That's one of the unwritten reasons they wanted to put in FTE, I think. To attempt to lower how much they pay for CS time. The other, after having read the further explanation of FTE I'm absolutely convinced of this now, is that the original intended ruleset of Oakwynd was going to be personal loot, and the lockboxes like they tried on EQ2.
Dev's don't make these decisions. They implement them. Salim got hung over at VG as lead Dev, because of decisions that had to be implemented due to direction from the SOE stock watcher board.
Okay, so where's the "And as such, will be removed when Planes of power is unlocked."? Those 12 words would get rid of a significant amount of peoples issues with encounter locking.
I mean the fairly easy read-between-the-lines answer to that is basically right there if you've been around the last few years. That lots of people here would apparently just prefer to pretend it didn't happen or doesn't exist wasn't ever going to make it go away though.
Or it could be that they want to let the random loot servers that they set up to test the idea finish their life cycle.
I'm not sure why people have this weird idea that this company cares even a little bit about letting servers finish their life cycle. Basically every bit of evidence proves that they'll drop a new server and not really worry about the previous iterations.
You don't think they care about determining how an experimental rule set will do throughout the life cycle of a TLP server instead of just at the beginning of it?
Judging by the fact that Phinny was an experiment in truebox, and they decided to drop a new server with extremely similar rules the next year? Nope. I have seen no proof whatsoever that they are interested in anything other than dangling classic->PoP to the group of people who hate new things.
I think Mischief is different though. Probably for a few reasons. Mischief still has a high population and the krono flows freely. Firiona Vie is one of the most populated live servers and happens to be free-trade also. Probably DPG knows that free-trade is nowhere near as popular as a certain very vocal group would like to think it is, a few good servers popular, yes, but make default ruleset popular, no. Meaning they know it's not enough people to keep Mischief and FV high pop while also releasing another free-trade server. I'm pretty sure DPG knows that a new free-trade server would be very popular, but they also know that it would directly hurt those other cash cow servers, and not get any of the people that don't like free-trade at all, because it's a very polarizing ruleset.
On Free Trade servers, there arre a few select items (like epics, I believe) that still remain "no trade", even with free trade. What they're saying is that any "no trade" item...*that isn't specifically part of this small group of items*...will also be heirloom.
I don't think that true box is considered the same as an entire new loot system. True box just limited how many accounts you could play on a single computer.
With the Legacy aspect, there is an intent to have new characters on the server even after PoP unlocks. Those new characters would still be in zones without instancing so why would they remove it? It's easier to have it server-wide than only affecting some zones.
Oakwynd is going to have the MOST rmt ever. Casuals won't really use the leveling + lockouts but you can bet your that all the hardcore people will. If you think mischief was bad wait until you see how much raid loot is being sold from classic - pop.
With /yell, I think that makes the "training" trackable...as in, if you /yell the mobs, it shows intent. FD by itself would just put the mobs back to (or towards) their spawn point. As someone who once had Naggy trained on him in the Stone Spider room, I am curious as to proximity damage of non-combatants. Would Naggy's AE hit me if someone trained him into my camp if I am not allowed to engage him?
These mental gymnastics are impressive. You start out by actually admitting that FV and Mischief are the 2 most populated servers available and then immediately follow that up with "DBG knows they aren't actually popular it's just a group of vocal forums posters are somehow inflating those server numbers" Also I can't draw a line as to why DBG would prefer a subscriber to stay on a server until it hits live. Their first priority would be to maintain them as a customer period, with additional preferability of those customers rerolling on the new tlp where bag/potion purchases are much more plentiful. Even from a hardware perspective offloading some of the players on to mischief would probably end up being a net gain, as it would finally allow them to consolidate TB. It's obvious you hate free trade with an outlandish passion, but to think them opening another one wouldn't be a massive success monetarily and server population wise is laughable.
I suspect this is an experiment, too, in having new characters being created even as the server progresses. One of the complaints about any server, especially for new players, is how empty the low level zones are, especially the classic zones. With a significant portion of the player base only in the upper levels, it can be discouraging for new players or even returning players. Recycling TLP players are actually expensive because it requires a lot of IT time in addition to any development time for the differences on the servers. Having a continuing server with a population spread intended for a longer run and, potentially, giving a new avenue to have more population spread on the Live servers is actually a good idea economically. Part of me wants to start on Oakwynd on day 1 because that has a certain "newness" energy, but it might actually be better for players who aren't in it just for a chase to max to start as a second or later wave.
This. Also I don't really care about free trade, I just want random loot. Doesn't even have to be random loot for raids! Just tired of all the good camps being camped by Krono farmers.
And as the most populated servers there will be issues merging the two into each other like they normally do with a TLP when it reaches live. That means it is even more critical to see how the server does as it approaches live so that they can ensure they handle the transition from a TLP to a live server properly. And as has been said there is a big difference between limiting how many accounts can be run on a computer and a new loot system designed for an entire server.
So to help alleviate the issuee of merging those servers it would be best to recycle that ruleset so as to pull some of the players onto the new server prior to the merge. Be even better to pull them onto a fresh TLP so they keep the subs going and bag money flowing in. If you wait until after the merge, and it really screws with people's characters you run the risk of alienating them and losing them as customers.
