Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
iNteg
Dec 17, 2007

Hoohah posted:

I'm pretty sure it wasn't because of the cloak.

DONT QUESTION MY FLAWED LOGIC.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

napster of meat
Nov 12, 2000

It was the loot seed from whomever zoned in first. Pretty sure.

xZAOx
Sep 6, 2004
PORKCHOP SANDWICHES
For the few people here that still play Live - is it still pretty obviously EQ?

If you're in the latest expac, do people still group up for AAs / leveling? Or is it mostly mercs/boxers? Being in a guild get around that?

Do you just raid most of the week, or are there other activities to do too? I'm thinking of "classic" things like working on your epic quest, coldain ring, tradeskills, etc.

Just curious if the overall atmosphere and how you spend your time is mostly the same, just with bigger numbers.

Tai
Mar 8, 2006
Best places to group for the 50-60 grind on phinny? Just resubbed so pretty clueless to the main hang outs. I'd have to beg a tracker for the seb key if that's the main hang out.

Hoohah
Jun 27, 2004
Chimp

Tai posted:

Best places to group for the 50-60 grind on phinny? Just resubbed so pretty clueless to the main hang outs. I'd have to beg a tracker for the seb key if that's the main hang out.

Most people do Velks. If you can grab groups for them (or pay someone to PLevel) you can do Chardok or Howling Stones, but you need a key for the latter. Chardok has higher level mobs with more health, HS has lower level stuff that has no health but hits hard. You can charm a named in there and it'll ruin the rest of the zone for you by chain proccing its lifetap.

Sebilis and other places will work in a pinch. SG isn't bad but finding a group for it is.

xZAOx
Sep 6, 2004
PORKCHOP SANDWICHES
To expand on what Hoohah is saying:

Don't have a group? Go to VL and sit /lfg.

Have a premade group, or got guildies? Go to HS and wreck, as long as that PL guy isn't in that wing (he will train you until you leave). Bring an enchie for the best exp in the game IMO, so long as you can do all of south and most/all of the tunnel to east.

koreban
Apr 4, 2008

I guess we all learned that trying to get along is way better than p. . .player hatin'.
Fun Shoe

Tai posted:

Best places to group for the 50-60 grind on phinny? Just resubbed so pretty clueless to the main hang outs. I'd have to beg a tracker for the seb key if that's the main hang out.

I jumped back in on Friday and did 55-60 in velks. Chardok with charmed pets (:woop: charm dogs for Druid) was surprisingly efficient down in the herbalist/overseer area. Sebilis juggs were okay.

We cranked on exp at lower dogs though. 2 enchanters with champions and a necro with a shade made that entire maze our playground.

Tai
Mar 8, 2006
Also, any goons in AoS? Gonna put my wizard back in there when I log on again. Lurking around as Taaii if anyone needs a nuker or a port if I'm free

koreban
Apr 4, 2008

I guess we all learned that trying to get along is way better than p. . .player hatin'.
Fun Shoe
I dropped OGC for timezone reasons and am running with Entendre. If anyone rolls there, in game name is same as forums name.

Node
May 20, 2001

KICKED IN THE COOTER
:dings:
Taco Defender

xZAOx posted:

For the few people here that still play Live - is it still pretty obviously EQ?

If you're in the latest expac, do people still group up for AAs / leveling? Or is it mostly mercs/boxers? Being in a guild get around that?

Do you just raid most of the week, or are there other activities to do too? I'm thinking of "classic" things like working on your epic quest, coldain ring, tradeskills, etc.

Just curious if the overall atmosphere and how you spend your time is mostly the same, just with bigger numbers.

Goodness no. It isn't EQ. There is a single developer that works on Daybreak that actually knows what the Everquest "feeling" is, and he rarely gets to do content anymore. He's actually done it a couple of instances, on his own, unpaid, time.

There isn't any reliable grouping at any levels to speak of anymore, you need to join a guild to get groups.

