A necessary patch for the VP key

We all know that TLPs are not classic EQ and there are good reasons for that .

VP keys are an example where the "classical" part appears as being monstrously wrong and needs an update .
In 2000 the ground spawns were the easiest, trivial part of the quests while Trakanon was the hardest .

Today on TLPs it is the opposite . Trakanon is basically trivial and drops a megaton of teeth so that an average guild has teeth for all its members after a few raids . Instanced TLPs make it even easier .
On the contrary the ground spawns are the "hardest" part with spawn blocking, cheating and more generally are an occurrence which brings out the worst in the players .

My proposal to DB developpers (and I suppose that they have already thought about this issue) is the following .
As there is ABSOLUTELY no challenge or difficulty in getting a ground spawn because today everybody knows not only the exact coordinates but also the exact spawn cycles, make the ground spawns trivial again .
Instead of 96 minutes , make the spawn every 15 or 20 minutes .
This will provide some 72 medaillons a day and will have the HUGE advantage to deter all cheaters and users of unnamed illegal software because there will no more be incentive to cheat for this spawn .
Also it will avoid unneeded attrition of the player basis because we all know many people in large guilds who stopped playing EQ after experiencing this disgusting theater around the ground spawns .

Personally I am on the brink of stopping EQ too but as there is not much to do at 60 , I will still give the ground spawns a few tries .
Obviously I am not going to encourage cheaters and RMTrs by spending Kronos or PP for a trivial ground spawn - I would rather leave than do that .

How would there be no incentive to cheat the spawn? If you hold all of the M.Q pieces, it doesn't matter how often it spawns. You still get them all.

If you want dbg to stop cheaters you should ask them to get rid of the people who are cheating...

If you aren't enjoying the game than don't play it. If you are on the brink, just take the plunge and go find something you do enjoy.

Thanks for starting a new thread on this topic. The other 8 were not sufficient, clearly.

They already nerfed them all. I'm not saying I even disagree with you, just that it was pulling teeth on Phinny to get them to nerf it to what you have now. And they didn't do it for like a month I think?

It's going to be like SK and Mage epics - they think it's fine now. It's not a "hard to do" or "easy to do" thing. They have no desire to change it.

They Upped the spawn rate already on a lot of VP camps and groundspawns. You also enjoy the luxury of instanced Howling stones with Drusella in era. A part from SK, Wiz and Enchanter Epic Kunark is pretty trimmed and tuned to a large population on a TLP. However, a gap in some security measures to block people from using scripted and automated programs/ways of playing has been compromised. All I can say is report and report and continue reporting.

However with the new pick mechanics I can only imagine some rough times with some VT shard camps in Luclin and the Medallion hunts in Plane of Storms come Planes of Power expansion.

And, here's the thing I want to point out about those changes they made... they've all been appreciated.

I have yet to hear one single person in game (not forum trolls here) complain about being able to obtain a VP key easier than in the past. Not one single person.

All of the things we see people complain about the "dumbing down" of Everquest by making it more accessible for modern TLP gamers are the same things that I hear people in game (you know... the people that ACTUALLY PLAY THE GAME) like. People in game praise /pick, Agent of Change raid instances, etc.

If DBG would stop listening to the forum trolls and start listening to the people that actually play the game, they might realize that there is real benefit to making more and more content accessible to their paying customers.

For instance, we heard on the forums for over a decade how instancing old world raid content would ruin the game, and yet it's been one of the biggest features of these TLP servers that has brought back and KEPT players playing on these servers since they put it in.

Stop listening to the 1% of your population that trolls these forums, and start listening to the 99% of your customers that play the game.

I think it's pretty damn telling that SoE listened and catered to the 1% of their customers for so many years, and here we are today with the population at about 1% of their all time peak (500k users in 2002 to about 5k users today). Good job SoE. You designed the game around 1% of your customer base, and that's EXACTLY how many customers you have left today. Stop being stupid.

