New Progression Server FAQ and Upcoming Poll Details

I was saying I expect them to take a watch and see attitude first keep in mind. Look at two of those three quotes - they expect people to "get along" and "race" in their optimism. If those two get disproven, it really weakens their entire reasoning.

I'd be surprised if we saw raids get instanced until close to the second year of the server - but at that point I'd start giving it some chance of occurring. (assuming people don't "get along" and "race" like I have zero expectation of them doing unless Velious is available at open - and even with Velious I'd expect some headbutting still, but lessened)

Regardless there's a few things up their sleeve regarding player interaction, clearly - they're on the ball for the problems overall, they're just being slow to show their hand for some specific things. Perhaps instancing being expanded to raids is low on the list, but based on how much we were saying they weren't covering that suddenly got covered in the past two days - I'd say there's very little chance that the two "player interaction" worries of PNP enforcement and hacking are going ignored like it currently appears.

Raids not being instanced were the original idea, where the game makers felt everyone would "play nice". It turns out there are always some who feel "they paid to play the game, so they can do what ever they want", and I have seen this in conversation and from some guilds. This is why instanced would be better, if only to make it fair for all guilds who would like to raid.

Though here is an idea for those who like to "always win". Have the unlock as chosen by the vote, but have it only unlock for the guild who beat the raid. When a character gets flagged as beating the end raid, that character will have a timer to release and step into the new areas. Other characters in the guild but not attending that raid, would still need to get flagged, by joining in and beating the raid.

Just wanted to point out that all of the complications with era specificity you guys are having could easily be remedied by:

Step 1: patch AK client
Step 2: generate Windows AK client
Step 3: Take Al`Kabor database and run it like live ran until Al`Kabor's era, and lock it
Step 4: Leave it there, charge gold sub no sc store
Step 5: Profit

As I am a proponent of doing "something" in regards to raid content, instancing would REQUIRE lockouts. I'd much rather see actual GM involvement but that's a little bit of dreamland stuff there.

Either way I will be there when this server is available and do my best to have fun. However, hoping that everyone will just "play nice" is a pipe dream.

As far as the Epic stuff, I see valid arguments being proposed.
Even with a guild helping, as well as personal time camping spawns, my Mage on Fippy never acquired the Epic due to the issues presented on this thread. Once Luclin went live I pretty much gave up as I created my reincarnated BST. Yea, thats right, still didn't have it completed on Luclin launch. I saw the same as related to some of the other epics as well, but every cleric I knew (even alts), had their click sticks.

In contrast though, we all know this going in. For most of us it still will not be a deterrent to playing and we will do our best to enjoy whatever is available. I'm just ready to play again from an early starting point. I have been ready for a while now. Great job guys!

Assuming things were even kept.

"If those two get disproven"
That's rub... it has been already... twice.
This is not some nebulous thought or conjecture that the raid scene is crap... Fippy and Vulac were horrid WITH gm's.... this one wont have them.

Their reasoning can not get any more weak... it's complete bs OR...
Here is a thought... do they get to play on said server? I could see them doing this if they were going to be in/running the top guild. That is the only reason I can think of for them to continue being so obtuse.

I think they're naively optimistic. But I will say in the off chance their naivety is accurate, I'd rather leave it as close to legit Classic as possible. (As a Pro-instancing person, remember)

Oh I would love it if the raid scene is rainbows and cookies for everyone!
Oh look a princess on a unicorn just road by with butterflies for a crown!

Lol...

You know.....here is a whacky idea for content flagging:

Limiting how many times a guild can repeat a raid encounter.

Let's say a guild beats a boss mob. OK they get not "flagged" but "tagged" and that means they only have so much longer that they can repeat that raid. I'm not sure exactly how it could work but a guild could certainly race to the top and beat a raid boss and get the loot for their guild members. Then they could repeat it again. But instead of being able to do that ad infinitum, they can only do it either 1) a limited number of times or 2) for a fixed amount of time.

For example, let's say a guild gets ahead and beats naggy. All the players on that raid are now tagged. They have 30 days (or 15 days or something). And once that expires, they can no longer participate in the raid. The raid expels them. That way a powerful guild can repeat as fast as they possibly can to beat the clock but that's it. They can't perma-camp a raid target.

Maybe make it a sliding scale based on membership so larger guilds get more time to equip more players.

Q: So why not instance raid content?

Sorry but this seems like nothing more than a copout to me, if you truly wanted an original experience then you would revert the zones back to their original form. You also wouldn't implement duplicate zones regardless of population, seriously just say you don't feel like using the resources to implement the needed technology instead of giving this sorry excuse.

Further honestly not sure going to do the progression server, I really didn't care for having 2am wake up calls for raids the first time round. Now I have even less patience, the purposeful wipes by other guilds, the less than steller GM participation to resolve bad player behavior. I liked the game but raiding for me was big turn off in his aspect.

