Today there are game mechanics that hardly can motivate players to build experience groups with other players. Most players are unhappy with this situation as these mechanics turned a previously healthy MMO into a single player game with MMO elements. Why is that ? Here are some facts and possible solutions: ====================================================================== 1. Instead to build groups with other players, players prefer to play alone by puttingt their mercs and alts into the group to get all the loot and experience for themself. No conflicts about loot, playstyles and other things with other players can happen. Solution: Mercs should gain experience even when being deactivated. Basically merc experience should not be dependent on having hired a merc at all and purely based on character level experience. It could be automatically 10% of level/AA experience and going up to 100% level epxerience when the character does reach its current level cap. Think about limiting boxing to two accounts or make all servers true box servers like it was in the old days. Another interesting option would be to limit the amount of mercs to one or even zero inside groups dependent on the amount of player characters. Mercs should only be an option for solo players. Groups with more than one player character should deny mercenaries. So players that still want to box with mercs cannot benefit much from the grp exp bonus and have to build separate small groups (1 PC + 1 merc per grp). Lets say two or more player characters want to form a group: This would only work if they do not have an active merc. This would especially create a demand for healer classes and would motivate players to build real multiplayer groups (again). ====================================================================== 2. Mercenaries have to be active to gain experience and occupy a group slot Solution: See above. ====================================================================== 3. Inside a group lower level characters receice way to much experience as characters of a higher level even that higher level characters do benefit a group alot more usually. Maybe this is not mathematically correct (total and/or percentual) but its like driving with an activated hand brake for the higher level character while the lower level character receives a big boost. This is nice to level alts (by boxing multiple accounts) and other low level characters but most players just won´t build a group with characters that have a (much) lower level than their own character(s). Its seems like the total amount of experience that a defeated mob does grant (experience pool) currently just does get divided by the amount of characters in the group, including mercs. Solution: Create a better and more precise formula for experience share calculation. Character power based on their level and maybe even other factors like HP should have more influence or influence at all. It should not be a negative experience to build a team with lower level characters. Instead every character should benefit from the group experience bonus and to be in a group. In other words grouping should be ALWAYS more rewarding than playing solo / molo. ====================================================================== 4. Making mobs alot stronger with every new expansion and thinking that this will motivate players to build real multiplayer groups has failed since many years. When the apple does hang to high on the tree, players will just quit the game or stay back more or less unhappy within old content. Solution: Make mobs easier (less mob dps) like it was in the vanilla years with expansions like Scars of Velious and Shadows of Luclin where limited soloing was possible for alot classes (no mercs existed !) but very challenging without twink gear and mostly not as rewarding as being in an experience group.
sir, please return to the meme thread immediately. your presence in this troll post is neither warranted nor desired =P
I've been in full guild groups since TBL has been out, we occasionally have to use a healer merc when there are none on line, but grab a real one as soon as they become available. Groups are a round, you just need to make friends, play well and not ninja AFK. 4. will not help, if anything it will make your situation worse as those grouping now will be soloing or moloing with mercs.
So, having problems getting a group huh? Not seeing anything here to actually help a person find a group. All I'm seeing is how mercs or boxed toons are taking spaces away from someone getting a possible group. This is assuming the person trying to get a group is better than a merc or boxed toon to begin with.
Agree that merc exp is an issue. Mercs are strong, and their merc AA make a substantial difference in what you can and cannot do. Since I like tackling difficult content in TBL, I feel Iless inclined to invite real players that stall my merc progression. I still do invite others pretty much at any opportunity because I enjoy their company and like helping people out, but I cannot deny that current merc progression mechanics make this hard. I think merc AA progression would be better if 1) there was some level of autogrant, and 2) mercs not in group rcvd 25-50% of the exp they'd normally get while in a group. Autogrant helps close that entry barrier a tad. The out-of-grp exp helps motivate people to admit players in grps, while still retaining the option of focusing on late-game merc progression.
No thank you. I enjoy boxing and so do a lot of players on live server and TLP for that matter. We have already invested a lot of time and money into our accounts and don't need it wasted because people want more groups. This "solution" wont create more groups it will just create less players as people will literally quit the game rather than conform to this TLP true box mindset. If you want a live server with truebox just wait for Selo to catch live and you will have it assuming they keep it in place. You will also have the added bonus of increased rare spawns. I am all for solutions to increasing groups but not at the cost of destroying how others like myself enjoy playing EQ. Come up with a more creative solution that does not come at the expense of other players and I might support this solution.
