Constructive feedback on Mangler and Selo

To experience the Progression side of the game? T.L.P.

You don't want to play on Live for any length of time yet you want to get there fast via 1 month unlocks. So once the server gets to the latest expacs you quit?

You say you want to rush to the latest expacs to experience progression.

I've got a wild idea but try to stay with me:

WHAT IF you had longer unlocks? Still experience progression BUT you don't get to live as fast which means more time before you quit!

Craziness I know!

I don't want 1 month unlocks, I have been a staunch supporter of 2 month unlocks. The only thing I said was anything longer than 3 months is a quick recipe for burnout and attrition.

I have played on every single TLP to date and it becomes apparent when guildies start "taking a break" out of sheer boredom of doing the same content over and over again, usually around the final month of a 3 month cycle.

That is my reasoning.

The only problem is they make these servers every year and it guts the existing ones. They know this. That's why I get annoyed when people suggest stupid things like stupid truebox and they don't even stay on the servers. They literally listened to every thread about how to make TLP's candy land and they did it, but they put it on a hardcore timeline Lol. So all the peeps who asked for these changes won't even touch the server cause its too fast or they are intimidated/disinterested in playing Live or past whatever expansion. I won't touch selo simply because its going to be dead quicker than all the other TLPs. The disinterest in seeing Live among TLP players is well documented.

What expac did those TLPs start at? What expacs were those TLPs in when people quit out of boredom? From what I've seen and heard on the forums it is Classic/Kunark primarily and some Velious. Because people have done those a ton of times.

Where does Selos start...?

Kunark.
Luclin.
GoD.

All big offenders of heavy attrition.

And for all 3 of those where did the TLP start at? You don't think people quitting in Luclin was a direct impact of how long they slogged through Classic, Kunark, and Velious beforehand?

I agree with Crayon, I think 2.5-3 months is the longest these unlocks should be.

Stag has a point that live servers have a year between expansions but that is when the content is bleeding edge and new.

On a TLP where min maxing / strats / gear drops is all known and optimized by a large portion of the player base, after about 10-12 weeks every guild I have been in has players skipping raids and attrition rears it’s head.

There is no doubt a fine line between giving the playerbase enough time to gear up, aa, and experience the content and giving them too much time where people bore of the expansion and look for other ways to entertain themselves. I personally think 10 weeks is the magic number but I think anywhere in that range is appropriate.

On a side note – isn’t this “next week” come on DBG give us some info! We’re dying over here!

You seriously expect an answer on a Sunday, when they are having time off?

I'd expect an answer Tuesday at the earliest, Friday at the latest.

Not a bad idea either. I'm not hardcore, but If any want to chime in that it would be preferable more power to em. I can see the appeal, that would really open the flood gates at the beginning to get a lot done before PoP. Keying, aas , etc all while trying to gear up for vt

You've got it wrong. The people I know quit near luclin / POP era because that is where nostalgia ends for them.

I always quit somewhere there, doesn't matter if you make the unlocks 1 week or 1 year I'm always leaving there because the game beyond that point brings me zero entertainment factor.

"Classic" has been done 4 times in the last 3 years. Time for some variety.

I mean, Luclin has been completed 4 times on the last 3 years also .

You have to feel bad for players on old TLP's... the ones that want to stick with it are screwed. Some of the early TLP's are literally stuck because the population was chopped up beyond repair.

The notion that players can stay and complete a TLP should be a consideration. It's no wonder people quit around Luclin to POP... a new TLP popped up, siphoned off a few of their friends, put their guild in a choke hold, and left them wondering, "Why bother when I know it's getting worse?"

1)XP rate is lower than other progression servers and players will lose more experience on death.
2)No Out of combat regeneration until (TSS)
3)No focus effects until The Shadows of Luclin unlocks.

I personally feel as though neither server fits for me. Mangler with a faster experience rate might do. Idk. I’ll probably give it a go since I’ve got tons of kr saved and what am I saving them for?

Just jumping back into EQ, I know. But reading up on the TLPs, if in fact they are offering Mangler to players that enjoy a slower, more paced EQ experience then I would suggest extending the unlocks by another a month. A 4 month unlock schedule should give everyone on a casual playtime schedule enough time to leisurely level and gear up - even with the slower XP rate.

As currently planned, 3 month unlocks with the slowest XP rate on any TLP server does little to sell Mangler as a new TLP server worth checking out.

