Proposal: More EverQuest Perks for Whales

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Allworth, Sep 14, 2021.

  1. Allworth Elder

    I really like the idea of perks. As a whale, with money to spend, I got to thinking of perks that I would actually purchase to help support our passion: EverQuest. Since I love TLPs, I think these would be most helpful to TLP players.

    Here are a number of themed perks for your consideration to add to the current roster of announced perks:

    The Individualist
    • Immunity from being summoned
    • 5% experience bonus when solo
    • +2 combat HP regen and +2 Mana regen
    The Explorer
    • Can bind or be bound in any outdoor zone regardless of class
    • Journeyman boots run speed for players, pets and mercs (velocity 40)
    • Ultravision
    The Diplomat
    • Always gets the best vendor prices buying and selling regardless of charisma
    • Double faction bonus
    • Half the faction loss
    The Survivalist
    • Immunity to sit aggro and no sit AC penalty
    • Self-only evacuate once per hour
    • 15 second campout
    The Beastmaster
    • 10% damage bonus for players, pets and mercs against animals
    • Indifferent faction with all animals
    • 10% extra chance of double meat, skins, vendor loot from all beasts
    The Horticulturist
    • Can forage while sitting
    • 3% chance of foraging rare gems
    • 10% success bonus to all Alchemy trade skills
    The Acrobat
    • Can self-levitate in any zone
    • Safefall skill
    • Self-Shrink ability
    Dre., Jhinx and HekkHekkHekk like this.
  2. MarttinPH Augur

    IMHO, perks should be designed to be useful on any server. Some of these perks are either game shattering, or become useless fairly early in the expansions. This list would be best for a classic only **shudder** server.

    *There are reasons levitate doesn't exist in some zones, either skipping content or it would avoid raid mechanisms. Imagine ToV fights without the need to avoid knockback effects.
    * The Horticulturist one is confusing to me as far as I know, alchemy doesn't use that many foraged items, and shaman races (Iksar have) typically don't get forage. In summation, the point I am trying to make is that no single character would benefit from all three of the benefits in early expansions.
  3. Edward Scissorhands New Member

    Self-proclaimed whale proposes game-breaking perks... interesting
    kizant likes this.
  4. Triconix Augur

    No.

    Also, the hilarity of summon immune. Let's just bring back the mage armies! What fantastic and engaging gameplay that must be!

    As Marttin stated, a majority of these are absolute trash starting as early as Luclin. This would attract such a low number of individuals that the dev work required would be most costly than the revenue it generates.
  5. Dailor Augur

    [IMG]
  6. Moranis Augur

    Oy - no thanks...to how you're presenting it.

    My 2 cents is that anything that steers EQ towards pay-2-win is bad. Maybe I'm completely wrong and P2W is great for business and what most people want - but count me out.

    Now, the idea of an in-game "perk" system that lets people individualize their characters (similar to what you show) is a great idea - but with obvious refinements to what you are suggesting (like eliminating the unsummonable idea).

    These perks would ideally be free, but rather laborious to unlock through a series of quests / tradeskills / etc - with the ultimate goal being that you are limited to maybe 1 or 2 perks per character or perhaps some system where you can eventually unlock them all, but only activate 1 or 2 at a time (with some artificial barrier limiting how often you can swap them, etc.).

    For my money, the game is getting (obviously) too repetitive. When I came back at Ragefire, the nostalgia was running hot, but after about 5 or 6 iterations of the same thing (and some silly seasonal servers), it died out hard. Mischief was cool for a minute, but ultimately we just got a phinny clone with (somewhat) random loot. Novel concept for sure...but whosever idea it was to inflate the total amount of loot by like 2-3x drove me away.

    I think the way to get more people (and me) back into the game is to create a server that delays gratification instead of just making more and more generous Loot / EXP piñatas. It's nice for instant-gratification to be able to outfit a paladin in low-level raid gear with 1 krono (which I did) - but it's just that...instant gratification. It doesn't last if you're just given stuff.
  7. Elskidor Augur

    Nothing against whales or games designed to target these types of players but it's unappealing in mmos. It drives people away and leads to more long term damage than profit. As fun as it might sound to some who want the perks, it won't be fun a few years down the road when the population is dwindled to nothing and you're standing alone wondering why nobody wants to play anymore.
  8. MarttinPH Augur

    What does Whale mean in this context? I have no idea.
  9. Baldur Augur

    Whale is a term used by the game industry to refer to the small amount of people that play a game that spend the majority of the money.

