Proposed new server ruleset: PvE+ [long effortpost]

[Vexenu]

Over the past few years there has been much speculation and anticipation over the launch of a new server. While much of the excitement is rooted simply in the prospect of having a totally fresh start, there is also considerable potential for expanding gameplay through custom rulesets which differ from those currently existing on Blue and Red. The three major rulesets I've seen proposed are:

1) Teams PvP - Most likely race or deity based
2) Green/Recycle - Server with a built in sunset/wipe feature after "X" amount of time
3) Purple - A hybrid Blue/Red server with PvP limited within certain parameters (i.e. restricted by time/zone to coincide with competitive raid target spawns)

All three of these rulesets have pros and cons. Teams, for example, has the most potential for fun and interesting gameplay, but is also the most likely to suffer low population over the long term. Green would always provide a fresh start around the corner, but this would also have a negative impact on players' long-term investment in the server (meaning population would peak at launch and precipitously decline as the reset neared). And Purple offers an interesting dynamic, but is in a sense the most radical of the three, having never been implemented (to my knowledge at least) in any live or emu server. It could be a great compromise, or it could turn out to simply result in the worst aspects of both Blue and Red.

That being the case, I have been thinking about a new ruleset and would like to get some community feedback on it. I call this new ruleset: PvE+

The fundamental goals behind the PvE+ ruleset:

1) Remain as Classic as possible, with a focus on the spirit rather than the letter of Classic
2) Implement solutions to address the problems with P1999 gameplay that have become apparent over the life of the project (most notably endgame overcrowding)
3) Promote pro-social and cooperative behavior between players while retaining avenues for healthy competition between guilds
4) Require minimal implementation of custom resources by the developers and minimal policing of the playerbase by GMs/Guides
5) To whatever degree is possible in a game as thoroughly explored/fully known as EQ is to most of us, recreate the feelings of danger and excitement that we experienced when first adventuring in Norrath years ago

So how exactly does PvE+ propose to achieve those goals, and how does it differ from other rulesets? To put it as simply as possible: PvE+ proposes to make the PvE content of the game much more difficult. And this goes much further than simply buffing the HP and damage output of mobs. PvE+ is about creating a world that is more hostile to the individual player. The overall effect of PvE+ would therefore be to:

1) Greatly promote cooperation between players in order to ensure survival and enable leveling
2) Reduce the overall speed of leveling
3) Increase the difficulty of obtaining rare items
4) Make the world feel larger and more dangerous
5) Discourage soloing and excessive twinking

PvE+ is necessary because we've become too good at EQ. The game has, in a sense, been fully "solved". Our mastery over the game has resulted in a gameplay experience that has become stagnant, predictable and which, while mostly Classic in the mechanical sense, is far from the classic feel of Everquest. Original EQ was an extremely difficult game, but a large amount of that difficulty was due to unfamiliarity with the game's mechanics and content. Now that both the mechanics and content of the game have been fully explored, the only avenue we have for recreating the Classic feel while retaining Classic content and mechanics is therefore to ramp up the difficulty setting.

Specifics of how PvE+ proposes to make the game more difficult (as you read through these suggestions, pause to consider the deeper implications each would have on gameplay):

