^^ Yep Solo-Play is what kills true mmorpg spirit, i fell for this trap like most others long ago and the original EQ feeling never came back afterwards. Mass killing is the worst form, usually supported by greed in whatever form...be it real life money "services", or being super uber + getting everything fast (and not realizing that the way = the goal until it's too late), or whatever...there are no long term gains coming from playing this way, never.
A lot of the nay-sayers know how trivial it would be to get around a 1 account per IP restriction. Is it right to bypass it? No. Will people determined to bot do it? Yes.
and you think a handful of people who care about their product don't have the tools to identify those people and shut them down when you're talking about a game that only 1-2000 people play? Some ghetto proxy you set up on your home computer isn't exactly bullet proof hacker level stuff. It's all about priorities - my only point was that Sony won't do these things because thats not what the EQ Live community needs or even wants.
im not saying its a perfect system but its not the land of 24h groups mass-farming in VoA, you don't have to fight trader bots to make a buck, and groups are easier to find. Not like live. im also not saying "u dun liek it go play a private server" either, because quite frankly P99 kind of blows. The raid scene is as bad as the worst most cutthroat servers back in the day of contested raid bosses and the economy is totally out of wack. Also their coding on aggro really, really blows. im just saying its possible to manage these things better than sony does currently. but they wont. and really, they shouldnt. im pretty much done with this franchise till EQN - it was a fun trip back after 10 years away - but the game is dead unless you have 100s of dollars to support an EQ habit. I hope Black Desert gets an NA release soon
Why would you bother creating accounts on a no-box, LFG designated server if you don't really want to LFG?
Because 3 people doesn't = a full group, what part of his statement indicated that they wouldn't be lfg or lfm?
I think you underestimate greatly the intelligence and talent of gamers. Bypassing tools to identify those people would be quickly put in. People who know what they are doing will quickly find ways to bypass it again as they have more time and usually more experience.
It's a shame some people believe so fervently that full groups don't exist anymore. I can assure you that I get full groups with no mercs about half the time. The other times, I either can't do a group, or we miss and end up with mercs. You really need to seek a different guild if you want to group but can't. I tried half a dozen guilds before I found one that not only has a large population at the times I like to play, but also that enough of those players are interested in grouping that groups happen often. Use the /lfguild command and if you don't find what you need, make characters on other servers and do /lfguild there. I'd go Silver a couple months if I couldn't otherwise afford the transfer. If you don't have patience to try them all, I recommend Vox for low levels, and Bertoxxulous for max-level.
The problem though with this Qest is when you have people who plainly go starting threads with the title Two Mercs, so I can understand the OP's thought process even though I do not agree with their opinion. https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index.php?threads/two-mercs.206130/ (thread link) I do understand your point of view, and like you when I want to group I generally have no problem finding one. But there are also times when I definitely do better keeping to just myself and my wife in a group with mercs.
You should not need to "try a half dozen guilds" to find a group. You should not even need to be guilded to find a group. You are proving my point perfectly.
And the built-in LFG system should quickly provide everyone groups; but we have to play the game as it is, and not as we wish it to be.
Then maybe that's you. I know clerics at all levels and not a one of them ever has an issue getting a group. It might not be the ideal group or doing exactly what the cleric would prefer, but it is a group. But then again they all also go out of their way to find groups and if there are none they go make one; which has the added bonus of doing what they want. So it's laziness, stubbornness on what you will do, or that you just have screwed your rep as a cleric somehow so people avoid you. Regardless, it has nothing to do with mercs. The people who are picking a merc over you would still not pick any player even without the mercs existing. Not likely, Druids and Shamans were not boosted until a good while after mercs went live; and the Cleric population had been lacking for years before mercs even existed.
I'm glad the developers don't think like you do or we'd still be walking around with 10 slot back packs in our inventory.
The only reason i play EQ is that i can box my little own group. With only one account i would not play Everquest, simple as that.
