What do you like about playing EQ? Also, why EQ TLP? What makes you think about trying other games? I guess my point is Why doesn’t EQ create new lower-level content like they used to. Or all level content? I don’t know what the breakdown of the population is, but a lot of posts I read suggest that there are a lot of folks that play solo—some say 90% play solo. I know I am in that category. I will group occasionally, but mostly I solo/molo, 2 or 3 box. My wife and I would play together, but she has recently and unexpectedly passed away. I haven’t got to the point where I can do more than just read the forums lately; still too painful to log on. I would guess most solo players are not top level. (Our mains are in the 70s) Returning players might like a choice of whether to play EQ LIVE vs EQ TLP if there was something new to look forward to, besides just a more populated server that is running the same old stuff. New lower- level content would bring together the game we know and love and add “newness” to it. I have no desire and have never had a desire to race to the top. I’ll get there when I get there (or not). I just love to log on and play. There will probably be posts that argue there are not enough programmer resources as it is without adding something besides latest content. But, if there really is a large part of the population that plays solo, and would bring in more, then wouldn’t it be worth it? It might be interesting. Puckbone
So sorry for your loss. I expect it will be tough to deal with your wife's character in game for years to come. I don't think there is any real solution to your questions. They try to cater to a couple of major customer groups, end-game raiders and the nostalgia crowd. There's still tons of content for those that don't fall in either camp. Tons of content but few players.
I believe they don't make low level content because they have 2 main groups of players... 1) Those who play TLP for nostalgia. Correct me if I am wrong but the TLP community have resisted updated to the original game as they like to replay the old EQ. New content is not a big draw for them. 2) Those who play Live for new content. Many of the people on live are committed to their Avatars. I myself have little interest in rerolling a now lower level character. I would rather see them make more content that keeps me on my 21 year old character. I don't have much use for lower level content. To make new low level content, they would need to target a different demographic, which is people looking to make new characters and experience new content. I suspect that is a very small demographic as compared to people looking for new characters on old content or new content on old characters. EQ probably wouldn't perform well against all of the new games available by just adding new quests. I have tried many times to get many different people to try EQ who have never played it, all of the content is new to them, it's free, and I still can't get them to try it.
I like the early EQ. 1 to 75. Mysteries. Modern EQ, in beta they find out everything and beat everything day 1 there is no mysteries to be solved. Also, soloability is there in 1 to 75. 115+ you need AAs in general, those heroic AAs, those progression AAs, type 3 augs, up to date augs, on top of the gear Way too much. AAs are suppose to help beat stuff faster, those progression AAs suppose help beat stuff faster. Not cater content around and create content on it, you should have all this before you do 115+ stuff. Like awhile a slow thread, slow was designed to make easier, not to be the gold standard when fighting anything 115+. 115+ developers EXPECT you to slow mobs. EXPECT you to have all those AAs those unique AAs those other unique AAs. Way too time consuming way too much backlog, too much play older content. Since soloability is not there, its too much box focus, the playerbase isn't there too because they left the game, not many like box focus games. So you got your extra subs from people boxing, but you also lost a lotta players because you $$$ off boxers subbing. So it evens out either way, and I'd say they losing more $$$ from focusing boxers than solo doability. "group game, you just box your group" EQ Early EQ was not like this.
My friends that enjoy the low level game and continually start new alts do it because they enjoy being overpowered for the content. They love grabbing tank mercs and smashing through stuff with little risk of death, while seeing meaningful gain to their exp bars and fast leveling. It isn't that the content is particularly engaging, just that they find it fun to smash stuff and feel powerful. When the Merc power starts to balance out around level 70, and the gains start to slow down, they lose interest and start a new alt They are happy to repeat them same content over and over as long as those conditions exist. They don't complete the lower level quest lines, they don't finish the Hero's Journey; they just like the experience if smashing through stuff while feeling like they are making gains. I imagine it's the same reason why a lot of us can keep going back to Diablo 2 As someone who has been playing a TLP for just over three years now, I am amazed at the amount of content already in the game for lower levels that never gets experienced. Low level class armour, Sol Ro quests, LoY, Hero's Journey; there are years if content to keep low level people engaged. But my buddies skip that to smash the tutorial > blightfire > Velks > CoD > DSH farm over and over again.
