Fixing TLP population Dilution.

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Silver-Crow, Aug 23, 2019.

  1. Silver-Crow Augur

    I've posted this in other threads before, but I do think this warrants it's own thread.
    As you all know, new TLP's come online at regular intervals, and the recycle brigade and krono lords jump to the new server, often leaving in their wake once vibrant servers as desolate ruins.

    DBG is a business, and new TLP's make money, so I hold nothing against them for rehashing the same model over and over... everyone has to eat.

    But there's a limit on how far the TLP playerbase will go, and no-one likes a deserted server.
    Server merges have been discussed at length, but again no-one likes enforced server merges.
    A lot of people feel forced to jump to the new servers to avoid being left in a ghost town, leaving their characters, that they've put time and effort into behind. No one likes abandoning their characters.

    So what to do.....

    The obvious answer is to allow Character transfers to Live or Any TLP of similar ruleset that is ahead of where your current server is.... e.g Coirnav to Phinny.

    Over time I this would let the recycle brigade keep restarting over and over, but the 'in for the long term' players could move to a more populated server if they wanted to.

    This I think would have the effect of concentrating the playerbase and make more vibrant servers.

    That's not the only benefit. As servers empty and reach 'fippy' status i.e. dead, servers could be put into sunset mode. When you log on to these servers you wouldn't actually be logging into the servers, instead just a small front end server which takes you a character select screen allowing you to transfer characters from the sunset server to a destination of your choice. Once sunsetted, the actual world servers could be removed reducing costs for DBG.
    Players would not lose their characters, as they'll always be there if they want to move them, but it allows the decom of unused servers, without doing any merges.

    in other words win for everyone.
    Players that want busy servers can move to busier servers
    Players that like dead servers can stay till sunset, at which point they can move to the next 'dead' server.
    You'd never break any existing economy/gameplay on the new servers, as they'd always be ahead of where you were coming from.
    if the krono lords and recyclers jump to the new servers leaving a wasteland, then those left behind can now do something about it.
    DBG can shutdown servers without getting into the horrors of server merges
    no character is ever deleted, and you never get into issues of number of available character slots on destination servers.
    Heck this could even be a new source of revenue for DBG if they charge a nominal fee for the transfer (although this would be better if it were free)

    I think this is worth doing and would help keep the game alive for many.
    aFTeRLiFe likes this.
  2. kenmei Augur

    DBG may have created the krono, but the problem it has caused server communities and how fast it destroys a server much like cancer is not a DBG problem, it's on us gamers.
    My take, is I have played since beta, off and on, for I like to taste all games out there and see what advances devs come up with.
    EQ was by far the developer that took this genre and mmos into this century and had a code of honor that reflected it's original short film released in the early game. It was about the world created by the people in it.
    For the most part they have stuck with it. Yes DBG developed the krono but it has been the community that invited the bad apples who have turned this game upside down. Their roots can be traced back to the Asian Pay to Play games. Their histories are basically Burn it All Philosophy where they grab as many of the games resources as possible, forcing playerbases to go through them in order to advance in the game.. essentially blackmailing the game's population. So this was done in conjunction many times with game developers, so many times in fact it's why Asian game developers were not trusted as a whole.
    Long story short, this is where we are now. I've been railing against krono since it's release (I watched firsthand what Honeybooboo did to FV, setting the standard to come). I left EQ then, beta'd their Freeport server on EQ2, reveling in the ideas they had for revenue (which were amazing, and I contributed greatly).
    On returning, the EQ community had evolved into legions of Honeybooboos.
    But this new turn in the community (and the devs who are part of the community), is something I'm not sure we can come back from.
    I was on Selo's 4am pst last night as I am many nights, and again, every xp grind (levels 30-50) was occupied by a 60-65 toon surrounded by most of a zone's corpses, sitting in silence as they wait for you to ask to pay them for a PL.
    You could sit there and argue (nothing in the zone to kill anyhow), but the reason they are there is either a)financial, they are working, or b)they cant afford the PLs they themselves are being blackmailed to pay, so it rolls downhill. That is the game now, it's an Asian Pay to Play game in it's worst form. You pay to subscribe, and then are blackmailed in-game for more.
    So don't talk about transfers, fix the cancer-infested community first. Because I'm sounding the alarm bells, the cancer now outnumbers the non-cancer.
  3. Dythan Ban Lev in Plane of Fire guy

