Next TLP, any timeframe?

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by TimeBreak, Aug 27, 2018.

  1. Accipiter Old Timer

    TL(oud);DR
  2. snailish Augur

    Launching servers close together we have seen fragmentation.

    Spacing servers out... maybe you steal some from existing, but the target is those not playing. There is a large crowd that comes back for a fresh server. Letting them level up in more than classic might boost the appeal as well.

    By next summer all but Coirnav are pretty far along (and Agnarr is well into the lock). In the past they waited too long to offer the next server on a few occasions, while letting very low pop things stay up but not progression. I say this as a former Vulak player.
  3. Celatus Augur


    PvP is so horrible in eq its not even worth considering
  4. Machentoo Augur


    So if the choice was introduce krono or shut the game off, you prefer shut the game off?

    Obviously we don't have access to the financials, but I am fairly sure it was close to this choice.
  5. Machentoo Augur


    Launching them together we see fragmentation.

    Spacing them out we see fragmentation.

    No matter what, new servers = fragmentation.

    When Ragefire launched, when Fippy was at like 5.5 years in, we still saw fragmentation of Fippy pop. Fippy was on track to continue until it caught live, until Ragefire launched.

    I don't care if you have 30 active players on the last remaining TLP, if you launch a new one you will see fragmentation.

    Whether that is a negative or a positive depends on whether you are part of the population that remains on the existing server(s) or the population that want(s) a new server(s).
    snailish likes this.
  6. TimeBreak Elder

    I'd say Agnarr was pretty successful.

    The biggest mistake was counting LoY and LDoN as 2 different expansions, they should have been available either right when PoP opened or at least both opened together some time into PoP.

    They made a Phinny clone already, why not do an Agnarr clone?

    This time call it Mata Muram or Hanvar and have it lock at Omens or DoN? So lvl 70 lock, that get done and you could roll out another to lock at 75 or 80 etc etc......
  7. Hane New Member


    Red99 had over 1k unique players at launch with no advertising, and the stain to its name. That's 1k subs that Daybreak doesn't have. With proper advertising and being released by an actual company it'd be considerably higher, almost all fresh subs that they currently don't have.

    It's definitely worth a try imo.
  8. Barton The Mischievous

    How many did they have a month after launch? 3 months?
  9. oldkracow 9999 Is the Krono Account Limit

    Grab me a FV style server with trade-able everything

    Then cut player power by around 50% - 65% to make it more interesting.

    Somehow debuff easy mode enchanter pets.
  10. Midnitewolf Augur

    I don't really understand why people would want to keep starting all over. I have been playing on Corinav for about 2 months and have just reached 43 on my main character. Right now my character is in good shape. I got very good gear for my level, a decent amount of plat available for new items I want to buy and am on the verge of starting some serious raiding with a friend of mine in about 7 more levels. Why the hell would I want to start over at level 1 and have to spend 2 solid months just to get back to where I am currently?

    I think the only thing that might convince me to jump on a new TLP would be if they had FVs ability to trade most items and only because I am crazy and my love my unofficial trade skill of " Day-trader Merchant" where I buy and sell in the tunnel with the goal of making a profit. However from a pure game play perspective, hell no.
  11. snailish Augur


    Fair points.

    My thought, I suppose, is that after a few years most of the quitters will have already quit. Those quitters are the $ to recapture.

    This $ must be worth pillaging some population from other servers, even if it appears to have caused all of them to stall before catching live (that rely on content beating and/or voting rather than auto unlocks).
  12. Kahna Augur

    Does it really matter if a server “catches live”? People played on it, they had fun, DBG made money, who cares if it dies before getting to live? If we wanted to play on live we wouldn’t be on the TLP servers in the first place.

    Starting over, making new friends, trying a new class. Those things are fun. Grinding onward on a server after my friends have left, in content I have no nostalgia for and don’t really care about? Not so fun. I will probably be a perpetual restarted, because those first few weeks of getting to know people is fun, and have led to some extended friendships. Fresh starts encourage that kind of socialization, and socialization is why we choose EQ over any of the other MMOs out there today.
    HoodenShuklak likes this.
  13. Overcast451 Augur


    Yep, that's me. I played on Agnarr for a while - until mid-velious. Got busy IRL and just didn't have time to sink into EQ.

    Problem with their launch window is that it's in the spring. I'm good settling in over the winter and gaming, but once spring hits - I'm not on the PC anywhere near as much. They should really re-think that to be honest. September launches would be perfect for many casuals, but I digress there...

    The thing that has me most hesitant to come back and try Corinav is this "One guild" - I'm not in EQ now, the current drama is meaningless, that guild is meaningless to me. It's just the fact - that once again we have RMT players screwing up the game.

    I don't have tons of time, but I have disposable income. I'm more than willing to buy Kronos from DBG - I *absolutely* will not from any third party - because they are the REASON I don't even want to play. The RMT'ers - clearly have no concept of a real job, else they would know to not treat their customers like crap. People aren't stupid - they know why "Mage team so and so" or "Guild so and so" is c-blocking everything - because they need to pay the rent. If that situation didn't exist then I might be more open to a third party.. perhaps not all the same - but with the way they act, third party isn't even an option.