    I think it started to be used when the free to play model arose. What most people don't understand is free to play is not really free, anyone who plays for free is being subsidized by the "whales", those that spend so much money they are keeping the game afloat. Because most free to play games have in game purchases with really no limit on spending massive amounts of money to get ahead, "pay to win".

    I'd assume when the OP calls himself a whale, it means he's spending a lot of money each month on the game.
  10. Accipiter Old Timer


    It's a gaming (aka gambling) term from way back. High rollers are whales.
  11. HekkHekkHekk Augur

    As a whale, I'm down for more exclusive perks.
  12. Allworth Elder

    Self-proclaimed? Yeah I'm a whale. What's your point?

    Game-breaking? Please explain. The EverQuest of today is fundamentally changed from the EverQuest of 1999. My proposed perks break nothing about the game including levitation.
  13. Allworth Elder

    A typical snarky and uncharitable response from a person defending the status quo. Please make a list of perks that you envision and post them. I can't wait to see them.

    The ability for NPCs to summon is one of the worst MMO design mechanics ever created. No other MMORPGs use it. Besides, only gods should summon. Summoning mobs unfairly discourages soloers from enjoying content. Summoning makes zero sense from a lore and immersion perspective. Summoning wolves? Summoning level 46 armadillos in Plane of Earth? Give me a break.

    Trash? Hardly. TLP servers is where Daybreak makes all their money. You know it and I know it. The devs would would take a few days max if that. There are no graphic assets that need to be created for any of this or any major code overhauls. DGB would be making cash hand over fist on perks like these which address many of the ridiculous and frustrating issues that players face.

    I get it. You don't like perks. So don't take out your anger out on me. Thankfully, Daybreak Games feels differently. I hope to see more perks. You don't have to buy the perks, just as you don't have to buy Krono or exp/regen/mana potions. We can all play EverQuest our own way.
  14. Allworth Elder

    Game shattering? Hardly, but I love your dramatic flair. :)

    Levitation should work in all zones. You don't change the laws of physics and destroy immersion and the suspension of disbelief all because the designers took the easy way out and created encounters and zone geometry that lets players skip content. I don't see anything wrong with players doing content the way they want to.

    Using your logic, they should make levitation impossible in the Plane of Fear to prevent players from using levitation and DMF to prevent the knockback effect from Cazic Thule. Perhaps, levitation should be banned in the Plane of Fire as well?

    These perks are for whales who love to play on TLP servers -- that's where Daybreak generates most of their revenue from EQ. If you don't like them, don't buy them. Play EverQuest your way and I'll play EverQuest my way.
  15. Gnothappening Augur

    Summoned would have to be solo only and also not work vs raid mobs. Self levitate would need to be limited to any zone that allows levitation.

    Also, I don't like buying perks.
  16. MadCuzBad New Member

    All shaman have at least 50 forage now.
  17. Triconix Augur

    My perks: None because buying 100% uptime player power is stupid. It's categorically destroys something you reference later: immersion.
    We aren't arguing the merits of summon. It exists in EQ as a mechanic and in no way should a paid perk allow a player to completely avoid such a mechanic, especially when it is beyond normal in-game attainability. A person paying some money should not be able to avoid in-game mechanics because they believe they are dumb. You want to know what destroys immersion? This idea of yours.
    If this were true they wouldn't still be developing live expansions or devoting time to fix issues with live. Last I checked they are doing such a thing. However, continue on your with fantasy narrative.
    Where am I angry? More of laughing at your terrible suggestions.
    Uhhhh this is a fantasy game? You're justifying your perks by leveraging real life physics? You have players who summon undead pets and shoot fireballs out of the a** and you want to speak physics? Got any more of those straws to reach for? Anti-Levi mechanics can easily be explained through lore: A mystical aura/incantation cast upon the area prevents you from magically levitating. Done.

