Spread the ZEM!

[BurtMacklinFBI]

Hello sirs/mams. If you have played on green in the last few weeks you will have noticed that literally everyone is exping in THE HOLE. I think thats great, its a fantastic zone. but it isn't classic to have a million people exping in that zone. People were spread out all around this wonderful world of norrath back in the day.

The devs could make that happen again too! All that would be needed is to do a sweep of kunark zems the way they did in classic when all the action was getting congested into the 'exp highway' zones. Buffing kunark outdoor zems to even just 100 to be in line with other old world outdoor zones would go a long way towards opening things up. Indoor kunark zones with zem somewhere near the hole would spread things out quite a bit and make it so the rest of the world isn't dead for 50+ exp.

You can't blame people for wanting to hit the hole and min-max their exp either with the new 54+ exp tables. It takes literally forever to do 55-60 now and doing it anywhere besides hole or bear pits in a group is akin to literal torture.

Also while I'm throwing shit at the wall to see if it sticks, I think velious should get a ZEM hit before it even launches. Make Crystal Caverns 300 ZEM!

Thanks for listening and good luck and good night.

[Swish]

https://i.imgur.com/LdCm8tR.gif

[derpcake2]

Guessing they forgot they nerfed a lot of the 50+ zones and didn't nerf the hole, so its completely outclassing everything else.

Kind of a pity.

[Zyth]

imagine leveling not using gnoll scrolls

[BurtMacklinFBI]

https://i.imgur.com/LdCm8tR.gif

lol cuz the 'classic' zone zems are 'classic'.

this is a custom server, great, its fun, lets just make it more fun by opening up more than just the hole and one spot in perma for decent 55+ exp

[BurtMacklinFBI]

Guessing they forgot they nerfed a lot of the 50+ zones and didn't nerf the hole, so its completely outclassing everything else.

Kind of a pity.

I don't think they nerfed anything, they just did a pass of the classic zones with a zem update last year that included the hole - which was sorely needed before kunark came out to ease congestion on green - and haven't done kunark/velious yet, the latter of which is now sorely needed.

[Fammaden]

The Hole already had a big ZEM but yes it didn't get used a ton. But it wasn't even empty on blue prior to the ZEM changes, many monks solo'ed there and there was usually a group at docks. Once you dragged a 55+ person down there on blue they were always shocked that it was great xp.

Then they updated the classic zone ZEMS after green had been released and the Hole got even more of a boost to an already great ZEM. This was long before the Hole was ever released on green, but the ZEM changes were for both servers. The Hole on blue became what it is now on green, the only place anyone wants group xp in the 50's. This has been going on closer to a year on blue but no one there complains because the population allows for a full Hole that isn't overcamped.

I posted about this potential issue for green multiple times in various places in the lead up to Kunark, but I guess this is a closer approximation of the classic Hole ZEM based on their research or they just want it this way.

And OP if they updated Kunark ZEM's the Hole would not be included. Its technically an old world zone, which is why it was part of the ZEM updates for old world zones last year.

[Zipity]

I agree with the outdoor Zems in Kunark needing to be bumped to match outdoors in classic, however the hole can easily hold 150 people, last Friday prime time there was 80+ people in the zone and I saw over 250 mobs Up on bard track.... this zone is littered with mobs if you are willing to take a group somewhere other than CE, Rats, OBS, Slabs, GT, UT... hell some areas near these camps can easily support 3-4 groups. I will say though as to OPs point if you aren’t in the hole leveling you are going twice as slow as the people there so if GMs want people in other zones they should adjust.
TLDR: I agree some zems should be tweaked.

[xmaerx]

https://wiki.project1999.com/Patch_Notes#May_25.2C_2000_8:00_am

Actually, if you check this post.. the XP should have been buffed prior to the release of the hole. And maybe it was. Sure doesn't feel like Seb, Chardok, or Karnor's are any better off, though.

There's a lot of "risk v reward" adjustments in the patch just before and just after The Hole, including loot changes. I suspect this timeframe is when a lot of legacy items got removed, in reality. Not whenever they were arbitrarily removed here.

[OuterChimp]

Kerra Isle never gets any ZEM love...

[BlackBellamy]

I love how you can create an Iksar and go out into the Field of Bone and Lake of Ill Omen or any outdoor zone and then you can hop the boat to the old world and get 30% more xp and never come back to Kunark until you're ready for your Trak Idol.

That's just awesome how it forces Iksar to go to South Karana and do the same thing they did there a hundred times before.

[OuterChimp]

I love how you can create an Iksar and go out into the Field of Bone and Lake of Ill Omen or any outdoor zone and then you can hop the boat to the old world and get 30% more xp and never come back to Kunark until you're ready for your Trak Idol.

That's just awesome how it forces Iksar to go to South Karana and do the same thing they did there a hundred times before.

Good point though as I wish the Kunark outdoor zems were better. My iksary shammy is hanging out in the karananas.

[Bach]

I love how you can create an Iksar and go out into the Field of Bone and Lake of Ill Omen or any outdoor zone and then you can hop the boat to the old world and get 30% more xp and never come back to Kunark until you're ready for your Trak Idol.

That's just awesome how it forces Iksar to go to South Karana and do the same thing they did there a hundred times before.

What's the rush?

[Bonethunder]

ouitdoor kunark zems are worse because theres tons more monsters available and you end up geting more exp faster i like it beter

[BurtMacklinFBI]

What's the rush?

Ask the 100 people in the hole instead of any other zone now. People enjoy being efficient with their time and want to achieve their goals of reaching max level. Spreading the zem would allow it to be more enjoyable across the board and actually get people into zones that are now dead.

[XeroKill]

Honestly, I wonder why we even bother with ZEMs in the first place. They only serve to cram everyone into the most optimal zone because God forbid you lose that 0.001 XP/HR!!

I am an advocate of the Flat ZEM™! Let the zones thrive under equal representation! Let the XP be determined by the content of a mobs level bar and NOT the zone to which he was spawned! Let the loot, the challenge and the fun determine where a group camps, not some exaggerated sense of sweet, sweet XP gains!

This game has far too many min/max obsessed people to the point that waiting in line for 6 hours for 1 hour of gameplay at the "best XP" camp in the game is somehow preferable to playing for 6 hours in a less-than-ideal XP camp somewhere else, even though it is clearly a better camp by its mere virtue of NOT being camped! Fucking bonkers if you ask me.

[Tunabros]

we really got to explore more and stop chasing ZEM

[Tethler]

the population allows for a full Hole

This is the kind of quality content I come here for

[Zipity]

Honestly, I wonder why we even bother with ZEMs in the first place. They only serve to cram everyone into the most optimal zone because God forbid you lose that Millions of XP/HR!!

I am an advocate of the Flat ZEM™! Let the zones thrive under equal representation! Let the XP be determined by the content of a mobs level bar and NOT the zone to which he was spawned! Let the loot, the challenge and the fun determine where a group camps, not some exaggerated sense of sweet, sweet XP gains!

This game has far too many min/max obsessed people to the point that waiting in line for 6 hours for 1 hour of gameplay at the "best XP" camp in the game is somehow preferable to playing for 6 hours in a less-than-ideal XP camp somewhere else, even though it is clearly a better camp by its mere virtue of NOT being camped! Fucking bonkers if you ask me.

FTFY

[Master Roshi]

in the good old days, loot drops also dictated what zones people camped in.

[turbosilk]

Kedge and perma are higher zem.