Is Oakwynd Already a Ghost Town? My First TLP Experience is a Major Letdown

No metric would ever satisfy one that is emotionally invested in finding fault with FTE.

For example, there's a thread about Oakwynd 'dipping to medium' population with the included rhetoric that the server was a waste of resources. In actuality the server dipped to medium for one hour on a Wednesday @ 5AM EST and using the provided statistical data the dip was more likely to be a server blip. Thereafter the metric provided by the Oakwynd opposition was shrugged off as it remained high for 7 more days and it could no longer fit their untrue narrative. The opposition now argues that it remains 'high' because of 'boxes'.

"high" population is a very large range. I've play on most TLPs. This one does not have the hustle and bustle feel all the others did. Popular zones have a fraction of the picks other TLPs had. It's not the end of the world, so long as you understand it's a niche server and do your best to make friends/build relationships in your guild. Going it alone is going to be much harder on this server.

I actually noticed that after about 2-3 days when it first opened. I'm a casual player so I typically trade in lower-level items. On other TLPs I used to make decent plat, but this year the market was bare. There was no interest in mats for trade skills nor even quest items you could resell. All I saw was Krono traders trading amongst themselves. I logged on a couple more times after that to see if things would change, but it never did so I left the server to play on the other TLPs instead.

And they are playing in order to sell it to other players but I don't think they are the majority of the population.

Insane that Kronos are 3500pp less than a month in...all the good PP spots must be on pure farm mode.

I think I recall that on Coirnav, Kronos were only like 2000pp entering VELIOUS! Good times.

I don't have any agenda or a dog in this fight and I haven't played much on the server - maybe 5 hours total and I'm only level 12. But on Saturday afternoon around 3 to 5 pm Central Time I spent a couple hours in EC Tunnel. Just casual observation and no scientific proof or anything, but the auction chatter was WAY WAY less than other TLP servers I have played around 2 to 3 weeks in. This could be for any of the reasons postulated above. But, the lack of trade was palpable. Finding groups in Crushbone were about as one would expect from the levels 6 to 12 grind... mind you I'm a couple weeks late from where most of the population is at by now. My casual observation seems inline with the OP's.

With at least five full or nearly full general chat channels every night, yeah it sure does feel like a ghost town /s.

I've never seen so many boxers. So a lot of groups running dungeons are actually 1 person so when it comes to EC auctions it does feel less busy compared to some other TLP's.

They've made a new server every year since 2019. After 4 years in a row, even the most diehard Truebox enthusiast classic head has to get bored of killing Naggy Vox and classic planes.

Do something awesome for the anny server next year, then give it rest.

Within the timeframe that I play (which is excessive, although EST) doing a search on my logs, auction channel since I joined maxed at 22 messages per minute, averaged an ad per 2-3 minutes and continues on that trend in recent days.

In fact if we look at just the time since I logged on after my wife's appointment today, it's been 4 min logged in and over a dozen auction lines.

I question your sampling being real rather than "feels".

And mind you, even if there is a downward drift (because classic gear really doesn't hold much value for the wise, since only a handful of items have ANY value the minute Kunark opens) it's not super atypical in the back half of an expansion.

Not to mention Heirloom psych changes etc too.

And how much auction chatter there is at any given time doesn't mean as much as you seem to think it does.

I got one, paid with krono vs paid monthly membership

Lets lay a timeline out so its a bit easier for people to understand, I seem to be hitting some impenetrable wall.

• I played Live Server: 2000 to 2004: Everquest felt alive
• I played a sprinkling of Live during Covid: March to July, 2019: Everquest was on life support
• I started and play actively from: June 11th to June 13th: Everquest felt alive (Including chat)
• I hopped on June 18th & 19th: I felt there was a huge decline from that previous weekend

Using this information, it feels like there was a significant amount of drop off. I have always used the market to judge how active and alive a game is.

That doesn't sound like a good dataset and I would disagree with Everquest being on life support during the covid timeframe.

This is an "interesting" response to my comment. I didn't make a judgement call on my observation. I simply looked in one direction and said, "I see less trees in that direction." It doesn't mean I hate or love trees. I'm simply making an observation. Do you hate or love the trees, Waring? Or do you simply just like to post a lot?

I was going off 2000 - 2004 data, not 2010 - 2019 data, I do understand your perspective.

2000-2004 and your memories of Everquest back then are not relevant to the success or failure of a new TLP server in 2023.

People are claiming that the server is dead because of chat/auction activity while the server status is showing a high population level. It isn't hard for people to be playing the game and not worrying about selling items in various auction channels or the EC tunnel.

The server is active, engagement is way, way down. It is like a hollow pumpkin.