How to Get more New Players?

[Telados]

One of the things that discouraged me from starting on P99 was that with such a low lvl population lvling was a pain without gear.

Do you think that if there were some way to legitimately identify unique new players and hand them trash gear in ec - that owuld help get new player faces?

i'm not talking about giving out jade maces - but a suit of say cured silk - would go a long way.

what do you think?

The problen is ofcourse figuring out who is a genuine new player - an impossible task to do? too much ability to con any system?

[Telados]

not from the GMs either - i'm talking about server donations.

Think:

Salvation Army of project 1999?

[Norathorr]

When I arrived here I had some help from people to get on my feet. I did not know anyone here, so the community seems pretty helpful in general. I think its a really good server to start out on. Certainly I have had alot more help than I did when I started out all those years ago on live!

[Seredoc]

Best luck I had happened on both my toons. On my halfie I was leveling in the thicket and people were killing guards, I walked by and looted one of the + cha rings off a rotting corpse and dude handed me almost 600 gold. On my ogre the same exact thing happened when a druid was kiting all the guards in the zone and handed me all his gold/silver/copper so he could keep running lol

Personally if half the people I ask for ports/buffs didn't demand 2k or they'd report me would make life a touch easier. It's not like it takes a ton of pp for you to toss someone a SoW when you already have it on your bar or y'know, take a reasonable amt of pp for a port.

[Amazonian]

A lot of people want to play with spouses or roommates but have to wait in the endless black hole of waiting for an ip exemption. Speeding those up would increase player populations... I've been waiting since the 16th of Feb. and in the meantime I've leveled 1-52 on a live server out of boredom.. I find myself losing interest in p99.. /sadface

[Ephirith]

A lot of people want to play with spouses or roommates but have to wait in the endless black hole of waiting for an ip exemption. Speeding those up would increase player populations... I've been waiting since the 16th of Feb. and in the meantime I've leveled 1-52 on a live server out of boredom.. I find myself losing interest in p99.. /sadface

I put in for an IP exemption on the 19th and it was resolved within 6 hours-- you may have done something wrong.

Support on p99 is excellent in my experience... there are some legitimate complaints about the server but I do not believe this is one of them, especially considering they do it for free.

But you're right, speedy exemptions probably help the pop a bit.

[Tiggles]

A lot of people want to box

[Atmas]

I put in for an IP exemption on the 19th and it was resolved within 6 hours-- you may have done something wrong.



They are generally done in batches, so you probably lucked out with the timing for how quickly yours was handled.

[Seredoc]

Mine only took 3 days because I had to post mine and my bro's logins. Make sure to follow up on your req, if they asked something give the right info, afaik you're not told if your exemption is declined, not sure though

[Kevynne]

I make cured silk sets for free if people ask me heehee

[BaGeTTe]

Add in Maps... I'd be good to go then

[Kagatob]

Add in Maps... I'd be good to go then

Stop asking for non-classic things on a server that is striving for 100% classic experience NO EXCEPTIONS

[Harmonium]

Stop asking for non-classic things on a server that is striving for 100% classic experience NO EXCEPTIONS

this made me lol. It's as close as you'll get to classic I'll grant you that.

I can live without maps. I want my compass back though.

max sense heading doesn't compare :P

[Brimacombe]

Originally Posted by Amazonian:
A lot of people want to box

Pretty much. I couldn't stop laughing.

Most of the time when anyone suggests anything in this game, someone seizes the opportunity to grandstand their favorite "I wish I had". It's transparent and obvious.

Be the change you want. I doodle around on my druid and get mid level gear drops all the time, they go on my mule, and if I find anyone who is a decent person, I log over and clear some space out of the old mule bank. Who above level 50 wants to spend 2 hours selling lowbie gear worth 200p total anyway?

Another policy that I think is worth advising is if you see some level one desperately trying to sell some junk like fire beetle eyes or gnoll droppings, buy it. Sell it to a merchant later or whatever. It will involve more people in the EC economy in the long run, and it will make people want to stick around if they feel they are not spinning their wheels in cloth armor and rusty weapons at level 15.

When I get weird drops like scarab carapaces that have quests, I do them. The reward is trash, but it is something different to do and check out, and some newbie will feel really happy getting them. This is not a commercial for,by, and about me, but it is some thoughts on what you guys can do when crafting gets old and you are cap anyway and bored with buffing newbies.

If you want more players, tell people about it. Most of the players of MMOs like this are college aged, so go post some bills around the school on the bulletin boards. Do it anonymously if you are shy about being a gamer geek.