Risiko you confuse me so much. You want so many things that are available later on in the game, yet you turn up your nose at anything that is not "classic era" EQ. If you want to play the game in that era, my guess is you will have to put up with all the bad ideas from that era too. VP key is one of those bad ideas. If you don't like things like that, and think that the process for getting into a raid should be more streamline and intuitive, then I suggest you play some of the xpacs past PoP, ya know, after they learned from past mistakes made in the Classic - PoP era.

If this idea rubs you the wrong way, that is its purpose. So tired of hearing you about how the game should be changed in one breath, and how much you love the classic - PoP era in the next.

Despite what anyone thinks of anyone else here on this forum, everyone should be able to agree the VP key and by a lesser extension VT and Storms keys are all absolutely ridiculous.

My biggest question to people like Prathun, Absor, and Ngreth is that is the REALLY what you intend for EQ to be? I am just curious on their thoughts on this, after seeing the screenshots, heck taking 5 mins to log in and looking at the current SONH spawn has 10 people sitting on it and it won't even spawn for another 25 minutes.

Is this REALLY what you want out of this game? Is auto clickers, training, dozens of people crouching around a single pixel in hopes of seeing a bag spawn what you think this game needs? Is this REALLY what you think is healthy for this and all future TLP servers?

I just cannot imagine seeing those screenshots and anyone thinking that is acceptable, and if you do think its acceptable id like to hear a rational explanation about how that is acceptable other than "Classic bro" (Which it's not classic, this didn't happen in classic).

Either way Its been changed before, we know its not hard to change cause they have shown they can do it. It's time to stop being coy and just change the spawn to a 5 minute respawn.

Truth be told I am starting to believe the conspiracy theories that DBG is taking kick backs on the krono sales, I've already had a few people literally quit the game over the VP key in our guild and were bound to lose more. Why in gods green earth would you risk a single subscription over something so stupid as a ground spawn is beyond me.

Your caps key appears to be broken...

So this quest was "fixed"? I would expect a dragon to have a lot of teeth and a key in a swamp difficult to find. If you guys stopped loitering on its spot, it might be easier to see!

They obviously don't cater to the challenge argument. See the enc sk epic stuff where they flat outv said they were leaving those the same.

Its a shame.

Not sure if I can think of a groundspawn in the game that couldn't be faster... as in being faster would somehow = harm to the game play.

Key piece ones should all be "no destroy"

Bottleneck groundspawns, it would be nice to see them be made forageable as well in lore-fitting zones, as well as randomized as mob drops. Goblins would pick them up, all I will say.

Even put them on a in-era vendor (could be remotely and/or dangerously located) for 3000 p or something. You still need the trakanon tooth aka raid encounter.

Put the finished key on the marketplace for a limited time, call it a test of interest. Make some $ of something you unlock for free a few expacs later anyways.

How the answer to this is not obvious to you is baffling.

Agreed, something needs to be done about the two ground spawns on Agnarr.

Just put the ground spawns on another instanced raid boss.

The ground spawns are a cancer in the game. If you wish to drive a meaningful segment of the user population away, please, by all means, continue the current system.

If I hold all the ground spawns, it doesn't matter how fast they respawn. You will still pay me to M.Q it for you, so I will continue to pick up the ground spawns.

And if the respawn is say instant or even 30 secs or a minute, how many people are going to buy your lore item when they can get another in a few seconds that you cant pickup?

Ground spawns should be 1 second repops, no destroy...

One second repops huh? Why have the quest at all then? If you want to trivialize every part of the quest so that all 2k noobs on Agnarr can finish it "in era" why bother with the quest? Why not have Phara Dar message you when you log in and ask what loot you would like?

Not everyone is gonna get into VP in era on Agnarr, and I would say at LEAST one or two guilds will fall as a direct result of a bad quest design (or an outdated one at least). This WILL happen. And no matter how many threads you start or how many tears you cry, DBG will not change it. They already cut the spawn time in HALF.

You and everyone else on the Agnarr server is not entitled to VP in era. You paid to experience a game, there was never a promise that you would enjoy it, and if you don't, just stop playing it. Plenty of other games on the market that cater more to their player base if thats what you enjoy.