DBG - It's time to make EQ better

I think FV rules on a TLP would be extremely successful with the combination of AoC and the other Phinny mods, but there are a few obvious problems.

Earning BIS loot or top gear in ERA must remain a prestigious event. If you can just buy $200 of Krono and trade for it, that would ruin that prestige that everyone else weilding it has worked for. If they made FV loot rules, I imagine it would have to be some modification where once the loot is 1-2 expansions old, it then removes the no drop tag. I have no idea how much work this would be (probably a lot), it could be something just done when the next expansion hits, or via trading to a NPC to hand back the correct version and only have it work on certain items.

Why would this even be beneficial you ask? I think a lot of people would gear out their Alts and Boxes via this method. It would also darastically improve any main swapping, and still leave you with a goal of something to work for at raids. I also think there needs to be a leveling catchup method implemented before Mercs, and it needs to be implemented in at Planes of Power or GoD era. This is the point where lvling groups 1-60 really drop off.
I have mentioned before allowing Mercs up to ~10 lvls from the level cap, then you would not be able to re-summon them, or something of that manner. People hear about TLP’s and want to return, but if they don’t hit them in Classic/Kunark it really starts to add more and more challenge. Today’s gamers don’t have the dedication they use to for grinding to catch up to others. Many roll a character on these TLP servers that are a few expansions in, and leave after a few levels as it’s too slow and they lack the gear to plow through it.

I agree with your first statement wholeheartedly.

I'd ask you WHY?? on the 2nd one. Why must it remain a "prestigious" event? I don't assign any prestige whatsoever as to who is 1st to do anything on a TLP, or who wears what gear, because I realize that it is due to 1 main factor: time (or money) spent. Gratz to them for having more free time (or money to spend) to play a video game than I do, but that's hardly prestigious or reason to be set apart from anyone. I don't buy mounts, but I don't begrudge those that do even tho it gives them a huge advantage. They paid for that advantage.

Is it prestigious because someone spends more time at a keyboard than someone else? Really? This is a service that we pay for, to entertain ourselves. I don't pay hard-earned money to hold a few people up on a pedestal because of their lack of social life and ability to make macros or min/max levelling.

If that were criteria for being rewarded, send me my check.

Anyone who has ever played FV seriously can tell you without a doubt that this is a none issue as high end raid gear sells for $250+ and most people can't afford to drop money like that, sure there will be a few people who can afford that but not the masses. Go play for awhile and you will see that the RMT market isn't any different then any other server, hell krono always sell for a flat price regardless of the server you play on and items like gebs on TLP launches sell for more then any single BOE item in ROS. People make a lot of assumptions but they don't have any evidence to back it up.

There is a reason FV is the most populated live server.

Guilds already have to babysit their BOC's and other droppable raid gear in velious, adding FV ruleset to that would just increase the amount of guild mates that strip their characters down for thousands of dollars and sell their character and reroll a new one rinse repeat.

Yeah sure some casuals dont have the time to do it but if you box characters then youll have 1-6 max level at the same time, then you can put them into different raiding guilds and earn loot that goes for what, 20kr+ each? I think turnover in raiding guilds would skyrocket.

They should make SoD, Gnome Mask, Book, and Salindrite Dagger all No Drop like the monk robes.

I wish they would.

What if they made all open world boss loot tradeable like FV but all instances loot drops no drop (meaning the AOC was used to pop the encounter)?

Hmmm that's a pretty good idea . This would keep it interesting for the top guilds to compete ow and th er y could keep the sleeper sleeping in in instances because the sod etc would be no drop. Let's do this! Double xp server locking maybe in oow or something! I like God but most people get all poopy about it.

I would play on an Agnarr exp-rate/FV loot-rules/Phinny unlock-schedule server. I love that Agnarr is PoP-locked and will be my home on EQ forever unless another server comes around that is Agnarr exp-rate and a phinny unlock-schedule.

