New Server - Progression Reset

So, I have been hearing rumours about a new server being opened up that will allow progression from the beginning of EQ2.

I would just like to say I fully support this idea as I have a few friends I have recently got into the game and atm, they feel extremelly over whelmed with the amount of content the game has to offer, which by the way is not a complaint from them, they love it.

However, they can't help but feel "8 years" behind. Which is understandable. When I heard these rumours, I asked them how they would feel if SoE did this for the player base and they said they would be all over it.

So I'd just like to say that you have support from 8 players here in regards to this if you ever considered it SoE.

I believe EQ1 did something like this awhile back also and it was a huge success.

In a the recent Podcast Windstalker talked about progression servers and said they were NOT going to do progression servers anytime soon. Reason is a single 24 man guild would rush through all the content and make the server pointless in a few months.

My suggestion is just to bring back the newbie islands on ALL servers. Instead of a progression server there would be progression quest that replicated the original leveling experience. It would work like a long signature quest through old content. Let people start on the Newbie island and do those old quests again. Also bring back the original class selection quest. Pre GU 13 players picked an archtype at level 1 and then did a class quest at level 10 and finally picked their final subclass at level 20. Example player could start as a "scout" and then become a "bard" at level 10 and then become a "dirge" at level 20.

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Well, if you were to talk about a true progressional based server starting from scratch, the game would replicate how EQ2 was from the start, so pre GU13 player selection would exsist.

However, I honestly believe that it would take a guild more then just a few mere months to blow back through all this content, especially considering that, pre level 50 doesn't have AA, everyone would be starting from scratch, zero plat, zero everything. So the whole curve process itself just to get to a raiding level via gear tread mill would take months alone.

I probably say it would take at the very least, a year if not more for any dedicated guild to clearing its way through the expasions and content from ground zero. That would be consistantly raiding 3 - 4 days a week also.

I was actually pretty upset that when I came back they had closed Queen's Colony. I had a character on one server that lived there - I would log her in now and again for old time's sake. They kept the zone open a long time after they changed the starting zone. When I came back I couldn't even log into the character as the zone was 'temporarily unavailable'.

I'd love a progression server. As for a 24 man guild plowing through it, they already solved that problem in Everquest - you make the progression timed - ie: you won't open Expansion X+1 until Expansion X has been opened for at least a month (or two or however long they decide they want to wait.

The only real problems I see are the Qeynos and Freeport revamps. But for me, I'd love to start the game from the boat again. Hell, I still run my alts through as much of the old content as I can. Nothing like an evil character sneaking your way around doing the quests in Oakmyst and the Peat Bog - I did it with a partner, we were both dark elves so could port to each other - one would pull the guards away and the other ran into the zone. Whoever's turn it was to die would respawn and port in. Once you were in the actual quest givers don't give a damn who you are. Good Times!

You've been hearing EQ2 producers and designers explain why Progression servers require a TON of effort and will only be really played by 1 top guild that unlocks everything and then they'll die off after 3 months. Basically 3 months work to make 24 players happy for 3 months.

Somehow this "it's very unlikely" is being heard as "Yay a Progression Server is coming!" It's like that Telephone game where you say something and by the time it gets through 10 people it's totally backwards.

EQ finally got it right with time-locked progression. Sure you'll still get people rushing through content, but then they'll be held up by the time-lock. Considering that Holly said that a progression server is unlikely though I would not hold my breath on ever seeing one.

Since nearly all raids are instance based, the whole concept of progression based server is lost in my opinion.

I would come back to the game if this occurred.

Some reason this idea stirs up some romantic notions in players, but I agree with most others in this thread, and every eq2 producer to date. At most 24 people will find it rewarding, as they'll race the content faster than everyone else. And when you think about it there is no way the effort from the dev team is worth the reward that would be found.

There are simply countless other things they could do to generate more return for their effort.

As nice as it is. You are better off doing it yourself. Get a group of friends, the OP says they have 8 already. Create a guild on any given server and lock yourselves to the gear. To accomplish this you would have to follow the below listing.

Can't use AA until it was unlocked by an expansion.
No mercs, Mastercrafted gear limitation as Itemization has mad STR AGI only item useless for tanks and scouts lol.
A 2 piece limit on MC gear would balance that out imo.
No Reactant Gear for the same reason as no merc.
You lock your toon if you hit the lvl cap prior to kiling the final boss of that content. So say your guild reaches DoF; until you kill Djin Master you do not level past 50.

This is far easier on the devs to do (they don't do anything) and you get a bunch of new players and they can experience the game through the content entirely at thier/the guilds pace.

