Kaladim a big success IMHO

Discussion in 'General TLE Discussion' started by Liral, Apr 5, 2019.

  1. Liral Active Member

    We are 3 weeks in and i play at all sorts of hours. Logged in at 3 am and there were still 5 instances of Frostfang Sea. Multiple instances are the norm not the exception for zones. People are obviously enjoying themselves with this new server. I know I have played a lot more hours these past three weeks than i have for quite a while.
    Siren, Rosyposy, Mr Kotter and 2 others like this.
  2. Fistpower Well-Known Member

    Huge success if u like to do everything but raid, yeah. But then they should label the server that, a non raiding server.
  3. Frid Member

    I think this time they got it far better than the two previous attempts, but still not enough. WHat triggers me most is not the fact that the encounters are too easy as I understand thats difficult to tune but FFS, if you take the time to itemise every item in the game why would you put lvl 40 items drop off raid bosses and things like that? Anyway, having fun!
  4. Synistra Active Member

    I love to raid and I still think the server is a huge success. The faster exp rates make it so altaholics like me don't have to slog to level the 100 alts I make and it will make people catching up to the top end of the server very easy in the future. Raids aren't great, I mean they're easy but it's also Vanilla; what do we really expect. There's no real abilities or AA to help combat tons of add waves, super complex scripts, etc. More HP doesn't equal harder mobs, well it shouldn't anyway. I think it's in a good a spot relatively. It's really easy for those of us who have been there and done that a million times before, but what about the people who are new to EQ2? New to raiding? Learning how to raid? Not everyone is an experienced raider jaded by multiple runs through these TLEs.

    Kaladim keeps me busy so I've really got no huge complaints, that doesn't mean there aren't issues, but your game time will be what you make it.
    Siren likes this.
  5. Atan Well-Known Member

    I think it was a success in that their target was new players, eq1 players, or long gone eq2 players.

    I don't believe the server's target demographic was existing eq2 players, or players from previous TLEs, cause I wouldn't call it a success from that perspective.

    What do I mean? They haven't really built this server around the lessons learned of what went well and what went pourly in the previous TLEs.

    What they did do, is they promoted this TLE event heavily, They did a great job of getting new people in the door. They did a good job setting the experience rate high enough not to drive people away. More specifically, it is easy to spend an hour or two in game and feel like I made real progress on my character.

    Those of us that have been thru several of these know the issues the new players are going to eventually find, the problems that are glaring once the 'new shine' and the 'new mmo scent' wears off.

    I believe DBG's objective is to grab these players and give them some fun for a few months, maybe half of them stay a year, and after 2 years their ready to move on to some other TLE event. This allows them to mostly repeat the same thing again, but never really need to address things like rational itemization, end game tuning, and other activities that require more of their resources.

    In their current model, they have a few sprints of development work to set these event servers up, then very little effort to let them play out those 18-24 months or so.

    Those of us that repeat these TLE events and see the same problems repeatedly become squeeky wheels, but overall these are a financial success for the company.
    Siren and Zenji like this.
  6. Synistra Active Member

    I'm not going to quote your entire post because it's long, but it was a good one. Atan what if I told you they want to look for ways to make the TLEs last longer? Would you believe me?
  7. Zenji Well-Known Member


    If they wanted TLEs to last longer, proper itemization and raid encounter tuning would be a good place to start.

    If people got upgrades to farm, and a few raid bosses that aren't total push overs, it keeps them invested longer.
    Redlight likes this.
  8. Castekin New Member



    Ah Zenj, I knew I could count on you to make a post moaning about how the server is not solely catering to you.



    It does not matter that the server is a rip roaring success and has attracted loads of new players like I said it would if they made it with a faster exp and longer unlocks. It only matters about catering to Zenj.



    You never disappoint buddy.;)
  9. Zenji Well-Known Member


    I am happy to oblige.

    I have no issues with faster XP. The longer unlocks are not what I would have picked, and if you glance through the forums, you can see I am not the only one that feels that way. But we knew 16 weeks per expansion going in, so it is what it is.

    Poor itemization effects all types of players, you see posts from level 15 players quitting the server all the way up to "raiders" and no lifers. So I have a gut feeling, I am not in the minority with that complaint.

    Raid content tuning also effects lots of people, not just the try hards. When the casual guilds with less than 3 groups are killing Darathar 3 weeks into a 4 month vanilla. That is an indicator things maybe slightly under tuned.

