Should True Box restrictions end after a certain era?

What say you?

You cast summon Skuz.

They should, yes. I TrueBox but there comes a time where it just doesn't matter. That time is probably sometime after VoA.

Selo really hashed this out.

Traditional tlps get rekt by this. In short, when mercs become a thing or thereabouts then truebox needs to go.

The only people left are diehards wanting to see later eq but the attrition is insurmountable as new tlps continuously launch.

Yes, but I honestly don't know when that should be.

If we're going by the, "when did you actually start boxing on 1 computer?" test -- well I did around end of Velious/beginning of Luclin (I actually remember Luclin being a nightmare because all the new graphics made my fairly high end PC die horribly with 3 clients running)

But my gut reaction to that is that maybe that's too early.

Possibly in the PoP->GoD lull?

As Shuk said, maybe when mercs first become available?

And honestly, he's probably right. I'm not avid boxer - I tend it only when I need to and couldn't care less about my box's gear - but I know people who enjoy boxing and who play at odd hours. The later on in the game, when groups thin out, boxing is a good alternative. When group content becomes faster paced, I can see truebox being a pain in the you-know-what.

I say somewhere in the 70 era. Probably not OOW, but somewhere between DON and POR.

No. Everyone knew the rules when they chose a Truebox server to begin with. These servers, like all TLP, lose people as time goes on. You don't get to change a server ruleset just because now you can't find anyone to group with.

When missions require three people to launch them. When I got to DoDH I was stumped and I didn't want to use three different computers to get things going. They should put it to a vote on servers that reach whatever mark they think is appropriate if they go with the suggestion to end Truebox.

Why not? Look at all the changes they have made in the past couple of years that previously fell into the, "Not gonna happen" category. Granted, they would have to launch the server with a specific statement saying when TrueBox is going away. If we're talking Mischief, then they could still do it if they gave enough warning... like a year.

Literally nowhere on this thread has anyone mentioned a currently active TLP. The question was generic. Should it eventually go away on truebox servers?

Come on.

Not needed. If there's not enough people to group with, its simply merged with existing live server. If there is enough people, then there's no reason for same machine boxing. The system already works for both issues.

This is the key. Being upfront and transparent about what and when things happen.

I refuse to play on a truebox server even though I don't box the majority of the time. I like having the option to box more than 1 character if I need to on one PC. Sometimes I need to catch up, help someone else out, or do something by myself that I don't want to drag other people around for.

I tried playing on 1 truebox server (Mangler) and I will just say truebox is maybe a good idea until it definitely isn't.

The truebox crowd tends to play until PoP so any time after that it should be gotten rid of and they should have a disclaimer letting people know it will be removed after a certain point. You could still truebox beyond the time they remove the restriction if you really care that deeply about it.

Merges usually happen far too late, especially on some time zones.

Female logic says this should happen when mercs are added. Mercs were added as there was never enough healers/tanks to do anything. Mercs are less needed if someone boxes one, allow boxing and the number of mercs go down. A boxed healer/tank is more effective than a merc therefore players are not held back so much.

Truebox is a failed concept that should be removed completely.

The ONLY thing that Truebox does is keep honest players honest. All the bad apples out there are getting around Truebox on every single Truebox server with near immunity.

Stop handicapping the non-cheating public, and get rid of Truebox already.

This is a small bit of a hot take, but not a wrong one. Not wrong at all.

I'd prefer not to have it at all, after playing both live, tlp true box, and tlp without truebox. However if I had to pick a point that makes sense to remove it on a server that launched with it, I would vote DoN.

DoN introduced the task system, and the concept of requiring others in your party to be on the same quest step, and factions. This is inherently unfriendly to grouping with randoms. Also, this expansion is not too popular and many players take breaks in this long 70 stretch.

I agree with this. That's about the time the new round of TLP servers come out and attrition starts setting in.

There's always one.

Today it's you.

Once a TLP server has too few people to find groups in a reasonable time it is NOT merged in fact.

By the time Fippy was merged it had been dead for well over a year.
(though server merge tech being broken was to blame for that merge taking so long)

By the time Selo was merged it was already completely dead after the 1 remaining guild hopped to Bertox, it had been toughing it out with 1 guild for months before the free transfer window opened..

By the time Phinigel is merged it will have nobody left after the 1 remaining guild has moved off, and that last guild would have been the only one there for over a year if it even makes it to the free transfer window.

And on all of the above servers boxing kept them going far longer than they would have without it, no truebox might have allowed many more players to stick around longer, the vast majority of those left at the end were true-boxing at least 1-2 other characters regularly.

TLP servers take longer to reach live every year without changing the unlock times for expansions, every year another 8 to 12 weeks will be added onto a "standard" 12/8 cadence TLP server's ultimate lifecycle.

TLP so far are left until they are, for all reasonable metrics, barren, before they get merged.

Anyone that has played to live on Selo or Phinigel can tell you it sucks to play on a server with less than 5-10 healthy sized guilds on it, the economy dies, grouping dies, chat dies.
Nobody runs "fun Raids" any more and a lot of folks barely even play at all besides raiding once or twice a week.