For the love of all that's holy please consider the following as you make this special 25th anniversary server ruleset(s): Please release at least two servers. The RMTers will be all over these for their 'jobs' so we need more space. Release one with 'relaxed truebox' and the other straight 'truebox'. 3 toons per comp is reasonable as is one server with the truebox ruleset. No random loot. I think a certain vocal segment of the forums like random loot but imo most players see it as a novelty and not something with a place on a big anniversary server. No FTE. If you enforce your boxing rules (whichever is chosen) that limits the 54 man mage armies. FTE was neat for one server. Fix your bugs before you release something. The recent dupe has basically destroyed the EQ economy across all servers. No telling how many krono are now saved up just waiting to flood a new server. I have my reservations about the server release. TSS release OR release in approx Velious with zerkers and beastlords. Combine the LDON/DON type expacs with the 'big boy' releases like PoP. It makes no sense to destroy servers with boring expacs lasting so long Now for the crazy one: Go back to Play Nice Policy on this server. It's the 25th anniversary. I even played nice with my bride on our 25th. You can do it too! Hire some GMs. Police the servers. You can make money for decades if you just fix the blatant issues. PNP is a good start. Ban the bots. Please.It does you no harm because they just keep coming back but at least make it more difficult for them. If you continue to let the 24/7 farmers in certain zones you basically concede you don't care about what people do in the game.If you continue to let 54 man box teams farm raid loot to sell for RMT, the player base takes that to mean you approve. You know the software they are using. You have resources at your disposal that can fix this problem. Make Norrath .
New server VERY MUCH should have FTE Oakwynd has had less drama than any other server release in the history of EQ and it is not even close.
With the exception of no random loot literally none of these things are going to happen. Especially the PnP. FTE isn't about box armies and never was, it is about reducing CS tickets from squabbling players because CS is their biggest expenditure. There is no way they are looking to increase their CS workforce, they are trying to reduce it. EQ is what it is. It's never going back to the good 'ol days. DPG is doing the best they can with the resources they have. If the current vibe of EQ TLP servers isn't to your liking then this game is likely no longer for you. Suggestions about how to make upcoming servers new and novel, rather than trying to go backwards in time, are far more likely to be productive. Not this server though, they have already decided on what this upcoming server is going to be by now.
What I think would be a lot of fun is remove no trade and all level restrictions on items. It would be a server that never dies.
I'll never understand why but for some reason they really really really don't want people to crush old irrelevant content with over powered alts.
Stop shortening expansions and combining them. It’s been done already. Some of us play EQ because we actually want to play EQ. If someone doesn’t like a particular expansion, they can play less to no ill effect. For people who do enjoy them, the opposite is often not true. We cannot play more as you further shorten expansions and overlap them with other content.
Also ban the bots as the OP suggests. It is rampant, blatant, and ignored on Oakwynd. The same person with multiple 30+ char automated box crews farming each of the elemental planes every night and nothing is done about it.
It's a tricky point. It was super nice for pulling mobs thru other camps that were killing slow. It was nice that you could engage a mob in an OW race and not get zerged out of it by a larger guild with 72 wizards/monks. It was also brutally exploited by people to tag mobs and hold them for up to 10 minutes waiting on their people. It was exploited as people could heal spam you buff you to break FTE. It was exploited by PL bot crews to monopolize entire zones. As mentioned above, the botters monopolized a lot of spawns with armies of automated mages/necros/bards to instant aggro before a mob barely even was visible to human eye. Sure they added a little delay timer to the spawns but that made it even worse where you would get spammed with this is encounter locked message. (im looking at you lodizal) FTE works if they are MUCH quicker and BETTER about banning the botters and finding guild leaders who exploit FTE and give them 2 week IP address suspensions so they can't just log into their other accounts. I don't have faith that this happens. Just let it be the way it always was. If you lose a DPS race, oh well QQ.
I witnessed on Oakwynd this still happening with BOT Mages w/pets able to aggro mob before mob is aggrable (made that word up) for players.
Sad it's still happening...really I left right before Luclin dropped. Seen enough of the botters getting away with whatever...if they haven't worked at all towards fixing it they better not put FTE on another server ever again.
Easy to observe early in PoP in the PoTactics pit as well. Bottlers leave their individual groups in the corners of the pit to level up (and get parchments/ornates to sell while they do it). They’ll frequently agro mobs that are still FTE locked shortly after spawning. I’ve even seen some monks display taunt messages which is impressive.
