Are TLP Servers Moving Too Fast? (Proposed Server Idea)

anyone who thinks tlps are too fast have never played through the 70s on a tlp

People are going to quit and population will decline no matter what rules are used. there is no magic formula that will keep people playing on your favorite server forever and ever.

Thing is they'll still drop in population massively after a year due to new annual TLP launch.

Try 90+ Pretty slow. VoA seemed particularly slow.

Have you ever thought that it's not the experience rate that you hate, but rather it is the idea of catching up to a particular expansion and beyond that you dread?

The thing is, there is no way to fix that issue with out starting over with new content made specifically for old Everquest rather than current Live Everquest, and we all know that isn't going to happen.

So, we live with the idea of playing on a new TLP server for a year or two each time before hopping on the next one. It's just how it is with Everquest, and it will continue until one of two things happens. Either another company will come along and make a game that appeals to the old school Everquest gamers OR the current owners of the Everquest IP make a new Everquest to replace the TLP experience.

My money is on neither ever happens, and customers either die off, give up, or get so burned out on never getting what the want that they end up leaving the hobby all together. No matter which happens, it's a lose lose situation for everyone.

Would love a server like this. Wasn't mangler originally supposed to be much more "hardcore"?

I'm still hoping that Pantheon will be the game I've been waiting for.

We've done the longer expansion unlocks before and they sucked. No one wants to spend 18 months in Dragons, Depths and Prophecy. 2 months was already too long in Dragons.

I think you've taken everything that people hate about the servers and rolled them into one proposed ruleset.

There may not be a way to fix it, but there is a better way to handle it. They could increase the ease of people getting into the older TLP servers.

Potential Examples (adjust or scale as needed):

- Sell a flag to boost base XP rate by 25% when a TLP hits Luclin Expansion ***
- Sell level 51/50 characters when a TLP hits Gates Expansion
- Remove Truebox when a TLP hits the DODH expansion
- Sell level 70 mini-heroic characters when a TLP hits TSS Expansion
- Sell a second flag to boost base XP rate by 50% when a TLP hits SOD Expansion ***
- Sell level 85 heroic characters when a TLP hits HOT Expansion
- Sell a third flag to boost base XP rate by 75% when a TLP hits level 100 max ***
- Sell level 100 legendary-heroic characters at...
- Sell a fourth flag to boost base XP rate by 100% when a TLP hits level 110 max ***
etc.

*** They could potentially sell these flags to live server characters too for folks that want faster XP on live servers. If this is too live server controversial, they could simply grant them to all servers when they hit level 115 max for instance so live servers get them for free.

That makes it easier for people to join older TLPs at established points. Not only do they sell the character boosts, but they also sell bags and mounts to many of those new characters as well.

Each existing TLP would have built in drivers for additional revenue. Once set up, there should be very low cost to get this new revenue.

EDIT: And then they could stop with as much cannibalizing of the older TLPs to drive their TLP revenue.

Although I agree turning off truebox at a certain point as the population declines is good, I feel like there’s a logical fallacy to it. I just don’t see all of a sudden everyone rolling up alts and leveling them that late into the game to immediately make up for the lost population. Either way I think it benefits their bottom line to encourage people to keep chasing the new shiny server so I don’t expect much to change.

Everyone quits because of progress and it becomes stagnant at a certain point for them and that seems to be at POP for a host of reasons.

Be it;

1. Experience too slow, can't catch up or ways to catch up.
2. AA's , see #1
3. Gear, can't gain or purchase in /baz
4. Old content with lower #s with friends , crap Motm rules
5. Flags and Keys all with requirements that are wicked boring unless you were there during the rush, now no one wants to help and why should they?

Berserkers and Beastlords cannot be released right away. There are WAY too many armor related complications. Most of the armor drops in early eras exclude these classes. Not to mention that their epics must be completed using expansions that are not yet available when Kunark hits.

So what? People could still play those classes knowning that they won't be optimally geared. Not everything is about min/max, some people just want to have fun.

I assure you that DBG is not going to release classes early. Too many people would complain that they cant gear their toons. A few might not mind but many will. There's a reason why this has never happened before. It just creates too many issues. They will always be released when their expansion is unlocked.

What are you talking about? Tons of classic gear is berserker/bst wearable, they even have their class only sets from fear that drop constantly during classic when no one is able to play those classes. They can get tons of upgrades up until the expansions they are actually released in. The only thing they miss out on is the very limited single class drops in the first 3 expansions. Even planes of power ornate armor quests have berserker only options. I guess they miss out on the super kunark drop and velious class quest armor? Somehow they'll struggle through without a mostly crappy collection of clickies.

This. Anyone who says DBG hasn't released these classes early because of lack of drops hasn't actually looked at the drops. Armor drops is NOT the issue here.

Yes, then armies of people lost their and Daybreak fixed it. That showed that even though there might be people like you, who would love this server, there were definitely not enough to keep that ruleset alive before it even launched. (And no, I don't play on Mangler)

I have a close friend who would love this server, except maybe the balls slow xp rates and corpse runs. He's a journey fellow when it comes to EQ. You know, the guy who wants to enjoy the journey and spend weeks leveling through all the possible zones at each level range.
He doesn't really want to be a raider although he's cool with seeing the raids along the way, if it coincides with his play time.

On Karana/Terris he played but was always way behind the rest of our guild. He never made it past probably level 40 or so because he could only play a few hours a week on Sunday for the most part. His wife wouldn't tolerate it but could have been any other real life situation - work, kids, drugs, whatever.

He is the guy who loved all the stupid outdoorsy goblin and Sarnak infested zones when Kunark released. Not because he wanted to slaughter stuff easily with his mid 50s toon or because he wanted some place new to level his 3rd alt but because he was still the right level for it as current content.

I feel like many of the people who would like these slower serves are this type of player. They don't necessarily play 30 hours a week and don't want to get to and continue to raid several nights a week. They want to treat it like a game, a casual past time that they play on their terms and don't need 40 friends to make stuff happen at the same time. They want to be able to get a group in any level appropriate zone at any time of day they log in. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this expectation but unfortunately the population of these servers just doesn't support this any longer. That's part of the draw for new servers for many people - lots of people to play with. It feels more like the old days for a while.

We all play a specific server for our own reasons. The reasons are different for many of us, but it's the destination that's the same - until a year has passed and the ability to play our way has gone. Then we see the next new shiny server opening up and relive it all again.

You have to understand that making anything more difficult, in this game in particular, is going to get complainers because the game is already fairly grindy. Making things easier usually won't have the same effect because people have p99 and a lot are happy just to experience the content.

Basically just because there are a handful of people crying on the forums any time something is more difficult, does NOT mean that there isn't demand for a more difficult server. It's just that there is a vocal crowd that wants easy servers. Whether they are the majority or minority is up for debate, since there has never been a harder server released.

There is a misperception in this thread. Slow xp isn't difficult. It is just repetitive. It doesn't take one bit more skill to reach level 50 on a server with 1/10th the xp rate, it just takes more time.

If people want difficult, they should push for scaling back the dps increases and mitigation increases of the last five years on the TLP's. I am all for that. Make the content hard again.