The future of TLP servers

Long ago, I posted an idea to allow new players and returning players to have a way to progress from character creation up through current content.

Basically, my suggestion was for SoE to create a series of TLP-like servers that offered 1 time character transfer from previous server to next until such time that they catch up to current live servers. At that point, they get a 1 time character transfer to a Live server of their choice. The idea was widely accepted, but nothing came of it.

Well here we are in late 2017, and DBG has the beginnings of the idea already in place; Agnarr. So, I think it is time to re-visit the theory, and see if anybody at DBG is more receptive to it.

Here's the idea...

Server 1 (Agnarr fits this bill perfectly):

• Content: Original through Lost Dungeons of Norrath
• 1 charge item claimable 1 per character (only claimable on server 1 ... Agnarr) that will transfer your level 60 character to server 2

Server 2:

• Content: Original through Prophecy of Ro
• 1 charge item claimable 1 per character (only claimable on server 2) that will transfer your level 70 character to server 3

Server 3:

• Content: Original through Secrets of Faydwer
• 1 charge item claimable 1 per character (only claimable on server 2) that will transfer your level 80 character to any Live server

Agnarr already exists to fit the bill of Server 1.

Server 2 could be a new TLP server that starts at Gates of Discord set to open May 2018.

Server 3 could be a new TLP server that starts at The Serpent's Spine set to open May 2019.

This would mean that the full progression line of 3 TLP servers would be up and fully functional by January 2020 just in time to ring in the new decade.

From that point forward, there would be a progression path for all new everquest and returning everquest players. Agnarr to 65, server 2 to 70, and server 3 to 80. After that, they transfer to what ever live server they want, and continue on if they want.

That all being said, this assumes that Everquest would even still be around by 2020.

So.... First question...
Why wouldn't these players just Play on Phinny?

Second Question...
What are they going to do with all the dead servers that have 0 population as the raiders transferred off, and the casuals can't find groups as the servers empty?

This is why I liked my idea of just fixing the catch up mechanic once the gap is too big, by introducing neutered Mercs... Would also require a lot less hardware.. you know.. just the 1 server and a software patch.

It's not about getting to max level. It's about playing on a server that is in the era you are in at the time. If all a player wants is to be max level for current expansion open on that server, then Phinigel is the server to be on.

My idea is for those people that want to start a new character and experience 1 to 65 on a server that actually is in the 1 to 65 era only. Agnarr fits that bill. Then if the user wants to experience playing 65 to 70 on a server that is in that era, server 2 fits that bill. And, so on for server 3.

Will the top end raid guilds finish the progression and move on? Yes. Absolutely they will. They are not the point of this scenario at all.

Anyone that thinks that Agnarr (and subsequently server 2 and 3) will empty of players and become ghost towns after the last expansion on that server opens does not understand why p99 exists and was so popular for all these years. There are plenty of people that will stick around on Agnarr for many, many years to come. If you don't understand that, then you don't understand p99.

I think a lot of players, myself included gravitated to Agnarr and away from Live because they don't want to deal with Mercs and what it has done to player interaction in EQ.

Correct me if I am wrong...
Doesn't P99's Population mainly consist of people coming back for a few months getting max level, getting their gear and then quitting? And they are coming to P99 for Nostalgia/close to classic feel? AND that it's free?

I don't know of enough people to populate a server that are craving to be stuck at level 70 Era or 80 Era.

Don't get me wrong.. I think it would work for awhile, but I think all the power creep would take the challenge out and once you start losing people to where guilds can't sustain their numbers, they fold and stop doing content and not all of the remaining stay on the server and look for new guilds, a lot will leave...

I also don't think the hardware dedication would be worth it in their eyes.

Misleading title is misleading.

Having a permanent level 1-65 server does not accomplish what progression is all about.

The whole point of progression servers, and what makes them so successful, is that you have thousands of players starting in a single expansion all at the same time.

If you just leave up Agnarr as a starting place for all future progression, you might have a handful of people starting from time to time, but you will never have enough all at once to raid Classic or Kunark or Velious or Luclin targets. New players would at best skip over all that stuff, work to max level, and maybe raid pop for a little bit before transferring off IF they were lucky enough to find a guild still around. Same thing with a PoR or SoF server. Population would end up being terrible on all 3 because you would not have a critical mass anywhere. For progression to work, population has to be gated.

STOP POSTING! STOP IT!

YOU ARE THE PROBLEM

Source

People play P99 because it's more accurate to what they are feeling the desire to re-experience. And there's a large amount of P99ers who will never play on any retail server simply because of the cash shop and the ability to buy things like EXP pots. Some people are just really turned off by stuff like that. But let's be honest, the #1 or maybe #2 reason is that P99 is free. Start charging $15 a month to play on P99 and see how quickly the population diminishes.

I've always had basically the same idea as the OP, but I know that like others say, once a new server opens up, the previous one will perish.

"I've always had basically the same idea as the OP, but I know that like others say, once a new server opens up, the previous one will perish. "

Of course it does it's same people over and over again.
And the paradigm is about worn out.

I agree.

Personally speaking, we don't need any more progression servers, neither expansion-locked or time-locked. I'd rather see more short run event servers like Quarm.

This. So very much this.

BTW your link is broken, but I knew what you intended.

Those are indeed interesting because it gives fertile ground some imaginative gaming.
But another grind though Classic and all that crap?
No thanks, even though Ive gotten the internet worked out up here in the mountains (yea Verizon Jetpack w/dual LTE antennas) I'm waiting on SoL to return and maybe PoP just to avoid the worst of the worst that set up shop on these servers. Till then Live will do nicely, well unless they continue to have server issues.

Ugg Phinny, nothing has changed it is still too slow by design. My time means something.

They may say what they wish but at the root of maintaining the status quo are the RMT/Kr kingdoms. If one had to DESIGN a way to make RMT matter there is just little better than the current TLPs.
You get flak because just saying things could be different is a perceived attack.
Truth in the empire of lies and all that

Meh EQ is basically free long as one stays out of the DBG store.
I mean inflation adjusted I think we are paying $8 a month in 1999 currency.
Heh spend more than that every day on RSOs.

Or, he's just annoying, complains every single day, and @#$^posts constantly. He has no understanding of the actual game (as made extremely clear by the majority of his posts, saying SKs are on the same level of DPS as a monk is one recent shining example), yet he constantly campaigns to change it. How can you say the game needs to be changed when you don't even understand how it works?

When he played on Phini he complained about end game content, yet on the same day he mentions his highest level character was like 52 and couldn't find groups to level. The highest populated server at the time in all EQ history....

When he played on Ragefire he complained about not finding groups in RAID ZONES.

There are actual REAL issues on TLP servers and people like him obscure them by complaining about non-sense that doesn't matter to 99% of the population. Wasting Dev time having to sort which are real issues and which are perceived issues by people who want EQ to be another game.

People have memories, they recognize garbage. This is why he generates hate.

I want to say that I think your idea is good but better would be for people to go to any server but limit them to using what content they have unlocked from their home server. And then let them go back perhaps when there done.

We don't need any more TLP servers for a while. They won't release multiple servers anyways.

As far as the server transfers go they won't do it unless they can charge you for it. This is what they do, milk your server until its dead to force you to pay for a transfer.

Wait, which servers can you transfer to/off of? I'm confused....It seems to me that they in fact DON'T let you transfer, denying themselves of money. Weird, that's almost completely against what you're implying.

Depends on the server and where they are at in progression and the rule set.