Help non soloable classes

[Dolalin]

Given time, pop will trend towards 99% of players at level 50, and a vast wasteland below it. This wasteland will cease being a grouping game, and become soloers or people being powerlevelled.

This WILL happen. NO question about it.

What will be our reaction?

That's the important question. Because there's attrition at level 50. Some number of people will quit every week. If you have no newbies coming in, and people slowly quitting at level 50, the server dies. That's how it always happens, in every game. Old EQ, DAoC, Vanguard, WAR, WoW, on and on...the same story, over and over again.

Right now, we're seeing the early warning signs of real problems for new players. This community better sit down and decide what to do, right now, and not put this off any longer. If we're not willing to accommodate people, they're not gonna roll new chars here, and we're up shit creek.

In a month or so, considering adjusting the XP curve for newbies, or even tweaking things like bind wound; those are going to seem gentle options, compared to how desperate for new blood we may become.

[Reiker]

We're not at that point. Like 2% of the population is at 50. When it gets worse, they may open up boxing. No point really getting worried about it.

[Dolalin]

I didn't say we were at that point.

I said we should plan what to do once we get there. Because it won't be long. A month or two at the outside.

Why not have the action plan ready now, and ready to go once the situation arises? We know it's coming. Why wait until the last possible minute? That's an ostrich mentality.

[Bubbles]

Karsten GRINDED.

No one should be questing his integrity or dedication.

He picked about the worst race for a insanely hard to level class, and from day one he grinded and formed groups and gutted it out the legit way.

I solo'd a cleric for the vast majority of my grinding. I didnt kill gnomes, dorfs, guards or any of the short cuts.

I never got an XP res that I didnt cast on myself coming up. Which means i didnt get any at all till 39+.

This game is not overly hard. I did plenty of soloing on my warrior, who wasnt even remotely as twinked as anyone thought. Hell I didnt have a PGT, a cloak, a mask, earrings, belt, or any of that jazz. I had an Obsidian Scimitar. And judicious use of bind wound and picking my spots (vital) I had little trouble grinding up through the ranks, playing that silly time slot of midnight to 8am EST.

Get the heck out of fayder. Your up and coming groups now are in eccommons, nro and oasis. There's zero reason to go to fayder until unrest/mistmoore becomes a reality. Those CB Belts won't help you if you cannot find groups.

You're a warrior, go where the shaman and clerics are. Hint: you wont find shamans anywhere near Fayder until they can SOW at 9, and evil race shammys are going to hit Guk and Oasis cuz it's closer to home.

You simply cant stand around on fayder and complain that you can't find groups. It's the obvious ending to a bad movie: there aren't many groups on fayder, and the majority of your classes starting there (esp this late in the game) are enchanters and mages and wizards and other classes that dont mesh well with a warrior. Most Dorf Clerics are going to hop right on that boat to FP, cuz that's where the action is.

Go where the clerics are. If you still can't find groups, figure out if you can change the times of day you play. If that doesnt work, re-roll as something that can solo till groups become available. I can tell you right now a naked mage or necro is going to have a lot more options than an armored tank.

You have to mold yourself to the server.. You can't pick the lousiest time of day to play and the most group-dependant class and expect us to play you sonatas on the worlds tiniest violins. Karsten is right: be pro-active. If that doesnt change your luck around, then simply re-roll.

If you get to freeport and still cant find any action to get in on, then you *tried*. But if you are married to crushbone or blackburrow, you are putting yourself in the hands of fate. And Fate is a cruel, cruel b!tch.

hugs : o

[Widan]

It's like you didn't even read the thread.

Edit: Your points have all been brought up and addressed, feel free to read from the first post to the end. It isn't the poopsockers who hold games together, it's the casual player.

[Bubbles]

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

I didn't say we were at that point.

I said we should plan what to do once we get there. Because it won't be long. A month or two at the outside.

Why not have the action plan ready now, and ready to go once the situation arises? We know it's coming. Why wait until the last possible minute? That's an ostrich mentality.

Welcome to Project 1999. The land of lacking foresight and knee-jerk reactions.

In all seriousness though, from day one this server swelled far and beyond what anyone forecast. An admirable job has been done along the way to keep this place functionally and slightly resembling the state of EQ in 1999.

By the time this 'problem' comes to fruition, there will be a zillion iksar monks and shaman running around to form the basis of groups for all the stragglers. It should fix itself splendidly. Believe me when i say not everyone has a mage/cleric duo or druid that is going to gleefully follow them form 1-50 on their alts.

