Oakwynd Feedback

I too am confused after reading the FAQ. They say the true intent of FTE is to help eliminate DPS Racing and Training mobs onto others. AoE PLing, which causes zone disruption, was never meant to be limited. I'm a little disappointed by that but ok.

Early in this thread, some people mentioned ways people might abuse FTE but I didn't want to make any decisions until I knew more about how it might actually work. Allowing people to be added to the group of a locked encounter is not a good idea. Once a mob is locked, it should remain locked to whoever was in the group at the time of aggro.

The /Yell command is also a bad idea, in my opinion. I can see trains still happening by gaining aggro on a bunch of mobs, /yelling & running through groups that may have a bard or any other AoE class that could aggro them.

I refuse to Truebox, I don't want to run multiple computers in order to play EQ, so I usually roll an alt at some point. Personally, I think that they should change the bonus XP for the 1st alt to ~40% after max level is reached. A 10% bonus that is removed at most expansions is very small.

Who is asking for this server ruleset? I don't understand why we're incentivizing having alts, but not making keys/flags account wide? Does anyone really want to have guildmates whining about needing items for their alts? Is anyone pushing to raid 10x a week on 7-8 poorly geared characters? If you do expect us to try and gear up so many characters, why isn't the loot rate incredibly higher?

I sometimes wonder how these decisions get made when the community is pretty vocal about what they are actually asking for and have speculation posts for months prior to the server announcements.

Yeah if they really are expecting people to roll up 10 alts (or even 2 alts) they need to make keying/flags account wide; especially on a TLP were you don't have a full year to get everything done as it is. That will at least give people a little more once tive to roll up an alt or two so as to properly test the whole Legacy Character thing.

Also let us designate a "Main" who gets to keep the Legacy XP bonus at the beginning of a level increase expansion. Again that would give people a reason to roll up and maintain alts.

Agreed. Intentional training and afk PLing are the things that need to be solved. Dps racing can be annoying but nowhere near PvPing people on a PvE server, which is what intentional training is. It's also nowhere near the complete zone disruption caused by people selling afk PLing in numerous zones, including some of the most popular zones like Velks and The Hole. As I said in one of the first responses to the original FTE announcement, essentially: "I would love to see it implemented if it can be done correctly but it's very very complicated". It's still very complicated and there are a pile of issues to address that the faq actually indicates are not being addressed.
Huge potential for this server, though. I love the new additions of heirloom no-trade items, been asking for that for a long time. That's the "people that actually want things to be earned" non-P2W version of free-trade, so I'm very happy with that. I also like the per character lockouts and I think there's a lot of fun to be had with that, having backups for critical roles and creating various novelty raid groups for fun attempts. I'll be playing on this server regardless but I hope we can sort some of these issues out on test.
I would also really really like a clarification of DPGs stance on those selling afk AE PLing because this is already against the rules of unattended gameplay and obviously an abuse of the game's systems to RMT. It's so blatant that there's a conspiracy theory out that DPG contracts out the PLers. I remember when some of us would put legit groups together in the the deep, etc. Was a nice way to grind on wiz, clr, pal, enc. That's mostly a thing of the past because it's always a conflict with RMT PLers.

It would be awesome if, after testing FTE and if it works, that you consider FTE directly for live and not at all for TLP. I think part of what differentiates TLP EQ from other MMOs is the old school dps time locked progression rules that people have gotten used to and come back for over and over.

Under the old engagement, I generally don't submit a customer service ticket when someone steals my mob with DPS, but under FTE I will feel compelled to submit a ticket every time someone uses FTE to prevent me from enjoying/progressing in the game.

Specifically, I will feel compelled to submit tickets every time someone:
- 1) holds quest/named mob hostage abusing FTE (e.g. mez/FTE PH/named/quest mob indefinitely).
- 2) Uses FTE to train me with mobs I can't defend against until the and FD/dump them on me with /yell.
- 3) Locked FTE Insta-aggro quest/named mob before it renders.
- 4) Locked FTE long range aggro mob from somewhere else in zone.