The aforementioned developer recently stealth added with the latest patch a grand tradeskill quest where you need to have all max tradeskills, craft lots and lots of items using components from all over the game, and three legacy tradeskill quest items. Doing all this nets you the most powerful augmentation in the game and there will probably never be a more powerful one in the game's lifetime.

During farm period, jetz0r and I spent about 3-4 hours a night every Sunday to complete raids. We're in Realm of Insanity which has been the current #1 guild since Underfoot, so other guilds can raid two or three nights a week. When an expansion comes out, we'll usually get most of the content done in a week, and then go back to farming (when everyone is keyed.)

Node fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Aug 16, 2016

John Brown
Jul 10, 2009

What's the presence like in this game now? EQ was the game of my preteen and early teen years, and I'm so desperate for a fantasy MMORPG that I might just consider returning.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

xZAOx posted:

For the few people here that still play Live - is it still pretty obviously EQ?

If you're in the latest expac, do people still group up for AAs / leveling? Or is it mostly mercs/boxers? Being in a guild get around that?

Do you just raid most of the week, or are there other activities to do too? I'm thinking of "classic" things like working on your epic quest, coldain ring, tradeskills, etc.

Just curious if the overall atmosphere and how you spend your time is mostly the same, just with bigger numbers.

John Brown posted:

What's the presence like in this game now? EQ was the game of my preteen and early teen years, and I'm so desperate for a fantasy MMORPG that I might just consider returning.
It depends on how you look at it. The hoardes of people and the auction/chat buzz is certainly missing. All older zones are virtually empty, but you do run into the odd stranger now and then, and it's kinda fun when you run into someone in a Classic zone or one of the old planes. It does happen, but interaction is fairly rare. There is still a bit of a buzz of people in PoK and certain high level hot zones, though. It's the natural progression of any MMORPG though, why would people putz around old zones with no rewards or XP for them. In newer expansion zones with good XP or loot, and in hot zones, it's very common to see other people, which feels nice, so it's not completely dead.

I still think it feels like EQ. The engine hasn't changed much except some fluff like shadows and dynamic lighting (which I have turned off because it kills performance when boxing). The control of your character feels exactly like classic EQ, the way you move and jump, and the way melee combat is a bit frustrating (out of range, cannot see your target from here), all that. You hail, click, use spells and special attacks, and type commands a lot. You can still do tradeskills, old-rear end quests, camp epics (some are still very hard), visit Kelethin and Crushbone (99% unchanged), you name it. poo poo, Kunark is 99% unchanged compared to the old days.

I guess the biggest change is that if you return, you'll have to solo (alone or boxed) to progress, but that is - unlike classic EQ - completely viable, and in my opinion, very fun.

gay for gacha
Dec 22, 2006

xZAOx posted:

For the few people here that still play Live - is it still pretty obviously EQ?
It's EQ to me. I never really took longer than a year off of EQ, so the changes in the game aren't drastic for me. I played a lot of Project99 and it still leaves me craving EQLIVE. There are a lot of really cool things that were added that aren't just quality of life. Quests and zones that are amazing, and the classic experience doesn't really have.
If you're in the latest expac, do people still group up for AAs / leveling? Or is it mostly mercs/boxers? Being in a guild get around that?
I find groups every time I log in. I'm in a pretty cool guild though, and I don't really like to raid. A lot of people box, it's sort of annoying but it works.
Do you just raid most of the week, or are there other activities to do too? I'm thinking of "classic" things like working on your epic quest, coldain ring, tradeskills, etc.
I like to do epics for alts, and hunt old nameds. I play EQ for myself now and the state of EQlive is very supportive of it. I love logging on and walking through old zones that used to scare the poo poo out of me. I also like the Plane of Mirror expansion.
Just curious if the overall atmosphere and how you spend your time is mostly the same, just with bigger numbers.
You should try it out. It won't be the same but it might still have what you are looking for if you look past the big numbers and AA's.

xZAOx
Sep 6, 2004
PORKCHOP SANDWICHES
Thanks for the answers!

