@Kaenneth: Ladder Servers concept is terrible, here is why

Precursor to this thread:

You aren't talking about doing a Different single TLP though are you?

Your idea will eat up server slots like no other idea does, below I will elaborate on why your idea is doomed to failure and attempt to give you the incomplete data.

I extrapolated the following in draft form mentally already but since you have been unable to think it through thoroughly enough to arrive at the conclusions I have I'll help you out.

This is a big conceptual idea so it will unfortunately require a lengthy explanation to fill in as many blanks as possible for you, please bear with me.

TLP Server Headroom:

There are usually 2 TLP server slots per year, while mergers are required of older TLP to maintain enough headroom each year for those 2 new TLP.

How many TLP are there right now? 10 + 2 announced for May so 12 is probably their soft-cap limit or very close to it.

Agnarr is locked, will probably remain a static server that is never merged with any other, though there is a possibility of future servers being merged into it should they do another classic to LDoN and stop there TLP.

Phinigel & Miragul will be merged to Vox in June 2022 to allow for two TLP to launch in 2023, here is a rough outline of future merger dates needed to maintain a 2 TLP per year cadence within that 12 TLP server slot limit:

Agnarr (-)
Phinigel (June 2022)
Miragul (June 2022)
Coirnav (June 2023)
Thornblade (June 2023)
Vaniki (June 2024) - maybe
Mangler (June 2025)
Ragefire (June 2025)
Aradune (June 2026)
Rizlona (June 2026)
Mischief (June 2027)
..............................
Yelinak - May 25th 2022 Launch
Vaniki - May 25th 2022 Launch


Expansions per Ladder Server:

Lets also assume your ladder servers are the "Standard TLP" ruleset.
How many servers would your idea require? One per "era"
So we need to define those eras.

Era Definition:

There are 7 Using Fading Illusion's (host of the EverQuest show) EverQuest Through the Ages (linked) as a starting point:

a. Classical Age - Classic, RoK, SoV, SoL
b. Golden Age - PoP, LoY, LDoN
c. Discord Age - GoD, OoW
d. Lost Age - DoN, DoDH, PoR
e. Renaissance Age - TSS, TBS, SoF, SoD, UF
f. Heroic Age - HoT, VoA, RoF, CoTF, TDS, TBM
g. Nostalgia Age - EoK, RoS, TBL, CoV, ToL

Your Ladder server will need to hold a 12 month set of expansions, so a "per Era" server using the above doesn't work in practice, we will need to create some new-eras but we can use the above as an indicator.

************

server a. has (4+12+8+8+8) 40 weeks worth of expansions keeping classic reduced to 4 weeks and using a standard TLP cadence (12/8) it needs another 12 weeks of expansions so I add PoP+LoY and rename server c. as b.

a. Classic Golden Age - Classic, RoK, SoV, SoL, PoP+LoY (4+12+8+8+8+12 = 52)
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server b. we could not fit LDoN onto the end of server a. unless we combined it with PoP + LoY so I move it to the start of server b. which now has (8+8+12) 28 weeks worth of expansions using a standard TLP cadence (12/8) it needs another 24 weeks of expansions so lets add DoN, DoDH, PoR, server c. & d. are now b. and I will rename server e. as server c.

b. (Late)Golden Discord Lost Age - LDoN,GoD, OoW, DoN, DoDH, PoR (8+8+12+8+8+8 = 52)
************

server c. has (12+8+12+12+8) 52 weeks worth of expansions so it is fine as it is and no changes are required. We will rename server f. as server d.

c. Renaissance Age - TSS, TBS, SoF, SoD, UF (12+8+12+12+8 = 52)
************

server d. has (12+12+12+8+12+8) 64 weeks worth of expansions, too many!
We ideally need 12 weeks less but we can only remove 8 or 20, removing TBM means we are 4 weeks over removing TDS+TBM means we are 8 weeks under, so the closest we can get to 52 weeks is by only removing TBM and adding TBM in at the start of the next new-era TLP and we will rename g. as e.
Bear in mind that this server delays the launch date of the next TLP by 4 weeks.

d. Heroic Age - HoT, VoA, RoF, CoTF, TDS
************

server e. has (8+8+12+8+8+12) 56 weeks worth of expansions, too many by 4 weeks but this is closer to 52 than it would be if we removed ToL, but also keeping ToL on it means this server delays the next in the chain by another 4 weeks, for a total of 8 weeks later in the year than servers c.b.& a. while removing it moves the launch date of the next server back to 4 weeks earlier in the year than server c, b & a - overall the better option from a annual launch perspective is to remove ToL & add it to the start of teh next Ladder Server in the chain f.

e. (Late)Heroic Nostalgia Age - TBM, EoK, RoS, TBL, CoV
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by the time server f. launches there will have been 4-5 more expansions launched
so it will be mostly made up of expansions that are yet to be released so I have shown these as their expansion number with ToL having been 28. Assuming the same release cadence is repeated in future years server f. will have (8+12+8+12+8+12) = 60 but this is probably not too many since this server will catch up to live.

f. (Late)Nostalgia Unrealeased Age - ToL, X29, X30, X31, x32, x33
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So we now have an outline of the eras for the Ladder Progression server concept & which expansions will be on each era-server (Ladder Server).

