System rotation target ?

[tekniq]

Due to the way raid targets are setup, you just have to accept it for what it is. you can't emulate the "classic feel" for everything. one thing i miss about classic is the challenge of taking down raid targets with the fewest numbers - that made you the baddest guild on the server, not because you have the most people in your guild with the luxury of having people as robots sitting there tracking targets for 4 out of 7 days.

I noticed that on this server, in order to get the gear you want, EQ has to be a really high priority in your life. I came to accept the fact that I will probably never see/fight any raid targets because I'm not part of the power guilds. My guild is tier2/3 and by the time we want to get something, TR and the like is already there. Yea it upset me, but now I just accepted it. You really have to have a lot of spare time or massive numbers if you want to hit a raid target.

If you're a working man, have a family, and a general life outside gaming, you probably won't hit any raid targets unless you're in the power guilds. Though it would be nice to take down a god/dragon with few numbers from a tier2 guild, mobilizing and rushing by the power guilds will force you to hit mobs before you are really ready, but that's what makes this server p99, not classic. This server is not designed for boss-fighting strategy, rather the "strategy" is placed on mobilization. EQ on this server has evolved and will never be fully classic.

Honestly, the only suggestion I can make that can satisfy people like me (who don't have the luxury of playing EQ all day) and the hard-core gamers is a god/dragon repop simultaneously. Since all dragons/gods are taken down within minutes of spawn, once the last dragon/god has been hit, the timer will be reset for next week during the window and next week all gods/dragons will simultaneously pop within the window. As someone said, this will force guilds to prioritize which mob is most important for them and give the lesser guilds opportunities to take down old-world targets. Competition will still be thriving and there will most likely be less /petitions due to it, BUT in reality, i doubt the GMs will do shit about it, but I do believe this will be the fairest for all guilds and possibly the most fun. Also if this strategy is put in place, 24/7 hard-core trackers will prolong their lives roughly on average of 2 years due to the fact that they won't sit there burning their eyes staring at a computer screen eating a bag of funyuns and will also give them an opportunity to shower and exercise which will benefit RL health [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.], but like i said, it is what it is I doubt anything will change and you just gotta accept it the way it is. if you want consistent phat lewtz, go join TR.

my 2c.

[Marley]

TR are very skilled, I give them that. They are not gods though. They do wipe. Rush them to engage, you'll get your shot.

[nambar]

The problem with the server isn't variance, it's the lack of raiding know-how for everyone but TR.

Get your acts together. This game is 14 years old how do you still not know how to play it? Make your members get resist gear, make everyone get an Overthere hammer for quicker ports organizing, etc. God these things are basic. I swear most of you just show up at a raid mob and think you're set for loot and act surprise when you wipe and TR strolls in and kills it.

Stop letting just any clown into your guild. Make sure they have proper gear and knowledge, screen them for godsakes. Don't be like TMO and run around with 400 members but can only kill Inny on patch days.

You'd feel a lot more competition and see more races if it weren't just Ascension attempting (and losing) to beat TR.

[Skope]

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

If you want a mob, then put in the effort to get it.

As far as changing how raid targets spawn, I am not the one who makes the decision...but I doubt it is going to change simply because theres no reason to change it. Raid targets are meant to be highly competitive, and thats exactly how it is.

Hobby, when in the history of any EQ live server did time = effort? Anyone who says time = effort, especially in the case of raiding, is flat out lying to themselves. The notion of tracking for 4 days to batphone when something spawns is something that was invented HERE. You want to call it effort? I'll call it unnecessary p99 behavior. How's that? I spent more time tracking pegasus than i ever did a single target. You know why? because you didn't have to track targets. Live servers didn't batphone because the people didn't have phones, but because there were no windows at all. You may have gotten an email when a server taken down to race to the targets that came up, but never because someone sat in the zone for 96 hours to wait for something to pop and you dropped what you were doing at the drop of a dime. on live you had 5-6 guilds at one spawn. I can recall 4 guilds at trak and the guildleaders discussing between themselves how to settle it. THAT was EQ. The concept of "racing" was invented here. On live the only racing that was done was when a server came back up or when there were 2 targets that spawned at ~the same time (which was incredibly frequent because of how common it was for live servers to go down and back up again, but because of variance you very very very rarely have that here). This notion of "racing", aka answering a batphone and spending 4 pointless days waiting for something to spawn, is strictly a p99 thing. You can do without it -- that's called classic.