Right now I'm balls deep in Phinny, so just kinda curious what some opinions were. I don't know that my guild will last into GoD - in so much as I don't know if any of the current guilds will.

TLP servers to-date seem to die out, but I'm thinking that with Phinny (if they fix the exp as expansions come out) might actually have some legs to it. I could see some guild merges by the time we get to GoD, but maybe we won't need to (or maybe they'll merge with us).

I mean, I might lose interest by then too, you never know, but the thought of checking out the later expansions is definitely interesting to me. So it's good to hear some differing opinions on how people think the game has progressed. If I'm going to experience later content, I'd really like to do it "in order" on Phinny.

Node posted:

During farm period, jetz0r and I spent about 3-4 hours a night every Sunday to complete raids. We're in Realm of Insanity which has been the current #1 guild since Underfoot, so other guilds can raid two or three nights a week. When an expansion comes out, we'll usually get most of the content done in a week, and then go back to farming (when everyone is keyed.)

So even the "regular" guilds only raid 2-3 nights a week, and that's it? How long are the raid nights? 3-4, or taking the full 6?

We're raiding 4 main days a week on Phinny, plus ST on Sunday, plus we try to get stuff going on Friday/Saturday. So 5-7 days haha. It's honestly a bit overwhelming, but also awesome. They had so much to do because it was pre-instancing and it spread people out, but now that it's instanced, it's awesome, but it keeps us beyond busy.

Hoohah
Jun 27, 2004
Chimp

xZAOx posted:

TLP servers to-date seem to die out, but I'm thinking that with Phinny (if they fix the exp as expansions come out) might actually have some legs to it. I could see some guild merges by the time we get to GoD, but maybe we won't need to (or maybe they'll merge with us).

So there was a thread recently with an argument between Machen (#2 dude in charge of Citizen, pretty much the top guild on Fippy except for a brief period where we (EoE) beat them to Kerafyrm by a good week), Mabbu (an old citizen member and now a tank in EoE), and some randoms on what kills a progression server. The theories are:

1. The game progresses past Velious or Planes of Power. People don't have fond memories of Gates of Discord, despite it being a stellar expansion now that its been tuned better, so they quit when the nostalgia ends.
2. Non-cutting edge end game guilds get cockblocked on content by those top tier guilds, and quit in frustration when there's nothing to do.
3. General malaise with the game (unlocks are too fast/slow, people did/didn't vote to open a certain expansion, DBG hosed/didn't gently caress with something they should/shouldn't have, etc)

Of those, #2 is irrelevant to Phinigel because of instancing. You don't have to compete with another guild if you don't want to, except in a few rare instances (Seru is going to be a clusterfuck, I'd hope that DBG would have understood that before Prathun decided 'hey Praesertums will just spawn in picks' and forgot that Praesertums are for a quest OTHER than getting the key as well for one of the best earrings in the expansion) for the foreseeable future. They've more or less said they're committed to instancing Planes of Power, which was my bet when the server would die.

#1 I can't speak to much, there is a HUGE contingent in EoE that are excited to do later expansions in-era again, particularly Gates of Discord, TBS, and Underfoot. However I'd be not at all surprised that a number of people will quit once AAs are available because they trivialize non-raid content almost immediately.

#3 is my bet for what will kill the server, and my guess is DODH this time around if they stay on their path. No isboxer, no MQ, their half-assed truebox system, unlocks at a set pace rather than ensuring that all content is cleared first, and the eventual end of instancing certain content will doom this server before it gets much further than that. Combining GoD and OoW is already a slap in the face of the people that are looking forward to Gates of Discord, and I strongly suspect the reason stated (GoD is too hard) isn't the real reason, but that they don't want to bother instancing Txevu (Qvic doesn't have to be instanced, you just need Cynosure to be dead to get into Inktu'ta). Thus my bet when we hit DoDH and find out they haven't or won't instance Dreadspire for Master Vule, you're going to see raiding guilds collapse in droves when AoS, EoE, and OGC spend all their time cockblocking Vule and not allowing other guilds to get into demiplane because you can only flag up to 12 people per Vule kill. If not then, then one expac later with PoR and Theater of Blood, same problem with the inspirations, or Relic and killing the dudes necessary to get to Daosheen, one of which drops an aug that lasts well into later expacs.

