Ruleset announcement in early April

Heard atabishi has already told a few people the ruleset in preparation and is coming back after years hiatus for it. If true makes me think there is some race aspect to it.

There does seem to be an effort to modernize EQ since new ownership & JChan took over (64 bit client upgrade, bonus loot drops, direct X thing, UI revamp). Next year's "big" announcement could fit into this category, too. Especially if it's a new game.

The massive player caps for raids (54/72) stick out like a sore thumb as one of the most archaic design choices compared to the rest of the market - left over from a bygone era. Games like Destiny 2/FF/WoW/New World/Lost Ark - aren't all those games' raid sizes like 6-30?

There has to be metrics or analytics telling them these big raids that essentially require a part time job commitment to a guild isn't good for player retention.

The guy who beat up 3 Navy Seals by himself is telling people he has super secret Q-level clearance info inside DPG? Seems legit.

The 72 person raids are no longer a factor as they only come into relevance on a TLP server as all new content is designed around 54 people. The issue with changing them is many guilds/alliances are built around that 54 person number and lowering it now will cause people to end up sitting out raids which will hurt retention.

LOL
I have heard from others (not Mr. Seal-Killer) that there is going to be some sort of competition aspect, but no one knows for sure wtf is coming.

The specific number is irrelevant. And 54 is still a massive number - probably double the average size of a modern MMO raid. If they do experiment with scalable/smaller raids, they'll probably be tuned around the same number of people from the jump (12/18/24/30/whatever).


And smaller raid sizes just means guilds could run more splits, form smaller raid groups, raid when you can, etc. No more scheduled shifts required to raid. And scalability could allow guilds to run 54-man raids if they want.

I don't play FF but google tells me their largest raids are 24-man content. I'm guessing there are some big raid guilds with hundreds of members that somehow manage.

In regards to attributes for a TLP which could be applied to live:

99% of No Trade changed to Heirloom (so basically anything tradable on FV becomes Heirloom on standard so you can pass to alts but not boxes).

Achievements changed to all your characters on the server, along with keying moved to the achievement system. Do PoP progression on main, your alts are flagged too.

AA xp from monster kills go to a pool all characters on server can access. Many games already use an account style xp system, so if you grind 500 aa on your main then create a berserker when GoD launches you have 500 aa to spend once you get to 51+

1) We get it. You are trying to troll people. It's a bit overplayed, though.

2) Why is it a terrible idea? Simple. $$$. Everquest still exists for one sole reason: It still makes money and is profitable. Otherwise, it would have shut down and things like P99 would be our only way to play.

A TLP brings in a massive flux of cash to the game. People buy bags. They buy potions. They buy additional accounts and expansions. They buy krono. The more people on the server, the more that is purchased. The longer they are on the server, the more that is purchased.

TLP's heavily attract players who want a fresh start or haven't been in the game for awhile. It attracts people who want to do content that they could not do before, such as when certain guilds monopolized raid mobs. TLP's attract people who want to raid and play on their schedule, not wake up at 3:47 am so they can kill a dragon. The population is older now and more established with jobs and family.

There are certainly many competitive players that are also attracted to TLPs, either to make krono or to be one of the first to complete expansions or dominate the OW mobs, but there are far more who just want to raid when they want to raid and not sock raid mobs all day.

A server without AOC's would quickly shrink to being one or two major guilds and very little of anyone else. The people that want to enjoy the game on their schedule (a large population of TLPs) would quickly drop the server and many the game itself. That means fewer people buying the addons and being subscribed. That simple. If a TLP isn't making a good profit, it doesn't encourage its owners to keep investing in it.

It does matter when trying to use examples that are not valid and haven't been used for the majority of EQ and only come into play on newer TLP servers.

As for the splitting raids I think you are overestimating the desire to split raids and in order for that happen a drastic cut in raid size would be needed but would still leave people sitting out.

"Newer TLP servers" like the one launching in May? I can't begin to comprehend what point you're trying to make with this bizarre word salad. How should one "validly" speculate about scaled/re-tuned raid content on a new TLP server?

It's not "splitting" if it's content designed for 24 people. You seem to be having trouble with this concept of multiple raid squads existing in the same guild that don't all have to log in at the same time together.

It would be a radical change, but it does fit with the clues from the interview IMO - an experiment that could be introduced to live if successful.

Split raiding is a very TLP focused thing. Guilds on live arent doing deep splits like guilds on TLP do.

They are not going to be changing raid sizes on a TLP server and players are free and able to raid them with smaller raid sizes. There is nothing forcing raids to bring a full 72 person raid. The majority of EQ uses the 54 person raid format and that is what all new content uses as well. Trying to claim that the 72 person raid is relevant at all is just silly.

You seem to be missing the point that raids have been designed around 54 people for a very long time, and that means that guilds/alliances design their roster around that 54 person limit. You are overestimating the number of guilds/alliances that would want to split that raid force up into multiple smaller groups to do these smaller raids. And even with a 24 person limit that would leave a full group or more sitting out of raids due to a lack of space for them.

Yes, most games have smaller raid sizes these days but that is not something that can easily be changed in Everquest without causing problems for the player base.

As they don't develop new content for the TLP servers I don't see how this could be a possible change for the server. Not to mention that when it comes to raiding forces there is a big difference between a change on a fresh server and an existing one with a well established raiding community.

Amateurs

Though these might be things DBG would try, none of them have any business being on a TLP. These should just be pushed to Live Test server instead. None of these have anything to do with progression through the expansions.

You beat me to it. *high five*

I've seen your raids and can confirm.

K.

I'd love to hear which raids considering I haven't played in about a month lol

There's zero point in split raiding on live. No benefit at all.

None of those changes could be adequately tested on the test server to determine what sort of impact they would have on the game. Doing them on a TLP server would allow for the devs to get enough information as the server progresses to determine how that change would impact the game as a whole.

Not saying that these would be possible ideas, just that the test server wouldn't be able to provide the information on how it would impact the game as a whole.

That would be one more nail in the coffin

Seeing less people playing has never worked for any mmo ever.