The answers you want are mostly in the News, not the Forums: https://www.everquest.com/news/progression-server-faq-april-15 https://www.everquest.com/news/phinigel-true-box-progression-server-launch https://www.everquest.com/news/true-box-progression-server-faq-phinigel If you don't want to read all of that just read the Phinigel description and think of ragefire/lockjaw as the same but with no raid instancing, no truebox, and 35% faster xp. Regarding populations Lockjaw has dozens of active players, Ragefire has a couple hundred, and Phinny has a couple thousand.
1) Phinny 2) Phinny slowest xp, Ragefire & Lockjaw same xp rate - slower than live faster than phinny 3) Phinny true box only, Ragefire & Lockjaw unlimited boxing
The numbers of active players on Lockjaw is a little low as we have about 4-5 dozen active people in our guild alone...just saying...
Phinigel < most populated , least amount of boxers, slowest exp rate LJ, RF < ghost town feel compared to phinigel, most people box teams from 4 to 40, exp rate feels like double phinigel at times.
Lockjaw usually a couple hundred on nightly. Maybe 70 or 80 more on FI and DHS raid nights. Ragefire is probably double. Phinny obviously most crowded, with all the pluses and minus of being crowded. Guilds on RF/LJ will gladly accept you and bring you up to speed if you want to raid in a timely manner. You can box as many as you like on RF/LJ. You can box as many as you have computers on Phinny. Phinny will definitely be the harder slog to endure both to 60 and AA's later on. Too many people try and sway you either way. I would pick RF/LJ, make a toon and get him to 30 in a couple days. Then make a toon on phinny and get him to 15 in a couple days and see which is better suited for your play style.
I would start on Phinny as Ragefire and Lockjaw have a bot problem. Actually, I started a thread a few weeks ago (maybe even a month ago,) regarding the population and was it worth starting on Phinny. Many folks insisted that the XP rate of Phinny is slow and some believe it to be terrible. You will also find that some will never level a 2nd character on the server, that is, unless they changed the XP rate. In my honest opinion after rebooting my duo, its actually not that bad. Additionally, I wouldn't call the XP rate terrible either, but it is slower XP than the other TLPs for sure. Moreover, the XP rate is still much faster than pre/post Planes of Power and you can always purchase XP potion boosts as well, which was not available back then either. Ultimately, Phinny was designed with the original EQ experience, but set in the current day. With that in mind, you will need to join groups to circumvent the slower rate of XP. The only downside and like with most hardships of EQ, you will find those that try an monetize the slow rate of XP by selling PL services, but there aren't many doing it as of yet and with zone instancing, its not bad at all (yet.) TLDR; - Phinny is the TLP of choice. - The XP rate is slower, but not as slow as it could be. - Proactive play, XP potions, and grouping can alleviate the slower rate of XP.
Again, lets keep it real. All TLP's have a BOT problem. There are only a couple 2 or 3 people who still run the large bot teams on lockjaw, and you rarely, if ever see them. I haven't been on Ragefire lately so don't know how it's shaking out there now. Most box 2-4 chars. Many on phinny box 2+ chars. I personally know at least a dozen people who run their own groups with 6 pc's on phinny. The constant claims phinny is low bot or bot free is a fallacy. Common sense dictates the bot farmers go where the demand is to accumulate krono. All these people claiming RF and LJ are dead, why would large bot farmers waste their time on dead servers where they cannot peddle their wares for krono? The botters are on phinny. Which makes me very happy as the original TLP's are pretty damned awesome now.
I disagree. True, all TLPs have boxers, but that is not the same thing. The "BOT problem" is people using 3rd party software to fully automate 6-30 characters (usually mages). The software that shall not be mentioned (and everyone knows) is not technically legal on Phinigel so you don't have anywhere near the BOT problem you have had on Ragefire and Lockjaw. Some unscrupulous few have modified the program to run on Phinigel and, in at least one case, all associated accounts were banned. So if the BOT problem is a 10 on a 10 scale on Rage/LJ it's maybe a 1 (or less) on Phinigel.
The funny part is that on Phinny(where I play also on top of LJ) has more krono and RMTers then Lockjaw. Sure, we have a few large bot crews but the dont hinder us they work with us so as to not interfere raid wise. They are respectful towards other guilds and we are respectful back.
Guys, I agree about the bot problem, but could we, for once, not derail the thread of a (returning ?) player who just wishes to know more about TLPs ? He will be diving into the fraternal and cooperative atmosphere of the progression community soon enough, haha.
I disagree and you truly underestimate the anti-bot sentiment on Phinny. (Back on track!) In my opinion, and even with the launch of Legion this is a good time to restart on Phinny.