No matter what way you slice it, those coming up in the next gen of this server are going to have it easier: better geared groupmates, xp resses, high level buffs, almost classic potions and poisons, FIXED quests, a boatload of beta-tested content, and a ecnomy that sells the stuff they need to level for pennies on the dollar.

It will all be okay. Anyone who's struggling mightily should probably head back to WoW and hit that loot pinata a few more times and solo to their hearts content. We all know this game is difficult and heartbreaking going into it. If you roll a group-needing, gear-dependant class, you should know going in your are making life difficult on yourself. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Bubbles]

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

It's like you didn't even read the thread.

oh i read it. I read all of it. and I'm never getting that time back.

If i didn't read it, I would have posted "TLDR" or "Don't Care".

I addressed both major issues in my posts that came up in the thread. If you don't agree with me thats fine.

I wasn't going to bust out a magic wand and presto-chango a fayder group or soloing gear for you.

Go to freeport/oasis area.. Move on to Unrest/Mistmoore/Guk/SolA. Profit. If the hours you play aren't helping you out any, change your hours or switch to a different class. /shrug. What else can we tell you?

Melee had *serious* issues until the patch last week. They've seen a remarkable improvement. The GMs handed out 1/4 pound hamburgers and this thread is basically pounding on the table demanding fries and a shake, too.

If the whole point of this thread is simply "The Casual Player gets left behind in EQ", well then bravo. That was something we all didnt realize and something that hasn't been going on since 1999....

err wait it has.

You can't solo efficiently. This is obvious. You can't find groups on Fayder.. This is obvious. You have trouble finding groups anywhere at off-peak hours. This is obvious. Karsten comes in and tells you how he grinded through without getting any special perks, and you basically $#!t all over him. We can lead you to water. We can't make you drink. What we cant do is destroy our integrity like Sony and give you mounts and mercenarys and a never ending supply of quests that give you XP instead of killing monsters and fast porting and whateverthehellelse happened after I said goodbye mid-Veilous. This ain't the place to find any of that... you can pop on a blindfold and pick any other server and have that kind of experience.

This server is hard? Good. It's supposed to be. If the casual player who won't leave their comfort zone leveled like mad and breezed through content, we'd be playing WoW or EQ expansion #37 Tales of Fippy or whatever. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Widan]

No, you certainly did not. Otherwise you wouldn't have posted this:

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

Go to freeport/oasis area.. Move on to Unrest/Mistmoore/Guk/SolA. Profit. If the hours you play aren't helping you out any, change your hours or switch to a different class. /shrug. What else can we tell you?

These are unreasonable demands of the casual gamer. I don't see how you can expect to entice new players to continue on this server with replies of play different hours or play a different class.

Also, this is not EQ, this is an emu. You cannot survive without the casual gamer.

[Bubbles]

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

No, you certainly did not. Otherwise you wouldn't have posted this:



These are unreasonable demands of the casual gamer. I don't see how you can expect to entice new players to continue on this server with replies of play different hours or play a different class.

Oh i read all that.

Notice the first sentence which provided viable options, and then further alternatives if those options weren't up to snuff?

This is a 1999 classic EQ emulated server. It isn't aimed toward the casual guy who blindly clicks on the emu list. We aren't exactly mass-advertising. That isn't our target audience. This server is an exercise in nostalgia for those that miss the classic game the way Brad and Gordon and John intended. That game wasn't favorable to the casual player either.

I simply don't understand what you want us to say here.

I could start a thread saying how we arent attracting enough hot chicks to the server, and we'd come to pretty much the same conclusion.

Here's an idea: make a list of demands, something we can follow along with and maybe we'll get something constructive out of all of this.

If you're going to continue to yell "It's too hard!" "Its not casual-friendly" while covering your ears, not much is gonna come out of it.

For the record : I was 100% against them messing with the boat translocators for *exactly* this reason. Anyone with connections wouldn't care, and it would drastically eff over the casual player. Don't assume we are against you, or even not on your side in the first place. Just cuz we speak from the hip, give it straight, and dont sugar coat our opinions doesn't mean we don't care. We really do.

If you need a buff or a res or a port, we can make that happen. If you want a bunch of people to be meandering between level 10-30 during off peak hours, that's a *much* taller order. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Reiker]

Lol advice = unreasonable demands