbax_Smoo likes this.
  19. Bigbear Augur

    if classic was also 4 months then i might could handle this... would prefer 6 months for all expansions but 4-6 months would still work for me.. just please no voting... set time only this go around
  20. Bigbear Augur

    i may be very alone in my suggestions for 6 months between expansions ( and yes i know thats 11 yrs just to catch upto TDS) but its what i would enjoy. no one agrees with what a perfect progression server is. which is why there needs to be more than one with different rules. to appeal to all the different play-styles that we have that play EQ together.

    anyway long live EQ
    Friday likes this.