Current "EXP bonus"

[SearyxTZ]

A group exp bonus would do nothing for the mid level casual player (or anyone unguilded)


If this box had hotzones we wouldn't be talking about fucking with the xp rate or a lack of pvp.

[Dullah]

I also like the group exp bonus vs flat bonus. For a small server such as this, its much more in line with the spirit of the game. Its one thing to have 2000 players on the server and thus, groups everywhere and solo classes that can pick at the mobs around the edges for xp. Here people can't even get the numbers to fill the groups because casters simply opt out of groups in favor of fast exp.

How does a group bonus imbalance other aspects?

[SearyxTZ]

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

I also like the group exp bonus vs flat bonus. For a small server such as this, its much more in line with the spirit of the game. Its one thing to have 2000 players on the server and thus, groups everywhere and solo classes that can pick at the mobs around the edges for xp. Here people can't even get the numbers to fill the groups because casters simply opt out of groups in favor of fast exp.

Where are you going to find groups?


You realize that most zones outside of the 51+ ones have 1-2 players in them (or none)? I'm not theorycrafting this either. I kept tabs while I was playing my monk. Most of the time it was just me by my lonesome in any kunark zone outside of Dreadlands.

"Here people can't even get the numbers to fill the groups because casters simply opt out of groups in favor of fast exp."

This isn't why there aren't groups.

I'm repeating this for like the 20th time, but again, the problem is too many zones and too few players spread across said zones.

They need a way to solve that and cluster players together better. If the low and mid level game was actually interesting (ie: other players in the zones for pvp/grouping), we wouldn't be so concerned about speeding it up.

[runlvlzero]

In some ways your are correct Searyx, but for the most part the pro's will already have their twinks and PL teams lined up so the aged "mature" server community (those been around) are not really affected deeply by "XP bonus's".

Its there primarily for the noob. or new players. perhaps leaving some sort of bonus in for soloing would be good and balancing it with better group bonus's. So people dont feel overly penalized. But someone who wants to roll a mage or necro can quickly level with xp at old school classic rates and do their "solo" thing without being hurt. For the true soloists its not a penalty to take it out.

i.e. the group bonus thing is just for wars/rogues and other group classes that arent going to want to solo much anyway. In order to entice solo'ers to group and duo with them more.

There can be some great duo's had between a necro+melee or druid+melee. Hell I would even say hybrid + melee can be pretty awesome. But it happens less often with a high solo xp rate. It really does discourage it. If a necro got a ton more xp just for picking up a melee character they would seek you out and hunt you down for that group rather then just doing their own thing. This is the non-obvious but real logic behind not giving out the cake without asking for a party first.

How much spam/tells have you sent out looking for that druid to port with you and snare/fear in places like OT searyx? I know their out there ive ran accross a few. Rhumpkin was around when I was playing starwind and she was a real awesome druid and stopped in to play with me regardless of the hybrid xp penalties and shitty group xp.

While I do not play starwind anymore, players like that are one the reasons I stuck around and gave the server more of a chance. You will get more of this kind of play if the mechanics are developed around it. Hell if I see some melee guy killing sarnak beserkers in OT i'll probably throw them in my group even if i'm quadding to finish off the stragglers on my wiz. Would be sweet if it made more sense to do something like this. Had a few groups like this on live and it worked out alright IMO. even though shit was totally classic.

After thinking about it some form of both kinds of xp bonus would be legit. But to rely on one or the other would be less logical.

Just for fun i'm going to brainstorm a few kewl duo's people should look for more.

Bard+melee dps (fear, slow, kiting) bard feels like their doing all the work but this is normal anyway
Sham+any melee dps
Druid + anyone, druids can root rot with dotters, necros, fear, dot, nuke with wizards, quad with a partner (easy tactic).
Enchanter+anyone for all kinds of crazyness. Might be a lil tricky with a pure melee like war. But the extra root and dps to finish off a charm pet is leet even a war can fill this roll if they dont jump in the fight constantly and wait for chanter to break charms.
2 rogues +bandages
War+rogue +bandages
monk +mend + any other form of dps more monks = more mend rotations
Wizard can agro kite with rangers, and bards, and enchanters, and wars, and anything
Pally+any dps

I mean I have gotten good xp on almost every class combination you can think of. Shit can happen, we just need to make it happen.

Furthermore sometimes you have to be a lil aggressive in recruiting a friend. /ooc Class, Level, Place, and the method of fighting there. Allot of people will ignore /ooc 30 monk LFG

but

/ooc 30 monk LF duo at sarnak fort, can pull singles, fear, charm, any dps, duo's welcome. 100% more likely to get a response, people will see that and go "oh that looks like fun, I want to try fear kiting today" Lastly if theres a drop, advertise that too, bracer of hidden, rare, chance but hell yah, remind people.

They may log out of their mains onto their alt, or bring their PL team to you. Powers in your hands. Stop being so negative. Fuck RD got me to go to freeti yesterday, i got larsen to log on his cleric to go kill him. But it took some assertive communication. things worked out well, i had allot of fun =) I would never have ran over if someone just /ooc blahblah lf cleric

Another thing I noticed and i know the post is already TLDR: but... With dungeon ZEM's allot of people are completely ignoring outdoor zones and focusing on dungeons, soloists that would benifit from having extra dps outdoors can't use the same tactics indoors, everyone knows dungeons are the 1337 path to amazingness and are not thinking of camps like rathe mountain skeles, etc... I even tried skeles at dark blue in rathe mountains for giggles with a shaman on starwind, it was terribad xp compared to lightblues/greens in MM. Didn't seem classic to me. (last paragraph is part rant and QQ, part observation) had better memories of this.

