The EQ2 Time-Locked Server Discussion Thread

I am in the same boat. (see what I did there!)

I have posed a few questions on this thread, but there may not be many answers until a beta is released.

Hmmmmm. I'm not sure I 100% like the idea of a Time-Locked server. It would depend when it was locked to. Personally, I really enjoyed Sentinel's Fate, so locking there would be pretty awesome in my opinion.

I'd much prefer a progression server, so we're locked at X state until Y happens (be it a kill or a certain amount of time). But yeah... around SF would be absolutely perfect IMO.

I would prefer as much as possible to have the features and experience of the server match as closely as is realistically possible match the timeline when things were added throughout the EQ2 timeline. So no channelers/beastlords until there time in the expansion timeline comes up in the progression.

Given how intensely TSO and SF were criticized (when they were current), I am surprised to see people say they want those days back. But, it is a personal preference at the end of the day. Different people will prefer different expansions, and that is a good thing.

If I actually put in a vote on where to stop, it would be either EoF or RoK. But at the current time, I feel that is not overly relevant. I would rather see the release of this style of server on EQ2 be a success, and worry about future expansions and stop points at a later date. I just hope the DBG team has the resources available to do a decent job of this, and get balance + itemization right.

I want a full progression server and no time lock myself. Leave that for the PvP server. People have different feelings about different expansions. A great many people LOVE KoS as an expansion but personally it's my least favorite by far. Different strokes for different folks.

Anyways, one more quick point about spells. Would love to see spell use and availability as closely match the progession as is possible as well.

Well I mean, it's not that I really like TSO all that much, but I really like Kunark and I don't feel TSO takes away from that experience. The TSO raids I remember being really fun too.

And SF, I enjoyed the heroic content a good bit. The raids were a little too copy and paste but overall not bad, the great end bosses really helped in that regard. The solo content was not all that good in my opinion though. I personally think EoF and RoK were the two best expansions the game got.

I agree with Liral on this. Please match the timeline as close as technically possible.

Realistically, there have been so many changes to EQ2 that it is impossible to roll it back to where it was. You'd need to re-redesign quest chains, zones, etc. It ain't happenin. So what can you give players that they're not getting from modern servers?

I'd just focus on adding the danger back to the game. If you can go into a dungeon without a decent group and do well, this server will have no purpose imo. So...

• Beef up the dungeons and raids. Maybe the overland too while you're at it.
• Power down the characters. Ditch AA, nerf itemization.
• Remove guild halls.
• Remove the bells and teleporters that take you literally everywhere.
• Remove flying mounts.
• Probably slow down leveling. I dunno how fast it is these days, but this server is pointless if you just zoom past everything.
• Go down the list at http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Heritage_Quests_Timeline and make them the best items in the game. Even the ones that weren't originally. Encourage people to quest that ****.

Go down these lists and make sure everything there requires a decent party/raid:

http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Dungeon_Timeline
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Raid_Timeline

Make the "hard" dungeons brutal. Icy Digs, Halls of Fate, Castle Mistmoore, Nizara, etc should be total wipefests.

As for expansions, I think people will have nostalgia for every one up to and including RoK, which is probably the high water mark in most players' memories. You should absolutely launch each of them sequentially from classic to RoK. After that, it probably doesn't matter.

I haven't really played since Sentinel's Fate btw. I'm on a month sub from the EQ1 progression that I shouldn't have paid money for since it just reminded me why I didn't particularly care for EQ1. If you do this right I will totally swing back around when the EQ2 progression gets released though.

Some people have been asking for the heroic mobs like the scarecrows put in. This might sound cool, BUT!

I have been playing on Ragefire and Lockjaw. And a very common thing that is being done by griefers is to train a mob that is high level right to a zone line or entrance to a beginning city. End result, many many dead player bodies. Human nature is sometimes cruel, and if high level mobs get placed in low level zones, they WILL be used to grief.

can we jump straight to a sf server?

These are two things that I thought were awesome when they were added, then slowly realized how negative of an effect they had on the game, especially guild halls. I genuinely believe this game would be healthier right now if guild halls never existed, or at the very least it would feel healthier because everyone wouldn't be hiding in a guild hall.

Honestly this server may be worth it just to not have those things, regardless of what else they do.

Same. I tried to come back for CoE but man that forced questline really killed me and then I realized how easy the heroic zones were. I couldn't believe how easy the entire expansion was actually, I expected it from one or two zones but I don't think I found a challenge the entire time I played. Aside from that I've been around off and on doing progression content, but I have about zero desire to try end game again after experiencing CoE.

Will we go back to all stats meaning something to all classes? Please tell me we will.

Since you've asked, I will drop in my two coppers.

I've been playing EQ2 since launch and have been subbed for the duration.

Forgive me while I digress for a second and use "that other game" as an example - but in this case it's perfect.

When I think of the kind of "time-locked" server that I would want, it is very much like what the Nostalrius team has done with World of Warcraft. You take a copy of the original game, and the most stable patch prior to an expansion release, and you put it on a server, and you match the server code to support it. In other words - Nostalrius right now is on 1.12 which is not "Day 1" but is the game exactly as it existed just before the launch of The Burning Crusade. For all intents and purposes it is "Classic" or "Vanilla." Everything is as it was at that point in time. Everything. Starting villages, quests, NPCs, story and plot, class balance, items. You name it. All as it was.