Unless AA exp is completely and atrociously broken, think hours to get a single AA, I don't think you'll see exp actually drive many current players off. It's still relatively easy to get to max level, its just a little more tedious (during the 50% xp weekend, we had a cleric go from 45 to 60). My bet is with a good group and a good camp you'll see an AA every 30-45 minutes, which isn't fast by any means, but with only up to about 350 AAs to get in Luclin, people will tolerate it. They'll bitch, that's a given because it's already a constant thing.

xZAOx
Sep 6, 2004
PORKCHOP SANDWICHES
Heh, we definitely see some aspects of the game quite differently (and some we see the same).

I think "No isboxer, no MQ, their half-assed truebox system" is one of the reasons the server is as healthy as it currently is. People need people to group with, not solo/molo/boxolo until raid level. Many casual types are very turned off (myself included) by a server where people run around with their box armies. A server that is only "alive" by multiboxing isn't very appealing to people in my guild, at least.

We (BDA) have already had exp drive off several of our P99 people. They weren't there on our initial hardcore exp grind, and PUGs on Phinny, in several of my and guildmates experience, was extremely terrible compared to your typical PUG on P99. Once most of us got into the 20s-30s, we pretty much went guild-only for groups. I really think a lot of it is that the middle levels are mostly in lguk, which is a tough zone. Before that it's Unrest which isn't too bad, and after is Velks, which is dirt easy.

But yeah, we've already had Phinny exp drive off people that tolerated P99's exp and raid scene. I think the current exp rate is tolerable, but could be a little better. I agree that if we're seeing multiple hours for an AA that many will say "gently caress this", but if a solid group is about an hour an AA, I think that will be fine.

I think for a server to stay healthy, you need to have multiple high-end guilds downing content, as well as a strong overall player base of casuals and people leveling, to continue to feed in new recruits to those guilds. The exp rate is very detrimental to some in regards to rolling alts (not that we don't have people with alts). To keep raid guilds happy, they need to make sure they're not half-assing their instancing, remove major cock-blocks, and don't loving combine GoD and OoW.

It definitely, IMO, comes down to #3 - but mainly just because that's so subjective and all-encompassing. They need to keep an eye on the "time /played before ready to raid", and gradually nerf exp to keep that time reasonable as levels and AAs are added (I think Luclin should come with a good exp nerf). Make sure the raid scene isn't a poo poo show by instancing all the proper raid mobs. Adjust unlocks as necessary if content hasn't been downed. Don't combine GoD and OoW.

xZAOx fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Aug 17, 2016

gay for gacha
Dec 22, 2006

I think that the speed is too fast. I really wanted to play on Phinny for GoD. To me everything from GoD to DODH is the best part of EQ. But I want to enjoy and take my time, but the way its currently set up I will feel forced to rush through before the next expansion opens up. I don't know what I will do, but I will def play at Omens of War. It's weird but I don't want to miss the opportunity to play depths of darkhallows again with strangers from the internet.

I hope enough people quit after GoD so I can just buy an account and play OOW and DODH.

Hexel
Nov 18, 2011




DODH was the best expansion ever

followed a close second by Omens

FranktheBank
May 14, 2007
In the beginning...the universe was created. his has been widely regarded as a bad move and has made a lot of people very angry.
I loved Omens so much.

gay for gacha
Dec 22, 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNIv2CQLjT4

Asylum of Anguish was so much fun.

