Merge DoDh and PoR for Aradune and Rizlona, please?

"Most people" in this case is speed runners and krono farmers. Casual and new players would thrive with longer expansions. New expansion content is nearly unplayable for the average player in the first couple of months because of all the fierce competition. There needs to be some time for things to calm down so everyone else can get a shot. Short expansions repel a huge audience.

Just because a new expansion releases, it doesn't prevent people that want to move at a slower pace from raiding a previous expansion(s) or doing older content. In fact, if your sole argument is that the latest content is unplayable for the average player because of competition, staying an expansion behind would be ideal in that situation.

The only 2 points on mangler were I was actively losing interest in playing were the 2 months of ldon (2 more months of raiding time) and the level 70 slog. At time I'd like slower cycles... but at normal rate, you spend almost an entire year at level 70. DoN and PoR have no aa's either.

Short expansions create an environment unfriendly towards new and casual players in general, and it sucks to be unable to play a new expansion.

I think there's more voices sounding support for shorter expansions, but I think the company would attract a much larger audience in the end with longer expansions.

One can argue that the premise of a TLP isn't catered to a casual player, but specifically targeted at their more "hardcore" player base.

It's pretty basic. What is the basic premise of a TLP? A means to experience all EQ's content at an accelerated rate. That alone makes it evident that a casual, lower playtime individual isn't the target audience. Every single product, application, appliance, material good is developed and advertised to a target audience. TLP servers are no different.

I can see Daybreak making a server with slightly longer unlocks, but it would need a faster unlock sister server to go a long with it. That way you cater to both target audiences and we'll see which one lasts and which one doesn't.

Looking at What is a Progression Server, it sounds like they were meant for a more casual audience. And if TLPs are not meant for casual/new players, then what servers are?

It's not clear to me why they used an accelerated rate to begin with. To contrast, Blizzard used a DEcelerated rate (like 2 years) for their "tlps".

I do like the idea of having two servers with different unlock rates. However, the casual server might need a boxing limit to really succeed with its target audience, which would probably require a new set of managers and GMs.

I don't see any where it looks like it was meant for a casual audience. If I missed a specific era, why would I want servers that take many years to reach that era? If I'm trying to take a stroll down memory lane, why would I want a server that shackles me to only my first memories? I don't have memories of other expansions? Sounds counter productive to me.

If a player who loved OOW wanted to relive those moments, based on WOWs tlp implementation, they would need to wait an additional...16 years?! That's a longer period than it took to get to OOW originally.

This has proven to be completely false. Your opinion is your opinion, but its not reality, sorry.

The fact is, with the longer expansion timers, more and more people lose interest and quit playing, creating a dead server. Casual players, by definition struggle to find people to progress with and give up because they just had a casual interest in the first place.

There area always a couple people like yourself who *think* this would be better, but it has been proven, beyond a doubt, that is not true.

I can't find any server with long unlocks (other than live). Maybe you're right, but it doesn't look proven.

That's because they learned their lesson. Ragefire/Lockjaw were initially 6 month unlocks, and it was absolutely TERRIBLE. They even changed the servers later on to a different unlock schedule.

There are "non-casual" players who want to do the group progression in each expansion and not be raid-only; some of these players don't even feel the need to raid at all. That process typically takes several weeks per expansion if playing a couple of hours per day. These players get screwed if you start combining expansions solely for the benefit of the raid-only players who keep complaining that too much time at level 70 is boring. However you divvy it up, there should be at least six months at the level 70 cap, since the group progression tasks from DoN onward are quite substantial.

What is this guy always talking about? Please Captain, go down with the ship!

You are absolutely wrong that its only speed runners and krono farmers. What is your definition of casual? Are you trying to play 2hrs a week? If so, then you arent casual, you are non-existent.

Having recently gone through the 70's era on the Mangler server, it's a pretty horrible time as it is. It's especially bad when you have expansions like DoN and PoR that have very limited end game/raiding content and on top of that add NO additional AA points. That's 6 months of basically just logging in to raid and logging off because you have nothing left to do, and I was by far not a hardcore player. I would usually log in for 2-3 hours a day outside of raiding and then on raid days I would only log in to raid.

