Lately it seems like there's been a number of posts advocating for a GoD start, which elicits the usual counter-arguments in favor of Classic. Perhaps there's a compromise, to make both sides happy? If so, I propose a Luclin start. What the Classic crowd gets: The level cap of 60 brought on in Kunark is still the level cap in Luclin, so effectively very little changes in that respect. The trilogy zones and raids can still be relevant, both for raid and general content. While the Nexus is included, old-school ports are still relevant - no PoK to get in the way. What the "I'm tired of Classic" crowd gets: Most of the race/class combos unlocked right from the start (sorry Berserkers). AAs included from the jump, so less worry that you'll hit the cap and burn-out prior to the next expansion unlock - you can still make meaningful progression, all the time. New zones to level in, and in abundance. Less picks of the same classic spots needed as there would be a variety of options. The bazaar (if you're into that). What they both get: Enjoyable expansions to release post-launch to look forward to, rather than a concern that everything after is the post-GoD 'wasteland'. Most of the familiarity of the expansions many returning players enjoy, without jumping so far into the timeline it feels completely foreign. No LLP needed, since the starting level cap isn't different than what a Kunark start would be, so people can still level at the pace of their choosing without an artificial barrier. So what do we think - try something new, that still feels just old enough to hook the Classic crowd?
Players who want classic or kunark or velious aint skippin it because why would they? Theres going to be 2 servers so DB will have one or both start in classic. We either will get different era starts 1 classic and 1 something else and similar rulesets. Or we will get 2 normal starts with remarkably different rulesets and release speeds. No one who truly enjoys any of the first eras in going to skip them for the other server and therefor if we have to different era starts the latter era will be the small pop server for better or worse.
I agree with a Luclin start with one adjustment. The exp rate of Paludal Caverns would need to be adjusted. I remember all leveling zones for those levels being abandoned because the exp rate in PC was so objectively better. Paladins would get their lower level stuns. New tradeskill path options. Raid guilds would get a fresh path to carve what gear is required. Newbie Quests in starting cities. The more I think about this the more I like it.
Interesting TLP idea. I don't think you'd need to adjust anything. Players will spread out for exp, gear, plat, etc. Some players will race, others will enjoy the variety. If FV rules are included that will certainly affect where groups exp. The raid paths chosen would be interesting. Guilds would still need planes armor to raid TOV. They would need at least the tanks well armored and dps gear for everyone for Luclin raids. I'm sure the racing guilds will try to shorten the gearing timeline.
Personally I think Velious is the best starting point. Widest possible 1-60 path without bringing in AA's. Give it mischief rules and i'd be happy. Oh...and put PoP and Ldon in the same 3 month window for the love of god.
Hope they don't make another mischief rules server in for a while. Would decimate the current server even more than they will anyway
Gear path for this server... night 1 each week - Kael to get a couple BoC and some high ac/hp items for tanks. Then swap Kael for VT after you get enough people keyed. night 2 each week - Ssra night 3 each week - whatever other targets are best efficiency for your guild class mix Obviously this is for AoC guilds - OW guilds will raid 7 nights a week until they can focus on Ssra/VT and occasionally quick kills/ST. Throw in occasional ToV just for sheer number of drops in the beginning but once VT is on farm do you want to clear it every week to get Vulak loot?
There are so many things that are unique to classic that you never get to experience if you start a server on a later expansion. Drowning in Kedge, getting feared into the pit while doing Vox, rock golem trains in the hole, all of Sky.....the beauty of classic is subjecting people who haven't played the game in 20 years to all the joys they missed out on. Their misery is my entertainment.
Just curious, why do you think that there'll be 2 servers? I don't recall seeing anything announced yet and I'm wondering if with the 64 bit upgrade the login queue issues might be cured
I'm not so sure. The arguments I see for a GoD start in the numerous threads on the topic have very little to do with GoD specifically. That expansion is largely chosen over others along the timeline because it would allow Berserkers from day one too. I'd say nudging the bar closer to classic with Berserkers being the lone sacrifice is a pretty fair middle-ground. Everything else those threads list as reasons to move outside of the trilogy are already included by Luclin.
Much faster xp rate in GoD PoK would be open LDON (as they stand now the raids are GOOD) Armor Dye Frogloks
I'm definitely more of a Classic purest myself, so I'd prefer Velious (or Kunark, or just Vanilla) myself. However, the objective here was to address as many of the concerns express by the pro-GoD crowd, while seeing if we couldn't find a point in the timeline that Classic players wouldn't completely turn their noses up against. With that in-mind, I chose Luclin over Velious because: With AAs, it addresses the burnout issue many players express feeling when they hit the level cap and have to either 'retire' until the next expansion unlock, create alts, or log in just for raids. Even the racers who would hit 60 in a few days could continue to progress until the PoP unlock. Many players have expressed wanting the full roster of class and race combinations available up-front, so we don't have to wait until future points for them. GoD is being suggested in many threads because it includes Berserkers, but a lot of players consider that expansion (and beyond) the point in which they refuse to play. Sacrificing just Berserkers to bring in more of the community seemed like a fair compromise, but going even further back to Velious would be giving up Beastlords as well, which to me leaned too far in favor of the Classic crowd over the 'post Classic', and I wanted to be as fair to both sides as I could.
