I have a dream that one day players will be judged by the content of their character and not by the content that they play! Seriously, it is the same thing clouding discussions when people talk about TLP vs. Live and Group vs. Raid, it is all EverQuest. It is a buffet of content, you get to consume any combination of it. You even get to change your mind and raid one expansion but maybe not the next, you can group with people that raid and raid with people that group, play TLP one day and play live another day. If you feel icky, maybe shower with a bleach scrub after making contact outside your preferred content. Some people are just asking for a challenge beyond kill stuff, get stuff. Nothing needs to be overhauled or nerfed for this to happen.
Not true, if devs need to make special stuff for hardcore only like 1 zone, it means 1 less zone for most people. as they likely not able to do it. That is the cost. And DBG has a certain budget which they going to stay within. Everything costs money. Nothing is ever free. They have to make as much as possible for as most people, and not catering the hardcore. When/If something harcore can come, it will be during specials, like anniversy, and such, not during an expansion.
An expansion lasts 1 year, and there as mentioned have to give as much as possible to as many as possible to sell, sell. And for it to sell, it need to be popular and people can participate. If they cannot participate, then people not likely to buy NeXT time, except maybe as minimum version. Which results in less income,which is used to pay the workers, pay the shareholders a profit, and the expenses to run EQ. Do you think that EQ will survive 1 months if they start to lose money on EQ ? If I owed EQ, and I started to lose money on it, I would close it Down fast. When that is said, Anniv is a bonus thing, which lasts a certain amount of time. It can be made indefendent of the ongoing story line of EoK, make it harder than normal, if a zone.Can also make some instances with harder mobs than normal. Also, in anniv we just left 4 months ago, 1 of the rewards was a char, which click to Skyfire, which I seriously doubt was a coincidence. Could be NeXT anniv there is continuation of upgrading the charm, so it might click to Seb/EJ, which is where I think EoK 3 will go.
If I should make some new anniv, I would make a few HA, those HA would happen in the coming expansion. They would be for level 110 persons, and be as hard as the next expansion will be. which is quite a bit, and they would NOT scale Down. You would be able to get 1 special Collection, but it will be unclickable until next, and it will have a new type of flag: Lore account, which Means, you can only have 1 per account, and you can only ever click it on 1 char on that account. The thing only drops during anniv. When the next expansion comes out, you can click it, and it will show that you get a special item when done all the Collections for that expansion: You will be able to choose between example: item with click of Power V. and such. Beside that Collection item, you will only get some other items, there no clue to what they do except for a message about all will be revealed...later. Beside a high stats aug or some otther jewelry/armor, which shares lore Group, stats vice it would be what the items will have in coming expansion.. And for the first time ever, there will be 2 versions of HA, very HARD version, and HARD version. Difference is the reward, including the secret item, where this just idea, could be, reduce lockout of HA by 10% for the hard version, and reduce lockout by 25% for the very hard version. This my dream, which have no chance of being made ;-) Beside that, if it takes too much time to balance the mobs, up twice, then could instead make 2 different type of instances, 1 where allowed 3 chars/mercs inside = and where 6 allowed chars/mercs inside But mercs should still be as hard as the coming expansion will be(12-14 months from now, THAT expansion) .
I was newly returned to EQ and not raiding when PoW was new. I joined several other purely grouped geared players (CotF group gear) and did just fine in PoW. It was a challenge, but far from impossible. The biggest problem with PoW was the exp. I believe more people would have spent time there had the exp been worth the effort. Many of the group level players I knew were like me and fairly recently returned to the game. They were in AA catch up mode. Spending their limited play time in a zone with nearly no exp gain was not the most productive choice. You mean like creating T1 group zones that no one spends any time in after completing what ever check marks are required? I'd argue that creating trivial zones with lower tier gear than the top tier for the expansion is more a waste of resources than creating a challenging zone with some unique and useful rewards. People (both raid geared and group players) will at least spend time in the challenging zone to get those rewards unlike the zones that become ghost towns because they offer no worthwhile rewards. Look at Lceanium, SW, Plane of Health, Tempest Temple, Katta Castrum, ETWK, Bixie Warfront, etc.
