ZEK-a server dying-I propose a solution

Without spending a ton of time splitting hairs and pointing fingers it has become apparent over the past 4 or 5 years that Zek is dying. Low interest and a very unforgiving world for new players has left all guilds without proper numbers to raid. Without the numbers to raid more and more of us turn to blue for raids.

My suggestion is radical but simple..A two part process that I think makes everyone happy and saves the pvp server for those of us that enjoy player vs player.

Part one: Force all players to character transfer off Zek.
(its ok don't panic)

Part two: Make zek like the test server with pvp flag...
Let anyone copy any character for free to Zek

This will encourage people to log in and play that are stuck on zek, and allow the guilds on zek more players to raid with and pvp against.

This solution is simple to do and if it fails at least you have a starting point to getting rid of Zek altogether. (which has got to be on the table at this point)

This is a serious post and all feedback is welcome

Sniperfire

Not the worse suggestion I have seen on the forums but the one flaw I can see with this is people from FV doing a copy over and owning people who do the same from other servers who don't have access to raid gear. I think for it to be more of a level playing field they would have to implement some kind of code that recognizes raid gear that was obtained from a raid vs bought and anything purchased will not copy over. Otherwise this could lead to an even more unbalanced situation than already exists.

I say bring it.. Bellum and Wudan will be raiding with the people coming over.

Much simpler solution. Just use a magnet on area containing ZEK.

Its pure harassment when people got certain level/power, or at least in the time i played there. A time i see today as lost time.

It was then and i doubt it has changed much today.

Very constructive, thankyou

Would like to hear your thoughts on how this will work, you do realise that loot officers loot everything then next target is done, looting next etc. Loot gets auctions off between moves or at end of night. So how do you determine it was obtained from a raid ...

Or if you just mean from raid currency from a vendor ?

Come to think of it, really not sure what your point is, all raid gear is from a raid even the vendor bought items from the raid merchant as you need to do the raids to get the currency.

In fact I would think FV people would have the most balanced playing field as it would be skill and not gear that matters (against other raidgeared people)

The point being people from every server would be able to copy over. So if a non raider from say Tunare copied over and a non raider from FV copied over in theory the non raider from FV might have a full set of raid gear giving one server a significant advantage over the other servers. This could create an unbalanced situation where in the end the only people actually copying over are raiders from all servers and those who have obtained raid gear from FV. This would defeat the purpose of trying to boost the server population and the overall appeal imo.

So it is fine to pit raiders against group geared people just as long as they actually raided for the gear ?

Same argument then that it would defeat the purpose of boosting the server population, really interested in why you have a gripe with FV tradable raid gear.

I could really care less about the FV rules as a whole. That is the servers rule set and that's cool. But if you are going to have an open world competition with people from all servers FV would have an advantage over players from other servers. If you don't see this obvious flaw than I don't know what to say.

So what if FV transfers have an advantage, all raiders will have an advantage over group geared people. Looks like you are intentionally ignoring that fact. It is not a proposed server competition where a server wins. It is to entice individuals so that zek numbers may be boosted.

If you really did not care you would have stuck to the raiders tag and not even mentioned FV.

So you are basically only going to attract raiders then? I don't really see this drawing in huge crowds if this is the case. Yes someone in group gear will know they are at a disadvantage if they encounter a raid geared player and that's the risk they will take. The problem is a server like FV could make the server to unbalanced meaning an unproportioned number of players with raid gear resulting in most people with group gear ditching the server and the end result is not much better than it is now.