These total 6 servers that would have approximately annual launches alongside one other new TLP server.
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2022:
MAY - 12 TLP slots 12 TLP servers
TLP 1 - Yelinak
TLP 2 - Vaniki
JUNE - 12 TLP slots 10 TLP servers
Phinigel - Merge with Vox
Miragul - Merge with Vox
************
2023:
MAY - 12 TLP slots 12 TLP servers
TLP 1 - a. Classic Gold Age - Classic, RoK, SoV, SoL, PoP+LoY (4+12+8+8+8+12 = 52)
TLP 2 - Funky ruleset TLP
JUNE - 12 TLP slots 10 TLP servers
Coirnav - Merge with Vox
Thornblade - Merge with Mischief
************
2024:
MAY - 12 TLP slots 12 TLP servers
TLP 1 - b. (Late)Golden Discord Lost Age - LDoN,GoD, OoW, DoN, DoDH, PoR (8+8+12+8+8+8 = 52)
TLP 2 - Funky ruleset TLP
JUNE - 12 TLP slots 11 TLP servers
Vaniki - Merge with Vox - maybe
************
2025:
MAY - 12 TLP slots 12 TLP servers
TLP 1 - c. Renaissance Age - TSS, TBS, SoF, SoD, UF (12+8+12+12+8 = 52)
TLP 2 - Not enough slots available
JUNE - 12 TLP slots 10 TLP servers
Mangler - Merge with Vox
Ragefire - Merge with Vox
************
2026:
MAY - 12 TLP slots 12 TLP servers
TLP 1 - d. Heroic Age - HoT, VoA, RoF, CoTF, TDS
TLP 2 - Funky ruleset TLP
JUNE - 12 TLP slots 10 TLP servers
Aradune - Merge with Vox
Rizlona - Merge with Vox
************
2027:
MAY - 12 TLP slots 12 TLP servers
TLP 1 - e. (Late)Heroic Nostalgia Age - TBM, EoK, RoS, TBL, CoV
TLP 2 - Funky ruleset TLP
JUNE - 12 TLP slots 11 TLP servers
Mischief - Merge with Firiona Vie
************
2028:
MAY - 12 TLP slots 12 TLP servers
TLP 1 - f. (Late)Nostalgia Unrealeased Age - ToL, X29, X30, X31, x32, x33
TLP 2 - Not enough slots available
JUNE - 12 TLP slots 12 TLP servers
************

At this point all the Ladder Servers are released & occupying 6 TLP server slots.

During 2 years there was no second TLP launched as a direct result of this Ladder Server Concept.

No further Standard TLP Ladder servers are required as f. is effectively a live server which the server e can (presumably free of charge) move players to.

2024 most players on a. will move to b. some will presumably remain on this PoP-locked server though it (presumably free of charge) allows you to move to server b.
The original Ladder server a. will have everything up to PoP unlocked by the time b launches.

Note 1: Every year after 2024 no *new* Classic start Standard TLP is going to be available.
Just the "funky" ruleset one, any players wanting to begin in classic with the standard TLP ruleset will have to start on server a. which no longer has expansions unlocking each few weeks they are all open now, this is no longer a real TLP experience it is a PoP-locked server with a decimated population, is this supposed to be an exciting server to join after b. launches or a wasteland where player can at any time join to expereince the early era of EQ almost devoid of players?

Note 2: You have successfully destroyed the TLP concept for anyone who ever wanted to have the chance to have a fresh-start in classic on a new Standard TLP because you have now killed off that possibility within one year.

Can you still not see why this idea is doomed to failure?

Let's continue.

By 2025 you will have 3/6 ladder servers in place, the players on ladder server b. move to server c.

Now you have both server a. pop locked & mostly empty and server b. PoR locked & mostly empty.

How are a. & b. going to be attractive to players with all of the unlocks unlocked & almost all of the population having moved on?

This is the concept that KILLS the TLP concept, you invented the anti-TLP-Life equation.

By the time we get to f. you have 5 dead servers all era locked with tiny wasteland populations that are unattatractive for anyone who wants to experience a TLP server

The Standard TLP server is now a dead relic of a bygone age, slain by Kaenneth, the destroyer of TLP.

Good job, you made Skuz elaborate

I did not and will not read this. This just assaulted my ADHD. At least mark threads are concise.

Ironic he wrote that huge text wall without even reading what I wrote.

I read it, what is it that you think I got wrong exactly for my response to be ironic?

That's okay.

Sorry about that, I did give a warning it would be heavy going at least.

Minor nitpick but Coirnav will only be in CoV by June 2023. It will hit live Sept 20, 2023 in ToL2 (expansion 2022) and then expac 2023 would launch in Dec ~8 weeks later. Unless they decide to merge it earlier than live it won't get merged until the June 2024 window.

Eight weeks is not enough to experience most expansions. It might be enough to sightsee but if you do any quest that take an extension amount of time and do not box, you will miss a lot. Folks need to realize most of us who have stayed the 20+ years cannot do 8+ hour days everyday.

I would say this is the majority of the community at this point. I really do not see the issue with 3 months per expansion but I get it. The community population dries out so fast and by the time it hits GoD alot of folks are gone. I would love to see a chart on where the population begins to where it is now without being on the same IP but VPNs can hide this information. I would say by OoW most TLPs are 700 or less actual players.

1000 or less I would agree, at least from my own experience on Phinigel we had at least that many then judging by how many guilds we had clearing all the content.