The EQ2 Time-Locked Server Discussion Thread

Getting 12 people together in order to take down The Windstalker Rumbler (That was Epic x2 back then) and Anguis are some of my fondest memories.

That and trying to do the J-Boots quest with the old run speeds back then. Dodge ALL of the aggro!

Cant forget Coldtooth! I remember getting a raid together to try and take down that giant ice rat many times!

-Jaz

This guy has it right....there should be more goals than just who can kill all the raid bosses first...there are many folks that play that just don't have the free time to dedicate to a high end raid guild...There should be multiple server-wide goals dedicated to all play styles...hardcore raiders, crafters, casuals, traders, soloers, questers, and the nostalgic ones etc.

If the goals were things that the entire server could contribute such as crafted items, writs, shinies, common drops, quests, heritage timeline completions, etc then that would promote commaraderie on the entire server...people would be more willing to group and help each other out. That is what a true MMORPG game should be about. Plus everyone would feel like they were part of the progression and not just a voter or a person waiting it out for the high end guild to kill the top bosses.

I'm not interested in time-locked if it's just a race for the high end guilds to clear all the bosses (whether that be by vote or time) that I have a short period of time to experience the game somewhat like it used to be. Having a shared, common goal makes me want to play the game, without that goal, there's nothing.

Maybe something similar (but not quite so massive & time consuming) as WoW's Gates of Ahn'Qiraj event which opened a 40-man raid zone.

Edit: Similar in the variety of things required that allow all playstyles to contribute to the effort, not similar in creating special NPCs, rewards, etc.

Here would be the coolest way to handle a time progression:
Vote on a time frame to complete server wide goals, such as:
All raid bosses killed
A bajillion shinies collected
A bajillion crafted items donated
A bajillion writs completed
A bajiilion common drops of various types donated
a percentage of server completion of the heritage questliines
(the amounts needed to be collected could be determined better if I knew the server population on average, devs can figure that out)
Okay so we have these goals and then everyone on the server votes how much time it would take to complete the goals...majority rules on the time given...if the server completes the goal in the given time frame then a server-wide award would be given as well as rewards to the top 3 or 5 contributors of each goal...The server -wide goal could be a huge boost in xp for a weekend or something. Killing all the raid bosses would net a guild some sort of perk and title...crafters could be awarded some kind of special recipes and a title, etc. Awards that fit the category of the goal that was completed.

If the server does not complete all of the goals in the agreed time frame...the progression still happens, but no server wide award..and awards only go to the categories that completed the goals. If the goals are met early, a vote can go out on whether to progress or wait unil the time frame is over. If goals are not met, a vote can go out to add to the time frame and still have the rewards or to skip the rewards and just move on.

Doing the progression this way not only allows folks to enjoy the progression for a voted upon time frame, but also gives everyone common goals to work towards and feel more like a community and feel included.

I like the idea that some goal be accomplished, then a timer starts, then the next tier unlocks, say 3 months later.
Killing all the raid bosses was suggested early in this thread and that seemed a natural enough fit to me so I would be ok with that even tho I don't plan on raiding on this server (I may change my mind).

I like the idea of everybody contributing too. And what would happen if a few expacs in raid forces dwindled and zones didn't get cleared, would progression stop? Would people just vote? Voting seems like saying "we're bored, give us something new" rather than "we're excited to move on."

So what should the contribution be?
I suggest that the progression timer start when all the raid bosses have been killed, OR some percentage of people have completed the signature (or hallmark? maybe heritage) quest for the expac, OR [not sure what would be the equivalent for crafters].

EQ2 has so many valid playstyles that keying progression to any of them sounds like a lose/lose scenario...

What I would suggest is leaving all of the zones open (with the exception of those opened by special events, like the planes) from the get-go, but locking the character progression caps over time. Keep the character cap at 50 for the first few months... then start the timer when say 50% of the active characters hit 50 in any class or tradeskill.

To me the events are more important than the zone unlocks... I missed SO many of 'em the first time through. I'd like to see as many of those as is possible for the devs to reconstruct.

I would just like to see gear toned down immensely, and overland content tuned up. Immensely.

We don't have to have all the classic mechanics, just something resembling the difficulty of Classic-KoS. ^^ and ^^^ overland, namely. Does anyone else remember trying to traverse Nektulous forest because they heard about how nice leveling early teens in Antonica was?

