The Next TLP: Progressive XP

What did I miss? "Of course, the XP rate resets back to 1.0X with the opening of each new era." After this statement I see no mention of it until 34 minutes before my reply. I realize this is my problem, but, please understand that a long post made at the end of a work day can result in my having that reply button open and not seeing the second novel was written in the mean time. I responded to your 4:15 post at 5:08, having started it before your 2nd reply was posted at 4:34, my bad.

So then let's dive into what I missed - old content stays hot and new content does not. This is quite possibly the single worst idea posted in this thread if not the TLP forums. Sorry if that hits you in the feels, but not too sorry, because you need to hear it. You want people leveling in lower guk to get quite literally over 7 times the experience percentage as people leveling in burning woods or dreadlands at the same time? WHAT?

Like has been said by myself and others, we do see the value of a new LEVEL RANGE being cold while the old level range (1-50) stays hot once it's hot. That might be fine. Making it expansion based so that people rolling up a vah shir beastlord come luclin need to promptly leave the moon because the leveling there is arbitrarily crippled? That's just awful. Really awful. Even far more terribly awful then making all the xp rates revert like many of us originally thought until your post shortly before my last.


Meanwhile, this entire premise has seemed to drift into the idea that people will be playing on multiple servers simultaneously. Even should you be correct on this, how does this drive sales? If they're subbed on one server they aren't being double billed to roll on the progressive one, right? So, either you need to have a market base of people who quit and come back between unlocks who instead stay subbed to play on here as well, or, you need to basically double sell from daybuck purchases to people buying bags and pots and novelties on each.

I like the idea of tiered xp. I want boxes, but not box armies, though the problem with box armies mostly goes away with instanced raiding.

So my perfect new server would open at Velious.(unless they don't open this server for a year or 2. I want no part of classic/kunark for at least that long) Luclin would unlock after 4-6 months, no vote. After that, every xpac opens in 2-4 months, no vote. First month of every xpac xp is like Phinny. Second month it's got a 10% bonus, and every month after it has a 25% bonus. I don't care if pots/bonus xp are in the game one way or the other.

There is instanced raiding on the server, and, if possible, limit the number of boxes run by one guy to 6/12. As long as there are instances, then that's really not that big of a point to me. Oh, and for the first month or two there are deluxe sewing kits in Halas. I would also like the newbie armor quests in game, especially if they are leaving "out of era" tradeskill stuff in game.

Please read the first 2 paragraphs of the first post. ;-)

I'm tired about it too, but this thread is *not* about advocating for a new server. It is about suggesting a possible route to go with one, given what happened with Phinny, given an assumption that one will come. If that assumption is wrong, then you have nothing to worry about, right?

The reasoning behind the assumption is the fact that dbg has essentially found a legal way to print money here with TLP nostalgia. I believe they have also finally figured out that people like you are in the minority, and *most* nostalgia players are GONE after PoP, or shortly thereafter. Facts are facts. Case in point, I refer you to Fippy. TLP competition did not decimate that server's population. What the game progresses into did, and always will, because it *is* the game...

As such, a business / server plan that focuses on the health of 1 TLP for the long-term, continually catering to what, by definition, is a smaller an smaller interested playerbase, is straight-up, full-on, window-licking, dumb. If your plan is to make no money, then yes, it's a great plan. ;-)

No, a *smarter* business plan gives the community what it wants, and doesn't care about happens to the server after 1-2 years. No matter what you do, it will devolve, eventually, into a one power guild server, ie, see Fippy. It's as they say: if you can't beat'em, join'em!!!

RF's fate was set in motion before it went live. Inevitably, all TLP will go the way of Fippy. Inevitably. Lockjaw didn't help by splitting the population, and Phinny put the nail in the coffin for both of them. It'll just devolve faster, but it was always going to. Regardless.

(Please note, I am not calling Fippy a failure. It is not, and I have tremendous respect for what Citizen is doing there. It just is what it is, and all TLP will suffer that fate. It is unavoidable.)

