Maybe I misread it but the idea of the mob having to go back home and reset after being out of agro then unlocking is a huge change to how the game works. I don't really see how this will prevent kill stealing if it hit live, the people who are going to come take your named can just tag it first and now you have no chance to take it back. Being unable to assist someone struggling or having a train run by and then slowly walk home before it unlocks, NPCs get stuck all the time as well, sounds awful. We'll see more when it goes active on TLP but I hope it stays off live.
Those of you who are for this because it would stop power leveling do realize you will never be able to power level your own alts, as well, right? Sounds fun!
That'd be a dang shame. Trains are an integral part of this game, and one of the few actually effective tools for players to do something about automated groups sitting in a camp for days on end. Also one of the most fun ways to say "hi" to a friend in another guild that you notice is in zone but they haven't noticed you yet.
Am I allowed to do anything it all besides just logging into the game and just chatting? Or do you consider that an exploit as well? Using game mechanics that have been in the game essentially since launch, to PL a toon is not an exploit. If they were, they would have been removed eons ago. There is no reason at all to have locked encounters on traditional live servers - We have been forced to do missions + overseers since ToV. KS on traditional live servers hasn't been a real issue for a long time now. Hopefully, everyone who plays on one of these locked encounter servers just bails, and let this boat just sink to bottom of the Ocean of Tears to croak.
I don't think this will stop PL'ing either. It may change HOW the PL'ing is done. Those doing it as a "service" have an infinite number accounts so they can just keep several sets of level 30, 50, 70, etc.
IMHO, a lot of overreactions in this thread. I don't see encounter locking ever coming to Live, it's intended to solve TLP-specific problems. Remains to be seen if it will work as they might expect. My hunch is that the producer's original statement about how the "experiment" could include something eventually ported to Live servers was actually referring to a personal loot component which has been scuttled before it was ever announced. The only thing I see in this new ruleset which could potentially come to Live is the Legacy XP for alts concept, but that's hardly a new idea, it's been kicked around at intervals for years. And I don't get this obsessive hate for Abysmal Sea. There are no mobs there, it's just a city. Some quests go through there. At some point a TS person is likely to fish there to get the crab and tuna needed for the baking trophy. If that's not you, don't go there.
First to engage would favor those using outside tools to run their characters. They have super human reflexes and can tag a mob as it spawns. Bad actor running a monk: Spawn pops -> monk stand does 1pt, FD's. Spawn is now locked until agro drop. Rinse repeat. I don't think FTE is going to stop bad actors. People who want to be a$$ hats will find away around any technical solution that doesn't directly deal with root cause of the problem.
Only thing to stop bad actors is personal loot + kill sharing, worked a dream in most other mmo's no reason it couldnt work in eq
Yeah TLPs and Live are different flavors of player competition. On TLP at competitive camps, DPS races are assumed even if players get feisty. On live players camping named are like small dogs with food aggression. I don't compete with spawns but I sometimes catch a bunch of hate when I move through an area with my six box and someone barks at me. I like that EQ coerces communication between players instead of us all being anonymous ghosts moving around independently. Encounter locking is a bad solution to a problem that doesn't need to be solved.
Sometimes, I'll be running my toons to a certain area of a zone and happen to pass through or near an area where someone is camping a named mob. Suddenly, there will be an all caps /ooc "SOANDSO MOB IS CAMPED!!!" Sometimes, I'll even get direct tells like that. I'm like "Dude...really?"
But that would trivialize all the hard work I did to get *my* item over 20 years ago. Sarcasm aside, there are easy and obvious solutions to the camp/kill stealing/PLing problems that exist in the game, but there is either too much inertia from how "things have always been done", or the fixes would cut into MTX sales. Ultimately, it seems like a lot of the TLP ruleset wonkiness, as well as the changes that were proposed and shot down in EQ2, are devised to drive experience potion sales. Can't get PLed by an OOG guildie? Buy an XP pot so you can catch up? Rinse and repeat.
The alt bonus as written doesn't do much for the majority of folks that have multiple accounts. Account groups need to become a thing, where you can link them together in the account management website and have the bonuses cascade accordingly.
I do multiple alts as well as boxes so it is something. Account groups would be cool to if it can be done.
It is understandable as I am someone who does nothing but try to complete all achievements and I have camped named in a zone for 2+ days running between all the single phes killing them and then have it finally spawn and some random person enters the zone and kills it before I get to it, so I understand that type of reaction for really rare named.
They bark at you because they have dealt with it in the past. Especially on TLPs. People on Live are generally more mellow BUT people float from TLP to Live and vice versa. So yeah I can see mainly folks who have come from TLPs to play on live being a big aggressive on folks passing through. Its been years since anyone has said anything to me when I was passing through.