The idea though is that this start would be the compromise between two vocal parts of the community. PoK alone would probably see a lot of the Classic crowd nope right out of this server launch. I could be wrong though - I wish we had better polling options so it wasn't always rampant assumptions.
60 levels and 400+ AA and gearing up for pop raids in 3 months and you think anyone is doing any of the classic/kunark/vel content? lol no. There wouldn't be a single epic on this server. This doesn't sound fun at all tbh if you really think about how this server would play out... If you want a tlp in a later era go join one of the many that are in the era you want to play in. You don't have to mindlessly reroll for every tlp launch, you can in fact keep playing on the tlp you are playing on and see the later content. The "I'm tired of classic" crowd should stop rerolling for every single tlp then cry that they never get past OOW, stop quitting when oow drops? Very simple solution to a fake problem. I haven't done a tlp since Agnarr, I have some friends waiting on the new one with me that have never done a tlp but played eq back in 99-03, they want a classic start, so do a lot of people. If you have played every tlp for the past 10 years and you are bored maybe you should do something else instead of trying to squeeze more from an old game you have played to death, its ok to play a different game or take a year off from tlps or actually stick to a tlp into later eras, so many choices that don't include making dumb rulesets no one wants. Sorry you rolled monk for the last 10 years straight and are bored of the game, find a new hobby? The farther you push back the release era the longer you make the initial grind to catch up, grinding all your AA in luclin is a lot for most people, having to get 60 levels and having no gear would burn out so many people trying to keep up.
I welcome any experimentation that would lead to the health of the game. Some suggestions run counter to what has been worked over the years, that's OK too, just don't look for DB to change it. Just as an example, Focus items used to work on TLP servers. In their wisdom<hehe> they decided Focus items give magic users to much of an advantage over melee so they be gone. The problem I see with this is many of the mistakes that were taken out i.e. race based experience, will be back in. Trolls IIRC used to have a racial regeneration advantage. Introducing Iskars from day would would be similar in that most people wanting to run a monk would go lizard. You can't swing a dead cat w/o hitting a Druid in a new TLP. This was because Druids were really strong 0-50, ports and evacs, buff monsters. Corp decided to many Druids so instead of completely taking away what they had, they made what they got in later expansions weak. Around 50-70 I think I actually prefer my Ranger buffs to Druid & a Ranger gets a bow. Not only that, but the Ranger's bow damage gets an automatic +30% boost to damage somewhere around level 59. One of the things I used to advocate for was in particular Halfling Rangers from t-zero. Pretty much got shouted down at the time. I think some of the arguments used against the idea were ~just wait until a further expansion where they are included and it wouldn't be classic. They had a point, started a Halfling Ranger on Rizlona and they caught up. This has been true for every other class that gets added like Iskars and kitties. Then there is the in era quests and equipment. I still do the Jaggedpine Crook for old time sake. For reference back when the game was new it had a quarter million subscriptions in the first 6 months. Does anyone remember how many characters in that time made it to level 50? Rumor was only two characters and they were played 24/7 by a team. Jaggedpine Crook made some sense when you may spend two months <level 10 in the Qeynos Hills, not so much now or on any TLP. I just trying to say, give some consideration to the effects your suggestions will have on the game. If you have a later start then classic, you have just eliminated most of the level 0-50 quests and zones. Much easier to just wait for a server to reach the stage you want before joining.
If you're suggesting that guilds would need to hit Hate/Fear to get some base level of gear before hitting Velious targets, this isn't accurate. Selo's was a Luclin start. My guild had Vindi down within 48 hrs (with mostly lev 55's), and by the end of the first weekend Luclin targets were dying. Now, this was helped by the fact the AOC unlock was stupid fast (24 hrs I think). However, just the sheer number of lev 60's will allow targets to die. Add into that AA. Then those targets get split in instances. The only thing that guilds would really be after in "old world" targets would be haste items. However, a guild could easily do single group AOC instances on Vox and Naggy with some 60's to pick up haste items in quantity for their monks/rogues/rangers. Maybe the first week, they're two grouping those targets cause everyone is naked. By week two, you should be killing Vox and Naggy 10 times each. That'll provide plenty of haste items. Is it the best? No, but they're effective, and allow you to move to harder targets to get better haste items. The added benefit is the guild can then turn around and sell those CoFs and RBBs on the open market to generate cash/krono to use for consumables on needed raids, and/or buy spells the guild needs. However, one pass through Kael with your guild, and you're likely going to be able to outfit a single tank with Thurgadin level quest armor, or damn close to it. That'll also give that tank the faction to complete the quest. The guild should already have gems, cause people would have been leveling in Velks, so they should have funneled all those gems to the guild. Its really all about the focus of the guild, and everyone pulling in one direction. Now, if you have your initial raid go into Kael, and you start DKPing off those initial plate drops to bards, or clerics, rather than focusing on getting everything to the MT, so he can then stand up in a bigger fight to then allow the guild to advance faster in content....then it'll take longer. Certainly in a launch with Luclin available, you don't want to have your guild spending time in Hate/Fear farming gear. You want the guild focusing on premium content OR grinding AA. Sitting in Hate/Fear to turn your clerics into Barney, is wasting everyone's time. The only reason to get into Hate/Fear/Sky would be for specific epic quest completions.
