Hopefully the title caught DBG attention. It's clear that there is no "fix" to their boxing situation that can be solved by changing how it works, programs to detect it, how many different type of servers you drop ect. With the new discussion thread for a non-truebox server...it just made me realize that DBG is just so far into the rabbit hole they don't know what to do to fix it. Dropping a new server..of any type at this point would just take population away from other servers. Which will make some happy and others upset. This means you get no where. Two keynotes first. First, this system has already been tried and used in other games and has been a huge profit system for those games (SWTOR and FFXIV). Both of these games charge an extra fee for these services/advantages and it is a large portion of their profits (I will explain more in a sec). Second keynote is that as someone that has worked in high level programming, this would not take much effort. Not going into details but anyone with a programming background (many that play this game) will agree. This system will not ruin DBG's profits and make (most) people happy. But at the end of the day it does not take away from what people can currently do, which I think is the most important thing. It only ADDS, does not subtract. 1st Option: Premium Mercs. Current merc system remains unchanged. Cleric/Tank/DPS. J5 max. Done. Premium paid service ($8.99 for one extra merc, $14.99 for two Premium mercs) *Can be purchased monthly for 1 krono. If you own bother mercs they can be summoned and usable at the same time. Can also be purchased at a discount in 3,6,12 month packages. Just like normal subscriptions. This allows you to use the current krono system or billing system = minimum effort on your end. What are Premium Mercs- Keep it simple at first, add later when you realize it is a money maker. Premium Tank = Scales with the power of your characters gear. Minimum Tier 1 group gear/Max one tier below highest group tier gear. Example using Underfoot. Merc would start with Brells Rest level group gear and have a ceiling of Fungal Forrest level group gear. The objective is that this tank would be able to tank in VH and convorteum. Would not be as good as a true raid tank but would be able to tank in the zone just fine if say a true PC player was with the tank like a cleric/shaman/ect. (we know right now the normal mercs are a joke at this level of Everquest). Adds Three abilities that can be added to a hotbar. AoE taunt (5 target max)(30 second cooldown), Defensive (normal tank cooldown), and call of the challenge (warrior's version of snare). Don't try to get fancy with these. Make the abilities usable starting at level 50 (merc is use-able at level 1). Yes even during classic if you launch another TLP. Premium Slower (Shaman, Bard, or chanter) = Just pick 1 DBG at first. You get to involved and will have to many bugs to fix. Shaman is the easy choice because you can use the code already in for cleric and make a shaman heal also the same way by just changing which spells to cast. Make the shaman cast Focus line like the cleric cast their Hp buff line. (once again same code = easy). Add three abilities Listless line buff (normal cooldown), counter bias line (normal cooldown), Sow/Attack buff line. Make single target slow and sow available at level 1, and make Listless become available at level 68 when it normally becomes available to shamans. THATS ALL. Don't try to get fancy and program to many at once. Bringing more out slowly will give players something to be excited to try out in the future. Right now just do these two and do them correctly. Both of these already have code in place that work fine. You just need to add a little coding to these to make them use-able. Here is why this will work. There are three level of boxers in the game currently. Those that can do anything = 18 boxers...with a partner can take our raids by themselves. These guys are enjoy the challenge of pushing themselves to see what they are capable of (like me just not at EQ boxing). Those that can 6 box their own group and hold camps down, which upsets the next group. Those that can only play 1 or 2 characters max. Some of the ones that play 1 or 2 characters max get upset at the 6 box crew doing what they want to be doing but can't and go to the forums and yell at you. The 6 box crew is usually happy until they get tired of hearing about the 1 or 2 that don't like them. The 6 box crew also doesn't like having to use 6 computers where they use to be able to box on 1 PC. The 18 box crew doesn't really care because they know all the tricks to bypass stuff anyways and only get upset when they get suspended (rare) or have to update their programs when they are patched. So why does this solve it? Because DBG you win in every way on this (even if some people on here will disagree, you will win). The 1-2 box player can instantly DO everything no matter what class they play. This is key because someone who wants to play a rogue and can't box always has to depend on others. That is why you dont see many 3 box teams with a rogue for example. But if I was a rogue I could purchase for $14.99 the two premium merc slots and have a shaman (slow and heals) and a tank. Instant group. You can invite your friends and make a full group. You can invite 1 other friend and have a nice 5 man team (his class and a cleric or dps normal merc). The player who can only play 1 or 2 characters now can do what they couldn't before like the 6 box crew. This will = less complaining on the forums and anger about truebox. This will also increase players on ALL servers because people will feel like they have a fighting change to complete the content without having to wait on others to help them. The 6 box player now has more options. Maybe they can cut down some of their PC's to save the work on their end. Allowing them to use less power at home and less work with their fingers. If they do, they still pay for this convenience so you don't lose anything. If they don't they are still 6 boxing. The 18 box person = nothing really changes but now they can play with all their accounts and DBG won't feel any pressure to turn off their accounts because of the mass horde of players who despise these people