Anti-Draft Week

[WarpathEQ]

As we're in the thick of "Draft Week" it brings up a lot of thoughts about the state of P99. I considered sharing them in the UN discord but suspect it would be a giant flameroast (as this post will likely turn into as well). I figured this forum would atleast better reflect the overall population of players on the server and not just the chosen few voices of "raiding guild" members and leaders that have become the defacto controllers of the UN and therefore the gameplay experience of P99.

Like many of you I returned to the game a few months ago after a 20 year hiatus when I learned about P99 and loved the idea of reliving true classic EQ gameplay as it existed when I first left the game. In these last few months I've had the chance to participate as both an insider in the UN and an outsider. I don't really have an agenda here and quite frankly don't care if anything changes about the current state of the game. I mostly just find humor in the irony of how decisions are made and felt like sharing. Maybe there will even be some productive conversation here that promotes positive decision making for all players on P99 in the future.

Let me start by saying I completely understand why the UN exists and its necessary (evil?).

First and foremost its a survival tool that helps the Guides and GMs, many of which (if not all?) volunteer their time to ensure a fair and enjoyable P99 experience, thank you for all that you do! After all there are only so many hours in the day. The more these folks can get players to cooperate, the less problems flow up to them to address with the limited time/resources available and the more time they have to focus on positive experiences which can benefit us all.

Side Note - I would be really curious to see published stats on what % of petitions and/or GM/Guide time is spent addressing issues from players that are a part of "raiding guilds" versus those that aren't. In my experience all gameplay issues or disputes I've encountered have involved someone that is part of a "raiding guild" aka part of the UN. I suspect the raw data would support this anecdotal evidence.

Secondarily its an avenue for players to come together, collaborate, and provide new and innovative ideas. We've seen a lot of thoughts and ideas come from this and it permeates into a unique P99 experience. While there can certainly be an entirely separate debate of whether those outcomes have improved gameplay for ALL players of P99 that's not the intent of this discussion (please start your own thread if you want to discuss that further).

With all that said I've been thinking about the Irony of the UN and more specifically tasked myself with coming up with thoughts and ideas will NEVER exist in P99 under the current state of the UN.

Enter Anti-Draft Week.
I think it would be quite fair and equitable that if there is going to be a full week where anyone not part of a "raiding guild" is locked out of virtually all of the best content in EQ that it would also be equally fair that every member of a "raiding guild" is locked out of that same content for a different week at the same interval as Draft Week. I'm using the working title of Anti-Draft Week but I'm sure there is better packaging out there, maybe freedom week, FFA week, anti-establishment week, or inclusivity week who knows (again not what we're here to discuss).

Side Note - At any given time the green server has around 700-1300 active players online. By my estimation approximately 25-30% of those players are associated with "raiding guilds" that get to participate in draft week based on the amount of guilds and size of raid forces I've experienced. That means a minority of people are the driving force behind gameplay decisions and that 70-75% of active characters have no voice currently (generally not a good strategy to only cater to a fraction of your clientele).

I can't help but laugh out loud thinking how great it would be to see this happen in P99 (evil maniacle laugh) and how much crying would occur. While I myself find this concept a bit far-fetched I also will get much joy in seeing all of the explanations to follow about why this is a dumb idea only to realize that the same reasons anti-draft week is dumb actually apply to draft week in its current form from the viewpoint of the majority of players.

Enter a middle ground and the starting point for a productive and valuable thread about how the UN and gameplay in P99 could evolve to benefit ALL players.

A few actual productive thoughts I have (stepping away from the somewhat satirical post above):
1. Lock out draft week guilds from a portion of content during draft week. I.E. the Original bosses - Naggy/Vox/Phinny. Or plenty of other options such as Vindi, 6 neck dragons, spawns that require a /list ect.
2. Provide incentives to other players such as EXP, faction, or loot bonuses (on non-draft targets) during draft week.
3. Create custom FFA content that all the other players can engage in while the handful of guilds tally up all their fat draft week loots.
4. Restructure draft week so that targets aren’t locked for specific guilds to kill but instead create an FFA raid schedule where all targets will be killed during that week, with attendance and loot 100% open to all players.

Hopefully if nothing else this post leaves you with one clear takeaway. These types of ideas, and many even better ones that you will all hopefully add to this thread will never exist if we don't give a voice to more than just a handful of leaders associated with raiding guilds in the UN to decide the future state of P99.

I will now despawn my soapbox and banish myself Nagafen's Lair for its notoriously high fire resist in an attempt to survive the flaming that is about to ensue.

[Toxigen]

woke99 is gonna send you off to commie reeducation camp

[fortior]

Agreed OP. The UN and its drafts has shifted from a way to let smaller guilds enjoy content formerly reserved for the top guild(s) to a way to lock more and more content behind guild tags.

