Extended Target, Click From Bags, and other TLP QoL Upgrades

Giving the ability to click from bags, and not just an open inventory slot, was one of the best QoL upgrades I can remember on TLPs. Then, after Phinigel hit Underfoot, they allowed the Extended target window to be used at level 20 on ALL TLP servers. Even though originally that feature was locked to an expansion purchase. This was an even better QoL upgrade, and I am glad they did not allow the fact that it was "locked to a certain xpacs features" to stop them from giving it to people on TLP.

Now I want to talk about three more QoL upgrades that I think would be a good addition to TLP servers that can, and SHOULD, be added before TLPs reach the eras in which these features were originally introduced.

Agrro Meters - At level 65 or 70 (or even sooner) I think we should be allowed access to the aggro meters built into the EQ UI. This feature was originally added in RoF, so not too long after the time the Extended Target window came into play. This feature has about the same affect on gameplay as the Extended Target window. It will help, but will in no way break gameplay. If the devs felt it was acceptable to have Extended Targeting, a feature from the Underfoot Expansion at level 20, I see no reason why unlocking a feature from the Rain of Fear expansion at level 65 or 70 would be unacceptable. ACCOMPLISHED

Bazaar Parcel Purchase - Also with the Rain of Fear Expansion, a feature was added to allow players to make bazaar purchases from anywhere and have the items parceled to them for a 10% fee. Not only does this help the server economy by letting people make purchases from zones other than the bazaar, but it also removes some coin completely from the market (the 10% fee goes to the Bazaar, not the player selling) so it will help to slow the declining value of platinum without crashing the market. ACCOMPLISHED

Out of Combat Regen - Out of Combat regen is something that was originally introduced in The Serpent's Spine and basically allows a player, regardless of how much mana or hp they have, to regen from 0% to full HP or mana in 3 minutes so long as they are not in combat and do not have a combat cooldown timer (30 secs for group content 5 minutes for raid content). Since this feature ONLY works out of combat, it would not break gameplay in any way, it would only allow players the luxury of having less downtime. On a server that rolls through expansions at 12 weeks and sometimes only 8 weeks, I think this should be implemented BEFORE TSS launches. ACCOMPLISHED

I think the devs have done a pretty great job over the past few years trying to do what is best for the TLP servers, and with the changes to Epic 1.0 quests in the most recent patch, I think this would be a good time to address some of the other changes we can make to better serve TLP customers.

Lack of OOC regen until TSS is the #1 reason I won't play on another TLP.

Ya know what? Thats a really good point. Im not sure it needs to be in the game at level 1 in classic, but it CERTAINLY needs to be in before level 75 and TSS. I edited the original post to reflect that. Thank you.

This is a post that I can get behind. I see no reason why aggro meter is not available even in classic.

OOC regen should be unlocked by POP. Nobody enjoys sitting around 5-10 minutes regening mana.

OOC regen could go in GoD or so, if you do it in PoP you'll offend the "nOtMy NoStAlGiAQuEsT" people who all quit after PoP is over anyway. My memory of level 70 raiding is there's some real tedious waits for healer mana after some raid events.

These zones should be included with Luclin:
Cazic-Thule (Revamped)
Chardon B
Sol C
Veksar

Included with PoP:
Veeshan's Peak

All of the zones listed above basically ghost towns in current era they are released, and would be useful content if they unlocked soon. Like wise the entire LoY expansion would be more played if it was released with Luclin instead of PoP.

Most of this is content that was targeted at the casual player base that wasn't sitting at max level in PoP and wasn't able to experience PoP beyond a handful of zones. This is not the case on TLP's.

While I do agree with the sentiment that some zones being released in certain eras doesn't make any sense, I would like to limit the discussion here to QoL changes and not adding or moving content from one era to another.

I think there are a lot of changes that can be made, and not only are they pretty easy to implement (I think) but they would appease the player base with little to no effort on the part of the already overworked devs.

CT revamp was originally part of Luclin on TLPs and was patched out. I don't remember if it was Agnarr or which TLP I was on at the time, but we actually had it for like 3 weeks in beginning of Luclin then it was patched out until PoP when it's totally worthless. I've long felt a lot of these zones would benefit from an earlier release. Revamped VP raid also makes a ton of sense in PoP based on the hp/etc of the gear vs what's available in elemental planes.

I can kinda get the desire to not "violate the original release order", but at the same time a lot of these zones were released when they were because EQ used to have a very significant player base that was doing "sub-max" content. Meaning in PoP back in 2003 tons of guilds were still farming VT and Luclin content because their guilds weren't top end and hadn't unlocked Elemental Planes yet. Zones like this were a big boon to the playerbase. On TLP you just don't have that population playing "non-current" content,so these zones end up being totally wasted. The release schedule proposed doesn't introduce any overpowered gear in the respective eras, in Luclin nothing from those four group zones would even be "best in slot" I don't think, and definitely not for VP revamp.