Are you so naive as to think that dbg did not realize this would happen to RF/LJ when they launche Phinny? Or that it would or should have in any way deterred them? Seriously? There is *nothing* they can do to prevent *any* TLP from going the route of Fippy eventualy, so why not instead capitalize on the fact, and give the nostalgia players that won't be sticking around past PoP anyway, *every* *possible* *opportunity* to drop coin?!?!?.

Think about it...if you can keep them subscribed by giving them a new server every 6 months, and selling them a 40 slot bag every 6 months, squeeze out a few other pot/dbc purchases, then gee, that's a MUCH smarter revenue plan. And if it is a player who will by Krono just to trade for plats/gear (and a *lot* of casuals with more money than time will), then that's even better.

Perhaps, just perhaps, they have finally figured out what I've seen saying here forever, that TLP is about nostalgia, and that the majority of the players and therefore the revenue potential comes from people that have more MONEY than TIME, and that many of these players do not care about the game after certain expansions, and that the cure to this drop-off problem is MORE SERVERS STARTING FRESH?!?!?!

I mean think about it. If the first 3-4 months of these servers are a revenue windfall that then falls off, then we will continue to see these servers every 6 months. The will continue until a server is created that avoids a significant drop in revenue over time. Will that be Phinny? I doubt it.

Phinny is clearly an experiment. The theory behind it is that with fixed unlocks every 3 months, it be fast enough so as to self-perpetuate the Krono-to-gear engine, and that combined with increased potion sale due to fast unlock times and slow XP, will keep pop levels higher for a sustained period. At least better than RF/LJ did, where the voting essentially fractured the servers, and but them into a Krono death-spiral.

In this regard, Phinny will be more successful, but only to a point. It will stuff suffer from the fact that many players consider SoV the EQ summit, and will start to bail afterward. Most will stick through Luclin, but some will leave there too, even with only 3 months. The fact is, by the time you are in Luclin, 30% to 40% of playerbase will be gone, and it will drop off rapidly from there.
dbg has finally learned that when these people leave of their own decision out of lack of interest, they are gone. By the time they get that datapoint, they are gone. But you can pre-empt it by putting out a NEW SERVER for them to go to, an relive that nostalgia. If that NEW SERVER fixes what they didn't like about the last server, it increases their chance of jumping to it (we *just* witnessed this!!!), which increases their chances of STILL BEING AN ACTIVE TLP PLAYER IN 6 MONTHS!!!! If along the way they buy a 40 slot bag and some dbc and even a few kronos (aftermarket or otherwise), that's just sauce on the goose.

Again, I think it is delusional to think that we won't get another one. dbg likes money. The absolute earliest we will get one is Phinny + 6 moths. The absolute latest is Phinny + 12 months. When it will actually be will depend on Phinny revenue. If it starts to falter at 4-5 months, as I predict it will, we will get another one mid-year.

Given that, I would encourage anybody to create threads like this one to help guide the inevitable server we will get. If not mid-2016, then EOY 2016.

There's probably a better idea than Progressive XP out there. Even if you don't like that, there are things about this server idea that many certainly would like, such as 1-3 boxing, and no loot lockouts.

So let's hear the ideas. If you don't like this one, fine, throw out your own. Think outside the box.

The whole point of these forums is to discuss stuff like this, and hopefully the cream rises to the top, enough people like the ideas discussed that a consensus is formed, feedback submitted, and the team acts on it.

I firmly believe we'll get a new TLP this year. Probably mid-year. Let's use the forums to discuss ideas to guide it to be the one that will have the biggest draw ever. I think Progressive XP is it. Clearly many do not. But there has to be other ideas out there...

Not to derail my own thread, but I see the idea of a Velious starting sever come up *often*...

I can see why.

SoV was,by far, my favorite expansion. There is so, so much to love about it. Not tomention the amount of replay-ability.

