Mergers and acquisitions

Not trolling, just a sincere question. Can we except a Ragefire/Lockjaw merger sometime in or around the next expansion (OOW)? Server population on both show consistently low on server status. Also, the content is now synced. Both servers are in GOD and end content completed within days, if not hours?, of each other. It'd be nice to see a little bit healthier populations going forward.

I doubt it! Since that was pre-instanced raiding most stay where they are for target availability.

There are 4 raiding guilds on Lockjaw and at least that many on Ragefire. Why would you even think we would want to merge that on a non instanced server? Right now things are perfectly fine.

Going forward, all (or almost all) raiding content will be instanced and you will have pick zones, just like Phinny does. The only differences will be the old world content that might still see some competition.

So if the answer is "Why would we want more people to play on the same server together, we like having our own playgrounds" that is one thing, but you can't really use instancing as a reason at this point.

There aren't currently any plans to merge Ragefire and Lockjaw. I do like your thread title though!

im pretty sure ragefire and lockjaw each have drastically lower populations than fippy did during the same time period. i would hope they merge the two rather than let them linger like they did vulak. itd be better for the long term health of each server.

especially since they made Vule instanced on all servers now, not just servers with AoCs. thats one huge roadblock that no longer exists for raiding progression.

i cant really think of any substantial reason NOT to merge the two, especially since neither server appears particularly toxic towards the other.

With respect to the current active Lockjaw raiding guilds, it might make sense to change the script a wee bit down the line:

Lock Lockjaw at TSS. Make it the preferred re-entry timelocked server. XP bonus like FV has/had. Give it free transfers off to any server including Ragefire. You play there if you want to do 1-75 with some other people, or just prefer that era of the game and the replayability of it.

This idea is based on some (potentially frail) assumptions:
1. by this point population will be down
2. by this point the raiding population would be more viable merged into Ragefire (for those that want to keep going past TSS)
3. Agnarr is enough of a success to justify a second locked server... TSS locked is probably is decent bump-up that serves multiple purposes, one of which being a place Agnarr players can move to without going full live.

It is a little premature to make this case, seeing as Agnarr hasn't reached the locked part yet. Until it does, it really isn't any different than any other progression server. Just a hunch, but I suspect a year after Agnarr locks, all of the non-locking servers will look far more successful by comparison. But we won't know till we get there.

That kind of drastic change would be incredibly unfair to the people who started on there and expected to progress to live.

Something to consider before populations are too low in the future. Be proactive on keeping server populations up and healthy instead of reactive.

I concede that it only "might" make sense, and if it was to be done free transfers to Ragefire (& elsewhere) would have to be part of the change. Probably need free transfer in from Ragefire (for a time) and Agnarr (forever) to make the concept viable.

One factor that (I think) would have to happen first is raiding guild attrition on Lockjaw, if that isn't happening from now to TSS then there is no case to do anything drastic.

We talk about things like this though, because the precedent of progression servers catching live isn't looking that strong (Combine did it after a merge, and when live was quite a few expacs less of a journey. Doesn't look good for Fippy at the moment, too early to be confident for Ragefire or Lockjaw...)

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Vulak would have kept some population if the rules had just been converted when the population got lower.To me this is before a single guild is left standing trying things --preferably when the casuals and family guilds are still into it a bit, and certainly before an era becomes unbeatable.

At a certain point "beat unlocks and vote" becomes a harm vs. and asset, converting to "3 month auto unlocks" would have saved Vulak from having to be merged as it would have automatically become a live server. This is a far less drastic alternative that could be reserved for Ragefire and Lockjaw.

Whether live servers, or some live servers, should be merged is a different debate.

When you are at the point of just raiding the only population that matters are the 30-40 players you raid with. If it aint broke!

There are quite a few progression servers in the mix right now and it's quite easy to join one fresh and max level in a few weeks. If population is you thing, join Agnarr. If raiding with a tight knit group and little competition is your thing, join Lockjaw.

Many of us have characters that we play on all these servers in various guilds for different experiences on different nights. No reason to force homogeneity.

I feel like there is a whirlwind of misinformation on this forum that have somehow created a false narrative where LJ is somehow doing better than RF. RF has 5 guilds in Txevu already with 3 more working on getting flagged for Qvic. Yes we have a more than 4 raiding guilds, and Txevu and Qvic are already very crowded as I'm sure open zones will be in Omens. Personally I don't see the need for a server merge as we have a healthy community that respects each other and honors boss rotations. I can't speak for LJ but adding 4 more raiding guilds into that mix would surely strain everything for us.

