New TLP Announced for May 2023!

I've mentioned it in other threads but throwing my vote in for Mischief 2.0 with relaxed truebox after Velious or so. Classic-Velious should always be truebox IMO.

The only structural change I would make to Mischief would be giving group-content mobs their classic loot tables back + 1 random item. Would make going to a specific camp worth it, but you could also get what you need anywhere (level appropriate of course).

I still think Free Trade is bad for the Raid Game, I do think it has a lot of merit when paired with Random Loot for the group game - so a "Hybrid" of the Mischief's Random loot with just groupable gear being Free trade & raid gear being traditional I could get behind.

Add in all classes from the start & I could definitely see it having broad appeal.

If they did a second server a TSS unlocked server with Level locked (not 10 behind like Vaniki) at 4 weeks at level 50 then 12 weeks at 60 12 weeks at 65 12 weeks at 70 and then maybe a 10/6 unlock schedule (level raise / no level raise).

I'm just curious as to what you mean by "bad". As other posters have noted, Mischief is the most successful TLP so far and FV is the highest pop liveserver, both with free trade.

I'm not trying to yuck anyone's yum here. Just want to understand what you think the negatives are, because population on these servers doesn't seem to be a problem.

I think it's bad for the raid game because it undermines the point of doing those raids, the loot on a free trade server is less like a stream & more like a lake that just gets gradually filled up & that is completely fine for the group game, I am totally okay with groupers swimming in loot & trading it all back & forth, dozens of alts each etc. I think that could be healthy for casuals & creates an environment where there is plenty of cheap upgrades for them to maximise their time in the group game. Knock on effects mean it becomes easier to take a break & return on a server with a healthy pool of cheap group gear, it lowers the barriers to play EQ on a casual basis.

When it comes to raiding I think it degrades the worth of them, I see that as the Prestige content & making it free trade degrades that prestige value. I don't want a bunch of casuals running around in raid gear either, and if I get hate for that remark I frankly don't give a damn, groupers & casuals don't need raid gear, raid gear requires commitment and Free Trade completely guts that requirement.

Raids are just a way to make a multi-group content. There’s no prestige behind it.

That's your opinion & you are entitled to it.

I was asked for my opinion & in my opinion they very much do have prestige.

Yikes.

Ahh! well. I'm glad most people (particularly Darkpaw/DBG) disagree with you.

If I could have my perfect wish list for a new TLP server, it would be...

Mischief clone, with the following tweaks. Cut all the 12 week expansions down to 8 weeks. Hot zones in at launch. Cut open world raid mob and rare mob respawn timers in half. Open world is just fun. Guild competition is fun. If you don't like it, get your DZ on. True Box rules will be relaxed to allow for 3 clients per computer. When Planes of Power unlocks, True Box will be removed.

Considering there are only 2.5 FT servers and roughly 20 non-FT servers your comment has the self-awareness equivalence of a chihuahua barking at a pit bull

Disagree. If raids weren't a prestige we wouldn't have dev coordinated guild beta testing sessions. I don't see casuals working with devs one on one in beta testing and prepping content, do you?

Plus the coordination, effort, devotion, etc that goes into making a successful raid guild vs easily picking up a group and mindlessly killing things that have virtually zero threat of wiping a group unless that group starts testing their boundaries.

Preach on. I play Everquest because of the difficulty and time-sink it can sometimes take to get your character to the max potential; that to me is the goal of the game. I feel like random / extra loot for raid mobs cheapens this significantly, which is why I quit Mischief in Kunark and usually play to PoP and beyond on TLPs.

I like where you are going with this. I do think they can run with the loot buckets established for Mischief. Take anything outside of that Tier 1 content and make it tradeable. Leave that top end content as no trade. Same for the randomization part. Tradeable raid gear on lower tier bosses encourages people to kill those bosses for items to sell that are a step up from group gear but not quite BiS levels of good. Help keep the boxes geared. #boxlivesmatter

Yeah, I gotta agree with the other guy. There is no "prestige" to raids. It is just larger group content. Maybe, back in the days of open world raids there was, but today? On TLPs? Most TLP raiders ARE casuals. Very very few folks play without raiding. Raids are easy, even without Mischief's flood of gear. Everything you said about the group game applies to the raid game too, for at least the first dozen expansions.

I came back after a break, I was able to buy good enough raid gear to get me caught up and back in the game, but it was far from the best stuff out there, and there was plenty of reason for me to keep working forward through the raid content. Group gear wouldn't have gotten me nearly as set up, and I would have been a liability on raids. I would have been far less likely to stick around, with a much larger gear gap to overcome.

I don't really care what casuals wear. Their gear does not impact my enjoyment of the game, nor diminish the endorphin rush I get from upgrading a piece of gear.

I think this is the healthy/prosocial approach but I don't think the other folks are being disingenuous or anything for how they feel. If exclusivity is what you like then that's what you like. Like another poster said, though, there are 20 other servers that have that ruleset, including most other TLPs and the most recent TLP.

Folks who want to know that the only people who have raid gear are the people that killed raid targets or paid krono to RMTers for loot rights have lots of homes. I think there is ample evidence that the free trade/random loot crowd is large enough to support another TLP and I'd like to see a Mischief 2.0 for the folks that do.

That said, I would 100% play on another Yeli/Phinny clone. I want a new TLP and as long as they don't go too niche on it I'll almost certainly be playing there.

Lets just hope they actually hire a GM for this server, Hell i would volunteer 30 hours a week for free game.

Yea, free trade for raid loot is not healthy for the game. Group loot becomes nearly worthless (except for a few choice items) and the incentive & rewards for raiding is hurt.

I'm neutral on free trade, I can take it or leave it. But if the server does get it, raid gear should remain no drop.

No idea how the coding for this might work, but what if raid gear didn't become tradeable for 1 or 2 expansion releases, then became a free for all. 2 expansion old raid gear is still viable for group content in most cases. But you can't krono your way to best in slot week one of an expansion.

If selling LR wasn’t ubiquitous I would be a little more sympathetic to the argument that raid gear should remain no drop. But selling LR is super routine on TLPs now and a great deal of raid loot (pre-velious) is droppable anyways.

Free trade/random loot are super popular (just look at mischief) and I imagine generate a lot of Krono sales for the company as well. Im not saying EVERY server should be free-trade/random. But I think a leap-frog schedule or rotation of mischief 2.0 and phinny clone servers would be a pretty lucrative opportunity for the company.

Selling LR is much harder to do than simply selling no drop gear

The two aren't comparable