Hexel
Nov 18, 2011





I camped so hard for them drat signets and when i stepped my first foot in the place and heard that music and seen the citadel appear on the horizon i drat near busted a nut

Hexel
Nov 18, 2011




Them draniks instances for a couple of them signets were some of the most difficult and tense gaming i've ever experienced in 20 years

One wrong move and you're dead

gay for gacha
Dec 22, 2006

I would love to know what went on in the testing and development phases of some of the cool raids. Did the devs say: "Oh yeah make sure these gently caress everyone up if they make a mistake" or was it more like: " these would be sweet right here"

suuma
Apr 2, 2009
Given that the original raids sort of happened by accident (of a boatload of players just getting together to fight the Big Bad), probably.

Tai
Mar 8, 2006
Phinny is pretty healthy tbh. I think GoD is going to be a big test as well as whether or not they make AA gain faster (they should). I'd say by PoP, levelling a new character will be hard though.

gay for gacha
Dec 22, 2006

what's quarm like?

MF_James
May 8, 2008
I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

lemonslol posted:

what's quarm like?

A lot of fun actually. I don't recall all the phases, but it's one of the first multi-phase fights (I think 3-4 phases) that is really challenging (Rallos being another). Once you do it a few times everyone figures it out and it goes smoother. I forget if it completely resets on wipes or if it checkpoints at the end of each phase. Seriously though, it was a blast, you split the raid into like 3-4 teams and then come together again after a phase or two.

I loved PoP though so I could be a bit biased :)

xZAOx
Sep 6, 2004
PORKCHOP SANDWICHES
So Phinny dudes - what strats do you use on Vyemm? We're having some troubles with him. Get him to about 60% pretty smoothly then it falls apart. We've tried with clerics on the back wall, and clerics on that NW ledge that you have to tossed up to (honestly not sure what we screwed up on that attempt, but it was late - maybe takes kept getting OOR after zero'd).

Where are you positioning your clerics?
CH chain or spam heals?
Does his AoE proc or a spell on a timer?
Is he tossing people the direction he's facing, or something in relation to the direction the player is facing?

Thanks for any help!

One in the Bum
Apr 25, 2014

Hair Elf
I will never understand what people saw in gates and omens and why they like those expansions so much. My experience was easily the worst of any expansions up to that point. The lore writers must have been completely out of ideas because the poo poo show of unpronouncible names was like they weren't even trying. Mobs that looked like were lifted from an alien vs predator movie were completely out of place for a high fantasy setting. The game just changed way to much from what made it entertaining to begin with.

FranktheBank
May 14, 2007
In the beginning...the universe was created. his has been widely regarded as a bad move and has made a lot of people very angry.
There was lore? I just loved the raids and grouping zones

Hexel
Nov 18, 2011




FranktheBank posted:

There was lore? I just loved the raids and grouping zones

well the lore of gates and omens was literally an alien invasion (discordians + riftseekers)

Hoohah
Jun 27, 2004
Chimp

xZAOx posted:

So Phinny dudes - what strats do you use on Vyemm? We're having some troubles with him. Get him to about 60% pretty smoothly then it falls apart. We've tried with clerics on the back wall, and clerics on that NW ledge that you have to tossed up to (honestly not sure what we screwed up on that attempt, but it was late - maybe takes kept getting OOR after zero'd).

Where are you positioning your clerics?
Basically wherever. The strength of the knockback makes it so you'll go upwards if you hit a wall, so there's no really good place to stand. Clerics aren't the strongest healers on this fight, shamans and druids are because divine light has a shorter range, and you can't use it to heal from the back wall to the dragon. You can Remedy, but its not the best.

