The EQ2 Time-Locked Server Discussion Thread

It should be made very clear that what the EQ2 community will vote before the server launches can be changed by another server-restricted vote later.

It'll avoid the drama taking place on the EQ1 TLP boards because a part of the Ragefire-Lockjaw community is calling for a revote about an early opening of Kunark and the other part doesn't want to hear about it.

Never tried the EQ1 servers, what's the interval for voting? I think every expansion should be there for at least 3 months (EQ2) so people can actually do the content before it progresses. Not just talking about raids (prismatic, claymore, soulfire etc.).

Perhaps the 80/20 rule should apply for unlocking the next level, rather than a set period of time. When 80% of the server population agree to unlock, that's when it happens. Unlocking the next level after a set period of time just puts pressure on people who may not be able to devote themselves to playing solely on one server, or who have other things happening in their lives. If the devs conduct a poll each month after an initial (say) 3 months, that would give them a good idea about how things are progressing for the server.

Just a thought, anyway.

The debuff is to make mobs harder to kill and do more damage...it might also slow exp rate but the idea to is to add challenge back without having to redo every mob. They literally do not have the man power to do this.

If a mob is heroic and takes 6 people to kill, or if it is standard and they buff the mobs and debuff the players so it takes 6 people to kill, that is the same thing. If you don't get that I don't know what to tell you. That way adds back challenge without wasting dev time. What you are arguing over is semantics. (Not that they will be that hard, but I'm blindly hoping)

Honestly (and this part isn't directed at you) I'm not sure what the fuss over the starter isle and the suburbs and the old class progression and corpse runs is. The suburbs and the starter isle would be nice, but they are like 2% of the game. Corpse runs were interesting, but if you look back on them fondly I have to question if you even played the game back then. And the class progression added a certain feel to progressing, but all it did was make it take longer to get to the class you wanted and the spells special to that class.

I'd love to see a perfect classic as well, but that simply isn't going to happen right now. But if we help them do this as close to the original as possible with the devs they have left, and it is a success then the next iteration they do might take a few more steps back to the original.

I trust we won't auto get aa on these servers. Please let it be something we can work towards, rather than the dumbed down version we have now.

I'm not sure if it's been addressed or not but I hope the respawn timers will also be increased, Venekor has (tested many times) a now 1.5 hr respawn. I'm not sure of the exact rates of the other contested mobs but i'm sure they're similar. I'm not saying they have to go to a few day respawn just perhaps a little bit more of an increase?

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Time locked with specific and definite framework so players will know ahead of time how they want to level their mains along with planning tradeskills on alts please, and thank you!

I understand that they can't recode the entire game.. but adding special tokens to quest rewards and loot tables, then putting in an NPC that updates the server-wide quest, doesn't seem that problematic to me. The reward would be a "new game" using old content, and a server community unlike any other.

I'm anxiously waiting to hear the framework on Tuesday, but a lack of dev interaction in this thread has me less-than-hopeful about the progression model.

Can we have tradeskill aprentices from the start? Yeah i know they showed up in game somewhere in dov expansion times, but all those low lvl research recipes they have means almost nothing when most of community around lvl 90. But if we'll have them from the start and lvling speed would be much slower, those reciepes will shine.

I strongly strongly disagree with allowing the tradeskill apprentices in the game for the start. The reactant gear made from the recipes is so much more better than anything in game that was attainable from equivalent tier raids. The biggest concern that most people have is with the content being too easy with past zone revamps and gear itemization changes, allowing these to be available only compounds the changes.

It used to make me laugh at the absurdity of progression guilds where they would be PLing their members to the level cap, and as much reactant gear as they could get for the level 50 raids, 60 raids, 70 raids, etc since both the AAs and gear minimized whatever challenge their had been in doing those raids originally.

A few folks in my guild and I have been trying to do progression style newbie night. The biggest thing we all noticed was that the quest reward armor in the starting zones far far exceeds even the drops in the heroic zones which makes running dungeons easy.

If the newbie isle is no longer available (SUPER SAD) then we will need you guys to tone back the gear available in the starter zones to keep things balanced, or people will be able to blow through the content. I like the idea someone else mentioned about skipping the whole halas/darklight/gfay/gorowin newbie area stuff and starting us in either Qeynos or Freeport with level one gear right next to our trainer. Maybe you could add some small fetch it style quests to get people from lvl 1-5 so they can do the newbie zones in the city burgs? As I recall the itemization there is still pretty much like vanilla, which will help with keeping to the original feel.

In addition, holidays were not as prominent, or elaborate, as they are now. So, perhaps a toning back as well to only the first book of crafting for each holiday?

Speaking of crafting, will we be going back to the bad ole days of co-dependant crafting with killer craftstations and crude/fair/good/excellent level results? (hoping we cant as I for one do not miss that!)

making a mob have 500 hp instead of 100 hp doesn't make it any harder to kill, just longer.
gaining xp is the same example.

they would need to revert all the old stats back first off, as someone mentioned already. back in the day when gear had +10 agi on it at level 10. that was a serious challenge.

