They can try it, but it seems most players are already located in the current expansion besides for the boxer/solo sweet spots. It does not seem to help players find groups.
I think there may be a issue in that a new PL player is probably a bad player. It takes outside research to even get passably good at playing any class. Maybe an in game resource with guides or links to them is in order.
If you want to play a pally play a pally. The main problem with forming groups these days is the lack of tanks, if you need a healer you can always use a healer merc a tank merc not so much. The early levels in EQ come quickly and you will be in your 70s before you know it. Check with Teek in PoK as to which is the hot zone for your level this month and try there. Also check the TSS zones for people grouping. There are players out there doing groups at lower levels, admitidly not many but they are there. I've recently been doing Heros Journey and found a few players in each of the zones I was doing in TSS and SoF. Some of the HOT zones are not great so don't always expect to find the players there leveling and not some better zones regardless of the extra exp. Trying it F2P to start with and see how you go. We still have double exp running for a few more hours you'll be surprised how far you can get. I'd suggest starting in the tutorial then moving into Blightfire Moor. Whatever you do have fun.
Right, because of the 13ish zones in the 110-115 range, there are clear winners for the boxer/solo areas that can provide them reliable sources of advancement. If they made it so every day the hot zone rotated to one of the zones this would change the dynamic significantly. For example, if today was ToFS, that boxer/soloer who is currently staying in EW would have a much easier time putting together or getting a group in those areas if the playerbase was more concentrated in them in order to get that sweet hotzone bonus + Franklin Teek quest. This would make it much easier to finish that key quest or whatever. This is an approach done (in a form) in Guild Wars 2 and it's perfect for a super casual player like me. For example, I currently I need to get an achievement done in one of the zones that requires success in an event that normally fails, but when the zone is "hot" (in GW2 terms, is "the daily") it's pretty easy because the playerbase is concentrated in it. I just need to know the schedule and show up when it's hot.
i am getting 10 to 15 % per day depending on the critical success ( i usually do the 12 hours quest twice a day ) , so it is not 25 days for one level , it is more 8 or 9 days per level ( if your quests are at level 5 ).
That doesn't necessarly hold true, you need the right group to do places like TOFS. EW and GD are much easier as you don't need any crowd control or specialised pullers. That and most people in EQ aren't just looking for exp they are looking for augs/gear. Having exp higher in a zone won't improve grouping if it isn't where the players want to be.
All of what you say is true. Tucoh's idea was to rotate them more, to mitigate the 'not the zone I wanted' factor. Fight there today, and hope for the good zone tomorrow?
Returning players aren't looking for handouts, powerlevels. They looking to be in zones with other returning players at similar stage in the game as they are. That's why wide level range zones from 80 to 115 are beneficial. This seems to be another topic, if you 110-115 your already at the end of the game, sure people will group with you because your very close or at max level. Getting key quests is what really should be the "proactive group searching". If you have to "proactively group search" just to kill trash, game has a problem. That problem is people can't find each other due to so many factors and not having a wide level range zones that are good is one of the problems. Game feels like end game at 90, xp is slow, mobs are hitting hard now. Thing is, thats not end game, theres 25 more levels to go before you reach the actual end game. This is like that because every expansion for over a decade has been about 0% returning players 100% end game players when it comes to zones. Game has had enough 100% end game player content, we need an expansion with some returning player content, like 30% of the expansion. Can't be instanced HA's (unless it scales to if soloing or with group aka you can solo them) because they don't box. It will get outdated expansions later. Problem comes back again. TSS expansion, they did the not so easy route for returning players, they made real content (not scaled missions). A decade later, still viable, still easily do'ed. Returning players aren't complaining about 30 - 75 being tough (that was before TSS when people complained that was tough).
It could work, but I doubt it. I have no clue to what degree that GW2's players mirror EQ's, but nothing that I have seen from us indicates that by offering a new daily current zone with better xp per kill + Teek is going to get players to start PUGs. Maybe I am just being overly pessimistic.
If the HAs scaled better in CotF that would be ideal, they start at around level 75 and go upto level 100, their is also daily quest for them. The problem is those daily quests also rotate with TDS and TBM which are much harder so there isn't always a quest availble. They could improve getting to hot zones which would make the likes Hills of Shade more desirable rather than omewhere that is a pain to get to. Also removing Plane of Air would be a good cool, that isn't a great group zone.
I disagree with that. There are TONS of expansions. No matter what level you are you can find content for that level. You did however, touch on some good points. The issue is finding other players of a similar level/progression who are at the same point in progression that you are. Most of the quest lines are too linear and don't offer much incentive to do them a 2nd/3rd time/50th time. And who really wants to do the same quests 50 times back to back? ( I'm looking at you DH , Griklor, Zland ... )
I did give it a shot and managed to pick up some gear and take my old paly from 60 to 67. Even had a course figured out for me to eventually hit max. I have no issue with grinding. That’s part and parcel with not only EQ but leveling a tank class when there are no groups around. I think the heart of my question really is whether or not it’s worth the effort. I play MMOs to play with other people and it seems like the whole boxing is so thoroughly entrenched that even if I got to end game that’s all I’d be dealing with. That’s not fun to me nor is it something that I feel like investing what little play time I have working towards. Let alone the prospect of trying to bring up any kind of alt through what essentially feels like a pointless death march.
Like every other multiplayer game, the upper echelon of EQ consists of high-playtime, highly social players that have found a community to work together with. Many of these have a box team because frankly, it's hard not to add boxes once you've maxed out a character with your high playtime. The boxing game in EQ is basically unique in gaming because of the class synergy + gameplay makes it so different from other boxable games like WoW (which was nerfed last year anyway). If you're not a high-playtime, highly social person it's a lot harder to play EQ socially with a solo player because until you've established credibility and built up a social network you're going to have a hard time finding a group. You can't just jump in, let the game assign you a friend through a streamlined LFG system and start killing like in many modern MMOs. This is true even if you paid someone to plvl you to max level. But once you level up and build a community around yourself, EQ has the same potential for social play as it ever has, boxing or no.
You keep posting this, and I don't understand what you're after. There are already a ton of zones for lower level characters. Why would making new content for lower level characters promote more lower level grouping? As has been pointed out, the vast majority of players are at max level. Do you think that if a new zone is aimed at level 30 players that all of a sudden people are going to make alts specifically to go play in that level zone? We don't need more early content, plenty of it exists, that's why all new content is end game.
This is why I like to raid. We gather together to overcome an event that we could not individually do. We meet up several times a week and spend many hours figuring out what may ( or may not ) work for our guild. If you have the time to commit to the game/community there are many others players out there to game with. If you only play a couple hours a week or tend to want to log if you can't find a group in 5-10 minutes then you're probably not going to be happy with EQ. Especially on a live server where your playing catchup.
Which server did you pick? Do they have a social/casual guild with players your level? Have you asked in general chat for groups?
