TLP Expansions

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by BudLightKnight, Oct 9, 2019.

  1. McJumps TLP QoL Activist

    These "better choices" you speak of don't stop people from playing EQ on TLP though. And its not like Classic-PoP was a better game than say SoF-RoF. In fact there are a ton of arguments to be made that the SoF-RoF era of EQ is FAR superior to Classic-PoP. The only major difference being mechanics in raids and a greater number of abilities, leading to more customization of play.

    For instance, 2 monks in Velious, with the same exact gear and the same skill level players operating them are going to do almost exactly the same amount of damage on a Vulak fight, all other things being equal. Those same two monks in HoT with the same gear might do very differently because of how the players choose to order abilities and cycle burns. The game does get slightly more complex in later eras, and I just think a not insignificant portion of people who quit TLPs after a certain amount of time lack the ability to deal with these added complexities. Thats all. Nothing against them.
    code-zero and Icaen like this.
  2. Machen New Member


    In fairness, it is more than slightly more complex. At times it feels like you need a graduate degree in Everquest mechanics just to be competitive in the later eras, at least for some classes.
  3. oldkracow 9999 Is the Krono Account Limit

    I enjoy TLP up until POP maybe on mangler I'll stick around an expansion 1 or 2 beyond.
    Personally I quit long before any of those expansions you talk about so did everyone I know.

    Tried FV was a ghost town and no way am I spending (x) time to try to make whatever max is plus a million AAs to just group with folks. I'm sure that's why no one is joining those servers as well.

    People don't quit because the fights get complex, they quit because the ability to progress for each person is different and EQ just like back in the day became a nightmare to move forward at a certain point for your average player however you want to define that.

    Why do thousands come to a TLP? You can make progress, get easy groups and kill some nostalgia.

    As the expansions progress it seems it just becomes boring keys, flags to get into zones, thousands of AAs to keep up with, only way to progress is raid, boring type of play to me personally and I suspect a lot of other folks.

    Maybe a TLP will come along with a rule-set that will keep the population long-term but that would take a special rule-set.
  4. Oakenblade Former ForumQuest Champion

    People just like to stay in their comfort zones and have a fear of the unknown. Take note of how many people admit that they haven't played very much past X expansion, then proceed to tell us why everything from that expansion and beyond is bad.
    Corwyhn Lionheart and Icaen like this.
  5. Nolrog Augur


    The story is one thing, but IMO, people want advancement, spells, AAs, gear, levels, raids, tradeskills, etc. and not just story. If you start adding them in, let's call it TLP expansion 1, then whatever expansion that is next in the regular progression sequence is no longer desirable because you already got upgrades, and it becomes far out of balance with the player power the expansion is tuned for.
  6. Xanathol Augur

    Playing 1000 versions of Simon Says, Kite The Mob(s) (aka run in circles), etc, is not something everyone finds enjoyable nor strategic. Looking up what stacks with what to create a social and multibinding things to a spam key to mash over and over like an angry monkey really takes no skill at all - it sitll comes down to 'push this button and try to stay awake'. When burns are measured in 30 second 'parses', well, some folks find that rather silly.

    The point is, to each their own.
    WaitingforMoreEQ likes this.
  7. Midnitewolf Augur

    How about just a new game with a classic EQ-like experience developed by a company with enough money to not take 20 years to get to a release state like what seems to be going on with Pantheon.
  8. oldkracow 9999 Is the Krono Account Limit

    If you got about 6M to 9M to invest than I'd say that's a realistic bare bones 25 - 35 man team for a 24 - 36 month runway.
  9. Oakenblade Former ForumQuest Champion

    Yeah. Pulling a single mob and running a CH chain while pressing auto-attack, and running around the corner every 15 seconds is way more fun and strategic. I agree!
  10. Febb Augur

    I know I enjoy camping my VP key over and over again so I can kill maybe a couple of NPC's that drop gear worth upgrading too. Classic grind is the best!

    How about that faction grind in Velious? It's literally to die for.

