An Experimental Year in TLPs

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Cildar, Mar 12, 2023.

  1. Faydra Augur


    Easily. I've always been surprised that they didn't double down on the bag sales since it must be such a huge part of the annual TLP revenue and people would actually buy them. It's not game breaking and makes the experience more enjoyable, win-win for both sides, makes zero sense to me.
  2. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    And how many live players are also jumping on the new TLP each year? It is impossible for us to make a guess at the income breakdown.
    Skuz and code-zero like this.
  3. Court Elder

    I don’t know how many of these are feasible, but just trying to think outside the box.

    - Dungeon Crawl Server - All zones are instanced for groups, with achievements of clearing each dungeon. Somewhat LDoN style.

    - Secondary Class - Probably not doable, but giving each class a skill tree to pick some attributes to utilize from another class.

    - Loot Merchants - Instead of mobs dropping items, they drop points/currency and you can access a merchant to buy the loot you want instead of farming it. Gets rid of people locking down spawns for Krono.

    - Quest & Achievement Exp Gain - Quests and Achievements, including trade skill achievements, give significantly more exp than mobs. Promotes exploration and whatnot. Although on Live this is pretty much the case for current leveling with task completion.

    - Zone-Wide Exp - Everyone in the current zone gains a portion of exp per mob killed, but the group that kills it still gets the larger %. Potentially adds more zone-wide collaboration and cuts down on PL Krono lords.

    - Random Mob Spawns - Similar to random loot, but you have no clue what mob will respawn in place of the one just killed. Pop a Permafrost DZ for Vox and get Phinny instead.

    - ALL / ALL Items - Every item is usable by every race/class combo. Is the old school BiS list still BiS now? Wizards can now use Blade of Carnage, not that they would really want to.

    Obviously not all of these are likely, but I wanted to throw out something different than just the “Mischief clone” everyone seems to be calling for.
  4. Triconx Augur

    Delusional
    Skuz likes this.
  5. Dmitry Elder

    I like "New Technology to enforce truebox" server best so far.
  6. Vindar Augur


    Yea I'd wager you have no clue what you're talking about. There are plenty of TLP servers which aren't live, but they are in expansions in which the recyclers never play. It's not so simple as to break it down into recyclers vs live players, when there are tons in between. Why did Yelinak do so poorly? Because people are tired of this same boring server which has already been repeated numerous times.
  7. Crabman Augur

    Jchan said in an interview (pre mischief launch) with a twitch streamer that tlp launches and expansion releases make "about the same amount of money." She also added that it wasnt always obvious what was being bought for which server.
    Vindar likes this.
  8. Tweakfour17 Augur

    What part of that could extend to Live? If you think they are going to bring Truebox to live you're very very wrong
  9. Zansobar Augur

    I sure hope they can separate my purchase of the deluxe version of the new expansion every year for the use of the bags that come with it on the TLP server from some schmoe that plays the live game.
  10. Lejaun Augur

    Partially, but also because Mischief was so popular. Fewer people rerolled to Yelinak than normal because so many loved Mischief’s rule set. Creating a “plain” server after a blockbuster caused it to be a relative dud in popularity. We are also reentering times when many have to go back to the office.

    COVID was a massive boon for Aradune and Mischief with so many people home and able to play while at work.
  11. Dmitry Elder

    The part where they detect third party programs.
  12. Kahna Augur


    You really think that they would only develop third party detection for a single TLP? That they would base an entire TLP's theme on that and maybe move it to live? Hun, if they were spending the time, money and resources on developing some magical super third party detection it's going to go on everything. But they aren't. Because most boxers on live (aka most live players) use at least "the most acceptable but still not namable third party program" and detecting on live would literally destroy the entire game.

    DPG is more likely to set fire to their headquarters building and dance around the flaming husk.
    Appren, Stymie and Tweakfour17 like this.
  13. Kahna Augur

    If I had to take a wild stab in the dark as to what "experimental and maybe moved to live" means I would think they might do something like WoW does. Togglable PvP with an exp bonus for toggling it on.

