TLP - Finding a home.

It's become clear this year that the pace of server release is increasing, populations are fragmenting, and servers are dying. DBG don't do anything to promote the older servers, as they make more money from bag and mount sales, on every new TLP that opens.... which is probably the reason behind the model.

If you're not a krono lord or someone running a bot army to make $$, you're probably just a player looking for somewhere where you can enjoy your everquest, have people around you to play with, and know that the server isn't going to die in the next 6 to 12 months.

Jumping to the next new TLP means abandoning everything you've done on your current server and starting yet again from scratch, playing with people you don't know, on an environment riddled with antisocial people out to make money, rather than play the game.

It's time to get off that Rat Wheel!!!!

Can I suggest the next time your server dies, that you come to Phinny instead of jumping onto the new short term shiny servers. Phinny has been around for 4 years now and has a stable population which will not leave when the next shiny server lands, so you know were here to stay. In addition many of the quality of life improvements e.g mercs are in, so no more hanging around waiting on groups, you can go and do stuff if you've only got a short play window, or want some quiet time.

There are 4 raid guilds still clearing content in era (see http://phinnyprogress.com/) and these guilds cover European and US time zones. There are still a few smaller non raiding guilds around if you prefer just to play the group game.

the LOTA guild has stated they are moving as a block from Phinny to Miragul as a bit of a gamble on numbers, but it remains to be seen how that new server pans out, and they may decide to return at some point in the future.

I won't lie the random PUG game is dead, but the guild group game is very much alive, and there's always something to be done, you only need level 65 to get into groups currently (will be 68 once ROF lands), but this is easily achievable, and most guildies will only be too happy to help you give you a leg up if you're in it for the long term. We had 7 refugees from Selo's join us in RG3 earlier this week and they're already in the 70 to 85 range, and will be up and raiding in no time.

The big thing for me is people generally respect each other on the server. There's very little kill stealing, or camp jumping, and it feels so much more of a community rather than a newly built housing estate that's been thrown up and has had thousands of residents recently move in.

In a nutshell, if you're playing EQ to enjoy the game (this includes boxers btw), Come play on Phinny. Get out of the new tlp rat race, and come play on a TLP that has a solid community, and will be around for years to come.

You won't regret it.

Nice words, I am sorry but you made me say it:
MAKE PHINNIGEL GREAT_AGAIN!

It's worth it just to watch Zipe in action. He can juggle 14 halflings while also doing tradeskill combines, managing the raid window, healing 25 tanks or however many fit in ETW these days, and still finding time to defend Felwithe from invaders.

If people are raiding on a server then I'd say it isn't dead and there isn't a problem. Low pop does not equal dead. TLPs inherently will drop in pop, if you don't like it become a live player in a casual guild that does old content or move to the new TLPs?

I think new rules sets like level 85 heroic starts will help the newer TLP attract and retain players as it will help newer players get caught up for that content:

That being said Phinny is probably the worst server to join because the Miragul server launching in a week starts at about the same point in the timeline AND with a 85 heroics for everyone. Why would I spend a ton of time trying to get toons to level 90 on Phinny when I can just start current on Miragul?

<3
Need to keep pushing... Felwhite won't defend itself from that damn drunk tree choppers.

Good luck Phinigel, you will always be my favorite TLP.

Phinigel's ship has sailed. I played there most of the server's life however around 9 months off made it next to impossible to catch up and missed alot of content I had actually come back to see and do. As a result I have many friends still on phinny but no desire to play there anymore. To those that go back there or stick it out awesome for you but mangler is my home so I can see and do the stuff post omens I didn't get to see and do.

That's missing exactly the points the OP pointed out, and really the worst? come on.
Miragul may very well be a runaway success or it could be a fall flat on its face failure after the first month of "ooh new shiney", but nobody knows how things will work out there even in the short term, it's a gamble aimed at finding a new TLP Audience so making any kind of prediction about it would be a foolish thing to do, so far though there is but one single guild recruiting for players there & one hinted at other possibly, but neither of them are Euro guilds & only 1 guild actively recruiting there does not inspire any confidence.

Phinigel has had a fairly steady drop off in population since its inception but the remaining community is surprisingly strong & actually rebounding a bit from the impact of a certain other game's version of a TLP at the moment, it's till got a lot of life left in it so it is more of a known quantity, and the guilds remaining have a fairly strong track record.

Why start on Phinny rather than Miragul….

Simple answer is that Phinny is a known quantity.
It has a stable population
It has a community
It isn't toxic like most of the newer TLP's
It doesn't have bot armies and krono lords
It is likely to be around for years to come
and finally the guilds are all established and run well.


