I'm on the same server as Tappin and the Original Poster. Groups for me haven't died, for this expansion or the last 10. I have don't have time to gear up my boxes because guildies want to do missions and camp named and level their cloaks endlessly. I literally don't have enough time to treat my boxes well because I'm grouping with guildies instead. Perhaps I'll take time off from raiding the open raids on the weekend and finally push my boxes through some NoS progression. I don't see the hardships you guys are claiming. May I suggest finding a bigger, more active guild? Conq
Something I've done for the FV community is create my own discord server. That way, people can LFG in the channel and plan to meet up at a time that works best for them. There are bots in channels so that different archetypes can be pinged (Tank, Healer, DPS) once the roles have been assigned. It has been working very well and over 400 people are in this server now! It took a while to get that amount of people, but I was persistent in advertising in game until I hit 250+, then people have just joined via word of mouth. It's not the solution to the lack of groups, but it is used as another tool to help build a group and network yourself on FV combined with the traditional LFG strats.
Great reply. I believe the developers at the top of the pyramid are out of touch with the players and have been for many years. It's very obvious to me that they do not play EQ regularily because it shows. The proof is in the pudding. Excitement and passion are contagious and I'm not feeling any from Darkpaw. Developer indifference has plauged many studios because of various reasons such as heavy workloads, crunch, and corporate dysfunction. I'm not sure what is doing on at Darkpaw but I'm quite sure inadequate staffing is part of it as well as bloated upper management. To Darkpaw: you get the players you deserve. EverQuest devs have been chasing the raiding guild dragon for years. The forum squeaky wheels (raiders) get all the attention and shy casuals have gotten precious little. Raiders are usually comprised of min/maxer achiever archetypes. Explorers, socializers, casuals, role-playes, and soloer archetypes have been excluded, driven out of Norrath, and orphaned over the past 24 years. EverQuest has become a boring monoculture. Practically every player still playing EQ thinks the same way and wants the same things: progression and achievement. The theorycrafting and best in slot mindset is pervasive. Nothing else matters to them. There is no diversity of player archetypes to balance out the achievers. If there is any, they exist on the fringes. EverQuest 1.0 is too far gone to be saved. The only hope for EverQuest is for them to start all over, create a modern MMO, hire new blood and a new studio that respects the various player archetypes and crafts a new Norrath where people of all backgrounds can find their place in a fantasy virtual world.
A few updates to the LFG tool might encourage more people to use it. The trick here is to get group leaders to want to turn on the 'group looking for more' function. 1. Exp bonus 2. Auto-port to leader 3. Quick toon info (hp/aa, gold status, newest expac?) 4. Auto-replace mercs while still earning merc AA etc.
I haven't used the LFG feature for years, so I decided to check it out. One person was LFG. (Level 120) I remember when LDON was current. There were multiple pages with people on it, now it's dead. I'm on the FV server. It seems most people have their dedicated group of friends or box. The game is old, people are set in their ways. It's going to hard to encourage people to look for PUG's. It makes me shudder thinking about being forced to do that again.
I think the OP is asking for some form of an "extended" LFG Tool - one that has options for more than just the immediate desire for a group right now. This is kind of the thing that a few Guilds used to do and a few maybe still do which is arranging groups on a scheduled basis. I can see this being a lot of work for not much use though, because EQ players are very Cliquey and if you aren't in a Clique you are always going to struggle to have regular groups. More often than not the Cliques will use players to fill in for a regular Clique member at times & drop them like they're molten lead the instant any missing Clique member shows up, and so long as you are helping the Clique do what they want to do you are okay, but when you want help.......*tumbleweed*.......*crickets*.......... Maybe this could work out though, maybe enough "not in a Clique" players exist on a server to eventually generate their own new Cliques where their schedules mostly line up or can be made to line up with a little adjustment.
currently guild fill the role of the LFG tool. cuz you know your guildies and it will eliminate most of the pit falls of inviteing a random person in your guild you know whos gonna be afk be annoying whine and compline get lost aggro random stuff try to push the their agenda you also know who is allways gonna bend over backards to help you if you help them can be counted on have a personal relasionship with will preform at a desired lvl beeing a random LFG person in todays eq on live servers is just to much risk to your "fun" nothign they can do to the lfg tool will off set this, we are all older and have set aside x amount fo time and dont have unlimited time to waste anymore so that makes the LFG tool risk just not an option join a guild get to know ppl and you grouping experince will wastly improve
This just isn't the silver bullet for everyone that people claim if you have an erratic gaming schedule. The 'random-hours' types are spread across too many guilds and servers to link up.
Progression needs to be soloable. Truely solable, for all classes. Outside of missions, you shouldn't need a group just to step out of PoK.
Did I just go back in time? This same complaint about finding groups has been going for 15+ years. And the answer's always the same: live servers don't have the low-level population to support it generally, and high levels tend to require specific classes, and a minimum skill. All that's still besides the fact people have to WANT to play with you, and there are soooo many players out there that are just unpleasant to be around. Join a guild, make friends. Random strangers making groups successfully are about as likely as getting a blood-soaked drop, and far less useful. I mean, how often you wanna go on a blind date someone YOU don't even know picked for you?
they can add check boxes to the LFG tool that ask these questions. do you afk alot do you play consistantly during certain hours do you complain are you trying to use me for your own agenda do you have maps installed and know how to follow them are you annoying do you talk alot do you whine are you interested in loot or experience play time available this session 1-2hr , 2-4hr, 5+ hrs are you looking for someone to group with on a regular basis do you mind if the group leader takes random AFK's 2 part question , 1 - how long have you played EQ and 2 - do you know how to play your toon. do you play well with others .. if they had those questions asked with check marks i bet the LFG tool would be used sooo much more
I believe that there are indeed obstacles to getting people to group more, but as it stands now, even those willing to do PUG have a difficult time finding groups. Darkpaw needs to do more to increase grouping in the game, as it is the lifeblood of EQ. It should be noted that the thing that would increase grouping more than anything else would be increased server populations. They really need to reduce the number of live servers, with a much higher population count. Ideally everyone in the same live server.