because they cant or arent willing to do what they do, because they will be content with the fact they now have a healer, tank, and slower that is capable of doing all group content. This post is getting to long so going to wrap it up. There is enough there for DBG's money team to realize this would fix a lot of their problems, sweep the truebox problem under the rug, and actually come out of this looking like they care about the player-base...while making a large profit. Also increase the longevity of the game because when you can front a group by yourself..you tend to play longer. So after you drop the new Velious expansion DBG, focus on this. I don't care about what other projects you have in the works or systems you wanted to put in...DO THIS. After this is in..then drop a new server or new function. Miragul in my opinion was the first sign that your playerbase is getting tired of you not listening to their needs. Before you would drop a TLP and even with people venting, they still played and paid. This time you can clearly see people have had enough (by the 15 page thread about non-box servers also). Additional stuff: -Yes allow this on Agnarr...will bring the server new life. -No, still not allowed to use these in raids. If DBG will allow these in older raids (like 3 expansions back) that is there choice, but I would keep it simple because I would focus on profit and feasibility. -FFXIV has a similar system where you can purchase extra brokers to sell for your and run missions while your offline or doing quest. They charge 3 dollars per each one. They dont fight next to you so ..why cost should be more here. -SWTOR have "special" companions on their store that are stronger then the ones you can get in game. They charge normally the same price as mounts for these. Both games sell these items a TON. Almost mandatory to have them if you play the games seriously. This is a known system that works. Not inventing the wheel...just pushing the wheel in your face. -For those that say "TLDR" I don't care, you are the reason the above would work because you will pay for this in a heartbeat and already weren't willing to find ways to do what you wanted to do anyways or you tried and realized it wasn't as easy as you thought and gave up. Final point. This is loosely on the same subject but as someone who has made a living off taking companies with amazing products but horrible management and implementation skills, I would be a bit embarrassed if I was DBG that there are other companies out there that are making a ton of money off creating systems that make their game do things that the player base wants. Imagine if Blizzard allowed companies to make purchasable addons for wow that did things that Blizzard didn't want in their games. That is what these companies are doing to you right now. This system above is the first step to taking back "some" of that control and earning power back to EQ. Put the ball in your court. On the back end I would of already created a system in-house that would allow players to purchase it from me that would of cut out the need for these other websites and programs. At this stage in Everquest, this is what I would do if I was in control. By Christmas time next year I would have a nice bonus check from whatever rich CEO who was happy with my performance and as a bonus I wouldn't have to fire anyone right before the holidays.
Honestly, I only included Agnarr because felt this weird need too. I honestly don't care about the server because I never intend to play it. This pop type server had multiple years on mac for those who wanted to play it and then a full run here as a TLP. People had their opportunity to relive their "favorite" xpac 10 different times with all the servers that launched. It's not personal but from a business perspective it would be very low on my to-do-list. But honestly I am not the type to have anything loaming over me and like to get things done, so this is how I would fix the server. (also not the type to just add no it won't work and leave it at that) Offer a 1 time transfer for any current players to any server that is at gates or higher (I suggest you all transfer to Fippy and finally complete that server). Allow this transfer to be an option for 3 months. After 3 months I would wipe the server and restart it from classic. From this point on I would restart the server once a year. I would advise everyone in the FAQ that the characters on these servers will not transfer anywhere and will just be deleted once the server resets. Then everyone would get a chance to restart once a year or only play the xpacs they want. Also would allow DBG's to earn extra cash by reselling bags and stuff once a year. This also allows for new guilds to form and push to be #1 every year instead of 1 guild that conquered all and then holds onto the server and open world mobs. Breakdown: Classic 2 months Kunark 2 months Velious 2 months SoL 2 months Pop 3 months LoY 1 month Total 12 months = restart The twist I would add to this server is that I would create a leader board that is tracked via the website. It would keep a complete history of each year the server was restarted. Information tracked on this website would be something like: 2019 (Track and keep each years info on the wesbite) First to level 50 First to get Epic for each class First guild to kill Naggy First guild to clear ToV, SSRA Temple, Vexthal, First guild to kill each Planes Boss and First to clear PoTime. And other "1st" These will be done with dates/times this way next years server has some records to break for the new guys on the scene. This would give the hardcore players something to strive for and the casual players a "classic" server relive their grouping experience with friends. DBG earns "new" money and people won't complain their population is dead because if it is dead on a restart then that is just a sign that no one cares anymore, everyone got their experience of "classic" and DBG did their job of filling their player base needs. But this is just how I would fix it because I would base everything off "make money and make the majority of players happy" But still, the premium mercs would be my priority because it would fix the majority of issues players have on all other servers.
