I played classic EQ long ago, and remember feeling afraid to venture into the dark depths of Blackburrow, with the barking gnolls in the background, and the threat of lost corpses seemed very real. We may not be able to recreate those types of experiences. But a Hardcore server, where your lives are finite, strikes me as interesting conversation fodder at the very least. Just imagine it. The care you would exercise with your character, and exploration. The server would need to have other adjustments as well, but even griefers couldn't ruin the server because even they would have finite lives that would eventually be spent. Ah, good morning, just my waking up thoughts, I still need coffee
You would have lots of fansy-the-bard copy cats who would rob you of your finite lives just to spite you.
To each his own, but I'm not investing in a character that could be taken down after 100+ hours /played by an ill-timed lost connection.
They could just reintroduce naked corpse runs at level 1 and take out the maps and other modern conveniences. That was hardcore enough for me. I remember wandering into a higher level part of a zone as a dumb newb, dying in the crushbone moat, and then having to somehow get to my corpse without any gear trying to find my way with a map I printed off from a webpage. I don't think we'll ever see a mmorpg quite as brutally hardcore as those early years of EQ again.
I would not play on a server that had maps and corpse runs. I don't have time with family and a fulltime job to spend hours looking for a corpse.
Basically yes. I'm shocked at how ez mode they made everything in the name of "quality of life". Good thing there is still p99 and alkabor project (eq mac clone) for more classic eq. How in the world did they decide getting rid of corpse runs was appropriate for TLP? Death is beyond meaningless.
I think most of the ez mode in MMO's today can be traced back to the quality of life improvements introduced in World of Warcraft. Prior to that MMO's were not nearly as forgiving. As to the corpse runs there was a vote a while back and the majority decided it was a bad idea. Everyone who played EQ back in classic has one or even a few memorable nostalgic moments where a few of your friends or maybe even half your guild helped you get your corpse back after some unfortunate death that left you naked and searching for your body is some crazy location. Truth be told for every memory like that you are likely forgetting the hundreds of times you died and went about your corpse run where nothing interesting happened and you just wasted an hour running across the world to pick up your stuff. Despite those nostalgic memories of those couple times in general corpse runs suck and the majority of players remembered that and voted to not have them.
That waste hour as you put it taught that there were consequences for reckless actions, it made you more attached to your characters and how you played them, it expanded the game to not just be a push forward endeavor but a world of steps forward and back. As the memories fade over the years, we forget its the good and bad that forge the bond with the game, that truly made it such a memorable experience. It was the bad that made you care, and not just treat things as just another game.
I don't think everyone would even agree EQ or MMO in general are hardcore games. Or how this game can be made more difficult. Time consuming ✓ Minimal social skill required ✓ Knowing how a gaming mouse and macro works ✓ Hardcore? Uhm, I've never met a single person in EQ who said that the game was hard. Too time consuming, yes, too hard? Never. Especially in classic, EQ is incredibly easy to pick up and play. The fact the gameplay is so slow and incredibly predictable, is the reason boxing is so easy.
Not sure that I'd be a fan of limited lives, simply due to the lack of environment controls. It isn't quite like XCOM (Single Player) or Diablo (Multi-Player but can choose who joins your "world"). I would like to see a "hardcore" Progression Server though. Instead of applying all the nerfs to various classes etc.. fight the age of the game by adding increasing damage and life to mobs. Let the starter areas alone, and gradually increase the difficulty of surrounding zones. From Original, LGuk, Sol B, etc. would be significantly more difficult. It would need some extensive testing, as to not make it impossibly hard, but just the right balance. The biggest downfall of Progression Servers, in my personal opinion, is that everything is already known. Everyone knows the best XP zone at the start. Everyone knows where the best items drop and from what mobs. To that end, my above comment would need "adjustment." Rather than just Sol B, LGuk, etc. being made the most difficult (while still retaining a substantial difficulty increase), They could implement "Hardcore" zones throughout the expansion release. Similar to the Hardcore Heritage events, each Progression Server would get a series of randomized zones to become "hardcore." In this later scenario, a zone like Permafrost (rarely utilized due to location and lack of good drops per camp) could be utilized. The drops would be unique (like current HH zones) with boosted stats etc.. The mobs would be significantly more difficult than the standard increase to other zones. The duration of a "Hardcore" zone could then be randomized. Be it a few days or a week or several weeks. Shake it up a little to keep people moving around Norrath. Run the "Hardcore" zones for a period of either 2 expansions/content releases (E.G. Original + Kunark, Kunark + Velious, Velious + Luclin, etc..) or trailing the content release (E.G Original Hardcore + Kunark, Kunark Hardcore + Velious, etc...) But eh.. there's so many options that could be applied to progression servers.
This is what will happen if you create OP's server: 1) Corpse runs will bring out the griefers, who enjoy training people and getting them killed. Half the time someone dies, it won't be because they were reckless, it'll be because someone decided to troll them. 2) People with families and jobs will be discouraged from playing on the server, because no maps and corpse runs are time consuming. 3) Who will handle all the complaints about missing corpses and the increased amount of training? 4) There will be drama over popular camps, like Ancient Cyclops, with players corpsing drops. Do we need more lawyer questing? 5) People will be pickier than ever about having optimal groups because they don't want to do corpse runs. Groups will always go for the cleric healer and pass over druids and shaman. 6) Players who have to log for work will be guilt tripped into sticking around to do corpse runs.
Most of the time you died in this game once you knew how to play was lag, repops, and getting trained by someone else.
Yes. I think this is who this server is aimed at. Hence the faster xp rate, maps from the start, etc. People who might have a stretch of a week or so where they barely have time to play. The people who are already closing in on level 50 are not going to last on the server, but there's a lot of people who are aren't going to fly through the levels like that.
Never played a puller, or a tank class? Never raided? As a monk in 1999-2000 it seemed regular deaths were part of the job description.
We already had a server like that, permanent death server. It was short lived i believe the server was discord, fun times
People are more likely to get attached to their characters if they have fun grouping experiences and positive interactions with other players. Not if they have to do corpse runs.