When Luclin came out, it was such a downer for me after SoV. I had such high hopes, but it went in exactly the opposite direction. The introduction of the hub system made the entire game world feel smaller, and it greatly diminished the social utility of two classes, unnecessarily, and that is something you do *not* *do* in a social game. This problem only got worse with PoP, and I quit shortly thereafter. I wasn't the only one. LOTS of people felt that if they were going to play a hand-holding game, that there were others out there that did it a lot better. In short, with PoP, EQ entered copy-cat mode, and was never the same...

I came back in '08, and played through much of the group content that I missed, and while there was some really great stuff (I actually liked the drakkin expansion, but not the drakkin and CR itself), IMO nothing held a candle to SoV. Although I actually did like the Omens zones (think I was in the minority lol).

Personally, I would love to see a TLP server that stops at SoV (or a "fixed" server that opens at SoV and stays there). The only caveat is I would have it include Jaggedpine, as well as all of the other noob armor quests. Right now "Classic" era TLP has so many dangling threads. The addition of Jaggedpine (but not the rest of that expansion), as well as putting inthe necessary quest NPC's in the classic starting cities, would tie up a lot of loose ends. It would also greatly improve the tradeskill picture.

I doubt we would ever see such a server, but it seems a lot of people have asked for something like that.

It doesn't hurt to dream! ;-)

I would love to see a new server that runs with heroic armor feature enabled for all and utilize the scaled level item stats for old items. Example: Bloodstained tunic would have similar stats to the lowest level defiant but have the item be required level 10, recommended level 60 so the stats scale to your level. Then on top of that all named that drop visible slot armor and weapons can drop rarely heroic armor slot ornaments that allow you to customize your look two different ways. The reason I want the heroic armor feature turned on for all is to advance its potential even more. Now if you are wearing a Bronze breastplate you can insert a special Bloodstained tunic ornament that will have 3 different effects related to the players graphics settings. With heroic turned on you will see the player wearing a new cool graphic of a bloodstained shirt, with it turned off and luclin graphics on you will see whatever the bloodstained tunic looked like, and with classic models you would see what the bloodstained tunic looked like in classic.

What this does is eliminate the poorly progressive expansions from going non linear in progression. Now you can enable all classes from start and enable the later expansion low level zones like gunthak, tutorial, and drakkin lands. It also keeps classic content farming relevant for heroic ornaments.

Pipe dream I know, but figured I'd add my two cents.

When they did the initial vote to determine the ruleset of new server having tradable loot came in as a close second to the TLP. I'd like to see a TLP released with tradable loot. It's how the classic game was and remained for the first couple expansions. Oddly, by the time they introduced the Bazaar, they had basically killed all trade by making nearly everything rot by design. It's no secret why so many quit playing by this time. Releasing a new TLP with tradable loot, instanced zones upon request (with a reasonable lockout), early raid instancing, and early access to game improvements that should have never been locked to expansions (maps, find, extended target window, bandolier, bazaar, etc.) would make DBG a lot of money.

All very good points put out by everyone. I understand the DBG perspective with nostalgia, however how many times do they expect people to come back if the gaming experience is horrible (XP rate, Bot armies, TL/AoS)? My wife and I played through the first 10 expansions when they originally came out. Trying to get her to play again, her nostalgia (and mine) revolves around AFTER Velious. We Really enjoyed the progression in PoP (this conversation had made her want to Cosplay as Terris Thule at conic con this year). I again would love to see a TLP server get past or start at Velious. I never experienced Dragons of Norrath and on, I'd be willing to ride it out if we could just get to the part I really want to see.

I'm not sure how much capitol had to be raised for P99 to get going, I'm really getting curious so I could make one that starts in SoV/SoL and runs at least through OoW.

Really........men from boys...stop being silly. Someone lock this thread.

WHAT IS THIS, A SERVER FOR ANTS?! THE XP....

I personally think they need to make it even harder to level and they need to keep it that way for the life of the server.
I for one would love to see one more TLP server that releases that is 4.5 month unlock for expac, 50% harder exp and Corpse runs added back in. call it a play to play p1999 server.

No thanks. I have a family, a fulltime job, and DON'T have time to play a game with 50% xp penalties and corpse runs. I was very glad when Live servers got rid of corpse runs. Let's not bring them back.