If you have enough spare bards, you can put them with your healers and bump your MR up, but you need to get 450+ to reliably resist Scream of Chaos, and you should have bards with your melee so they don't get knocked around more.

quote:

CH chain or spam heals?
Spam heal. You can't possibly get a CH off in time for it to matter, and you can't chain CH.

quote:

Does his AoE proc or a spell on a timer?
Scream of Chaos has a 12 second recast, after which Vyemm can recast it at any time. If he's GOING to recast it and its time for Call of the Zero instead, he'll use Zero and skip a cycle of Scream.

quote:

Is he tossing people the direction he's facing, or something in relation to the direction the player is facing?
Pushes you in the direction he's facing. Zero also makes the dragon face south, and facing him north is suicide (you'll blast everyone into the lava) so tank him to the south, and slight to your left, his right. That makes DPS go into that ledge and get back in quicker. No one, and I mean NO ONE should be behind him if they have even the most remote chance of pulling agro.

Vyemm is the only fight in the zone that I have any kind of concern for, and its quickly draining away. The week before we killed him with one tank lasting to 4%, and this week we had the tank survive the entire time.


xZAOx posted:

I think "No isboxer, no MQ, their half-assed truebox system" is one of the reasons the server is as healthy as it currently is. People need people to group with, not solo/molo/boxolo until raid level. Many casual types are very turned off (myself included) by a server where people run around with their box armies. A server that is only "alive" by multiboxing isn't very appealing to people in my guild, at least.

Except that in all previous cases, and possibly already being seen here now in Velious, the population curve of the server decreases as time goes on. Later expansions are not intended for non-raiders to participate, even in non-raid stuff (think GoD, DoDH, PoR, TBS, etc) until Seeds of Destruction or even House of Thule where gear becomes homogenized. Without the third party tools that the people who really want to beat said expansions also really want, once the server pop is gone, they'll quit because they won't be able to do anything and the tremendous animosity built up between the raiding guilds from all the training, kill stealing, general fuckery means that most people aren't going to leave one of those and join another, so they'll just stop. Once there's no pool to recruit from, the only reason Fippy and Vulak continued is because there were people six boxing on raids that made up the difference.

In fairness, I happen to be one of those six boxers, so obviously my perspective is different. I personally can't stand the idea of not being able to play the game, when I want and at an efficient level, because I have to sit around LFG and take whatever opens up. I five box on Phin because of that.

I fully get the 30 box thing being bad or undesirable, although to be honest I've never once seen it happen. The only place I knew it did happen, for sure, was very early Vulak/Fippy before harmtouch was reverted, and on Ragefire/Lockjaw. There are restrictions that both eqmule and lax could put in to MQ2 and isboxer that prevent things like that happening, but since you have people screaming down ANY attempt to add some utility to a game developed in the late 90s in order to maintain their 'nostalgia', I also understand why mule immediately nuked the vanilla compile and lax hasn't added any features (or restrictions) in isboxer regading EQ in years.

xZAOx
Sep 6, 2004
PORKCHOP SANDWICHES
As usual, thanks for the info Hoohah!

EQ has never really been friendly to new people coming into the game. That's, by far, one of its weakest points. I've never played those later expansions, but I think the only chance of being able to bring in new people is if there's still a leveling population.

Given that the servers with boxing are basically considered dead, and live servers are also basically impossible to get going on if you don't like boxing, maybe Phinny will work differently? Maybe it'll help keep a leveling population?

To be honest, I doubt anything will keep the server as healthy as it is now, once we get past PoP. Boxing or not.

Hoohah
Jun 27, 2004
Chimp

xZAOx posted:

As usual, thanks for the info Hoohah!

EQ has never really been friendly to new people coming into the game. That's, by far, one of its weakest points. I've never played those later expansions, but I think the only chance of being able to bring in new people is if there's still a leveling population.

Given that the servers with boxing are basically considered dead, and live servers are also basically impossible to get going on if you don't like boxing, maybe Phinny will work differently? Maybe it'll help keep a leveling population?

To be honest, I doubt anything will keep the server as healthy as it is now, once we get past PoP. Boxing or not.

