Is the casual server for casuals or not?

Race to farm more krono

It's fun if you don't let it bother you! I've completely ignored the market on the last few TLP servers and just earned my own gear along the way. You can also choose to only buy/sell/donate within your guild.

With instances and AoCs around gear is plentiful as long as you don't feel that you instantly need it.

They really need to rename the server to Schrödinger's Ruleset.

That's where instancing helps out. It gives you an opportunity for loot in a zone they can't touch.

Right, which is one of the reasons I argued that a casual TLP should start in an expansion where loot is gained through instances and not through regular spawn camps which leads to conflict.

DoN is an example like this.

These people will be on Selos. The fast xp suits their playstyle. As you know from previous TLPs the PfP (Play for Profit) guilds will go to any lengths to maximize profits. Fast xp is no deterrent for violating rules of conduct. In the event somebody does actually get banned then they can reroll and be back at it a few days later.
I worry that should they speed up xp on Mangler then that would encourage that kind of behavior on both servers.

What we need is stricter punishment for violations and somebody enforcing the rules of conduct. If somebody is allowed to 6box on a VM for years then it stands to reason that others will think they can get away with it too, then the server turns into a big cheating convention show.

At the end of the day it just makes Daybreak look bad and it's the same people on every TLP that are responsible for creating that image of the company.

Selos and Mangler are mislabeled.

Mangler is the CASUAL server. Going "hardcore" on that will net you a stint in the hospital.

Selos is the HARDCORE server.

You're welcome.

Instances separate the population which kills the MMO experience. If I want to play single player, I’ll pick up any number of single player RPGs. What you think is helpful, actually kills off MMOs. This is why non instances EQP99 rolls with 1500-2000 people a day even though it’s been stuck at Velious for 7 years and EQ servers roll with only a few hundred. No community? No feeling the need to log in

Krono monopolist farmers are just going to be a factor of the willingness of people to buy krono and spend it on their product. The fact that people roll into these servers with a krono bankroll makes people race to lock up the hot early items. A mass of semi-hardcore players who want good loot and will pay for it create a demand for people to farm and sell it. If you want to stop the farmers you have to stop there being buyers.

Some of the heaviest krono farmers did not utilize any kind of illigal programs, even on combine and fippy (pre truebox and krono).

My only guess for why people seem to think the item farmers / monopolized camps are new (they are not new) is that the sales are now in the open. I especially laugh at the idea of guild backed raid item RMT being up since kronos or truebox; fippy was IMO the worst for this and had neither.

Truebox will not change the amount of krono farming, but it may allow a smaller nunber of humans to monopolize more of it. In the end the farmers will just farm to fill whatever is the demand. Fv loot is what would likely spike the amount of krono farming - its a ruleset that attracts spenders.

Let me know when they release an anti-fv server with no trade everything and all multiquesting disabled. I'm so in.

WoWs 3-4+ million and FFXIV some number much higher than EQ and 99, highly disagree. Sitting at a camp with 5 other people isn’t more engaging than playing a dungeon with 5 other people.

EQ also has more than a few hundred...

Instances are so much more engaging than SitQuesting. I love EQ, don't get me wrong, but Exping in other MMOs are a lot more interesting. You are constantly moving, moving, moving. WoW and FFXIV have much larger populations, and WoW is pretty gosh darn old now but you still find a lot of low level characters grinding out levels in dungeons and open world. It's more friendly towards new and returning players. With the announcement of new EQ servers, I've canceled my WoW subscription (expires the end of this month). I don't box in WoW because it's a different pace and not worth it when I can easily solo farm for tradeskills, get groups instantly at any time of day and make as many alts as I'd like and always have people to play with at any level range! I can easily choose to be alone (solo) or switch immediately to playing with others without the need of a 2-4th character, because all classes are entirely capable of doing so. You can't decide to run off and spend alone time with a Cleric on EQ while still being productive.

Instancing has created, in my opinion, a longevity (in terms of playing all older content and socialization) in those games that EQ just will never have.

I generally feel expansions in EQ that relied heavily on group oriented instances, like DoN, DoD, etc, bring people together. Even players who usually solo'd in the guild, were much more willing to come along with us if it was an instance where they knew how long it would take.

I met more people in DoN creator missions than I did in classic and PoP combined. And the atmosphere is generally more lighthearted, there's no chance of anyone interferring with your group. Everyone generally leaves the group happy too, because everyone in the group got some currency.

It's a very different and more relaxed way to play than trying to get that one single item from that one single mob, hoping you don't get trained or anyone leaves before the mob spawns.

These high instance expansions also tended to create player hubs, people who gathered in front of the instance camps (be it LDON camps, the DoN cave in Lavastorm, the DoD werewolf mission, or even in front of OMM missions in PoK). It facilitates grouping. You don't have to run half accross the world to go to a camp anyonre, you know where the action takes place and where to go to group.

You really bring up some great points here, too. I remember those LDoN camps very well! Even if LDoN wasn't the greatest expansion SOE ever pushed out, it really did bring people together. I spent a good deal of my non-raid hours crawling through LDoN dungeons for two reasons; to stay on the leaderboard (which was a neat little thing for certain, and it also got me more groups!) and to get my spells and augs. I never even brought my boxes into these dungeons because it wasn't practical nor necessary. Whether everyone got a piece of gear, an aug, or just the points to spend on spells/augs/gear, everyone generally left the group happy.

Whereas, open world is a different thing entirely. If you want a certain item from a camp, it's more difficult on groups. This is a negative thing for casuals or non-boxers. Mob drops 2-3 pieces of loot usable by 1-3 different classes. You have to get 6 people willing to camp this rare spawn with you endlessly hoping it drops the piece of loot YOU want AND you win it. It's exhausting. And one wrong pull? Everyone's dead. One jack- comes by? Your camp is gone or your mob is KS'd. You can sit there for some rare mobs, even uninterrupted, for 16 hours straight and the item you want will never drop even though the mob spawned 8 times. Half the time everyone leaves frustrated with no loot, at least a quarter of the time, it's guaranteed half of the group will leave frustrated with no loot.