    Everything other than contested Vox falling over to anyone who can put 18 players together is not healthy for the server. I would like to think that casuals, part timers, and raiders can all get on board with wanting a healthy server.
    tbmroark and Bekkr like this.
  10. Bekkr Well-Known Member

    I don't often find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with you, but this is a solid, well thought out post right here.
    Rosyposy, Pixistik and Zenji like this.
  11. Grayven Member

    If we could just start with that baseline, and acknowledge that playing on Kaladim means 4 months per expansion... the rest of the discussion would be fairly constructive.

    Well, as constructive as things can be when the Devs aren't actually listening.
    Bekkr likes this.
  12. Dezz u New Member

    As a "Casual" Raider, allot of what zenji said is very true..

    XP was fast.. generally, i like it, i do feel i missed allot of fun solo quest content, but i can do that with alts

    i primarily came back to the game to re-experience the prismatic quest line, which i completed back in Vanilla.. so much fun, such a large guild effort to pull off..

    We completed the entire quest line, including Darathar, in one night. Something isn't right about that, it was a blast, had a blast with my guildees and im not going anywhere, but it definitely takes something away from the accomplishment of completing it
    Pixistik and Zenji like this.
  13. Kamapoipoi New Member

    If it wasn't for this server I would have never came back to the game. I've been gone for 5+ years. However 2 things are in the way which will be the deciding factor for me to leave; Mercenaries and Pantheon Rise of The Fallen which I have beta access to.
  14. Atan Well-Known Member

    That they *want* to? Yes, I'd believe that.

    I don't believe they are capable of making the investment into what that would actually require.
  15. Adoninilol Well-Known Member

    Unfortunately regarding the longer expansion timeframe it all comes down to how often the developers have to go in and do fixes. I think that is part of the reason why four months was picked for the time frame of the expansions.

    If a server was two months long per expansion for example, it would require much more upkeep to keep the server going given the fast paced nature.

    What I don't understand is why all of the effort went into fixing itemization on Fallen Gate just for them to turn around and completely redesign everything again? All it would've taken is looking at specific raid pieces/heroic/solo and tuning them, instead now we have this weird pieced together system which doesn't really make any sense. The thing that really kills me is the fact that there was SO much feedback already given on itemization on fallen gate, it wasn't bad in a few expansions actually, just a few items here and there needed to be redesigned so that you didn't have a healer hat with max health, mit increase, and strikethrough.

    If Vanilla/DoF were only two months long and maybe KoS three, the remainder at a shelf life of four months this server would probably be a lot more appealing to a player like me, someone who has already done two TLE's and done the original game when it released.

    I just don't see enough content in Vanilla or DoF to really satisfy any player, Vanilla is kind of a weird one as it has all this content leveling up, but once you hit max it kind of plateaus. This is why I thought that the XP rate on fallen gate was decent (hated the xp pots) at least in T5. You actually had to go to multiple dungeons, leveling up we hit nearly everything, wailing caves, fallen gate, stormhold, RoV, RE, permafrost, solusek's eye, etc. Now? I feel as if I can just kill overland mobs and not really care about anything else.

    I've said in other posts about the importance of risk vs reward, but right now i'm just not seeing it for any player really. You have a population of maybe two-three thousand, out of that amount, maybe a hundred will actually bother trying to complete quests in game that give zero rewards.

    Something I would like to see implemented is similar to the race to trak rewards, if you complete a certain number of HQ's you get a token, quests a token, epic quests, a token. Things like this would incentivize players in playing all the content, right now there just aren't any rewards to make people want to go kill six orc's in Zek for zero rewards.

    I know there are different playstyles, people who just quest up and gear out doing quests, and that's fine to them. But what happens once they reach the endgame and nothing is tuned, they get a pickup raid and clear darathar in one night? What do they do then? Quit? Wait until DoF to level to 60 and do the few quests in that expansion then rinse repeat until the end? If they added hunter's rewards with multiple rewards, and a token system it would keep people playing the game, and logging in. If people don't finish all the rewards because they're casual, at least a new refresh on gear is coming in a month or two.
    Ratface, Zenji and Bekkr like this.
  16. Grayven Member

    An alternate version of the 4-month unlock discussion..

    "Waiter, I'd likea 16-ounce Porterhouse steak, cooked medium well."
    - "I'm not a waiter, and we don't have steak. This is a McDonalds."
    "Yes, I saw the sign when I came in. But I want steak."
    - "There's a steakhouse down the street. Why don't you go there?"
    "I'm already here. You should change the menu."
    - "No."
    "Then I will just stay here and complain."
    - "NEXT!"
    Bekkr and Dude like this.
  17. Zenji Well-Known Member



    FTFY
  18. MightyMeaghan Well-Known Member

    Nothing he said there was even remotely unreasonable. Making endgame content not broken will keep players invested longer? So selfish!
    Zenji likes this.