    The simple fact that you're complaining about how levitation should be available in all zones, while also arguing that anti-levi is changing physics is a fantastic contradiction. Like top notch wtf moments. Bruh, levi is literally the definition of changing the laws of physics. You are going against something called gravity! My lord, you cannot even maintain a coherent argument. Oof.
    We are. What you seem to want is not quite what EverQuest is. Maybe you should just spin up an emulated server and play whatever it is you want to play?
    kizant likes this.
  18. Allworth Elder

    Mitigating challenge via stat and ability perks is very different from immersion.

    Not all EQ mechanics are good. Mana using classes had no choice but to be sitting and looking at nothing but an open spell book when EverQuest first came out in 1999. That was a horrible mechanic. Eventually it got changed. The point of perks is to help players who can afford to pay extra the ability alleviate and mitigate the hardship of existing mechanics.

    Naked corpse runs used to be mechanic and it was eliminated. Losing your corpse was also a mechanic that got eliminated and was replaced by graveyards. I'm not calling for the removal of all summoning. Just gods and maybe important NPCs should have this over-powered ability. When trash mobs summon all it does it forces players to find mobs that don't summon and those areas become needlessly overcrowded because of that. For example, there is no reason why the entrance mobs and trash mobs have the ability to summon in the Temple of Ssraeszha.

    If you like the arbitrary hardships of summoning then that's fine. However, many soloers don't like the mechanic as it unduly penalizes their play style. Let's offer them a special perk to purchase. If you love to endure the challenge of soloing mobs that summon, you don't have to buy that perk.

    There are thousands of things that destroy immersion in Norrath. I highly doubt my perk proposals are at the top of that list.

    While expansions bring in money, I believe the lions share of revenue comes from TLP servers which they release with annual regularity. They are not offering TLP servers out of the goodness of their hearts, they are doing so because they are a proven money maker.

    You seemed angry to me, perhaps I was wrong.

    That's just your opinion. Many whales like me would gladly pay for perks that I have proposed. Since you like laughing at "terrible suggestions", I wonder about the following:

    Did you laugh when SOE introduced soulbinders?
    Did you laugh when SOE introduced the Origin AA skill for everyone at level 5?
    Did you laugh when SOE introduced graveyards?
    Did you laugh when SOE introduced mercenaries?
    Did you laugh when SOE revamped Freeport?
    Did you laugh when SOE removed corpse runs?
    Did you laugh when SOE introduced non-LDoN instancing with picks and Agents of Change?
    Did you laugh when SOE introduced mercenaries?
    Did you laugh when SOE introduced the Cash Shop with exp/hp/mana/stat potions?
    and All Accces Pass?

    Ah yes, the old "this is just a game" excuse. It's been 20 years since I heard that old canard used.

    All fantasy worlds that have magic from Middle-earth, to Norrath, to Azeroth all have basic laws of physics as their underpinning. Magic and the laws of physics can co-exist and are not mutually exclusive. Nice try at conflation.

    Arbitrary restrictions on if a player can cast a certain spell (levitation) in certain zones with no legitimate explanation, erodes immersion and hamper the suspension of disbelief. Do you realize Spirt of Wolf was only castable outdoors and not indoors for many years? The devs finally came to their senses and removed this nonsensical restriction. The same should be done in Temple of Veeshan, Siren's Grotto and Velketors with their needless levitation restriction. The world of Norrath would not end if this was done.

    My Acrobat perk proposal was something to offer to players who are frustrated with this. Don't buy it if you don't want it.

    Clearly you don't like the idea of perks. Good. You don't have to purchase them and it won't have any effect on your gameplay. Perks are coming whether you like it or not. I for one think they are a great idea and I will be fully supporting Daybreak Games on this. I hope they introduce more perks for whales like myself and others who would like to experience more quality of life benefits in Norrath.
    HekkHekkHekk likes this.
  19. oldkracow 9999 Is the Krono Account Limit

    The Bazaar God :rolleyes:
    • Have the most krono on the server
    • 25% reduction on all bazaar pricing
    • Every bazaar item is taxed at 1% of sale that goes directly to you.
    Costs $99.99 per month
  20. Karreck Somebody

    Perks are for those with fat stacks. Poor people living paycheck to paycheck need not apply.