2017 Summer New Progression Server Ruleset?

From the December producers letter: "The team is talking through possible rule sets for a new progression server for those players who missed the start of Ragefire, Lockjaw, and Phinigel, and we’re considering mid-2017 for our next server."

I wonder if it is a bit early for this, but it's not that out of range of my own personal stated belief that you let progression servers get at least to OoW before launching new ones.

I'm going to go with "Daybreak knows their internal numbers and this makes sense to maximize profits and keep us playing". It's their job to do that after all.

So then the actual question is "What ruleset(s) are they considering?

-a pvp ruleset would have minimal impact on current progression servers, and could be worth a try. I would hope some stated thresholds (i.e., if population goes low it merges into Zek with haste or something). I'm just not sure enough people really want this to justify it as a "lone launch".

-A Phinny 2.0 is probably the safest bet. If the xp rate is going to be "classical" I'd put 4 month eras instead of 3. Otherwise, I'd boost the xp rate a tad. This would probably take some numbers from the current servers... but maybe that's the people that are attritioning off right now anyways?

-A racing to unlock server (like Sleeper/Combine where beating the objectives set the short timer to unlock the next expac) would also probably work well. This caters to open-world raiders that want to contest stuff. It probably takes a few heavy raid guilds from current, but minimal of the more laid-back crowd.

-an era-locked or going to be era-locked ruleset might work. I think it risks the same low-pop low interest reality that pvp could have. It would almost need to have old FV rules like one character, and loot code (tradable nodrop) to foster a more immersive, everyone knows everyone kind of community. I think you have to very carefully choose the lock era too... Velious might be the way to go here, though personally I could do this into OoW if there was others playing it.

What other variations do people have thoughts on?

Whatever the new ruleset is, it should be true box.

I think making a real prog pvp is a massive risk on their part. It would be a lot safer to make a quarm event pvp and see how that goes IMO.

first thing i thought when i saw that was what the fuckity ? let the damn current ones go.

but then i thought, wait, summer 17? thats exactly when phinny will be hitting the god/oow bundle that many players are upset about. so this pretty much seals the fact it wont be changing for phinny.

but look! come play on our new server with a different ruleset, which if i had to bet, will include no bundling

I think it should be boxing without artificial assistance programs, specifically, input cloning. But they'll never do that because it would require effort to enforce.

But whatever it is, I suspect it will be something that could or should have been implemented on existing servers, but wasn't, forcing players to start over. Just liking instancing on a new server when players were asking for it in the buildup to RF/LJ; and it could be anything else, like all-tradeable loot, which could be used to enhance RF/LJ/Phinigel but they wouldn't do it - everyone has to start over.

But this is nothing new; they've never allowed players to vote on the minutiae of rulesets for TLP. Every poll I remember from the last TLP rounds has written limited vote questions that force someone to express a vote on one topic or another. Choosing one denies a player the ability to express a vote on another. I could easily see a vote question like:

Do you want:
A. FV rules
B. Faster expansion unlocks
C. Slower unlocks
D. True box code

Whereas in reality, tradeable loot, unlock speed, boxing, should all have their own individual polls for the community to vote on.

Heres an idea!

Lets make a progression server with lockjaw/ragefire xp, but otherwise identical to phinny. Obviously that would be the best server.

It does to someone like me who played on Fippy but did not get in on any of the 3 servers this round. I don't want to start up now and be the guy in guild chat begging for help with epic pieces in PoH, PoS, or other Kunark/Velious progression stuff I feel is necessary for my character when PoP is launching.

Instead you'll be coming to the forums to complain about the competition and camping of those epic pieces. The lockouts/spawn timers in turn make it so most don't get their epic until SoV anyways. Most epics are trash even in SoL right now prior to the release of PoP with the exception of small benefits from Enc, Cleric, and a few others. If you indeed never played or it has been many years since you played Classic +, you might enjoy it for a bit.

Phinny with some quality of life enhancements like click from bags. I could get behind that.

I think prathun once hinted that they could remove focus effects and downgrade spells etc. It could be a possibility. I think it would be interesting for them to put in old style research. The runes / pages / words still drop. I think there are lots of non ruleset type options available. I guess they could consider corpse runs but they'll probably realize people cry too much now and wouldnt like it.

I don't see them going this route given the current staffing levels. Corpse runs were a customer service nightmare, and still will be. Just this week people posted about losing corpses in instances and having to eat the xp loss, add in losing all your gear in that scenario and DBG's hit or miss petition responses and the outrage would be through the roof.

Just make sure all krono is forbidden on the server forever, and people will happily play there, forever. It requires an all-access subscription anyway, so you don't need to "add more time".

Tru box ftw, just like phin.

pvp would be brutal, and probably drive the price of raid items through the roof.

Unless someone is so casual that they are satisfied killing lower value non-loot mobs, going back to Classic is just an exercise in getting KSed, or outzerged if you raid, etc. It's nuts- the problems that are inherent in Classic-Velious, people don't want to play anymore once we get to the expansions that relieve it. It might be fun for the KSers/dps-race-zergers but I can't believe that the trampled-ons are having fun, yet they are the ones most arguing for that era.

p.s i love the idea of pvp, but that server's population would probably fail

no krono's sound interesting. would probably keep the value of items low

no krono, confirmation requirements for more than one instance of eq per IP. No boxing!
Most everything else has been done several times before.

No krono, classic / original content, fv loot rules, truebox, ragefire xp, no unlock races.

If there was a way to enable all classes from the start with classic content, that would rock (ie. you could create a woodelf beastlord or barbarian zerker but shar val beast & zerker epics would have to wait until SoL/GoD).

You guys are fooling yourself if you think DBG will even consider a no krono server.

true, how else would they make their money, progression servers literally boost the sales of krono