And that server is absolutely booming. As of this week it has 8K active users. It was done very, very well, with a lot of effort put into it - and the sheer numbers of people enjoying it are illustrative of that fact. They did it right.

I would love to see the same thing for EQ2.

You don't have to take me back to "Day 1" -- just take me back to before LU13 utterly changed the original game. Take me back to when there was a boat ride, an Isle of Refuge, Citizenship Quests, Class Progression Quests, Hallmark Quests, and Access Quests. Take me back to the original mob spread. Take me back to the original UI. Take me back to the original character creation. Take me back to the original challenge; the original leveling curve (yes); the original itemization (yes.)

You mention this isn't a "nostalgia" play - but that is exactly what I want. More than nostalgia, I want the game that I bought in 2004 and loved so much. I want the immersion that drew me in, back again. I do want the challenge. And, judging by what I've read here, and on your social Facebook page over the years - it is exactly what A LOT of other people want, too.

I am not interested in playing on a server that simply leaves everything as it is presently but restricts players to the original Shattered Lands release. That would be non-sensical - and it seems like it would be an awful lot of work to sift through every system and cherry-pick, anyway. What made the original release so special to me was all of the things mentioned above.

I realize that for every person on this forum, there is a different opinion on this. I am merely sharing mine - since you have asked us to do so.

Thanks!

*gasp* so excited..

The biggest thing missing from the game currently is difficulty in the main game (to current expansion), without difficulty there's no mental engagement and all meaning, roleplay and accomplishment dribbles away.. and so do the players..

So I'm not fussed on the details, I like a lot of what has been said here. Progressing slowly towards RoK would be my vote as that's the point where things started to lose a bit of focus and the rhythm of the game got a bit lost in my mind. Focus on making the game engaging so take out the quick travels and flying mounts. Make me feel like a participant in the world of Norrath, not a god, force me to pay attention or die. Push me to make groups to accomplish what I would other wise fail, let me get my *** handed to me on a plate so I feel I have to improve. Give me a reason to strive to achieve, a reason to group, a reason to build a community, a reason to craft... you get the picture. So if the game progresses up the expansions make it so the content passed has the same meaning as it did when it was first released, don't go diminishing it, and make mentoring on par with it.

But mostly thanks for doing this, EQ2 is an awesome game, it's just the meaning has been washed out of a lot of its tiers.

The most important question is....Will time-locked servers have /pizza enabled?



Real though. If lootbot 5000's item changes aren't reverted and the majority of game mechanics are launching as current it's going to turn into a competition of who can clear the raid content with the least amount of people until someone manages to solo it on a crusader. Leveling won't be as fun as many people remember it because it'll be trivial (again, item changes, and also overland/instance difficulty changes).

Contested dungeon and overland difficulty need to be reverted back to ^^^. All old contested nerfed into the ground need to be restored. All fast travel options with the exception of ant/cl and ts/nek griffon towers need to be removed. And the quests for those readded. All slowfall effects need to be removed as well because any race with a slowfall racial will be the only playable race due to solusek's eye timesaving. I hope that when kos/eof hit AA trees are reverted to what they were otherwise you end up with obvious broken ops (summoners...clerics...)

No old qey/fp, no isle of refuge, no starting as a level 1 commoner, no temple street (/pout), and a lot of class changes just being completely broken overpowered (hellooooooooo swarm pets) will kill it for a lot of people.

I hate to be posting negative stuff on something that people are obviously interested in, but my server is already mostly deserted. Groups are pretty much non-existent and there is nothing to do for weeks at a time outside of raids.

Now the developers are proposing adding a "new and exciting" server, which will draw EVEN MORE people off my server to play there.

I've been playing since launch and I like the idea of going back to some of the older stuff for notalgia's sake, but at this point in the game's evolution, it would basically kill the "current" game.

As much I'd love to go and kill a level 50 Darathar with 4 people and none of my good spells, if the cost for doing is that no one plays the REAL, CURRENT EQ2 anymore, then that cost is too high.

The result of this will be less live servers (they'll start merging them) and then TLP servers. In the end I believe you'll be in a much better place then the ghost town you're "already" in.

So the things I wanted most can't be done. Going forward just how far back would a time lock server be locked at. Is that a choice the players make or is there a starting point already set? Also, starting zones? I'd still want Isle of Refuge but next best would be faydark. If there is an Isle of Refuge Prestige home how did that get made without the original Isle? Is there a way to use that code as a starting point to rebuild a real Isle of Refuge? Just curious.

I will try it when the server is open just not sure what to expect.

I don't think anyone has asked the most important question. Will there be nostalgia shinies? Old-timey shinies that are no longer available except tucked in people's collections that will be brought out. Or new shinies to celebrate the new server thingy?

Also don't forget about crafting. Crafting is fun \o/

it's mentality like this that ruined the game. Get over it. If someone is near you and they are being a jerk go some where else. or you could just move to a PVP server and kill the person training the mobs...