I'm more into the feelings I had when I first played than with the reality of how it was. The community and friends of that time period, the innocence that came with not knowing and knowing just as much as the next person. We just know too much now to really go back and play consistently on a progression server.

(obviously all my opinion so don't go getting all defensive or offended )

Like some have said - I don't know that the game has really changed enough to make a progression server viable.

Yeah, I'd love to go through the beginning again - where you start on the boat, then you choose whether you want to be a fighter, a mage, a priest, or a rogue, and then you got to your ghetto and ran around all of them doing quests for people, and you had to prove you could actually somewhat play your class in a solo instance before they would let you into the city.

But then what? Antonica is still Antonica. The Commonlands are still the Commonlands. Heck even the starting leveling zones like the Peat Bog and the Sprawl are still the same. Just limit where you go and you've got your own progression...

Not really true. Itemizations changes, class changes, and AAs all contribute to trivializing the older content, as well assignificant content nerfs.

A progression server the way EQ1 did it wouldn't work. For this idea to work it would have to be a true "classic" server. You'd be surprised how much has actually changed in this game from launch. A true classic server would have to have all aspects reset. Class quests, citizenship quests, soul shards, overland heroics, shared xp debt, city-only shared banking and city only brokers, no AAs, no guild halls, no travel globes, items reset to their original stats, crafting rolled back with sub-combines and class interdependency, access quests for pretty much all zones...

Expansion unlocks couldn't be based on how fast it took one guild to down Darathar and so on. Hell, I'd be happy if we had a server that stayed t5 indefinitely until otehrwise voted on by the server population.

I'd play on a true classic server in a heartbeat.

Progression guilds on live servers are a joke. Level 50 toons can do over 100x the dps a level 50 in classic could do, and I'm not exaggerating. Not to mention being able to level a toon from 1 to cap in a few hours compared to the months it took to level to 50.

I, too, would play on a classic server. But it would take far too much work to get it right. Some mechanics bugs/content would have to be fixed (like, proc rate normilzation and lavastorm/sol eye being in at launch!) but everything else would have to go back to what it was (archetype -> class -> subclass, tradeskill subcombines, group xp debt to name a few)

LOL, really for those who never played pre GU13 EQ2 you have no idea what a classic progression server would be like.

EQ2 Pre GU 13 was a ball- buster, imagine triple up heroics all over thundering plains and the only way to cross was with a group of competent players or sneak over to the docks. Access quest for Enchanted lands , Deathfist Keep owning a well geared group of 6 players. Good times... Gooood times indeed.

I remember players getting stuck at level 9 unable to beat the solo quest required to advance to the next class specialization. Leveling was sloooooowww as well, I do mean slooooooowww!

Ya I would love to see that. I loved it but many found the game unbearable, there is a reason GU13 was a HUGE deal.

Oh and if you are bored with gear now just imagine trying to get excited over that uber chest piece that dropped with a stat of +1 strength for level 20 and NOTHING else,! no blues!

If they did a classic server I'd jump on board.

You forgot crafting killing people: yes, that thing the crafting trainer tells you about the 'old days' is true.
Lowbies would drop like flies when they weren't being careful.

And money was ... not so plentiful. People would go out into Antonica, take the Griffon, then run into Thundering Steppes rather than pay the harbormaster and buy a ticket to go direct to the dock - I knew I was making it big when I got that two room apartment by the water just to be closer to the harbormaster.

Edit: and remember SOE telling us that prices for rooms in the city were higher because they were 'more convenient'? Yeah, running around four zones to get the same things that were all together in each suburb really makes life easier

Oh, and Guild Patrons - who remembers that? That one I could do without actually...

Oh man, I had forgotten about having to save up, and justify to myself the cost of the harbormasters vs running to zones.

I remember on Grobb (remember that server?) there was ONE guy that had the 10 Plat (I think) ghost horse. He used to be afk on the docks in TS constantly. I was in such awe of him and his massive amounts of money! And spirit shards, I remember making a new toon once because I was in so much spirit shard debt, that in order for it to go away, it would have been DAYS, so instead I made an alt to play on as my shards were unreachable.

There are things I miss, and things I will never miss, but, like anything looking back on it with nostalgia it probably wasn't anywhere near as great as you remember.

Haha, I was working the forge, got distracted for a moment and looked away from the screen. When I looked back I was on fire.

i don't think you should do this soe not enough players play any more you should work on heroic and raid zones and battlegrounds

thanks

I dunno, I think you'd see an influx of return players for this, at least initially. The kicker is that it would have to be a gold-only server with no marketplace, which I think is SOE's real unspoken sticky point on this. Just my opinion though.