Ragefire Exceeded Expectations - What Now?

Please dont let people transfere from ragefire to lockjaw. Starting from scratch is part of what makes these servers work

1400 is very successful compared to a server that is likely in the 5-6k+ range (since the cap is "well over 4k" and the queue has been getting over 2 hrs)?

You've got an interesting definition of successful.

Usually if my kid (hypothetical, no kids here) gets one single at T-Ball I don't call him successful when the team gets three home runs the same night. Sure, he's part of the team and did some good, but when it pales in comparison like that "successful" isn't the right word.

Agreed!!!

Would I play on another server? Sure, offer free transfers from Ragefire to Lockjaw for a limited time. However, I'll end up doing whatever my core group does.

That being said, I'm glad we're opening a new server. That will clear up some congestion.

No transfers please. And we need this second server follow Ragefire expansion opening cycle so it can be merged as soon as PoP opens. Having them on separate cycles will kill this server quick.

A few thoughts :

1. Whilst DBG did not foresee the extent of the demand for a new TLP, the community did. There was substantial support for announcing and launching with 2 servers from the people that actually played on Fippy / Vulak.

2. The community also pointed out the flaws in the instancing strategy when DBG announced them, the solution they implemented merely moved the bottleneck slightly. On Fippy / Vulak all the high level dungeons/zones had overcrowding issues, and that was on 2 servers that could hold substantially less people than Ragefire has, so increasing the maximum population cap of a server whilst doing nothing to alleviate the over crowding once players left the instanced newbie areas was always a flawed design decision. I fail to see how that was not obvious to DBG.

3. Server transfers need to be allowed to the new Lockjaw server. Given the time, effort, station cash and yes even frustration at the amount of time spent in queues, a lot of people are very reluctant to abandon the characters they have created on Ragefire. So, if you do not allow server transfers, then lockjaw will become an empty server even faster than Vulak did.

4. I do not believe it is possible to implement a different rule set for lockjaw given the time-scales that DBG has announced.

5. Whilst I understand the sentiments behind the idea of a single account per ip address, it would be yet another flawed design decision. It would impact families that play together, and for those of us that are actually technical, it would be trivial to overcome. Implementing and testing this would impact the time-scales announced by DBG, extending the misery of Ragefire even longer. There is also the issue that to access a TLP server requires people to purchase an "All Access" subscription, a special rule set allowing only 1 ip address per account would require a modification of the Terms of Service with a specific clause for the lockjaw server. Getting legal departments involved, is rarely fast and never cheap.

6. Instancing of more zones will help, but I would suggest limiting instancing to outdoor only zones until the impact of the launch of Lockjaw has been assessed. I would suggest that Rathe Mountains, Kithicor, and Ocean of Tears become instanced in this next wave. All these zones would allow players to make progress in the game.

I am extremely pleased to hear about this.

Having a family means I have a very limited time schedule to play EQ. I have been able to level my mage up to 7 ...

I can only really log in after the kids go to bed, which means PRIME TIME, which means I don't play most of the time.

To all those people begging for a different rule set, or a ban on boxes please understand that this additional server is ONLY to take care of the problem of extreme over crowding. I would put money on a merger down the road (maybe a year or two). But for now I am very happy to hear that I will be able to play when I want too.

Thanks Roshen and team!

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I understand the need for a second server, yup agreed.

But this sentence about that topic: "This time though, because of pickzone instances for newbie zones, people are actually able to..." should be expanded to include the negative repercussions to the social fabric and economy of whatever server it is put in, unless it is very, very carefully managed. Otherwise, I would end that sentence with: "...hop instances as often/much as they like until they make as much plat as they'd like."

No boxers? Easy to fix. Only allow one instance of everquest.exe running on a PC.

That wouldnt work, all you would have to do is set up a Virtual Sphere to run each client instance in, each one would be logically separated, thus tricking the game to think it was the only exe running.

To all those people saying get rid of boxers that will never happen. Every boxed account is an extra $16.23 (tax included). So $16.23x 6= $97.38 vs 1 persons $16.23.....its simple math. Do you want more or less money? Less money for mmo devs is never a good thing.... The only thing i hope that is if the server population drops like flippy and vulak did that they will merge the servers.

I'd like to give a special Baeddon shout out to these two posts which happen to be two of the dumbest things I've ever read in EQ forums. It takes a special kind of stupid to post something like this.

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...ectations-what-now.222498/page-2#post-3242922

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...ctations-what-now.222498/page-17#post-3244215

Now, back to the topic at hand, your prog server is cool and all, but don't neglect your other servers that need some serious attention, as well. PoK vendors are just one example. I can't help but wonder if the progression server wasn't taking 100% of your attention, would this problem have been fixed by now? (Actually, the problem was caused by prog server, from what I've read.) While all these children are squabbling with jealousy against the boxers (if it weren't boxers, they'd be equally butt-hurt about something else, taking up another important "Super Social Outrage And Fairness(tm) Cause!"), don't forget about your real players who have been supporting this game even through the disaster that was TDS. And surviving TDS and still here playing, that's a pretty huge statement of loyalty. Just remember, when lots of these new progressive people get bored in month or two and quit paying, we're still going to be here, waiting patiently for attention.

You wanted 99 you got it the same whining crying and complaining that has gone on since 99. Play or don't play, Thank you DBG, having a blast...



"Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience"

This is fantastic news thanks a lot !!

People should at least try to think before posting. A substantial amount of DBG's customers box on the live servers, your "solution" would cause DBG to lose money, that would not be popular with the investment company that ultimately owns DBG.

