Give Yelinak any mod, just make it different somehow

Its great that this format is the bread and butter of TLPs and people will always play it, but honestly trying something new is not going to turn away more players than it attracts. I also understand that there is 1 "try something new" server and 1 "stable" server every launch, but you should try a small change on Yelinak, even though it is the stable server, to keep things fresh and see how it affects player reception to the game.

If DBG wants to make more money they need to make this game more attractive to new people. The obvious solution would be to copy blizzard and reskin the game, but since that costs money the next best thing is to find TLP rulesets that really enhance the experience of EQ and elevate the gameplay.

And it really could be anything. You could do faster exp, faster AAs, more rarespawns, add out of era items, try adding item focuses back into classic, let the AoC give you the option to do non MotM version of some raids with a smaller player cap.

There are some good ideas (and bad ones) on this forum about how to spice up Yelinak, and I think you need to just change something. It could even be something to make the server more difficult like adding corpse runs or removing the in-game map and find function.

It is trying something new.

Hybrid Truebox on a Standard TLP format.

Yup, in about a year or so you'll see some new exciting changes from the previous clone!

RELAXED TRUEBOX!!!

People are BEGGING for this on all current TLPs, so odds are Yelinak will be filled to the brim with players.

Yelinak Idea:

The dark elves have been capturing a number of gnomish alchemists for some time, and have just detonated an experimental thermobaric bomb in the middle of Rivervale. The other races were overjoyed at the thought of thieving halfling trash dying en masse. Witnesses looked on in joy as halflings close to ground zero were immediately vaporized in the superheated aerosolized flames. Nearby asslings were killed from the pressure vacuum rupturing their lungs.

Rivervale is now a smoldering ruin. Your duty as a new adventurer is to protect civilization and repel criminal migrant halfling elements from entering major cities.

Godspeed.

Yelinak will destroy mischief and it will hurt aradune.

bookmarket.

They have also reduced the speed in which the first few expacs unlock; so they are trying 2 new things with Yelinak.

Good point.

I need whatever you're smoking. Completely disagree. We shall see soon enough though!

The unlock cadence is not new with Yelinak.

For what is now considered the "Standard" TLP it is new.

Sorry I don’t remember this from the announcement post and can’t seem to find any mention of it. What is hybrid truebox?

I call it hybrid, the update to the announcement referred to it as "relaxed Truebox".

After first quarm kill, have it reset. That's the lore. So do it.

I didn’t see anything about truebox changes in the original announcement from April 7, sorry. Could you point me to where I can read about it or explain it to me?

Thanks for pasting the explanation.

But you do see how unlocking true box 6 months into the server isn’t going to drive larger initial engagement or attract new players, right? It might help player retention, but it adds nothing new for the first half dozen (and most played) expansions

Knowing ahead of time makes all the difference, and I believe it will be attactive to players.
Those who have played on multiple TLP will probably be tired of being locked into Truebox even if they like it reducing the mage armies a bit in the mostly open-world era of EQ that exists pre-GoD

If you really want to make Yelinak completely different than the Standard Mangler/Phinny clone, then give it weighted Random Loot drops with Raid Bosses excluded; no extra Free Trade and no loot piñata. By making the loot random it will make it impossible for people to lock down specific loot, but by having it weighted (so the original npc has a slightly higher chance of pulling from its normal loot table) you can still do targeted item farming. With AoCs there is no reason for the Raid Bosses to be on the random loot; want their stuff go kill them for it.

Granted I think its too late for them to implement something like this, but something for the Devs to consider when they start making their Mischief clones next year.

I agree its a great QoL change, but from my TLP experience boxers are the minority of players. Most players just play 1 character, and would still have to spend 6 months trueboxing or be 6 months behind on progression/gear if this was the difference maker for them to box on a TLP.

I think there is at least a vocal minority that believe the servers would be better with some small change to universal gameplay for the server from launch

I like the idea, but personally I think loot is already fairly scarce in this game. Servers tend to have 1 OW guild that is rich in loot and guilds with only instances struggle a bit more. I think loot piñata is the way to go, but they should try some other methods of "improving" loot so they can compare it to Mischief come next TLP cycle

Every tlp I join a 2 day a week raiding guild, raid anywhere from 2-5 hours a week in total and by the end of every single xpac I have every single item I wanted.

Loot is plentiful if you play the game, gearing up one character in raid loot while playing very casually is not only possible, but it's likely going to happen.

The issue comes from people swapping characters, hopping guilds, quitting for periods, etc... All of which is fine, but one or more of these reasons is likely why you don't get the gear you wanted.

I have zero interest in more loot since many people will just play less and lead to faster burn out