    Perhaps.. the RMT'ers don't care - their life is EQ and their 15 accounts. They'll generate new accounts when they get banned and keep up the same thing. So maybe DBG should start threatening people who purchase Kronos via third party sites with account action. That group of people will be MUCH more hesitant to buy if they are worried about their 15 year old account getting banned over what..? Saving 4 bucks?

    That - or DBG could pull a swift one - and drop the price of THEIR Kronos to $5.00 - see how much time the RMT's are willing to spend for 3 bucks a Krono. Or perhaps give a discount based on account age? :)

    I'd be more than glad to come back, enjoyed EQ since 2000 - but with the volume of games on the market now.. I just don't want to waste my time with jerks - simple as that. EQ is one of the very few multiplayer games I will even entertain - because there is a great community past the people who make a living selling Kronos.

    I couldn't have any self respect doing that - personally.. lol

    Because honestly at that point - this game would become a job and I can find a lot more jobs with "IT Admin" or some such on the resume than "EQ Gold Farmer"...lol
    HoodenShuklak likes this.
  14. Machentoo Augur


    It is a fair point, and obviously the direction Daybreak has consistently taken. But, the flip side of it is, under the current model there is no guarantee that any server will ever be able to maintain population to live. Six or seven years is a lot of time for attrition, and new semiregular server launches will only accelerate that. It would be nice to make the full journey once, it was my goal on Fippy and is my goal now on Phinigel, but I am not sure how realistic it is. I hear a lot of players on Phinigel say they want to go the full distance, but they may not realize just how stacked the deck is against them. Players on Fippy tended to say the same thing too, many of them anyway.

    You could think that the quitters have all quit after 3 years, but population is still steadily declining on Phinny. We are down another major raid guild just this past week, and while many of those players are still continuing on in other guilds, not all of them are. We made it through PoR in better shape than I thought we would, but the trajectory is still considerably more sharply downward than it was a year ago. Of 13 guilds that finished TSS, two of them are gone for sure, one I am not sure of (Sad Dragons? Hasn't been updated but I think they are still raiding) and one is struggling enough for numbers that they are joint raiding with another guild that stopped raiding a bit back. That's 3-4 guilds out of 13 that cleared TSS that either no longer exist or are no longer able to do content on their own. That's a pretty big chunk of attrition in just two or three months.
    snailish likes this.
  15. Hane New Member

    Couldn't give you an exact number, but it was definitely healthy even after the six month mark.

    Keep in mind that Red99 was launched in November 2011, Kunark released in August 2012 (That's 10 months of classic), and Velious not launched until August 2015 (Three YEARS of Kunark). The population took a big hit after epics were finished up (Feb 2013 release). Red players burn out on recycling the same PvE content just like Blue players do.

    Give PvP players 3 month / expansion, maybe even four (PvP always makes progression a bit slower), and the server will do just fine.

    Certainly better than Coirnav.

    EQ PvP players are a niche of a niche community. Let the players of Rallos, Sullon, Vallon, and Tallon get their nostalgia fix as well. They're out there, waiting.
  16. Machentoo Augur


    You just killed your own argument.

    (And for the record, I am a Tallon Zek player and would play it in a heartbeat. But let's not fool ourselves into thinking it will be a great success.)
  17. snailish Augur

    I think Daybreak is good at monetizing new server launches.

    I think they need to put more thought and effort into retention beyond the early expacs. Auto unlocks (no voting) and Agents of change are a huge positive step.

    Since Phinny is a pay to play server... one thing I would do is up the XP rate beyond the TSS/live number. I would have done this after OoW. Announce it as part of the "not a live server ruleset, enjoy it while you get it". That gives them the out to reduce it when Phinny is live, but I wouldn't --I would keep Phinny pay to play as the only live server with all the special things it has.

    I would consider doing rares/faction with a regular bonus on Phinny as well. More tradeskill success bonus too.

    The other thing to do is activate 51/50 character creation as of OoW on progression servers. Replace the defiant with something reasonable (even PoP ornate level... on progression way more are wearing elemental in-era so this is not a huge give).

    Make a truly "preferred" server.

    I think this would have a huge positive impact on retention, replay and influx of new players.
  18. Accipiter Old Timer


    What a dumb comparison. How many players did all the other servers have at that same time? How does that number compare to today's EQ population? You cannot know and, therefore, your 1k unique players in 2000whatever is immaterial.
  19. Accipiter Old Timer


    I've done it four times on TLPs and I'm pretty sick of it. I wouldn't have done Agnarr and Coirnav if my friend hadn't talked me into it. Those 12 characters are now collecting dust (thankfully).
  20. ForumBoss Augur

    I'm hoping to go as far as possible on phinny. If that's no longer an option, I'll go to live. Unless they actually do a free trade, aoc tlp, I don't want to start over for several more years.