EverQuest Producer’s Letter April 2023

Alternately, allow Mercs in raid formation, just not in raid zones.

Or make it a toggle.

Alt bonus on same account made sense 15 years ago. You need to make the bonus across accounts or use a RAF concept.

Locking encounters made sense 20 years ago. It no longer does. It doesn't really fix anything that is broken and will likely cause more problems that it solves.

You missed a huge win with not introducing free trade.

The evolving thing seems good on paper but you over complicated a solution that could of been done much easier.

This isn't hate just feedback. You could do better on this ruleset

Encounter locking seems fine. I always thought they should have added it years ago. Sure it can be abused, but so can the current system. After a while, it won't matter because everyone will be so spread out, there won't be anyone around to tag your mobs against. So it doesn't really offer much.

The bonuses are kind of nice, but nothing really to convince me to play on the server. It would have just been a fun bonus. I do like the alt exp bonus, but that is because I tend to make a lot characters. Not as much as I do on live of course, but I tend to have at least have 1 or 2 beyond a maxed character. Relaxed truebox is nice, even though I rarely box. Too bad not from the beginning or earlier.

The rest is just the same. Wish some of the expansions later on would have been combined or shortened. That 70s stretch is brutal. Also at least a Kunark start.

No free trade is disappointing.

Probably will skip it like I did Yelinak. Maybe start a new live character, hehe.

A lot of this seems aimed at the same people who chased people off Aradune for baseless accusations of boxing.

With all the threads blowing up the forums about "encounter locking," there are tons of answers to prevent someone from keeping a mob from respawning or being engaged indefinitely.

One example, just set a very generous time limit to kill the mob and if it's not dead, it deathtouch's the entire encounter and resets.

Use your imagination... because these forum warriors are sure using their imagination in how they are going to troll everyone with their "I'll-show-them-not-to-encounter-lock-my-server" characters.

When people say encounter locking is fine, they dont understand that they could potentially be locked out of doing all sorts of raids or epics for weeks because of a few trolls. Early EQ was not designed with encounter locking prevention methods

"We need more creativity from the devs for TLPs!" -Community

Devs create a legitimate very creative server ruleset

"Wait, not that! We just wanted a Mischief clone!" -Community

...

Good job devs. This sounds like a very unique server. It would be nice if people actually tried something instead of immediately flaming it because it's not the status quo. Stop pretending you want new things if all you really want deep down is literally the same thing every year.

Obviously with all new things implemented, tweaks and fixes will be needed. People just need to be patient and let the dust settle.

I understand completely.
It could use a few tweaks to go along with it, but it's a great idea. The only players that need DPS racing are trolls, jerks and players who can't accept change.

I think this is the point here. It's a massive change that If it were put on the server I play on, would cause me to quit. Because the issue it tries to solve goes away with Kunark/velious. Classic through planes of power isn't the entirety of the game a lot of TLP players think it is.

My entire objection to locking is that It serves no purpose after the population spreads out into different expansions, and ruins a lot of things to solve very few problems.

Sounds like you've never played an enchanter...

So I can actively troll people by becoming the fastest trigger finger in the west! The fundamentals of the game have finally changed, so if I get tired of trolling people I can just go play World of Warcraft! IM FREEEEEEE

One positive I see about this server is that I really like the Yelinak guild I am in. This ruleset makes it very unlikely that 20 or 30% of our members will jump to the new server...

Easy solution - make 2 servers

server 1 - the current rules you've picked.
server 2 - the current rules without the encounter locking and add free trade to it.

watch what server has more players.
100% server 2

I've mained an Enchanter, and currently a bard. Not sure about the new TLP yet though, we'll see.

Oakwynd launch date now included in the letter.

Except that would gut mischief/thornblade, add very few new players and not get players back that can't stand training/PLing. They are 100% aware of the fact that a new free trade TLP would be popular, the problem is that it wouldn't expand the game's audience at all and only minimally increase revenue because it just cannibalizes players from existing servers.

the solution to dps racing is atleast a contestable in-game solution, if they put a bit more thought into it, we could have some form of shared loot or a million other ideas that prevent other players locking down mobs to prevent a server doing an epic or going to a raid zone

Can we get this on live servers please.

back to wednesday? all things tlp and expac release have been moved to thursday. will classic be 8weeks and a day?