Yes, these things are already against the rules, but under the old rules (if they were not enforced) I usually had a partial self-defense (dps), bring friends, etc. Worst case, I knew the annoying engagement would end quickly but I am worried that with new FTE (at least on TLP) the hindrance to play could last longer (quest mob engagement locked indefinitely, raid mob FTE engaged/kited to mess with a raid, etc.). Please consider not adding FTE to this TLP and especially not to whatever special server you plan for the 25th anniversary. Thank you for for all the hard work you do to keep this beloved old game running!

sums up most of the criticism of oakwynd imo

The problem with the 'community' is it's not a real sample of the TLP playerbase. It's the vocal minority and there is an agenda.

For FTE, I neglected to mention that guild vs guild dps race for open world TLP mobs is (for me) a very fun part of TLP (win or lose). EQ was the only game that had this, so if anything, those open world mobs should get extra bonus or spawns to incentivise this unique and exciting aspect of the game.

More importantly, for Oakwynd, AoC character lockouts with heirloom items, while they sounded good at first glance... I am afraid now that it incentivises a very specific style of play. Specifically, guilds are already starting to require certain number of same class characters on the same account to mechanically DZ farm the maximum instances. This mandatory repetetive style of isolated play feels like less like the original mmorpg. Other posts have mentioned the burden of the grind to level multiple characters in order to play/equip one (not even mentioning AA yet).

For me, the most fun aspect of EQ is to play with other fun people and some of them will always want to optimize, leading to this escalating requirement to grind the same thing over and over on 10 similar characters just to play one. The early game is already very busy and exciting (and grindy enough). However, the overwhelming burden of being required to keep 2, 3, 5 or even 10 similar raid alts on same account to farm DZ's turn turns off a number of invested players which makes me sad because I wanted to play the game with them again. In short, I would ask that this aspect be changed to not make the grind so compelling so that my friends will play with me.

Sure, I get that, but in all of the posts or messages in discord or even 'What if...?' type messages, did anyone ever suggest we need more reasons to have alt characters? I think they can be fun, but if you are going to make it a focus, why aren't they putting in functionality to aid with that? It can be incredibly fun on Mischief because you can give raid items to a level 1 and destroy everything, but this is not going to be that simple.

Having the XP bonus turn off at the start of the next level raising expansion makes no sense, as you don't really get to ever take advantage of the bonus on your main character. I would love to see some clarity on if this applies to AA XP, or just actual leveling.

Now that all the loot is heirloom, your alts won't be poorly geared! You just need to roll 7 'main' warriors on the same account and pass the loot every day. So that you can MT 7 days a week. This is exciting gameplay right?

Frankly this sounds way easier than 10 different classes as you could have the same level of gear on 10 characters. Very, very, boring playstyle though!

I'm just thinking this through logically... you wrap up killing whatever, you have to port/run to the bank and dump all your gear, switch to new character, regear, run to the pickup spot for ports, reform raid, and run it again? This sounds exhausting. You know, maybe this server just really isn't for me after all.

Yes, and I don't want to FTE race 10 times for epic quest mobs and keys=/ By the time I get one account keyed/flagged in 11 months the 25th anniversary server will be announced and everyone will be moving there wasting all my efforts=/

my assumption and opinion are as follows: 95%+ of the player base will not being doing that, nor will it be required.

some people will probably meta the ruleset to what you're describing - but i think it will be a very small percentile of the player base.

I think the heirloom/alt bonus xp will be simply that - a bonus for people who enjoy alts - otherwise, not highly utilized by the standard 2-3 boxing player.

LMAO
I've been accused of being a dev so many times, I don't even live in the USA which is pretty much a requirement for that job for a start. I have zero Gaming acumen except what I have learned as a player of games for the past 45+ years (yeah I am that old I have been gaming for as long as videogames have existed).

Oh well, just waiting for the classic wow hardcore servers until next year when maybe you guys realize people want a new server with mischief rules. Do you even read feedback? 9 of 10 want it, do you like losing business?

For some reason they think they can put in automated systems to counter bad behavior instead of just having GMs who are live people to ban the miscreants.

The Oakwynd announcement reeks of Diablo: Immortal, or more recently, Mortal Exodus in terms of hyping things up. This server is incredibly lackluster and they would've had a much better time if they just did Mischief 2.0 with no changes to it at all. It would've been way better received than this.

Personally when they said, "Something that's never been done before", that's putting high expectations on it, and they shot themselves in the foot by doing something incredibly boring.

FTE mechanics are going to cause many people to choose not to play this server, as it fundamentally changes the game we've all been playing for decades.

huh?