LoS member posts about raiding in Jan 2002

[stormlord]

I posted about this in the eqclassic forums several years ago. I went there earlier to see if my forum account still existed and it did. That's when I found this old thread I made. I thought it applies even more here at Project 1999, since we're deep into Velious now. Luclin was released December 2001. Tigole's post was made immediately after Luclin launch.

Unlike the comments made below (by Tigole) in Jan 2002, this server doesn't have Luclin. Does anyone know if it has the resist patch referenced by Tigole? However, what it does have is a much longer duration for classic, RoK and Velious. This server went for YEARS with classic and RoK, right? So my thinking is this should have created lots of high level players, potentially leading to several high level--clashing?--raiding guilds. So even though this server might not have the resist patch or AA's, the increased number of high level players might mimic the problems Tigole echoed.

What's the problem? Content congestion. A limited number of raid bosses means guilds compete for them. The more congested it's, the more guilds will compete or be forced to get in line to schedule their raids. His point is the more congestion present, the more players will quit or have nothing to do for stretches of time, since there're no raids to do. He outlines several possible remedies for it, like increased spawn time or more raid content.

(The obvious answer to content congestion in modern terminology would be instances. I've never liked them. Probably because Everquest was my first MMO--but otherwise I think they ruin the social atmosphere.)

So finally, my question. Do you think there's raid content congestion on Project 1999, at this late stage in its life; and do you think Tigole's complaints have merit, if so what do you think the answers are?

Raiding gameplay itself is a separate topic. I didn't raid much on live until 2009-10. For a few months I was in a midtier raid guild. It was highly disciplined. I was oftne impressed with the amount of work behind the scenes on their website and raid research. The guild leadership operated like military officers, placing expectations on those of us below. This highlights what ultimately pushed me away from raiding, just how regimented and time demanding it can be. It's unlike grouping, not nearly as friendly or adventurous. I understand some people prefer it. I say all this for some background on me.

You can look up the link on internet archive (is down atm surprisingly--to power outage):
http://www.legacyofsteel.net/oldsite/arc35.html

Excuse Me While I Ramble A Bit

I'd like to take a minute to openly address Verant regarding the *end game* of Everquest. If you're here to see dead mobs and new loots, just scroll down some. But for those of you at Verant (yes, I know you read this page) and for those of you interested in the *high level game* of EQ, this concerns you. This isn't about the *casual gamer*, so don't even bring those arguements into the picture. Apologies in advance if I get a bit touchy. You see some crazy bitch on a cell phone just came within three feet of running me and my dog over in a cross walk so I am a bit on edge at the moment. Also excuse any spelling or grammatical errors -- I have 16 minutes before my lunch breaks ends and I am typing this directly into this suck-ass, free-hacked HTML program. So just deal.

THE PROBLEM

The high end game in Everquest revolves around raiding. Currently, for a number of reasons which I will indentify, there are simply not enough spawns to keep the *raiding community* content. What happens when people are not content? They stop playing.

The truth is guilds such as my own will still succeed because we push the envelope on our server, usually trying and killing things before anyone else. For example, when the RoK expansion came out, Legacy of Steel had a good 10-15 Trakanon kills before other guilds even TRIED him. When the SoV expansion came out, we were trying Dozekar before any other guilds even ZONED INTO the Temple of Veeshan. We completely cleared the North Wing of ToV a good 10 times before anyone else even TRIED Ikatiar. Well, this is all fine and dandy and I am getting a massive swelled ego just thinking about it. But my point is, this magical period of mobs actually being hard, of no spoilers existing, only lasts for a VERY BRIEF period of time. To put it in perspective, when we wanted to learn about North Wing, we went and scouted it -- no spoilers existed because no one else even thought of going there. Only a handful of guilds serverwide ever went past the door. Check out these screenshots from over ONE YEAR AGO: Example 1 Example 2 . Things were HARD. In order to learn you had to risk dying over and over. You didn't run, crying to the Safehouse for spoilers. ToV-by-numbers didn't exist. Basically, killing stuff was a PRIVLEGE not a RIGHT.

Fast forward to present day. Well actually rewind a bit. The first major, game altering change took place with the big magic resist patch. While the patch was overall a good thing, making casters more useful, it trivialized a number of *uber* encounters. Now back to that fast foward. Add the Shadows of Luclin Alternate Advancement skills into the mix and you have created an environment where basically anyone who can gather 40 people in front of a mob and have them press A at the right time can kill about 90 percent of the uber mobs that exist. What I am saying is that uber encounters have been gimped -- straight up. Personally, I think the magic resist changes as well as AA skills are both GOOD THINGS and I applaud VI for implementing them but what needed to take place was a readjustment of the overall difficulty of ALL the existing uber encounters with these things in mind.

You've created a massive overcrowding problem at the end game -- bottom line.

Some Solutions

Like I said, I am strapped for time in a big way here so I'll just throw a few ideas out, ideas that seem incredibly obvious.

1) Add more end game content

This is the best option, hands down. Of course this is the least likely to happen. This requires VI to invest time and effort into doing something which (on the surface) seems to provide no fiscal reward for them. However, I'd consider that keeping people playing Everquest would be a wise financial move on VI's behalf. This idea could range from the addition of new uber zones to simply placing a few more mobs in under-utilized zones. Stick a boss mob in Plane of Mischief -- but stick him on a three day delay so the guild lucky enough to get N ToV doesn't also get this free mob. Have a dragon spawn in Dawnshroud or Hollowshade. Those are beautiful zones that go untravelled. Those are a few quick ideas -- I am sure you could come up with better.

2) Increase Spawn Times

I can hear the VI arguement on this one already, "Boss mobs were intended to be special, rare encounters and to increase spawn times would take away from the original dynamic vision of having these mobs in the first place" or some such predictable bullshit. But guess what guys? You trivialized uber mobs by making a zone called Western Wastes. You took end game, "privleged" mobs, models that before SoV only existed in Veeshan's Peak, and you made them Yard Trash.

So here comes VI's other arguement. "We cannot have boss mob loot entering the game at an increased rate." Well first off, bullshit. With patches every other day the loot is flowing like water. Secondly, you could reduce the amount of loot dropped in places where it's already out of hand (example N TOV).

Players would prefer to be able to RAID every day then to sit around bored for 3 days. Give us stuff to kill.

3) Randomize Spawn Times

You are creating enormous tensions among the player base on blue servers with these easy to predict spawn times. You also patch at the same time each day/week. Asian and European guilds get the pick of the litter and American guilds fight and rush over spawns as soon as they get home from school or work. Once the spawns are controlled, the respawn is obvious and predictable, once again favoring Asian and European players. You need to randomize these spawns. The tensions between guilds are high enough -- when you favor time zones you add RACIAL tension into the mix. Do I need to go on as to why this bad?

4) Triggered Spawns Need To Be Fixed

While originally the idea of mobs such as the AoW only spawning when the Statue died seemed good at first, it has turned into one of the worst and most frustrating facets of the game for AoW-capable guilds. The Statue dies to 60+ Asian players or to the European guild on our server before we're even out of bed. The AoW spawns, sits in the arena untouched and then poofs until 5 days later when 60+ Asian players or the European guild kill the Statue again before we're out of bed. How bout something like this -- When the Statue dies an UNTARGETABLE (yes because players are pricks and will kill NPCs to spite other guilds) NPC spawns -- a quest mob -- that would allow someone to SPAWN the AoW. Sure, he can only stay up 45 minutes. I like that -- it's a challenge. But have the NPC spawn after the Statue dies so that if someone actually WANTS the AoW (which we do!!!!!!) we can have a shot at him.

Same thing goes for these Ssrae Basement mobs. You get these guilds rushing down to the basement with no fucking clue what they are doing. Next thing you know the Glyphed/Exiled/Cursed spawn is BLOWN for the week and the dumbasses down there never even spawned him. Yeah, I like killing one mob and popping another but VI needs to address the *dumbass factor* for us because you've already made everyone THINK they are uber and capable of doing all this stuff when in fact they are wasting the FEW spawns we can actually enjoy killing. Please idiot-proof triggered spawns.

5) Tigole's Not So Popular Darwinistic Idea

This is my favorite but will never fly. I'll throw it out there for you all though. You want to make a patch-day cluster-fuck zone like North ToV? Fine. How about this. When VULAK is up in the Temple of Veeshan the zone becomes PvP. VI has THROWN US into a massive spawn competition yet gives us no means to settle disputes. We are not allowed to train, there are PnP rules, GM's do not get involved. We are left on our own with no way of settling our problems except *goodwill* and we all know goodwill and a quarter will buy you a phone a call.

Verant wont address the spawn competition in zones like ToV? Let us address it.

The truth is ToV is fucked beyond recognition and nerfing the CoH spot was the dumbest thing VI could have done. At least with the CoH spot two guilds could move around North Wing and not step on any toes till the end of the night. Now you've created leap-frog city -- that's the only way to go and it's sad. The real problem is that ALL THE BEST LOOT DROPS IN THE SAME FUCKING PLACE. And SoL loot isn't any better (so far) not to mention there is no MASSIVE CONCENTRATION of mobs like there is in North Wing. North Wing was a great idea before the magic resist patch, before the CoH spot nerf and before AA skills. Right now it's a clusterfuck waiting to happen.

If VI doesn't want to lay down the law there -- make the the zone go PvP when Vulak is up and we'll lay down the law ourselves.

6) More Server Splits

If you don't want to add new content, increase or randomize spawn times or give us other solutions to the crowding that exists in the end game then you're going to have to keep splitting servers. I have no idea how VI works. My guess is this option is probably somewhat costly.

Conclusion

Ok my time is up. I had some more ideas but I don't have time to spell them all out. Pretty much anyone with even the tiniest bit of knowledge of how raiding works in EQ could figure out solutions to the GLARING PROBLEM that exists across all servers. I don't mean this as criticism against VI. But VI were the ones who posted that stuff about "EQ never being the same" when SoL came out. You guys decided everyone needed to be *uber* (that word is laughable now) with the magic resist patch and the AA skills. You've created a massive network of roads but put no traffic lights in -- people are going to get sick of crashing into each other and find somewhere else to drive. Hell, maybe they'll just walk. Seriously, address these issues in some way before you start losing players over them.