The EQ2 Time-Locked Server Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by Vinyard, Jun 4, 2015.

  1. Kurei Hitaka Well-Known Member

    If they could put the old limitations back entirely, I would love it and tell them to sell it as a different unspoiled game. Sadly they can't do that, which is part of why I have said a few times "try not to make it sub members only".

    As for reviving the servers, they really need to merge everyone and give us two servers -- AB and Not AB.
  2. Roshen Well-Known Member

    This isn't an issue about not having access to data, or for it to not be practical to keep data. The way everything in our game interacts, reverting things even a few days can make entire systems just stop working.

    Files are constantly changing and dependencies on those files change as well. Consider that we've been patching and updating the game for over 10 years. Going back and creating an experience that's exactly the same as EQ2 was on day one would be a monumental task, and that's NOT our goal for these Time-Locked servers.
    Neiloch likes this.
  3. Roshen Well-Known Member

    I answered this earlier in this thread.

    TLDR: Lag and issues with server populations are still things the team is working towards addressing. The timing for fixing "all of the things" isn't related to the launch of the new Time-Locked servers.
  4. Roshen Well-Known Member


    Since this thread is for discussing what players think a Time-Locked server should be, how do you feel about Channelers and Beastlords on this server? Is having newer classes/races available before the expansions/eras they were originally introduced a good or a bad thing for these servers? Why do you feel that way?
  5. Ardur Duradan Well-Known Member

    I would rather beastlords and channelers not be on the server and be released when they were introduced imo.


    also there is the issue of them not being able to have epics or mythicals until their relevant expansions become unlocked.
    Koren and HaphazardAllure like this.
  6. Kurei Hitaka Well-Known Member

    Not the person you directed this at, however I think they could provide some interesting utility and fill some combat niches even in old content. Since you guys cannot do re-itemization anyways most likely, you'd still have the appropriate loot and quest rewards so the classes could still potentially fit in.
  7. Alenna Well-Known Member

    the more choices the better I think so why not have them be part of it.
  8. Hecula New Member

    I've been playing quite a lot on Ragefire over the past couple weeks so I have some suggestions on how to possibly maximize this experience for returning players. I think Daybreak has tapped into a untapped resource with the TLP EQ servers and realize there's good money to be made here. But to maximize this, you have to appeal to nostalgia.

    I understand that you can't really revert code or zones significantly so we're not getting racial neighborhoods, subclass and class quests, crafting dependency system etc.

    However, the intro with the boat and dragon and Isle of Refuge/Outpost of the Overlord has to make a comeback. Those resources should still be around and accessible. It should be easy to re-activate them. No Halas/Gor etc. I would put these back in and make a promo video for the TLP servers showing the original dragon stuff and starting Isle - that will bring back the nostalgia players in droves. If you do only a couple things, bring back the boat and starting isles.

    Remove all bells - no quick travel. Remove all mounts except for low ground speed mounts. Halve if not quarter (if not eighth) XP gain. It took a long time to level in vanilla even with all of the quests (a lot of which have been removed). Beta test this with people who were there on launch to make sure the flavor is correct.

    Bring back access quests for Enchanted Lands, Zek etc.

    No overpowered classes at launch like EQ. The mage squads are depressing on Ragefire. Tune spells or whatever needs to happen to not allow one class to dominate content.

    Either turn up Mob damage/HP or change many of the solo mobs back to heroics. I would perhaps get your playerbase to pitch in with this. I remember the scarecrows very well as does most any player that played vanilla - those fields in Antonica over by the zoneline to Thundering Steppes.

    All the other suggestions being made are also valid - no guild houses, no AAs etc. etc.
    Zeffran, Lateana, Liral and 1 other person like this.
  9. Kurei Hitaka Well-Known Member

    So I am just realizing now that is Time-Locked, not Time-Locked Progression, which Roshen explained is different -- It will be locked at a specific time with no further content being released. This leads me to a different thought pattern, then.

