server population

[Fazlazen]

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

Lazortag is right. Eliminate variance, add mob FTE shout to the zone, name and guild. It would be far more Classic than this artificial "whichever guild has the most trackers wins every raid" joke. And it would end poopsocking. You simply show up to the mob when he is due to spawn, and engage it when it pops. This will eliminate both tracking and squatting, two activities that were never Classic yet dominate the endgame raid scene on P99, to the detriment of most of the server.

It is the most Classic, simple, and beneficial change that could take place in the raid scene.

I prefer the system as it is currently then having 150 people on spawn point knowing exactly when it will pop trying to engage the mob first...

[Lazortag]

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

Lazortag is right. Eliminate variance, add mob FTE shout to the zone, name and guild. It would be far more Classic than this artificial "whichever guild has the most trackers wins every raid" joke. And it would end poopsocking. You simply show up to the mob when he is due to spawn, and engage it when it pops. This will eliminate both tracking and squatting, two activities that were never Classic yet dominate the endgame raid scene on P99, to the detriment of most of the server.

It is the most Classic, simple, and beneficial change that could take place in the raid scene.

I definitely didn't say I supported this, although if variance were eliminated altogether I sincerely believe it would be better than the way things are now (not ideal, but still better). I prefer simultaneous repops though, and I think that's the only change that has any chance of being implemented.

[Slave]

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

I prefer the system as it is currently then having 150 people on spawn point knowing exactly when it will pop trying to engage the mob first...

Of course you do, because you prefer easy victories for your megaguild, even at the cost of the rest of the server, and even if it goes against the whole premise of being a 1999 experience. Yet there are so many targets even in Kunark that most guilds would prefer going for the less-taken raid mobs on a repop, and you would end up with the very few guilds able to take Trakanon trying for teeth and breastplates, and other guilds killing targets like Innoruuk and Maestro, or Draco and CT, or VS and the dragons. It would be a glorious bounty for all, compared to the current system of tracking and squatting. One or two repops in a month could accomplish this, another completely Classic experience.

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

I definitely didn't say I supported this, although if variance were eliminated altogether I sincerely believe it would be better than the way things are now (not ideal, but still better). I prefer simultaneous repops though, and I think that's the only change that has any chance of being implemented.

If variance was eliminated, there would be near-simultaneous repops anyway once there was one server reset. It serves the function of destroying 1) the tracking mechanic, 2) the poopsocking strategy, and 3) one guild dominance. It's win-win-win. Even for TMO, who will no longer have to spend countless hours competing with the now-surging BDA. The competition will be for the split-second engage. The guild with more players will still have an advantage in that, but nobody will have to spend hours and hours in unClassic poopsocking.

If you do not think that is an ideal solution, then what is? Nothing else even comes close to this solution in simplicity, Classic-ness, and results.

[Zuranthium]

The game was called Everquest. Think about it:

EVER. QUEST.

The point of the game was supposed to be that you are experiencing an alternate World which continuously has something new for you to discover, overcome, or be engaged by; always an adventure to go on. When there is no more adventure left, there is no more Everquest. Sitting around camping for drops or level grind and doing the exact same fights over and over and over is not what the game was supposed to be about.

Everquest has an amazing World. The landscapes and zones and creatures and lots of other little touches are eminently more enthralling for whatever reason than that of any other audiovisual MMORPG to date. Again, though, all of those wonderful qualities cease to have much value when the game itself stops immersing you into that World.

What Everquest needs to have, for the game to adhere to the original vision of what it was supposed to be and for it to continue being the amazing game that people got drawn into during the beginning, is constantly changing content. Players should never know exactly how an area is going to spawn or exactly where many of the items/rewards in the game are going to drop. Obviously some drops need to be static to give each area of the game its own unique draw, but the content itself that you have to fight in order to get those drops should be ever-changing. Players need to have reason to constantly explore the entire game World and they need to be constantly challenged by the encounters.

Without that element, no MMORPG these days will ever be "the classic Everquest experience" or be the game that Everquest should have been. The sad thing is that the people in charge of the companies creating these games are not allowing such a thing to exist. They only want to get in on the WoW model because they believe it to be the easiest/best way to make cash. They are wrong. I'm not sure how many of you followed HORIZONS from early development, but that very well could have been the game which picked up where Everquest failed and allowed "the classic Everquest experience" to be revived and evolve into the next level of dynamic gaming. Unfortunately, the creator behind the game got overthrown by the ignorant producers and thus they ruined the game and we never got to see what it was intended to be.

Guild Wars 2 looks to be another MMORPG that finally tries to bring back what Everquest should be, however I disapprove of the design and mechanics of that game. It just doesn't have the same level of personality, originality, and immersion as Everquest.

So that brings us to p1999. A game with capable developers who have succeeded in corralling the largest population ever for an Everquest emulator. This is not Everquest, though. It can't be, because you've missed out on the SOUL of what Everquest actually was. I wish you guys would realize what made Everquest the game it was and start trying to bring THAT back. You need to have dynamic content or it doesn't work. p1999 could be a relatively huge game with a constant 10k+ population (more servers would need to open obviously) if you stopped with this futile attempt of simply cloning the shell of EQ as it was over a decade ago. Use the Everquest World as it was intended to be used and create a real living, breathing, ever-changing gaming environment. It would be a smash and people who want to relive "the classic Everquest experience", or experience it for the first time, would get far more out of it and continue playing for far longer than what we are currently seeing.

