The Serpents Spine start server.

TSS is an incredibly underrated expansion. Not only do you have a server that would completely bypass the most unplayable era of EQ, aka melee quest, aka the level 70 slog, you'd get a fresh new experience of leveling from one to 75 in an era where basically no one has ever leveled from one to 75 without an established server in place already.

You have a deep and rewarding raid game with two end game zones and multiple raiding tiers. As well as the challenge of which older content to do as a raid to gear up. What tier can you start raiding naked at 75? Or even 70?

Then you are also going to have some of the best low level grouping zones and quest lines the gsme has ever made, that are exclusive to TSS and 95% of most players have never played.

TSS was originally designed to be a fresh start on EQ and it provides an entire 1 to 70 experience with new zones such as hollowshade moor and gorukar Mesa which can easily support 6+ groups each. And of course you have all the older content to choose from as well.

This server would be an actual fresh idea and give people the chance to play in an era on a fresh server that no EQ players have ever had before and a chance to actually utilize all the cool content that TSS brings to the low level game.

No extra rules required. Just make one true box and one not and you're good to go.

The unresolved issue with this idea is having 2 sets of zone / game system data. starting at TSS expansion would mean starting a server POST - NERF on all those items peopple surf TLPs to collect prenerfs of.

I would be for a TSS LOCKED TLP that progressed normally to TSS expansion, but not if I can't ever possible loot those rare items, to still have them later when the TLP hit live status.

Do people play TLPs primarily to get guise of the deceiver? I dunno. Skeptical. At any rate that's what golden tickets are for, that seems like a horrible reason not to do something innovative and new.

There is a fun and rewarding raid game / group game that exists in the 75+ era, but most TLP players never get to see it because A) muh nostalgia and B) the game is legitimately an unbalanced boring mess for about 7 expansions from Luclin thru PoR.

If you start at TSS, you'll understand how different things are.

So people couldn't sell prenerf circlets for 23423423423 krono?
THE HORROR!!

i have no issue if you wish to start on a serpen spine server tlp,but i wouldent play on it its not the eq i like i quit at lvl 100 because it wasent fun for me.

This was the exact thing I was thinking.

A TSS start would be something different and fun.

Well I got good news for you. TSS is a level 75 expansion and you have 8 expansions before you hit level 100!

TSS start would be good for all the reasons you mentioned but I think we need to start slower first, a GoD start lets the re-rollers experience the stuff between PoP and TSS and get used to that, then maybe 2 TLP cycles later do a TSS start. Miragul was an interesting experiment but Truebox doomed it and then dropping heroic toons into HoT where they had no clue what to do was probably very frustrating. The bulk of the server hoppers need to get some exposure to the middle expansions.

Even if you only played it to 100, you'd have a solid year or two of enjoyable EQ that rarely gets seen by people on TLP who don't usually make it deep enough into one for various reasons.
You could start back over on the next annual TLP anyway if it turns out you aren't having a good time.
I'm sure it wouldn't be for everyone but it is also a low effort required on the part of the devs and is a TLP opportunity we haven't seen yet.

The Serpent's Spine
The Buried Sea
Secrets of Faydwer
Seeds of Destruction
Underfoot
House of Thule
Veil of Alaris

There is probably some truth to this.
Miragul starting Heroic fresh with so many non-classic skills and AA was exciting but also overwhelming if you aren't familiar with it.

Leveling from level 1 in TSS would help a little, probably, instead of the Heroic start.

Aside from random "accusations", a straw man argument is, rather than having a real argument about a topic, one can set up another, easy to despise argument next to it and accuse the opponent of that.

A straw man argument??? The HORROR!

Now let's dig in.

If I roll a charactert to play on a TLP, acquire some rare and useful things, enjoy the company of so many others who routinely move from TLP to new TLP, whom i've gotten to know over the years / decades now

AND

and it's a big AND

Continue to play, sometimes with those same voices in Discord on live until the TLP me reaches live, then transfer a character with items I don't posess on live as I started on THAT server well after post nerfdom.


Ya think I did it to sell it?

One of the painful signs of years of dumbed-down education is how many people are unable to make a coherent argument. They can vent their emotions, question other people's motives, make bold assertions, repeat slogans-- anything except reason.


~Thomas Sowell

There is an immense fanbase of EQ who bails after Pop each new TLP

There is also a huge fanbase in EQ for twinking and twink gear and or rare items / illusions.

These people will not be so interesetd in this and after TSS server population will nosedive as those are EQs least loved expansions. (Why a new TLP or 2 every year even works.)


It seems like an great idea on the surface, but has issues, like reality to overcome.

I believe you'll have a month to pick up your DE Mask and Circlet, even if a new server launches with TSS open.

No way. Not even close.
The expansions immediately before TSS are far less loved than the expansions immediately following it.

It's a little self indulgent.

Only thing you gain over waiting until a tlp hits that stage is a large number of people in the same boat at the same time.

IIRC, they did start a server that started characters at level 85, so there was that but without the mad crush from 0-85. I didn't participate in it myself. My memory of it was it wasn't very popular.

That being said, I do like the idea of a tlp server that starts with all races and PC types from day one. I don't think it will happen. Like everything else, we find work arounds for what we want. On Rizlona people just power leveled their Halfling Rangers and Dwarf Berzerkers in the matter of a weekend. Annoying but not a serious impediment.

TLP until about LDoN for me, also playing live and now on Mangler as it's in Undefoot and after VoA have mostly played TLPs until recently. Veil of Alarais to current game is all new content to me. Just started on mangler to play thorough those expansions we skipped, levels 85-120

One of the realities here is Classic to Pop era xp sells an awful lot of XP pots. Starting at The Serpent's Spine and having Defiants day one will curtail the profitability.


People also Krono farm on early content. In a world where people will be dinging 85 on day three a lot of Krono sales will be lost as well.

You can still loot those prenerf items when a new server opens later in the expansion cycles. Most (all?) are coded to stop dropping X days after X expansion unlocks regardless of how many expansions may have already unlocked after it.

I like the idea of a TSS start, but I wonder if enough of the TLP player be drawn to the start at this expansion? Between New players, Returning players who have long been gone, and players who cycle TLP's. This expansion is past the point where the majority TLP players have moved on, so familiarity and nostalgia will be considerably lower.

Overall EQ is a better game during TSS then it is during classic. Class are better defined, content is more interesting. I love the idea of having DoN/DoDh trade skill system available to an up and coming player base. It allows the use of the low end for the system that doesn't get used on TLP's.

Questions: TSS is when defiant gear is introduced. This acts as catch up gear to help new player get decent gear fairly quickly. It also makes most of the existing raid gear below GoD pointless (note: Defiant weapons suck). Is this something that be present at launch, or should player have to wait until later for this equipment to start dropping?

Lower level item drops and quest reward, will probably also be a lot more powerful then existing content in the TSS zones.

How should auto-grant be handled?

How should zone unlocks be handled?

TSS is when a TLP moves to live exp, Do you start at this exp rate or something slower?

How do you deal zone revamps, is the old version available, or does it start revamped?

Does TSS get an extended run time for the ramp up, or is it enough because TBS doesn't offer much content?

I would see something like a GoD happen first, to have an idea of how popular the server is, before jumping into TSS and having a server that doesn't attract the large crowd.

If TBS has a larger player base then Mangler had, a lot of people will be upset with the downscaling reward system.