Also something I don't think anyone has mentioned is the stats in general, back in the day crusaders/bards needs All the stats to be effective, not just agi and sta or str and sta.
the old system should be back

People are really over thinking this entire thing.

First off, they are not reverting back to old stats on items or bringing back some old combat system. It isn't going to happen, so stop theorizing "if" they do that, "then...". They aren't. Secondly, without AA and gear from future xpacs, agnostic dungeons, dungeon finder, reactant, etc the potential for extremely high dps is gone. In the end, I think it's going to be a choice of applying an algorithm for beefing up the mobs difficulty (hp & dps) or putting a zone debuff on characters in select zones, perhaps even gamewide; none of which is going to be game breaking or require much hard work by DGC's staff.

Regardless of what DGC does, you're going to see some people that are max level in the first few days, because they think it's an accomplishment to be server first at x y z. Asking DGC to put in a long list of nerfs to try to keep this from happening is a waste of resources. If anyone has learned anything about EQ2 players it's that they respond to carrots, not sticks. Give out special rewards for meeting a threshold of quests, this is EverQUEST after all. Like after doing 100 you get this, 500 you get that, etc. Perhaps tokens for achievements that can be redeemed for various items. Tokens for achievements rather than grinding same zones is a big, better change than our current system. And by rewards, I mean something substantial beyond a title or house item, something useful in combat.

I was here at launch too and I liked a lot of things about it. If I recall it took nearly a month for someone on my server to hit 50. But things were a lot different, gaming in general. I think it's unreasonable to ask them to do things we know requires extensive resources. People who want this badly and have been begging for this, me included, will be satisfied by a few minor changes to the existing game system in order to make content challenging. That's it. We need to focus on asking for simple things to enhance the current system, not demanding an overhaul back in time.

Its not aprentice recipes that causing easy mob killing. Its game balance problem and mobs HAVE to be beefed up in some way (and if nothing will be done with that i dont see any reason for myself to play on tlp server). And dropping chance for reactants should be lowered... just because powerful items have to be really rare. BUT dont take away those recipes i mean let crafters
to create something really cool, really special. Its sooo great to create something more useful than combines for the rush orders or trivial MC.

using the term "this is EverQuest afterall" is a moot argument, I hope you know that.

and clearly it is just a money grab to get old people talking, if they really want the money they should spend the resources to make it as best as possible. I don't see how it's a "waste of resources" when it is a plan to get money.

and I also don't think it's unreasonable to ask them to do their jobs and work at making stuff, I know it takes time, hard work, and resources to do it, but it's almost like a police officer saying he isn't going to arrest that robber cause he would have to use his energy to chase and cuff him. Or saying he can't arrest you cause all the paperwork on you was in a system they no longer use. I mean it's their jobs afterall.
Don't promise a progression time locked eq2 if what you are gonna give is a time locked current eq2

You missed the caps on EverQUEST and apparently the point. But, anyway, yes, if they want the money, then they might want to do things to give the game longevity. Longevity would be putting resources in to both current content and making this new server worthwhile. People have been wanting this for so long because they miss the original focus of the game, which was questing. Putting the focus on that again and going forward with current content is where they'll find longevity.

You and I may disagree on what's worthwhile in the server, but then again, you've also shot down the idea of a time locked server for quite a while now. In fact, a lot of people that consistently shot down the idea are piping up with lots of "do all of this and make it as authentically launch as possible"...it's kind of a joke IMO.

So there is that. LINK added "for context."

I have never shut down the idea of it. I shut down the idea of doing it on the current servers. the old way is awful.
But the options of both current and old is not awful. I can quote things out of context as well to make things look bad

Now that's just crazy talk. The boxers have just as much right as we non boxers do. Stop being jealous of their good paying job/retirement money.

I am guessing they will bring back the Isle due to the incessant requests for it. There are starter zones in Freeport and Qeynos now. Sunken City, The Graveyard, The Sprawl, Ruins, all of these are in Freeport. Any of these zones can get you to 10 in just a few minutes and then you can hop over to CL to progress through questlines meant for level 10+ characters. Isle of Refuge wouldn't allow you to go beyond 9 and choosing to leave the isle, dropping you off on the CL or Antonica docks seems completely legit and easily done. I say absolutely NOT to any later addition starter zones.

My big request beyond Isle of Refuge is simply that we get rewards for completing achievements. In TSO we get an awesome raid item for killing all of the major raid mobs. I very much hope we get something for other types of achievements in each area. Like several questing ones, crafting and raid ones. As someone stated earlier, putting the focus back on the lore and quests is really what most of us miss. It isn't nostalgia for old game functionality, WORTS, corpse runs or anything else like that, it's more about the lore and the slower pace to really explore it.

Why am I now getting this vision of an Isle of Refuge prestige house that you spawn in with with only a gnome saying "Here is your ticket for the Ferry. You can use it to go to Qeynos or Freeport. Dock is that way. Bye!!"