Add a toggle to give XP to mercs instead of regular XP or AAs for player. In my case I'm full AA/reg XP, but my merc is really lagged behind on AAs.
End Mercenary Tenure Today! Seriously, if I want a group right now, I can get a group right now. I choose to box most of the time because of my hectic life. I can get up and walk away any time I see fit without detriment to anyone. And the six accounts I pay for help keep the game running. There are times when I'll bring someone else into my group, or take a single toon and group with someone else. But that depends a LOT on whom needs the help.
Yet another tired .. I dont want people to box .. thread cause they wont let me play with them.. Its already been firmly established you take boxing out of eq and eq will be deserted .. 160 people on 5 servers I know personally.. 1 of which does not box at all most box3 or more .. If you like eq and want it to stick round as long as possible.. then you sir have to learn to live with boxers .. or move to a no box server yourself..
The OP has a major misconception about the use of mercs and alts. People don't use these because they cant get groups, they use them because the don't WANT a group. They want to play at their own pace, when they want to and doing what they want to. Which generally you can't do with other people around. Marcs and alts are not your problem. The people who run them would not group with you anyway, because they don't want to (for various reasons, none of which have anything to do with you personally).
Thanks for your replies. My solutions are just possible solutions and they can be combined variously. Converting all servers into true box servers might not be the best idea but it still is something to consider. Some of you cleary stated that its nothing you want to have and you brought up good arguments. I am boxing myself pretty often and I did not made this post because I cannot find a group. All I did was analyzing the current state of the game and players behaviour. I disagree in one point with you and this is that players are boxing and using mercs because they want to play alone. Sorry, but you are playing an MMO, so im pretty sure that your first intention to play EQ was to play together with other people and getting confrontated with them. Thanks Natal for bringing this aspect up. You are telling us that people do not want groups and brought up a major issue. This is really crazy as people play an MMO with the intention to play alone there. If this is really the case there is no solution to cure EQ from the boxing and merc phenomenon. For sure you do not notice an issue at all then. Players want to play alone so just let them play alone ! This is fine with me. My general point of view is that every action is based on motivation. My motivation for this thread is to initiate some changes by bringing up things that I consider as basic issues. So there is a motivation that people prefer to play alone instead to build groups with other players. In the very past the majority of players was motivated to play in groups instead to play alone. So what has changed and motivated them to a different behaviour ? Have the players changed ? Have game mechanics changed ? Has something else changed ? I think its a mix of all as there was no mercs and only little boxing in the past while on the other side players grew older and their life situation has changed drastically. Family, work, less time, more stress. You already named such things. It seems like older people are also less active, less communicative, less social and prefer to play alone more. As real life sure has the biggest influence there is a second major factor and these are the game mechanics. While its hardly possible to change real life much it is possible to change the game mechanics and with them the motivation factors for player behaviour. Not every EQ player wants to play alone with a pseudo group consisting of alts and mercs. Instead they prefer a classic group with mixed players and I am not writing about myself. My analyses show me that there are just not enough motivation factors (like rewards) to encourage players to build classic groups. This can get changed and I showed up some possible solutions. Its totally fine for loners, egoists and "I do not have much time to play" people to play this game alone but keep one thing in mind: EverQuest was never made for you ! You've ruined your own lands! You'll not ruin mine!
Uhhh are you sure you have met people in EQ, you just described like 80% of them. They have also had solo classes since the beginning, just because it is a massive world with tons of players doesn't mean you have to interact with them. Punishing every other type of gameplay that isn't yours in the hopes that it will lead people to play your way is kind of a non starter. If you want to play true box there are servers for that, but it seems that the vast majority of people don't want that restriction so why impose it on everybody? Grouping hasn't been an issue that I have seen so far in TBL. I think the difficulty curve was pretty high for this so it already put the hurt on some boxers and gave people more content to do so they are playing later into the season. It might be that you are on a lower population server, but if that's the case it is probably better to transfer to one with more people.
So you make a claim and now stating as fact that EQ was made only for grouping player backed up by you own words ... Yeah no, /ignore.