How to fix low server pop

[Ekco]

Originally Posted by zelld52 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

when Sony Interactive had hundreds of employees working on EverQuest,

it was prolly one dude who did it, fennin ro first xfer was in like 99 or early 00 iirc team was like 20 people, 1 dude hit enter and the 19 others crossed their fingers they didn't have to skip lunch that day to deal with angry nerds

like i'm borderline regarded and i'm pretty sure i could manage to merge the DBs just from the 5 minutes ive spent learning how to setup mysql and postgresql for my ai grill friend

[Castigate]

Obviously unroot the dragons.
You'd have to be blind not to realize that the spectacle of pulling ToV dragons would attract people with the quality and ease of streaming now. It was a unique experience in gaming in general.

They could probably further that growth if raiding was treated more like a sport where penalties and most violations were handled exclusively in real time. Minor penalties like a guild quickly being ejected from the zone and dumped X zones away but still allowed to play rather than the raid petition legal system with weeks of punishments as a standard that has been in place would encourage "fun" and evolving gamesmanship. I don't know how practical that is though from a server staff standpoint.

"Non-classic" obvious QoL stuff may help as well. 4 action bars, buff timers, and as much as I don't like them, even targeting rings all make the game more approachable without actually changing the "core EQ experience". These are min/max population gain solutions though and probably won't happen based on the p99 ethos.

Merging all of the servers would provide a temporary boost, but it wouldn't address the underlying decay that anything this old and stagnant will have.

[zelld52]

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

Merging all of the servers would provide a temporary boost, but it wouldn't address the underlying decay that anything this old and stagnant will have.

Real-time punishments would be epic. But GMs dont play all day like the rest of the sweatlords of p99.

But yeah, this last sentence. It's not just p99, it's all games. Games have gone from a way to pass the time, to a sweaty competition of no-lifers, to see who can gain the most pixels in a short period of time.

[cd288]

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

Obviously unroot the dragons.
You'd have to be blind not to realize that the spectacle of pulling ToV dragons would attract people with the quality and ease of streaming now. It was a unique experience in gaming in general.

They could probably further that growth if raiding was treated more like a sport where penalties and most violations were handled exclusively in real time. Minor penalties like a guild quickly being ejected from the zone and dumped X zones away but still allowed to play rather than the raid petition legal system with weeks of punishments as a standard that has been in place would encourage "fun" and evolving gamesmanship. I don't know how practical that is though from a server staff standpoint.

"Non-classic" obvious QoL stuff may help as well. 4 action bars, buff timers, and as much as I don't like them, even targeting rings all make the game more approachable without actually changing the "core EQ experience". These are min/max population gain solutions though and probably won't happen based on the p99 ethos.

Merging all of the servers would provide a temporary boost, but it wouldn't address the underlying decay that anything this old and stagnant will have.

Lmao found the way too immersed raider who enjoys griefing the other guilds

[cd288]

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

And honestly, might also point to why the servers were merged so early on in the classic timeline ~

Huh?? The servers were merged once Teal was no longer necessary. When Teal was launched the staff explicitly said that it was a temporary server to fix overcrowding with newbie and low level zones and would be removed once the population spread out a little bit beyond the first like 12 levels. That's what they did.

[kaltice34]

My idea on fixing server pop

Merge green into blue

All population on one server now rather than split with uneven proportions.

Never make a green again. It ruined blue. Blue used to be very fun at all levels and once green came along that all went away.

Blue used to be a place you could go and find a group in unrest or mistmoore. It was fun leveling a new character up, meeting new people, having those oh crap moments, overcoming a particularly difficult mob or situation..

Nowadays, blue is mostly a graveyard pre level 50. It is very difficult if not impossible to find a group. If you do find someone in unrest or the sort, they are usually super twinked out and not always willing to group up.

We need to merge the servers, bring the community back together, and learn to group again. Have fun leveling that new warrior or cleric or whatever your fancy is.

With servers like Quarm and The Hero's Journey taking population as well I don't think it is worthy to have the limited population split on 2 servers. Bring everyone together.

Make Blue Server Great Again!

[Castigate]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Lmao found the way too immersed raider who enjoys griefing the other guilds

I don't know you, but most of your posts in this thread are non-constructive griefing of peoples ideas. You've offered no solutions yourself. I haven't played in several years, but this was never about griefing, it's about what provides people an exciting experience that would make server number go up. I never once raided to grief, it was always for the fun of the raid experience here.

[chillybob]

Originally Posted by kaltice34 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Never make a green again. It ruined blue. Blue used to be very fun at all levels and once green came along that all went away.

teal & green were the first time they ever had an era-accurate patch cycle, their first real attempt at 'recreating classic everquest'.
I'm sorry that you missed out and feel this way, but blue was just the blueprint for a bigger project. As someone who played blue launch, it was nowhere close to what teal/green became. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[cd288]

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

I don't know you, but most of your posts in this thread are non-constructive griefing of peoples ideas. You've offered no solutions yourself. I haven't played in several years, but this was never about griefing, it's about what provides people an exciting experience that would make server number go up. I never once raided to grief, it was always for the fun of the raid experience here.

The server pop is down because it's an old mudflated server and there are new alternatives that people have been enjoying.

The only thing needed to "fix" the server pop is to launch a new Green (or otherwise just merge the servers regardless).

[zelld52]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The server pop is down because it's an old mudflated server and there are new alternatives that people have been enjoying.

The only thing needed to "fix" the server pop is to launch a new Green (or otherwise just merge the servers regardless).

What do you think the actual lifespan of these servers is? 2.5 years? 3 years tops? I've played on Green since late Kunark - and it was thriving until maybe a few months after Chardok 2.0... So October 2019 ~ October 2022 before it all came crashing down. Been living in the wreckage since.

Hear that, dev team? 3 year cycles. Allows players a year with Velious before pulling the plug and fresh-wiping the servers.