- Brimacombe

[applesauce25r624]

this made me lol. It's as close as you'll get to classic I'll grant you that.

I can live without maps. I want my compass back though.

max sense heading doesn't compare :P

it's still accurate within 22.5 degrees. not that bad

[Visual]

I started playing at launch and we were lucky to break 100

you young bucks have it easy

[Harmonium]

it's still accurate within 22.5 degrees. not that bad

it's not the accuracy, its the having to make a hotkey for it and hit said hotkey every time you want to gain/maintain your heading. I'd rather just look at a real-time compass :P

NOT CLASSIC MUST SUCK HARDER

[Brimacombe]

I bind my W key ( Which is my forward key) to hotbar 1 slot 10. In it I drop a macro:

/doability 1
/doability 2
/pause 6, doability 3
/autoinventory.

my abilities are set up: 1 is sense heading, 2 is track, 3 is forage.

This is on my Druid.

- Brimacombe

[rsloans84]

I could help u if you're on 530pm to 10pm eastern time weekdays ill be lvling alt katiasa hmu

[webrunner5]

I have said this before and I will say it again. Why the hell is everyone on here want to get to level 60 in a week!! The allure of EQ is the journey. The thrill of getting some half ass gear on your own. Not some handout crap, begging in the Tunnel shit. Go loot stuff, sell it and buy gear. How hard is that. Sort of what the game is all about on here.

What gear does a Mage, Necro, Enchanter need. Nothing. A Monks bare fists work, a Druid doesn't need crap for gear. A Cleric needs a Weapon?? A Fungi?? A Cracked Staff from a skelly is all the weapon most classes need to level 15. Go to Crushbone, Blackburrow, Befallen and enjoy some of the best zones in the game. Have fun. Not see how fast you can level and how much gear you can get by begging for it.

I have given 1,000's of plat and gear away. But NEVER to someone that begs for it.

[Briscoe]

Do you think that if there were some way to legitimately identify unique new players and hand them trash gear in ec - that owuld help get new player faces?

I tend to not bother with handing out new gear to newbies for this reason. A few weeks ago I was sitting in EC and I shouted that I was giving away an Essence of Dol to the first newbie monk who hailed me. In a matter of seconds, some low level monk dual wielding Knuckle Dusters runs up to me and hails me. I can't even give away some trash gear without someone who is already twinked trying to take it and squeeze out a few extra plat.

Furthermore, to add to webrunner5's post, I'm not a big proponent of handing out free stuff anyway. I joined this server without any friends, and leveled to 20 on the Qeynos side of the world when the population was low over the summer and I was often hunting by myself. The idea of running to EC and begging for high level buffs and gear never even crossed my mind.

Some of my best memories on this server involve me being a poor, undergeared newbie scratching and clawing for everything I could get, such as selling rusty weapons to buy leather armor for myself, stockpiling gnoll fangs to turn in, or camping and soloing Dyllin Starsine at level 16 to get my ToV (I still remember my heart beating when root broke and I was afraid I would aggro the red-con smuggler!).

I did receive a free Savant's Cap as a newbie (thanks Soedar) and a couple hundred platinum when I was in my 20s (thanks Delearium), but other than that I worked my way up the regular way and it was a lot of fun. Any newbie would gladly accept any handout, but I just can't sympathize with the mindset of, "I'm new here and don't know anyone, so I need high level buffs and gear to level up."

[Tecmos Deception]

Some of my best memories on this server involve me being a poor, undergeared newbie scratching and clawing for everything I could get, such as selling rusty weapons to buy leather armor for myself, stockpiling gnoll fangs to turn in

This.

On live and on p99 both, starting from scratch was some of the best, classic EQ fun possible.

[Duckforceone]

well i do like the helpful community here... when i started i was given some plat for spells and bags, so i didn't have to struggle so hard... later on i was lucky with a few good items given to me as well...

and all of that generosity, while not humongous, still made my experience starting here that much better and easier to get into the groove again.

and i am paying that back every day, trying to buff lowbies with sow, doing heals when i move across someone soloing and other stuff. Even giving out 5-10 pp of my low plat amount to newbies starting out, so they can get their spells and bags.

I do play several alts that do it the hard way, without twinking. But i really like my first character to not struggle as hard.