    --Lock the game at a maximum RoK, which many would consider the last best Expac.

    --Allow Beastlord/Channeler to be used in the content regardless of which Expac we start at/are permanently locked to.

    --Include the No-Stuff like Holly mentioned, so no more than the AAs released in RoK, no Guild Halls, no Flying Mounts, etc etc.

    --Stagger the content releases: First two or three months on base game, then release DoF and repeat. First set of Adv. Packs (Splitpaw and BLC) released with DoF. This would technically count as a progression thing, but it keeps people from just rushing to RoK content ASAP. Should take awhile to get to the RoK release*

    --Zone-Wide 'debuffs' on players similar to what Feldon mentioned, lowering our stats and auto-attack/CA/Spell damage. Zone-Wide buff for Mobs increasing difficulty by "2 points" as Feldon put it.

    --Heavily restricted Quick Travel, I.E. we have to use the Boats to get to Kunark or between the three lv20+ areas.

    --Decreased Drop Rate or Total Removal of the 'of the <Class>' sets that were added in the gear revamp GUs for level 10~40.

    --Permanent Double Status event to help out people who make guilds on the server.

    --Restrict things that would not be server-appropriate such as Dungeon Finder/LADs.

    *- Alternative to the above, make the next content reachable after a certain amount of achievements/achievement score have been earned. Maybe like a total of 10~20k achievements/achievement score?
  10. Windstalker Executive Producer

    Even I romanticize the boat zone. One of the reasons it was removed were the OVERWHELMING complaints that it was basically a vomit coaster. Lots of motion sickness. We aren't redoing it or relaunching it.

    And to be clear, none of our 11-year-old assets and zones exist in perfect stasis. We couldn't keep infinite builds and discreet versions of every NPC data set in our source control. If some of this stuff you're asking for was as easy as flipping a switch, of course we'd do it!!!

    We need to make choices based on your feedback. If we do "all the things" then the servers wouldn't launch for a long time and we'd like to get these out relatively soon (tm). And, besides, this isn't a nostalgia play.

    What we're excited about is offering an opportunity to build a new community (or to kill the new community in PvP) on new servers for those who want to be part of it. It's really an awesome thing! I have been loving that on Ragefire and Lockjaw. It's the people (i.e. you folks) who make these games meaningful.

    Please continue giving us your thoughts on what you believe matters as part of the time-locked expansions. How voting should happen (like voters must be at least level 10), restrictions you feel will be good for the community overall, etc.
    Seiffil and Neiloch like this.
  11. Strings Well-Known Member

  12. Foretold Well-Known Member

    Actually, its not. Not if we don't want it to be. They want us to tell them what we want. I think the majority of us, on the PvE side, don't want to be locked at one place... we want to progress through at some yet to be determined pace until the server catches up to the game.

    It sounds like the PvPers definitely have a sweet spot they want to stop at, though.
    Siren and HaphazardAllure like this.
  13. Kurei Hitaka Well-Known Member

    Ah, you're right.

    Well really, it comes down to whether the community thinks we want to eventually hit lv100 content, or whether we like a specific gameset and prefer that I suppose.

    Honestly, I am halfway in the camp with the people who will say "RoK or Bust" lol, though I enjoyed a few minor parts of SF and CoE respectively.

    For some reason, I feel like a time-based Raid clear system could be disasterous though.

    Anyone else think I might be going somewhere with the global achievements earned score idea? :p

    Most of the Shattered Land achievements are for Heroic or Overland stuff, compared to Raid Targets while a couple of the Expacs' achievements are a bit more Top-Heavy, like EoF is mostly Raid achieves.
  14. resonate Active Member

    Highly against channelers and beastlords as with newer races. Frogloks in at launch I could sort of see but even I'd like to need to unlock them but fully against all other race and classes


    I like a lot of the stuff in here and think a lot of others agree. The main opinion of everyone here seems to be
    The content should be more difficult closer to launch.