[Acillatem]

The whole variance vs static respawn is a Catch-22. With variance, you have more tracking (ugh)/ racing upon pop. With static respawns, you have more poopsocking (ugh) and racing for FTE. If every guild knows Trak respawns at 3pm, you can bet yer ass every guild is going to have a raid force in Trak's lair by 2pm hoping they can claim FTE. That's not a solution. That is just a different set of problems.

Both options have their pros and cons. And that's the problem. But whatever.

Server population needs a fix on both ends. The bottom end needs a steady stream of incoming players.

The top end needs to find a COMPROMISE to the current situation that appeases all sides. If a compromise can be found for Ragefire, it can be found elsewhere as well.

Everyone is going to have their own opinions on how to fix the top-end, so I will leave that animal alone. However getting new players to the server is something we all can do. Word of mouth. Comments on EQ vids on Youtube. Comments on gaming forums / other forums you belong to. Hell put a flyer up at your local Gamestop. Put an ad on Craigs List - wtf ever. There are lots of things we, the playerbase, can do as a community if it means that much to you to keep this thing going.

[Fists]

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

The whole variance vs static respawn is a Catch-22. With variance, you have more tracking (ugh)/ racing upon pop. With static respawns, you have more poopsocking (ugh) and racing for FTE. If every guild knows Trak respawns at 3pm, you can bet yer ass every guild is going to have a raid force in Trak's lair by 2pm hoping they can claim FTE. That's not a solution. That is just a different set of problems.

Both options have their pros and cons. And that's the problem. But whatever.

Server population needs a fix on both ends. The bottom end needs a steady stream of incoming players.

The top end needs to find a COMPROMISE to the current situation that appeases all sides. If a compromise can be found for Ragefire, it can be found elsewhere as well.

Everyone is going to have their own opinions on how to fix the top-end, so I will leave that animal alone. However getting new players to the server is something we all can do. Word of mouth. Comments on EQ vids on Youtube. Comments on gaming forums / other forums you belong to. Hell put a flyer up at your local Gamestop. Put an ad on Craigs List - wtf ever. There are lots of things we, the playerbase, can do as a community if it means that much to you to keep this thing going.

[Zuranthium]

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

The whole variance vs static respawn is a Catch-22. With variance, you have more tracking (ugh)/ racing upon pop. With static respawns, you have more poopsocking (ugh) and racing for FTE. If every guild knows Trak respawns at 3pm, you can bet yer ass every guild is going to have a raid force in Trak's lair by 2pm hoping they can claim FTE. That's not a solution. That is just a different set of problems.

Once again, the problem comes down to the fact that the content itself is static. It doesn't really matter if there is variance in the repops or not, the encounters are the exact same every time and it's too easy to "win". What the game really needs are encounters constantly changing so that guilds frequently lose when they try to fight the big Dragons/Gods/etc, and then after they lose the next guild in line gets a shot. Similarly, there should be new encounters popping up throughout the game World, both in the form of everyone being able to take part regardless of guild and also in the form of individual guilds spawning the content via quests they achieve as a collective.

That said, if the game content is going to remain static, there are other ways of adding depth to that static content. Namely, guilds should have to COMPETE against each other to have the RIGHTS to raid certain areas for a select amount of time. There are multiple ways to go about this:

The first would be Guild vs Guild PvP matches, with set item restrictions (and number of players) so that it's about PLAYER SKILL and TEAMWORK that decides who wins, not who has farmed more items or has the biggest guild. This would add a whole new dimension to the game, very favorably so. It removes the random element of PvP that people dislike about "Red" Everquest servers, instead creating PvP fights that players willingly engage in and prepare for on equal terms.

The second method would be having Guilds engage in dungeon crawls, with a capped number of people per team, and seeing which guild can "beat" a certain area in the game the fastest. Whichever Guild wins gets first selection of what area they want to raid. The guild who finishes 2nd in the challenge gets the next selection, and so on and so forth until all of the guilds who finished top 8 in the challenge that week (or whatever the period of time would be, perhaps every 5 days or maybe even less) have claimed all of the raid areas. Those guilds then get a certain amount of time to raid the areas they have claimed and if they fail it becomes open to other guilds.

Both of those ideas could also be incorporated into an Everquest with non-static content simply to introduce a leaderboard for bragging rights or maybe even still to lay claim over certain areas of the game for that guild for a certain amount of time. There's tons of potential out there. p1999 can be so much more and the game of Everquest deserves it.

[Fists]

The chance of having unique encounters and changing content on this server is extremely low, so why even post that as an option. That idea has been thrown out and the only time it's ever been considered is a year + after Velious.

As for any of these suggestions; how would they be implemented? We haven't had a GM Event in quite some time, guildwar was implemented iirc but has not been used at all.

[Vostok]

I get the impression this is all going to change come velious (in the year 2018) when their is going to be simply to much raid content. that's what i've been told anyway.

[Slave]

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

The whole variance vs static respawn is a Catch-22. With variance, you have more tracking (ugh)/ racing upon pop. With static respawns, you have more poopsocking (ugh) and racing for FTE. If every guild knows Trak respawns at 3pm, you can bet yer ass every guild is going to have a raid force in Trak's lair by 2pm hoping they can claim FTE. That's not a solution. That is just a different set of problems.

You have literally just compared a 15 minute raid on a mob to tracking and poopsocking each target for hours. Do you even understand what a gigantic difference you're talking about here? I really don't think you do.