Progression Server Mechanics Poll Results!
We've had great responses to our polls so far, and we're quickly moving towards a Beta. Let's start with the current poll results:
Server Name
We've already announced this, but just to be clear: Ragefire won by a large margin, receiving over 10% more of the vote than Lockjaw, which got over 10% more than Gorenaire. Here are the final results in order:
Ragefire
Lockjaw
Gorenaire
Yelinak
Meldrath
Anashti Sul
Opal Darkbriar
Mrylokar
Initial Unlocked Expansions
This was a closer one, but ultimately Classic Only was the clear majority, even over a combination of options 2 and 3. We were surprised to see the "Trilogy" ahead of Classic + Kunark.
Classic Only
Classic, Kunark, and Velious
Classic and Kunark
So while it's obvious that most people who are interested want this server to start at Classic, we also have evidence that a bunch of you are open to mixing things up a little sometime in the future.
Voting Required?
This was an issue with a lot of people with a lot of good arguments on both sides, but ultimately there's a clear winner - Yes won by a significant majority.
Unlock Schedule
Here are the results of the first poll in order:
Maximum Nostalgia - More than half the vote
Accelerated
Half Speed
Level Cap Bias - Just over 10 percent of the vote
As expected, there were close results here, but one answer can be eliminated as it's clearly less popular than any of the other three. We still want these people's responses, though, so we pulled their votes out of the second poll and added them to the first poll with Level Cap Bias removed:
Maximum Nostalgia - More than 60% of the vote
Accelerated - slightly more than half of what's left
Half Speed - slightly less than half of what's left
It's important to note that 34% of the people who voted for Level Cap Bias as their first choice also voted for it as their second choice, which places them in the Absor category.
More important, though, is that Maximum Nostalgia is a clear winner, winning more than half of the votes as first choice and being the favorite second choice.
More Questions? More Answers!
Q: Can you summarize what the server will be like now?
Not really. It'll be called Ragefire, and it will be complicated.
Q: Can you write a whole lot of words about what the server will be like now?
You bet.
When the server is opened, only zones, classes, and races that existed when EverQuest first launched will be available, with some exceptions.
Paineel and the Hole will be open.
The Temple of Solusek Ro will be open.
Everyone will start at level 1. There is no tutorial, characters can not transfer to this server, and Heroic Characters are not available to be redeemed.
When raid targets are defeated, they will be broadcast across the server. When all of the raid targets in an expansion are defeated, a countdown begins.
For EverQuest, Kunark, Velious, Luclin, and Planes of Power, this countdown will be six months.
For Gates of Discord and all following expansions, this countdown will be three months.
Polls are scheduled to start every two weeks, on every other Monday. May 4th was the most recent, May 18th will be the next, and so on.
If the countdown timer ends with at least a full 168-hour week left before the current poll ends, the current poll will be activated. If there is less than a full week left in the current poll, the next one will be activated.
When a poll is active, you will go to a Priest of Discord and say 'vote.' If you're within 21 levels of the current level cap, you are allowed to vote.
When the poll ends, if more people voted 'yes' to the next expansion than 'no,' the next expansion will open and the cycle begins again.
Q: Six months is a really long time before Kunark. Are you locked in to that number forever?
It's what the majority of people have voted for, so for now we are going to honor that response. If it turns out that the majority of players on the server decide they want a change before that, we can investigate lowering those minimum times.
Q: Will items that were removed on Live servers ever drop on Ragefire?
Some will, in cases where we could sneak them in for a month or two.
Q: Will the Marketplace be available on Ragefire?
Yes, it will. Initially it will only have cosmetic items and XP potions available. When we open Beta for this, we will need your help in making sure that we caught everything.
Q: Does this mean that Fippy and Vulak will lose access to items?
No, it shouldn't. We now can flag items to be shown or hidden by expansion pack rather than solely by server type, so items that were available in your era on live servers should be available to you now. Incidentally, this also means that housing items will be unlocked for you soon.
Q: How will tradeskill changes be handled?
As we did on Fippy and Vulak, "old" jewelcrafting will be in place when the server launches, and "new" jewelcrafting will replace it at about the same time it did on live servers.
All spell research will have to be done via the "new" system, because of the way the old drops were removed. We are exploring options to lower the cost of this research at low levels.
Most alchemy combines have been restricted to roughly in-era power. Again, we will need your help in Beta to make sure we caught everything.
"Old" cultural armor and "new" cultural armor should be restricted to the eras they were introduced.
"Old" poison will be in place until roughly the era at which it was revamped.
When Beta opens, please try as many things as you can and let us know if you find problems.
Q: How will spell additions be handled?
It depends. Some additions (like the low level resurrection spells and AE resurrection spells) were intended to be backfilled so they will be available in-era. Other additions, like Breeze, which entered the game with Kunark, will be locked to their original expansion. In general, we aimed to make spells that add convenience available earlier and locked spells that added power to their expansion. We'll need your help in Beta to catch inconsistencies.
