Free trade, multi boxing , and randomized loot progression server for Casual Players

I came to about 4 hours a week because it is my limit.
Chinese government recently set it to 3 hour for minors.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/China-limits-online-gaming-to-3-hours-a-week-for-schoolchildren
This could be more or less depending of one’s RL commitments.

But the general idea is not to give a strict definition of casual but to come up with a rule set that allow people to enjoy the game quickly.
The free trade and random loot feature would create conditions for an abondant market.
Random loot and agent of change, make more difficult to monopolize content.
Box free allow one to box rather than LFG indefinitely.

Just because it is your limit or a government has limited game time for minors doesn't mean that 4 hours a week is a good judge for a hard core player. 4 hours could be a couple hours on Fri/Sat/Sun or half an hour every day.

There is no server that forces you to move on to new content outside of gaining levels above what the expansion was released with. If you want to slowly work through every expansion you can still do that on any server even a live server due to AoC's being there now.

You're forgetting multi-boxers have a mandatory 2-year wait period before we get any of the cool prog servers. We waited years for a boxable AOC, and now we'll wait several more for a randomized loot TLP.

So AoCs are on live servers now. Why not just start a brand new casual guild on like FV. You won’t have the random loot but you would have everything else and not have to worry about chasing expansions.

To most people Casual is being able to jump on and play when you feel like it. The currently timeline on these new expansions is crazy and drives away a lot of family people. Getting on and playing 4-5 hours a day was possible back in 99 with i was 12 but you fast forward that 22 years and that same schedule doesn't work for me everyday at 34 with a family. I would really like a server that does 3 months for classic/kunark and 6 months for every expansion after that.


Ohhh and can we please have new servers launch in late summer/early fall?? Launching late spring/early summer is dumb.

Out of curiosity, how does anyone know if it's an adult or child logged into Everquest?

I have 3 PCs here, 10 accounts and 2 family members in the house. How would anyone know which was using the keyboard and mouse?

I would also wonder, most shoolchildren anywhere do not pay for online gaming, their guardians do. How would anyone know an account owned by a guardian wasn't just them playing?

I can see how a 6mo expansion server would seem ideal but I think you'd run into the same issues you do now with no one to play with. The bulk of the tlp people don't play that slow and would just quit.

That doesn't make 4 hours hardcore. Try applying to a hardcore guild at 5 hours a week total playtime and see how that goes for you.

The reality is, there are very very few players who play as few hours a week as you do. (If there were, it would be great--eq would be in even better shape financially. But there just aren't.)

I think your assumption is wrong. I know many who are casual and box toons, it is easy to do without any additional software, just using game macros. In fact I know more who box, that are casual, than those that do not box. I am one of them. I don't have the time, or want, to raid, but love the game. The game is so much more than sock pooping and raiding.

I agree somewhat with the OP. I think that a Server with the Mischief ruleset, but that allows multiple game instances to be run on one PC, and group access to Epic drops, would be very appealing. I know many who do not play Mischief because they would have to use 2 or more PC's (to be legal per the game rules), to box.

Older people who have families, people with health problems, people who have other thing in life that require time, can not play EQ like they used too. These people tend to not be vocal on Forums or social media, but have plenty of cash to support a game.

"True Box" has always been an issue with me because it makes you use additional PC's to box, but does not prevent boxing. This makes no sense. This is not Green in any form as having to run 2 or more PC's wastes much more energy and resources, than playing multiple chars on one PC. It also can be damaging to peoples health, depending on what hardware, desk, chair and keyboard set up they have.

Sometimes it it hard to see what others see, if you only allow yourself to see one way.

PS: This is not a Hard Core vs Casual situation, that is just what you have been seeing.

I don’t have much to add on the thread .
I would just chime in as for the previous post concern about True Box.
It is not green and it does seems healthy for people willing to box.

That is on you (as the player) not them. Its literally there to discourage boxing.

Actually; that is exactly the heart of this thread.. literally in the title. But anyways

I haven't raided in years. I play one character, 99.9% of the time actually solo (no mercs on the TLPs I play on). I know full well there is more to the game then raiding, as that's mostly what I do anymore. I would consider myself a casual player at this point. I have no real in-game goals. I log in, fart around a bit, maybe go xp some, maybe go camp something I want, maybe just hang out in POK and listen to /general while cleaning out my bank.

3-4 or so years ago? I was playing more hard-core. Getting 4-5 hours in a night, hitting every raid we did (that I didn't have a RL conflict with), hell I even designed and ran my own DKP system / bid bot.

14 years ago, I was boxing my own little group of BST MAG DRU, while hitting every raid we did and basically living online.