Indeed, though SOE used to frown upon using things like vmware, I have no idea what DBG's policy on it is.

For all those people who say 3rd party programs are against the rules, you don't know the rules. You obviously haven't played in a long time or else you would know the rules that 3rd party programs are NOT against the rules. Programs like Gamparse and GINA, Gamtexttriggers are 3rd party programs that a ton of people use. People who have been paying for Everquest for years unlike those who quit long ago, use these programs on a daily basis.

And the whole [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] hatred going around saying it uses automation, I will say that pressing one key to move multiple characters is a form of automation but it still requires someone at the keyboard pressing buttons. It will not automatically press the button again for you. However programmable keyboards will do that for you. SOE/Daybreak have been aware of programmable keyboards since their inception.

Also disabling /follow is just a silly suggestion. /follow has been in the game since the beginning. I used it all the time when I have to go afk for various reasons and it allowed me to follow a friend. [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] doesn't use /follow, it replicates movement by the keystroke on each instance.

Hardly cause a loss of revenue, people are asking for the second server to facilitate no boxing,that doesn't inhibit boxing on any live server or on ragefire - a spurious argument that there is a financial aspect.

That said, it would impair a later merger, so that's a good point why it probably won't happen :/

OK, it's real simple folks.

Boxing isn't the problem. It just isn't. Especially now that we have pickzone. Plus with the upcoming expansion of pickzone, I have even less of an issue with boxers. Get over yourselves.

Queue time sand population are the problem, and those will b fixed with the new server . DBG's plan is spot on. Add a new server, same ruleset, and expand pickzone, and NO TRANSFERS!!

First, not all boxers are using 6 accts. Most are NOT. Over the last 4 days I grouped with a TON of people running 2 or 3 accounts, and doing so correctly, without automation. There is nothing wrong with that. It does not violate the rules, and just because you may not play that way for whatever reason (lack of $$$, lack of computing power, lack of bandwidth, lack of skill), does not invalidate the desires of others to do so. Stop being a fascist.

I used to 3 box (without automation) back in 99/00 and again in 07/08, using 3 pc's, and frankly I see no issue with it. The people who raise issue with it are jealous. It's that simple. They feel that the playing fields isn't level. Cry me a river. So what if it isn't? Life isn't fair. Those people are PAYING CUSTOMERS!!!! Let them play the way they want. As long as they aren't using automation, then they aren't breaking any rules. When I used to box shortly after EQ launched, I had 3 of everything: 3 keyboards, 3 mice, 3 PC's, 3 monitors. In 07/08, my PC was plenty powerful enough, and I ran 2 units and alt-tab'd. No automation. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS!!! Plus it s good for DBG: more revenue!

Granted, I know many boxers today aren't doing that, they are using automation, and thus by definition are cheating. But as long as they aren't permacamping content for plat harvesting, I don't care. And pickzone is the way around that issue. The expansion of pickzone is a FANTASTIC IDEA!!! If I had my way, I would recommend instancing ALL zones except raid content. Again, what will it hurt? Not a damned thing. If it improves the chances you and your friends can work through a dungeon without being trained by some a**clowns and get the gear you want, then what is the big deal? Again, this game is not the same game as 1999. Players aren't the same as 1999. Few people would want it like it was in 1999, not enough to warrant the cost. If you are one of those vast minority of people who do, who want things exactly the way they were in 1999, then play P1999 and save your $15/month.

Besides, anti-boxing is not enforceable:

- single IP won't work. I play with my son and daughter, and for Ragefire just upgraded on Thursday from 1 All Access account to all 3 accounts. We play together. We played together for about 9 hours over the weekend. Single IP breaks that. It won't work. It can't work. DBG won't do it. So stop asking for it. Stop talking about it. It's not going to happen. Even for just one server.

- reporting people won't work, although it may make you feel like a big man. DBG has neither the time nor the staff to police automation boxers, and if they did, then they would be losing revenue from those subs. It does not make business sense to do so, so I don't count on it. And again, if somebody is manually boxing, they aren't breaking the rules!!! If somebody has MageBunny, MagusBunny and MageusBunny all grouped together, how can you tell if he is using [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] or not? You can't. DBG can't enforce it, and why would they want to? It is bringing them in $45/month not $15/month. Again, get over yourself. Jelly much?

In my opinion, the new server should be a CLONE of Ragefire, except that Ragefire post launch should be changed to a 3-month progression, and Lockjaw should be the new 6-month progression.


/inc BEST IDEA EVER:

You want to make Lockjaw have fewer 6-box mage groups (not that this is a common thing)? That really bothers you? The fact Naggy was dead in 4 days bother you? OK, if so, so here's what you do:

12 MONTH PROGRESSION ON LOCKJAW

or, alternatively, change Ragefire to a 3 month progression, and have Lockjaw stay 6 months.

Either will work. I'd prefer the 12 months, since given the playtime with my kids is limited to maybe 5-10 hours per week, it realistically will take us a year to reach 50. Nobody is going to "race to 50" when they've got a year before Kunark launches. And if they do, they will be off the server in 2 months. Either way, the competition boxers will stay on Ragefire. The speed freaks will stay on Ragefire. The "average player" will have Lockjaw, where they can leisurely level to 50, because progression takes twice as long.

Double the amount of progression time for the new server + expand pickzone to all non-raid-zones and you've got a real winner.

Rhino

1. They can still play on a new TLP server with Ragefire. Nothing stops them from doing so.
2. One real person groups of six are taking away content that six real people can enjoy. The lack of a need to have your own group, thus the lack of a need to maintain a good name, is diminished with the ability to box. People are less likely to be courteous to others when they have no reason to be so.