[tersoth78]

I am a new player on P99. Started about a week ago. I dont see a need to hand out stuff to people. My druid felnok and enchanter tersoth are both level 7 and I have grinded out a few hundred plat by selling furs and silks to buy a couple lowbie items. I have had fun doing it. The challenge of the game is what makes it. You start handing out gear to people who just want to fly by the game you will not keep them long. Once their level catches up to the twink gear and the challenge is suddenly back most with that mentality will leave anyways. That's just my newbie opinion

[myriverse]

I am a new player on P99. Started about a week ago. I dont see a need to hand out stuff to people. My druid felnok and enchanter tersoth are both level 7 and I have grinded out a few hundred plat by selling furs and silks to buy a couple lowbie items. I have had fun doing it. The challenge of the game is what makes it. You start handing out gear to people who just want to fly by the game you will not keep them long. Once their level catches up to the twink gear and the challenge is suddenly back most with that mentality will leave anyways. That's just my newbie opinion
This, except about a month ago. You don't really need to group or have plat to be a newbie. After just a few weeks, I sold enough furs and used tailoring skill to make enough plat to buy a weapon and armour that are probably above my level's need. The community has been nothing but helpful from my POV. I don't go asking for help, but some people are willing, and it's appreciated.

[Sithel1988]

groups are not hard to find. it is not hard to lvl. morons keep coming onto forums saying these things cause they cant use /who all or walk to another zone to find groups. people who make a char in qeynos and think thats what the population is like.

[EchoedTruth]

I agree with letting people make their own way. There are always exceptions, however. If I see a cleric/tank class I will always try to hook them up as this server needs as many of those as possible, and soloing with them is tough.


TL;DR: GIVE STUFF TO CLERICS AND TANKS CUZ SOLOING IZ HARD AND WE NEED MOAR HEALZ

[Gadwen]

Not too long ago a friend and I decided to install the original Diablo and play some multiplayer on battle.net. We had a blast for a few hours, until some guy joined our server, decided to be "helpful" and dropped all sorts of amazing gear for us to take. The excitement lasted for about 5 minutes, and then we both said almost simultaneously "this just isn't fun anymore". That sweet gear ruined half the point of the game.

If you want to help low level players the best thing to do is just be friendly. Give them some buffs, offer to BUY those bone chips or bat wings or Shiny Brass Shield. Sure it may still be charity on your end, but at least the player feels like they accomplished something, and that's the strongest quality EQ has to offer. Too many handouts can take away from that feeling of accomplishment, and without that you might as well be playing one of the many other garbage MMOs on the market.

[Trevalon]

I just started on P99 a week or so ago so I guess I can say what my experience has been so far.

The Good:

1) I have found the community to be pretty good as a noob. Most higher levels have been quick to offer free buffs for me whenever I am near the tunnel and this has helped a lot with getting through some of those early levels before you group.

2) I love the classic feel, but then again that's why we are all here so this is a given.

The Issues:

1) this server is a tuff server to start out new at this point. At some point in the past when the server was on a more level playing field I think starting out new and fresh was probably not that bad, but everything I can see so far is the server is populated by high levels and their twinks. This makes it tuff on people who are starting out new and people don't want you in groups because your rogue doesn't have their epic or your warrior doesn't have full crafted+ and a Jade Mace/Lamentation. This essentially means that all new players are somewhat shoehorned into playing casters just to be viable with all the twinks.

2) Hybrid Penalty. At first I was going to play a bard as a grouper because I am not a big fan of soloing and part of the original EQ experience is about grouping and meeting people (which I love). Then I learned about the 40% bard exp penalty and that when I was trying to find groups on my bard I was turned down multiple times because they didn't want to A) deal with the penalty and because B) I wasn't twinked enough to make up for my penalty. This made me just quit the bard and opt for another class outright because I don't have time to deal with BS so I'll just find a class that groups easier (Although after asking numerous people I was told bards find groups super easy and are always wanted..hrm).

3) Grouping exp. So I made a new class that is more group friendly and have since gotten into a few groups. Unfortunately grouping exp is really terrible in comparison to solo experience. Why would anyone ever group instead of solo for exp purposes (if their class is capable of soloing) - There is pretty much no incentive to exp group on P99 and I find that to be a huge huge shortcoming of the server.

The thing is, I came to this server to relive a classic experience. I find that classic experience everytime I walk into Freeport, Commonlands, or any other zone that has been revamped on Live. I feel that each time I feel fear in dying because of Corpse runs and exp loss. I feel the classic feeling when I see the EC tunnel spam of all the items sold. I feel the classic with the slower exp and I like it.

