Fast xp. No flags required and no zone locks. Every zone and raid is unlocked when expansion opens (or maybe after 2 weeks ish to let the racers race) The biggest thing that hurts the casuals and people who take breaks is the feeling of being behind. You come back and you're hundreds of AA and 10 levels behind, you need fast xp to get back up to speed. Finally you get offered a group but can't go because you aren't flagged for that raid or even that zone.
You point out a problem that Agnarr solves. Agnarr, the server where you can take a 2 year break and NEVER fall behind. Esp since a massive portion of the TLP pop only plays through PoP anyways.
Right, era locking is not the answer because once there is nothing new to do people fall away. Continuing to unlock expansions but being able to take breaks and come back and people still making progress would be a better casual experience.
While I would probably enjoy this kind of server, it would bore the hardcores to death, and they seem to be the ones really making these servers work through the first few expansions. As Xeris pointed out, Agnarr is where you go if you can't keep up with the TLP pace. I don't know about the 50 players in primetime thing, it's been about 3 weeks since I was on there but there were 200+ in primetime when I was. I was even seeing Unrest groups asking for more players for multiple days in a row. It's not like it was at release, but it hasn't been as dead as people thought it would be.
True, the hardcores wouldn't enjoy it 100% flagless expansion, which is why I suggested a couple weeks of flaggin required, basically the zones already auto unlock after xxx time, this just speeds that time up so people can still play if they miss the first flag rush
This would take too much effort to implement. The can't just snap their fingers and make every zone and every raid unlocked. There would be a lot of effort to go back and change that.
I'd like to see a TLP that's locked at the character select screen. On second thought, this is usually where it locks anyways for the first day or so on a new released TLP.
Well they managed to randomize loot across an entire expansion somehow so I bet this would actually be doable =P
different systems involved i think, the move to relational databases likely made the random loot thing even possible. personally i am dead-set again making the flagging or keying not required but i have always advocated for speeding up the process to reduce conflict between players
you point out stupid things... there is so much more fun to be had in EQ than just planes of power... Agnarr have NONE of that... Agnarr is a dunghole...