Boxing (and all that implies to box efficiently/effectively) kept Combine going after DoDH when the server population dropped like a rock until it was declared 'done' and turned into a live server at Seeds of Destruction.
Boxing kept Vulak going until they allowed paid transfers to Fippy, and as far as I know, it's keeping Fippy sorta going. I haven't heard from my OGC/Citizen contacts where they're at after Hamshire stopped raiding there. My assumption is they'll unlock TDS, but won't go any further, simply because COTF is apparently the second or third easiest expansion. Side note: nothing beats Seeds of Destruction for easy.

Its not even 'everyone must box' situation, several people in EoE at the end on Fippy weren't boxing at all, but skilled boxers (or those that can find the right tools for their group makeup) can fill gaps like you wouldn't believe. We beat events with gear and numbers that we had no business being able to do, like Events 2 and 3 in Solteris, Trial of Creation in Brell's Temple, and Cunning Plan in Lichen Creep by having skilled box crews (no, not just mine). The ability to tell someone 'you go handle this entire mechanic while we worry about the rest of it' is sometimes invaluable.

The lack of boxing BUT the addition of instanced raid zones is honestly my feeling as to why Phinigel's in the relatively good state it is, which is that it feels roughly like where Combine was at the same time (I can't speak for Vulak and Fippy, I didn't play there till much later). Once you remove instanced events, and that happens immediately in Luclin with the Praesertums and Seru, my guess is you're going to see people start becoming much more disillusioned with the server and leaving or stopping. If the XP rate on AAs is over an hour with a competent group and good camp, same thing, people are going to see themselves immediately falling behind because they can't get a group and then when they do, they'll have to commit hours to doing it, all over again, forever. A lot of people aren't going to do that.

I'll hasten to add that I really don't want the server to fail early at all. I'd love to see Solteris, Crystallos, and Convorteum in-era again, with all of my friends in EoE, especially now that I know all the mechanics and whatnot to avoid some of the re-learning (except event 1 in Solteris, someone please find me the write-up of who you give what so you end up with one sister with the wand AoE please!). I just feel like the conditions are not being set up to make Phinigel a long runner by removing a major thing that keeps the server going as population falls.

My personal sweet spot for a server like this would be full instancing up to TSS (TSS and on there aren't open world things to worry about that cockblock progression), limited single-system boxing allowed (6 instances at most across 1-6 CPUs), limited MQ2 allowed (no scripting, no map, no infinite range target, afk detection built in, maybe disable moveutils as well), instancing fixed from 6.5 day lockout to 5.0 so you're not locked to the day you kill stuff if you want to rearrange for a week, Krono trading disabled or otherwise restricted to lessen its prevalence, XP rates on leveling maybe a tad more than they are now (10% boost at most, maybe) with AA XP rates at about 30 minutes per AA in a normal group at a good camp, and 3 month unlocks IF all required encounters or milestones are completed. This is basically an impossible setup because of the MQ2 and Krono part, but hey I can dream can't I?

gay for gacha
Dec 22, 2006

Hoohah posted:



My personal sweet spot for a server like this would be full instancing up to TSS (TSS and on there aren't open world things to worry about that cockblock progression), limited single-system boxing allowed (6 instances at most across 1-6 CPUs), limited MQ2 allowed (no scripting, no map, no infinite range target, afk detection built in, maybe disable moveutils as well), instancing fixed from 6.5 day lockout to 5.0 so you're not locked to the day you kill stuff if you want to rearrange for a week, Krono trading disabled or otherwise restricted to lessen its prevalence, XP rates on leveling maybe a tad more than they are now (10% boost at most, maybe) with AA XP rates at about 30 minutes per AA in a normal group at a good camp, and 3 month unlocks IF all required encounters or milestones are completed. This is basically an impossible setup because of the MQ2 and Krono part, but hey I can dream can't I?
This would make me very happy.

MF_James
May 8, 2008
I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

Wait, they aren't instancing Luclin zones? That... sounds awful.. As you said, Sanctus Seru will be poo poo, what about Ssra? What about the "lesser" raid zones you use to side gear like GE, the deep (the burrower beast zone), and the other couple zones I'm forgetting?


