It would be nice if we had a nice and slow TLP server for those who are more casual. I know a lot of people who hate how fast TLP Is and would definitely play if it were much slower. 6 months or a year for each unlock... yes it's slow for those who like to go hardcore, but for those who are casual players it's perfect. P99 takes these casual players away from the TLP servers. It's a smart business move to have a slower TLP running concurrent to the faster ones. The ones who want hardcore fast progression play on the fast one and the casuals can play on the slower one.
I seriously doubt that a remotely large enough population exists for a "slower" unlock TLP but best of luck with it because I might be wrong and a 6 month or even 12 month unlock TLP might have a fanbase that is not even playing right now. If the idea is ever going to generate enough interest I think the only time such a server should be released is after a UI, Graphics Engine & Player character models overhaul, and is done as a celebration of that overhaul. I still think current Casual players are better off playing on Agnarr or Live servers though. Without a core of regular consistent players for the casuals to get carried along by a casual player server will rapidly feel empty as it requires many times more casuals on a server to make it feel populated at peak hours than a more consistent player population.
This. Create a server with 6-month unlocks, and the "casuals" won't login for 5.5 months and then come back and complain the server is moving too fast and leaving them behind. There's no win here.
Yeah I would play a 6 month unlock server ,maybe even 2 box. A server that you can get a few 2 or 3 hour groups a week or play an hour a day solo and still have time to cap and see content. But I'm sure there are minorities of people that would like all manner of things
Start in Classic, Kunark opens when the first person completes Norrathian Slayer. And then Ruinslayer to open Velious, Scarslayer for Luclin... Think of the excitement when the keep it Classic crowd tries to out damage the ready for Kunark crowd on Dunedigger.
If this did happen, you know they would make it really slow exp which would be bad. Leave it at least on mangler exp rate, it can be a slow progression with alt server. For some reason they are obsessed with faster unlocks and slow exp.
I can't see myself wanting to log in for 6 months of sky/hate/fear/vox/naggy/phinny/yael. Probably couldn't ever get that list down to 2 nights, so it'd be 3 nights a week. There'd be a big "What's the point" feeling. And then, as Kunark is wrapping up, a new TLP launches. I can't see a 6mo server making it.
Like someone else mentioned, you'd need a bigger server population than current TLPs to support a casual experience. If everyone only logged in for 1-3 hours a few times a week then you'd need a bunch more people in order to find players to group with on your limited specific schedule. No way the hard core player base would stick around on a server with 6 month + unlocks. They'd be bored as hell. So then you are left with a population with limited playtime trying to sync up with your schedule. In order for that to even be viable you would need to exponentially increase the population otherwise it would seem like a dead server spending what little time you had sitting LFG. Maybe if this was a game in its prime with huge population & influx of new players, but at this stage it's just not reasonable.
I gotta agree Azurefrost and Skuz, I definitely get wanting a slow paced server so you can still see most everything in era even on a limited playtime. But when you look how it would actually play out, I don't see the population being there to keep it healthy, those last 4 of the 6 months in any xpack you'd have such a hard time finding groups for anything and the population would die out quick.. if you want to experience the early on stuff at your own pace... Agnarr is a great place to go if you want to experience the whole game at your own pace, best bet really is gonna be live (FV if you want slightly higher xp and freetrade + high pop)
Larger populations can make it very difficult to play casual. When there's a ton of people there's more competition, farming, and PLing, all of which make it hard to casually stroll into a zone and find a spot to take it easy.
Are you a boxer who doesn't like a lot of boxers or other players in general clogging up your profitable hunting spots? Because you're logic might make sense if you are, a casual server filled with casuals would be a Pick up group scene nirvana.
