EverQuest Producer’s Letter April 2023

I will drop the satire for a moment because people 100% put me in a mood to be satirical with this gross overreaction to hearing "First to Engage" on top of all the hemming and hawing about how "Nobody plays multiple characters on one account" or "But my Krono!" or "Why aren't all these benefits available at the start!" - They warned us this was experimental, and we never knew how that was going to manifest. Let's all just be glad it wasn't as a PvP server.

This is not Darkpaw's first attempt at First to Engage, it has existed since time immemorial in EQ2. If this works even remotely close to the same way (And so far it sounds on paper like it does), it is going to be a non-issue unless you are trying to swarm PLs in general chat.

The one difficulty they are going to have to contend with is that EQ spells do not have as extensive of a sub-divided target group classification like EQ2 does. Ex. there are no "Friendly Target vs Group Target" distinctions. It may make things like OOG healing or OOG buffing mid encounters a bit awkward if they do not approach it properly, but so far it sounds like FTE will only apply to DPS related abilities and possibly CC (Both of which are Hostile spells).

Also depending on how "Engagement" timers work it is entirely possible the "Bard running away with a mob and not damaging it" concern is really not much of a worry either. I doubt that my hunch is wrong on this one, but if we have FTE there is likely intended to be a leashing effect of some sort in place where if you try to pull this the mob will just "pop" back to where it should be.

Speaking specifically to the Legacy Character bonus. This could use some improvements and ACTUALLY would have been better as a live launch rule for testing instead of a TLP rule. Maybe strap it on Vox first or something. The reason being that this isn't really the same situation as EQ2's live servers, where someone is capping a character in 24 hours and moving onto the next one with a guaranteed 2-3 year wait for the cap to go up again.

Instead most people who would benefit from this are likely getting one character capped in a week or two, maybe three, and spending the rest of the expansion gearing that character or maaaaybe playing alts if they have time for it. I do agree with the disgruntled reactions to this one and would have preferred a "Badge" item for capping a character during an Expansion window that progressively adds a +10% Bonus to all other alts per Badge you own, getting one every expansion where you achieved cap.

The extra bonuses that unlock on a per expansion basis are honestly neat incentives for those who want to stay current but may fall off every once and awhile. So those are good to see.

TL;DR: Do I expect this to be anywhere near as popular as Mischief? No, absolutely not - Random Loot and Free Trade are far too enticing, especially for one or two particular groups of people. But if this can manage to keep even a peak Agnarr population and maintain a casual, small group player base that would be a win in my book.

Terrible ruleset. Very disappointing and demonstrates the total lack of connection with the community. Stop letting your developers dictate rulesets based on what cool things they are capable of doing. Spend time getting connected with your players, especially those that leave TLPs. Re-release a mischief clone in the meantime. This is just yet another year of hoping that the EQ dev team can deliver what players want, and then being disappointed when it becomes clear that they are totally disconnected

Sad.

If we're going for experimental, I'd like to see the level spread decreased for receiving experience with higher level players. Make it highest level in group / 2. So 25 can get xp with a 50, 30 with 60, etc. Would encourage more grouping.

Well they should otherwise not agro you, really curious to see how healing works though. Though maybe out of group buffs/heals won't work while you're in combat. That in its self would be kinda neat though.

Pretty clear they are saving the 25th anniversary for Mischief clone. Cuz its a guarantee success. This experimental idea was just them saying they have no ideas. Pretty bad TLP. Nothing even remotely enticing.

So, not only are you in favor of all the other BS, you're in favor of getting rid of kiting as well. Awesome, you're totally going to win over people by getting rid of a whole play style.

Everquest isn't EQ2, and the devs should seriously stop trying to make it the same.

At that point they might as well just instance every zone. If you can't heal groups that are engaged in combat, can't attack mobs that are looking in the general direction of other players. What's the point of having open world zones? Hell, convert the game to single player.

Wife and I were excitedly waiting for the ruleset release for the new TLP. We hoped it would be like Mischief's rules with random loot and free trade but with epics tradeable as well. Turns out they went the complete opposite direction? We are disappointed.

