Do quality of life improvements ruin your enjoyment?

Maps.
No corpse runs.
No xp penalties.
The advanced loot system.
If druids and shamans were to hypothetically get Incarnate Anew...

Where do you think the line should be drawn before you feel the game goes down a slippery slope?

Simple answer: no.

And I think DB have got the balance pretty good as it is.

Maps - Keep
No corpse runs - Keep
Exp penalties - Keep
The advanced looted system - Keep
Druid/Shaman rez - Indifferent.

Xp penalty must go, i died like 7 times from 1 to 47, three times i could accept the penalty (once solo, once repop + bad pull in lguk and once a bad pull in a very red ldon) .. the four other times it was 100% due to the stupidity of other group members. I remember being a few times in terrible (most where ok or even fine) groups in which i actually loaded gate after telling them to find a replacement and told myself if they keep being so bad they will die but i won't.

XP penalty is not acceptable when you are required to group with other players you don't even know.

The failure of Everquest is mostly due to 6 very wrong choices :
1)Xp penalty (so people have no incentive to do anything risky, unless a cleric is there -- and group break because of that, and you get angry when someone does something stupid .....
2) no encounter locking (so high level people or high dps class can ruin other people fun),
3) no trivial loot rule (so high level people can disrupt low level zones), sure the idea of "I suck, but i m max level and i shall ruin your time because i can" is wonderful.
4) no proper raid/group interface (which actually implies that most encounter are almost trivial, as long as you have the numbers)
5) very slow out of combat mana regen (this implies that cleric who could have fun stunning, lulling, meleing whatever -- end up being heal bots, this also applies to nuke bot --wizzies --etc ... there are reasons if many people box a cleric, with the mechanic there gameplay is simply terrible .. yes one action each 2mn really?


Currently like 1% of the original player base remains, and the game survive due to the income DBG get from the SC. When in 2015 i started on Phinni half the people i grouped with or met where loaded with potion (regen, sow, xp and possibly haste). The new server is there exactly for that, sell potions and soon mounts at 30 dollar a mount it can be very profitable, especially considering that for DBG the marginal cost is almost zero.

The problem is not the "difficulty", you could make mob twice stronger and correct the issues 1-6, camping Quillmane for 10 days or the ancient cyclop for 20 hours is not difficult, it is stupid, boring and insane.And it get somewhat pathetic if your level 40 necro get KS by a 60 wizzie that will the jboots for 3 kronos ...

Everquest collapsed as soon as competition appeared, and they never understood that their entire idea of grind is fun, skilll is time invested was wrong.

It is very sad because the combat system is quite nice and there is also lot of cool content.

Bandoleers please.

Click from bag please.

Be happy to pay for either with SC to unlock per toon.

The game has become very soft.

P99 Red would break you kids.

I agree. The corruption on p99 would not be fun to experience. I agree with you 100%.

OP meant experience modifiers like hell levels and racial penalties. Experience on death is a core mechanic and removing it would make no sense at all.

And yet, here you are. Still.

Yeah, I was referring to hell levels and exp penalties if you play a bard or are an iksar.

My biggest issue is coin weight. I wish that rule was enforced because it creates more player interaction and also more strategy.

I would not mind if original XP rates were put back in for all class/race combos.

What ruins my enjoyment is not being able to click items inside bags.

Quality of Life Changes
Maps
No corpse runs
Exp penalties
The advanced looted system
Bandolier
Click items in bags

Class game mechanic Changes
Druid/Shaman rez

Hard to say where the "slippery slope" begins. Or if it already began.

Originally, the game's difficulty made individual players shine when they excelled somewhere. Someone that knew the terrain well was super valuable. A tank that sacrificed themselves (and their xp, corpse run, etc) to save the group was well remembered while the ranger that ran in fear to save his skin was also remembered. People that put themselves on the line for others' quality of life made the game worth it.

But, times change, we have all grown up with less time to dedicate, and less patience to deal with the new breed of gamers out there, so changes have to be made.

Clickies in bags tho. This. CLICKIES IN BAGS.

What new breed of gamer? You say that like EQ is awash with those crazy entitled millennials *shakes fist at kids on the lawn*. I would bet 90% of the folks playing EQ right now are the same folks who played it back in 2000. We are just older and crotchetier. There is no new breed of gamer ruining EQ. It's us old farts demanding concessions to our adult livestyles, and our more mature approach to the life/video game balance, that have required all theses changes.

Clickies in bags though, keeping that from us is just cruel.

No they do not, there are many other QoL improvements that would make me enjoy my TLP experience even more.

It's a combination of both us crotchety old timers, and the newer generation of gamers that prefer more immediate gaming satisfaction. Someone in their late teens, early 20s right now grew up with a highly different game world than I did (and I am only 32). I remember the audacity of having to get a VIDEO CARD to play a game! ... 4mb video card... wooo baby. On my sexy hot 28.8k dial up.

So yea, I can surely say someone who is 20 years old is a different breed of gamer than when I was 20, and I am also a different gamer now at 32 than I was at 20. (I started EQ at um... 13... 14.... something).

It ain't BAD, it's just different. And I am more than willing to entertain changes to accommodate all of us, despite my desire for nostalgia. Some changes I would never want reverted! lol.

Offline traders were amazing and thanks Daybreak for putting them in earlier.

Now if we could just get click from bag enabled, even if it had to wait until like Planes of Power unlocked that would be far better than Veil of Alaris (the 18th Expansion).

The only changes I don't like so far:

1) Spells are bit much. They are stronger than I remember on live this era -- particularly mage pets (even post-nerf). This is obviously because they haven't reverted them to around what they were. I don't understand why not --- on the main live servers everyone is 85+ anyway -- that content doesn't necessarily have to matter to them.

2) Zone revamps. Revamps of classic EQ zones was a bad idea. While most aren't too bad -- I really dislike Freeport and Lavastorm. I wouldn't like a Orgrimmar revamp either if I was playing WoW. Just let it stay.

3) Massive EXP boost during the launch. I saw this as DBG basically spreading out of the population. They knew <Faceless> and other hardcore raiders and farmers would blitz the server to level fast. They facilitated them doing it. I think EQ should take a bit longer to level. The exp rate wasn't too bad starting in the 40s -- but was pretty fast in until then.

EQ has been changed a lot mechanically over the years -- mostly for the better. But these are the ways the game has changed that I think make it worse instead of better.

Clickies.
In.
Bags.