Server History Lesson?

[Mytral]

Can someone (without to much RnF) explain what the server was like when Kunark was two years? What was the Guild competition like back then? More importantly, what were the events that led to a GM endorsed "Class Rotation System"?

I joined in late 2014 when the class system was in full swing and names like TMO and Rampage were common place. Now that we are a couple years into Velious, I'm beginning to see how things might have been. What are some similarities and differences between 2 year old Kunark and two year old Velious?



For those that can shed some light in a thoughtful and insightful manner, thank you.

[Shea]

2 years into Kunark TMO had raid mobs/encounters on lock to a degree that I'm not sure has ever happened again past or present on p99. Greed was the reason somewhat but mostly because the guild wanted to be in a position to be dominant in velious when it was released.

There is much more *healthy* competition now and availability for epics and what-not.

IMO: Server is better for the casual player for the most part at the moment. The high end velious gear for most classes isn't make-or-break for any classs and there is little motivation to get it other than feeling good about yourself. The server is done progressing and I think most people realize that so there's more sharing and caring.

[JurisDictum]

You didn't go into detail about how TMO locked down every single epic they could (except paladin for some reason). Then insisted on outrageous prices for Epic MQs and Drops.

Oh yea -- and the guildleader and many others were caught up in a massive RMT scam. So that might explain some of the hardcore poopsocking. They basically invented LR (loot rights...no one even knew wtf LR ment when I played live.) and are trying to bring that shit to Agnarr as much as possible.

In fact, its pretty obvious all the old RMT guys are playing on Agnarr -- but they probably miss the old days where people needed to pay them for certain drops.

TMO had a core of people like Jeremy Irons and Tiggles that were complete braggard assholes on the forums. This didn't do them a lot of favors when they tried to save or re-create their guild later.

As someone that has made a ton of Krono on Agnarr....no one was a more miserable prick to try to trade with than Ecczen. I don't understand how anyone could like that guy -- his general disposition was shitty all the time. The made a hilarious hate site for him I can't find anymore. Maybe because no one will ever give a fuck who Ecczen is ever again. In fact, I probably didn't spell his name correctly, but it doesn't matter because no one cares.

[skarlorn]

DANGER: You've Activated My Text-Wall Trap!

For a while it was IB vs TMO. Then IB R.ode M.otorcycles T.o get off the server and put some dolla billz in they pockits. So TMO then reigned supreme. I think they reigned supreme for about 2 years, although I only started raiding during the last year of that.

At some point IB came back. BDA was a good guild at one point but a lot of the best players splintered off to pursue a more aggressive guild named Forceful Entry to contest TMO.

(As previous posters have said, TMO had ALL server content on lock and was selling MQs)

Mid 2013 TMO > IB/FE > Everyone else. BDA, for instance, confined themselves to doing planar clears, Chardok royals, that sort of shit. It was enough to keep the new raiders happy but almost NO ONE got epics except for clerics, rogues.

Snagging kills of prized targets like VS, Sev, etc., was almost impossible because TMO or IB would always have some crazy loophole strategy. I remember once TMO(?) camped a cleric and a warrior at VS spawn point and snap engaged with their trackers. Donal's BP cleric + geared warrior back then was enough to engage VS and hold it for some time.

It was bad enough that I basically stopped playing a couple months after getting into BDA.

Then something changed. TMO did something that pissed Rogean off big time, a sort of tipping point. He basically banned all of TMO from raiding, and then banned THE WHOLE SERVER from raiding. It was a forced time-out where the big guilds had to sit down with server staff and negotiate a solution where TMO could no longer monopolize the raid content.

Chest the leader of BDA was probably the central agent in getting the Class C/R/FFA system set up. I believe he honestly wanted to help steward the server so that casuals could get some pixels. He and a lot of other BDA officer core had gotten consistently denied for 2 or 3 years by TMO and so the salt was real. So, with the help of an angry server staff, we received the Class Rotation System that was basically supposed to create a tiered raid environment that encouraged guilds to "get keyed up" and then go competitive. The only problem was that guilds like BDA and Taken and Div had been shit on for so long they just didn't want to have anything to do with TMO and the likes ever again...

Ultimately the Curse of the Casual Pixel Lust and the Inability to GET OVER IT ruined BDA from the top down

And what happened to the Rotation is another thing entirely (thanks for the green scales)

Right now the Raid Scene is broken down into two Top Dogs A/A (similar to TMO/IB). Main differences are that casual guilds really can get epics for their members now, excepting shit like warrior epic is still insanely competitive. But with undead trak, vs remains, etc., there's a lot less bottlenecks and a lot less nerds making those bottlenecks tighter, because now they are off bottle-necking shit in ToV first.

Gloriously, burnout is a real thing happening and a real threat to these guilds. Back in Kunark, there was passion and drive to get geared for Velious(TM). But now we have Velious and it isn't going anywhere, so people get their Vulak loot and then log off for good because they hate raiding 20-40 hours a week with a bunch of unemployed elf lords (read: addicts). You can observe this in the numerous threads where Awakened/Aftermath brag about "low numbers kills." This, in reality, means "we couldn't get as many people as we wanted so we had to log onto a bunch of abandoned accounts instead of playing our mains so we could have enough clerics etc to pull off the kill."

I would say that the raid scene is a LOT better than it was a couple years into Kunark. You actually have some cool targets you can get as a casual guild. There are casual alliances to some extent. And the truth is, you DON'T need NTOV gear to clear everything in the game. Always remember, all raid targets in Velious died on day 1 of release when we only had Kunark gear.

[Ravager]

Nobody cares anymore. Move along.

[Cecily]

With the removal of FTE locks, the situation is just as bleak for casual guilds as it was during TMO's reign over Kunark.
Why the hell did you do that again, Sirken?

[Cecily]

Originally Posted by skarlorn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I would say that the raid scene is a LOT better than it was a couple years into Kunark. You actually have some cool targets you can get as a casual guild. There are casual alliances to some extent. And the truth is, you DON'T need NTOV gear to clear everything in the game. Always remember, all raid targets in Velious died on day 1 of release when we only had Kunark gear.

I respectfully disagree. If by cool targets you mean the things we evil TMO monsters wouldn't let you kill in Kunark, maybe, if A/A can't be bothered. But anything of value whatsoever is still, 2 years later, permalocked behind a 16 hour paywall by the losers who are still inexplicably willing to pay it.

[skarlorn]

that is pretty much what i mean cecily :*(

[Cecily]

I mean if you asked me how the raid scene was just a couple months ago, I would have said healthy. The FTE locks allowed us as a casual entity to take a few targets every cycle when we felt like trying for it. However, the vast majority of kills went to the hardcore guilds and that seemed to be working as intended. I wasn't completely happy with it. I felt and still feel that it's time for the server to switch to a rotation-based system. The powers that be felt instead it was time for casuals to gtfo of ToV.

I can't comprehend the logic behind the change and as far as I know no explanation was provided for it. It seems to me like retaliation for refusing to accept the bad rotation offer given to us by A/A.

[Pokesan]

i could see it as a punishment if like, sirken wanted something to point to and say see raiding scenes fine guys

i just dont think his attention span is that long