The players still on Agnarr are there because they don’t want a constant race. They want stability without the constant need to keep leveling. To those remaining, being able to stay relatively current without having to log in 7 or even 4-5 days a week is important. Your solution does nothing for that. No offense, but stop trying to push solutions on a player base that you don’t interact with and thus don’t understand. I mean that as politely as I can word it. If you want to suggest trying your new TLP design on a fresh, unestablished server, then by all means we should all feel comfortable doing so. Just don’t suggest touching already established server rule sets and communities.
Well, first my entire post really had nothing to do with Agnarr minus 1 line. Second, you want what is unattainable by your current limitations of the server. You are good at explaining what you want on the server but I still see no solutions (and I am only assuming you know what the player base actually wants because I've never been a fan of speaking for everyone, even I know that my plan for Premium mercs fixes "most" not all of the problems). There are only two feasible solutions to Agnarr if what you say is true. Allow mercs to assist with the dwindling numbers so the playbase can still play together and accomplish stuff (if this breaks some personal code of not allowing other out of era content to pop, then I suggest you disable all the other quality of life options like out of combat, shared bank, saved spell slots, ect). This would be best to ensure the server long-term. Or Level 60 heroic characters that start with AA's thru Velious (which I believe would only be short term if this is the only solution. People would realize that ..the server ends at pop and leave after experiencing it. The "best" solution is doing both of these. 60 heroic characters would bring in new players and the mercs would help keep the playerbase around. Adding server events or something wouldnt be enough to bring back players, would be a headache for DBG and would take a lot of work. The majority of the playerbase that WAS on Agnarr were racing or just passer by's who wanted to see the first few expansions again. Once the race was over and the reflecting on the old days was gone, the server became what it is. It is Saturday on a holiday weekend and there are 51 players in general chat. So you can say (and I say this as politely as possible) it's not what the players want which I can respect because I know they rather have the server "perfect" but what the server needs is a different story. Because if you keep holding out for that "perfect" solution to come...DBG is going to disappoint you and your server will be the next ghost town like Fippy.
I don't think you really need anything more complicated than just turning truebox off by the end of PoP. By then most of the purist whiners have quit or moved to a new tlp and the ones that want to stay can box to make up for the lost population.
This still allows another company to make money off Everquest not named DBG, which IMO is not good for us long term. DBG needs to take back control of their game. I do think Truebox off at the end of pop is also a good thing but still for those that dont like to box, premium mercs are the way to go. I don't think DBG should just settle.
It is too late for that. 3rd party software usage is so widespread on live that cutting it off altogether now would result in Everquest's demise. They can't, or won't, even stop it on Truebox. As much as we may dislike it, that ship has sailed.
I love it when people who program talk about how easy it would be to "fix" any specific part of EQ. You may be the best programmer in the world but there's been plenty of threads(by former/current devs) talking about this 20 year old code and how archaic it is compared to how it would be done now and where changing even the smallest thing sometimes sets off a chain reaction that could destroy something unintended. Turning on premium mercs may actually be kinda easy. But like everyone else who posts their surefire way to "fix" EQ, I feel like you probably overestimate how many would actually pay for that feature.
I doubt it. Mercs that scale with your gear, accurate and not over or underpowered over 26 expansions? Not a chance they would get that right on the first pass. They can't even get dot rebalancing right on the first pass on the easier classes, and that is much simpler than calculating appropriate mercs stats would be.
No it's not hard. Their mercs already scale with levels. Changing the ANSI code from character level to reflect character level and HP/Attack/MP (depending on class) is all that would be required. No it won't go off perfect, some other problems will pop up but would take an internal beta to test but is not some huge undertaking like launching an expansion. But the reward will be better then an expansion and last longer because it would effect the entire game and future xpacs. Also on the 20 year old code statement. Do you expect them to say yeah its really easy to change...we just dont make changes because we dont want too? This is a simple way to look at it. If they are unable to add two mercs to a system they already have in place and just adjust the power of the mercs to be stronger then ..the already existing mercs...knowing that it would bring in a lot of money (if people say they wouldnt buy a shaman or super tank merc..they are kidding themselves) then everyone has just settled that EQ will continue to just be ..new zones..new spells with more Hp/Damage different name, and reskinned raid bosses. I haven't given up on the devs or EQ quite that bad yet. I feel like they still have some tricks up their sleeve. But I think most of us can agree that more TLP's is not the answer, the playerbase is all over the place right now.
