Red99 Stimulus Plan (some constructive feedback)

[Potus]

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

There's no adjustments that can be made to exp or anything about the servers that will increase population.

Have you read the thread? It's literally full of people saying they'd be able to play if the server reduced grinding/upped the exp rate.

[Giovanni]

Institute a rested exp system where you accumulate an exp bonus over the course of the week for hours spent offline. This allows both the player that logs on for 2 hours a night and the weekend warrior that can only login on weekends to keep up with the rest.

Players who utilize their rested exp bonus while online will still level slower than players on food stamps grinding 16 hours a day. However, the players with limited time will at least feel like they making steady progress towards their goal.

Side note: Melees grinding on lightblue mobs solo with bandaids is fucking depressing. I am sure forcing prisoners to solo a melee was proposed as a method of torture in Gitmo, but water boarding was found to be more humane.

[hotstud]

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

Have you read the thread? It's literally full of people saying they'd be able to play if the server reduced grinding/upped the exp rate.

Oh you mean this thread that has all of 91 posts in it with the majority of those by the same people? Yeah, I don't think increasing the population by even 100 people would make much of a difference. People don't play 24 hours a day. I'm guessing there is something like 10,000 accounts for R99 which gives us our average 300 pop size.

I want to see an online population of 1,000+ like EQ is supposed to have. Changing server rules is never going to get us there.

In fact, I would guess that increasing exp rate would actually harm population in the longterm. People who play all the time will leave because casuals will be clogging up all their camps and raid mobs, people who play casually will leave when they reach 50 quickly and realize there is nothing left to do now but fight over raid content which requires hours on end to actually accomplish anything, and everyone else won't be as attached to their character when it takes so little effort to hit 50. If people aren't having enough fun before hitting 50 to keep playing the solution isn't to make it easier to hit 50.

Server population is going down specifically because server population is too low. It's a vicious cycle that is going to leave this server with less than 20 people playing on it within the next 3-6 months. I haven't played in the last week after grinding to 35 because it is clear to me that this server is dying and it's not worth putting in the time.

All you have to do is ask yourself why there isn't even an auction zone that provides a central hub of activity on this server and you have your answer why the server is dying. The population is too low for it to be worth it. PvP at the bank in the auction zone and so on were always hallmarks of EQ PvP and they are 100% absent here.

Like I said, the only way to increase population is making the game more accessible to people who want to play a free MMO and then doing some basic advertising. Anything else is rearranging deck chairs on the titanic. It doesn't matter if some change you make results in 50, 100, or even 200 more people being on at any given time. PvP servers need closer to 1,000 online at a time for them to be enjoyable.

I for one have quit playing because I'm fucking sick of seeing the same fucking people every time I login and everywhere I go. I mean honestly I probably know more than half the people online at a time. I don't want to login and see the same fucking people at the same camps every single time. There is nothing happening on this "PvP" server except a bunch of people grinding experience thinking that getting to 50 is going to somehow make the PvP fun and a bunch of people complaining that the experience grind is too slow and needs to be increased to save the population. There is no auction zone to go hang out in, there is no guild battles going on, not a fucking thing is happening on this server except people grinding experience with blinders on to the reality that this is a blue server with PvP enabled due to the low population which will only be increased by making the server accessible and advertising it.

[veto]

There are other websites that host the game..
http://www.warez-bb.org/viewtopic.ph...020&highlight=

that website has tons of links for it.. as for the patching then thats tough shit, you have to do that for any private server

i do agree with you though, but i guess the average person doesnt know how to find things on their own without being handed to them (where to get game)

[SearyxTZ]

I don't think anyone expects there to be an EC-like zone on a red server. This is why I was supportive of having a global /auction channel, though.

people who play all the time will leave because casuals will be clogging up all their camps and raid mobs

Uh... or they'll just kill them? [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I mean that's why red servers are fun, after all. You get to kill people "clogging up" your camps.