I don't think anyone is going to change my mind on this. If your boxing, you've taken a step beyond casually playing. You may not be hard core, but you've left that "oh I just casually play EQ here and there" mindset behind.

Agree to disagree, I guess

Ideally it would have been nice if DBG/DPG would have released a true box and a normal open box server at the same time. I don't understand the concept of limiting this server ruleset type to only a true box server.

I still do not understand why some people hate normal open box servers so much. The people who actually box 12-36+ toons at a time are still going to do this on true box servers and they do. There are people out there who like the ability to alt+tab across multiple accounts on 1 PC rather then stringing out multiple PC across our desk just to run multiple toons. Hell the first time my girlfriend came to my house thought I was some sort of freak because I have 3 desktops and 2 laptops on my computer desk.

Now before you say, "why must you box, just get a guild or find a group." I join groups, I am in a guild, but there are times where I only have an hour or two to play and I do not want to spend that little amount of time LFG not getting a group, or joining a group and having to leave shortly after. It's a waste of everyone's time. So, if I don't have a lot of time, I form my own group and exp while I can. Whenever I have more time to play, I will create my own group and go LFG on my main while I exp with my group, and then will leave to join a group once I find one and camp my other toons out, unless my new group needs outside help. Secondly, there are some quest that you cannot solo, epic quest for example. So, when playing on a normal server (non true box) I will typically pay for 6 accounts, this way I have a full group so that I am able to work on my epic and other quest myself that I would need a group to complete. Not everyone in your guild wants to stop what they're doing to go help you fight some random mob in the middle of nowhere so you can complete a quest. Also when I pay for 6 accounts that's just more money in DBG's pocket anyhow. Currently on a true box I pay for 4, and that's because I am not getting 2 more pc's/laptops and I am honestly to lazy to want to control more pc's/laptops on top of the 4 I have setup.

In ending, it would be cool to have a server similar to Mischief/Thornblade that isn't true box. And one should have been released with Mischief. Just like the last TLP's - 1 true box and 1 normal.

I would re-activate my accounts and join a server like this. I've restarted several times on new TLP launches. But I've had enough because it's the same crazy rat race playing out over and over.
It would not be hard at all to create a pro-casual TLP. Give it a 6 month between expansion lockout period. The hard core players will go out of their mind bored with that long of a window. Or a simple 1/2 time period between original expansion launches. That would give casual players the time to work through content and not stress about having to 'complete' everything they want to in era before next unlock. Hard core players will bash it as being 'weak', 'too easy', blah blah blah. But that's perfect. The casual player doesn't care about measuring their epeen by how fast they 'beat content' due to a lack of real life. They just want to enjoy the game at a pace that works for those with a real life.

Oh and if you really want it to be casual friendly - NO krono on the server. Everything else in market place sure. But the lack of Krono will keep the farmers and hard core obsessed away since they can't manipulate the system to make $$.

^ this.

That won't make a casual server, that will make a dead server.

Yes, but there are less of them because of the truebox ruleset. I personally would rather be able to box on one PC. But I might be less inclined to play on any TLP if everywhere I went was like Rizlona, where people are 12+ boxing using scripted software. It's a precarious compromise.

Be honest, with yourself at least. Nothing forces you to play a certain number of hours on any server. You can be as casual as you want. But you don't want that. You want to a server where you can feel uber too, where you can measure you own ePeen against others, and win the measurement.

It's also important to point out that, if one gave you a server exactly tuned to the ease factor that personally suits you, there would be even-more casual players decrying the "rat race" that server requires ... and you would fight tooth-and-nail to keep that server from being further degraded, to allow you to lord your uberness over them.

It's called competitition. People want to be winners, not losers.

Casual player: wants to jump in randomly and get in a grind camp where they can chat and tell knock knock jokes, exchange recipes, talk about their kids, and/or watch the game together


Hardcore: Is more likely to raid, logs on and checks current achievements and sets out to backfill quests etc.

Currently I'm not getting to play very much at all but when I do get on I'm finishing up Mercenary and Partisan progressions from past expansions and getting things like the BiC aug from GoD. I've always got a boxed character that missed something so there's always something to do.

I don't feel hardcore due to low playtime but my playstyle reflects my hardcore past and disposition

I started on Aradune but was impossible to log into at times. I moved to Rizlona and it was a great experience. The multiboxxers were willing to help a single account person like myself frequently. I prefer it being out in the open as it was on Rizlona.

If I could have a wish list for EQ it would include a new graphic engine, lifetime account purchase, and quest item drop rates increased. Add all this to a Mischief/TB random loot. This could make EQ more casual friendly.

The cheaters sure buttered you up well!