I enjoy the class dynamics and gameplay. Also, the familiar feeling of logging into Norrath. Bard speed has forever ruined my gameplay experience in other MMOs.
As one who returned a couple years ago and who is afflicted with alt-itis and generally doesn't even think of using the Herioc boosters for most, I find there is an immense amount of content in the game already for <100. I am resolved to someday actually complete more of it on various characters. I play with friends when I am not soloing. I have friends of like mind about seeing more of the "lower level" content. On Friday, with relatively new characters, we went exploring through Runnyeye because it had been a long long time since we had adventured there and the E-day collection reminded a couple of us. Should there be more new lower level content? In my opinion, no. There is already a lot that doesn't get played now. If they made new lower level content it would end up being for just a small audience. Yes, there are those on TLPs who want "new content" but refuse to even try the game post PoP or post LDoN at the lastest and some even earlier. They don't like the way the game evolved. They want new content but only like old content. It's dubious, though, if they would even play it since there is a lot of content in those early expansions that they avoid now for whatever reason (such as Runnyeye).
Overpowered for the content, basically, soloable with ease. I like those you pick too. Agreed. Who refuses to try post PoP you other people? Adventuring into runnyeye yes mystery factor. New zones for low levels? No, because you have TSS zones, and you goto clan runnyeye instead of TSS which is a lot better, but doesn't have the mystery factor. ToV to LS no mystery factor, so modern EQ no mystery too. Too many zones before 80 that have a lot of mystery. So people gonna go checkout them rather than a new zone with no mystery. However new zones 80 to end game, that would be a wise thing to do. Also, note people tend to say EQ was good till 70 75. That was back in 2007, so 17 years of content where people aren't saying this is something they like about EQ. Mystery gone, this and that gone after 75. EQ vibes gone. I like the early EQ game. SoD is when EQ alternate realties, another alternate reality. ToV to LS all alternate realities. Its like the game changed its just alternate realities for the past 17 years. I mean it was ok for SoD, but the other expansions doing samething, makes it feel like there is no real story, just random alternate reality. Feel like they put too much effort into dialogue too, the story is meaningless why bother paying attention to the dialogue. Then they had a phase where hail wait 3 seconds hail 7 more times. Too much effort into dialogue and its meaningless. Did the TDS story have any impact on future expansions? Zero. Just some alternate reality, meaningless dialogue just say the keywords and get outta there. However Epic quest and quests back then, interesting. Its core EQ, and mystery, maybe there is some unknown quest, so dialogue is important as compared to TDS dialogue, has no impact on any storylines and there is no mystery in TDS.
First of all I am sorry for your loss and I hope you can find some comfort in EQ after the pain of loss has eased a bit. As I understand it you have only levelled to 70, which means you have a lot of unexplored zones aimed at 71+ players. I group, I solo and I box. Which depends on what I want to do, who is around when I log in, but most of all it depends on my mood. As a female of a certain age I have days when I just want to bite everyones head off. Those are the days I hide in an alt away from other players. Other days I want to play with friends. I have more alts that I care to admit, I play more than I should (well up until the DX11 issues). There are lots of different leveling paths. I've done Vah Shir who have never left Luclin until level 60, I've done the same with Iksar. I've levelled avoiding Guk and Unrest. I've levelled through TSS, this is my fav levelling path of all time. There are a lot of pre 70 zones which just don't get used. As for why players play TLPs, some do it for the nostalga and doing things they have missed. For me I like having other players to group with and help. Most on live have their own network of friends to get things done. On TLPs there is a lot more playing with strangers, some good experiences with this and some very, very bad ones. I'm starting to think about moving onto other games, mainly due to the state of play at the moment with the issues DX11 has introduced. If I find something I enjoy before they fix DX11 my EQ days could be over.
Sorry for your loss. I had a RL friend who I used to play Everquest with back in the day. He loved playing alts and I loved the raiding game so we eventually drifted apart. We did, however, keep a couple of characters around the same level for when we just wanted to chill. He stopped playing Everquest a long time ago and I took on his account. I didn't play his necro as I was levelling a rogue. My friend died during Covid and since then, I took it upon myself to play his necro every now and then. I put all of his loot and gear into bags and stored them in a house that I bought so they would be safe. I do get to reminisce about our gameplay when I log into the necro and hit some of the old zones where we used to group up and just hang out.