Longtime very behind the curve, mostly casual player here: I think a top-tier group hardcore (as in hard to do in era) zone as a part of every expac is a great idea. Make sure the loot is appealing for years as the content turns grey and the zone therefor becomes open to all players. This doesn't require that much of the loot to hold this appeal either --basically special effects, clickies, and/or things that bend class rules. Could even make the stuff "heirloom-attunable" so the zone becomes a place to self-farm gear for ones lowbie alts. There's creative ways to give zones lasting appeal beyond the original small-population purpose. So a bit of the Vex Thal candyland approach to itemization, with the more modern PoW construction by the sounds of it.
Zones like PoW make better players... There should be at least one zone per expansion similar to PoW where every pulls and every fights need to be taken strategically. This Leeroy thing that we do now is getting old.
Was Plane of War group really "that" hard? Yes it was harder than normal group content because you had to do certain things and pay attention instead of tank n spank, however I would not go as far as saying it was super hard. As a magician it is a super annoying zone because of the pet tanking issues, but that I would not consider as hard. Just annoying. So I am curious from those who love Plane of War and think it is hard and challenging, what exactly is so hard and challenging about it?
I personally dint find PoWar hard at all. I was dancing through it with my 3 alts... You still had to be careful to what was pulled. The berserker would buff them self with a overhaste that could down the best geared tanks if not dispelled, agro management when the tank get the shared agro buff and the snare and lure had to be taken in consideration when pulling. The hard hiting AEs from the orcs could also hurt if the tank HPs wasnt kept high. Fast respawn was making the crawling interesting in the mine even so I was ninjaing my mage any where in the zone.
The Grandmaster is still the best group named encounter since... well, I don't even know one that compares. It has a hilarious enrage mechanic too.
what i want is a zone or 2 that you can't phone it in as to say. give me a zone that you can't sit there and kill stuff while watching tv or tabbing out while you merc slaughter. Not a zone where one wrong move will wipe you group ever time but a zone where you can't sit there and mindless spam one key while watching tv and have little to no danger.
Can't follow this. On AB, the EoK T1 zones (with the exception of Gates, which is almost always empty now) are far better visited than any of the T2 zones. It's not rare for me/my group to be the only one in any static T2 zone, except for the odd hunter jumping me for a named. Also, the lower tier zones can hardly be regarded a "waste of resources" then they're there to gear up the grouping players. Your list of zones to look at is strange too... Lceanium and Scorched woods are well-visited. PoHealth (static) is a travel-through zone, i doubt anyone has actually killed there; All the nameds are in instances and those instances (except perhaps for the "Defenders of the faith" one) are still done regularly (though ofc much less so now, but certainly up to the realase of EoK). Both Tempest Temple and Katta Castrum: Deluge are mainly travel-through zones with kills being only done for mercenary and partisan tasks, indeed. It's just that much easier to travel on to Brother Island instead. And of course these are rather empty these days - unless we are talking free accounts. And i won't even get into the CotF zones - they're just too old and these days visited only by people seeking to do their Hero's vitality/resolution/Fortitude levels. You can "argue that creating trivial zones with lower tier gear than the top tier for the expansion is more a waste of resources", but it's an argument far too easily refuted.
I think you need to finally grasp the idea that AB is in no way experiencing the same kind of current reality as most of the other servers. HELLO, they are giving away FREE transfers off the server! I am sorry for the predicament of the AB players, but it is what it is. On the more populated servers, I would wager that 90% of the traffic in Lcea and SW are simply people passing through the zones to get deeper into the expansion.
