DBG - It's time to make EQ better

It's 2018, and we're all playing a 19 year old video game. The TLPs aren't bringing in kids in droves to skip their high school and college classes like it was back then. We are the same people over and over, just much older than before. It's time to hit a home run with the next TLP.

• Get rid of the exp penalties (not asking for exp buffs). Many of us have too many responsibilities to put in 8+ hours a day just to stay relevant with each expansion release. It was also dissuade some individuals from illegally automating those activities to stay capped. But what about the profits from selling pots you say? Then why let Phinigel get Live server exp rates with the release of TSS (in addition to AA auto-grants earlier on)? Just keep punishing people to get those pot sales! The more you let people stay caught up, the more active subs you'll retain. The population fallout isn't due to the quality of expansions over time, the ability to keep up is. The age of pewpsocking everything is over.
• Give classes their flavor back. Don't pigeon-hole bards into being /melody bots, for example. Let them run around in circles killing packs of crap for the sake of having something else to do. Why is quad-kiting with druids and wizards a dead artform? How about swarming or mini-swarming?
• The change to expansion-related QoL things have been great - improve on it! Clicking from bags, instanced raiding, and so on, has been loved by most. Unlock all classes from the start, but keep the racial combinations to those respective expansions if need be. Many people want to play beastlords and zerkers from Day 1, but begrudgingly play something else until they can. It won't affect raiding balance - MoTM doesn't care what classes are in the raid. If this can be done in EQ2 with the Fallen Gate server, I don't see how EQ could not.
• Improve the trading. FV is the most popular Live server for a reason, due to everything being tradeable. Some people worry that this encourages RMT, but what doesn't encourage it still today on any TLP server? Fungus tunics, CoS, GEBs anyone? More competition, more loots into the economy will drive the cost down. This also allows more people to stay current without being full-time raiders until Defiant gear is introduced. Remotely selling to barters is awesome.
• I know much of this has been discussed before - but it's time to make EQ . Have a wonderful day.

I will say this, I will never play on another slow xp server again...There just isn't any real point to it. The rest of your ideas have merit except for the FV rules but I never played on FV so maybe it would be good I don't know.

FV has the best exp bonus in game, that's probably why that server is popular.

Well, I suppose FV loot rules have its pros and cons. The most valuable items on the server (besides augs) are raid gear and gear that can be equipped at level 1. That might screw up the economy, maybe not. Maybe raid looters will worry about their own krono count than the gear of the guild. Who knows what would happen, but having a big pool of items to buy from on the bazaar is really helpful in catching up. Yes the exp is faster on FV too, but the other Live servers are not slow, not even close to the awful pace of the TLPs.

I want to get back into the TLP game and thought about rolling on Coirnav, but having to slowly grind 60 levels again loses all the appeal. You just can't catch up on 2-3 hours a night, and only gets worse when you have to level cap and AA cap.

A TLP with the FV trade ruleset would be the most successful TLP in EQ history. It will also make them a boatload of cash. Kind of crazy that they haven't done it yet tbh.

FV rules would be a cesspool.... look at Coirnav for example... then compound it with FV loot rules...

From what I see, these guilds on Coirnav are the same players that were on Phinigel, under new player/guild names. And before that, they were the same players on Ragefire, and so on. FV loot rules don't really have an impact until you get into VP, NToV, and I think most of the top end Luclin stuff. The stuff happening on Coirnav is all for things you can currently trade, so FV rules don't have an impact. Later on, other guilds can clear the same stuff and be able to introduce those loots into the economy.

I get what you are saying though, I don't discount your opinion.

It all started with Holly saying casuals don't deserve raid loot. They've given us instancing etc. I agree with OP on most if his post. FV is a fine server the only people I ever see going on about doomsday TV loot style are people that don't have characters there. The xp grind is boring get rid of it, it only helps the hardcore or automated poopsockers stay ahead of people with actual jobs err I mean casuals. Good post gets my vote although I would like an agnarr like locked server.

man i love the eq playerbase.

Daybreak, get rid of RMT and krono!

Daybreak, give us a TLP with FV loot rules! cause there definitely wont be RMT there

OP is the VERY DEFINITION of why a 19 year old game can not succeed today. We were fighting with muskets and bad rations back then. Wiping on a raid truly ruined your next day a work. WE ALL had full time jobs (yep, even 20 years ago), and wiping and corpse recovery really sucked.

"QoL" s a miserable term when it applies to old school MMOs. There was NO quality of life, that's what made it great! Today's players keep whining about more, "QoL" features, again and again. Is it because you can learn about an atom smasher in two minutes with Wikipedia, or don't understand that some people had to go to the library and research such knowledge?

The same concept applies to MMOs. Reaching maximum level was HARD WORK. Getting your epic weapon was HARD WORK. This game is doomed, because there are too many players that coasted through MMOs (and life, most likely), crying about, "quality of life." Go away, OP, World of Warcraft is awaiting your subscription.

No, none of what you mentioned was in the least bit hard. It was only time consuming. Your attitude is what is wrong with the game. Sitting in front of your PC for endless hours is not hard. I bet you're a pleasure at all the parties. ESO is way harder than this game will be mechanically, and you don't need to waste your life away in the meantime.

DBG cares? not really.

Ive played a long time. Been there for every new TLP. Have fun doing the new thing I guess. I was on corinav maybe till lvl 23. Full group. And that was enough. The exp penalty is no longer fun. Let us be honest. ALL of us have been here and done this game. We dont need to suffer the grind anymore. The OP is correct in saying that most of us are adults with lives. If this 1 thing isn't changed I can see eq failing in the near future. We just don't have the same time we used to have. Frankly I didn't have it then but I loved the game. I still do...but not enough to suffer the exp grind like that. Make a server with normal exp(live), instances, no true box ...build it and we will all come...and stay. Make it go until it hits live. BUILD IT AND WE WILL COME!!!!

Get off your high horse. Most of the people asking for QoL improvements have been playing this game for the last 19 years.

I would like to see Merc in TLP. Nothing ever beats a played cleric or tank but in a pinch a Merc can keep your group moving.

January 2 on Phinigel, or log in right this moment to Fippy or Vulak if you can't wait that long.

If you mean in earlier expansions, a level 60 tank merc can out tank a level 70 player tank while also outdpsing a level 70 dps class, so, um, no.

Well that just sounds embarrassing for the player but those numbers are 100% within the realm of thier control.

No, they are not. The DPS and regen a level 60 tank merc puts out are entirely outside of player control.

I may be exaggerating slightly on the level 60 tank merc dps, but only slightly.

The player control? There is a company called day break games that can tune that merc tank to be more in line with the active content.