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

Four years is a long time to play any game. People left over a long period of time for a lot of reasons. Interestingly enough, though, at least for Fippy, by far the biggest two drops on the server happened during classic. Funny, don't you think, when that is everyone's favorite content?

You quoted me and I didn't say that there was no need for TLP or even a market. Just that the sort of thing you advocate is replicable on a live server f2p if you just have some discipline. There's nothing that says you can't simulate a corpse run by bagging all your gear and taking off. I've known people who did that and though it seems like a dumb idea they liked it

LOL, I just had a flashback. Remember severe lag raids where the clerics had to stare at the floor in order to do their jobs? On those raids it was almost impossible to loot your corpse one item at a time due to lag.

Bad server rules, another TLP server came along with a better rule set.

The need to beat all bosses before the next expansion could unlock is what killed this server altogether, without raiders the server is locked at its current content preventing the group players to progress.

As much as you would like to to be so TLP servers and Live servers are still the same game. Many changes on TLP servers effect Live servers and vica versa.

There are also a lot of Live players who play on TLP servers. For every TLP player who wants to start in classic there is one who wants to start in later expansions. Reading this forum over the last year I've noticed more and more players wanting to start somewhere other than classic as they have done the same thing so many times. Everytime a new TLP server is launched more players don't start afresh but stay on the server they were on before. If they didn't all other TLP servers would be dead other than the current one.

Phinny seems to be the TLP server that Daybreak got correct, it has kept a decent amount of players and is now only 6 expansions currently behind live. This shows that not all TLP players want to keep starting over. Some TLP players have the desire to see all expansions in era.

While it may not be what you want, it does show that there are many who have a different opinion to yourself.

For every classic TLP player there is one that wants to start in a way ahead expansion? Have you seen the latest TLP server?

Phinny was a good server but it lost a majority of it's population the day another server with a respectable exp rate came around.

Any server with a terrible exp rate is destined to lose players quick as the expansions rack up.
Any server with fast expansion unlock rates die quickly see selo's.
Start a server at level 85? That turned out well.

Every TLP thus far no matter the rule-set starting in classic = full of folks
Every TLP that comes out with any rule-set better than the last that starts in classic = full of folks

There hasn't been a TLP that kept it's population high beyond the 1st 5 to 7 expansions.

If you want a long term TLP it's got to have the following:

1. Start anywhere from Classic - Velious
2. AoC's
3. Motm removed sooner 2 expansions back
4. Experience rate like Ragefire + increases every 2 expansions for catch-up ability
5. FV style loot that is tradable down to the folks who want to group / minor raid
6. Remove truebox early like around luclin / pop, it's a joke system they don't enforce anyhow
7. No missing features that the current population would jump ship for.

I've seen the latest TLP server, I currently play on it and I'm having a blast. Unfotunately it didn't taken off, maybe its the lack of advertisment that all the other TLPs have had, maybe its the time of year, maybe its that it isn't being as supported as the other servers at launch as the devs are busy with beta for the expansion launching 18th December this year. Or it maybe that it wasn't in demand as originally thought. No one knows for sure.

As for those who want start somewhere other than classic, read through the stickied Truebox thread there are many there asking for starts in various different expansions after classic, anywhere from Kunark to Serpent Spine.

Uh, neither of those things really had anything to do with it.

By the time Ragefire was released (which incidentally had exactly the same rules as Fippy, so it wasn't a better rule set by any stretch of the imagination) Fippy was already down to just a single active guild. And we were still beating every expansion, so the need to beat the expansions didn't have anything to do with it either. By the time we couldn't beat the expansions any further, there were already only around fifty people total left playing on the server. So, not beating the expansions wasn't the reason for population decline, just the opposite--population decline led to us not being able to defeat the expansions.

Also, Phinny is still two expansions behind where Fippy stopped progressing, and while the population there is better than it was at this point on Fippy, it's not amazingly better. With four guilds progressing, it basically has the population Fippy had going into House of Thule. I sincerely hope they do make it to live but there is a long ways to go yet and the rate of attrition on the server suggests it is likely to be down to 1 guild or less before reaching live too--with 5 of 9 guilds collapsing or departing in the last four expansions.

maybe half the people who flock to a new server are there to experience classic again, the other half are just there for the cheap Krono's . soon as they stop being cheap they are gone, usually to the next server released.