    Did not warrant it's own thread.
    Sagarmatha likes this.
  4. Rajaah Elder

    I'm trying to figure out the logic behind releasing a House of Thule server when Phinigel is barely removed from that era. It's something no one really asked for and will split off some of the already-dwindling Phinny population. I totally get the concept of a heroic progression server but it'd make a lot more sense to release it next year from now when both Phinny and Selo have the HoT era well behind them and all other progression servers are still behind that point. At least stagger out the eras.
  5. its_a_secret Journeyman

    Even the Medium population servers have more players on ONE FACTION (horde/alliance) than all Everquest servers (live and TLP), emulaters P99 Private servers Ect combined.
  6. DeseanJackson Augur

    So? Go play your uninteresting cartoon with little depth that most people are only playing for PVP.
  7. its_a_secret Journeyman

    Cartoon depth? LOL I used to be just like you in 2004 until I tried it. It's a far more entertaining game. Don't knock it til you try it.
  8. DeseanJackson Augur

    Did at least 3 times. Hard pass, but good luck, hope you find what you’re looking for.
  9. Laronk Augur

    tldr
    Xanathol likes this.
  10. Krezzy Augur

    This is a great discussion to have.

    Server decline boils down simple math. When more players leave than join a server, that server will decline.

    Addressing the reasons for player flight is important, but only tackles half of the picture.

    Just as important, EQ needs to make it easy for players to make their way to a TLP server that isn't "preferred".

    Here are a couple ideas for boosting player populations on existing servers:
    • Allow and encourage server transfer to later era boxes. Give custom titles or vanity gear to toons that have transferred multiple times. Allow server transfers at reduced price for accounts that have completed all achievements tied to their current expansion.
    • Change the Preferred vs Standard listing on the server select screen. Instead, list the servers according to Time-locked Progression vs Standard. The TLP list should be in descending order by server release date, with the current era and XP modifier shown in parenthesis.
  11. Rcbauer Augur

    Enforce the rules on the bots. I'm leaving due to the rampant botting in places like Droga.
    No you can't have my stuff. Enjoy dead servers DBG. You earned them.
  12. Yummydain New Member

    Yup. I quit a few months ago. Botting and an ever increasing toxic community drove me away from my favorite franchise. Oh well, plenty of great single player games out there to catch up on!
  13. Sandrito Elder

    Should be a matter of logical house keeping and cost cutting for DBG to keep merging underpopulated servers, but they don't. Laziness or stupidity? Or maybe just no staff left that know how write scripts to transfer characters. Who knows.

    I would enjoy playing my toons on the old TLP's if they did that.
  14. Machen New Member


    The last time they did a merger, it did not go well at all. Many many staff hours spent having to manually restore toons that got deleted by the automated process. All for a pair of servers with virtually no active players left. I doubt they will want to go down that road again.
  15. Bard2019 Elder

    It's a game created by people that couldn't handle EQ's depth and difficulty. People that failed in EQ to kill world bosses and clear endgame content. That entire game is designed around the game itself, holding your hand and leading you through soloable content on rails until you're high level enough to "raid". Raids which are designed to be beaten with enough ease, so that you and the 39 other people with you all gain a faux sense of accomplishment because you were all able to turn on auto attack at the same time.
    Chatoyan and code-zero like this.
  16. Yummydain New Member

    EQ has depth? When did this happen? Must have blown past me! You're kidding yourself if you think EQ has any modicum of depth or difficulty. Multiboxing is so easy to do because classes have such little input needed to function. Raiding on EQ equates to pressing Q to auto attack and spamming a single social for your melee abilities and pressing another social to activate a disc. Sounds real tough... I can totally see why people went to WoW :rolleyes:
  17. Maneuvre Augur

  18. sumnayin Augur

    It must be weird thinking you're better than other people because you played a game in 2004. I bought WoW day one and I don't think I am better than anyone for it. I do, however, love correcting people who didn't play day 1 WoW but talk ignorantly about it because they bought it 2 years after release and think that is how WoW was 2 years prior. Anyways, Classic isn't original WoW...its just a rehashed version that will die off in a few months and servers will be condensed.
  19. HoodenShuklak Augur

    Why will it die off so soon?
  20. Yummydain New Member

    It wont. People just like to be naysayers and hate to see others succeed. It's easier to be a pessimist than it is to be supportive. I love EQ, it's always been my favorite franchise, but I will never doubt the power that WoW has in the MMORPG market. Even when the hype dies down for the classic release their servers will still hold more people than EQ could dream of. I wish it were the other way around, and that EQ held the majority, but it will never happen.