Slow But Accelerating Progression Unlock Proposal

Since it seems that most people who want slow unlocks want them primarily for the first few expansions, I'd like to propose a variation on the slow progression setup. My proposal calls for slow unlocks that accelerate as the server progresses.

Something like this:

Classic - 2 months total (shorter because it is crowded)
Kunark - 5 months total
Velious - 5 months total
Luclin - 4 months total
PoP++LoY+LDoN - 4 months total (LoY and Ldon launch a month or two into PoP)
Gates - 4 months total
OoW - 4 months total
DoN - no extra time -- unlocked 2 months into OoW.
DoDH - 3 months total
PoR - no extra time -- unlocked 2 months into DoDH
TSS - 3 months total
TBS - 2 months total
SoF - 1 month after expansion beaten -- Double the normal key drop rate
SoD - 1 month after expansion beaten
Underfoot onwards -- no lockout, next expansion releases immediately on expansion win. Double the key drop rate.

This could be prorated if a longer length of time wins out... IE 7 months decreasing to 1. The idea of this post is not to argue for specific lengths so much as the general concept.

This would give folks the longer time in the earlier expansions without torturing the people who want to progress all the way through with 7 months of PoR. It would also cut years off the back end of the server when, if Fippy is any guide, only the raiders will still be playing.

Im all for lessening total time of a server so devs dont hesitate to make another sooner. I would personally just keep classic the normal time and do the shorter future unlocks. A small portion of the players will be playing for the later expansions. I agree with most people voting slower unlock is because they wanted lots of time in the early expansions.

Maybe start tapering the times down a little bit later.

And you completely left LoY out. It is a little easy to forget though.

Thanks, edited it to add LoY.

And again, I'm arguing for the basic concept here. If people wanted 5 months in Luclin/PoP instead of 4, or whatever, fine by me.

Make Velious and Kunark 6 months each and you have my vote.

Kunark because 51-60 is a pain in the B. Also needs epics.

Velious... because its Velious.

I don't think the idea is bad, in fact I think it's a good idea. It's got a number of similarities with the "Maximum Nostalgia" option, but speeds things up even more later on. Making it a racing server once "spreadsheet mode" hits seems completely reasonable.

This is pretty much the same thing I have been saying for a couple years now.

I think your classic is too short (should be 3 months) and I think PoP, LoY, LDON should be at least 6 months and possibly 8 months.

Overall though I think this is the right idea.

I could jump on board this. Classic needs its time but 6 months I think would be to long. Would like to see something like...
Classic - 3 months
Kunark - 6 months
Velious - 5 to 6 months
Luclin - 4 to 5 months
PoP+LoY+LdoN 6 months.
Could change it slightly but after this I could care less if we speed up and unlocked an expansion every month. Probably be time to consider the next progression server by then anyway.

2-3 months of classic would be great, any longer is too long! But agree 4+ months of kunark and velious is good stuff.

I like this alot, even the numbers you have here are solid in my book. Having an expected timeline of 8+ years to reach current expansions is crazy. I respect people's desire to maximize nostalgia in the early expansions because they wont make a classic server, but the super long timelocks people want for those expansions shouldn't be forced onto the later expansions when the only people left playing want to progress faster.

If you were to put classic + kunark totalling 1 year and samething with velious and luclin i might agree with you but in my opinion your making it too quick atm.PoP would be way to short also at 4 months.

But he said in the OP the numbers can be tweaked. The question remains; what about the later expansions, are you alright the unlocks being much shorter for those?

Given that a lot of the slower progression people don't like it much after GoD or OoW it would be ok after that.It's just that i don't want to loose tons of nostalgic people at the beginning if it goes too fast and they feel that the best of EQ is already gone.

You are going to lose tons of people at the start if it goes too slowly too. But, that's not really the point of this thread so I'll leave it at that and argue it no further.

I don't think this is slow at all, the options posted after the voted ranged from 5.5 to 8 years, you have 3 years + whatever it takes on the immediate unlocks at the back end.

Personally, I kind of like the 8 year plan. Its as close as you can get to a locked server without actually locking it. I have a hunch that many people that would like a locked server at pop/god/oow whatever are the votes that got to slow progression anyway.

Al'Kabor was a nice server I think, when it went away it kinda of left a hole in the server offerings. If daybreak was to do a windows server similar to what Al'Kabor was, I think they might be pleasantly pleased with the results.

Why do you want a server that takes 8 years if 5 of them are after people who wanted slow unlocks stop playing? What good do those 5 years do you?

I prefer a server that has the longest time available for when everquest was a decent game and was still a slight challenge, cut off being either GoD or OoW I spose. To be honest the only reason I would play longer into the entitlement/WoW era is to hang out with friends.

So the whole point of my proposal is that the stuff after that point, when guys like you no longer care, go much faster so we can get through the entire progression before you guys are clamoring to start another round again. Not sure why this is an objectionable plan for people who don't want to play past GoD or OoW--It basically won't effect your experience at all.

If you look at the people who are not playing EQ atm or are playing on f2p accounts that gonna subs to play on that progression server i think daybreak would disagree with you Machen.I think your underestimate how much revenues that would bring to them.