Can we get a Hot *UN-Fix* on the Forced Progression?

You said a majority of EQ's lifespan. You are objectively wrong, and it's not even close.

I love some of those classic expansions, but I think House of Thule is my favorite. Rain of Fear is amazing to me too.

Looks like 78 successful missions on LDON on my original character, that would have been in era.

A whole one expansion that litterally no one wanted. It was one of those bandwagon expansions. The original EQ had nothing to do with it...

I enjoyed LDON and so did a lot of folks. Try again.

You are talking about the first 3 expansions released over 20 years ago while we are on expansion 29. The vast majority of expansions have required missions to progress through and having to do them in a specific order to unlock more and even get into other zones.

Aye it filled the “dungeon crawl” fantasy that many people like / want / request

When I logged on during the LDON era I regularly got tells asking me to group. Missions also took predictable lengths of time. I liked it.

Vote with your dollars!

Stromm's LDoN channel was active years after LDoN was no longer current. Perhaps it served as a general channel. I don't remember when those were added or even if they were there when I started just before LDoN came out.

really people are complaining cause they have to wait a full IN-GAME day before the quest lets you continue ? I mean how long is that in Real Time 15min ? big F`n deal .. the game is called EVERQUEST you know go take a quick bio or grab a snack or drink or do a wordle or Sudoku or something ..

I remember back in the day doing camps for sometimes days just to get 1 lousy drop .. was it a PITA yes it was .. did i b i t ** and moan and call verant/sony every name in the book yes I did .. was I happy when I got it Yes i was .. did I camp that mob again Yes I did (for alts) its the name of the game.

And if you ever thought EQ would get any easier as far as time wasted then you either didnt really play back then or you are just deluding yourself ..

Back then it actually took days to weeks to lvl through one HELL lvl .. now adays you can lvl from 1 -120 within a few days week tops or buy a lvl 100 heroic and be 120 within 2 days .. (bonus xp helps)
the game has become way too easy in many ways , but one thing that hasnt changed is the major waste of time the dev's or DB wants us to bang our heads against the walls doing tedious stuff like Hailing an NPC 20 times just to get to the next step or waiting 15min for an NPC to continue the task .. or camping a named that takes hours if not days to spawn ..

Its a game .. imho one of the if not BEST games out there .. a game ive been playing for 23 coming up on 24 years.. for the amount of money of put into this game and my multiple accounts buying expansions after expansions subs after subs Ive gotten back way more game time and enjoyment than what ive spent on this game prolly 10's of thousands of hours if not more ..

ive played EQ2 , came back to EQ .. I played WoW , came back to EQ .. I just cant describe the EQ community and gameplay and friends/guildies etc that keeps me coming back . the imersfulness of EQ is Timeless . and I hope to be playing this game for another 25 years ..

I liked LDoN . as was stated they were a specific length in time so if i logged in and someone thru me a invite I knew how long it would be for 1 or 2 Ldon's. and with the wayferer's camps you didnt have to travel a long way just teleport there grab task and then hop skip jump on over to the mission. run it (usually the KILL so many quest) and done ..

I wouldnt mind if they came out with a lvl 120 version of it with a normal and hard versions ..

Well nobody is deluding themselves since the time-sink has been quite drastically reduced in many areas.

And the self-contradiction appears in the very next sentence....

But there's more...

Most of that was added in the second-decade expansions of EQ

Coming back to the Thread-Topic, progression is not forced, it's just the only content EQ has these days so without doing it you haven't done anything in the expansion.

I think it would be nice if there was more to do besides the Progression (not counting collectibles, achievement farming & tradeskills).

Side-Quests not tied into the progression but still thematically consistent with the expansion & which expand upon zone lore, factions etc. adding depth to the expansion.

dont know why you are quoting me ..

evidentally they are or they wouldn't complain about the timesink of 15min on this quest

I dont understand this ? Im saying that the game has become easy in many ways as in lvling vs back in the old days . but people are complaining about a 15min delay standing there twiddling there thumbs before they can move on to the next step of a quest..

so not sure what you are referring to as contradicting myself ..

again unsure of what your trying to point out ..

I said " the game has become way too easy in many ways , but one thing that hasnt changed is the major waste of time the dev's or DB wants us to bang our heads against the walls doing tedious stuff like Hailing an NPC 20 times just to get to the next step or waiting 15min for an NPC to continue the task .. or camping a named that takes hours if not days to spawn ..
"
I was trying to inject that the game has become easy in many aspects of the game , however the dev's still try to make us waste our time but adding these steps to slow us down .. does it suck yes , is it part of the game yes ..

and yes its been like this sense the dawn of Norrath .. not few expansions in .. camping named doing epics etc.. they just have more avenues to slow us down now .. named (goes back to original EQ days) quests/missions (current EQ) grinding xp (very slowly)

do not know why you single me out all the time Skuz ..

progression is not forced you are correct .. you DO NOT have to do it .. however it is not the only content EQ has these days .. you can still grind .. you can do Overseer .. you can do hunter's or collects ..

at lest this time I wouldn't get chewed out for having to bail on a pick up group cause a raid was called for my guild.

anyone remember that when raid mobs would spawn in the normal zones. some guilds if enough where one would call raid and everyone had to drop what they where doing and high tail it to what ever zone asap. would get pick up groups poed cause they lose people.

It's super weird juxtaposing takes like OPs with the popular lauding of PoP as an expansion, and epic weapon quests in both the base game and OoW.

anyhow, being unable to access a single mission isn't requiring or railroading or arm-twisting by any stretch of the imagination. The *only* unique loot (in any mission) that isn't on sit-and-grind names elsewhere is the evolver, which I presume OP is writing off entirely

LDoN was fabulously popular

"All the time" eh?
I can't even recall when I last quoted you.

Well I meant questing, and gave an example of what I meant, I don't think of Grinding, Overseer & Collections as being the same kind of stuff FWIW.

Anyway, I shall try not to quote you again seeing as you felt so deeply victimized about it and my sincerest apologies for quoting you this time.

Please name the expansions were flipping task/missions was the primary means of progress? I named 4 that wasn't (there are plenty more), you guys named one.

Through out the majority of this game, we killed mobs for level experience and camp names for loot as the primary source of progression. Any task/missions added in more modern history was always supplementary to what I previously stated, it never was the primary way to do things.

From ToV onward, this game has been on rails and it's lame.

Didn’t you need to key your way into VP back in Kunark?
Didn’t you need to flag yourself for all them Planes of Power?
What about the MPG trials?
And I know from HoT forward, group tasks and quests rewarded currency and became a major component to just leveling. Not to mention the gear / items / spells you got along with it.
CoTF and the introduction of Heroic Adventures.
The list goes on and on.

Whether you did any of that or not, does not stop the fact that it’s been there and been an integral part of the game damn bear since its conception. You choosing to do or not to partake in any of that does not change that fact. Nor does it mean you need to do any of it now.

As mentioned, there’s only one item in the entire expansion you cannot acquire from just grinding away at mobs and Nameds.
If you don’t wanna do the progression then don’t. You still end up at the same finish line

Umbral Plains mobs have been broken for a YEAR.


A-MEN.