please consider VT key revamp

It's a thought exercise, the people complaining about keying themselves are saying it was only designed to delay entry to VT since it wasn't done. So it has to be the scenario I presented because it's based on one of their reasons why the key quest is dumb/not needed. If you want the key removed, in theory, how would you feel if no one could get into VT for 1 month. Does that change your feelings ("your" being someone who wants the key removed, if you don't care about doing the key quest then you are not the "your" in question)

This exists already, just not on the time table of "in era".

As somebody that has done VP and VT keys on this server, I'd like to see it made a bit easier. In era servers only had 2-3 guilds tops that could even attempt those zones.

Now with player power increases and knowledge that has filtered down over the years you have 10+ guilds per TLP trying to get access to the content, not only are their more guilds but there are also far more players as the top 2-3 guilds look to key enough people to split VT.

Picks and alleged increased drop rates help but it's still more contested than it ever would have been in the pre TLP era.

Getting the shards just creates a toxic atmosphere of kill and camp stealing. Then you sit in FG for days on end to get 40 shards, rinse and repeat 10 times.

I finished mine and it is not a bit fun

And yet people are still getting it done. Virtually every guild on every TLP since there have been pickzones has made it into both VP and VT in era. Just barely two weeks in and already on Aradune, 6 guilds killed AHR. Out of 20 that killed Vulak in era. Rizlona has four so far that I know of. A month from now, those #'s will be triple for both servers and the flagging issue will basically be non existent.

It is still toxic anti-fun and bad for the games community.

Was designed to time gate content over 10-12 months and no longer fits in a 3 month content window with DZ's/Picks.

It is a 0 skill gate that just makes the game less enjoyable. Nothing positive, fun, or engaging about the keying process.

for you - the good news is the competition will mostly dry up and in another week or so and the guys who dont want to fight for pieces will have free reign over the camps

if by revamp op means increase a few drops rates, ok fine, dont really care if they do or dont

but im with the others who'd rather they did nothing than a complete rework or removal - these are the people who created selo, the most hardcore tlp by accident, when they were trying to make a casual server - i dont trust their judgement on making a new quest thats better

The problem is, they put way too many people on one server. However apparently running multiple new TLP servers is something their infrastructure can't handle. Each server should have a max of 2000 active players on each server.

The way high pop TLP servers are now is like throwing a steak down into a Lions pit instead of cutting up the steak and giving the Lions each a piece.

Of course people are getting it done, but that's not the problem. The problem herein lies with the experience to that end.

Obtaining these shards create an unnecessary and extremely hostile environment between players. It's simply not fun and takes too long for a special ruleset server. Not only that, but you're dealing with an ever increasing toxicity with each server as folks get more and more keen on how to obtain shards faster. Or they just straight up abuse the QoL changes, as we've seen from certain guilds.

Again, I'm not for removing the quest, but it definitely needs to be tuned.

My suggestion would be to make all lucid shards a zone wide drop and increase it's drop rate.
- This alleviates blockage, allows folks to spread out, and if necessary it allows for better utilization of instances. (Hint: You save on server resources!)

For example, look at Scarlet Desert. You have a shard that can drop from 2 NPCs. You look at the scarlet desert player population at any given time right now and you'll see that there are 5 'camps' with a few level 60 players just sitting there for hours waiting at said spawn point. Yet, the zone has arguably the highest saturation of enemies in Luclin.

Again, how is sitting staring at a spawn point fun? Personally, I'd rather be actively killing to obtain the shard than just sitting there twiddling my thumbs and wondering why I'm doing this crap for the (x) time.

Happy players equals More Money in your pockets.
VT Shard Farming equals Unhappy players.
Unhappy players equal Less money in your pockets.

Just from a resources standpoint, you would think they would recognize how much time of CS reps they’d save by not having to answer all of the problems/complaints/petitions people probably send in on these key quests.

On one hand you keep it how it is and get a ton of complaints. On the other hand you make the keys easier to get and allow people in VP/VT/BoT but you cut down a ton on petitions and griefing in game.

or maybe people should not complain about stuff that IS working as intended and stop whining constantly... and if it is so horrible to go and play somewhere else... So all those people are taking ressources (money) away from more/better EQ because they waste it on whining to CS.

Who hurt you?

The VT key for the most part is NOT just staring at a spawn point. The only spawn that is remotely like that is FG. Maybe ME, but only if you don't have a group that is capable of pulling the PH's in the middle of the map.

A lot of the shards drop from many different places in the zone already. AC, the entire inner area. AR, quite a few different areas within the zone. ME, three different camps. SD, mobs all over the zone. The Grey, mobs all over the zone. Katta, two different zones! SSRA, an entire section of the zone which a single group would have a hard time keeping clear... Etc, etc. The whole thing rewards people who are able to work aggressively toward maximizing what they can do.

If you are going at it solo, and camping 2 spawn points only for each of the shards, then yeah, it's going to be painful. And that's your problem, not a problem with the quest.

How can this be a 'you' problem? These NPCs weren't designed to support half the server boxing mana burning Wizards, a dozen raid guilds with 90% of the players fully geared, or people with absolute knowledge of the game. The fact that people are sitting at specific spots means there is an unintended game design problem.

Well, at least you agree that the solo folks will be in for a painful encounter.

This is an extremely obtuse view, bordering on ignorant.

No timesinks such as shard farming equals nothing to do
Nothing to do equals bored players
Bored players equals less subs therefore less money in their pockets.

We have multiple TLPs and years worth of data to prove that timesinks create whining, but do not reduce the number of subs and returning players nearly as much as people want to claim. This is not an opinion, this is fact.

They were designed for raid guilds. They were designed for you to cooperate with your guild, not for you to do the whole key solo. And yes, they actually are designed for raid guilds with geared players. If you didn't have the gear to kill Emperor, which in era required being geared to the teeth, there was no need to do the rest of the quest.

If it took you over 15 hours each on 3 separate servers to get the FG shard, you, my friend, are the worlds unluckiest person and should never, in any situation, go outside on a Friday the 13th.

I honestly think the best solution to this issue is to go ahead and key lock the content the first half of an expansion but the second half it should be unlocked. That way those playing through that enjoy the race can get their race and as a reward they get twice as much time to farm the endzone of an expansion. While those that don't want to race or don't have the time to race can still experience the content in the era it's still relevant but they don't have as much time to farm it.

As far as I can tell there's no lore as to why certain mobs drop the shards. I don't think anyone's gameplay experience would be ruined if the lower level shik`nar in FG had a 1% chance to drop a shard

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/198/020/BRTky.jpg?1320962111

The whole point of the TLP servers is to experience the game more or less how it was back then