The spell vendors in the Plane of Knowledge should only have spells that they had when Planes of Power originally launched. They will begin backfilling older spells as later expansions are unlocked.
Q: How will AA autogranting work?
As we did with Fippy and Vulak, AAs will be autogranted on Ragefire once two expansions with AAs have passed (if you opt your character in).
Q: Will Kithicor Forest be in its current dangerous state at night?
Yes. The zone was changed before we had the ability to save alternate datasets, so it will start off as it is now. Keep an eye on the clock!
Q: Will Veteran Rewards be available on Ragefire?
Not until the Planes of Power open.
Q: Will the tutorial be available on Ragefire?
Not until Gates of Discord opens.
Q: Will LoN loot cards be claimable on Ragefire?
Not until Secrets of Faydwer or later.
Q: Will big bags be available for purchase on Ragefire?
Not initially, when bags from dragons are some of the best loot in the game. We'll make them available sooner than they came out on Live, but we want tradeskilled items and dropped items to be able to have a period where they are valuable first.
Q: Can we transfer characters to Ragefire?
No. We will not allow server transfers to any Progression server unless they are coming from another Progression server that is at the same stage or earlier. It might be possible to transfer from Ragefire to Fippy, but not the reverse.
Q: You said group Leader AAs will be available at the start. Does that include the stat increasing AA?
No. That AA will require Omens of War.
Q: Will experience be as fast as it is on Live servers?
No. We will be cutting experience gain down to about twice what it was at launch, which is still far less than it is currently on standard servers. We are placing this restriction much "earlier" in the XP function for this server, which should mean that you will still get more experience from red cons and less from light blues or greens.
There will still be an ultimate cap on how much experience you can gain in a single kill, but it should be much harder to reach that cap. This is something we'll definitely need your help tweaking in Beta.
Q: Will there be hell levels or class/race experience penalties?
No. The amount of experience you need to earn to gain a level will be the same as it is currently on Live. Races/classes that currently have XP bonuses will still have them.
Q: Will you be adjusting monk fist damage or pet damage on Ragefire?
Regrettably, no. Unarmed damage is tied very deeply to our combat code, and to reduce damage for the first few expansions on progression servers we would have to check for expansion unlocks every time any entity attempted any attack on any other entity on every server. The CPU increase when we tried it internally was startling.
As for pets, since they share data with live servers, we can't change their skills without also changing them on Live.
Q: Will the revamped newbie armor quests be available on Ragefire?
Not until Planes of Power is open. Please help us make sure of this during Beta.
Q: Will spells go back to "Ranks" every 4/5 levels, or stay split up as they are?
They will use the same data that is on live servers, so they will be split up among levels and in most cases will have the same effectiveness. Some spells (like Harm Touch) have limits that make them do less damage on Progression servers until later expansions have been unlocked.
Q: Will Ragefire be restricted by account level?
Yes, you will need to be an All Access member in order to access the Ragefire server.
Q: Are you really, really not going to instance raids?
Really, really, for real. Uninstanced content on this level was a unique experience for EverQuest, and there are people out there who have never experienced it. We want to believe that you can work it out on your own. We have plans for what to do if you can't work out something equitable, though, and we might have to contract Alan Rickman to read them.
You don't want the plans that Alan Rickman will read, McClane.
Q: What about Bob?
Baby steps, people. Baby steps.
Beta Information
Q: When will the Ragefire Beta open?
As soon as we can. This week, if possible.
Q: Will the Ragefire Beta be restricted by account level?
No. Accounts of all membership levels will be able to access the Beta server for this testing period. We need as many people as we can get!
Q: Will the Ragefire Beta be restricted in other ways?
No. As long as you have a valid account, you will be able to patch and log in to the Beta server once we open it. There will be no sign-ups or NDAs for this beta.
Q: How will I access the Ragefire Beta?
You will need to download the beta installer here:
http://launch.soe.com/installer/EQ_Beta_setup.exe. We recommend copying your live EverQuest folder into a new folder and installing Beta to that folder in order to save download time. Make sure that you have full control rights to the folder and subfolders, and that you run Launchpad as an administrator.
Q: Will /betacopy work for this Beta?
Yes, but remember that your characters will be de-leveled. You should also make sure that you are in an original launch zone when you camp out, and that you don't copy characters from races or classes that were not available at launch.
Q: Will /betabuff work for this Beta?
Yes, but if you /betabuff to a level above the current cap the character will be de-leveled. If you /betabuff to a class or race that is not yet available you will not be able to access that character. We know that many of the /betabuff characters that will be available will be overpowered for the era, but we would rather have overpowered people testing content than a lot of stuck people who just need to level.
Q: Will the Ragefire Beta be stuck at Classic for the entire period?
No. We will spend the majority of time in Classic since that's where most of our adjustments have to take place, but we will be manually accelerating the Beta server through multiple eras to get testing on as much as we can.
In Conclusion
We're all very excited to bring out a new Progression server, and we're thankful for your help and support as we've worked together to develop the rule set. We know you're excited, too, and we'll see you on Beta this week!
