"Ultra Casual" server

Please criticize each point as much as possible.

1. How would people describe FV loot rules?

Does it help or harm the economy of a server? I would naturally assume it would help by increasing the number of items available for sale/purchase but....

Would it contribute to hardcore exploiters that decide to come to an ultra-casual server for the purpose of locking down no drop camps to sell it's loot?

2. No keys required would be another decent move.

3. Agents of Change (AoC) - allowing players to select the content they wish to experience when the time is right for them to experience it

4. Non-penalized XP.

5. Removal of Mitigation of the Mighty (MotM) buffs from content - there is no need for this, especially when you have AoC's and want to experience the game as it was, not as it is now.

With normalized XP rate and Agents of Change, players will reach max level sooner, and content will likely be completed faster. I would think it beneficial to auto-unlock content with a vote available to delay the unlock, just in case people wanted to experience absolutely everything.

6. Boxing allowed, no Truebox, and Mercs available, if possible, to start off classic (can you even do that?) - With the above rules implemented, what negative effects would box armies still have under these circumstances, over time?

1. Sounds like a cool wrinkle to throw on a hardcore server. Probably won't appeal to all players.
2. Meh, if we're all losing our mind over VP just reduce the cooldowns on ground spawns or mobs. VP isn't exactly enthralling but I get a lot of people still haven't seen it in era. It does get skipped.
3. AOC's are required no matter what they do on both servers. Only wrinkle would be maybe the "hardcore" server has reduced CD's to more mimic OW respawns. IDK. AOC's need to be in tho no matter how they cut it, on both servers.
4. Moar xp, not very inviting to start late on a server with xp.
5. I don't mind MoTM. Maybe they could up the difficulty of MoTM targets. That probably equates to just throwing more mitigation and HP on the target but I don't mind it.
6. Well we know how I feel about boxing : ) No mercs. Mercs have their place and its not in classic. I am ok with truebox as long as the xp isn't awful. I would prefer at least one server not have truebox.

Slowing down does that, but speeding up xp and more instancing would help the " slow" players all the same.

"Ultra Casual"
You never log in. A 12-year old kid from Kreplachistan plays your character for you. Regardless of class, your character is somehow always a female wood elf, wearing minimal clothing. Every week you receive an email update, with a low-resolution screenshot. Usually the screenshot appears to depict doing something very impolite to a gnome. You wait impatiently for the 50th Anniversary, and hope for something better.


Lutra Casual
We arrive in March, and discover that DBG made a huge typo! It's not "Ultra" casual, they really meant to say Lutra. Which is the name of a small, otter-like mammal found in Europe and Asia. Apparently all characters on the server must begin in Cobalt Scar as othmir. This fresh take on EQ is an astounding success, and brings the entire community together. In 2020, a peace treaty is signed between Casual and Hardcore players. Future TLP have you playing as kobold, sarnak, and willow wisps.

<image of a lutra>

What if Ultra casual is just a Phinny clone on original release schedule?

Sure, that would likely see pretty serious decline in population by a few eras. But 20th anny, being able to really replay the 20 years (even if expecting 98% of people to quit within 5) is a bit of a news story.

Plus... the population that likes that but only wants to do up till PoP would be ready for the 25th anny when they could relaunch it.

----
Love the Othmir quest idea by the way.

you fled you mean

People fled LJ/RF because there were initially no picks or aoc. I was one of those who had a blast getting to 50, then the itch to play went out real fast when the only raiding option was to batphone Zerg and there's was still 3 months left until kunark unlocked.

DBG s response was to try to slow down xp even more. We all know how fun that is (I put up with it up through luclin on phinny and finally just got bored with the slow pace). Trying to slow down the game causes a lot of attrition, I think speeding up the xp and short unlocks would keep players more interested for longer. If they make it easier for people to keep up and get stuff done in smaller guilds (get rid of motm, etc...it wouldn't matter if some people are slower, it Is more likely there will be a niche of players at the same point.

That said, all opinions and speculation. I'm just hoping the new rules aren't too disappointing. Been having the itch to play but corinav snuffed that out for a year.

I think this is why they need to release the rules asap instead of being stupid and waiting to last minute; give the community time to digest and discuss (and also and whine) about the chosen rules. If they haven't hammered out all the details even better; let the community have a chance to help decide what might work best before it is too late for them to change anything.

If they cared about the community’s opinion as a whole, they wouldn’t come to the forums for feedback. They should trigger some sort of poll for all players when they sign into the game to illicit feedback

The forums are just a place where the very loud minority go and are definitely not a representation of the entire community as a whole

Say what now?

Are you suggesting that self identifying hardcore players should play on the hardcore server even if they prefer the rulseset on the casual server?

To encourage DBG to make rulesets that I want to play on, I should avoid a server that has a ruleset I like and instead play on one with a ruleset I dislike?

Everything is an income experiment in the age of big data. This is pretty much a given. But why on earth would you actively try to pollute this data to encourage rulesets that aren't the ones you'd prefer to play on. It's not like we're leaving bad reviews for our favorite hotels here...

I call it being put on the Chain Gang.

Where the entire game boils down to chaining and killing the same mobs over and over.

They might as well give you shovels and a ditch to dig.

Personally I am looking forward to a classic launch on the "ultra casual" server, and would be totally fine with a 3 month classic, 6 month every other expansion release. Plenty of other servers to make another toon on if your bored, or progress too fast. With AoC's introduced your guild can literally progress however you want even with the most hardcore guilds on the casual server.

Eliminate the AoC's on the hardcore ruleset and see who is top dog with bragging rights. I would never survive in that world personally, but reading those forum posts like the old days would get me through many boring work hours!

Yes I agree that would be the best route, plus sending emails to everyone they have email accounts for. Forums is a crappy place to recieve real feedback, but would be the proper place to discuss the rulesets.

Again if DBG actually cared about the community.

Personally, I'd dilly dally with a "true box" TLP server that has mercenaries enabled on day 1. I'd hope the mercenaries would be significantly nerfed, but I doubt they could do that.