Those are the things that make the server classic to me, but leaving in glaring design flaws in original Eq just because it "was classic" seems to me to be a real flaw in the server as a whole. Why keep stupid things like the Hybrid penalty in the game when it makes no sense that it was there in the first place to rational people AND the makers of the original game. Why punish grouping when you can encourage it as Sony did? Because it was classic? That seems like a very poor argument and one that ultimately I think hurts the server for people coming in and turns alot of people off to this server. I have tried to get quite a few of my friends to come play with me but none will because of dumb decisions like this. If I know a handful of people personally then how many others are out there that feel the same way? I dunno.

OVerall I love the feeling of the server and the community seems ok enough, but the design choices of the devs have me questioning whether this is a place I want to stay or not. Doing stuff that makes no logical sense just so that you can say: "Well that's how it was in classic" seems pretty dumb to me and as someone who took way too many history classes in college it's really sad to see mistakes of the past being repeated for no good reason at all.

P.S. To the original post: If someone walked up tonight and gave me 500p I can't say that it wouldn't help to make me want to play more :P lol!

[OMGWTF420]

when i still played regularly i would make trips to places like gfay and bbm to hand out noob gear, it seems like it was easier to find "true" noobs in those places and i always believed handing the gear down was a better practice than trying to make a few pp in the tunnel.

that being said i cant count the number of "omg can you help me with some noob gear or starting plat" tells i would get when i was just hanging out in the tunnel, those people never got shit, a "true" noob to the server would never randomly send tells to people for hand me downs, the funny thing is most of these people were female human monks with names like sugartitss or nicebooty

[Clark]

I started playing at launch and we were lucky to break 100

you young bucks have it easy

+1

right there with ya dude, shit used to be rough its a great time to start playing now with ec tunnle being so packed for buffs/free items

[ko37qtl]

Speaking as a relative newbie here, a little helping hand here or there is welcome. I think aid falls disproportionately on people running around in EC just because that's where the wealth concentrates. I've met some very generous players in the last few months and I've tried to pass it along where I can.

I think time and information are often the best things one can give and even back on Live when I was capable of handing out much more, I often hesitated. As mentioned earlier in the thread, some of my best in-game memories are related to struggle and hardship. When a friend and I first started digging into this game, we realized there was money in greater lightstones but we had no magic weapons. He played a bard and I had a warrior. We went all out to kill them one at a time with me taunting like a madman (ineffectually) so he could burn them down with his dot song. He was so proud when he was able to afford a gnollhide lariat. It would have been a lot easier to have been presented with something but it probably wouldn't be as memorable.

[Danth]

I started playing at launch and we were lucky to break 100

Oh and as a melee when P99 opened armor basically didn't work and melees had about a 80%+ miss rate even against greens.

There are a few things new players should look out for. Melee players can often find medium banded armor for sale at extremely cheap prices in the armor shop in East Freeport because that's where almost everyone trains blacksmithing. That's also a nice region for selling things like LQ or HQ bear skins.

Some other folks are right in one sense. P1999 can try to replicate the classic game, but it can't replicate the classic community.

Danth

[Visual]

Oh and as a melee when P99 opened armor basically didn't work and melees had about a 80%+ miss rate even against greens.


I'd like to think I was the one responsible for getting ac fixed considering I petitioned it 9782354985 times.

Green cons maxxing on me continuously with my fly bronze armor.

[SublimeChowder]

I've found the community very helpful, but I have primarily been leveling around the Commonlands. I have made a couple trips to Qeynos to work on the monk quests over there, and even with the sparse population there, I saw people looking to buff newbies. I saw a mid-40's Druid helping out a group in Blackburrow.

I've also been able to find cheap or even free ports more often than not. Not because I ask for them, but because a lot of people don't want to take 20 plat from an untwinked level 14 monk, I guess. I've also been able to find binds in Qeynos, FP, and GFay when I've needed them. That's all been very convenient for me, as moving around to keep the scene varied is much more important to leveling speed to me.

Aside from that, I was given 100 plat by a kind traveler, which I used to raise my tailoring to make myself cured silk. It's not easy to get started from scratch, but that's really most of the appeal of the game to me.

Nice Silva/Newton gif, by the way.

[Telron]

I put in for an IP exemption on the 19th and it was resolved within 6 hours-- you may have done something wrong.

Support on p99 is excellent in my experience... there are some legitimate complaints about the server but I do not believe this is one of them, especially considering they do it for free.

But you're right, speedy exemptions probably help the pop a bit.

Mine took 24 hours tops. Lol you did something wrong

[Gadwen]

One other thing I would like to add, if you are really concerned with new players sticking around a great thing to do is actually group with them on your alts. Doesn't exactly seem like a super cool server to play on when a new PLer comes into whatever newbie dungeon you are in every 30 mins and takes the entire zone.

