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Everything Should be Free Trade on a Free Trade Server

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Allworth, Jun 4, 2024.

  1. Captain Video Augur


    Some players like free trade. The vast majority do not. FV is less than 10% of the population base across all live servers. Teek + Mischief + Thornblade combined (not allowing for the fact there are players who have rolled on at least two of those three) is less than all the other TLPs combined. If you add in the TLPs that have already finished, the discrepancy is even larger, >against< free trade. The Teek/Mischief ruleset is as popular as it is because of random loot, not free trade. The loot makes the server become easy mode. Some players like easy mode. The majority do not. And so says our lead designer. I take it we're all now supposed to listen to you rather than him?

    Some players also embrace P2W. The downside of that is the cold hard truth that other players respect those who learn how to play the game, and earn their gear upgrades, rather than buy all their goodies. That truth has been part of the game since day 1.
    Sunawar likes this.
  2. Muramx Augur


    Pretty sure I am going to take DB facts when they have the numbers over your "I don't like it, so no one likes it" opinion.
    Allworth likes this.
  3. CdeezNotes Augur

    That'd be a first. You actually wanting to use numbers? You seemed pretty against numbers when it came to gear and just wanted to parrot your very wrong narratives of "Tower gear is better than time and GOD!!!!!11!"

    And what DB facts and numbers are you pointing to? There are 3 FT servers to...how many non free trade? The amount of non FT players vastly outnumbers those playing on FT servers. It's not even close. The second Teek released Mischief population dropped considerably. What do you think will happen when they keep diluting the water and increasing the number of FT servers? Eventually the same thing you have with non FT. A vast population scattered with lower peaks on each server. If DBG were smart they'd limit the FT servers to artificially keep the population higher.
  4. Kaenneth [You require Gold access to view this title]



    McDonalds sells a lot of hamburgers, that doesn't make them great food.
  5. Allworth Augur

    In the interest of accuracy, while he started on the design team in 2005, his employment has not been consistent which he reveals in Get to Know you Dev Episode 1:

    How long have you been working on EQ / EQII?

    I have been working on EverQuest since 2005. There have been a few gaps in my employment, but I come back!
  6. Allworth Augur


    I agree with you. However, I'm not sure what the quantity versus quality argument has to do with my argument about the unfairness of how epic quest items are obtained.

    Purchasing Krono, account perks, items from the DB Cash shop and an All Access Pass is a legitimate way to play EverQuest. All those things are paying the bills and keeping EverQuest profitable so we can continue to play. Isn't that a good thing?

    Free trade enabled servers are popular with the players. Darkpaw just admitted this at FippyFest 2024. Do you think that's a bad thing? Enad Global 7 is in the business to make profits. Creating TLP server rulesets that are popular with players means more profits.

    Free trade is free trade.
  7. Allworth Augur

    Enough players like free trade enabled servers that Teek is the most popular TLP server ever launched. Darkpaw just revealed this at FippyFest.


    Where's your evidence that this is true?

    Teek is called a "free trade enabled" server, not a "random loot" server. From a marketing perspective it makes no sense to market something that is not popular hence "free trade enabled" trumps "random loot" server.

    I think it's a combination of both factors.

    I've raided for years. I've paid my dues spending hours, days, weeks waiting for that drop that I wanted for my class. Normal loot servers don't appeal to me anymore. I'm retired. I love playing EQ. I choose to play on free trade servers. I will never ever play on a non-free trade server. I vote with my wallet. Many people agree with me. Teek's popularity is evidence of this.

    I do not disagree with our esteemed lead designer about players wanting challenge. However, I fail to see what this has to do with epic quest items being tradeable on a free trade enabled server Teek. As I have mentioned previously, there are many epic quest items that are tradeable and many are non-tradeable. There seems to be no logic or rationale behind this.

    If lead designer Ngreth would come to the forums and explain this inconsistency, I think the EQ player community would be well served. Here's what I would ask him.

    Why are some epic quest items non-tradeable and others are tradeable on a free trade enabled TLP server?
  8. Robomax Elder

    The Bazaar should be unlock on a Free Trade server . The Tunnel is a under mess and feels so dail-up:(
    Parker and Allworth like this.
  9. Captain Video Augur


    The Bazaar is locked because it isn't-in era. Things unlock on TLP s servers based on when they were originally originally in-era. That's how all TLPs work, it's basically of it whole point of being a Time-Locked Progression Server in the first place. If that's not how you want to play the game, then why are are you on a TLP server at all? He're's an idea is There already is a server with a free-trade ruleset and an open Bazaar and at's called Firiona Vie, why don't rule roll there, if the Bazaar is as important to you as you say?
  10. Allworth Augur

    Krono was introduced in 2012 by Sony Online Entertainment. The Rain of Fear expansion was released in 2012. Using your logic, Krono should not be available until the release of this expansion because it's not in era. The same goes for the cash shop which was introduced in 2008. If Darkpaw did this, they would lose a significant amount of revenue which comes from TLP servers and they'd have to lay off even more developers.