The OP was asking for feedback and this should be a valid concern about server balance. Just like in normal content if you make everything to hard or to easy people simply wont play. This has nothing to do with the people on FV personally but has more to do with how the mechanics of that server give those players a significant advantage over players from other servers. This advantage probably goes much further than just raid gear as I am sure there are other useful items for pvp that on normal servers would be no trade but on FV are tradable such as the couple of invulnerability clickes. To amplify this since it is just a copy you would only need to "borrow" these items for the copy and then you could give them back to the owner. If you don't think that pack mentality is not a thing I can assure you that players will team up with people they know so yes it will result in servers vs servers for a lot of people with FV and the current Zek players having a huge advantage over anyone who is new to pvp or in group gear. Your end result is the last two groups of people will probably just chalk it up as a painful experience and continue on with their normal game play.

What I expect to happen is that group geared people will encounter too many raidgeared people even if you restricted that no FV person can copy to Zek, then give it a few trieds and just say meh this sucks and never give it a second thought. End result will be even less interest.

The whole deal with copying over a geared character is unworkable in my opinion. Back to your post on restricting bought vs earned raidgear, you still need to come up with a plan on how to restrict it (that inself sounds like a yearlong project to me)

Edit: Don't think the gear is the biggest problem either, the blatant exploiting and 3rd program use would need to be prevented for this server to even stand a chance.

It should never be needed to artificial keep a server alive. If a server does not have a fairly healthy population, then DBG should not be afraid of putting it out of it missery.

And let the failing population go to another server any of those that are close to the original.

The idea of letting people get a copy of their char is bad, due to items suddenly be copied.

It would be a lot better to pull the plug, and let the server serve as an instance server, the resources would be
better used there. And make the decision fast, so people on ZEK, could see themselves have a future.

But it is also yourself who has your own future in the have, you can stay on ZEK and wait for the server to die out, or move to another server, where you can get a fresh start.

I once been on a server, which started to have decliding population, I decided to move.

The code it would take to partition out how raid gear is acquired would be MASSIVE, not to mention weather or not even possible in the bowl of spaghetti. Just offer transfers off zek for free once a month with the gold monthly freebie. Announce what is happening, 12 months later pull the plug. 2cp

I'm recent returnee to the game. I played 2000-2002 back in the day. I logged in for the first time in years and I'm like wow, where did everybody go!?

Are there even any guilds on TZ?

Everyone on here saying just pull the plug and offer transfers off the server... You aren't being forced to /zekcopy over and check the server out. His idea is actually decent and could entice people to come check it out.

If they are group geared and get smashed by a raid geared guess what?...They only copied to have some pvp fun and can go back to their blue server. None of this affects you in any way on your home server Bob, Smash, Aura because again you are not forced to go there. You are fabricating problems people may or may not have based on you not even being on the server.

It's an easy and decent idea. I would instantly /zekcopy and check it out personally.

Weather it effects me or not isn't in question. I admittedly have no horse in the race and could really care less about zek. I also didnt fabricate any issue. I just stated that there is most likely a huge issue with the part about "just writing" some code. The idea is solid I just don't think it is doable.

BUT since we are here if the server is so dead then why stay? I made Bob on luclin, then moved to povar, and now bristle. What I can say is during my peak hours of play bristle is more active than povar and luclin together. I feel like the server xfer I made was for the better, I was leery about it at first but all in all it was the best thing. YMMV

I doubt very much that anyone is going to be enticed to transfer to Zek, free or not. If you want to raid, and that's your main concern, there are plenty of servers with a healthly population for your guild to recruit or plenty of guilds to merge with or join.

I don't see DBG spending any time on this issue as it impacts very few players and would involve more resources than it's worth.

Eye of the beholder here but EQ PvP was always pretty trash. It doesn't surprise me that the server is crawling for the grave.

Dumbest Idea in years, Let's take Testing people (that currently not testing enough bugged crap DB pushing life) and gang them while they trying to test bugs. Are you moron or something? Well, to like PvP you must be. You can't have good things when all you want to do is kill people........get a clue!!!
GOOD BYE ZEK, YEY!!! One down side we might get your kind that left on our server.....

Please stop blaming volunteers for buggy content. Then read the OP post it was not suggested to take test and make it pvp. Then just stop.