Does the popularity of the TLP servers show that Everquest went down the wrong path?

I still explore. I haven't even been to all of the old zones yet.

I played on Phinny up to level 43 before I got tired of the forced grouping and quit.

From playing a necro on both live and phinny I can say both have good points and weak points.

Best parts of Phinny are you can play a class with two hot bars. With one those being mostly made up of your spell bar. Also the average mob doesn't two/three round casters like it does on live servers. The worst parts of Phinny are the horrible mana regen rate and the equally terrible exp rate.

On live servers at level 105 it is the complete reverse the strengths of TLP become the weaknesses of Live and the weaknesses of TLP become the strengths of Live.

On live at level 105 as a necro mana is only a minor issue and nether is experience rate. But the number of hotkeys has inflated from 20ish to 120+ and player versus mob strengths has shifted greatly towards the mobs. Players only regain and surpass the relative power they have a level 50 on TLP by using those hundred plus hotkeys. This means modern EQ has a deeply embedded play-ability problem because that sea of hotkeys drives away players but game would have to be completely reset in order to move back to lower number of hotkeys.

The big takeaway points I have drawn from playing both TLP and Live. Is one that a huge amount of live player power has moved to AA and Item hotkeys. The second is that despite statements that people want difficult content. TLP shows in fact that many in fact do prefer much easier content then the current level 105 game offers on live servers. Third the mana regen rate of TLP is horrible and is the main drawback of TLP. Lastly the artificial experience rate nerf on Phinny will kill the population of that server eventually.

So I don't really consider the TLP experience better than the live experience both have good and bad points in my view.

my kids would like to give EQ a shot but there is no way they have the time. forced grouping for leveling is no longer an option... i have 3 accounts that are now only used for ah NOTHING. H1Z1 is still too raw but had some potential and the kids were interested. EQ2 has rotted. PS2 can't compete with CoD, Halo, BF...but had it's day (PS2 on PS4 is a joke, it's the ONLY PS4 game i play that makes fans whine and the box heat up!).

i would sub again if i could level to cap solo, farm common tradeskill items to level up tradeskills solo, and play around with house/guildcastle again. i may even raid if i make it to level cap and have entry level raid gear again. i am all for grouping like most but it's hit or miss even at prime times for all but a few classes.

Coin has weight. No shared bank space. No maps.

Instanced zones (at least beyond TLPs picked instances) are quest zones. They tell you what you have to do in each instance. It's boring having the game tell you what to do instead of making your own path. Plus lack of respawn makes them very safe and predictable. Instances also remove all social interaction and make it a pseudo private game. No need to learn to share, cooperate, make friends and worry about a good reputation.

There were three benefits to static zones:

* Encouraged players to be social
* Made the world feel "more alive"
* Increased the value of certain items by virtue of competition

The last of these can be sort of replaced by very rare drops, but I think we all remember the thrill of having a valuable camp to ourselves versus killing 50,000 monsters for a 0.00001% drop. The competitive aspect of breaking into and holding valuable camps could be, though wasn't always, fun, while killing 50,000 random monsters is never fun. The lack of similar challenges in the group game today is, in my opinion, a huge loss for Everquest as no one cares much about what they can get from the group game today, except those 0.00001% drops but, as I said, that's the very example of how not to do valuable items.

Plane of Time was the first introduction to the instance.
It kept the peace. Instances exist to do just that, since players could not be civil to each other without intervention from GM's. There probably is not enough folks on DBG payroll to maintain the role of play ground monitor without instancing now, let alone 10 years ago.
Maybe read this:
https://tagn.wordpress.com/2011/09/...us-why-instancing-started-in-the-first-place/

I'd like to posit that a lot of people who think that modern EQ is a generic mess aren't social or just don't have characters strong enough to contend in modern zones, and thus don't get to see the good stuff. There's a lot of good stuff that's not generic, but it tends to be higher end zones. I'll put Sanctum Somnium, Caverns of Endless Song (even though I hate that zone), Chapterhouse of the Fallen and Al'Kabor's Nightmare right up there with all those zones you mentioned as far as design and atmosphere.

The first two are beautiful. The second two are creative. But I can't spend anytime in Caverns because mercwars can't tank it and I can't tank, period.

Merc tanks work fine in Caverns. The only problem with that zone (other than t2 zones being worthless beyond a stepping stone) is that it is tiny and has quest mobs all over the place. You can't hold down a good camp for constant pulling anywhere without having quest mobs re-popping in the middle of your pulls. I did enjoy learning the pathing in various areas as well as the paths to move around see-invis mobs. Landsharks were a problem, but they got rid of most of them.

As a returning player at level 60 one thing I did notice in the 65-85 range was the lack of creativity in zones. Nearly everything was outdoors. It was a return to killing rats, bats, wolfs, spiders, orcs, etc. Was a return to level 1 with much harder hitting mobs. Dungeons were always my home in the old days and I found these outdoor zones to be boring. The only thing that kept me going in those ranges was that I don't quit. I expected to hit 100 and then be done. Alas I ran in to old friends, made new ones and got the old addiction back. I still miss well made dungeons with tight densities, blind corners, mazes, etc. The atmosphere and immersion was so much better. Caverns had a chance for that, but seemed only 20% done.

Single tank without AA, single cleric, DPS merc in Caverns and Degmar= dead tank. Even slowed.

I like outdoors and I don't function well in 3D. Mercs hate Y axis as well.

As for tight dungeons, boobs getting stuck on walls in Dalnir Crypt is why I changed my barbs to DEs as soon as it became available!

Hearthstone
Diablo 3
Legends of the Storm
Overwatch
Star Craft II
Unfinished "Titan" mmorpg

I can see your point about Hearthstone, Legends of The Storm, Overwatch & the cancelled Titan project but the Diablo & Starcraft series were both around before World of Warcraft (I know about the RTS Warcraft series ) and are their own revenue generating successful series.

Pardon my french, but what the is a tank without AA doing in Caverns or Degmar? You're obviously lying about something, there's no way a tank with no aa would even make it there.

I think she's talking about a tank merc, not a player tank.

But I'm not sure which would be worse, a 0 AA player tank, or a tank merc. I think all the discs give an edge to the player.

I'm pretty sure she's talking about a live player from other posts.

Iila wins. Tank merc. If a merc can't handle it, that content is closed to most of us now.

My tank merc handled everything in TDS and TBM just fine aside from the obvious *group* missions (raid mimics). And that includes named.

If people are having issues... it's because they have issues.

I'd suggest the bigger problem is either Degmar itself, which was plagued with crowd control, aggro and assist radius and random aggro on launch, and I'm relatively certain it hasn't got any better at all; or trying to do anything in said zone without a proper puller.

Degmar was pretty much the worst zone right after launch. It actually made me wish we were back in the underwater zone.

Ngreth said he made some mistakes in how the NPCs were setup when TDS went live, and I've heard it's not nearly as bad now. But there's no reason for me to go back there, so it's forever etched in my mind as an awful maze zone with random see invis mobs and awful pathing.