Reducing the ZEM for the most common leveling zones

[Izmael]

Crushbone, Unrest, Mistmoore, City of Mist, Karnor's Castle.

These zones share the following characteristics which make the the most common zones for leveling for the Nth time:

- Binding available fairly close
- Outdoors - SoW means you can train to zone with very little risk of death
- Ease of access - twinks bring their high levels in the zone to buff / res / etc.


I suggest these zones have their ZEM reduced by a lot. I mean a LOT - make it really painful to level in these zones. If you want safe boring exp, you'll have to settle with very slow leveling. I'd say divide the ZEM there by 3 at least, 4 ideally.

This will make the following zones so much more attractive, repopulating them and therefore making the server more classic:

- Befallen
- Gorge of King Xorrb
- Runnyeye
- Paw
- Dalnir
- Guk
- Sol a
- Sol b
- Najena
- Kedge Keep
- ??? Can't think of them all atm.

The above zones are ghost towns most of the time and could use more attractivity.

Thank you for your attention.

Edit: It could also make sense to reduce ZEM for the follow outdoors zones so people just dont flock there for easy exp - DL, BW, OT, FV (maybe more..). Fiddling with ZEM is perfectly classic so no worries about that.

[Munkh]

I don't feel you should reduce these zone by a lot. I think reducing them some and then bumping other zones to match or be on par with those higher traffic zones would help spread some of the people who are leveling toons.

I agree it can at times become overcrowded in these "hot zones" and some balance would be a nice welcome.

[Secrets]

Or just use the classic ZEMs:

http://wiki.takp.info/index.php?titl...ence_Modifiers

I don't believe P99 uses the classic ZEMs at the moment.

[kgallowaypa]

How about swapping the ZEM's on a monthly basis or something like that to encourage movement around different zones than just kill CoM or KC

[Samoht]

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

I suggest these zones have their ZEM reduced by a lot. I mean a LOT - make it really painful to level in these zones.

You're approaching this wrong. You don't need to be punished for playing CB > Unrest > MM > CoM > KC. The game needs to encourage you to level somewhere else by offering bonus EXP. They approached this on EQLive by doing rotating hot zones.

I would love to see more players in places like Guk, ToFS, Droga, and Velks. Or hell even more people leveling in ThurgB, Kael, or SS.

[mcoy]

The issue is not ZEM-related alone, however. For example, I believe on p99 the "bonus" applied to Befallen is the highest in game. However, it's still less frequented than CB because of the whole "orc belts / pads" quest line. The amount of experience given from those turn-ins (and the bone chip quest) cause many to skip the "killing" aspect of leveling for a majority of the 1-20 experience. This is repeated across many other "turn ins" around Norrath.

Additionally, using Guk from your example - I frequently see groups in upper, but it's rare to see someone in the 30-50 range (successfully) LFG in lower - because any camp that has the potential to drop something is perma-camped. Even if the camp is one of the less-desired ones (ass/sup) it's still almost always cleared because it's so easy to get to, and the 28m respawns enable 1 person (of the appropriate class) to clear multiple areas.

In classic I believe the ZEMs on some of the newb zones were inflated to make up for the fact that repeated deaths were a given, and spending a night playing only to end up prior to where you had started (xp wise) was (for some) a major turn off. With the economy of P99 there just aren't enough untwinked players around, so it skews the overall result and appears to just be an xp farm.

Thank god there's no Paludal Caverns... That place just existed to remove the newb experience altogether.

I'm not saying anything needs to be changed or fixed - just providing some of (what I believe) to be the reason behind your experience with the aforementioned zones.

-Mcoy

[mcoy]

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

You're approaching this wrong. You don't need to be punished for playing CB > Unrest > MM > CoM > KC. The game needs to encourage you to level somewhere else by offering bonus EXP. They approached this on EQLive by doing rotating hot zones.

I would love to see more players in places like Guk, ToFS, Droga, and Velks. Or hell even more people leveling in ThurgB, Kael, or SS.

Same here. One of my favorite grouping experiences in live was in Velks. I don't think I've ever successfully found anything more than a duo/trio here though. I've had to resort to just listening to an mp3 of the zone music...

-Mcoy

[Izmael]

Leaving the "regular" exp zones ZEM the same and increasing unused zones ZEM wouldn't be optimal. It's not like leveling on p99 is hard. It's 2017. People know the game. People know how to level fast.

As it is, Befallen's ZEM is already highest in game, and yet nobody goes there, bar a few PL'd twinks. Same for Kedge, you name it.

Simply put, 150% or even 200% more exp per kill isn't enough for people to bother going to these zones because of so many factors:

- penalty of death, tough CR's
- can't SoW
- no binds nearby
- tough zones with lots of casters and/or mob density

That's why it must be at least 3x or even 4x or 5x better exp in these zones. Then people will come.

Since increasing unsused zones' ZEM by 400% or 500% isn't going to happen - EQ dev's don't want people to level faster - and rightly so, I suggest to reduce the overused zones' ZEM by that much.

Seems like a logical approach to me.


I've been running around Dalnir today. Obviously, I was alone in the zone. It's an awesome, complex, challenging zone, yet nobody goes there ever.

This has to change.

MAKE LEVELING GREAT AGAIN

[kgallowaypa]

I was just in befallen last week before I went red and I met a few good people, all first toons non-twinked trying their best..but kedge and dalnir IS empty haha.. Are you proposing taking the slice of pie of some unused ZEM's like befallen and moving them around?

[Izmael]

No, set CB, Unrest, MM, CoM, KC ZEM to 20%.

Watch people learn "new" zones and enjoy EQ like back in 1999.