Should TLP's have a fixed end point?

We are now up to 30 expansions in EQ and TLP's are now looking at it taking upwards of 6+ years to "catch up to live" .. and it keeps getting longer every year as more expansions are added.

I just think they are starting to ask for to much of a time commitment from players now. They should create a stopping point for future TLP's. Pick a certain expansion or level and say that's it! all over! Have them maybe last 4 or 5 years Max.

To entice people to stay to the end create some sort of reward for anyone with a max level fully flagged character at the conclusion of the server. Something they can claim on the next TLP or even on live servers.

Just a thought.

I've been saying for years that the yearly TLP's should be considered more like seasonal / annual type.

You play them and see how far you go and then they are merged into a live server.

I've been promoting the idea of a PoP locked seasonal. When the TLP gets to PoP it merges over to a poplocked server. Not Agnarr but like it.. where your Characters can play the "eternal realm" and give some semblance of permanence to your efforts. Would als feed the pop locked server with fresh players each year.

Only thing that needs to be done is character names locked on the eternal and seasonal. P1999 figured out how to do that.

Anything going past PoP can be designated to merging into a live server as some point.

Why though? What problem would this solve? There seems to generally be a group that rides out the server and completing content to the end.

Once you get to live the content moves at much slower pace. Live expansion last a full year. Players who stick with TLP until live, either intend to keep going on live or move on.

I would like to see them do more staged heroic templates, so people had an easier time jumping once content reaches a specific point.
Also give us a way to put a character in storage, so you could transfer it to a later TLP, once it reach that content. Incase you needed to take an extended break.

Super gimmicky seasonal TLPs could be fun, but the "ride it out to live" TLPs still draw in plenty of players. I just think if you're going to do seasonal TLPs then they have to mix it up enough that every year feels like a new experience and not just "throw away all your progression and start over".

I agree that the time commitment is long, but I hate seasonal games. The better solution would be to speed up unlocks and increase flags and loot. Similar to selo server, but double loot on top of what it had, instead of half lockouts as that causes burnout.

Do you all think the majority leave before the 7th expansion or ride it to the end?

I have zero stats on this (mostly because I leave before PoP every year) other than the queries I run during each expansion I play to see the populations but I feel like the majority of the players on TLP's leave from Classic to just after PoP. The minority continue on ward and trickle off until one or two small guilds remain heading to live.

It just makes so much sense to me to allow xfers to the Pop locked server aka the "Eternal Realm" for people to do not plan on continuing further each year.
But I ask above as perhaps I

From my experience:
There is a very large recycler crowd:

• Krono farmer
• People like the fresh start rush.
• Those that only want to play for nostalgia.
• Players who unhappy with their current situation.

Agnarr not really the answer for a lot, because the community has because the community shrink over time, and thrill of learning the new content ended.

Keep in mind what comes after PoP:

• LDoN: More PoP but with additional boring grinding for raids and groups.
• GoD: Great TLP expansion, but has a horrible reputation and is viewed as the expansion that killed EQ.
• OoW-PoR: These 4 expansion don't have enough content and have awful class balance for the entire era.

That's 36 weeks before TSS is a long time.

Easy solution if you think TLP last to long. Just quit and move to a new one, do not force all the others to quit just because you want

I can't imagine any reward being worth that much time and dedication except maybe lifetime sub.

I think the biggest issue is that they have no idea what to do for TLPs until like... March or April, with May releases.

I actually like the idea of embracing seasonal mechanics, but not in lieu of current TLP. Maybe like an every other year thing. Like they released mischief in 2021. For 2022 then could have done a seasonal thing, like race to kill vishimitar or something. Then in 2023, oakwynd, then in 2024 a different seasonal.

They tried to do this and everyone lost their minds so they didn't go through with it.

Because the rest of the rulesets were awful and they forgot the biggest part of any game that has seasonal type events, the rewards.

This to me is a solution hoping to find a justifcation problem.

While I would be fine with a seasonal classic to PoP server for the eternal recycling crowd I see no reason to restrict all other tlp from reaching live.

There is room for trying a TLP that has an unlock speed Mid-Way between Selo & "standard TLP" of 6 weeks per unlock & more frequent selo-speed tlp eventually but keeping the standard unlock shedule every so often.

Not really. They announced what sounded like an Agnarr clone and everyone rightfully lost their minds.

The solution is pretty simple. Daybreak just needs to mash more expansions together. Does each expansion really have one to two months worth of content? No. They do not.

It was not an Agnarr clone. The plan was to move everyone after PoP to Agnarr and then reset it for a new round. The messaging was poor and everyone assumed, as you did, that it was going to be an Agnarr clone.

Moving to Agnarr after is pretty bad and people were rightfully outraged. It might have worked with a move to the TLP that was closest to POP or to live.

I am not seeing how having a mandatory fixed end point is any better than having an optional one?

You can quit any time you like.

Add to this-

People who have set ways and expertise and advantages in the early game though years of practice who just don't like later expansions and content as much. More than nostalgia is the comfort of familiarity as well as the support to chase content that is utterly ignored on normal servers.

Also add to this, people who stepped away from EQ, have returned and don't want to ghost town molo level 1-100+ instead of playing a character in era level 1 to live and actually play through zones and raids missed while afk.