Another day logging in to check to see if the devs have announced changes, and another day of silence.

Regardless of what happens from here on out, it's sad that with a landmark 20 year anniversary launch we get this massive deflating let down. Everything could have been handled better. It's a real window into how much they understand the fanbase of this game and how passionate they are around it. Not that anyone is surprised with the zero fan service, but I think we all hoped for more this year.

Even if they make great changes from here on out, we're a few weeks from launch. People could have been spreading word of mouth to their friends for months in advance and hyping things up to make this the best TLP yet. Instead, the community is now completely divided on a million issues and the hype is dead.

It's just disappointing with where we are now at.

Just be honest, Selo nailed it for hardcore. No constructive words can back that down. DBG just didn't realize that was hardcore, they felt it casual. I again say casual is just 2 months maybe more from same rule set. End of the day, Casuals, if you have fast xp, you don't need 6 months, and if you do, you killed half the server, so stay inside a safe net here, take 3 months or less unlocks with Selo xp and say you love it, otherwise, Mangled will get worse, or Selo will, push for a specific agenda or miss your happy days. I promise you let them corner you with slow xp, that is what you will have, you think you want that until you have it, if you are casual, make them make Mangled Unmangled, voice it loud, you want fast xp and longer release dates.

Disagree, I consider myself very casual and I thought Selo's was great for me. Thinking in terms of hard-core and casual is wrong. We should be thinking in terms of comp. vs non-competitive.

In terms of EQ hard-core is having to key for zones and raiding. If some guy really wants to finish everything in era they should go to Mangler where there pre-made groups will still be able to do everything before the next unlock.

In terms of a non-competitive server Selo. Remove keying and flagging for all zones and keep the fast unlocks. It's called Selo for a reason, fast is casual. I don't want to be stuck for long periods of time unable to upgrade or progress on my own. Yes I want groups if I have time but otherwise keying for VP, ST, VT, PoP is all pointless.

All these classic server launches just turn into one hot mess. The fact Selo is skipping Classic, Kunark, and Velious is also casual. Selo will start out with mounts, the bazaar and spires all of which is great for casual game play and way less competitive then classic EQ. Luclin and PoP was the beginning of SOE's shift from their original ideas about EQ towards more modern gaming.

Fighting with box groups perma camping GE boots, J-boots, CoS, Shrunken Gob. Skull, Fungi, and all the best xp camps is competitive. Starting in Luclin is way more casual and non-competitive. By Luclin we have way more camps to choose from and it's much easier to run someplace else if you have to.

Fast unlocks means being able to upgrade to group gear without being worried about finishing all raids and content in era is casual.

Fast unlocks, xp bonus and increased drop rates is very casual. Casuals are not concerned with doing everything in era but these increased drop rates will make it really easy to upgrade when you have time to play.

Quests just get easier the more past era they are. Easier is casual. If you want to have time to run 6 epics for your box, because 6 epics aren’t casual or non-competitive, then you probably should be playing on the Mangler server I am suggesting.

Trade skills are easier the higher up in xpacs you go because rare mats become more and more common. Mana and Hp pools get larger and allow for mass farming. Plat is easier and easier to come by.

Selo starts one month from unlocking PoP giving us spell vendors and PoK which makes getting around easy, it also means we don’t have to do many of the early xpac things like run all over for spells.

By bringing Mangler up to speed a bit more with what I see on these forums you offer people lots of options.

If the hard-core competitive guilds like fast unlocks and high xp rates then give it to them. Make Mangler = to Agnarr’s xp and give it the 2 month unlocks that all the vocal comp. guilds are campaigning for.

Mangler should start in classic because it's what these comp. guilds live for. They love to race through old world content and challenge each other over server firsts and open world kills.

Coirnav has just unlocked PoP so anybody wanting slow xp and that kind of hard-core gaming can roll there.

When I look at these servers this way most the posters that are both casual and hard-core by their definition; wanting the fast xp of Selo but slower unlocks; get what they want by just tweaking Mangler. I think the whole competitive/non-competitive thing is what DB was getting at. By leaving Selo as it is, changing Mangler to be more in line with what people seem to want and not having any of these servers directly compete with Coirny DB could quite possibly offer everyone what they are looking for. Forget about non-true box and ignore the RMTers. This change I suggested to Mangler would fix both servers. Happy 20th anniversary EQ, all the best and GL with this.