Top 3 Most Requested TLP Server Types

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Alarizod, Feb 3, 2020.

  1. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Premium Service was tried before, the feedback on it since from the people involved (company side) has been pretty unequivocal that they should never do it again, due completely to the massive sense of entitlement such a premium instilled in players who used that service, so as I said to another poster pushing this idea elsewhere on the forums, I think that it will be a very cold day in hell indeed before that happens again.
  2. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    FV Ruleset - yes this is doable, they have FV itself & Brekt that are free-trade servers.

    Berserkers & Beastlords being in at the start during classic is doable for sure, but the devs don't seem to feel the cost involved in making the changes required to facilitate that is worth it, I myself would love to see this done for future TLP as I believe very strongly that it would enrich the game & the communities to allow people who played those classes, in many cases for well over ten years to have a new experience with them that has not previously been done - keeping them restricted to Gates of Discord & Luclin is after this long with EQ being around and the players of those classes having supported the game for so long pretty stubborn & boring, I do realise there is a cost involved to do it but I think the players collectively have supported the game for so long something being given back like this is a positive change.

    Making every class available to every race is a way bigger issue than just making what already exists available earlier in the game, the amount of work involved to facilitate this is simply not possible between now & March, it would have to be a very long-term commitment & would take up a substantial amount of resources to even roll out for one new combination every few months, I think it could even require a whole new team to make this happen - and frankly at this stage I do not think it is needed, just make illusion items available for every possible race & any class can play as the race they like the most. The amount of effort needed to make all races able to play all classes would I think be better spent making an EverQuest 3, same goes for new player character graphics, the only serious overhaul I really think EQ needs is the UI but again that effort could be far better spent on a new EverQuest game built from the ground up to think long term about how the UI will evolve.

    I think the most realistic TLP for march will be 1 truebox & 1 non truebox - based on the Mangler model with AoC on both & Free-Trade perhaps being given very serious consideration on 1 or maybe both - but the players will have to accept that if they get those rulesets the Krono-farmers will be spoiling the game for some time, on a free trade server they may never go away.
  3. Beep Elder

    Allowing bst/bers at the start is probably the best chance at drawing folks back to play on a new server. Plenty of folks don't make it to luclin let alone GoD but would like to play those.

    I'm all for different boxing rules, loot rules, xp rates, but I think allowing the classes would be the largest single change they could propose.
  4. HoodenShuklak Augur

    People begged for BST or luclin start... Selo had just that, and guess what, BST were just about as rare as they always are.
  5. Beep Elder

    I don't know a single person who played on selo or ever wanted a luclin start though.
  6. Moforyguy12345 Augur

    I know my friends would come back if they had bst/zerk on earlier expansions. By the time it got to luclin me and my guild were burning out. So selos didn't really appeal to us.
  7. ajschliewe Elder

    I agree. Selo with the hyper short expac didn't appeal to me at all. However, if a new TLP started at Luclin and included Beserkers and keeping the standard 12/8 unlocks, i think people may like that. However, with mangler getting ready to unlock PoP, the timing just isn't right for that type of server, You'd have Mangler in GoD and new one in like PoP. the only real issue is the zerker epic or just acknowledge that zerkers won't get their epic until GoD. Zerker tagged gear is already in game on TLPs before GoD is unlocked.

    Have never played a free trade server. However, it seems like ppl will buy raid gear without doing the work for it. Now if the items were to able to be tradeable once out of era, i'd be ok with that.
  8. Aneuren Tempered Steel

    The problem is that timing matters, and many of us do not trust the motivations of the Daybreak policy makers.

    Before Mangler launched, I was a huge proponent of having a non-truebox and truebox server release at the same time. I cannot stand jumping through hoops to box two extra characters - it infuriates me whenever I compare the ease of boxing back on Fippy to the nuisance that it has become here. It isn't as fun. It feels punitive - not the only such decision lately.

    Do I want them to release a non-truebox now? Not really! A not-insignificant number of my friends held their nose to come join Mangler. We complain about it all the time, but we enjoy being together. I have spoken with members from other guilds that say the exact same thing. We don't want to restart on another TLP server because Daybreak couldn't be bothered to listen to us last year and now we are for better or worse invested.

    Under these circumstances, best case scenario is that a non-truebox server releases, is successful, but we've missed out on it and don't care to restart again. Awesome /s

    But worst case scenarios (that I worry are far more likely) are that a non-truebox server releases with a terrible rule set, or else a non-truebox server releases with a decent rule set but a goodly number of us just will not start over fresh. We now have new friends and guildmates that are depending on us to keep pushing forward. In this scenario, the non-truebox "experiment" (sad to call the original state of the game an experiment) is heralded as a failure but without necessarily having been given the opportunity to be judged on its own merits.

    As things are now, I'd rather be given the chance to remove the truebox code once classic EverQuest expansions are completed, but that is yet another fight that will never be accepted in time for it to matter.
  9. Zansobar Augur

    I don't want them to release two servers, I want only one so it can concentrate the population.
    Dahaman likes this.
  10. Machen New Member


    Sympathetic to your post, but it's the same argument that everyone has made on established servers since we argued against Ragefire as the last remaining players on Fippy wanting to continue on to live. Daybreak ignored it then, and Darkpaw will ignore it now.

    What I do think they should think about doing is create a new server that will consolidate players rather than further dividing them. I've been thinking about how this might happen, and here's my suggestion.

    The next server(s) should start in classic, kunark or velious with one month unlocks, selos xp but no reduced lockouts. My strong preference would be for this to be a single server with no truebox code. If they wanted to open a new truebox server at the same time, it should be a standard phinny style server. Two of these at once would defeat the purpose. This catch-up server must have AoC's, however.