• Item recharging is disabled
• Large experience penalty for characters over level 10 in outdoor zones (Ranging from 25%-75%, i.e. 75% penalty in Overthere, 25% penalty in CoM/KC. XP is hard to come by, low risk is low reward)
• All outdoor mobs run at slightly above SoW speed and have larger agro radius (travel is dangerous and not undertaken lightly, especially solo)
• All mobs deal increased damage and have increased hitpoints
• All food and water are NO RENT items and must be freshly acquired each session (Summon food and water line of spells are suddenly highly useful and pro-social)
• NO RENT items decay even while corpsed (you're not getting around it that easily)
• Multi-questing is disabled
• PBAOE spells reduced to 10 maximum targets (from current 25 - AOE groups highly discouraged)
• Endurance is decreased gradually by attacking with melee weapons, and attacks cannot continue when no endurance remains. (Invigor becomes a crucial and pro-social spell for both grouping and raiding)
• Fungus Covered Scale Tunic is NO DROP (trivializes low end content)
• Buffs can only be cast on players who are no lower than 10 levels below the buff level itself (i.e. a level 60 buff can land on a level 50, but not a level 49. A level 60 could only buff a level 10 using his level 20 buffs).
• All players (casters included) may only bind in city zones (cities become adventuring hubs/gathering places)
• 10-25% XP bonuses in historically underutilized - read: difficult - leveling dungeons: Najena, Nurga/Droga, Runnyeye, Permafrost, Cazic Thule, Splitpaw Lair, Kerra Island, Kedge Keep, Kaesora, Crystal Caverns, ToFS (higher risk = higher reward, and spreads people out to avoid overcrowding in SolB, LGuk, CoM, etc...)
• Wizards and Druids receive a whole group buff that enables the character with the buff to be teleported. The buff has a duration of 30 minutes and the spell has a cooldown of 30 minutes. This does not apply to self-teleports. The effect is to fully retain the porting ability of Wizards and Druids individually and within guilds and groups, but limits their ability to port many different players in a short period of time (this restricts effortless Dial-A-Port style travel, which is grossly un-Classic at this point, makes the world feel much larger and makes Wizards/Druids more attractive for groups)
• Monk sneak pulling is disabled (current state is un-classic)
• Dungeon mobs flee at full speed at 20% health unless snared
• Experience lost in certain flagged zones cannot be regained through resurrection (the Plane of Fear and Hate should be absolutely terrifying)
• Higher level zones and certain dungeons may be environmentally hostile in one way or another, i.e. requiring a minimum resist check to avoid taking damage. For example, 150 CR might be required in Velks to avoid freezing (DoT/snare/slow effect) while 150 PR and Enduring Breath might be required in Sebilis to avoid the noxious fumes (Envenomed Breath DoT) of Trakanon, the undead and the frogloks.
• If a player is killed by any normal mob, one random piece of equipped, droppable gear the player is wearing will be "looted" by the mob (transfered to the mob's item table). When/if the mob is later killed, the item can be re-looted normally by the player himself, his group, or anyone else for that matter. Safety in numbers! Soloing is very risky. NO DROP items are safe from looting and thus become preferred when available.
• If a player is killed by a raid mob, one random piece of the player's equipped, droppable gear will be "looted" by the mob and permanently destroyed. NO DROP gear cannot be looted by the mob and is thus preferred. Raiding becomes much riskier and wipes have real consequences. Real risk and real reward. You'll have to risk your existing gear if you want to acquire better raid gear.
• Soulfire is only clickable by Paladins
• Mobs are much more resistant to charm
• Raid mobs are perma-rooted and must be killed in place
• A traveling merchant: an *extremely* rare spawn in certain zones. He spawns randomly with no PH and wanders before despawning five minutes or so later, and is also KOS to mobs and easily killed. He is a vendor who sells NO DROP versions of legacy and GM items: Guises, Manastones, Pre-nerf Fungus staffs, Oogly Sticks, etc... The items will be extremely expensive (probably ranging from 100k-5 million pp) and paid for with special pre-purchased gems that vendor (and resell) for 100k apiece - so you can keep them on you in case you encounter the traveling merchant. This functions as a plat sink and a way to make legacy items rarely available throughout the life of the server. Additionally, the traveling merchant may also propose to trade one his legacy items for a specific item he is seeking, which could be anything randomly pulled from a long list of loot. Ex: Traveling merchant spawns and randomly decides that he will exchange a Guise of the Deceiver for a Symbol of Loyalty to Vox. Or maybe it's a Totem of the Warrior Spirit. Or maybe a Crown of the Froglok Kings. You most likely are not carrying the item he's asking for. But if you are...you're a very happy camper on that day. Could also obviously be spawned by a GM for special events/random fun.

The overall effect of the PvE+ ruleset is to shift the focus of gameplay away from the level and loot treadmill it's degenerated into today and toward a more classic experience: struggling to make your way through a dangerous world, and being forced to rely heavily on friends and strangers to successfully do so. Enhanced difficulty makes every accomplishment in the game more meaningful. Leveling itself is supposed to be difficult. It should not be easy to get to level 30, much less level 50 or 60. Climbing the level ladder should entail increasing risk, difficulty, teamwork and itemization requirements.

The PvE+ server is not intended to be an endgame raiding server. It's not meant to be a leveling treadmill that deposits you at 60 into the midst of 40 other people where you just show up as "a_warm_body_00" and collect loot easily over time. It's an adventuring server. The goal is to make the entire game (from levels 1-60, from Blackburrow to Sleeper's Tomb, from a decaying skeleton to Tunare) an ever-increasing obstacle course where you must carefully balance risk vs. reward. Note that the vast majority of the suggested changes contained in the ruleset are essentially just tweaks to existing gameplay mechanics. This is not a custom ruleset that drastically alters classic EQ gameplay. The gameplay itself would remain essentially unchanged from what it is now, it would simply be more difficult and carry greater risk.

Feedback: What do you think of the PvE+ ruleset?

Suggestions: What ideas would you add to the PvE+ ruleset to enhance gameplay and increase difficulty? Longwinded effortposts encouraged. Bonus points if it's somehow even longer than this one.