Side-kicking is a system that was used in the MMORPG "City of Heroes" to allow lower level players to join a higher level player in groups & for both to be rewarded for doing so, or at least for the Mentor to not be punished for helping a lowbie out. For a more complete explanation see the link below: https://cityofheroes.fandom.com/wiki/Sidekick#:~:text=Sidekicking raises the lower character's,mentor to retain this effect. The reason I never shut up about it is because I think it would plug an enormous gulf in the EverQuest game and allow new players to experience what EQ was actually built for, that being the experience of cooperative PvE gameplay. The current state of the game is such that players who start EQ must either spend a very long time, months, alone in order to reach the point where they can actually play at a level where almost the entire playerbase is playing on a live server, or they must wait and "catch the wave" of a new TLP launch - where almost everyone is an already very experienced EQ player unlike them. Since making a solo-content path through EverQuest is likely unaffordable & flies in the face of the whole concept EQ was built around the game needs to put players back where actual grouping is happening, and the sidekicking system can do that where nothing else can. Such a system would also make TLP MORE viable since catching up would become much easier even on the faster-paced TLP indeed it would allow players to join a TLP at any point in its journey & jump right in where the bulk of the playerbase is at. The downside is of course the initial investment required since it is a more complex system than "static" temporary-fix solutions like Heroics, but it could pay off over time, it could certainly pay off in the time it takes for an EQ3 to be built & launched and in the process earn back the initial investment.
City of Heroes, those were the days. I do agree with you, though. There is a place for mentoring that would help new and returning players. Perhaps the Persona is EQ's kind-of-answer for that. Want to help that new guy out? That returning player? Swap to a persona.
I read through the wiki page for the side kick system. I could see something like the current shroud except instead of switching to a monster with a bunch of AA they roll you as a temp character using the same code they use for beta. Use whatever FTP tier gear is available for the level range, then flag everything as no drop/temp. It would take a lot of work to implement and only help a small percentage of the player base.
EQ original already has mentoring. It is very simple. 1. New player/potential new player comes to forum to ask how to go about catching up/getting back into game. 2. Forum mentors them on tank merc until 70, heroic characters, TAs, Overseer.
I'd be happy with an NPC to decrease my level, keep my gear but scale it to changed level and lowered my damage output. I don't want shrouds 2, I still want to be the class I am now.
How does the scaling work? Do you us your level 120 items /spells/abilities and the DPS or Heals are just scaled by some fixed percentage based on the level ? or maybe caped to some max ? Personally I'd rather they just remove level requirements altogether and let the 120 straight up group with the level 1.
Agreed 100% Side kicking is the best answer to one of the biggest problem in live EQ: the massive gulf between a leveling player and the playerbase. Most returning players without a community to carry them is looking at 100 hours of miserable gameplay to get to a point where they can expect to organically group with other players.
City of Heroes was a lot of fun when it came out. It had some innovative ideas for the time, and the character creation process was incredible.
A waste of time. At this point, there aren't any real new players of any consequence. Veteran's know the catch-up game - get a PL, sell a krono to buy what gear you can, app to guild. Want to make that easier? Add mercs at the start and use FV / Mischief loot rules. Next 'problem'?
See, I want to say this is a very negative outlook, but honestly it's kind of right. Unfortunately, the other only game set in Norrath with the same lore and general worldsetting is also in a very similar state. EQ3 becoming a reality and maybe being a more welcoming fresh start/story driven experience is a pretty good idea, hopefully it gains traction.
Side-kicking would have been great back when the game was more populated. It would have helped keep a stream of newbies coming into EQ. But now, it's too late. All the high level players have come up ways to deal with not having newbies coming into the game. Even if a complete, side-kicking implementation dropped out of sky tomorrow, I'm not sure how receptive the high level players would be. There are lots of posts from players who say they don't group with randos because they are not playing to the 99th percentile of their class's potential. I would think a side-kick player would generally be sub-optimal. I would think a high-level player would stick with their boxed character or guild rather than taking on a side-kick. Grouping with a side-kick would be more for charity to the side-kick rather than actually wanting the side-kick in the group. And even for the side-kick player, I'm not sure that it would help them all that much. It's not like pickup groups happen all that often. They may be waiting around a long time before they could join a group, and then it might just last a short time. If side-kicks were in from the start, then I could see a viable side-kick community developing as the population thinned out. But now the population is too thin that I don't think it could gain the necessary traction to be viable at this point.
There may not be many new players but there have been a ton of returning players and it would make things a lot easier if there was some sort of mentoring system that would allow those of us who are max level/max AA to help those who have returned after several years or even decades away from the game. EQ is a very difficult game to pick up after a long lay off and they have not done enough to make that a less painful process for any new or returning players. Actually marketing the game and maybe adding it to Prime Gaming like they did with Planetside 2 would be a good idea too.