This idea that no variance will lead to poopsocking is just as flat-out idiotic. With FTE rules there is no poopsocking. Don't like FTE because it'll cause too much drama and GM involvement? Make it /random. Whoever gets there 20mins beforehand with 20+ gets to /random and you go in that order. Hell, make it FFA and train your asses off, i don't care. What i do care about is that the single thing that's furthest from the actual classic experience here is this decrepit crutch that was put up to stop shitty behavior from guilds that ultimately didn't work or help, and now people are looking for any reason we can muster up to keep it. As it stands, variance does only one thing, and that's limit GM involvement. The reality is that it can be handled far better than using a gigantic window. The better question, though, is why it's being handled at all? The GMs should decide to let the players work it out... you know, like real everquest.

It's not classic.

[Dravingar]

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

The concept of "racing" was invented here. On live the only racing that was done was when a server came back up or when there were 2 targets that spawned at ~the same time
It's not classic.

Holy shit, You never played classic. Racing happened every single day but with way more trains/drama/KS'ing than on here.

[Skope]

Yes it did, but between targets, server ups and knowing when things would spawn. THAT was live racing. 4 days of waiting and 15 minutes of racing isn't the way live worked, and that's what i'm getting at. Trains/KSing depends on the server rules and raid rules, and can comfortably say that there's far more drama here than there was on live.

[Susanbanthony]

Originally Posted by Splorf22 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I much prefer Susanbanthony/Skope's suggestion of just popping all the raid targets at once, but with no variance, about once a week (I suggest every 6 days 18 hours to rotate through all timezones) and temporarily suspending all rules in the raid zones for about two hours.

I think there are a number of huge advantages:

1. Raid night immediately becomes a huge event for the 50+ crowd. The server population would be 1200+ easily. With all targets up the uberguilds would make sure 100% of their population was on.
2. Casual players actually have a chance to either make time in their schedule or just skip the event. Smaller guilds can ally for targets.
3. With training and ks'ing OK for the event, the challenge and excitement level would go way up. You can't just clear a few roamers on the way to Cazic Thule any more, you have to burn down the zone or risk some other guild dropping it on you. Raid night would probably last 5-6 hours before all the mobs were down because of this.
4. Alternatively, players could just play nice and divide up the targets reasonably (kinda boring IMO).
5. This is easy to try. Just schedule it once and see what happens.

I like this idea just as a p99 social experiment to see how guild leaders handle things... option 3 or option 4.

[Dravingar]

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

and can comfortably say that there's far more drama here than there was on live.

Look at our FnR, we have a ton of drama!

[Skope]

It's just... silly.

The GMs are encouraging a certain way of raiding that's completely unnecessary. If they want us out of their hair there are a dozen different ways of doing it that won't rape the classic feel of raiding and would actually be more efficient at decreasing the amount of petitions.

[Duie]

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

Aside from this, those old world bosses still drop stuff that's amazing until well into velious:
-BCG is a best in slot item for all int and wis casters + priests + bards who have a CoF or CoP.
-Naggy and Vox still drop dragon haste, gaunlets of fiery might, tobrins eyepatches, red and white dragon scales that are useful for what they make and for epics.
-Innoruuk drops encylopedia that makes necro pets absurdly powerful.
-CT drops a sweet robe that doesn't really have a replacement until you kill phara dar.

Do you see where I'm going with this? All of these mobs you want the top guilds to ignore drop things which are legitimate upgrades for our members, especially the new members we have to take in to compensate for the relatively high turnover on an EMU server. We are not killing them just to say we did it, we are killing them because we need the loot as well to get stronger and stay competitive.

as you mentioned you will get upgrades as soon as vp goes into play. by tier one agreeing to this they will also get first crack at epic so the dragonscale point is mute as well as CT /Inny(which would be defaulted to you if the said guild couldnt kill them). You are also not seeing that tier 2 and 3 would be giving up what is considered top priority targets(IE curently all of kunark dragons and VS). Tiers would work and what I wrote down is a rough draft. Tier rules would have to be something everyone could live with and thus guild Leaders would have to sit down and come up with said rules.

Something else you are missing as well. In a tier system you would not be recruiting unequiped players. By the time a player gets bored or wants to join the top dogs , they are mostlikely going to have planer and dragon loot from the old world. Human nature dictates youll still get your recruits But more likely than not, you wont have to backtrackto get the new batch equiped