I won't be using it. Probably not a big loss, one guy with 3 guys who doesn't use 3rd party programs. But within my world, I usually level 2-3 characters preferably on different accounts. A must have a Druid or Enchanter for the next crop of alts [Damage Shield, Heals, SoW, Snares, Debuffs]. FTE breaks this. If I have the alt engage the MOB, no snares, no debuffs, et cetera. Ditto if I have the main pull, automatically prohibit the alt from getting involved. I do question your observations not during the initial phase of Oakwynd, but now after the power levelers have adjusted to FTE. It just made them switch their techniques. Little more then a speed bump. People looking to exploit the system for profit are never more then about a week behind any change. FTE means they can lock down encounters while they get reinforcements, and that is integral to FTE, the way it is supposed to work leads to easier exploitation. I can still do my mischief. Just have to keep the grouping levels right i.e. level 30 power leveling the level 20ish alts, level 45 power leveling the level 30 alts, kind of stuff. Problem is, it is annoying.
I play a druid FTE prevents a druid from being locked out, without FTE does not matter if I get to the mob first they just steal it and out DPS me. With FTE if I win the race there is nothing they can do...Power leveling is a weak argument but /yell makes not hard to overcome the PL issue.
Weak to who? Your game or mine? I've told you how I play and what happens. I seldom, probably less then once a year, get into a DPS race. Two or three times a week I am leveling an alt. Like I said, no big deal, I just won't be playing on any server that features FTE. Only leveled 7 characters there to levels 15-27 I quit there out of frustration with FTE. Basically for me it suffering 100-150 times a year trying to play my favorite style vs maybe an advantage in 1 DPS race. *BUT* there are other shards that don't have FTE, so I just play them for now. Not even sure if I will play a fresh TLP at the moment no matter what the system.
So don't play on FTE servers...I hope all future servers have it...I do not think it should be added to all existing servers, but I can see them putting it on future servers as it does make for a server with less drama and arguments. You obviously want an open license to Kill Steal mob, because that is what you do not like about FTE it stops you from being able to do that. If your issue is truly power leveling just use /yell works like a charm everytime. The only negative I have really seen with FTE is it makes it very hard to grab faction hits , it can still be done it is just not as easy.
You have a problem, more then one. I say I won't be playing a FTE server because it interfers with my play style, You say "Power leveling is a weak argument". Needless language and makes me wonder what rock you crawled out from under. Power leveling is one of the most used features in the game. IMO it is one of the most used reasons for "join a guild because" I tell you I don't run into kill stealers more then once a year and you falsely portray it as a huge problem. That is a problem in the forums, people literally make stuff up and try to lobby DB to waste programmers time fixing problems that aren't there instead of actual issues. I wanted a level locked server. We got Agnarr 7 years ago, I still play it. Check the forum if you wish, in the last sever years I have never asked for another level locked server. I was among those who asked for a server we could box on. We got Rizlona 4 years ago, I still play it. I'm less sure on this, but I'm pretty sure I've never asked for another boxing server. You on the other hand: "hope all future servers have it" I've been playing since 1999, usually with a character "Fluid". You would have to go to the alt.game hierarchy but find a single reference where I have been accused of kill stealing. I said I only see kill stealing maybe once a year. Yet you take time out of your busy schedule to slam me with: "You obviously want an open license to Kill Steal mob, because that is what you do not like about FTE it stops you from being able to do that." You have self control, controlling, and logic issues. You make strawman arguments. Since you don't seem to be terribly informed, I will explain. You make mountain out of a molehill argument out of non existent problem. You can't stand anyone that has a different opinion. When confronted with a different opinion, you start and Ad Homonym attack making false accusations with no basis in fact. I say/infer TWICE "*BUT* there are other shards that don't have FTE, so I just play them" and you tell me "So don't play on FTE servers...I hope all future servers have it..." Great humanitarian there. This is the moral equivalent to saying quit playing TLPs. My way or the highway. Just go away from any thread I am in please. Never respond to me again as when I say the forums have problems that make my participation in them not fun, I am talking about you among others. Look, you could just say 'sorry, hot button topic' or back down in some form. Instead you double down on the insults and crazed position. It does not speak well for you. I'm pretty sure you will come up with another rank making things up, no big deal, I will just block you.