This might be a welcome change for the next round of TLPs, but I am afraid you are far too late to get anything changed for this current cycle. We will be in PoP by the time the change could be made. Advocating for changes takes time, and vocal support on these forums. It is how we have gotten most of the other TLP QoL changes to date, but its a slow process. Which is why I am starting now to ask for changes that would not normally come for 2-4 years from now.

Like I said, I agree with your sentiment, and I think these changes should be implemented. However, I really would like to focus more on the FEATURES that we have/do not have access to that could improve our lives on TLP servers, rather than CONTENT being in one era or another. Thanks

I'm all for these changes. As has been stated, it's nothing game breaking, just life-improving. Make it so!

The others are true QoL improvements, but ooc regen is not QoL. That is a major power increase, just as extended target was (as Prathun plainly acknowledged before they gave it to us.) We need to stop asking for, and they need to stop giving, incremental power increases. They just make the game more and more trivial.

A major power increase huh? Now I am curious. Please tell me, in what way can you use OOC regen to trivialize content? I can trivialize downtime, sure. But downtime =/= Content.

I want you to describe a scenario when having OOC before TSS would make content more trivial. Please. I await your response with bated breath.

It changes how aggressive you can be with mana and pulls by minimizing down time. It’s a massive improvement that allows players to tackle more mobs per hour. I don’t know how you wouldn’t see that as a power increase? You only need to wait ~3 minutes to regenerate from 0 to 100.

Additionally to what KrakenReality said, there are many many ways to get out of combat during a fight. Once you're out of combat, waiting just 30 seconds to a minute is more than enough to reduce the number of casters you'd need to defeat some bosses.

I know it's hard to accept that this is powerful, but its does trivialize events and content significantly.

I'm not saying I don't want it, but one of the reasons I want it is so I can do small man stuff easier! I could literally rotate 2 clerics on pretty much any rooted fight and win overtime.

I'll give you this. It doesn't significantly trivialize content for a 72 man raid but that's not the only scenario to consider.

If it didn't increase your power, why would you want it?

There are fights in Velious and Luclin that last >20 minutes. You don't think casters nuking to oom, then getting out of combat for a few minutes, medding to full and coming back in and nuking to oom again would be a benefit? Even with the 5 min ooc timer it would be worth it for some classes. We would have taken advantage of that on some of our early ToV and ST fights.

I agree it's a big power increase, and I'm highly unlikely to ever do early era EQ content again, so I have no vested interest, but I still think it'd be decent to chunk in OOC regen at level 70. There was content in DemiPlane especially where if you were running a low number of healers you could get into really long/stupid regen times. It's my position the content before about SoF is so trivial anyway that the incremental boost to the level 70 expansions just isn't a big deal, that content is all a joke in any case.

But does it trivialize content? Or does it allow you to do it faster? Those are two different things.

I assume there are some pretty inventive ways to use this feature, as any feature, to maximize its usefulness. Im not talking about that. Im talking about how it would impact individuals, soloing, grouping ,etc. Not everything is about raiding. Would raiders use it to do some pretty impressive things? Probably. Does that mean we should limit access to it for all? I would like to think not.

I am sorry the fights took that long for you. I wish they had not. And if OOC regen helped you do them faster than 20 minutes, I would be happy for that. No one wants raids to take that long, and I do not know why you do. People killing things faster or with fewer people in NO WAY affects your gameplay. I can't understand why anyone would not want to be able to do content faster. If that means you cap your xp and AAs too fast to hold your interest for 3 months, maybe don't play so much?

I have zero interest in debating with you whether or not it is or is not a big/small power increase, since you seem to be leaning that direction. I started this thread to discuss mostly Aggro meters and Parcel Bazaar Purchasing. OOC regen was just thrown in at the last minute because, what is the harm in asking? If you have something positive to add, I am all for it, but it is a trend with you to come into a thread and do your best to just disagree and agrue with whomever you can. Let's not do that this time. Find another hobby.

I'll add, our first VT clear, in DZ. Coming in with velious gear and next to no aa's and only around 50 characters flagged. DZ gives you six hours max to kill everything. We did not cheese or use the ceiling to skip trash, cleared all the way in. Literally non stop pulling from the instance we triggered the dz until the moment AHR was dead. Many, many AOE pulls. We had calculated ahead of time and figured we could just barely pull it off with our raid dps. We finished AHR at five hours, fifty five minutes.

If we could have had our wizards and mages regularly drop out of combat and med to full in six or seven minutes, then come back in and aoe hard until oom, we probably would have shaved a half hour or more off that.

Unless I missed it no one advocated for putting OOC regen in for Luclin, just earlier than TSS, and then someone suggested PoP (which I think is too early.)

I don't necessarily have an objection to somewhere in the level 70 stretch, although I do think that a long fight like Mayong in DoDH there would be some power increase even during the fight. But you start getting into needing longish med breaks at times by DoDH, and it would be nice to eliminate those.

But you aren't the only one posting to this thread, and some of those asking for ooc did not mention an expansion. The OP says "BEFORE TSS". Doesn't mention how far before TSS. So I'm arguing that Velious or Luclin would definitely be too soon.