In the beginning the Devs created the dungeons and the cities. Now Norrath was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of Brad was hovering over the waters.
And the devs said, “Let there be difficulty,” and there was difficulty. The devs saw that the challenge was good, and they separated the dungeons from the overland. The devs called the dungeons “heroic,” and the raids they called “epic.” And there was overland, and there was soloing—the first xp.
And the devs said, “Let there be a vault between the servers to separate players from players.” So the devs made the vault and separated the servers under the vault from the servers above it. And it was so. The devs called the vault “PvP.” And there was PvP, and there was PvE—the second xp.

I don't know whats been said already, and what hasn't been said but bringing back the original look of qeynos and freeport would be awesome. If too time consuming, they should at least have the original music play - that shouldn't be too hard to revert back to.

God, I totally forgot Coldtooth! Out in TS I believe?

And there was the Epic x2 spider in Nektulos foest

Definitely in TS...I accidentally ran over him with my 48 necro on Naggy yesterday....left my pet to distract him and RAN He's on one of the little penninsulas between the Griffon Station (Coldwind I think it is) and the Druzaic thing for Words of Pure Magic.

Can we do a modified expansion unlock based on the level range of the respective zone for the launch so that we can have a closer to classic experience but still have our current starting areas?

Launch of TLP Server:
Starting Areas: Halas, Kelethin, Gorowyn, and Neriak and their respective newbie zones.
All Classic Zones are available for access.
All Echoes of Faydwer Zones up to Level 50 [Greater Faydark, Butcherblock, Steamfont, Crushbone, and Kaladim].
Splitpaw Saga
Bloodline Chronicles

First Unlock:
Desert of Flames and all of its content
All Echoes of Faydwer Zones up to 60 [Steamfont / Klakkanon].

Second Unlock:
Kingdom of Sky / All remaining Echoes of Faydwer Zones up to 70.
The Fallen Dynasty Adventure Pack

Remaining unlocks are on an expansion by expansion basis. Maybe have the Shadow Odyssey dungeons that scale sprinkled into the above unlocks?

if they do, in fact do this, I would want 1 thing back that existed. and that is gear gaps. I don't want the best heroic gear to be better than the starting raid gear. that makes no sense to me at all.
I liked the gaps, knowing that if you wanted good gear you would have to commit to something more than just solo/grouping

I don't like this idea, if we can get classic mechanics/isle of refuge it'd be nice to at least give the classic zones some love, Commonlands and Antonica are fantastic zones that just get skipped over now.

can't* sorry it wont let me edit my post.

are you suggesting you start at Ant or CL? cause they are much higher than starting zones. if you are gonna pick a starting zone I would go with the Sprawl and Peat Bog

or are you suggesting you alter them to make them starting zones? cause that would go against the propose of this whole thing, it's not to alter places persay, but to attempt to recreate the old

This may be controversial, but IMHO turn off mentoring, no chronomages. It did not come in until GU53 anyway so there should not be a problem with removing these for the base game and first few xpacs.

Its been a long time since I grouped below the current xpac level, (so this may still be true) but I remember the old mechanic where if there is a level range of more than 10 across the group the mobs go grey to any players 10 levels or more below the highest player. (it might even have been more finely graded than that at lower levels - I can't honestly remember now). That is what I would like to see in the TL server, the less opportunity for people to PL the better. People should have to play for their achievements and levels.

I fondly remember the seemingly impossible task of getting down to Naggy in the days of the original base game, even in a group of lvl 50's - that level of difficulty is what I am hoping for in this new server.

Agree with no Chronomages, however mentoring should be left alone, actually was launched much earlier then you think (2005): https://www.everquest2.com/news/imported-eq2-enus-447

Its also a critical component for playing with friends.

This is probably the best way to organize the progression, by level rather than expansion. Unfortunately, this makes for a glut of content at release and less content later on. As such, it might make sense to limit the release to the three tiers of content and have a short timer, maybe a month, maybe two. This would leave the tweener zones and those with access quests until the second release. There's a lot to do in tiers 1-3, though not much of it involves raid mobs, so the speed racers might very well get bored. I'm not sure if Daybreak should care.

Also, for the first unlock, I'm pretty sure you mean Lesser Faydark and Klakkanon, not Steamfont.

Chronomentoring is actually the less destructive of the two. It will allow players to actually go back and do all of the book quests while level appropriate rather than after many of them are grayed out. Normal mentoring gives an xp bonus to the mentee and makes the level-matching optimal, which increases the incentive to power level.