Love that they are willing to experiment. Wish they would experiment more in the direction of making the game more solo and casual player friendly.

First point - No, I am against kiting. Learn to read. I am fairly positive it is not a concern because it's not going to be possible.

Second point, the game is still Everquest. Tweaking a couple of bells and whistles or making QoL changes that are as of now isolated to one server is not trying to make the whole game like EQ2. You are cherry picking words.

This is exactly why most of my posts today have been satirical garbage.

Ditch the encounter locking mechanism, adjust the calendar of releases so LDON opens with PoP/LoY, along with the 4 expansions at level 70 releasing all together. Lastly add free trade to it and viola it will be popular.

I have seen more request for a mischief clone than any other TLP. I've been watching the forums for months because I was hoping to get back into EQ this time around. This proposed ruleset has nothing appealing for me.

The free trade/random server has got to be their biggest increase in revenue for a TLP in quite a while. I don't see the harm in another 2 years later.

All those worried it will lower the population of Mischief are making a baffling argument. If they leave for the exact same ruleset just to start over they are obviously looking for a reason to leave the server or just like to progress through the classic content, make new friends, or just have reached their limit of progression. Cant people just do what they enjoy and let DBG make their money...

Another +1 for no free trade suggestion. +1000 to Lucerin for the suggestion of character-based DZ lockouts.

I'm reeeeally skeptical about encounter locking, but I'm willing to at least see it in action before I snub the idea. But honestly? Since landing on Mischief, I'm not sure I would want to play on a server without free-trade now -- that is the single biggest sell you could hand me on this game.

Free Trade for Oakwynd

A fundamental change to how the game works, on a server they've stated they're using to test a feature that could go onto every server, is neither a QoL change, or tweaking a couple bells and whistles.

Honestly, this idea makes me think the original plan was loot boxes and personal loot like they tried on EQ2 and got smacked down for, and this is the emergency replacement idea.

I've seen people claim that they're not doing a mischief clone because it would hurt the population of mischief. Which is funny because that's never bothered them before.

But you can still group with other real players, the rule set might not be for everyone. I like to group with my friends and group with randoms but other than kill stealing and training I rarely actually interact with other groups at the same time as I am fighting mobs.

Hopefully more people try this server and test these features in the event they might go to live. I don't think the first to engage stuff should go to live at all but the EXP bonus for having multiple capped characters, I could see that going live.

Please add free trade, that would make this rule set very fun. Otherwise it seems uninteresting

I chose to pause and consider my feedback before instantly replying with my initial thoughts.

Given that it has now been confirmed on discord that the FTE mechanic will work similar to FD such that if someone FD's or dies they then have 15 seconds to re-agro to maintain the lock we know historically this will be abused via 3rd party bannable software. This happened on ragefire, it will happen again here.

Moving onto the actual ruleset of the server, outside of the boring expansions that dont provide a direct or indirect increase to loot or faction the rewards are meaningless. Experience gain after planes of power is already at a point where by you are capped the day of the next expansion release in terms of levels and AA.

I think what the Dev team needs to do is reconsider the bonuses for some of the expansions, such as omens of war could add a vaniki style resist system to solve caster dps issues. Another idea could be that certain eras have a mischief rule set or no flagging or something a bit more extreme.

My final words on this is that DBG you played it safe, and its back fired! Use your creative muscles and please dare to fail

I have played on most TLP servers over the years. Reading the new ruleset means it kills the dps races - dps races is EQ TLPS - I play TLP Everquest not WoW. Many players play for the dps races.

If at all possible could you do a normal TLP server without the experimental rules for the hardcore TLP players????

If you implement these new rules to every future TLP then pretty sure you will be killing the amount of people that play for open world tlp raids - which will hurt you for income.

Please please please think of doing a second tlp with normal rules and please reassure us that this ruleset wont be on every future TLP - it will be the death of hardcore tlp dps races.



Regards
Laurel (from most tlps)
Teacup (from most tlps)

This is a good thing.

Doing one of each would be nice. If we had the population to sustain either.

This. Plus, drop encounter locking. I'd play that.