    No, I am not a PvP fangirl. I think EQ PvP is stupid. But it is a novel-ish thing that would require minimal resources, just installing an "Un-PvP Method" and figuring out how to give an exp bonus to PvP flagged folks, which shouldn't be too difficult. It would be a decent enough theme for a TLP and it could be ported to live if popular enough.
  14. coltongrundy Augur

    There are some weapons with really nutty ratios that only exist because they are restricted to classes that are not melee DPS classes and cannot dual wield.
    Imagine if Monks could equip Cudgel of Venomous Hatred, a 1hb with 1.6 ratio, during Planes of Power.
    Or if Rangers could use Hopebringer
  15. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    It's not that simple either.

    "What works" for a TLP is very hard to nail down completeley successfully because it is a paradigm that is constantly shifting, some things will work others won't and as more things are tried there is also a build up of knowledge of things players didn't like when they tried it (or in many cases only read about it) before, even if a new riff on it is far better that old knowledge will form a lingering bias against it. And things which players did like will form a lingering favoritism. And what each player liked & disliked is different so even there is boils down to monitoring trends to see what most players enjoyed, if they even do that empirically.

    And "timing" matters, every new ruleset could work out badly depending on what else is going on, Miragul did badly (aside from the truebox hamstringing it), it might have been too high level for a TLP when teh max level was what it was, later on when they cap is much higher & players have played TLP 1-80 many times already then an 85 start might be way more attractive - this is just one example. Plenty would be interested in a TSS start right now for example.

    It isn't quite pot-luck either, some things the devs know for certain are going to be dead-in-the-water, but a whole lot is basically trying to find a bunch of stuff that become more than the sum of their parts when put together the right way.
  16. Mattling Elder

    You have to judge changes from their perspective. Sure, it's a passion project for some but it's also a business looking to maximize revenue.

    Right now, at least on the TLP scene, the game is losing a large chunk of potential revenue to these power levelers. Literally half of the active population on Yelinak these days are PLers or people using their service.
    I also feel like this a large reason why TLPs die off as quick as they do. People see the server in GoD or later and realize they have 65+ levels and 200+ AAs to just catch up with the pack and they lose interest. Servers need constant, new blood in order to survive.

    So what do I think it is?

    A bunch of cash shop items that give instant access to end game content. A max level item boost, an item that grants a certain amount of AAs, don't want to do the VP key but still want to run it with your guild? For 1000 store cash, we'll give you access to VP.
  17. Kragin Augur

    Pvp tlp inc
  18. Gemstoner Elder

    Having read the other thread and the recent changes in EQ2 I'd bet that the experiment will be to add a personal loot system to raids in EQ.

    It makes some sort of sense for a tlp server in that it would solve some of the problems that tlp's have regarding lockout timers with raids vis a vis the shorter calendar time between expansion releases than occurred in the actual expansion schedules.

    My rough understanding of the EQ2 personal loot update is that it allows you to reset your personal loot drop from a raid encounter without resetting the raid regular loot drops lockout (and I guess in EQ would also unlock your zone entry lockout). So basically you'd be able to run the raid again and get at least a personal loot drop, but you couldn't access the raid target regular loot drop.

    The unlock items are store bought but can also drop in the raid, presumably from your personal loot drop. For unlocked personal loot drops you have a 33% for a gear drop from the raid, so presumably if you don't get a gear drop you would have a chance for another unlock item and/or other stuff like I dunno, gems and stuff to drop. You can also expend more unlocks to up the odds and get more rolls, including a guaranteed gear drop with 3 unlocks expended (plus 2 other rolls with a 50% chance).

    In EQ of course there'd be no easy way to restrict an unlocked person from the regular loot drops unless they changed the entire raid loot drop system.

    OR

    It could just be a raid lockout unlock item sold in the store. No loot changes needed.

    My bet is on some sort of personal loot system though so that even people that don't spend money get at least that first extra personal loot item.


    Here's the EQ2 forum thread about it from March 13th, interesting reading.

    https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...ate-in-renewal-of-ro-heroic-iii-zones.609334/
  19. KobalWR Lorekeeper

    What about a server with special events, like in the old days?
    Shouldnt be too complicated to spawn a big new mob or two in East Karana and message the server about the new event that is going on.
    That's something that could be introduced on live servers too.
  20. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    That seems like a waste of the limited resources we have to make content for a single server that can and should be experienced by all