I've said it elsewhere, but my suspicions for a 25th anniversary TLP announcement by daybreak would be a classic start, slow expansion release schedule with quality of life features removed. Yes, I basically mean P99. I am not saying I want this ruleset, I am just saying DB is so out of touch they would think they could get a lot of P99/quarm players.
I've said before and I'll say it again... a "successful" future for EverQuest is via private servers, and I am not talking about emulated servers. I'm talking about actual licensed private servers that use DBG's login servers. Let the players pay a hefty fee to run their own licensed servers where they ARE the GMs, they choose the rulesets, they choose the experience modifiers, they choose which expansions are open at any given time, etc.
Will there be toxic private servers? Of course there will be. Don't play on them unless that's what you enjoy. Eventually you will find a server that is ran by a group of people that you click with, and that will be golden right there.
Let the server owner(s) handle customer support because they ultimately ARE customer support. They know who is cheating and they know who they permit to cheat and how they do it. If they want to run a server that allows botting, so be it. It's their server. They paid the yearly server license fee, let them run it the way they want to run it. If they are a duchebag, over time they wont have enough people playing on their server to warrant them spending the money to continue running it. It solves itself.
And, as for farmers.... if the server owner doesn't want them, it isn't that damn hard for them to pop in to Sirens Grotto and say "bye bye mr fucktard". Kick em from the server, delete all their stuff, problem solved. They come back, do it again. They come back, do it again. Eventually they will stop because it's not worth their time. The point is, an individual managing their own server can do 100% better than a paid customer support representative. They ultimately know 90+% of the people that play on their server. They pretty damn well know who is a real person and who is a bot there to make money off their server.
Will it happen? Fuck no. They are entirely too stupid at DBG to do something logical like this that would make them a shit ton of money.
*edit*
Just wanted to add to this that I would totally play on a season competition server ran by someone like Zaide that would not allow the fuckery that people do today on the TLP servers. that's the kind of private server that would be fucking fun as hell.
Reading this, I can't help but feel like I forgot to log out of my alt Breakdown account before posting here Like seriously, this is me, by about the 40th AA in the soulless zone Greg's End, I wonder WTF I am doing and drop it until the next time around.
In related news, does anyone else have a small group of friends who keep dragging them in to the next 'Big game/MMO/TLE Server' only to be the last one left after they all quit in a week?
So would the server start 1-50 and then slowly increase or would it just be a new server? If 1-50, then you need to remove level requirements from all items to make it worth trying bosses that should be impossible in theory. Also, what time table for level increases? For extra fun allow for AA's 3 expansions in advance. Adds a greater chance of defeating encounters a few expansions beyond current point.They need to release a new server with all xpacs open at server start. See how people progress. Raiding would be interesting.
They need to release a new server with all xpacs open at server start. See how people progress. Raiding would be interesting.
Vaniki launching in GoD was a death sentence imo. They also needed other changes which have since been made so the server is in a good spot, but casuals don't roll on servers unless they start in Classic or maybe Kunark, and without casuals a community never really sprouts up.I wish Vaniki had been a success. It was really neat until the challenges became unrealistic but with the low pop and mediocre reception it's unlikely we get more experimental rule sets. It seems unlikely the cheating is going to get reigned in by May and given how comfortable people got cheating while on Oakwynd the 25th open world scene should be a disaster. Lots of people = lots of competition = lots of pressure to be a scumfuck. With minimal punishments doled out why not cheat? Less than a week after launch we should have posts here about how X member of <Lords of Jizz> warped on to Nagafen to get the lock and everyone got to watch him kite it around until his guild could show up.
I'm not sure it would work unless there's a dramatic and immediately noticeable difference.
Doing GoD zones extremely underleveled was some of the best EQ in recent memory. As a player I don't give a shit if a server has 'mass appeal', I want interesting and challenging shit to do. It's too bad they had no idea what to do with later challenges/rewards. The first few unlocked were cracked.Vaniki launching in GoD was a death sentence imo. They also needed other changes which have since been made so the server is in a good spot, but casuals don't roll on servers unless they start in Classic or maybe Kunark, and without casuals a community never really sprouts up.
It really sucks because I think the Luclin launch of Selo was one of the best ever and some of the most fun I've ever had but I don't know if we'll ever get another one like that, and if we do idk if a critical mass of casuals would even give it a shot.
I'm not sure it would work unless there's a dramatic and immediately noticeable difference.
People tend to go to the same zones over and over for a lot of reasons beside ZEM.
Easy to get to
Loot
Mob density
Familiarity
It's where the most groups are etc.
Like Unrest xp feels like it has been nerfed on the last couple of TLPs but it doesn't stop half the 10-30 population from congregating there.