Some thoughts from a newcomer
 

Hello. I'm new to the server and new to project1999 in general. I thought it would be worthwhile documenting some of my thoughts and concerns (as a new player here) regarding issues on red99 that seem to be important to the community at large.

I will start with the basics. This is a *PvP* server which is to suggest that the gross majority of players who play here do so for the player vs. player interaction. Players who are not interested in this feature are likely to play on the other server. While this is completely obvious, it is imperative to note that in order for PvP to exist, players need to exist. As you might imagine, the amount of PvP interaction on a server with population of 200 is likely to be nearly double the amount of PvP interaction on a server (with same rulesets, etc) with population 100. This is to say there is a positive, causal relationship between the population of a server and how much interaction there is between its players (pvp included).

A server with a low population is destined to have low player interaction by virtue of numbers alone. What this means is that more people are forced to solo (which we all know is absolutely abyssmal for the majority of classes in this game), and rely on their own means for progressing throughout the game. Definitely way more punishing in the group-centric game of Everquest relative to any somewhat recent MMO (or version of Everquest). What this also means, is that when you do happen to encounter someone in range of you while leveling up... you are less inclined to even attack them because they are one of literally a dozen people on the server in your level range... In other words, by choosing to pvp you forego your rare opportunity to group and progress with other people on the server.

So low population means less people to play with, which means it's harder to progress and level since you are forced to be so self-reliant, and furthermore your opportunity to PvP is doubly limited by the low population: 1) not many people in range to start with, and 2) the few people are in range are the few people that you could group with if you didn't want to solo 100% of your time here. There are also other things to consider, like 2*) the gross majority of new players are either a) from blue with funds from blue, or b) an epiced and/or fungi'd twink of someone who has been playing on this server for a bit longer than a few weeks.

So population is a pretty important variable here, especially since basically all of us want more people to play with and more people to PvP against... But it's not so much population that is the essential variable, but population DENSITY. In particular, the size of the population relative to the size of the in-game world. Currently, we have a very small population of ~100ish (at good times) on a world that doesn't include Velious. When Velious is released, if our population has not increased we will see our population DENSITY decrease even further. There will be more zones available, and the same number (or less) people to fill them and the game will feel more deserted than it does now UNLESS the population grows.

Now let's talk about population growth. In order to understand growth on this server, it is imperative to understand barriers of entry. What do newcoming players have stacked against them that might make entry to this server difficult?

1) low population, not many people to group with
2) pvp server, harder to exp
3) low population, low resources in general (binds, ports, trades, people, basically everything)
4) server has been out for 2+ years, competing against people with lots of gear/twinks/etc
4a) veterans of server have enjoyed extra time on server (obviously) but additionally exp bonus for portions of that extra time on server


When Velious is released, these barriers of entry will only increase. The game will have been out longer, so new players will be even further behind (relatively speaking). Additionally, AAs and new gear will be released, so the disparity will no longer be naked lvl 1 vs lvl 60 full VP (or whatever bullshit bluebie gear the server 'elite' are wearing). Instead, it will be naked lvl 1 vs lvl 60 full NToV (or whatever) with a fuckload of AAs. It will take even more time and effort to start from fresh to become competitive at max level (which is the only place where pvp seems to exist since there is hardly a population and an almost nonexistant lowbie population).

How can you fix the biggest problem on this server (population)? Provide incentives for new players starting here. What are the most straightforward incentives you can give that will reduce these barriers of entry? How about an exp bonus that most of the server veterans benefited from tremendously for who knows how long? How about some transparency when it comes to the handling the server? From the week or two I've been here I get the strong impression that whoever has the power to make this server work doesn't want it to work at all. It's hard to convince new people to start here when the server looks like it's dying before everyone's eyes (despite GMs saying explicitly that they won't pull the plug). You don't have the server on life support... it seems like the only reason the server hasn't died yet is simply to spite the people with power over it. Coming from a new person... the future of this server (given all that I have witnessed) seems grim as fuck.