[Gadwen]

Mine took 24 hours tops. Lol you did something wrong

I've been waiting on mine for about a week and a half now, my wife and I played before we got married and lived together but now she can never get on :D. how could it be done wrong? All they ask for is the accounts you will be using. Afaik they flag the login account itself, not your IP.

[webrunner5]

You are doing something very wrong. My son and I got one in 3 hours like a month ago.

[Seredoc]

Here is another thing that would help new players. Fix the damn pathing. Cazel never stood on the docks for 20 mins and I don't recall reds just walking through the middle of lvl 10 camps. wtf

[Ephirith]

I've been waiting on mine for about a week and a half now, my wife and I played before we got married and lived together but now she can never get on :D. how could it be done wrong? All they ask for is the accounts you will be using. Afaik they flag the login account itself, not your IP.

They do the IP exemptions in batches. The only reason I even suspected the person did something wrong was because I put my request in after he did, and I thought I remembered reading they go through them and do the batches chronologically, but maybe not. Figured maybe he should check and make sure he included account names, I dunno.

If it has been weeks it probably just means they haven't done another batch yet. From what I'm reading it seems as though they are doing them quicker, I used to see people waiting months more commonly.

[Swish]

Yeah calm down about having to wait 10 days for an IP exemption - I could understand it when it was a month or more. Just think of it as something to look forward to, playing together that is :)

[Aedin]

Server's doing fine as far as I can tell (I no longer play, but check the forums every now and then.) 300-400 off hours up to 1000+ prime time?

[pyrese]

I just started playing here this weekend after a few of the people I raid with on WoW mentioned hearing about the server. The highlight of my first night playing was being able to afford a leather tunic.

In the spirit of classic, I think that there is not a need for hand outs. Walking up to my first bat with 5 skill in 1H Slashing and not knowing if I was going to get the kill or have to run to the guards is exactly the experience I wanted and, while a helpful community is very nice, some sort of mandated hand out would cheapen the experience.

[Malone88]

1) this server is a tuff server to start out new at this point. At some point in the past when the server was on a more level playing field I think starting out new and fresh was probably not that bad, but everything I can see so far is the server is populated by high levels and their twinks. This makes it tuff on people who are starting out new and people don't want you in groups because your rogue doesn't have their epic or your warrior doesn't have full crafted+ and a Jade Mace/Lamentation. This essentially means that all new players are somewhat shoehorned into playing casters just to be viable with all the twinks.

2) Hybrid Penalty. At first I was going to play a bard as a grouper because I am not a big fan of soloing and part of the original EQ experience is about grouping and meeting people (which I love). Then I learned about the 40% bard exp penalty and that when I was trying to find groups on my bard I was turned down multiple times because they didn't want to A) deal with the penalty and because B) I wasn't twinked enough to make up for my penalty. This made me just quit the bard and opt for another class outright because I don't have time to deal with BS so I'll just find a class that groups easier (Although after asking numerous people I was told bards find groups super easy and are always wanted..hrm).

3) Grouping exp. So I made a new class that is more group friendly and have since gotten into a few groups. Unfortunately grouping exp is really terrible in comparison to solo experience. Why would anyone ever group instead of solo for exp purposes (if their class is capable of soloing) - There is pretty much no incentive to exp group on P99 and I find that to be a huge huge shortcoming of the server.


I've been on the server for about 2 months and my experience has been quite different. Groups take anybody, twinked or not, hybrid or not, because they just want enough people to kill effectively and be safe. The only time I've seen someone refused is because their level is too high or too low. I tried to get a group last night in Unrest with my Enchanter, but their was a bard and two rangers there already. Go figure!

Solo vs Group experience probably depends on what you are killing as to which is faster. If your group is killing yellow/red cons, the experience is fast. One thing I know for sure is that soloing always SEEMS like slower experience because I keep looking at my dam EXP bar every few minutes, whereas in a group, the action is fast and furious usually.

I agree with other posters here. Earning your own gear piece-by-piece is what drew me to this server in the first place. Its a nice feeling of accomplishment replacing some cloth crap with a decent piece of gear that you looted yourself or bought cheaply after farming HQ skins or Bone Chips or whatever to buy it.

[Gadwen]

Yeah calm down about having to wait 10 days for an IP exemption - I could understand it when it was a month or more. Just think of it as something to look forward to, playing together that is :)

I'm mainly curious about there being some way of "doing it wrong", waiting a few weeks is not an issue for me personally.

PS: Calmer than you are...dude