That may be. I tend to disagree since TLP's will eventually reach the content they are developing for live. And it's not clear to me what more the devs could be doing with their time to benefit the TLP's. Creating new TLP specific content would not be useful in my opinion. Either way, ending live development altogether is clearly not the right solution.
You said you weren't a fool, but you thought Coirnav was going to be your forever home? Really? After playing since EQ1 beta? Bad news - you are definitely a fool.
Clones are genetically identical. In terms of TLP servers that would mean they have the exact same rule-sets. There hasn't been one Phinny clone since Phinny. Call me a troll if you want, but the fact is people need to increase their vocabularies and stop using excuses for their inability to express themselves correctly.
lol yes, I don't want to do PoR again now that we have completed Deathknell that's for sure. I enjoyed it because I had never seen it before. The RNG of Deathknell Event #2: Vertigo is very annoying for sure.
I'd love for them to start some TLPs at TSS - if only to remind people just how fun the TSS > UF group of expansions is. It's really those level 70 cap expacs that throw people off. If only we could skip them.
Yeah TSS encompasses an entire leveling path from 1-75 that is more streamlined and has the Hero's Journey to lead players along. It was also when we originally got fast out of combat regen and faster XP. TSS followed by TBS, SoF, SoD, Underfoot is in my opinion the best chain of expansions this game has to offer. Underfoot would be debatable since the difficulty was so high in-era, but on TLPs in today's game it's much more gentle. Some of my best EQ memories were made playing these expansions on Phinny in the last couple of years.
On topic, I noticed you mention that you leave TLPs for low population. Did you stay in active guilds? Do you prefer to only solo with pickup groups for activities? I never left Phinigel myself, because the population was fine in my bubble. I always have groups among guildies, the bazaar is still active enough to buy/sell krono as needed, etc. The only real effect I've noticed from a gradually declining population is that there are less people standing around in the lobby, and it's less often that the big aug camps are occupied when I want to farm them. Getting ahead of what I think you might respond - I've seen guilds fall apart (I was in Wild Treasures that died at the start of TBS, for example), but the leftover players are easily absorbed into other guilds and life continues as normal with some new friends added to the pot.
Aradune is the first server that's got a hard-enforced 2-box-at-most limit (and truebox at that). It WILL last the longest and be the most active of all TLPs until the day they decide to release a 1-box (P99 rules-style) server.
Really curious why people think Aradune is going to be so toxic? I mean every round of TLPs comes with doomsayers who think this new server will be an absolute flop, but in my experience (i missed mangler) each TLP has been better than the last. No charming your named mobs. Pickzones zap you back to succor so no instant dropping in on camps. AoCs are still in. Where is the toxicity going to come from? Agnarr had even fewer protections and was an amazing server until i had to leave for RL.
Really depends on what you think is toxic. Anything truebox brings out all the nostalgia players who, decades ago, had the time and motivation to go camp their own FBSS (or epic, etc), but today are willing to spend kronos on it. Their willingness to spend large amounts of $$$ on mundane loot that's only valuable for a few months is what brings out the players that people consider to be toxic. They'll bowl you over at camps by DPS racing, charming your mob, etc to get that mundane loot that people are emptying their wallets for. You're correct that some of those changes will help a bit with it, but ultimately without a play nice policy and enforcement people are going to get bullied out of camps, named 'stolen' from them, that kind of thing on the regular until the Kronos start to dry up in Luclin and beyond. A lot of people consider the above to be "toxic" and demand that people follow their rules. Often nostalgia people who remember an everquest with a play nice policy. Personally, I just see players who have adapted to the actual rules - There is no camp, and DPS race answers who gets loot. I don't see this as toxic, it's just the logical place where things end up without play nice policy in place.
I tend to adhere to the play nice policy myself and i try to insist that others i group with do as well. Was it super bad on Mangler or something? I can count on one hand the number of times i ever had someone even try to steal mobs that I was fighting, nevermind the number of times they were successful. Not saying it doesn't happen but I don't remember it being something that I spent even a few minutes thinking about. Saying "DPS Race" is kinda like standing on the left side of a busy escalator. You're not going to go to jail for it but just because its logical/legal doesn't make you not a jerk for doing it. There's no rule that says you shouldn't chew with your mouth open, or burp and blow it in someone's face, but we all recognize that its bad manners. But as I mentioned, I had a great leveling and camping experience on Agnarr because the overwhelming majority of people didn't pull that crap. Not sure what it is about Aradune that makes folks think it would be different there.
So much this. People think boxing is the problem. They are in for a rude awakening. Meta gaming is their issue and it's here to stay. Let's discuss: You will not have more access to profitable camps. Look to private servers to see proof of this. Green only exists because of the domination that happened on Blue, a no-boxing allowed server. If you remove 6-boxers, or even 2-boxers, the coveted camps will still be unavailable 24/7 to the average player. The days of self-farming your entire gear set are gone. People will always group together with huge burst damage to take camps if the profit is worthwhile. The only thing that stopped this historically is the Play Nice Policy. No Trueboxer will play on Rizlona. Most Trueboxers are using no software and just 2-6 USB numpads with some in-game Target / Cast / Pet Attack Macros. It's all you need. Some do it for Krono (the mage/necro 6 box) but many do it to keep their guild alive with Cleric boxes. This is how people became Trueboxer in the first place: a single Cleric box for the guild. Then a Bard. Then some rDPS etc. Rizlona is a server specifically for users of software who want to do 24+ clients per machine and solo raid. Unlike Trueboxers, the code is effective against this software due to the enormous power bills and comfort they would have to sacrifice to run 24-72 accounts. The software they use puts many hack commands at the tips of their fingers. They will be permanently banned after the first offense which shows how little Daypaw Games trusts them. There is no reason for a Trueboxer to play on the "boxing server" rather than limiting themselves to two boxes on Aradune. Sadly this means the anti-boxing crowd will be even angrier and louder next year, blaming the 2-boxes for ruining "their server" Meta gaming is here to stay. I wish Aradune was a no-boxing server so these casuals finally learn their nostalgic Everquest died when the Play Nice Policy was removed, opening the door for meta gaming. The days of leveling up from 30-50 in a best-in-slot camp are long gone, replaced by a rapid grind to 50 to take those profitable camps by force.
Has that really been peoples' experiences recently? I neckbeard poopsocked HARD on Agnarr and while I can't say i *never* saw anything like this it certainly wasn't a regular occurrence. Worst case scenario someone comes in and tries to carve a chunk out of your "camp" (ie, if you're at Hamlord they go sit on lord and make you sit on AM). When there are 12 picks of lower guk open, even people who would be predisposed to grief you generally just find an open pick (and there are always open picks) rather than try to compete you out. Has the game really changed that much since Agnarr? AoCs and Picks did more to increase availability of content than the PNP ever did.
