Holly's new tweet about raid zones

It's not even close to a moot point. I'm not some HG killer with 5 pocket magicians, when the value of the actual items comes tumbling down, and the best form of plat income is pure coin from mobs it's an issue. The 130k horses aren't getting any cheaper from the merchants, and I don't think people are going to be handing out HoV for under 20-30k in PoP.

When you absolutely destroy an economy you get either debt (look at the USA) or people who live within their means having to make due with less or work longer. In fact, this cookie cutter streamline reminds me of the phenominal Apple commercial the 84 superbowl ad released, "Think Different".

Even as a warrior with bandages there's easy 250pp/hr+ camps that can be done as pure plat farms. As a knight you should have an even easier time. (Especially SKs thanks to a greater DPS focus and wider range of targets) [One example being Gargs on undead isle in OoT - should barely scratch you and 8pp or so average a kill with fast respawn - other stuff to look for is fine steel you can slaughter quickly (or even better REAL weapons like storebought when you can find some of those rare spawns left)]

Pretty sure that still beats the odds at an SMR. Dunno your luck but mine on FBSS farming for example was seeing zero in 17 hrs thusfar. Literally anything non-zero would do better.

And yet those that know how to invest during such times manage just fine. While many were worrying about the market slump, I didn't since I had moved my money into safe investments.

Thinking Different is important. If everyone went on the same investing trajectory the smartest investments would still be in the wheel, printing presses and the cotton gin. Times change, smart investors change with them.

We all farm plat differently, personally I can't stand killing grey mobs and it's boring. I don't think I'm the minority here, but often times while camping an item I am actively doing something else with the remainder 20ish minutes.

Everquest has changed and mostly in a very positive way. The UI upgrades are much better, hell levels are vanquished, the ability to do some stuff on your own is nice, magician pet buffs were good until broken (if you remember originally they were complete trash), and things such as ragefire trigger was fantastic. Things that were severe problems were changed because they would always be bad, but that's not the case here and now, that's been proven.

Oh, I'll agree 100% - I think it's more entertaining to actually farm items. (Although I will say "killing PH/AFK 20 min" is boring to me personally as well [my "grey" farm is actually still green at L49 but it does have a dull 2-3 min wait on respawns] - actually doing a camp though is fun - and I've heard too many stories already of drama because of such things see "The Face of Faceless" thread if it's not been nuked as an example)

But much like you, I personally plan to go into Kunark with a bankroll of X size, Y size in Velious, etc. And frankly, I prefer consistency over being subject to RNG so I can say "Hey, I can make 10% progress to my goal" or whatever for the X hours I'm willing to commit on a given day. While getting an item has a "cooler feel" to it, it's not the most productive way to achieve the target.

Frankly, from the sounds of things, much like for sensible RL investing - it sounds like you need to diversify your income stream a bit if you're not confident in hitting your goals.

I hope the vote looks something like this:

If there is instanced raid content how do you vote for an early release of Kunark:
Yes
No

If we do not instance raid content how do you vote for an early release of Kunark:
Yes
No

This is is a huge caveat in probably a majority of the people's votes. It needs to be accounted for.

I know in the first of the two options above I vote no. In the second I vote yes. This is how it should be laid out as these are the two primary concerns of the server population.

Judging from Holly's posts, they are still trying to not instance. So before we can offer community feedback on potential poll questions, it would be nice if we had an idea of what non-instance lockouts they are thinking of.

The problem with lock-outs (and raid instancing therein) is there's no way to do it in a fashion that can't be exploited.

Character lockout? Alts
Guild Lockout? Multiple Guilds
Account Lockout? Multiple accounts
IP Lockout (super extreme)? Can't, you'll screw people in places like University Dorms.

It's called the expedition system. You create a npc, you hail it you say some words, everyone in raid gets to go into the instance. It is a per player lockout. Yes your alts can farm it just like they could any other instanced content. It is not an exploit and it is not concern. Please provide a valid example of an exploit. I don't recall people exploiting LDON or GOD lockouts.

Account lockout is the best. Yes, more accounts get you around it, but people who would need to get around are basically either content blockers or RMTers. I mean, let's assume they did load balance instances without lockouts, which they probably won't, but since we don't know what they are planning, it's just an example. Each group of X number of characters needed to block something is going to have to subscribe X more accounts PER load balance instance to get around it and effectively lock it down. Some people will do it, yes, but unless every content blocker is Bruce Wayne, it will end up increasing the net unblockability.