On the other hand
Miragul
It is the new Shiny TLP which will have a population spike which will die off rapidly going by previous TLP history.
There are less established guilds... so far only LOTA and perhaps Bloodthirst have expressed any sort of interest.
Raids begin at a much harder level than classic. This is going to be hard to do without a seasoned raid force, when all the gear available initially will be heroic.
There will be huge competition for gear drops (raid and group)
There will be huge bottlenecks for things like epics and merc quests.
There is no established community, which means there will be the usual hodge podge of toxic individuals out for themselves and no one to reign them in.
The server is likely to be just used as a drop in test server to try out different classes.
and finally... have you ever tried to sort out all your spells and abilities on a heroic character when you've never played that class before!!! It's so much better to do a few levels at a time and absorb stuff as you get it.

Miragul is a gamble as to what you get.
Phinny is a certainty

Next to impossible to catch up - if you only play 1 evening a week perhaps.

I have friends who came back after almost a year away & it took them a week to be back in the level range to use current bazaar gear/cultural & be raid ready in under a month, it's completely feasible you just cannot do it alone, it all depends on how committed you are & whether the remaining players feel like you are going to stick around consistently, seasonal players are the bane of any guild's success so they'll always struggle from lack of faith that they are in it for the long haul.

I'm not doing 1 to 65 or whatever again. I'm going to Miragul where I have more stuff to do than grind mobs. Besides, people who are going to Miragul were never considering Phinigal anyway. The 85 start is a more significant rule set than you let on.

Heroic toons will probably be active on Phinny in 3 months time when COTF lands, so i'm not sure how relevant this will be long term.

A big group of us came back for all of SoF and SoD. It was fun but all of us felt out of place and like we missed too much to continue on the server. Overall it was fun in the group game for the most part but we didn't want to join one of those established raiding guilds (we had tried that in the past and those established raiding guild never feel like home) we gave it a go to try and muster up enough returning players for us to raid on our own and we did okay for a bit but too many people wanted to go do the newest thing and no experience the stuff we missed. So once mangler was announced it seemed like the right place for us and it has been.

Yeah we get tired of old expansions about 2 months in as we aren't playing there that much for the current expansions. We are playing there to see the mid game expansions we missed out on the last time on phinigel and we are playing to be with each other now, and the great group of people we picked up along the way on mangler.

The problem with your argument is you are discounting a big part of why people play on tlps and thats to see content they missed. Phinigel is a great server but its now hurt by the fact that noone wants to play catch up and if they have been gone long enough for whatever real life reason they have missed important content that they would of wanted to see. Missing enough content is a real deal breaker for a lot of people.

But, you'll have to pay for them when they're in era. On Miragul you get the heroic as part of the rule set. Why would someone pay about 2 months worth of sub time to power level one character to 85 when a comparable server bumps them right there.

I get that Phinny has an established community, but I suspect Miragul will have more longevity as people can jump onto it with much less level of effort to catch up or roll and alt for its current content. It'll be peaking about where Phinny is stabilized in pop, and Miragul will probably have more long term recruitment and retention.

Long term, maybe the devs will merge Phinny into Miragul once both hit live?

Miragul maybe an unknown quantity but everyone will be looking to make friends and it will be far easier there to get groups than on an established server where everyone already has their groups of friends to exp with.

I would say Fippy is a worse pick them Phinny!

Logged in there the other day and found just 4 people (including myself) in general chat....

I guess it just shows you servers cost almost nothing to keep open now a days... you would think if Daybreak was loosing money on it they would have shut it down years ago.

I get where you are coming from, the reason I came back to EverQuest myself was because a lot of members of old guilds from AB had decided to return & try out the Ragefire server and my plan was always to see what I had missed after I quit in 2008 prior to Seeds of Destruction launching & while that effort initially ended on Ragefire & I transferred to Phinigel since then it's been a blast.

I agree with you that the closer Phinigel gets to live the less attractive it becomes to those who missed out on the intervening expansions prior to where the server is at currently & for players who left during or just after House of Thule the Miragul server will look like a good option.

But...If seeing the missed content is not a total deal-breaker Phinigel is still an attractive option if you are looking to join an active community that hasn't yet hit the most recent content & won't for almost 2 years.

Getting to 85 is by no means difficult so not starting as Heroics isn't a deal-breaker, besides which there have been several "Free Heroic Character" offers where just logging in gets you a free Heroic character to claim & there is no reason to think that won't ever happen again, and unless there are higher levels of Heroic character created Miragul will eventually have the same issue of catching up from 85 all other servers that move past House of Thule have anyway.

That said speculating on population for the new server is fun to do but nobody can say for sure how good or bad it will be, let's wait & see. The initial signs are not great though.

if I was with a group of 10+ others players and wanted to start a guild on a TLP server, then I'd choose Miragul. But if I wanted to raid some old expansions and get into a well-run guild that has proven over the last 3 years that it's quality, then Phinigel is a good choice.

new servers (and that included Phinigel when it was young) often tend to have some toxic atmosphere. Phinigel has a respectful and healthy community today. I wouldn't trade that for a new server.

If that's the kind of people playing on Phinny these days, hard pass.