Longer unlock server thoughts

I know as I've gotten older, the days of getting home from work at 5 and putting in a 5 or 6 hour playing block are gone. So are the weekends of even more play time. Like some people, I get maybe 2 or 3 hours a night these days. Often mixing in entire nights off for any number of other reasons. For those of you who get more playing time and can keep up easily with most TLPs lately, I'm honestly jealous. My experience over the last couple TLPs I've participated in were kinda hit or miss. Enjoyed my time but inevitably would fall behind and feel I couldn't catch back up. Some nights would end after going LFG for an hour with no bites and getting frustrated. Especially since I only had a limited window to get max level and do current dungeons and raids. Anyway, all of that aside, I find myself in conversations almost weekly with friends and family who love EQ TLPs but share similar play times as myself. The consensus in my small group is always "I'd love to jump back into EQ, but we wanna spend more than 6 to 8 weeks in each expansion. We want to be some place long term and don't feel like rushing through everything". Honestly, we thought something like 4 months of classic. 5 or 6 months for most expansions after. Maybe even have a slower xp rate? Sure, I get it, if you play a lot or just slam through content, it might be a drag. But maybe being released alongside a faster TLP would work well? Gives a place for those of us with limited playtime, or even who enjoy a little slower pace. Just curious if anyone else feels this way? Thanks all and have a great day!

I agree with you that 100%. I would be good with something like classic/kunark start 2 1/2 months. Then releace expansions that are the same level all at once for about 6 months. For instance, velious and luclin release at the same time, also PoP, LDoN and GoD release at the same time.

I enjoyed the pacing of Selos myself. But, I get to play a lot. It is much better to have something to accomplish than nothing.

They already have this; it's called a Live server. You are free to ignore the speed-up perks like mercs and Defiant gear, if you wish. The kind of TLP you describe will never happen, the concept is not intended to be a super-casual experience.

While this request does seem to be made fairly often in here, and I can definitely understand the desire by some for a server with a slower ruleset like this, I would see potentially two things to look at to try and think if it could be successful.

1. Is there a large enough population in this boat to support a server on its own? People tend to burn through content and complain about nothing to do on TLPs as it is, so the target audience is going to be small. The question is will it be large enough for you to be able to group and/or raid if desired? Otherwise might as well level on live at your own pace.

2. Of that population of mostly players with limited hours or playtime availability, how much are you actually going to be able to group or commit to raid schedules? Finding groups can already be a burden on TLPs past PoP, now when your only talking about part-timers playing on a server is that issue just going to worsen?

I would honestly be good with the normal 3 month unlocks if they didn't release any new expansions from June-August.

This - a server like this, which would be mostly populated by the more casual sort of players, would need a much higher base amount of players than one populated by the more regular TLP crowd. If each player on average is online, say, 3-4 hours per week, you need a bigger amount of characters to get enough players to find people to group with, than a server where the average player is online for 15-20 hours per week. (don't take numbers for actual average numbers...). Not really feasible, IMO.

I agree with the first part. It gets to be difficult putting in several 5-6 hour days per week to stay current in those early expansions. But I'm not sure I understand why you would say you can commit 2-3 hours per night, a few days per week, and then later call for an even slower exp rate. Why not have an accelerated exp rate for, say, levels 1-50 or levels 1-55?

If the leveling time from 1-50/55 is cut in half, you end up at a level that allows you to be useful for 'current content' through Kunark and Velious, and then right into SoL.

Or do you just want to stay in the lower level content longer?

May 2023 - Slow TLP launches
May 2024 - New TLP(s) launch, Slow is in Velious
May 2025 - New TLP(s) launch, Slow is in PoP
May 2026 - New TLP(s) launch, Slow in in DoN
July 2026 - Slow TLP merges into Vox

Two months per expansion (and three for PoP) is definitely too fast for me and I've stopped playing TLPs because of it. Clearing each raid a maximum of eight times - and often just six or seven if you're not in a super sweaty guild - before moving on to the next expansion... meh. Feels so rushed. And since TLPs routinely die out towards the end of PoP, getting there so fast makes me not want to do it again.

This, 1000% this. Yeah there is a semi-decently sized population that thinks the current TLP schedule is too fast. Problem is there needs to be 3-4 times the number of weekend warriors vs nightly players to make a viable population, because ya'll spend so little time online. That or you need the daily players to carry the populations so you actually have folks to group with. Otherwise you might as well just solo in live.

Honestly I would recommend Agnarr for any TLP player who can only log on once or twice a week. You can take as much time as you need and they'd be overjoyed to have you.

Honestly, I'd just like the whole experience to take a little longer. I don't wanna be stuck in low levels forever, but why not try a server where we can be more laid back and just enjoy the ride? I know I've never even felt like there was enough time to re roll a character. Or start an Iksar, or beastlord later on. Again, these are just the thoughts behind those of us in a similar situation as me. Probably doesn't appeal or sound fun to many. We all wanna play in our own way and hey, it's just a game!

I definitely miss 'taking my time and exploring the world' like back in the early days of EQ. But it's hard to find enough people who are willing to do that these days. I almost feel like you have to create a guild specifically for it on an existing server.

Back in the day, we had progression guilds on Live servers. This was before the first progression servers came out. On P99, there is a progression server that waxes and wanes in popularity. (Well, I haven't been around there in a few years.)

Right now, there's something of a WoW Classic renaissance based upon 'hardcore rules,' which includes permanent death. But it also includes other rules that would apply to an old EQ progression guild, like no Auction House, no high-level buffs, etc. You just take your time, level in the world, do your quests, and... well in that case, hope you never die.

I'd be interested to play a progression guild in modern EQ. They worked back in the day. I think most people would be intimidated by the rush of a casual leveling guild on a TLP server though. Something about bot armies and sweaty groups rushing past you in dungeons or KSing from your camp is very discouraging.

To add on to my previous idea:

If you were to put together a casual/progression leveling group on a Live server, you (a) enjoy the benefit of not requiring people to financially commit; and (b) will have almost every bit of content to yourselves up until the most recent expansions.

You'd have to put together some rules like:
a. No Bazaar
b. No high level buffs
c. No mercenaries before level XX (or whatever)
d. No Defiant gear drops
etc.

If you can get 20-30 people interested in this, and everyone is able to come online 3-4 days per week for 3-5 hours, you'll end up with half the days of the week with a steady leveling group. And on some days, you can level an alt along side it.

I'd be interested in that.

It's been done before, I joined faceless for a time when they ran a progression guild before TLPs came out. Hard to say how easy it is to line up folks now that actual enforced TLPs exist though.

I don't think longer releases work. These days the majority of the population rushes or moves to max level at a pretty fast pace and that won't change. They don't want to raid the same few targets for a longer period.

I love the idea, but I'm not sure it works well in today's EQ without other significant reasons as to why people would be happy to go at a slower release rate.

My group of friends (4) all vote yes on this topic. The idea of rushing to each expansion then starting over every year is less than appealing for us.

Nobody is requiring you to start over each year. That's just you and your not so smart decision

When did EverQuest get taken over by players who want 2 month unlocks and easy mode MMO? Rush through all expansion unlocks that are every 2 months till post PoP then want a new TLP that lets then do it over again

I am a long time recycler. I am not proud of it. The nostalgia of playing classic is very strong, but it gets old because the game has aged. You want a place where its slower, but the server also needs to pay for itself too. With faster paced everything, its more alt friendly, and shop friendly. Everything they've done with TLPs is to make money, and thats OK. It could very well not exist at all if someone up in DGB etc said "pass". By no means does Everquest generate such an amount of money that it begs continued development. I am pretty content with the current reality.