From TZT:

I'd play if the exp level was faster, but no way I'm spending an evening grinding out large spiders to go from level 10 to level 11.

yeah exp rate is wayyyy too slow.

this is pretty key given how fucking unbearable exp was prior to the bonus

got to 4 and 3 quarters tonight, this is just way too much time though, don't think I can do it

I wouldn't expect any kind of immediate spike in population because of an increased early level exp curve especially with Christmas coming up this week, but there's no doubt in my mind that it would be beneficial for the long-term health of the server.

[gloinz]

20% EXP BONUS ALA SULLON ZEK

[hotstud]

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

There are other websites that host the game..
http://www.warez-bb.org/viewtopic.ph...020&highlight=

that website has tons of links for it.. as for the patching then thats tough shit, you have to do that for any private server

i do agree with you though, but i guess the average person doesnt know how to find things on their own without being handed to them (where to get game)

It's not that people couldn't find it if they tried. It's that it's really not worth it to someone who is just looking for a free game to play and there isn't any advertising being done anyway.

Just looking at the search volume for "free mmorpg", it gets 3,000 searches per day. The search results for that term are almost entirely portal sites dedicated to reviewing, discussing, etc free MMORPGs.

Below is the general forum for the first result for "free MMORPG"

http://www.onrpg.com/boards/free-mmo-mmorpg/

The last post mentioning "project 1999" was 2 months ago and is in a thread about "good PvP" which was started before R99 even launched. No promotion was done there at launch, etc.

If you gathered up the top 100 free MMORPG portals, got project 1999 listed so it showed up on their directories, made posts about it on the forums, etc... THAT is how you increase server population. You could also be paying for advertising on AdWords, free MMORPG site banners, etc. THAT is how you increase server population.

You take traffic from sites like that and send it to a page that says, "The game that started it all is back. Relive classic EQ. Click here to start" and when you click it fucking downloads and all you have to do is click "play" and the game starts up, you register an account, and start playing.

Following this guide I guarantee you the servers would be overflowing within a couple months and new servers would need to be started and SOE would shut the whole thing down.

Seriously though, people need to stop beating the "add item drops! increase exp rate!" dead horse. That isn't going to do a fucking thing.

[Slave]

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

You get to kill people "clogging up" your camps.

Unless they are out of pvp range for you... which is just all too likely here, because INEXPLICABLY THERE IS A LEVEL RANGE FOR PVP, allowing all sorts of faggotry like out-of-range healers.

Remove the PvP level range and Play Nice, add teams, add item loot, remove No Drop tag.

I would go apeshit to play on a server like that, and damn the exp.

[hotstud]

I don't think anyone expects there to be an EC-like zone on a red server.

Why not? RZ, VZ, TZ all had auction zones that were well populated. It's only not expected because the population is so low it's not even worth auctioning your stuff to the 5 people who might show up. Might as well just go get whatever you want yourself.

Also, show me 20,000 people complaining about exp being too slow and you'll have a valid point. Like I said, 3,000 people a DAY search for "free MMORPG" and that doesn't even include terms like "free mmo, best free mmorpg" etc. There is likely somewhere around 50,000 people every single day looking for a free MMORPG to play and you're telling me the solution is increasing population is changing the exp rate, not making the server more accessible and advertising more?

It would be incredibly easy to get this server up to an average of 1,000 players on at a time if proper promotion was being done. This project has zero, zip, nada, none or at least it sure as hell seems that way.

The most effective way to increase population would be to start a community based promotion donation pool for paying for advertising, building a custom client that makes playing easily, and writing guides about "how to advertise project 1999" for volunteers that covers popular places to go discuss and promote project 1999 that anyone could do with 5 minutes of time.

Imagine if instead of everyone crying here about low population people were posting to those free MMORPG sites promoting the server and doing it in an organized manner where a thread is created and then a dozen people respond to it saying, "FUCK YEAH BROS! P99 IS WHERE IT IS AT! OMG!"

I would do it but I'm too lazy. Someone should get on this though.

[Zalaerian]

Why not? RZ, VZ, TZ all had auction zones that were well populated. It's only not expected because the population is so low it's not even worth auctioning your stuff to the 5 people who might show up. Might as well just go get whatever you want yourself.

Let me help u out pal. http://www.project1999.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=59
Theres EC tunnel