I understand that some people can only commit a certain amount of time to the game, but based on my experiences on the TLP servers, that is by far the minority of players.

Maybe they do need to release two servers side-by-side one with a Normal release cadence(with the exception of maybe consolidating some of the 70's expansions or shortening them) and one where the expansions unlock slower. However, I'm 99% + 1 sure that the people on the server with the slower unlocks will still be complaining because the server population is so low and they have no one else to play with.

The logistics alone would suggest as much, considering this server would supposedly be targeted at casual players that play very little. What do you get with a server hardly anyone wants to play on with a bunch of people that barely play? An empty server and a waste of server resources.

I say 6 months of lvl 70. OOW-DODH all release together. Thats a 50% reduction of time spent at lvl 70 and maybe the crunched time frame will make it more interesting to do all the things before new lvls and AA.

Worst case scenario its less annoying for the peeps who play it.

I love the accusations of people wanting to get rid of the drought that is Don/Dodh/PoR being Krono farmers. Personally I'd like those expansions to be shorter, because compared to basically every expansion after them they kinda suck. The Raids are either short and easy, or they're annoying and short, the group content is somehow less engaging than spamming LDoNs.

I'm not sure if this makes me a krono farmer or a speed runner. But I'm pretty poor, so it's probably not the first one. and my guild tends to finish expansions in era, but not in any sort of hurry, Please, which of these things am I?!

That's why I am arguing for merging PoR with TSS, not DODH. D

100% projection, you want it to be this way so you think it is.

It isn't, and never has been on any TLP thus far.

TLP audience is almost 100% hardcore raiders, the audience for a slow unlock server is simply too small to justify its own slow TLP - this said Mischief & Thornblade might be the first 2 TLP with any appreciable casual audience participation, but on most TLP the casual players number in the single digits per guild at most, never to see more than a single casual guild on any of them.

This is driven by the desire to be able to play a lot less hours per day or even to be able to take extended breaks from the game & return without falling too far behind - EQ was never tailored or kind to that audience, especially "seasonal" players, having run a few guilds at Leader level Seasonal players are the absolute biggest pain in the rear & any raid guild should quickly wheedle them out of their ranks or at the very least never rely on them filling their slot so recruit as if they do not exist.

TL;DR - play on Live if you are a casual, that's where the 12 month unlocks are already.

Back on Topic, I used to be in favour of merging DoDH & PoR but I now think just compressing the 70 era rather than merges of expansions is a better solution.
Shortening the window for the "main expansions" OoW & DoDH to 8 weeks & the "filler expansions" DoN & PoR to 4 weeks is one way to do that, but you could also go the other way & have OoW & DoDH be 4 weeks with DoN & PoR as 8 weeks.

Either way I don't agree with merging any more as the separation between expansions keeps the feel of the TLP progression closer to what the live experience was, and most players who have been through the 70 eras on live & TLP would love that stretch to be brought closer to other level-increase gaps.

"EverQuest Progression Servers invite everyone to go back and relive those bygone eras again. For some, they are a wonderful stroll down memory lane, a chance to relive memories of the past. For others, they are a chance to make those memories for the first time, to see those legendary times they missed the first time around." This does not paint a picture of hardcore speed running an expansion in just 1 month.

Hardcore players tend to dominate the forums and pressure the company into tailoring TLPs towards them, but that doesn't meant that there isn't a huge audience out there that would enjoy slower TLPs geared more towards casual play.

Live servers seem very unfriendly towards casual or new players. Live has become a monstrosity of gameplay systems built on older systems built on older systems. I think the ideal server for casual/new players would be a slow-unlock TLP.

No, and neither does it paint a picture of a leisurely stroll through EverQuest at your own pace either.

The pace of the server is largely dictated by how fast the content is consumed by the majority of the players, on TLP the reality is that its all done by 1-2 months, and that's raiding just 1-3 days a week, TLP guilds are really not raiding every single day, for one thing the event lock timers largely prevent that.
Longer expansion unlocks just speed up the attrition of the hardcore base that the casuals historically rely upon to carry them.

Point of order only Selo has experimented with 1 month expansion unlocks & only 1 guild survived that pace, so there is such a thing as "too fast for most" 2-3 month unlocks is pretty much the "sweet spot".