    Once the server catches up to any other TLP, players on that TLP can transfer to this new server (no matter what ruleset). I would include Agnarr in this. Give the prison server players an out. Restrict transfers to unlock two weeks after the expansion launches on the new server, so players will have a chance to beat the content themselves before players transfer in with best in slot gear. Part of the deal playing on this "consolidation" server is that we will accept that players ahead of us have gear, xp, etc advantages. The idea behind this server is that this disadvantage will be compensated for by a steady influx of new players.

    Once the server is two expansions past catching Mangler, it will slow down to two month unlocks. (I think this will happen around GoD on Mangler, OoW on the new server.) The exact timing of this slowdown can be calculated before the server launches so everyone knows exactly when it will occur.

    Once the server is two expansions past catching Coirnav, it will slow down to three month unlocks. (Glancing at the unlock schedule I am estimating this would be somewhere around TBS or SoF on Coirnav, SoD on the new server.) Definitely don't want this to take place til past TBS. No need to slow down to 3/2 unlocks like Phinny, because the problematic non-level increase expansions will already be past.

    The server will never catch Phinigel or obviously Selo. But it will eventually catch Ragefire and Lockjaw. Especially if either of those servers begin to struggle with unlocks, or as they hit longer unlock expansions.

    What you'd end up with is a server that would A) gather up players that want to keep playing when others on their servers are restarting, B) Allow players on Truebox servers to end up without Truebox rules when they get to later eras where it no longer makes sense.

    Downside would be potentially fracturing the players on existing servers, but let's face it, Daybreak and now Darkpaw have been doing that every six to twelve months as it is whenever they release a new server.
    Jalerian and Aneuren like this.
  11. oldkracow 9999 Is the Krono Account Limit

    Thinking too far out and too many variables.

    Here ya go:

    1. FV style loot, Starts in Classic (1 to 3 month per unlock) decent exp, has the regular bells and whistles, don't care on truebox or not can alt-tab on either anyways.
    2. Some random PVP server for those folks, not like it matters ghost town in 3 months or less.
    3. Any bland remake of phinny / mangler the bread and butter.
  12. Machen New Member

    This has nothing to do with my purpose in suggesting the above. The goal is to consolidate players onto less servers, not further divide them. It's something we all want, just no one knows how to get there.
  13. Aneuren Tempered Steel

    I know what you mean.

    Most of the time I would defend my post or try to argue the strengths, but I made the last post from only an "internal thoughts and feelings" point of view. I do not think there's any room for me to advance any suggestions based on my post - it's just the reality of how things are for me (and for a percentage of an entire generation of Mangler players).

    You know I have ardently fought for a non-truebox server (with AoCs) and more (not less) inclusive game play for years. By this point, I strongly suspect that releasing a non-truebox server would give rise to a faulty data set that would be spun in an entirely misleading way.
  14. Thewiz Augur

    FV style server with Mangler xp.
    Truebox.
    Standard unlocks.
    Beast/Zerker available with classic start!

    A man can dream.
  15. Machen New Member


    I'm also very sympathetic to this. I've argued for a non-truebox version to be released alongside every truebox server since Phinigel. I think if they had released an aoc enabled, non truebox server alongside Phinigel, we would have seen more clearly what made Phinigel popular--aoc's or truebox. At the time, maybe truebox would have had the edge. As players have flirted with post pop content more and more, maybe that has shifted the other direction. But I tend to think at this late date, no new server (or set of servers) could possibly answer these questions definitively. I suppose if they deleted every single previous TLP and introduced two new TLP's, identical ruleset but one with truebox and the other without, we might have an answer. But even then, it would be an answer heavily skewed by era. I suspect if they released such in classic, most players would choose the truebox server. If they released such in oow, or any later era, most would choose non-truebox.

    Daybreak has been terrified of the thought of servers that drastically change after release. I hope that Darkpaw will at least consider new servers that drastically change over time, according to carefully selected criteria, announced before the servers even launch. It seems to me this is the only sensible way to ensure population plays past pop. Huge XP boosts for later eras especially for low xp/aa catchup toons, drastically different expansion timers for the 1-75 unpopular expansions, and of course truebox for any pre-instancing expansions and unrestricted boxing post-instancing. This seems to me to be the best path forward for servers that sustain population >1 year.
    Tymeless likes this.
  16. ECrack Augur

    I don't think it's a difficult concept to grasp.

    There are many players who wants to be able to eventually have the best gear but cannot commit to raids.

    What's the answer to this question? Anyone? It's really simple..

    Free-Trade.

    Makes sense. *Drops the imaginary mic*
  17. Angered Augur

    I AM STARTING A MOVEMENT

    LEVELING = AUTO GRANTED
    AA = AUTO GRANTED
    SPELLS = AUTO GRANTED EACH EXPANSION
    FV RULE SET , Triple raid loot 9-12 items per boss
    START THE SERVER IN LUCLIN OR GOD
    TWO MONTH LOCK OUTS Truebox
  18. Goburs The Filthy Casualz Leader



    No.
    Jontrann, Zansobar and Thewiz like this.
  19. Jontrann Augur

    And people wonder why i call the current tlp players the "gimmie gimmie gimmie" crowd.
    Kalantha.Mangler likes this.
  20. Jontrann Augur

    Only 2 server types will get my sub come march.

    #1: FV (truebox or not, i honestly don't give a sh$t at this point as long as its not PVP)
    #2: A super oldschool p99ish server with slow exp, long unlocks, corpse runs and AoCs (no pickzones)

    I'm done giving daybreak my money unless one of those 2 happen and you can take that to the bank because i'm not like risiko who says he won't play on a server and does it anyways.
    Kalantha.Mangler likes this.