    Travel times should be longer. No WW bells. Bring it back to EL bell only on Nek docks,etc. Slower harder to obtain mounts.

    But one thing I'm curious about is mentoring. Mentoring back in the day used to nerf you pretty bad and you'd only be able to use spells up to the level you'd mentor at. If mentoring is anything like it is now then once we get some 50s it's just going to be no one wanting to group and everyone wanting to by power levels which would impact the leveling experience dramatically.
  15. Foretold Well-Known Member

    I never got a chance to raid until KoS... I was a solo player until I met a great group of people who were very patient with me while I learned how to group (oooh that's what those buffs are for!!). I started raiding in KoS and never looked back.

    I want to roll on this new server and experience ALL that group content that I've never experience with a group. Sure, I've gone back and explored everything solo, chrono'd down, but it's not the same. I am really stoked to have the opportunity to do this.

    My only worry is that the gear is too powerful for the old zones. I like Feldon's detriment buff idea. I don't want to take a X2 raid force and decimate X4 content in an hour. If that issue alone can be balanced, you can shut up and take my money. These are all NEW raid zones for me!!! *Squeeee*

    Oh, and no transfers on to the server. Let's all start out on even footing and not mule our 1 bajillion plat over to the new server :D And yeah, get rid of fast travel, too...
    HaphazardAllure likes this.
  16. resonate Active Member

    There were a lot of x4 raids that could be killed with 12 peoples though :x
  17. Meaghan Stormfire Well-Known Member

    My major concern is about itemization being too powerful for the content. Will item stats be rolled back or adjusted back to a balanced state with the original content?
  18. Kurei Hitaka Well-Known Member

    TBH, what we've come up with that MIGHT work (Wanting to see if Roshen or Gninja can confirm this or not) is a Zone-Wide debuff on players, reducing their stats/CA damage/Spell damage so that we're weaker than our gear/AAs make us look -- coupled with a Zone-Wide buff for mobs that increases their difficulty by 2 points, making a one-down arrow into a ^^, or a ^^^ into a ^^ Heroic and so forth.

    They apparently cannot simply "un-update" certain things due to how the files work over here, as it might risk breaking other systems. So maybe putting a couple new systems in place would be easier for them.
    Feldon likes this.
  19. Mashef Member

    This may have already been discussed but my 2 pennies include the following:

    I am obviously OK with no original class system/newby zones as it is not feasible to put them in. I have already made my peace with that.

    I like the combat system as is. I don't think this needs to be over the top roll back to classic.

    AA Restrictions based on expansions? I think this is necessary

    I guess to me this is more about a chance to experience the content I skipped. I was in and out of EQ2, I experienced DOF raids, KOS raids, Kunark raids, TSO raids and missed raiding in all the other expansions except for solo farming.

    Researched spells? I think if this could be disabled until the expansion that introduced them. That would give us a more challenging experience. It may not be much but this would require us to at least farm Master version of spells and place increased value on crafting Adepts.

    I am excited. Hoping this is more of an end of summer thing and not end of year thing. I will be splitting my time from EQ progression and EQ2 progression in lulls of content. I am going to be bored in classic EQ very very very soon and Kunark is like 5 months away still lol. I was going to cancel my sub in between but with a timely release of this prog server I will keep it rolling.

    Rule Set:
    I think bosses downed is not really an important matter in EQ2 due to legitimate instancing. There are some contested mobs but not enough to really make things matter. I would like to see a 2 or 3 month lockout for each expansion. No voting. Just set it at what it is. This is plenty of time to level adventuring and crafting as well as handle the overarching quest line of each expansion (probably for two toons per player even at a casual pace).
  20. Kurei Hitaka Well-Known Member

    That is true. I was also suggesting an alternative unlock based on the total achievement scores of players on the server reaching a certain number, since we have achieves that are worth 5, 10, 15 pts etc respectively. Set a world total, and each time that total is met, the next bit of content would be unlocked. This way players of all styles end up progressing the server's content unlocking.