[mitic]

So first they ignore us on YT for an eternity and then they ninja the exp out and think we are stupid enough to believe there is an increased exp bonus.

Nilbog, you may stop this now and get everything straight for once. This might be YOUR server but it's US playing on it. thanks a ton!

[SearyxTZ]

Furthermore sometimes you have to be a lil aggressive in recruiting a friend. /ooc Class, Level, Place, and the method of fighting there. Allot of people will ignore /ooc 30 monk LFG

Most players aren't going to be so willing to aggressively seek out other groupmates who are 10 zones away from them every time they log in.

If your average play session is 2 hours a night and you spend at least an hour just traveling to meet one guy to group with, is that reasonable?

What about pvp - are most people cool with just not pvping till they're already at the top of the level grind?



This is a 50 person server that is designed for 1500 people. I think hotzones solve nearly every issue with the box. There would be mid level pvp that way, there would be groups, and people would not gripe so much about leveling because it wouldn't be this forced solo grind. Casuals who have quit might actually give it another look.

[runlvlzero]

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

Most players aren't going to be so willing to aggressively seek out other groupmates who are 10 zones away from them every time they log in.

Nope but I feel its my duty to do whatever I can to help alleiviate this, if I want more people to play with. Hence long TLDR posts etc

If your average play session is 2 hours a night and you spend at least an hour just traveling to meet one guy to group with, is that reasonable?

Play a necro, this is EQ.... there are some things this game just doesnt do well. I prefer "unique" quallities to this game that reqiure certain mindsets.

What about pvp - are most people cool with just not pvping till they're already at the top of the level grind?

#1 step to making this happen is have more people doing stuff in proximity to eachother, a start is by fixing pop and level grind somewhat, or at least thats the proposed solution. Its a very one dimensional outlook on pvp.

This is a 50 person server that is designed for 1500 people. I think hotzones solve nearly every issue with the box. There would be mid level pvp that way, there would be groups, and people would not gripe so much about leveling because it wouldn't be this forced solo grind. Casuals who have quit might actually give it another look.

Possibly this might be good, it could create a quick grind were lots of *conflict* could happen.

It seems to me your expecting a Gloinzz(TM) speical style of play on characters and classes that are group oriented in 13 year old game and avoiding the bigger picture.

PvP is there to resolve player conflicts, not to quake death match (TM) constantly (though this is fun, and why I'm rolling a WIZ0rd).

I'm talking about fixing pop and making people happy. Not fixing pvp (i think the pvp here is not broken). It is scarce, but I just saw 20 people run through guk today. We could have battled... I think maybe removing xp penalty on pvp death might be a better solution then making every class a WoW style soloing machine through hotzones or xp bonus's.

The faster you push the xp curve towards the endgame the more people are going to cluster at that point for pvp anyway. Thats also something to keep in mind.

Also I hear draga is recruiting pals in unrest, he had great success last night lots of rage in /ooc about pvp happening. Best hotzone in the game.

Current HZ leveling path: CB>Unrest>MM>CoM>your in the endgame. Always found groups and sometimes pvp every single time I went to these zones. KC too at 50+, if you wanna pk duo's and solo's hang out at nybrights all the pro's chill there for a few levels as a noob.

I'm tempted to write a guide ;p but theres plenty for smart people to research on p99 wiki, i'm gonna jump on board with the super pro forum trolls and call lazyness on the people who are having "Unhappy Thoughts"

[SearyxTZ]

No, I'm just looking for something that resembles any of the Zek servers where there were more than 2 people in a zone. This has as much to do with PvE as PvP, and nothing to do with "quake death match".

Requiring everyone who plays here to just deal with it or play a necro is going to really limit the potential pool of players who are even willing to touch this box.

This also really just makes the whole experience less "classic" than previous red boxes where considerations were made and some degree of player interaction actually existed before level 50.

[runlvlzero]

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

No, I'm just looking for something that resembles any of the Zek servers where there were more than 2 people in a zone. This has as much to do with PvE as PvP, and nothing to do with "quake death match".

You had me sold here.

Requiring everyone who plays here to just deal with it or play a necro is going to really limit the potential pool of players who are even willing to touch this box.

I couldnt disagree more, but my disagreement comes from preference and not logical differences, your logic is perfectly sound, but it doesn't hold true for everyone.

This also really just makes the whole experience less "classic" than previous red boxes where considerations were made and some degree of player interaction actually existed before level 50.

Such doom and gloom, I dont feel like its THIS bad.. lol

Final thing, I'm not sure its bad enough to do anything too wild and crazy like "LoZ". We might be better off for it in the long run. Again logic is not false, but its not the right solution for everyone. I am one of those derps who promoted LoZ when it launched and yeah I regret it though server was thriving for a tiny bit until people got bored.

[SearyxTZ]

I have 50 hours played on my monk and I have seen one other player in range of me since level 10 (field of bone). So yeah, it is that bad.

This isn't doom and gloom.

Here's the positive spin: if the only goal of this server is to keep this existing hardcore contingent (most of whom seem to have multiple level 50+ toons already), then it's in good shape. Those players will stay.

If we're trying to pull in anybody outside of that, then yeah - this stuff needs to be considered and I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The casual player will look at this with less tolerance than I do. Of my entire guild on this server, I am literally the only one willing to even play here now. A couple of them went to the blue server and I don't blame them. The blue server is very playable.