Raid Changes coming in July

Oh, don't get me wrong Banuvan, I agree with you and have been pushing for raid instancing in the pre LDoN/GoD game since I came back to the forums. Please read my posts if you want to know my thoughts on the subject including the most recent one on page 42. Anyone who doesn't think the changes are going to change much is in for a rude, rude awakening. The only thing this current "fix" will do to affect the server as a whole, is that everyone on the server will now have access to four more zones with load balancing.

Really surprised that DBG doesn't realize this and if they do why they don't just come out and make the necessary changes. I get that they don't have a lot of money and/or manpower but when you think of the long term effects it will have on the server it seems a wise investment.

The current changes they are proposing are really a slap in the face to anybody who plays on the server except for TL currently. It really makes you wonder what those over at DBG are thinking since they are oddly quiet on this front.

Yeah, when Roshen posted to Reddit this past week, I replied with something that was the most upvoted on the whole thread (well thought out post), and even then he didn't reply to me.

I haven't been on reddit in like a year heh.

Yeah Roshen and others there post semi-regularly.
He had made a post linking to this thread about the patch in early July.

Found Here: http://www.reddit.com/r/everquest/c...er_raid_update_coming_july_1/?sort=confidence

Unfortunately it's about to be patch time and not a word from them other than a single post in here about memblur. Sad state of affairs over at DBG. Throw in the totally unwarranted and unwanted poll about Kunark being released early ( seriously, after a month of classic? ) and you have a company sabotaging their own server. It would be interesting to hear the conversations over at DBG about all this. Are they sitting there saying damn, we need to do something or sitting there saying whatever. They communicated a lot about other issues with folks. This they have gone almost completely silent on. It makes you think.

Actually a dev on another thread said that they would look into removing memblur effects on raid targets. that's something that I felt like adding to your post.

Are you sure that the devs want to work with us? I kinda get the feeling that they are OK doing their thing without any feedback from us. Because we ask for something to allow everyone a chance at raid content, and they keep working to keep raid content locked down by a minority. Our goals are not the same, and there is no 'working together'.

That's the way it seems as of late. They made some changes to allow folks to login and after that they said we are done with this.

This is correct. I won't bother to find the link but the dev did say it would get addressed (memblur).

I agree it feels like they don't want to address the issue at hand. But give them some time. Let this patch go through it's period and they will find that it doesn't work out for the best they will continue to make changes. Patience is somewhat of a requirement for this. Hopefully the vote works out for 6 months and we give them as much time as needed to fix this. VP is going to be terrible otherwise.

That is incorrect. It was in this thread as I originally stated and it was Prathun. Since you wouldn't bother to find the link I did.

https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/...es-coming-in-july.223880/page-31#post-3270113

Memblur won't work on raid targets and removal of population limits with mobs in contested zones like sol b/perma/KK etc.

Considering there were over 100 people in Hate last night at 11pm CST on a sunday night you can expect these zones to have hundreds of people when a raid target is due.

If instanced content was created, it sounds like the only thing effected would be the Krono market. That would be bad for boxing, if there are not enough Kronos purchased to trade for gear. If people had to pay real cash to box, there probably wouldn't be as many subs. If competition is what these servers are truly about, make them pay for those boxes with cash instead of Krono. They will not do that when Kronos cost $3 more over a sub and someone has to purchase them to trade. What better way then for casuals to fund the raiders with a sub, on top of trading Kronos, as well as never getting access to the raid content. When all these casuals get bored and find something else to do, who will provide the Kronos to these boxers to continue the progression lockdown. That is when they will cry for faster unlock voting or merge the servers before they run out of Kronos to keep funding their play style.

Bash on the casuals all you want, but the reality is you need and feed off them. When people get bored of content once instancing begins, there needs to be a recruit pull coming from somewhere to keep the progression going. If the server dies out all you have left is the same people that you started with and hope they stick it out till the end with faster unlock voting on a dead server. All while still having to complete the content without a recruit pull and possibly lower numbers. They figure if they stay on top the longest that people will eventually give in and just join up to experience the content they missed out on years ago once app spots open up in instanced content. Fippy is a pretty good example of what will happen here. They are getting no attention and have no one else to recruit from.

DBG makes an extra $3 profit for each Krono purchased, so they really have no incentive to make raid content accessible to all. Someone has to be at the top trading all this bis gear for Kronos once replaced with newer content. There will always be enough casual to purchase them, because they have no idea how this game works. The time to invest into it takes too long for them and will pay their way to success. This server was not intended to be casual friendly but, they are surely funding those at the top of the chain. The profits keep rolling in and the only ones that are not happy is them. Funny how that ends up working.

theres alot of truth in here sadly. the amount of players making money off this era of EQ is staggering. its far more widespread than i thought. guess i was gullible.

