New Progression Server confirmed

Antilles · Jun 18, 2015

Hey everyone,

As Holly mentioned, we've been doing some work on raid targets and high end zones on Progression Servers. There are more active players on Ragefire and Lockjaw than there ever were on our launch servers, and right now there's too much competition for some very limited resources. We know some of you have suggested moving the raid targets into private instances, but we firmly believe that competition is a definitive component of the original EverQuest experience.

At launch, as now, there is only one Lord Nagafen and only one Lady Vox. If you defeated them, you also had to compete with a server full of people who wanted to defeat them, too. That's a pretty big accomplishment.

So, in the spirit of making raid content more available while still allowing for competition and accomplishment, here's what we have planned for an update in July:

Nagafen's Lair, Permafrost Keep, the Hole, and Kedge Keep are now load-balancing zones. This will let more people have access to these zones for XP and non-raid items (WTB GEBs, PST).
We now have a way to prevent raid targets from spawning in extra load-balanced zones. We have done this with Lord Nagafen, Lady Vox, Master Yael, and Phinigel Autropos so they will only ever spawn in the base version of their zones.
All raid targets (dragons, Phinigel, Yael, and gods) now spawn more often than they used to, but have a much larger variance in their spawn times so they'll be more difficult to predict.
We've made the raid bosses more difficult, so that they will require coordination of more adventurers to tackle them successfully. Healing and support should once again be very important in these encounters.
Speaking of Hate and Fear, while we didn't implement load balancing, we did reduce the respawn time of all non-raid targets by two thirds. Any mini-bosses that didn't have persistent timers (such as the Fear golems) now have them and have additional variance in their respawn times. This means that they won't necessarily be spawned when the server first comes up.

In summary, we're increasing availability so that there are more chances at the content, increasing difficulty for both a greater challenge and to require coordination of larger groups of people, and increasing variance in spawn timers so that knowledge of the last kill time is less of an advantage.

We're hoping that the combination of these changes will both relieve some of the competition for experience and item content at the top end of the server but keep the integrity and uniqueness of the race for raid targets. Thanks for playing!

Thraka_sl · Jun 18, 2015

The changes they just implemented are absolutely hilarious, it literally does the exact opposite of what everyone was suggesting on the forums.

Crone · Jun 18, 2015

Wow, those are some pretty amazing changes!

Fiyero_sl · Jun 18, 2015

Casuals will still be screwed, the top guilds will get more raid loot. Lol.

Zaide · Jun 18, 2015

These changes are the best possible outcome for top guilds. I hope the difficulty boost is drastic.

Creslin · Jun 18, 2015

Fiyero_sl said:
Casuals will still be screwed, the top guilds will get more raid loot. Lol.

We shouldnt be surprised, anyone who works at that company who isnt terrible as their job quit a decade or more ago.

Vaclav · Jun 19, 2015

Creslin_sl said:
What is actual cost to make on those anyway?

Not sure personally - just repeating what the pottery person in guild said.

Aleatha · Jun 19, 2015

lol at the idea of needing to load balance kedge keep

radditsu · Jun 19, 2015

Sooo they P99ed it? good job Daybreak!

LachiusTZ · Jun 19, 2015

Lulz, yay for more variance!

Chanur · Jun 19, 2015

Well I hoped for instancing personally but I'll give this a try. I do find it funny that instancing is anti EQ but making early raid targets much harder is not. If it fucks the box armies though I am all for it.

Korrupt · Jun 19, 2015

Speaking of Hate and Fear, while we didn't implement load balancing, we did reduce the respawn time of all non-raid targets by two thirds. Any mini-bosses that didn't have persistent timers (such as the Fear golems) now have them and have additional variance in their respawn times. This means that they won't necessarily be spawned when the server first comes up.

Also pretty nice that Hate & Fear will repop in 4 hours vs 12, that's throwing a bone to the masses.

@Zaide I hope its drastic too, other guilds on RF have problems as it is. It might help to separate the guilds out more if they do up the difficulty drastically, especially in sky and on Inny / CT who are loot pi?atas.

Kirun · Jun 19, 2015

Chanur_sl said:
Well I hoped for instancing personally but I'll give this a try. I do find it funny that instancing is anti EQ but making early raid targets much harder is not. If it fucks the box armies though I am all for it.

Yeah, boxers being unable to completely lock down GEBs is one of the nicest changes. It should tank their price pretty significantly.

Zaide · Jun 19, 2015

Low tier guilds will never see a CT with the trash respawn timer changed.

Cinge · Jun 19, 2015

I don't get those changes. Wasn't the point of all the complaints was to allow more casual players a chance at killing raid targets...

All its doing is giving more loot to the top guilds and encourages more poopsocking(bigger variances), while increasing difficulty somehow.

I'd say only thing out of all that that even touches on the complaints is lower respawn on trash in the planes.

Zaide · Jun 19, 2015

They can't complain about not getting shots at raid targets if they can't kill the raid target. I mean shit AD wiped on nagafen a week ago, what are they going to do in two weeks when he's buffed.

alavaz · Jun 19, 2015

Haven't played much, but hit 25 on my shaman - Knish is the name. Any of you exping in Kithicor on lockjaw? I'm looking to scrub loot one of those +6 wis hammers from the decaying healers.

Ruined Battleworn Morning Star - Project 1999 Wiki

Word · Jun 19, 2015

Zaide_sl said:
I hope the difficulty boost is drastic.

It's going to be exciting to engage them after they patch this. Gives back that whole unknown element that this server is lacking.

Cinge · Jun 19, 2015

Word_sl said:
It's going to be exciting to engage them after they patch this. Gives back that whole unknown element that this server is lacking.

Exciting?

Given their reasons for not being able to change a lot of things and the haste of these changes, all you are likely to see is a increase in HP and a increase in damage output.

Vaclav · Jun 19, 2015

Alavaz_sl said:
Haven't played much, but hit 25 on my shaman - Knish is the name. Any of you exping in Kithicor on lockjaw? I'm looking to scrub loot one of those +6 wis hammers from the decaying healers.

Ruined Battleworn Morning Star - Project 1999 Wiki

There's been a few DHS groups XPing there a few times - I can keep an eye out.

Zaide_sl said:
Low tier guilds will never see a CT with the trash respawn timer changed.

Eh? When have you seen a guild take longer than 3-4 hrs to clear Fear trash? Seriously - unless you mean REALLY low tier.

New Progression Server confirmed

Idiot Savaunt

shitlord

Bronze Baronet of the Realm

shitlord

TLP Idealist

Trakanon Raider

Bronze Baronet of the Realm

Silver Knight of the Realm

Silver Knight of the Realm

Rogue Deathwalker Box

Shit Posting Professional

Blackwing Lair Raider

Buzzfeed Editor

TLP Idealist

Ahn'Qiraj Raider

TLP Idealist

Trakanon Raider

Bronze Knight of the Realm

Ahn'Qiraj Raider

Bronze Baronet of the Realm