    And Luclin, lets camp some VT shards fellas. I know I miss those long camps and fighting in OW against other guilds wanting the same shards.

    Yay crappy designed expansions over and over again!
    Icaen likes this.
  11. HoodenShuklak Augur

    Open world competition adds an incredible dynamic to EQ and that is, by no stretch or hyperbole, a large part of the charm to early EQ.

    Even if you have no interest in the bleeding edge raid scene, you still played alongside it and saw it. Maybe that meant just skipping Luclin shard farming for a week. But as EQ progresses, you're playing an massively tiny online game, relatively speaking.

    I'll never poopsock VP keys, but I can appreciate that absolute trash like that bringing in an open world competition based strategy makes a game feel a lot more alive.

    Nobody cares if someone runs into the endzone of an empty football field.
  12. Oakenblade Former ForumQuest Champion

    I can agree with that. Whether it be getting that poopsock victory or scavenging the salty tears on TLP FQ as a popcorn-eating bystander, open world competition makes the game more interesting.

    The game is what we make it so I'll disagree with that statement. The more instancing of later raids removes toxicity and is more conducive to a healthier server climate. For instance, just last week my guild was lacking attendance for one of the Empyr raids in TBL. We had a really great showing of people from 2 other friendly guilds that came to backfill what we were missing and help us get it dead.

    Also as more xpacs are added, there is often at least 1 item or achievement that stays relevant for multiple xpacs afterwards, which makes the raids or even some of the group content worth doing (See CoP4, Bifold Focus/Grelleth Seal, Life/Decay Eyes, Nathsar Diamond, hero's AAs). So if anything, the game only gets bigger.
    code-zero likes this.
  13. AcemoneyFV Augur

    Cool idea but let's be real, this will NEVER happen.
  14. That0neguy Augur

    This is a double edged sword. With TLP's making up almost half the revenue of EQ now. The yearly Xpacs really are being made for a sub section of players. Would a TLP be successful? Who knows, thats why they pay Holly the big bucks to make those decisions.
  15. Febb Augur


    But you can level up with expansions to play in live server expansions as a progression server progresses into them and play in era. If an expansion was created for a lower level expansion, it would have to be pushed out onto new progression servers and not put onto existing progression servers or else higher level players would dominate the expansion. It wouldn't make sense to release this on live servers because no one would want anything that dropped from it.

    Now imagine one new server that the entire dev team took a year to create an expansion for because it would take the entire team, all while ignoring all the live servers wanting content. So you just pissed off the majority of the people bringing in the money for this game by not giving your player base content for an entire year of development. If they decided to make another expansion for live, those players would have to wait another year for the expansion to be developed.

    The idea is dead in the water.
  16. That0neguy Augur

    See comment about half revenue coming from TLP. I feel like you are ignoring this fact because it doesn't fit your narrative that only Live should be expanded on.
  17. Oakenblade Former ForumQuest Champion

  18. Febb Augur


    Holly has said the majority of revenue comes from live servers and their expansion sales. So that's why they focus their new content development on the live servers.

    See comment on why a TLP expansion would only be made for new tlp servers and why it doesn't make sense to make an entire expansion for one or two servers. I feel like you are ignoring that fact.
    code-zero likes this.
  19. Icaen Elder

    Your nostalgia is showing. You mean other ways to progress your character other than mindlessly killing mobs? Which you can still do by doing all those things?

    Sounds like it is a matter of the game getting more complex.
  20. Xanathol Augur

    Wait, what? o_O

    You mean mindlessly killing XP mobs over and over again to 'progress' your character via AAs? It's not even like there are choices to make, aka 'specs' like in other games - everyone gets everything if they mindlessly kill enough and run through the checklist 'quests'. Almost every expansion for quite some time is basically "do x group missions to get keyed, grind y number of AAs, and go get your class armor pieces with a fixed percent increase in stats'. There's not even real gear choices in many expansions - heck even foci remain on the same slot and simply change in level effectiveness. Since Ngreth took over clicks, they are typically boring and low in added value.

    There is nothing complex about today's live EQ. It is basically WoW in an EQ setting.