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You and I and others like this knew about it before and it didn't impact our regular gameplay that much.

Please know that you are in a very large boatload of EQ re-uppers who frankly, had not one iota of the vast sludge they would soon be wading through. You aren't alone. Now its just like watching what even the most realistic among we EQ vets thought would be 'doable', slide down a nasty slope to oblivion. Glad I played back in the day, that's all.

Yea true. Many knew what was going to happen and that is why there was a call for instancing of raid content before it even started apparently. Many people will quit because they will never get to do what they hoped to do when they came back or just don't want to deal with what the raiding scene is like or is going to become when larger raid zones come into play like VP, Ntov, ect ect. Plenty will stay but it'll become just like how fippy was, slowly dwindling further and further as time goes on.

Not sure why you're arguing with me, as if you've read any of my posts/posting history you would know I 100% support raid instancing. The high population of the server is the reason I'm not even bothering in these zones at the moment. Add the lack of mobs in addition to the unenforced griefing and it's just not fun for me.

I'm really confused though; you linked to the EXACT post I was talking about. The dev says that quote:

I imagine when he says this he only means it on Vox/Naggy/Yael/Phinny/EoV, and that the change will not be implemented until the patch.

Because you said it was in another thread and said you were adding to my post when i already mentioned it =P Few posts back.

yea. i knew it happened, but im still surprised at the extent its happening. surprised at the number of people doing it, and that the market is big enough to support it. ah well, dems da breaks.

Unfortunately, some people don't understand that a large number of people who sign up for a progression server are interested in in-era progression. I mean, most certainly aren't there to ride on the coattails of others. At the same time, I have no interest in doing of either at this point, as raiding over-crowded zones amidst "legal" DPS wars and griefing competitions is not what I think of when I think of "fun." None of the times I had fun in this game came directly at the expense of others (I'm referring to raid griefing strategies, including dps war, which is even legal on this server *gasp*). Trigger and ring events should prove to especially dramatic once they open up, with no instancing available, and anyone is free to dps as they see fit.

As this is the most crowded server of all time, even if people were naive enough to compete, there still would not be a high enough ratio of raid targets per player. When I refer to raid targets per player, I am simply referring to the ratio of total number of unique raid targets (in which this point there are only six), to the total number of players with the available level and readiness to raid. Please keep in mind the number of unique players on this server is at the highest ever in the history of the game. If the total population is not decreased OR the number of raid targets is not increased, then the ratio will continue to be significantly lower than it has ever been in the history of the game.

Such limited target availability, when combined with the lack of active policing on the server and the removal of the PNP will only serve to continue the vicious cycle of toxicity that many on this server experience when they log on to play a video game (I'm not sure of you guys, but I play games to have fun and wind down after work). And this is just one of the reasons that this is, hands down, the worst EverQuest community I have ever played this game with (although I hear previous TLP was worse). I am not using rose-colored goggles; I have plenty of experience with killing in-era raid targets back on Tholuxe/Bertox as well as EqTitan. As an example, during PoP any guild was allowed to send any player who was missing a flag to tag along with any host guild, provided they were only there for the flag, and that their guild had previously killed the target.

It's funny that some people refer to me as entitled when I think it's quite opposite and that the people at the top are the ones who feel entitled to their own private playground. And by "private playground," I mean in-era PvE raids that the majority of the player-base will never get the chance to see. Not because they don't want to compete, but because they realize that there is not enough to go around, and the competition would feel false and hollow. After all, this is a PvE server, not a PvP one.This false "spirit of competition" is nothing like I remember.

When I say that I will simply disappear, as I will (for the most part) not play until the GoD/LDoN era, it is not because I feel like whining, or because I feel like I am entitled. It's simply the truth. I say this because I really do believe that raid instancing is the best path to take if the goal is the long term stability of the server. It's the biggest compromise that allows the largest percentage of people to experience the game they are paying for.

Sure, back in '99 not everyone raided, but nobody got to level 50 in two days either. It's unfair to keep comparing this to classic; it's especially unfair to compare this to classic only when it fits the needs of your current argument. A recent example of this that I just love, was given earlier by some of the same people who are against raid instancing. These same people are asking for increased rewards from raid targets. The claim that increased risk should be met with increased rewards was stated. It was totally overlooked by the fact that the TLP power creep has turned once difficult encounters until trivial ones.

Here's to hoping something is done (just don't hold your breath too long)! I'll leave y'all with this gem from four years ago : https://tagn.wordpress.com/2011/09/...us-why-instancing-started-in-the-first-place/

Cheers!