Raiding is like gambling, the punter needs to think he has a chance of winning. The chances of winning on Phinny are so low, that people will stop playing. Also don't give me that open world mobs blah blah, we came here to get rid of that nonsense. It's like saying if you don't like gambling inside a casino to win money, just go outside and start mugging people, because that's just as fun and balanced! No.
Just because you came here to avoid open world does NOT mean that others did the same. There was never any mention of removal of open world content in any part or post leading up to the server nor since its launch. None. No matter how many times you try to spew this garbage it will not make it true. Phinny is a server with a vibrant open world environment that guilds can avoid at a raid level if they so choose, or supplement with instances to avoid blocks or missing content in the ideal setting. There's plenty of guilds killing open world mobs - not just AOS - and as the server progresses more and more WILL be killing open content as guilds progress on from them. Way back in the day, this raid content only spawned once a week. Much like the instance lockout. If you monopolized it all as your server's resident uberguild you would get the same loot spread as now. In reality, though, original expansions took longer to reach the end content but also lasted significantly longer, and there were very often other guilds taking some content which resulted in getting a mob less than once a week, and guilds were smaller. My suspicion is that, compared to originally, the instance-only Phinny raid guilds able to clear all expansion content in era are going to end up better geared than ALL of the guilds on any split/rotated server, and any pvp server, and any guild who was 2nd or lower on ANY server. They will be behind the gear of undisputed top guilds on blue servers. If something like the 2nd through 12th or so top guilds on Phinny are ALL better geared than EVERY guild that wasn't #1 originally, that seems like they're getting plenty of loot to me. If you don't like gambling inside a casino you should go mug people outside is a wonderful analogy. I hope you have more where that came from.
You're really starting to get annoying on the forums. Just because you can't do something, or aren't good at a video game doesn't mean everyone else can't do it or isn't any better than you. OGC has 3 split trak the last 2 weeks, and 2 split him the previous 2 weeks. We will continue to 3 split him up until velious. It only takes 25-30 good players to down trak, so instead of coming here with your I know wtf i'm talking about because i'm the best and I can't do it, shut up and listen to what good players are telling you. So on this second, you talk all this great talk about instances, then turn around and bash it...pick something and stick with it. Raiding is not like gambling in any way shape or form. If you feel it's that way good for you, but it's not so find a better argument.
My question is this, where are all the people who clamor for really long expansion unlocks now? When TLP's are first release the boards are spammed with calls for year long expansions so people can "enjoy the game the way it's meant to be played"
Long expansions and unlock voting are advantages to players/guilds who wish to form a rotation on a traditional server with no instances. Long expansions allow the server to have some 1-2 month FFA period then settle into a rotation where they still have time to get a fair number of kills. Unlock voting gives other guilds some leverage against the dominant guild to keep the rotation going. They're necessary evils for making a rotation viable and keeping the raid community healthy. Instancing removes the need for rotations and anyone willing to level/gear up for raid content can start it as soon as they are ready instead of sitting out that 1-2 month FFA period. 3 months becomes plenty of time.
Also, pickzones were not implemented for high level zones when the voting happened. Getting to do all the camps you wanted to run in Sebilis with only a single pick available could take 6 months. With Phinny running 10-20 picks of seb we just don't need as much time, even with triple the population.
On what TLP or even fresh start server have we ever had a successful and enduring system of raid rotations for the top mobs? I don't disagree with you on this is why they vote that way - I think you nailed it exactly - it's just that as far as I'm aware it never works that way in reality. It's a total fantasy.
Yeah it's a total fantasy that people wanted to raid content in-era, that's why Phinny's population is so massive right? Lockjaw we had a healthy rotation both before and after enforcement. The vast majority of people on the rotation were perfectly happy with it until mage-boxer-alt-guilds started abusing it and Darth went off the deep end. It may have crashed and burned in spectacular fashion, but while it existed I can honestly say everyone enjoyed it. The healthy mix of FFA cycles led to a lot of exciting open world races and the "competitive environment" so many people quote as being part of the EQ spirit. If you came from TL you wouldn't understand any of that because you don't actually understand what "competitive" means. A competitive basketball game ends up 90-84, not 150-0.
The idea that people want to raid content in-era is not a fantasy at all. That's a proven and repeated fact. What's a total fantasy is the idea that extended lockouts and open world content leads to this happening. It's a total fantasy that rotations actually last. I am not arguing against the Phinny instance mechanic, but against extended lockouts. I am in no way opposed to the prospect that a dozen guilds should be able to complete an entire expansion's content list in-era. What I am opposed to is the idea that long lockouts are the way to facilitate this. I am opposed to the idea that a new expansion opening should mean most raiders are done with the current one. I am even opposed to the idea that seeing content 5 months into a 6 month expansion is more fun than seeing content 4 months after a 3 month expansion dropped. NTOV is honestly not going to magically lose all fun and appeal just because Luclin came out; it usually takes several expansions to happen.
EQMac did for years. Granted it wasn't TLP - it was Time Locked in PoP. Only one guild had Elemental access, but there was a rotation for VT and Seru and an agreement to assist each (3 different guilds) other on Emp to key up people for VT. When rotation spots were skipped, there was communication and agreement on the traded spawns. At the very end, I think we had a second guild on the cusp of or just gaining elemental access; I honestly forget if they downed RZtW. Only time that changed was in the last year of the server when an influx of new players accessing the game (when they changed the login to a web browser enabling non-mac hardware users access) did things start to get muddled with Seru. Of course, EQMac had just averted its first sunset at that time, so people were ready to blow up anything and everything simply because they could as there were no social consequences as the server was on its last breath to be eventually sunset for good. I'm still bitter about the sunset. Three years of character development down the drain.
It will if it is instanced. If you're farming it every week and fully clearing it, that equates to such a stupid amount of drops that you'll have alts of alts waiting on the rot loot. There's honestly no reason you cannot be clearing NToV for the first time within the first two weeks if it is fully instanced; none at all. No leveling required. Everyones got their VP drops. You spend a few days getting Skyshrine faction and drops. Then you're clearing NToV every Saturday. Absolutely zero reason that Phinny Carebears cannot have fully farmed NToV (if they focused on it) before Luclin.
I find the "carebear" rhetoric amusing when it comes from Lockjaw. My instanced Trakanon has the same likelihood of being contested as the open world one on that ghost town of a server. If "uncontested" equates to "carebear" then...
I suppose my posts didn't convey this very well. But I and most of my guild are part of this group. I was very upset when Ragefire was accelerated and I was forced to transfer in order to stay on the 6 month content drops that were originally promised. The most vocal of people on this forum say that no one enjoys these delays and it is killing the server. I personally don't feel the need to correct that usually, I'm having fun as are my friendsand that is enough for me. This was just an attempt to inform new people who up to this point are only getting a very negative side of the story.
This is not true. On Lockjaw open world "could" be contested. We know it won't be. But, your instance will NEVER be contested.
They may be technically different, but in reality it's never contested so they are effectively the same which was my entire point. It just seems absurd to talk down to people for having private instances while that guild has an entire private server. I think the anger towards Phinny comes from the fact that these uber guilds have for years spread the myth that these fights require a huge amount of skill and coordination. They've always posted screenshots saying "we killed this and you should be impressed". Instances are exposing that myth as every guild on Phinny that can bring 50 bodies is beating all of the content and showing how not-impressive those screenshots really are. Someone who has long been a part of that uber guild culture now sees their achievements being cheapened and hates it.
