I am going to preface this thread by saying that the current state of Zek is not indicative of a failure on Daybreaks part, but on Sonys. The mere fact that instances have been flagged blue shows that daybreak cares a little about Zek. That being said, Zek is a show. Everquest is such a great game. Its dynamic, engaging and immersing, intense and creative, and it has been a part of most of the people playing eq now for years. Its a great product. PvP however, has gone downhill, and has been in the gutters for years. And I mean years. But I caution you Daybreak, not to look at what Zek is/was when you purchased everquest, but to consider where it was at one point. Everquest initially had 4 pvp servers, and they were doing well for many years. In 2005, they were all merged onto one server, Zek, and since then Zek's population has been decreasing. There are two major factors to the decline of Zek. First and foremost, third party programs(ie Macro quest) were allowed to run rampant throughout zek, creating unfair and ridiculous game play for the people who wished to play legitimately. Think steroids in baseball. You either gave in to hacking, or you quit or washed out. And the 2nd is that damage in pvp just became too much, too fast paced and too easy for certain classes. Thats exactly where we are now. Eq PvP is all about who can round the other player the quickest, and there are classes that are much more efficient at others than that. Necro dots tick for 50-100k, rangers round you with called shots/forceful rejuv, or can autofire you for 50k with trueshot running, rogues can kill you in seconds, Shadowknights kill you with 2 abilities. This kind of pvp is meaningless and stale, and few players are interested in playing in this kind of environment. Hence the low population of one of the most intense and invigorating pvp games out there. Zek would be thriving if just a little bit of balancing was done to the game. Now I know that Daybreak has limited resources, and I'm not asking for a full team to rework and balance out every class in painstaking detail. I present 2 options, which I think would be easy to do. 1)- Zonewide buff that decreases player damage by 70%. Other games already have this, in the form of resilience or valor or whatever else. This would keep players from rounding the other players, without having to do any kind of balancing on the classes themselves. 70 percent reduction would mean that pvp would come back to skill and ability, instead of who can do the most damage in 5 seconds or less. 2)-Zonewide hp buff that increases hitpoints by 200%(non-instance). This is another option that would decrease the likelihood of being rounded. But with as intense the damage is, I am not sure it would do a whole lot of good, and it might make the pve too easy. Everquest is a great game, and Zek could be a great product. I know of, and most of us do as well, plenty of people who would come back to Zek if some initiative was taken to make the pvp less of a joke. It's a simple fix. Show us that you care Daybreak, and you will see players flood back to the game.
i think we have enough posts about Zek .. took me all of 5min to find these posts that this post could of been posted there.. https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...on-server-or-serverwide-arena-battles.230117/ https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/zek-server.231877/#post-3421099 https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/make-instances-on-zek-non-pvp.219794/ oh and 1 more .. https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...ayer-suggestion-character-copy-to-zek.231260/ and im sure i missed a few those were just the ones that had Zek in the title
So 4 threads is too many for a unique ruleset eq server? Btw, 2 of those threads have had their ideas put into effect. So yea.
im referring to this post was not necessary when there are other posts out there pertaining to zek that you could of posted in .. and were talking about Zek not other unique ruleset eq servers , which there are a ton of those out there in forumland also ... phinny, FV.. not saying your post doesnt have merrit .. just think it could of been posted in one of the other threads related to Zek (pvp) rather than starting a new thread. jmo
Not so, this is different than those posts, so It deserves a different thread. Thank you for your concern.
And I will say, that for the most part, most classes are well balanced in pvp these days(if the damage was reduced). Really all that needs to happen is a flat 70% damage reduction in pvp combat. However that can be applied. Make it happen, and you can boost revenue, rescue a dying server, and revitalize the game for many people.
Why is it that everytime someone posts about Zek, people, (who have no dog in this fight), come out of the woodwork to bash it. I am not trying to say that Daybreak should invest all of their time into fixing Zek, merely a simple fix that would make the players experience who invest their time on Zek more enjoyable. This is not a scenario where funds are diverted and other servers are ignored. Merely a simple coding fix that would bring back some revenue for the game, and increase the potential for Zek to be a thriving server.
You'd be surprised how many people here have their dog in one fight or another. Never underestimate who is on what server and under which alias.
Win for everyone on Zek imo. 70% damage reduction still means people will die, just will be able to fight for longer than 10 seconds.
Zek is one of the most unique experiences in pvp gaming.... I played on zek in 2008 and 2009. Server was already on a decline then but I helped form a guild of folks in their 70s and we got in battles with other small guilds and it was great. Now I am on blue but I hear pvp is dumb due to one-rounding. So of course I am no Zek expert (are there any left??) but I agree with the OP. 70% damage reduction would be a simple fix that makes fights last longer. Please add. I certainly would try Zek again if something like this was added.
Make the change and people will come back, don't do anything and you will keep losing people. Up to you.
So I was browsing forums, and I noticed something interesting. Magus Imperilius Magicus is recruiting for raiding on one of the tlp servers. For those that don't know, MiM is an oldschool rallos zek guild who left zek within i want to say a year of Zek being formed. Like a lot of guilds. But they were a solid guild with a loyal base. There are many guilds like this out there (que Wudan as of recent), that would more than jump at the chance to come back to Zek if something was done to fix the outrageous state of pvp on Zek. Reduce the damage by 70 percent- have people and guilds come back to this once great server. Do it, what could you possibly lose? You have everything to gain Daybreak. Show us that you care. Just a bit.
Just curious what do they have to gain? Zek is a F2P server, no one is going to be required to pay anything to go play on it. So they would be required to invest a significant amount of time and resources to making changes to very very old parts of the code for the benefit of a single server that caters to a very small portion of the EQ playerbase. The returns on PvP related changes are unlikely to be that great compared to the returns they would see from using those resources and time on other game issues. That said, I am quite sure that they have had different people looking into these kind of things in the past, but not as a priority. If they eventually get some break through that will somehow improve PvP without being detrimental to the PvE players, then they will likely make the changes as they can. Most people that I have known in EQ who actively enjoy PvP play on different games now for the PvP fix. They play on games which were specifically designed with PvP in mind as opposed to it being added as an after thought. The amount of time, money, and resources that would be necessary to make EQ PvP worthwhile compared to other games is outrageous, much less to do it without drastically changing how the PvE side works. As such, I do believe that you are incorrect in your idea that scores of people will flock back to EQ's PvP server if your suggested changes are made. Most of them have already found other places for their PvP.
Couple things. 1) Isn't every server besides the progression server a f2p server? That's like saying they don't make changes to bristlebane because its a "f2p" server. You need an all access membership just as much if not more on zek as you do anywhere else. 2) Would it be that difficult to change the code on zek to reduce the damage done to other players by players? I'm asking, I really don't know, but it seems like something that could be done relatively easy. 3) PvP in eq is a unique experience. Its the only game I know of out there that focuses on world pvp, direct competition of resources, intense rivalries, and meaningful pvp. You are right, most people are playing other games for pvp, but I think this is more due to the fact that other games have pvp that lasts longer than the span of time it takes to hit 2 buttons. I think if this changed, and the word got out, you would see an influx of players. In fact I am sure of it.
