1) By slow I mean at least 3 to 6 monthes per expansion, depending on how large is the content. As example i would like 6 monthes in PoP. 2) On top i may even like the possibility for player to slow down the progression by voting for a single prolongation of 8 weeks. 3) I would also like the possibility to dual box, so not a true box but a two box server. 4) I would like XP to be divided by the group size but to have a bonus of 10-20% per group member, the idea being to make grouping attractive but not compulsory.
Lockjaw and Ragefire are the closest thing to what you're after here. It's possible they could revisit that progression concept with a new server, but considering the low population on RF/LJ it doesn't seem likely. I think you'd need to come up with some interesting novelty to keep a population up on a six month unlock cycle. Or make it not require a sub, so people can drop in and out as they like without having to put down money. I think we're much more likely to see another 3 month TLP next
FV Rules Two-Box Enabled Agnarr XP Rate Slower Unlock Speed Would be a nice deviation from the current offerings.
This but start with GoD. Did Classic through PoP too many times, and fans of that era are not 100% of the playerbase. Ah well, Pantheon is coming eventually. Not sure I get why people want even slower progression than we've already had though, especially starting from classic. Almost feels like some people want progression to be even slower than the game was expanded in the first place -
The answer is no. Any time anyone asks if they have a server planned that they haven't announced yet, the answer is always no.
It's already been established that progression servers with long expansion cycles kills off the population. They won't make the same mistake again.
If slow release were a winning concept Fippy Darkpaw would be the most populace server followed by RF and LJ. Back in '99 and '00 I'd run around checking things out "playing the game the way it was meant to be played" and the funny thing was that all my friends outleveled me so much so that I couldn't group with them. Slowing other people down isn't the answer, if you want to play a certain way then by all means do but keep in mind that occasionally you'll want to catch up. Seeing some of the zones in TDS are awesome motivation to do just that. There's a lot of really great stuff in EQ outside of the traditional starting city zones and a lot of people are going to continue to miss as long as they keep retreading the latest TLP
I think the case is stronger for catch-up incentives/mechanics deftly woven into current progression than making any progression server slower. Some possible Examples: 51/50 template for character creation already exists... take the defiant gear off it and there is no reason to not make this an OoW expansion feature. Give the live game a higher/better heroic character and make the current level 85 one function as above (one expac after cap goes to 90). Move the various XP boosts (I think there are at least 3, GoD and TSS being two of them and I think one in between) earlier and consider making them higher. This benefits everyone, and anyone that wants to level slow can play that way by choosing targets/content (rather than forcing all to go slow).
RF and LJ population can not be attributed to slow release as the release of Phinny drew a HUGE chunk of our population away and other TLPs after that slowly dwindled it also.
This is truth. The reason Phinny was so popular is because of AoCs. If they just added AoCs to Ragefire and Lockjaw, they would not have lost nearly as many people as they did when Phinny was released.
Slow release didn't save them though, did it? Look at Fippy and Vulak, with voting once you had enough spite votes by people who just didn't like the top guilds expansion openings came to a halt and the servers died. Then once the raiders in those guilds finally got fed up and left the spoiler contingent saw empty bazaars and no economy and they all bailed as well. My real point is this, we've all seen the classic starting cities till most of us can run through them in our sleep. There's a lot more cool things in the game than trying to restore some lost sense of community in overcrowded classic camp spots
That wasn't exactly how it happened. But don't let the facts get in the way of a good argument. Population was fine for a while after the failed votes on Fippy.
I think Agnarr is a good example that people just don't want slower expansions. Maybe 3 months is too short, but 6 months is certainly too long. For example, Agnarr, "finishing" a very big expansion like POP didn't take very long for most guilds. And now, with almost 6 months wrapped up, it's mind-boggling the amount of end game casual raiders you see. Not only that, but just about every raid guild has rotting gear from Elemental Planes to Time. Sure, it might be select Time pieces, but the point is... in under 6 months the population of active players largely got more than their fill.