[cd288]

This ignores the fact that a guild is called a "raiding guild" because they are able to kill the targets that you can choose in the draft. There are not guilds outside of those participating in the draft that could reliably kill those targets. So an anti-draft week is pointless since it would basically be "leave all these raid mobs up for a week while no one kills them...just because"

[WarpathEQ]

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

This ignores the fact that a guild is called a "raiding guild" because they are able to kill the targets that you can choose in the draft. There are not guilds outside of those participating in the draft that could reliably kill those targets. So an anti-draft week is pointless since it would basically be "leave all these raid mobs up for a week while no one kills them...just because"

This is a somewhat valid point in that there are some pretty challenging targets out there, however the fact was not ignored. Admittedly the initial description of anti-draft week was intended to have a satirical undertone, however, examples of how this could be tackled were supplied in the OP and I hope to see even more better ideas to come. To speak in terms of these targets would never die if guild X or Y disappeared from the server is flat out categorically false.

Case and point:
1. Seal team, who would have said the same thing, no longer exists yet high end content remains extremely competitive
2. AoW was killed in an FFA in the last few weeks

In the 24 year history of EQ, in my opinion, there is only one clear thing that I know of that has prevented content from being completed - Being locked out by others.

[fortior]

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

This ignores the fact that a guild is called a "raiding guild" because they are able to kill the targets that you can choose in the draft. There are not guilds outside of those participating in the draft that could reliably kill those targets. So an anti-draft week is pointless since it would basically be "leave all these raid mobs up for a week while no one kills them...just because"

This is true for the raid mobs, but Ragefire is absolutely groupable content, and shouldn't be part of the Nagafen pick. Additionally, people have been clamoring to add stuff like Guardian Kozz to the draft, which is a soloable mob. The draft should be limited to mobs, encounters, or zones which are either already classified as raid targets or which require an organized raid to reliably kill.

[cd288]

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

This is true for the raid mobs, but Ragefire is absolutely groupable content, and shouldn't be part of the Nagafen pick. Additionally, people have been clamoring to add stuff like Guardian Kozz to the draft, which is a soloable mob. The draft should be limited to mobs, encounters, or zones which are either already classified as raid targets or which require an organized raid to reliably kill.

Been awhile since I last heard the Ragefire draft discussion, but IIRC they locked it out to ensure that it didn't interfere with someone's Nagafen pick. Logistically it makes sense.

At any rate, that's one mob and it's one single week where it's locked out. The rest of the time Ragefire is fully open and hardly monopolized at all times.

All other mobs on the draft list require and organized raid to kill. Some of the simpler mobs packaged with a pick are done so for similar logistics to prevent issues with people trying to kill their draft pick and also serve the purpose of requiring a guild to give up a pick if they want to select the package, thus leaving open more content to be drafted.

It's a great system and every guild that is reliably capable of killing raid mobs gets its shot. There are zero non-raid guilds that could reliably kill 95% of the content included in the draft so there would be no guilds that benefit from an anti-draft week.

[fortior]

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

Been awhile since I last heard the Ragefire draft discussion, but IIRC they locked it out to ensure that it didn't interfere with someone's Nagafen pick. Logistically it makes sense.

At any rate, that's one mob and it's one single week where it's locked out. The rest of the time Ragefire is fully open and hardly monopolized at all times.

All other mobs on the draft list require and organized raid to kill. Some of the simpler mobs packaged with a pick are done so for similar logistics to prevent issues with people trying to kill their draft pick and also serve the purpose of requiring a guild to give up a pick if they want to select the package, thus leaving open more content to be drafted.

It's a great system and every guild that is reliably capable of killing raid mobs gets its shot. There are zero non-raid guilds that could reliably kill 95% of the content included in the draft so there would be no guilds that benefit from an anti-draft week.

Oh, absolutely, the anti-draft week idea is stupid. But there's a kernel of truth inside, or at least a valid criticism of the draft. It shouldn't just be free pixels, it should be aimed at opening up the raid game, letting smaller guilds get their bearings and learn stuff at their own pace, etc.

In the UNs, people are unabashedly suggesting drafted Kozz, drafted Drusella, drafted scout, etc

[cd288]

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

Oh, absolutely, the anti-draft week idea is stupid. But there's a kernel of truth inside, or at least a valid criticism of the draft. It shouldn't just be free pixels, it should be aimed at opening up the raid game, letting smaller guilds get their bearings and learn stuff at their own pace, etc.

In the UNs, people are unabashedly suggesting drafted Kozz, drafted Drusella, drafted scout, etc

Ok but that's basically what the draft does right now.

People suggest things in the UN all the time. Who cares. The staff isn't going to listen to that dumb stuff. Although IMO I can see a slight argument for drafted Scout but either way undrafted is fine too.

[Drevux]

How about open sky to be FFA during draft week?