I see LJ people coming on here and trying to build a case to convince new people to play on their server (and succeeding), while also asking for a server merge every few months.

I would propose that 3 major changes happen, and I'll explain why below.
1) transfers be allowed to happen both ways, from Lockjaw to Ragefire, and vice versa.
2) the price be lowered from 2500 to 500 DB cash.
3) merge Ragefire and Lockjaw sometime in DoN or DoDH

There is no one size fits all guild. Some guilds have more raunchy voice comm channels, some are family friendly. Some guilds raid a lot, some don't. There is no guild anywhere that every single person will be happy with. So, for that reason, people need options. The more options there are, the more likely you are to find a guild you will continue playing with. I know I can think of individual players we denied applications to that just immediately quit the server, and that sucks. There are other players we denied who joined another guild and fit in fine and are still active to this day.

For those reasons, I would love to see transfers available for everyone between Lockjaw and Ragefire, but I know that is unlikely to happen for free. Currently transfers are allowed just 1 way, from Lockjaw to Ragefire. Also, the 2500 price is just too high. People don't have that and won't spend it regularly, especially not entire guilds.

The reason for this is for the benefit of both the players on Ragefire/Lockjaw and the profitability of EQ itself. The fact is if people don't have a good option for a guild to join they will quit. That's less active players to choose from, and also less monthly subscriptions for Daybreak. I just can't imagine that Daybreak is seeing tons of 1 way transfers from Lockjaw to Ragefire now, and I have to imagine they will see more transfers at the lower price as well as higher subscription rates.

The reason you merge the servers in DoDH/DoN is to give the servers more signs of life. The more active a server is, the more likely people are to level up and play there. There is no major open world content in DoN/DoDH that people have to worry about now that Vule is instanced.

Whether people want to admit it or not, 6 months to a year from now Ragefire and Lockjaw will be the better server to be on over Phinny. I believe the steps I listed above will help the guilds on the servers be in a position to grow for more of the long term.

If we don't add PvP I'll quit.
If we add PvP I'll quit.
If we don't have endless expansions I'll quit.
If I get left behind by endless expansions I won't return.

Signed The Everquest User Base

Too many masters.

While mergers are a good question, I would prefer to see the TLP's go no Defiant gear or Mercenary's.

Stick to the prison server if you don't want these things.

This is one of the worst ideas I have ever read on these forums. Lj players are interested in going all the way, and Agnarr players made a choice to lock at 65.

Also, for those of you who don't read before posting, they couldn't merge forever due to code changes rendering the old merge method incompatible. They redesigned the merge code and tested it with Vulak to Fippy since they are both essentially dead test servers at this point. The test failed miserably and is now back to the drawing board, way on the back burner.

I conceded in a post later in the thread it may be a pointless idea. Totally depends on the players on a given server. Rage/Lock come up because 2 similar servers (including a ruleset with issues in the past for making it to live) of the same age with a few in -era guilds and however many other players doing there own thing are going to be seen as "at risk" of stagnation by those observing from the outside and some from within.

Fippy players were interested in going all the way too. Up until recently it seemed like a good bet they would pull it off.

Despite Agnarr's ruleset being quite clear, there remains people repeatedly posting about wanting a "ladder" or some other way up/out without going full live. If the number of players that want to pay for that is greater than the population of (let's say) Lockjaw the accountants may win vs. the current Lockjaw all-era focused players. Said differently, if Daybreak can make more $ messing with Lockjaw I think there is a threshold after which they will (mess with it).

You mention Fippy & Vulak basically having become "dead test servers", at this time it is just as reasonable to think Ragefire & Lockjaw will hit similar walls at similar times. Down the line, the pointless terrible idea of splitting the Lockjaw playerbase into "seriously wanting to progress" vs. "I'm way behind happy dabbling in old content and would accept being locked at TSS if it meant more fresh blood playing my way" --might seem far more appealing to Lockjaw' current in-era raiders (if any of you are even left). Lockjaw stalling/locked at TSS is an opportunity. Lockjaw stalling anywhere after that... is likely just a dead server.

Ultimately it is Daybreak's juggling to figure out the best way to keep servers viable and milk the $. Maybe internally they know that 95% of the "lost" Vulak and Fippy population is still playing on a different progression server... aka they don't need to make them viable to live, they just relaunch. If that is the case then the Fippy/Vulak situations of basically becoming private servers for one guild, the odd boxer or loners maybe gets to keep playing out.

TLDR: if enough people keep playing on Ragefire/Lockjaw all the "out there" ideas will be moot.