Sorry for your loss - I hope you are taking as best care of yourself as you can. I think my playstyle is very similar to you - I used to 5-box back in the day, but now am more than happy to 2-box and explore all the content that is available to me in the under 85 range. I play on live - my play times are often limited by family and work commitments, so I have zero interest in TLP - I'd just get left behind anyway. I love playing EQ in this way and stop to do as many quests and side-roads as I can. Apart from properly fixing some real silly 'fixes' (such as the 'fix' that mobs no longer spawn in Discord expeditions *and* named never spawn on instance creation - smooth one there DBG) there's not a lot I can complain about - you get some max-level nimrods wiping a zone now and again with some very selfish behavior, but not very often and it could be worse - I could have to group with people like that in current exp... I have a trader to sell my unwanted loot which pays for mercs and I'm having a blast in content now that I could barely manage with a full group 15 years ago. I do think that many people are missing out on the bulk of fun EQ by popping straight to max, but I understand the social aspect.
I am so sorry for your loss. If you decide to come back to the game, there are some of us out there that will gladly add you to our groups. I for one hate boxing because I suck at it. I would be more than happy to have real people to play with in EQ. I am on the Mischief server as Risiki and I have alternate personas ranging from level 1 to about 60 right now. As much as I wish they would keep making improvements to the alternate personas system, I still do find that I like it in game because it allows me to play 1 character and switch to what ever persona helps the group for the evening. So, I'd be more than willing to grab one of my low level personas and play with you some time. That being said, this goes for anyone who is looking for a friend to play EQ with these days. If you are willing to come to the Mischief server, hit me up. Maybe we can start a casual guild or something. Good luck in your adventures.
There is no business reason for adding low level content. Daybreak has a limited team and any low level content would mean less end game content. Right now they fill their TLPs with those who want to repeat stuff and they keep Live going for those who enjoy the end game. Adding a small amount of low level content to the Live expansions would not be a compelling reason for folks to buy it. And what level do you set it at? People would breeze past it in no time. You would need a whole expansion of various levels and no one would stick at any of the level ranges long.
There's two types of players though - those (and as a "21 year guild leader" I am pre-judging a little, I apologise - no offense meant!) like you who probably run a lot of spreadsheets, discord and min/max the EQ world. Then there's some that enjoy the content for the content and don't treat it like a second job - actually enjoying the journey. But I actually 100% agree with you - there's no reason to add more mid-level content, but a few bugfixes and some more imaginative ways to promote what's already there would be kinda cool.
Here's the problem with the journey. Let's say they make 1 - 65 content. How many weeks worth of content is that? 1 or 3 or what?
Unanswerable. If you stop to smell all the roses, concentrate on quests rather than min/maxing XP and (most importantly) you earn your own AA, there's a *LOT* to do. My current toons are level 69 and have over 1250AA for example and still not quite AA'd out for their level. I started them before Christmas, but I don't play every day and when I do I look for stuff that I find fun and the xp is a side-effect. To repeat myself though - I'm not looking for more content, there's plenty. Something a lot better than hotzones and dailies would be nice to promote it though and a couple of bugfixes wouldn't go amiss. I'm realistic though, it'll never happen unfortunately.
New persona I did level 1 - 34 in an evening, second night I did 34 to 45. It doesn't take long at all to do the lower levels in EQ. Any new content would need to give players better rewards/exp than they can get else where or they will not use it, that would make leveling even quicker.
I can echo with a lot of this. Hooking up a lvl 1 with OG raid/fabled gear just because, then go play in some oldschool zones until the 40s/50s or whenever, PL to 70 and re-gear 'em in Time/Gates/Anguish/Fabled stuff, do 1.0/1.5/2.0, some SoD paragon quests. PL through UF/T3/T4 HoT/RoF, re-gear, park at FM fort, grab a Wurmslayer if it applies and then...? It's fun using characters at various levels in here to PL other alts/friends as they come up, but beyond 105/110 it's like ... do I do Five consecutive expansions' worth of Simon Says endless mission grind.. just because? Or do I log in a character daily that I wouldn't play otherwise just to collect overseer experience? Or not, generally, just roll another alt because the game is a heck of a lot more fun pre-80.
I've PL'd a character to 65 in a few hours. Box crew without support should be able to do it in a week, provided they are attacking the exp bar rather than chasing quest/achievements. 3 weeks for a solo+merc sounds about right.
