Which is also why that content requires a paid account. Alot of the restrictions are more likely to stop a person who doesn't have money for 6 accounts to play and needs to box to help the single paid account because the population is so low. I kind of wish they had a middle tier level for accounts associated with a paid account (silver doesn't really get anything that helps them play). This is like letting someone have a more powerful merc that they control, maybe even restrict it to 2 connected accounts so they can run a full team (2 mule accounts get 75% power of full prestige and full powered mercs) when noone else is grouping on the server. Lets face it they really just need to merge servers because some of them have noone who will group, they all just play with themselves. I mean really I don't know a single person who I have played with that didn't box at least 1 other toon so they can solo since rarely do people group. I know what the grouping population on my server was because i quit during ToV and now the grouping is completely dead. And peopel can say whatever they want about me but I have talked with multiple people and they all were talking about jumping servers to try to find something better. The feedback I got from most people was bristlebane is the only server you can randomly go LFG and find a group in under 2-3 hours. Please just merge servers!
Server merges are not the answer. Merging two servers which have no PUG's just means you'd have a large server with no active PUGs. The only viable solution I can think of is something similar to WoW where you can do cross server , random, instanced missions.
That is what I don't understand about everquest. We don't need multiple servers anymore. Just merge them all together. Every single zone in the game can be instanced with pick zones. So it can already account for everyone being on the same server. But I do agree that at least for instances why not allow everyone to group together? The only restriction they would need to add is no trading between people in the same instance if they don't want cross server trading.
I've often wondered why the "community" doesn't just decide on a destination server (or 3) and vote with their feet.
I would not group any more with this scenario than I do now. We do need multiple servers. Sorry you don't understand. Originally there were too many players for a single server to host, then the number of players started to decline so they did server merges. They may do so in the future. But, now I doubt everyone would fit on one server. I am sure the folks on AB do not want to play on the Vegas server. And I am sure the folks on FV do not want to give up their server rules. Progression servers are for players who like the nostalgia of starting on a new server where everyone is level 1, and everyone is LFG Server merges will not increase grouping since some players are just stagnant and no one would group with them anyway.
Except for the fact that we have seen TLP server launches with server problems due to the server population getting over what the servers can handle. If that problem could ever be solved maybe you could talk about merging all the non special rules servers into a single one. However you would still be left with FV, Zek and AB (since it is located overseas) and all the TLP servers. Because of that they might not see the worth of merging the non special rules live servers into a single one. Not to mention the issue of character slots and how many the combined server would need to support for players with every server having maxed out character slots.
Excellent point about the character slots since all the free Heroics that were given out over the years and just otherwise players using all the slots available then it would be a problem.
So, you want to have financial incentive to box but currently no one will group with you because they're all boxing? How would merging servers change "they all just play with themselves"?
Anyone starting the game has 25 years of content, anyone returning has the same content and can start where they were or return to the start. It is easy with a merc to get to at least 70, by then they should have made friends to progress further. Also at that point they should be considering if they want to pay a sub.
We can debate anything we want but simple fact is the game is dying. My server got merged during my 2 year break and it went from plenty of random people to group with to noone.
Why not? It is a pretty good model and games like fortnite make a ton off of it. We need more players for EQ but it sounds like everyone is happy with the game slowly dying because we aren't getting any bigger here. Maybe noone really cares and will be happy with the slow death of the game. The other option is looking for ways to get new people to try the game and the current FTP system will run anyone who is new to the game away.
Everquest already has one of the best free to play models out there and we don't need players who are not willing to pay to play. Players that are really new to the game can get by without prestige gear and the other things that they can't do as they level up and decide if they want to continue to play.
I am sure everyone out is out there will just love leveling from 0-100 solo, You of course have been playing this game a very long time and know everything about old content so it isn't so hard to do if you were to start a new account from scratch but in the real world it isn't so simple. I join new player channel when i play alot of times and I don't see a ton of real new people but even some of the ones I saw who used to play up to the level 70ish area didn't stay very long due to frustrations even with me trying to help them from time to time. The only time I see people stay around is when they have a RL friend and they always have someone to group with while playing. I can't speak for other servers so this is just what I have seen on luclin.
F2P has nothing to do with the lack of players at the 1-100 level range and you can get a lot of that doen without needing to subscribe for prestige gear. None of the issues you are talking about have to do with the F2P limitations and they will still run into issues as they level up because the limited number of players they can group with.
Then I guess you are missing the point here. Trying to find ways to keep people from leaving because the more people we lose the less people we have to group with and the more people that keep leaving or dying. You have those people who pay for 6 accounts and box them all using... help. I am sure every server has alot of them and I know tons of people who do it. I know some of them at least would prefer a real group with people because they can play them manually but even when grouped they have said they use it because it is boring and nothing is going on.
Your complaints are a lack of players to play with at low levels to help someone to catch up and changing how F2P works isn't going to fix that.
At this rate, I am surprised the "we need everything for free" posters haven't started complaining that the TLP servers require an All Access account.