What do you mean exploited? What do I care if someone raids on multiple chars? It doesn't stop me from being able to go and raid myself.

Well they need to announce that instancing was ruled out so we can pass Kunark and carry on. We will need to speed through Kunark and into Velious as well. Content is lacking at the end game until Velious. Early release Kunark only spreads out the population to new zones and helps leveling and creates more interest. It does not help with raids ever. The same problems will occur with Trak and epic targets.

I mean exploit in the literal sense, not the "I don't know what exploit means and play MMOs" sense. In the same way you exploit the minerals of a mine, you can exploit any lockout that exists.

And if everyone and their dog gets the top targets, and thus the top loot. This is going to go from EQ to WoW heroic dungeons faster than you can say "RIP Everquest"

You can exploit minerals of a mine in EQ? Mining is in other MMO's kid. Try again. I don't think you have a real example.

Minimum level, minimum player count. Lockout shared on the account.

Re: Multiple Accts: If you're paying for a second account that you bothered to level, why shouldn't that account count as double? If people start making extra accounts for no reason other than to request more raids, how is that a bad thing for Daybreak? They're a business, making more money is not going to be seen as a bad thing.

Re: IP Block: Don't college dorms use separate subnets for each room these days? I know I've seen folks posting on a forum from the same college (but different dorms) come up as completely different IPs. The IP issue seems more problematic for families than dorms to me. Regardless still an issue. (And a non-starter anyway, Holly's said there's zero chance)

And honestly, at the end of the day ANYTHING can be exploited - 60 SKs sitting at a spawn with people spamming a /tar Lord, /pause 7, /activateability (Harm Touch) macro is a method to exploit a lack of instancing after all. Human minds inherently try to take advantage of any situation (exploit the situation) to turn it to their best advantage.

Everything can be exploited in some way - its just a matter of what's accepted as appropriate and what is not.

Give raid bosses a buff so that they are actually challenging. Then only guilds with actual skill can kill them. Everyone who wants can try to raid, not everyone will win.

(Heroic dungeons are 4 tiers below top loot by the way)

I meant heroic dungeons in the context of how god awfully boring they are, and nobody cares about the loot that comes from them. It's lose lose.

And the raids do get harder and require skill as the expansions evolve. That's why it figuratively blows my brains out that people are complaining about accelerating the expansions. It's a solution in itself.

I'd agree if we accelerated up to PoP or GoD that would be true. (I personally was pushing for PoP for a start a long time ago simply because of how many balance issues get fixed with PoP - plus a little bit of instancing for those that want to dodge drama issues once LDoN goes active - with lower preference loot kinda the perfect mix)

Everything before PoP except maybe Shei (which suffers from similar loot inadequacy issues like Innoruuk to be of too much interest) is pretty hard to fail on with modern player power.

And I like the idea of accelerating expansions on a fundamental level - but when the comfort afforded by the group instancing under current rules can't apply to the majority of L55+ XP it either needs to be addressed first or things are going to be ugly really quick.

They already have higher level versions of some of these raids on live. Apparently the experience of doing the content was worth making harder for anniversary events. Instead of just skipping all the content making it more challenging is a solution.

If everything is just going to be stupid easy when you throw your body count at it, why even play the TLP? Sounds more like what you want is a race unlocked progression. Then you can race, unlock every expansion and be deemed #1 fastest.

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LoL I will say right now, not my position, but amongst friends? Whoa buddy...they do NOT want to speed up the other expansions AFTER Kunark. They want to play for a good long while in Kunark/Velious and etc.

What you just said: "We will need to speed through Kunark and into Velious as well. Content is lacking at the end game until Velious --- is the only reason many, many people will choose to vote no to opening Kunark BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT A CONTINUED SPEED FRENZY INTO OTHER UPCOMING expansions. What a mess.

There is no universal implementation of subnetting. It is more expensive, and does not benefit the college. They may create a subnet for all of the students to share, which would result in a different IP but the students being on the same subnet.

NAT was what was causing the shared IP, and is used in most homes.

I associate IP blocks with P99, and that is not a good association. Blocking per account is fine with me. If someone wants to pay more, they get an additional vote. I might add a policy that the account must have been live for at least 60 days.