I personally Like the idea of the new box server starting in Luclin with toons starting out as 51/50, geared in defiant armor. Positive - any of our friends would be able log on after not playing eq for several years and instantly be able to group with any max lvl person on the server with out fear of their gear causing a detrimental effect on the group they are joining. note: defiant armor will Not drop. any 51/50 created toon will have nodrop defiant armor as a starter baseline _Discuss_
Hmmm.....Defiant armor is better than anything that era can produce....Defiant gear would be to op.....you literally wouldnt need anything and could easily mow things down to get your aa's No reason to raid, no reason for a economy.... Your idea of starting at a later era than classic though could be a good idea. I would rather start at level 1 instead of 50. We could do a SOL or a POP launch at level 1. Everyone coming back would be on the same playing field that everyone else would be on if they start at the beginning. We would have a lot of leveling up options with that amount of content. With some guilds doing a progression through each expansion, while other guilds would probably skip what they could to get into POP. A lot of different options for everyone. I personally would double the time for the next expansion to unlock. This would let guilds get caught up through a lot of content, but than after that, just do the normal 90-60 day unlocks. I would set the xp rate based on the Mangler server which seems to be the right amount of time to level. To make it different and give it a point from the other servers would be to give it a different rule set, just something small to make it different. Good examples are PVP, non-truebox, Freetrade (FV no no drop). Im not advocating for any rule set , just giving examples. Defiant armor would not be one of those though as that would be out of era and would be game breaking.
Luclin start is fine but 51/50 is both irrelevant and unnecessary. They should keep the first non-truebox server as basic as possible, no extra rules or unusual rulesets or they won't be able to judge if the non-truebox portion helps or hurts. Maybe the 51/50 will kill population? Maybe not? No one can know. I will say that both the other two "advanced-start" servers--the original 51/50 and now Miragul--were collossal flops compared to anything else that started within 5 years either direction of them.
Pop with LDoN unlocked for the start, make GoD take like 4-5 months to unlock. This will let people level in whatever zones they like and even in LDoN dungeons. It's also the point that a lot of other TLPs die because POP->GoD is normally a 6 month wait, if everyone is leveling and gearing fresh in that time it could be more fun.
Advanced start would be nice - honestly though, I'd like to see a server start at Kunark. I haven't "grouped" thru low level kunark since it came out 20 years ago. And maybe make outdoor zones viable again!! Killing at the giant fort in FM was some fun stuff.
The outdoor zones aren't any less viable now than they were 20 years ago, we were just more willing to put up with lower xp rates.
I agree that outdoor zones were viable back in the day somewhat because people tolerated it - but there was also only 1 pick of any dungeon, corpse runs, no maps (in game) - you could spend half a day trying to get a dungeon camp only to lose your corpse. Low outdoor zone ZEMs were ok because they were wayyyy safer and easier to get to. Now - theres almost always camps open, no CRs, maps that will freaking leave cookie crumbs for you...outdoor zones aren't viable.
51/50 would be fine for a POP start, maybe, but I think the data probably rightly shows that it's a loser compared to a more traditional start. The idea of a level 1 start in LDoN definitely has me interested. LDoN is content I've never experienced, and a lot of us have only seen it from the perspective of maxed out characters on the end of POP. It would make for an interesting new leveling experience for a new server. Unfortunately the issue there is that people just don't seem to like the content that follows, so the server might have an inordinately short lifespan.
Nah myself & others have floated an additional Catch-up system though Start in classic Unlock option for 51/50 with PoP Unlock option for level 70 with TSS unlock (character with aa up to TSS) Unlock option for Heroic 85 with HoT Unlock Unlock option for Hero 100 with EoK unlock
you guys do not get it the silent majority of tlp players want a classic start at lvl 1 with the adrenalin rush to lv50 and the no bazaar plus the tradeskill the new guilds the new friends etc.