Frankly, there's no reason to limit race/class combos that way. Froglok SKs are going to be available with LoY, so why not froglok monks? for example. Otherwise Froglok SKs should come out sometime during TSS(I remember the troll war, and that was after we did firiona in tofs, so somewhere in there. think the clicky illusion cape is 75)?

As far as "load balancing dungeons" I see to recall that if an instance falls below a certain amount, it doesn't kick you, it keeps it open even if there is only 1 person there - it just doesn't route new people there.

I could see an advantage to having your own personal Lguk -- perhaps that would be why they don't want to do it on dungeons etc.

Right, there's some extra coding they'd clearly need to do for such, so if it's needed it will have to be a revisit (probably next year or something) - kicking people after a 15 min warning or something once it's not needed or making it so rares won't spawn under X population being quick ideas.

I find it amazing that the whole "bring back classic" is seen as so difficult. The game has already been made, its all there for you! No need for redesigning or revamping, all the data is just stored on your servers.

Daybreak Studios, alrighty, I'll meet you half way *pulls out checkbook and a pen*, how much for an ACTUAL Classic server, classic zones, drops, corpse runs, UI etc....?

Goodness sake. At this point, I have to put the people with signatures about the progression server on ignore, there is this zealous attitude pervading that can't be reasoned with, and they have some abstract vision of Everquest that never existed in the first place.

There's more flexibility on our side of the argument than the opposite that wants NOTHING tinkered with - yet with likely no CS and increased player knowledge - that somehow expects things to operate well and for a large portion of the playerbase to not skitter off because they're bored from having nothing to do because of aberrant player behavior going ignored while hundreds of players are vying for it. (likely on the order of 500+ players with a single server - there were roughly 600 across both servers on TLP 2.0)

And regardless, even if our views were wrong (which they're not - they're realistic to changes that have occurred) - people that are paying for a product generally expect to be able to do something with a level of consistency. I can say personally if I'm paying $15/mo for a chat room only at any point, I'm cancelling until there's more to do. [I'm cool with racing and losing though - I consider that something to do - like became a given on TLP2.0 though? /cancel]

I think we need to start off simple. The original EQ thing was about having to interact with others, sometimes camping long camps and holding camps etc. If we make our requests (especially at this time) too complex, we're likely to get a lot less.

Remember when the newbie log in Nektulos Forest was overcrowded? Tough, that's the game! Ever notice how the player base dropped after Raid Instancing? Coincidence?

When was the original EQ about instant gratification? It wasn't, and its still not supposed to be, that's EverQuest. This isn't WoW on Norrath. Its much more advanced. *sighs*, I know it doesn't have the same tier of graphics.

My Cazic-Thule, (y'know, instead of "My God"), I wish I worked for Daybreak games and had some degree of authority over this stuff. I swear, that's like almost my dream job. Too bad I'm just a drop in a bucket of other screaming customers.

You mean back in the days when over 1500 people playing nightly on a server meant the devs were angling to open another server for folks? Versus 4 times that being thrown into a single server - lets not pretend the situations are identical. (And mind you with more knowledge in the playerbase now - so each area loses its value sooner)

And raid and other instancing went live nearly a year before the playerbase dropoff, it was completely a "coincidence" not even one that truly coincided in time - it had everything to do with a major competitive release and GoD being too difficult for most people. [Heck, GoD has TONS of uninstanced content from the math I'm doing in my head real quick, right around 50% is instanced]

Instant gratification? Have you even played on these servers to date? I'm guessing you haven't - I can play a ton, so waiting 6 hrs at times in order to get a group (that's not a hypothetical, there's literally been more than days where I was grinding on a single oddball 6 min spawn in the 40's with my wife while nudging people for groups that it would take us SIX HOURS to find a group) - but I saw plenty of friends that after literally taking an entire week of their 2-3 hr playtime resulting in ZERO groups and ZERO accessible solo content decided to quit rather than sit there playing the LFG game every single night and nothing else.

I wish people that never played on a TLP (or had no interest in playing on one) wouldn't involve themselves in discussions that are based on the reality that's become apparent after both previous TLPs.

I would've been a purist like you after seeing how the playerbase perverted things in TLP 2.0 - I still had the faith after the first though (there was mostly racing, no KSing on raids that I'd ever heard of, no training raids, hacking if it was around was slight enough to not be obvious to me, etc).

I never played on Sullon Zek for a reason - and you'll notice how much of the nonsense that occurred DAILY on 2.0 was quite similar to SZ/Discord.

Hey, on Fippy the SC Store was available, but the items you could buy were very limited right? Potions and such - pretty much no mounts and illusions? Has anything been stated about the new progression server and the SC store / LoN and LoN loot cards? Are we going to see 500 HME mounts / BIG bags / illusions / and LoN loot cards available? Or, are we working form the same base as Fippy & Vulak? Someone mentioned that the devs stated there was going to be SC, but did we get any specifics? I remember camping Hadden for the fishbone earring for EB. However, it seems a great deal of the game effects can simply be bought from the SC store or from LoN loots?

What about a 3 Charges - Soulbind Clicky (helps friends from different continents to stay together in the first levels...) + Backpack