RAiD INSTANCING FOR LOCKJAW

Why not do a poll. People are leaving for that reason. Please Daybreak do a poll and you will see...

No thanks, we rolled on lockjaw to play everquest.

The good news is that if you want to play instancequest they opened the new server just for you!

I would agree, if you want instances move to Phinny. Lockjaw is not an instanced server.

I'd like to see a poll for instances on Lockjaw

Considering LJ/RF will be merged within a few months....may as well wait.

fixd

I really really really hope they do, but when is the last time they merged servers like 2010? Trakanon has been sitting as a low pop server forever, Vulak probably costs more in electric to run than they even make from people that play on it.

It's not looking too hot on the merging front.

I'd wait for the beta test on Phinigel to show that it works first.

If Phinigel has a chain crash issue from raid instances having a bug or similar disruptive bug, that seems even more harmful if you ask me.

Why do you need raid instancing on Lockjaw? There aren't many raid guilds left on the server.

Why not? It can't hurt the population on either server.
I think most guilds have scheduled raid nights and if you can't find any decent mobs up then it gets boring.
I know, if we want content then we should all be playing 24/7 and if we're not winning dps races then we should box more flavor of the month toons with the most efficient tools to crush the competition but it would seem people are not willing to go through that.
Instance raids, then stand a better chance of retaining population/subs.
Do nothing, watch both servers decline.
The competition is headed to the new server, maybe it would make more sense to cater to a more casual crowd on the older 6 month servers, even if "it isn't classic".
Are there really that many people left on either server that enjoy the competiton?

I would like to see raid instancing on Lockjaw. I don't see how instancing will hurt you. You'll still get to contest open world mobs and with instances, you might pick up players who want to raid, but need a more consistent schedule. Ultimately you are going to need those raiders when your current team burns out and turns over.

The new server is a new ruleset.

That would be like asking a live server to have all items be trade-able like on FV just because you like that one component of their ruleset better.

Nope sorry Lockjaw gets no instances, sorry Faceless!

Whoa bro, don't threaten the pixel exclusivity. The gold minerals are reserved for hive guilds only, c'mon now.

Unfortunately it has fast unlocks that remind casuals of how they couldn't keep up on fippy.

But the even better news is if you want slow unlocks and no instanced raiding there's another server for you called Ragefire. Just waste your time rerolling, wise guy. Or they could allow free transfers yet again.

I'd vote no raid instances on lockjaw in a heartbeat.

I don't raid, so I really don't care - but I would say that since DBG has the "lets vote on everything" mentality, they really should be polling to see if Lockjaw/Ragefire want instancing.

There have only been 2 legitimate answers to that question in the last 10 years.

"Not enough people want it." -- Seems clear this isn't the case. I would LOVE LOVE to do some market research using their data. The mere announcement of Phinny appears to have affected the willingness of people to continue to play on the current servers. I would love to see how big the drop was on RF/LJ and see how large the uptick in resubs was and will be in the next few weeks. All summer I was talking to some old friends and guildies trying to get them to come back. They were bothered a little bit by bots, but what bothered them most was the inevitability of bots blocking them out of content. All of them said "Will it be instanced? Then no." I've got half a dozen people coming back, at least two of them will be on two accounts.

"We can't do it." -- Not many people really believed this, especially after they've been doing it so long, but whatever. They know their capabilities better than we do. But it seems like this last batch of TLP has lit a fire under their sweet elf-booties (or just as likely, while trying to do something else someone caught and idea and innovated a little bit and whammo--instances). In any case, the past few months seem to have made it clear that they can do it.

The demand is there. The capability is there.

I got a little sidetracked though. Because the question in this thread is whether raids should be instanced on LOCKJAW and not whether EQ generally should instance. I have long said that competition, while not my style, may be the only way that some people can experience any fun in Everquest. I don't really believe these people when they say that's the case and I wonder how large this population is. However, since there is Phinny coming out, I don't really see a reason not to let people pick whether they want competition or no competition and then roll on either Phinny or stay on LJ. I don't believe LJ should be instanced, let the toxics have their playground.

But there is something to be said for the group of people who have 2-3 chars on LJ that they've poured their souls into for the past 6 months, and they don't want to do all of that work all over again. IIRC, the LJ crowd was at least initially the less competitive and more happy-friends of the two servers. Its not wild to believe that a great deal of these people will be abandoning LJ and coming to Phinny, or would if they had it in them to grind AGAIN. Many of them played on RF initially. And then restarted again after RF was wiped. And then again after RF was wiped again. And again after RF was wiped again. And then again when LJ was released. It might be a small population, but asking them to restart again might be too much.

For this reason I think it might be best to allow transfers from LJ/RF to Phinny during the appropriate eras. This can be done in ways that would minimize damage to Phinny:

• One way is a full transfer. This would have the largest potential to injure the Phinny economy. Chars come over with loot, and plat.

• Another way might be a no-plat transfer. Characters can come over with all of their equipment, but with none of their platinum. This would help with some of the platinum problems that came with the alleged transfer issues in the past.

• Another way would be a no-bank transfer. Characters come over only with the gear (no plat) that they have on them. This would keep chars from filling their banks with loot and flooding the Phinny economy.

• A more extreme way of the above method would be an equipped-item only transfer. Characters come over only with the gear in their equipped item slots. No other gear comes over (bye bye jboots :[). This would have minor impacts on the Phinny economy if any.

• Most extreme way would be a naked transfer. Characters come over naked. This would remove any ability to affect the Phinny economy, but would allow folks the opportunity to keep their hard earned experience.

I'm not sure which of the above options would be best from a Phinny-health perspective. Which option I would support would depend largely on when the transfers are allowed. If transfers are allowed the moment Kunark is released, maybe equipped-item-only is best. If transfers are allowed in the middle of Kunark, maybe the no-bank transfer would be okay. If transfers were allowed from LJ to Phinny in the last week of Kunark, maybe we could get away with the no-plat transfer.

In any case, Lockjaw should remain un-instanced.

If you remember correctly we didn't have picks back in the day. Everquest had a flaw and it was that you had to come first for a kill it and never be able to practice if you were not. People left for WoW back in the days for that reason. I dont see any bad things with raid instances.

You're trying to argue that you actually want to play the game with someone who doesn't want you to play the game. Don't waste your time.

I'm sure there would be some upset players but do they represent the majority of players on the server now?
Seeing as players that thrive on the hardcore competition are heading to the instanced server it would seem that instancing is not a deterrent for those who enjoy that play-style.
The common theme seems to be that the 6 month servers are too slow for the competitive players so after the new server opens there will be fewer people on both Ragefire/Lockjaw that enjoy competition.
It makes sense to me that the 6 month crowd would be more casual orientated.
Instancing would open up the raid scene for players that box on 1 computer. I don't box but most of my friends I've made over the years do. I say if it keeps their accounts active then throw some raid targets their way.

With instancing there are still open world raids so players can still compete should they choose to. The only problem I see is for players that monopolize content to sell and I really don't care about them.

Since Kronos are bound to your account, people can transfer all their wealth from server to server as much as they want. So if they are to allow transfers, it makes very little difference whether they are naked or fully geared with all items and plat. The only real difference would be no drop items.