    There are many improvements to EverQuest along the way that have made it into the EQ client which affects TLP servers. I could give you countless examples.

    Should all those enhancements be removed and only introduced during the expansions that introduced those improvements on TLP servers?
  11. Captain Video Augur

    The EQ2 Origins server has no Krono and a very limited marketplace. So, I would suggest being careful with that argument lest you get what you ask for. There are certainly a lot of players on this forum who keep asking over and over again for a Krono-free EQ TLP. Are they biting that hand that's feed them? I don't know the numbers, I can't say.

    Unlocking the bazaar in Classic is thousands of hours of development work. For that reason alone it has << 0% chance of happening. For, far, far less development work this monthly cycle we got new hot zones up to 105. I know which I'd rather have.
  12. Allworth Augur

    A krono free server would be interesting and I would consider playing on there. Project 1999 is essentially a krono free server. How is Darkpaw monetizing Origins if krono is not allowed?

    I challenge you to produce the evidence that it would take thousands of hours to accomplish. From my experience as a developer myself I highly doubt your claim since the code already exists. Those in the EQ mod community may want to chime in here and give us their opinion. Maybe we can ask the devs at the 30th Anniversary of EverQuest in 2029 how much work it would take.

    That said, I believe that devs should spend their limited time as productively as possible to benefit the most amount of people possible. I'd like to see more quality of life changes in EverQuest that affect both live and TLP servers. Enhancing the overall EQ experience for everyone is the right thing to do and it also makes good financial sense.
  13. OldTimeEQ1 Augur

    The way to enable bazaar in classic.

    1. Put in a bazaar stone in commons tunnel
    2. Put a stone in bazaar to commons tunnel
    3. Block the other zone outs in bazaar to POK etc . Unblock them in Luclin.

    Done.

    This really can not be 1000s of hours of work, really, even for an intern.

    Of course in the "Ask us Anything, the answer is no" extravaganza, this too was said they don't intend to. So there is that!
    Allworth likes this.
  14. Captain Video Augur


    Subscription revenue is apportioned. Believe it or not, the EQ IP managed managed to make money before Krono was invented.


    I could have bet the farm that you would say this, I could have written your response word-for-word if I felt like it. And BTW, there is no EQ mod community. Literally nobody has the codebase the Live and TLP servers use (which is one and the same). People have the Al'Kabor codebase, which is now open-source, but that isn't miles close to how this game works. There is no Bazaar in Al'Kabor, for example.
  15. Parker Elder

    I’m in favor of bazaar as well. Hell I think there’s an untapped AFK market for some kind of mobile app that focuses on bazaar management buying selling trading. Doesn’t have to have graphics , just numbers and letters of items and prices, all the bazaar features etc
  16. Waring_McMarrin Augur


    Server select lists Mischief, Teek, and Thornblade as Randomized Loot servers and not free trade enabled servers. The server description lists free trade at the very end of the description for Mischief/Thornblade and right before a note about Teek commemorating Everquests 25 anniversary.
    Sunawar likes this.
  17. Allworth Augur

    Your powers of prognostication are admirable but that still has nothing to do with the topic at hand. When you give me the winning numbers of the next Powerball lottery I'll be impressed. :)

    For some strange reason, the word e-m-u-l-a-t-o-r is unable to be used in forum posts, so I used EQ mod community instead.

    P.S. Thanks for the bump!
    OldTimeEQ1 likes this.
  18. Allworth Augur

    That may be true, however free-trade enabled is how Teek is being marketed.

    [IMG]

    If I pay for an all-you-can-eat-buffet at a restaurant and the prime rib is not all-you-can-eat then that's false advertising.

    When I play on a free trade enabled server I expect everything to be free trade. If there is a reason that certain epic quest items are not free trade and others are free trade, then let's hear it directly from the developers.
  19. Captain Video Augur


    There are no mods. A bunch of emulated servers running off the exact same code base, which is itself a minor fork off the Al'Kabor code base. None of the servers you see on the server list at their web site has a bazaar, it's not in the codebase. Their code has a generic zone named "Bazaar" which contains a set of NPC merchants, a set of TS stations, and a bank. There is no support for the creation of any PC traders or buyers. There is no facility for any of them to maintain a database of PC items being traded, much less having said database secure from hacking and fraud. It's thousands of hours of coding work to create all that from scratch, never mind needing people with pro IT understanding of both database and data security concepts, which none of those hacker-types comes close to having.
  20. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    If you notice that picture sill lists random loot before free trade meaning that to Daybreak the random loot is the more important part. Not sure why you expect that they will suddenly change the free trade rules on the 2nd round of random loot servers and there are things that will always be no trade regardless of the server.