Reducing the ZEM for the most common leveling zones

[Izmael]

Crushbone, Unrest, Mistmoore, City of Mist, Karnor's Castle.

These zones share the following characteristics which make the the most common zones for leveling for the Nth time:

- Binding available fairly close
- Outdoors - SoW means you can train to zone with very little risk of death
- Ease of access - twinks bring their high levels in the zone to buff / res / etc.


I suggest these zones have their ZEM reduced by a lot. I mean a LOT - make it really painful to level in these zones. If you want safe boring exp, you'll have to settle with very slow leveling. I'd say divide the ZEM there by 3 at least, 4 ideally.

This will make the following zones so much more attractive, repopulating them and therefore making the server more classic:

- Befallen
- Gorge of King Xorrb
- Runnyeye
- Paw
- Dalnir
- Guk
- Sol a
- Sol b
- Najena
- Kedge Keep
- ??? Can't think of them all atm.

The above zones are ghost towns most of the time and could use more attractivity.

Thank you for your attention.

Edit: It could also make sense to reduce ZEM for the follow outdoors zones so people just dont flock there for easy exp - DL, BW, OT, FV (maybe more..). Fiddling with ZEM is perfectly classic so no worries about that.

[Munkh]

I don't feel you should reduce these zone by a lot. I think reducing them some and then bumping other zones to match or be on par with those higher traffic zones would help spread some of the people who are leveling toons.

I agree it can at times become overcrowded in these "hot zones" and some balance would be a nice welcome.

[Secrets]

Or just use the classic ZEMs:

http://wiki.takp.info/index.php?titl...ence_Modifiers

I don't believe P99 uses the classic ZEMs at the moment.

[loramin]

I suspect 90+% (99+%?) of this server would be in favor of periodically raising the ZEM of unpopular zones and lowering the ZEM of unpopular ones ... although I doubt anyone except OP and a handful of others would want anything as extreme as what OP proposed.

But here's the problem: the staff isn't dumb, and they've been doing this for years, so they must have thought of this already. The fact that they not only don't rotate ZEMs regularly, but almost never change ZEMs at all, suggests that it's either a lot of work for them (which seems unlikely, as it's just changing a number in a database) or they just don't like doing it.

Either way, if they're not going to rotate ZEMs then I think Secrets hit the nail on the head:

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

Or just use the classic ZEMs:

http://wiki.takp.info/index.php?titl...ence_Modifiers

I don't believe P99 uses the classic ZEMs at the moment.

After all, we're all here for the "classic experience" right? And what makes for a more classic experience than classic experience (modifiers)?

[kgallowaypa]

How about swapping the ZEM's on a monthly basis or something like that to encourage movement around different zones than just kill CoM or KC

[Samoht]

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

I suggest these zones have their ZEM reduced by a lot. I mean a LOT - make it really painful to level in these zones.

You're approaching this wrong. You don't need to be punished for playing CB > Unrest > MM > CoM > KC. The game needs to encourage you to level somewhere else by offering bonus EXP. They approached this on EQLive by doing rotating hot zones.

I would love to see more players in places like Guk, ToFS, Droga, and Velks. Or hell even more people leveling in ThurgB, Kael, or SS.

[mcoy]

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

You're approaching this wrong. You don't need to be punished for playing CB > Unrest > MM > CoM > KC. The game needs to encourage you to level somewhere else by offering bonus EXP. They approached this on EQLive by doing rotating hot zones.

I would love to see more players in places like Guk, ToFS, Droga, and Velks. Or hell even more people leveling in ThurgB, Kael, or SS.

Same here. One of my favorite grouping experiences in live was in Velks. I don't think I've ever successfully found anything more than a duo/trio here though. I've had to resort to just listening to an mp3 of the zone music...

-Mcoy

[Lhancelot]

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

You're approaching this wrong. You don't need to be punished for playing CB > Unrest > MM > CoM > KC. The game needs to encourage you to level somewhere else by offering bonus EXP. They approached this on EQLive by doing rotating hot zones.

I would love to see more players in places like Guk, ToFS, Droga, and Velks. Or hell even more people leveling in ThurgB, Kael, or SS.

Exactly this. ^^^

They should not nerf the good zones, they simply should improve the other zones so that they are worth XPing in.

I don't get why they don't just make all the zones equal for XP, anyway. That would stop the bottlenecking of XP zones we have so often.

People are fighting over lvl 20 mobs in MM like they are named mobs during peak hours, it's ridiculous.

I'd love to see the amount of petitions the guides are having dumped on them over mobs and camps being KS'd or infringed upon in UR and MM alone.

If other leveling zones had the same XP modifiers as UR and MM, you would see a lot more people exploring other spots too.

[loramin]

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

I don't get why they don't just make all the zones equal for XP, anyway.

Classic ZEMs: Most classic option possible
Different but Fixed ZEMS: Not classic but classic feel
Rotating ZEMs: Not classic, but how EQ should have been (and would later be)
No ZEMS: So un-classic it makes Aradune give up drugs

As a side note, I just realized ZEMs are one of the only things on this server where the staff prioritizes a classic "feel" (most people in classic didn't know the ZEMs) over true classic mechanics. On almost every other decision (eg. multi-questing, corpsing lore items, etc.) the staff goes with the classic mechanics over the classic feel. Kinda strange that they depart on this one topic.

[mcoy]

The issue is not ZEM-related alone, however. For example, I believe on p99 the "bonus" applied to Befallen is the highest in game. However, it's still less frequented than CB because of the whole "orc belts / pads" quest line. The amount of experience given from those turn-ins (and the bone chip quest) cause many to skip the "killing" aspect of leveling for a majority of the 1-20 experience. This is repeated across many other "turn ins" around Norrath.

Additionally, using Guk from your example - I frequently see groups in upper, but it's rare to see someone in the 30-50 range (successfully) LFG in lower - because any camp that has the potential to drop something is perma-camped. Even if the camp is one of the less-desired ones (ass/sup) it's still almost always cleared because it's so easy to get to, and the 28m respawns enable 1 person (of the appropriate class) to clear multiple areas.

In classic I believe the ZEMs on some of the newb zones were inflated to make up for the fact that repeated deaths were a given, and spending a night playing only to end up prior to where you had started (xp wise) was (for some) a major turn off. With the economy of P99 there just aren't enough untwinked players around, so it skews the overall result and appears to just be an xp farm.

Thank god there's no Paludal Caverns... That place just existed to remove the newb experience altogether.

I'm not saying anything needs to be changed or fixed - just providing some of (what I believe) to be the reason behind your experience with the aforementioned zones.

-Mcoy