I quit during GoD and I always regretted not playing through Depths of Darkhollow and some of the other expansions my old guildies loved and told me about. I missed out on the Phinny launch due to RL but would love an opportunity to play newer content.

Unfortunately, I do not have play time like I used to and even Agnarr took more time than I could really keep up with. I'd love to try Coirnav, but if I didn't have time to keep 2-3 chars geared and max level on Agnarr, no way I'd be able to keep up where it takes 30-50% more time just to grind up exp.

Why do so many of you go to play on TLP's and then complain when they turn out to be exactly what they were marketed as?

Sleeper is going to go the way of Marl and Verina.

Classic!

No you have enough krono !!!

I totally agree with this. I know it has been said time and time again but playing old school EQ provided one thing that all the new MMOs lack, a sense of accomplishment. Doesn't matter if you consider hard work or just a grind, either way because "EFFORT" was involved it really felt good to ding a new level or finally get that good piece of gear you have been wanting or more likely, needing. Modern MMOs just give you everything for free with next to no effort involved. People like to call this "free ride", Quality of Life but its not. Quality of life is a shared bank slot, quality of life is the Orgin ability. Quality of life is NOT fast leveling progression or getting best in slot gear just handed to you for killing 10 rats.

Honestly I am back in EQ after being out of the game probably a good 15-16 years because of the challenges EQ presents. I am also back because I have realized that games like WoW, despite me having had several several max level characters, are boring and completely forgettable experiences while EQ, with all its flaws, provided truly memorable experiences that gave me a true sense of accomplishment.

To be fair you have servers like this now. I think the OP is suggesting they make a server that is set up for people like him. They can do this and you do not have to play there, its really that simple, enjoy your server and I have no issues with how you play or what gives you a sense of accomplishment. What I have an issue with is you guys that have your servers always show up to complain about someone asking for something for their style of play.

Faster xp and the removal of mechanics that allow griefers is not asking for easy mode, its asking to remove barriers to fun for people that have families and jobs.

EQ players almost invariably take the path of least resistance. You can tell him he doesn't need to play on it, but the reality is that if there are two servers, one with fast xp and one with slow xp, the slow xp server will have zero population.

I get what you are saying but I think the push back you get from people like me comes from the fact that people like the OP are the ones that keep ruining games. I know I am likely in the minority compared to those who want EZ Mode gaming and Developers go where the money is but it is the "Give it to me free" attitude which has spawned all the WoW clone failure that we have seen over the years and why the MMO industry is almost non-existent any more. To clarify what I am getting at, when someone like me sees people like the OP, it is pretty much a knee jerk reaction to tell them to go away because of the toxic effect they have on the direction of a game and I do firmly believe it is toxic. I am not saying they are wrong to want what they want, I am just saying I wish they would go play games designed to accommodate them rather than trying to "change" a game, clearly not within their niche, to accommodate what they want. Is that arrogant of me? Maybe, hell maybe even probably but after seeing first hand the effect players like the OP have had on the industry and their complicity in virtually shutting down the entire MMO industry over the last decade, I tend be opposed to this line of thinking in general.

Honestly, there is not really any problems in my mind if there is a server like this even though I am opposed to the whole idea on a philosophical basis. I just don't want to see these ideas infect games like Pantheon which seems like it is going to be the only breath of fresh air after all the smelly piles of trash we have been left with over the years due to this quest for EZ Mode gaming.

By the way, I am only level 14, started back on Coirnav after about 16 years of hiatus, so have no real loyalty to anyone or anything when it comes to servers, guilds or a high level toon I have grinded my butt off on. I am just opposed to anything that dumbs down a game to accommodate "Casual" players be it EQ, WoW or whatever. I am sorry but a hard game can always be played casually but an easy game will never be hard to play.

I always love seeing people say that leveling in EQ is too easy now and how they PL'ed a char from 1-60 in a day or two. And that since they have all of these resources and can PL a char in a few hours, the rest of us should have to slog through extra days or weeks of grinding.

Want a slower leveling experience? Solo like people did in classic. Or get a group where your tank doesn't want to taunt like people did in classic. Or take a no-res death every other level or so like people did in classic.

EQ exp rates should not be set with speed run PLers in mind. It should be a calculation of what an average EQ player playing the game in level appropriate gear, with level appropriate buffs, in level appropriate dungeons, with a level appropriate group, needs in order to learn his or her class and the game generally. You can add a few more mobs for extra practice or "accomplishment", but if you go much past that you start to bump into "not fun" and "burnout" territory for lots of players.

For me, I think Agnarr has it about right. There is literally one reason I didn't roll on Coirnav--the exp rate. Not because I didn't want to level 1-60 at a glacial pace again, but because I didn't want to level 5-6 chars one at a time 1-60 at a glacial pace again.

Coirnav looks like its doing great, though, and I wish it and the players on it all the luck in the world.

Midnitewolf,

You're confusing inconvenience with difficulty. EQ is not easier now because EQ was never hard. In fact, EQ is harder now than its ever been with the buffs to raid encounters.

You've been gone a long time and you're probably misremembering how EQ was. To the extent EQ was ever "difficult", it was only so because people didn't understand how the game worked. There was never much skill required; 99% of encounters involved turning on auto attack, sending in your pet, or casting a couple of spells (heals, nukes, dots or debuffs), as the case may be. Sure, you could make it harder on yourself by trying to do content that was too high level for you and your group, or pulling a couple more mobs than you could comfortably handle, but you could always just do content that was appropriate for your group.

Anyone who has ever done mythic raiding in WoW would look at a game like EQ and giggle at how easy it is. EQ is unforgiving because its easy. It punishes failure harshly because failure is rare.

The quality of life changes that you so condescendingly call toxic very rarely impact the "difficulty" of the game. They make the game more convenient and almost all of them can be turned off in one way or another if you don't want to use them.

Don't confuse inconvenience with difficulty.

I like how you mindlessly lumped me into some category of ruining MMOs without any real points. 3 paragraphs of absolute rubbish. You claim WoW as dumbing down to casuals, but that game successfully caters to all styles of players, from easy mode raid finder mode to mythical raiding. You can play 1 hour a day, or wipe for 20 hours a day racing for world firsts. You can perform at a basic level, or push the limits on what your player can do. What's wrong with that model?

I paid my dues back on Live as a college kid spending 19+ hours on a Raster camp. I had my batphone for rushing into Ssra Temple to fight another guild over Emp spawns. I wasted away on 10 hour PoFear raids because of the inability to manage corpse recoveries. I'm 37 now, and there is no sense of accomplishment for any of that. I didn't ask for handouts, but I did suggest not being forced to grind our lives away to stay relevant. There is nothing hard about this game as being forced to exp for many hours a day does not equate to difficulty at all - unless you count staying married as part of that difficulty. What did I suggest that makes it "EZ Mode" in comparison to the game's actual content being already easy?

For the record, I'm also on Coirnav right now, playing 2-3 hours at best, and have 3 characters higher than you. I'm nowhere close to being able to raid with my friends because I don't play 8+ hours a day to exp anymore. I'm going to feel extra special one day hitting level 60 for the millionth time, I just know it.

How sad are you going to be when you find out Pantheon won't require crapping in a bucket and eating hotpockets all day long for months on end to hit the max level?

I like you too and pretty much everything you wrote lol. The only issue I have with wow is I'm way too lazy to play it, that's why I'm back here with the slow combat l.

Meh...just came play PG. Old EQ feel and sooo much you can do.

https://forum.projectgorgon.com/forum.php

Just check out the wiki and look at all the skills/crafting and such that you can do. Over 200 hours in the past 4 weeks

http://wiki.projectgorgon.com/wiki/Main_Page

Brizzt