Also, I need to stop checking this thread, it's making me want to go back to fippy eq in general :(

xZAOx
Sep 6, 2004
PORKCHOP SANDWICHES
They're instancing raids and load-balancing zones for Luclin. Hoohah's concern is that it's not enough for some of them. He's probably right! They probably are also fine with them being a poo poo show, like I'm sure VP key camps were at launch.

Not sure about "lesser" raid zones.

Some of the info here:

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/phinigel-post-your-luclin-instance-issues-here.234013/

Hoohah
Jun 27, 2004
Chimp

MF_James posted:

Wait, they aren't instancing Luclin zones? That... sounds awful.. As you said, Sanctus Seru will be poo poo, what about Ssra? What about the "lesser" raid zones you use to side gear like GE, the deep (the burrower beast zone), and the other couple zones I'm forgetting?


Also, I need to stop checking this thread, it's making me want to go back to fippy eq in general :(

Luclin is instanced, but the Praesertums that drop the 4 shards you need to make the Arx Key are not. They will, however, spawn in pick zones.

While this is better than what Prathun had in place before, it's still going to be a clusterfuck. The 4 shards are part of a quest that gets you not only the arx key, but the 4th earring in the quest...and the final earring is one of the best tank earrings in the expansion.

What this means is, even if there's tons of pick zones to get the Praesertums or you run your guild there to force a spawn, because of the way pick works, people can just sit at the appropriate spot and pick over to cockblock you to get your key by killing one of the four praesertums, or they will in order to get the earring for themselves, even if their guild already has a key.

Outside of Seru, because I didn't have an Arx Key, and Umbral Plains because I wasn't insane enough to realize the moon logic of putting the Umbral Plains instance AoC INSIDE VEX THAL, the instances I've tested last weekend are:
1. Akheva Ruins
2. Vex Thal
3. Acrylia Caverns
4. Ssraeshza Temple
5. Katta Castrum
6. Greig's End
7. The Deep

All of them worked perfectly fine, except Emp Ssra who didn't spawn the Shissar Wraiths when he died (no power source for VT) and Akheva Ruins had two Itraer Vius spawn stacked on top of each other.

darkhand
Jan 18, 2010

This beard just won't do!
Boxing is a double edged sword. Even when fippy was "dead" I still had like 4 months of fun for end of underfoot and hot. But that was with the help of boxing and other people boxing to help me. Other newbies won't have those connections, and won't be able to box to catch up. In that sense, boxing really hurts and helps casuals/newbies the most since they are the most directly affected by depopulation.

They were smart to do catch mechanics on live with heroic characters, maybe they will do something like that on their most popular progression servers.

darkhand fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Aug 18, 2016

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

MF_James
May 8, 2008
I CANNOT HANDLE BEING CALLED OUT ON MY DUMBASS OPINIONS ABOUT ANTI-VIRUS AND SECURITY. I REALLY LIKE TO THINK THAT I KNOW THINGS HERE

INSTEAD I AM GOING TO WHINE ABOUT IT IN OTHER THREADS SO MY OPINION CAN FEEL VALIDATED IN AN ECHO CHAMBER I LIKE

Hoohah posted:

While this is better than what Prathun had in place before, it's still going to be a clusterfuck. The 4 shards are part of a quest that gets you not only the arx key, but the 4th earring in the quest...and the final earring is one of the best tank earrings in the expansion.

What this means is, even if there's tons of pick zones to get the Praesertums or you run your guild there to force a spawn, because of the way pick works, people can just sit at the appropriate spot and pick over to cockblock you to get your key by killing one of the four praesertums, or they will in order to get the earring for themselves, even if their guild already has a key.

Yeah I knew the questing and stuff, but I forgot about how the pick stuff works, so yeah, that makes sense.

Seru is such a fun fight too (kinda..), I suppose it was more fun later when we could kill it with our 6-10 raid geared chars to farm the mount in the GoD era (I think that's when we were doing it)

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply