How do we get players to return to Project1999?

[sedrie.bellamie]

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

Wow. Did this thread ever derail from the original topic from how to get people to return, to the elite guild members fighting among each other.

None of the argument of what's happening among the elites is going to do a thing to get people to return.

sorry be one of the de-railers

1) the xp bonus did up the numbers of players on the server; I think that if there is a slight xp bonus year round, that would help people with the grind and thus make the game either more enjoyable or one would get more return for their time. I would even be down to have "hot zones" that rotate. Like this week the Hot Zones are KC and Unrest, next week hot zones are HS and Mistmore, then another week is Old Seb and Sol b. This would kinda focus the player base and make it easy for people looking to level up. (ninja edit: hot zones could be 1) high end dungeon 2) low level dungeon and 3) an outside zone that is good for almost all levels -- this would give ample places for people to gather and level)

2) GM events: I know some people are really interested in BOB and are getting ready by collecting clickies (which I dont think are going to be allowed) and practice jousting.

3) I remember when the Hole was added to p99, that was a busy weekend in the Hole. I think at one point there were 6 diff groups xp'ing in the Hole. The Hole has some nice caster gear, both INT and WIS, and those shoulders for the right race have great reisists. So what I am saying here is more content brings in people back. When were the Warrens added on live?

basically I want more xp and more zones to level in. Give me velious and take away hybrid penalties and I would be a happy camper.

[radditsu]

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

Wow. Did this thread ever derail from the original topic from how to get people to return, to the elite guild members fighting among each other.

None of the argument of what's happening among the elites is going to do a thing to get people to return.

I think this is a productive open dialogue. I am not accusing anybody of anything intentional. I am having an open dialogue with the most active people on these forums about what presumably is what i hope is going to grow into a respect between two philosophies. In hopes that people who read this will understand that the "hatred" is pretty much unfounded. That is building a community dialogue.

We all have made suggestions that would give positive enhancement to our project 1999 experience. If you do not mind doing a little digging. I think that TMO guys made some really interesting suggestions. Especially shorter variance (that they server side would have to implement) and raiding tiers (that we could as a community develop). Will everybody be happy? Of course not! That's compromise, or "flexing nuts" as I said earlier.

The topic has veered a little off course, as forums often do. Any and all suggestions are still much appreciated. As long as it does not turn into any sort of baiting.

[SirAlvarex]

Everyone seems to be caught up in the raiding aspect, when I think the real issue is that no one is around at the lower levels. It's hard to get new people to play when those new people have no one else to play with. Some come with friends, but a lot are just trying to relive the memories and group up at the lower tier.

Heck, when there was around 1k people peak the lower tier was really fun because you could get groups within 30 minutes between 10-30. Now I see almost no one on at all in that range.

So the question would then be, what would bring back the lower level people? Only non-classic things would really do. Global chats, faster XP, easier mobs, hotzones, etc have been mentioned, and I think it's a start. These were added in to later expansions for a reason, and that's because new people just stopped joining.

I don't know if those "non-classic" solutions will fly here, but hopefully something can be figured out before the server is reduced to 50 people at peak hours...

[radditsu]

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

Everyone seems to be caught up in the raiding aspect, when I think the real issue is that no one is around at the lower levels. It's hard to get new people to play when those new people have no one else to play with. Some come with friends, but a lot are just trying to relive the memories and group up at the lower tier.

Heck, when there was around 1k people peak the lower tier was really fun because you could get groups within 30 minutes between 10-30. Now I see almost no one on at all in that range.

So the question would then be, what would bring back the lower level people? Only non-classic things would really do. Global chats, faster XP, easier mobs, hotzones, etc have been mentioned, and I think it's a start. These were added in to later expansions for a reason, and that's because new people just stopped joining.

I don't know if those "non-classic" solutions will fly here, but hopefully something can be figured out before the server is reduced to 50 people at peak hours...

I actually just started leveling on the server at the end of January. I made it a point to engage anybody who was lfg in a few zones. I found 4-5 good people that I leveled up to 40 with. Unfortunately the glue of the group stopped playing and the rest started logging in less and less. I had to do most of the rest soloing. Which is unfortunate. What I am not seeing is groups in solb/guk anymore. I ground out level 58 Soloing LDC's. That should have not been an option due to population. Now that I am leveling a shadowknight (14) I have not seen anybody leveling in the same fashion. Maybe the weapon skill hurt us that bad in the short term, combined with the D3 release. I really loved velious's 35+ dungeons. I loved Crystal Caverns "back in the day". Exp seemed a little faster.

The hybrid penalty really hurts people wanting to go with paladins and rangers. Along with the stigma of playing these classes. Sk's can get a pass a lot due to their excellent aggro generation. But I am seeing a bunch of them grind up to about 55 and quitting. Without a 40% penalty they would be near the top of that final hump. Maybe creating just a global lfg channel, or enabling of the lfg tool would be a good idea. People seem to like alts to go /role or /anon. The hybrid penalty would be on an faster timeline than classic. But due to velious being postponed it would not be outside of the "real life" time frame.


Also I hear that Full Circle guild is doing big things at the lowbie level.

[radditsu]

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

Not trolling or anything like that, just a question so that I have the rules straight in my head.

So if TMO brought the raid in between the BDA camp and Draco in Fear then it would have been ok for TMO to have claim on the kill? If that's true then that's where TMO screwed up.

Who ported up to hate first? If TMO ported up first then BDA ported up after and then ran between zone-in and Maestro then it would be the same thing if TMO zoned into fear and blocked the path between the BDA raid and Draco. Someone confirm?

Kinda want to be over and done with this example but we were in the zone farming gear already. It was just an example and I did not want it to get turned into some "anti-TMO" ammo. I like the fact that the Ambrotos gave us some clarification on what can or cannot be done in these situations. It may prevent this stuff in the future, on both ends.

[Danyelle]

Putting in non-"Classic" changes is a conflicted and complicated area.

There are many different things that were put into the game post-Velious/Luclin that were "necessary" changes. Many people would think they were put in to casualize the game and remove the challenge or immersion. In fact they were put in to eliminate needless headaches. Examples off the top of my head are the LFG tool, removal of steep hybrid penalties, Guild manager tool, raid manager tool, buff section of pet window, mana display, xp percentage display. zoning pets, pets not dying on invis/hide, chat channels, etc. People often confuse these changes with changes that DID (based on opinion, yet it's usually universally agreed upon) ruin the challenge or immersion of the world of Norrath (PoK books, corpse summoners, soulbinders, map tool, etc).

Here's where the conflict comes into play. The server's, very obvious and heavily stated, goal is to create a server that emulates Live up to Velious exactly as best as possible barring unchangable client code (as is evidenced by things like re-implementing the bug where pets can proc rune swords on any mob not just summoned mobs). This is indeed a noble cause. However it conflicts with common sense in many areas. Some things about Classic EQ should have been changed from the start. Likewise certain later features also should have been in from the start, and there's a reason those things were put in later on as the developers realized it and came across the means to do it that they may not have had when the game was first released (who the hell wants to have to type "/who guild all" only to come back with a who list limited to a certain number of characters, that doesn't bypass anon/role? To be unable to manage a guild as precisely as you could with the manager? Tag alts for quick identification? Add notes to quickly see the flags/keys of a player in-game? This kind of thing didn't "ruin immersion". It fixed something that was implemented poorly from the start.)

Some people fear these changes. They wonder where the line ends on what should be put in and what shouldn't. Polls won't help determine that either. Put a poll up that says "should we put PoK books in" and most people won't be thinking of the immersion or the effect on porting classes, they'll be thinking of the saved time and platinum and vote "yes". Smudging the results. Others may blindly vote "no", out of anger, on anything for the sake of Classic. You'll never get results that truly display those "necessary changes". But at least it's a start.

I've always believed, Red should either be taken down, or a third server put up. At least once Velious goes live. One stays stagnant at Velious, maybe wipes and rerolls every year or two. The other, rebuilds expansions from Luclin+ in a Classic way. Adding in those "necessary features" as agreed upon by the community, and taking out the ones that ultimately put the knife in Classic's back. To please everyone. Of course a 3rd server would cost money (hence the taking down Red part), they would also need to pick up more developers and Guides. But I think if it could be accomplished it'd be worth it.

I know in my heart it will never happen though. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Slave]

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

I like the fact that the Ambrotos gave us some clarification on what can or cannot be done in these situations. It may prevent this stuff in the future, on both ends.

To say you cannot train away mobs, that sets a very new and dangerous precedent. It may make it simpler to settle certain disputes but it takes a lot of power away from the players, and the smaller guilds more than the big ones. Under that ruleset, there are only two guilds that will ever be able to kill Cazic-Thule in the foreseeable future.

[sanluen]

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

To say you cannot train away mobs, that sets a very new and dangerous precedent. It may make it simpler to settle certain disputes but it takes a lot of power away from the players, and the smaller guilds more than the big ones. Under that ruleset, there are only two guilds that will ever be able to kill Cazic-Thule in the foreseeable future.

I think it takes fewer people to clear the zone and kill CT than it does to kite the zone and burn CT down quickly.

But it will be interesting to see how things change!

[YendorLootmonkey]

Originally Posted by Alarti0001 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I understand you don't hate the guys who left BDA for us.
But some of your guild does, some of the VD guys too.
Yendor ESPECIALLY.

Yup, I'm big on loyalty, and not a fan of guildmates betraying their friends to go get pixels more easily in the guild that's currently monopolizing the content (and then trying to recruit others to follow them, by the way).

Besides, I feel that the pixels mean a lot more when you earn them with the guild you grew up in. Unfortunately, I don't have that option anymore, but I was able to find a new home with many of the people I raided and had fun with, and have the opportunity to interact with a new group of people as well.

And I don't *hate* the people who left BDA for your guild. I didn't know them well enough, anyway. I'm just disappointed in the lack of loyalty that was displayed. Ironically, loyalty is the same quality that TMO displays for their membership in creating the infrastructure to mobilize quick and monopolize the raid content that I admire.

I can admire it, but I don't have to like it. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[radditsu]

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

I think it takes fewer people to clear the zone and kill CT than it does to kite the zone and burn CT down quickly.

But it will be interesting to see how things change!

Agreed, any decent guild can clear fear just as quickly as anybody else with good coordination. Also a few ae pulls will thin the herd out and make the job easier. Its very doable.