Longer expansion times

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Killians, May 21, 2020.

  1. TheChosenOne Augur

    3 years! don't make me go to 4!
  2. MaestroM Augur

    This is precisely it. I want to do GoD/OoW. But the first 6-8 weeks of any new TLP is my answer to the question "What's your favorite video game?"

    Ideally, for me they'd drop unlocks to 2 months and then release a new TLP in 14-18 months.

    But I'm also perfectly happy to play on Aradune.
  3. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    You aren't wrong.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartle_taxonomy_of_player_types
    enclee likes this.
  4. enclee Augur


    Your post really connects with the story of EQ. There was the hardcore crowd pushing each expansion and being more vocal to Verant/SOE to make more expansions. So, we get 6 month expansion cycles and broken content that's still broken even after the release of a subsequent expansion.

    Eventually, the casual and hardcore crowds are so distinct that SOE can't design an expansion to satisfy both. PoP then LoY/LDoN, followed by GoD. All the while just layering more and more broken content on top of each other.
    Skuz likes this.
  5. Telora New Member

    I’d be happy with classic, Kunark, and Velious on 2 months, maybe Luclin. After that I think at least 3-4 is needed to make it through most full expansions at a pace I’d be comfortable with.
  6. Wanax New Member

    I like the idea of 6 month expansions, esp. post Luclin.
  7. Killians Journeyman

    You summed it up pretty well. I fall into the category of both. I do want to beat the game quickly, but yet still be able to enjoy it for that much longer. All your time doing so feels wasted if you can't use it for a bit longer to me is all.

    Oh, got the best gear I can get, 1/2 months later it's useless. I don't know, I've always played this game to the fullest content, but at the same time I would like to enjoy it.
  8. Tweakfour17 Augur

    You could easily argue that the only reason Phinny "died" is because of Agnarr/Coirnav and the only reason Coirnav died is because of Mangler/Selo and the reason Mangler is about to die is Aradune/Riz. TLPs die because they release them every year and a large portion of the population either likes to farm Krono or likes to play in the expacs they already know instead of learning a new one.
  9. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Phinigel unlocked LDoN April 26 2017, Agnarr released on May 24, 2017 & Phinigel unlocked GoD on July 19 2017

    Phinigel had 21 guilds complete PoP

    Phinigel had 19 guilds complete GoD - a loss of 2 guilds - AFAIK neither went to Agnarr.

    ..............

    Coirnav released on March 16 2018 & Phinigel unlocked PoR on March 28 2018

    Phinigel had 17 active guilds prior to Coirnav opening.

    Phinigel had 15 active guilds complete PoR - a loss of 2 guilds, 1 (Fallen Council) did move to Coirnav.

    ..................

    So no, you cannot easily argue that Phinigel "died" due to the release of Coirnav/Agnarr at all because the facts simply don't support that argument.

    Phinigel has lost guilds at a fairly consistent rate of 1-3 per expansion from classic through to CoTF, so the launches of Agnar & Coirnav had little to no effect on Phinigel seeing as they changed the standard rate of decline negligibly.
  10. Febb Augur

    Attrition seems to be a big factor on why people stop playing existing older servers regardless of the type of server it is.

    Another factor of why people leave one server for another is the healthy population of a new server that supports guild recruitment and the ease of being able to find groups fairly easy. If existing older servers could contain a healthy population at all levels, we wouldn't need new servers. However, that will never happen due to how this game is designed.
  11. MaestroM Augur

    I firmly believe that many mistakes of judgment come from (i) an inability to measure what is important and (ii) forcing what you can measure to be "important".

    I hope the numbers you cite are intended to capture only raid guilds, rather than all guilds, because I think you'll find that, no matter what your intentions are, when you log in to a server and type /who all 1-70 and find only yourself, it doesn't much matter how many raid guilds are actively on the server, the server is dead from your perspective.

    The reason people refer to TLPs as "dead" after PoP is the leveling community in the 1-65 game is substantially reduced, especially relative to new TLPs.

    If i made it to level 34 on a server, had to leave for a while, and came back to find that my options are to either grind the rest of the way to 70, hope i meet some cool people and try to find a guild, OR hold out for a month or two until the new TLP server hits and catch that big wave, its a pretty clear choice.

    People who claim Phinny is dead should be more precise. But people who insist that Phinny and other mature TLPs are not "dead" need to do a better job of understanding what people mean by "dead", rather than miffed that people call their server dead. What keeps happening is people keep saying "Well if you define dead differently than how you're using it, its not really dead", which is not helpful.
  12. Tweakfour17 Augur


    Well then I stand corrected re: Phinny I guess. We can't compare Coirnav to Mangler since the Coirnavprogress site apparently redirects to a discord channel for a WoW guild but my anecdotal experience was that when Mangler launched Coirnav took a substantial population hit. We can do the same comparison you did for Phinny for Agnarr though:

    Coirnav launched March 16, 2018. Agnarr opened PoP April 25, 2018.

    Agnarr had 16 guilds in Luclin (as per https://agnarrprogress.com/)
    Agnarr had 9 in PoP, a loss of 7 guilds or ~43%.

    It will be interesting to revist this thread in a month or two and see how Mangler is doing, but I don't think it's incorrect to say that releasing new TLPs is what accounts for the largest population hits vs expansion times.
  13. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Are you actually asking for people to interpret what "dead" is supposed to mean?

  14. Tweakfour17 Augur

    The wayback machine FTW!

    Coirnav opened PoP Feb 13 2019 (17 active guilds)
    Mangler launched March 16 2019
    Coirnav opened LDoN May 8 2019 (not tracked)
    Coirned opened GoD July 31 2019 (10 active guilds)

    So another server that lost 7 guilds in the launch window of the next TLP.
    Skuz likes this.
  15. MaestroM Augur

    Yes. I've come to really hate words and english as forms of communication, because they seem to prohibit clarity.

    There is no way to use english words in a forum post to concisely communicate the population issues that TLP servers experience near the release of new TLPs and less-popular expansions such as LDON and GoD that isn't (i) tedious and uninteresting and (ii) met immediately with "its not dead, there are 10 guilds there!".

    Everyone. EVERYONE. Agrees that TLP server populations are high initially, peak between launch and Kunark release, and then decline thereafter until they are no longer viable.

    Everyone also agrees that, regardless of when it actually happens, due to any number of reasons, certain zones that people think of as popular leveling spots appear to be "dead" during the LoY-GoD.

    A thriving and active current-content raiding scene does not in and of itself lead to a bumpin popular server.

    When people say "dead", there are 50,000 things they COULD mean. They COULD have used more words and been more precise, but can we all please stop pretending we don't have any idea of what they're talking about?
  16. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    I am a reasonable person & am willing to compromise to at least some extent but I am not going to go to your ridiculous lengths of 50,000 types of dead, that's simply preposterous.

    Therefore so long as at least one guild is actively raiding on a server I shall continue to defend the idea that the server is not in fact dead, should it no longer have 1 active raiding guild I shall accept that the server has died & is no longer sufficiently active enough to be considered alive & kicking.

    If that isn't good enough for you then kindly jog on & have a good day.
  17. MaestroM Augur


    Woosh.
  18. Duality Augur

    2 months. Combine some of the 75 xpacs.