I'm really surprised Fippy has not been shut down or merged into a live server. I guess it shows keeping a EQ server up and running must cost pennies now, if Daybreak was loosing serious money keeping it active it would have been closed years ago.

They can't merge it to live, they don't have the capability right now. And, it probably doesn't keep a lot to keep it running, but I would think just shutting down an EQ server would not be a good move even if it was losing them money. If characters you've worked on for years can be just randomly deleted because the server they are on isn't making enough money, well, I know I'd start to question (even more than I already do) whether it's worth investing any time into anything to do with this game.

The only way a slower TLP works is if you build it with mouse trap that keeps players’ attention and the population high. I’d suggest FV loot rules would be the only existing mousetrap that MIGHT pull that off.

Otherwise you need a way to replenish the inevitable attrition that comes with annoying grinds, XP vitality comes to mind for those below the level cap of the prior expansion. IE, if you’re in POP, you get double XP until you hit level 60.

The problem with slower TLP has always been they die out fast as players inevitably fall behind and there’s no way to catch up in a reasonable amount of time if you take a break or you’re thinking of starting out a few expansions behind.

I know people hate boxing - but on a “grindy” server it’s incredibly difficult to catch up if you cannot box on your playtime schedule. Not all of us have entire afternoons and late evenings to grind during US prime playing times.

Only way I'm staying on a server long-term...

I think the OP's server idea is pretty close but I would propose a couple changes to it.
-corpse runs can go. I remember logging onto ragefire the first time having not played since the corpse run days. I was full of nostalgia, but BEYOND psyched I didnt have to loot my stuff when i died.
-since the server would bear Aradune's name, it should begin in Kunark or velious, since Brad originally intended Kunark (and maybe velious? need an EQ historian) to be part of original release.
-no maps would just lead to everyone downloading map mods so leave maps in.

otherwise I would so play this server.

This should be implemented across all servers if you ask me, not only would this help current and returning players, but it would also appeal to new players looking for a home too.

It’s probably one of the better QOL offerings that caters well to both causal and hardcore players.

I don’t think it fixes TLP attrition, but it surely will incrementally mitigate it from both lost opportunities from new rolls while accommodating casual or returning players from breaks to keep them in the “end game”.

Honestly, having vitality for all, at all times is not a horrific offering. It’s going to bother some nostalgia seeking old schoolers, but I think the net benefit helps literally everyone by just flipping that switch.

I also like the idea of daily kill quests for XP/plat in each starting city for level appropriate mobs on that continent. I think that could also spread out people to run dailies together... if ya want to cut out boxing - fine. But put more reason than mindless grind/farm for people to actually group.

Like in Kunark... ya can get sharable daily group / solo tasks from Cabilis, FV, etc. they all have level appropriate awards in terms of noticable
XP and reasonable Plat, assigned upon completion (instead of returning to task giver). It’s a more intensive development offering than vitality, but it at least gives players options beyond LFG and the merry go round that keeping a group together is.

I like the corpse runs and the QoL upgrades being in. The slower xp and long unlocks are a no go. Grinding for days and days in one spot to gain 1 level is not something I'm interested in anymore, and I think many people feel the same way. It was either Ragefire or Lockjaw that did the 6 month thing and that failed hard. Many people I know did not even want to deal with phinny's xp rate let alone p99 levels of time sinks.

I would like seeing something like kunark start for 4 months then 3 month unlocks after that. No slower then mangler xp rate, corpse runs, free trade of loot like FV, and some other stuff to make it interesting, personally i'd like to see another team pvp server like the old vallon tallon zek server but I'm probably alone in that.

The real reason that corpse runs are never coming back is that leaving stuff on corpses that can be looted allows a duping exploit that's very difficult to catch while being fairly simple to set up.

The easiest fix for that as well as improved QOL is to not leave anything on a corpse and there's not a lot of motivation to change that.

It's not as if SK's and Necro's didn't have corpse summoning abilities fairly early anyway combined with bards having corpse location song and cleric having rez spells. If you were really having corpse runs you didn't have a very good group of friends to support you or the community was a train wreck. I can imagine though such a server having Krono level pricing for things as simple as a SoW for a corpse run. Who knows what you could charge for a summon and a rez

This is about 2/3 of the way there. The real reason that corpse runs will never, ever be reintroduced on a server that actually has to pay people to do customer service, is, /petition ACK my stuff all rotted!!!! Help!!?!