Special Encounters

[Talislor]

Hello Green and Teal,

I'm new around here. I joined roughly a month ago for the launch of the new server. Before that, I played EverQuest between its launch in 1999 and a month into Velious, 2000. Despite my lack of years playing the game, EverQuest made a lasting impression on me and is easily my favorite game of all time. My memory is also uncorrupted by all the changes that went into Live following that time.

One of the things I enjoyed was raiding, both dragons and planes. I was there, on Veeshan server, when Fires of Heaven accomplished a world-first kill on Nagafen. Great times! I have a lot of pride for my old server and its players.

Reading the Project 1999 forums I see a recurring theme about toxicity in the raiding scene. Although I don't have the background of a long-time member of this community or even a clear understanding of why certain decisions have been made, I think this one particular patch note explains exactly the feelings of the EverQuest Live team with regards to special encounters.

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June 22, 2000 9:00 am
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*Vox and Nagafen*

Over the past couple of weeks, we've received more and more reports of
these dragons being bested by smaller and smaller groups of higher-
level (high 50s) adventurers. As we've always felt that Dragons should
be special encounters that require a large number of people, we were
left with some choices.

One choice available to us was to increase the power of the dragons to
a level where the level 60 folks would find them challenging. This
would have the disadvantage of forever placing them out-of-reach for
those who did not buy Kunark, and place them further out-of-reach for
those who did, but are just now approaching the levels where they could
go on Dragon raids. Another possible solution was to make the dragons
flee (depop) when engaged by a more powerful group of people. This
would have the undesired effect of allowing some people to deny others
the experience of fighting a dragon.

Instead of raising the bar as mentioned above, we've instead decided
that dragons, or at least these two dragons, should have the magical
ability to pick their own fights. Players of level 53 or above will now
encounter some difficulty when attempting to assist in combat with
these dragons. This should help 40s and low 50-level characters with
their chances to encounter a dragon without worry of getting forced out
by much higher level players. In addition, it also has the added effect
of creating a natural progression from the younger dragons of Antonica
to the elder and more formidable dragons of Kunark.


-The EverQuest Team
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http://everquest.allakhazam.com/hist...es-2000-1.html

The main points to take away are these:

1) The Live team saw fit to alter the classic experience to ensure that classic special encounters were not trivialized. These had an exception to standard operation, policies, and procedures employed at the time.

2) These encounters were intended for a large number of participants. As I recall, the first world-kill on Nagafen had ~50 participants.

3) The intended audience for these encounters is stated as 40s and low 50-level characters.

4) A small number of players should not deny others the opportunity of fighting the dragons.

After seeing the recent stream of Green server slaying Nagafen, witnessing the strategy, and considering the levels and the number of players involved, I am convinced this encounter fails to achieve its intended goals.

I can't imagine anyone saying that upgrading the special encounters would ruin their classic experience. To me, the classic experience is the once described by the Live team back in 2000, stated above.

I can't imagine any raiding guilds saying they want the raids to be trivial. High risk is what consummates the rewards, makes the game exciting, and makes the battles epic.

So, if I can get any attention from the people in charge, may I request the special encounters be upgraded in difficulty, keeping with the stated intention for how they should be played? We have at least another year of Nagafen and Vox. Let's make them risky enough that failures are inevitable. Competing raid forces should be allowed take turns trying to win.

I doubt I'm the first person to suggest all this. For players who have been with Project 1999 for years, how did the conversation go and what were the highlights? Am I taking this too seriously? Let me know.