Changes were made to Classic/Kunark/Velious zone experience mods during their run on Coirnav. I don't think these changes accomplished the goal of making unpopular or challenging zones more viable for leveling. What I observed was a few zones viability was ruined (City of Mist, Siren's Grotto) and this reduced players options for zones to find pick up groups in. Please consider reversing the ZEM nerfs that were made, and greatly increasing the ZEM in unused/outdoor zones. Also consider revamping respawn timers as part of a zone balancing pass. Player power is so much higher that I think a broad reduction of respawn timers would generally improve the leveling experience.
I agree. It made things worse by slowing things down to a xp crawl across the board. Re-enabling the old ZEM table would work. Ideally just increase xp modifier across the board by about 20-40%. If the xp gains are the same as Cornaiv and the same ZEM's are included you can count me out. Even with longer unlocks slow xp=slow xp.
I think the case can be made to just flatline all ZEMs (and set server global XP to a good number... more like FV or Test, less like Coirnav...) Then collect data... If zone is underused... why? (probably has lousy loot, evil mechanics, and/or poor respawn or mob level distribution, or is just really a pain to get to). Then consider tweaking the issues noted above, and upping the ZEM in the underused zones.
You put all the loot and the easy mobs in 1 zone (Lguk), set it up so you can easily slide in from camp to camp from level 28 to 48, and it doesn't really matter what zem you put in kedge, lol.
Kedge actually has a strong niche for a zone in my opinion. I believe they buffed the ZEM significantly in their last adjustments. I ended up leveling there from 40-47 on Coirnav with an enchanter/druid and have a lot of good things to say about the zone. Partly that was due to an insanely, incredibly OP charm pet (tainted seahorse) that is charmable there in classic with Allure. The zone has some interesting loot that brings people there, but the very long respawn timers on nameds/PH mean it's not a viable group camp spot. The one I saw camped regularly during classic was shaman camping the harpoon at the very first camp near the zone line. Also the golden haired mermaid was a very popular target due to a quest for a Mana Preservation 2 focus item. Once kunark started the mermaids were heavily farmed for deepwater inks. What makes the zone non viable for full group xp grinds is just the super low mob density. It's a great solo (mainly enchanter and druid for charm) and duo spot. I'd be curious to see if more people hunted there if they reduced the trash respawn to 7ish minutes and the named PH to 21-30 minutes
The biggest issue is where they placed the loot. They loaded all the best groupable loot into roughly 2 zones. In hindsight, they probably should have spread the loot around alot more than they did, i.e. moving some of the guk loot to outdoor zones with high level mob camps. But, they wanted people delving into the dungeons and they got a camp fest.
I finally tried velks on Coirnav, after mostly avoiding it because of a general annoyance with very busy zones. It's at least twice as fast as the other zones I've been hunting in recently. It's annoying how good it is compared to places like DN or SG. Please buff the xp in some of these neglected zones
The issue is loot, mob density and respawn timers, not necessarily ZEMs. As others pointed out you could flatline chardok and seb's ZEM and people would still go there to level over other zones. DBG would have to fix loot tables and how rare mobs are dispersed in game to have people look elsewhere for XP spots. It would be a pretty fundamental change to the game. Basically the current process works even if it works crappily. When something kind of works it usually gets bumped to the bottom of the pile in terms of priority.
Just speculating, but my guess is that the developers got way too close with some of the crazy Krono farmers, etc and probably solicit feedback from a small group of them I've seen it happen before on other games, Devs are just normal people and they're usually always in contact with some of the top players, even some of the top cheaters, to try and get information Once they become too close, they start catering the game to those players
Yeah functioning in a vacuum would definitely explain some decisions. If you don't have time to play the game you work on or interest in playing it (and let's be honest, it's a 20 year old game) then you rely on a handful who reach out to you with suggestions or feedback in crafting content, better or worse. Don't get me wrong I can tell some of the devs on this game do seem to care (Prathun <3) but I do wish they'd consider revamping the leveling experience as part of the TLP anniversary server. If nothing else, it would provide something new and fresh for those of us tired of the classic to velious grind.
I noped out of Coirnav real quick because of how low the exp was. It's insand to me that they think making exp worse somehow makes people want to play the game more. There's a reason Ragefire/Lockjaw had to be split into 2 when it first opened and why Coirnav's population has always been underwhelming
You know people used to start in Qeynos and level on that side of the world. Wasn’t all about min/maxing your xp/hr.
If they doubled/tripled the exp rate I would be making so many alts and spamming xp pots. I never make another set of alts just because it takes so long to level.
Zones that need a Zem boost: Kerra Isle/Toxx Erud's crossing. Blackburrow Permafrost West/South/East Karana High hold keep Guards. Lake rathe Gorge of King Xorbb Runnyeye Oggok guards Plane of Fear (By a lot) Dagnor's Cauldron Steamfont Mountains Wars Woods KARNOR'S CASTLE OF NO EXPERIENCE Mines of nurga Timorous Deep Eastern Wastes Wakening Lands Tower of Frozen shadows Quest hand ins that require no drop items. Soloing experience. Experience bonus from 5th/6th members. Alternatively randomly pick an area every week, or cycle based on the week (week 1: Odus, Week 2: western Antonica, Week 3, Eastern Antonica, week 4, faydwer) or random 10 new zones every week
The gnoll fangs were for chumps. At level 13, the putrid bear hides from the rabid grizzlies in Qeynos Hills were giving 30% exp at 13.