Aha. So you are saying that because we were offered free transfers off server (on an individual basis, that no one i know took), the zones we play in are vastly different from yours? Fine, i can not know who plays where on your server. I never claimed to. HELLOOOO!!!! I am telling you what's going on on my server. Which, despite despite the issues we're facing, has a sizeable enough population to be representative. I am not talking "since the transfer offer" here. Nor the last two months only. And believe it or not, we have times, although they're not too often, when we do NOT crash on zoning or when - once in a zone - things are "ok". Even on "good" or "ok" days, you can find like 3 groups (or boxers with their chars) in one of the T2 static zones while FM has around 50chars and Scorched Woods and Lceanium have around 30 each. Gates empty, Droga empty or one/two groups tops, Labs two or three groups. I think you need to finally grasp that other people are simply not following your "ideal" and have come to a different conclusion than you on where to spend their time at, Sorry that it doesn't fit into your word view. Be careful with wagers!
You have to subtract the casuals, rare drop farmers and auto-boxers from that though (Those zones being the ideal place for that). FM is quite decent for lesson burns too. That's all beside the point though, they have their content. We'd like some too.
Of course, i don't "have to" do anything. Least of all when speaking about population and where it's spread. "they got theirs, we want ours". This kind of thinking only gets "us" (raiders" more removed and detached from the groupers. Which is leading he above argument of "such a zone would help to bring groupers and raiders TOGETHER" ad absurdum of course. It's not totally beside the point either, where population is and how zones are used. Not if you want a zone "especially for you". Back in the days, we had the "hard" LDoNs full of level68 mobs for lvl65characters. And back then it was the same: People, raiders too, did the "normal" ones so they didn't screw up their score. Hard LDoNs became only popular when we had lvl70 characters. Any "hardcore zone" will have the same fate at best. Far more likely though it will be deserted like PoWar. Or, in other words: a waste of time. If i were you, i'd ask at most for "hardcore HAs". You know... Droga in "big" or the "oh so fun PoWar": No camps, fast repops, no CC'able mobs, adds through pathing... So you can feel "elite" even when being "mostly harmless". At least that way the wasted development effort is not taking up too much from the overall available.
Yes you have made it abundantly clear the way you think it is on AB. Despite many attempts by many people on other servers telling you that your results and experience is not very similar to what they are seeing on other servers, it is just not sinking in. Your comments and views are your opinion and hold no more weight than anyone elses on these forums. If you think a hardcore zone is a waste of time, fine thanks for your opinion. My opinion is that I would love a more challenging zone, that offers some rare or unique items like PoWar did. I would prefer not to see the strange detrimental effects to agro for tanks, and pets should have no additional constraints to tanking than they normally would. No I do not what it to be a freaking HA. I want a static zone. Just doing some quick math, there are 21 guilds (maybe more) that have beaten EOK. Lets estimate between 60 and 120 players in most of those guilds over the past year. So between 1260 and 2520 players just in those guilds alone that more than likely could be interested in a more difficult group zone. Thats not to say everyone would be interested, and that is certainly not to limit the interested players to only those 21 guilds. If it was implemented better than Plane of War, with exp and loot that better reflected the risk vs reward, I think it could be a great success. I dont think anyone expects a bunch of dev time to be thrown at this kind of thing. The basis for a twin zone already exists with Demiplane of Life and Demiplane of Decay. In theory, one of the new zones that is already in production for the next expansion could have a quest arc that would allow you to zone to the darker, more difficult version of the zone. Ideally it would not be like the Mirror fragment of Anashti Sul, we do NOT want people waltzing to whatever area of the map they want to goto on the easy side, and then clicking over directly into a camp on the hard side! Mobs on the dark side would be higher level, more hp, hit harder, have unique effects that mobs on the light side do not have. IE - immune to snare, immune to mez/charm, larger agro radius, larger dd's etc etc etc. Named mobs could have mini raid kind of effects just like those named in Chelsith and PoWar did. I really am struggling to find a reason that this wouldnt be awesome.