These threads are so predictable. step 1) OP makes legitimate argument that grouping on blue servers is extremely limited. step 2) All evidence shows that OP is correct. Old servers are top heavy with zones that are almost deserted. The population on old servers consists of raiders and boxers, almost no spontaneous grouping happens. step 3) Forum never addresses the actual issues with the game. But tells OP he/she should do x,y,z, all things that won't make grouping any easier for OP. Or throw in the towel and just box like they do, which just makes the problems worse on these servers. Everquest has no failsafe state for this situation. In most MMO you can just ignore the fact the game is top-heavy, since there is good solo content. In EQ these servers just collapse, they need to be merged due to population drain, and they need to be merged again, etc. EQ is at a critical point where the population on blue servers is so low now, that they will not survive if even 1 guild folds on them.
No, the problem is the game, not the people. It's intellectual dishonesty to claim that a lvl 40 who can't find a group is to blame in today's EQ. There is not even a match within 10 levels for that person. Blue servers are so deserted that most people would not even find a proper match. The people who do play mostly raid and log off. And the few times people do group they box or play that silly AFK mercenary game. EQ pretty much decimated casual play through developer choices, I warned developers of this. I warned developers they shouldn't axe OMM and other popular missions if they wanted to retain their casual population. I warned developers that unmitigated boxing would have consequences. Blaming EQ players for this situation, is like putting the blame on an umarried woman who lives in a town of 2,000 women and 10 men. There's no match for that woman, so don't blame her. It's purely the fault of developers of that town who didn't foresee demographic changes. Just like it is the EQ developer's fault for this situation where spontaneous grouping is dead. It's not the fault of players, it's the game and the incredible rarity of spontaneous groups. Most zones in EQ are completely deserted.
What would you suggest needs to be done to fix the problem? The answer can't be banning boxing as that doesn't address the causes of people boxing in the first place.
People on live are not playing 24 year old content! You will however find then in current content. No one is saying there is players in all content from the last 24 years. But there are players in content from the last year or 2. To say only boxers are playing is a lie. Players want to progress their chars they are not going to stick at level 40 for more than a few hours. Soloing with a merc to level 70-75 isn't going to take long. So the few that do start new chars won't be that low for anyone who makes a char next week. People aren't making new chars on a weekly basis.
I am more focused on the max level side of things. The low level side of things is probably best handled by a TLP server that encourages people to transfer to a live server once they reach max level on that server. There are people who are quite happy replaying the early zones - they just tend to be a TLP server. There is a problem, though in getting the last 10 levels so that you can do current expansion content that most people on Live servers are focused. The best way to level is complete TOV and TOL quests and missions, but if you are new to the server/game, you won't have the connections to get those things done, and they certainly aren't solable to a new player. The traditional way that new players got to max level, was to join a max level group, and soak up experience and progress at a faster rate. Post 110, that isn't a viable strategy.
The problem is definitely the game. In a perfect world, leveling would be great and fun and plentiful and blah blah blah. That doesnt happen in older mmos, WoW included. WoW grouping occurs because queue systems force it and end game m+ facilitates it. But Wow also has the playerbase to sustain these systems. Everquest is always going to be top heavy and thats fine. What isn't fine is the crueling task of getting 1-120, even 1-110/115. Let people buy lvl 110 or 115 heroics. Buff mercs from 70-110. No one really complains about 1-60/70, because it is relatively fast to let the warrior merc leveling you. Just let it level you to 110. I legit do not understand their mindset of gatekeeping people from being max level.
you say it's a crueling task of getting from 1 - 120 , even 1-110/115.. and you want them to up the heroics to lvl 110/115 .. however , people can already purchase lvl 100 heroics .. so they only have to get from 100 - 120.. that is seriously only 20 lvls ..its not that crueling .. and with lvl 100 you can group with lvl 120's .. you can literally go from 100 to 115 in few hours with the ToV, ToL paragon tasks.. especially during bonus weekend's.. On top of that you have collections and overseer that can help you get there also Vitality from being in a fellowship .. if you have a few friends or a good family casual guild they can help with the paragon tasks.. also even if you dont have those things there are people who run those tasks for a small fee or even for free.. getting from lvl 100 to 120 is not difficult and its def not crueling .. Id say getting from 60's to 100 is more crueling than 100 to 120 ... at least the tank merc can get you from 1 to mid 60's or 70 before it becomes a problem .. and tank mercs are doable post 70 they just gonna need more help and not carry you the whole way .. P.S. so after I typed this i just tab'd over to EQ and in general was a high lvl toon (who I know and he/she is in my guild) offer in general to help lvl any lvl 90+ for free.. This is a person who does things like this all the time and he runs his own group most the time and can run any task. so just thought i would point that out .. that there are players out there who help others (myself included , when i can) .. and thats what this game is about players helping players.