This server would be way more fun if it actually had people to play with. Out of the seven other people I started this server with, only two other people are playing. And the people who quit didn't quit because of the exp, they quit because of the population. There are not enough people playing, and the best solution to that is a simple exp bonus.

Also, some other ideas I think are potentially good:

1) In addition to the exp bonus (which will bring more players), implement (or re-implement?) some sort of exp loss on pvp death as to return to a more "classic" version of Everquest. I know you guys love talking about how you need to keep this classic, so why not increase population by increasing exp, increase the pvp by increasing the population, and then make pvp more important by implementing exp loss (that will be mitigated or hedged by the bonus exp you are giving people).

2) Do NOT get rid of ooc. The server has a skeleton for a population--removal of ooc would result in catastrophic failure for all newer players who are SO reliant on ooc to get help from people (since most zones are barren). That said, ooc is like a real-time version of this forum. Basically, a piece of shit. That's fine, because as I already said before ooc is 100% necessary for the new population. As other people have suggested, though, please add a zone and/or location to people ooc chat. This will both help limit the bullshit as WELL as increasing pvp. Double win.

3) Just get rid of /anon and /role. I have always wanted this feature on pvp everquest :D

tldr; Everyone who is playing here wants a higher population. Causal correlation between exp bonus and population size. The exp bonus is not the problem, but it IS A PARTIAL SOLUTION to the problem of population size.. Solutions to population problem need to be implemented IMMEDIATELY, not "soon."

tldr,tldr; 420 blaze it, no-scope taco bell grande meal with a side of flaming diarrhea (firehea)

WOW

You seem like an intelligent person with good writing skills.

Help density: roll back Kunark!

hmm

Welcome to RED!

Such a waste of breath. I like red for what it is. A low pop "pvp" server. Should just /claim 60 on every toon and let ppl pvp and do the PVE over on blue.

this is something they tried on another server and it turned out to result in less pvp than before, you know why? cause if no one can be anonymous you can use the /who command in surrounding zones to see whos coming for you before they get to ya, which results in people avoiding eachother at a much higher rate then before..

looks great on paper but in reality everyone is a bitch and no one straight up rolls 1v1 style unless they know for a fact they are OP and cannot be beat, so it's always gonna be one guy avoiding the other using the who commands without the anon feature.

Oh, that's awesome. I had no idea that had already been tried before... and I have to admit, what you explain isn't an immediately obvious pitfall of that feature, but it is understandable. Was just a thought :p

I don't really see the point of this. Twinks running around with fungi tunics and epics: Why make the meaningless deaths caused by these characters even more time consuming? There is already an additional exp penalty imposed upon any new player that has to deal with twinks. Being corpse camped, or calling LNS, are both equally disruptive. You're devoting time to CR's or being forced to leave a zone with a decent ZEM. This isn't two players, or even groups of players, duking it out over desirable camps. It's one player--with no intention of leveling--disrupting the exp grind of another player.

"Pvp happens on a pvp server." It does. But, it seems incredibly counter productive to the goal of establishing a growing server population when the obvious answer to the low numbers issue is an exp bonus. We're assuming that easier exp will make more people want to play here, yet we tolerate individuals dumping unreasonable amounts of time and plat into low level alts for the purpose of griefing new players.

Some twinks are decent about it and don't wait for an LNS to be called. They get their YT and move on. Others, though, will invoke some bazaar sense of ownership over a zone and stay as long as necessary to ensure that no one in range is taking advantage of its superior exp. I think this is probably the number one reason why those who do come to Red don't stay very long. As was made evident by the group who quit after being stomped last month by some SK twinks. I personally can put up with the face rolling some of these characters are capable of dishing out. But, I'm one person to the four or five others who quit. That's just bad math if the goal is to retain new players.

tl,dr: Exp loss on pvp death is unnecessary. You are already losing a considerable amount of time through CRs and camp relocation. Problem is compounded by grief twinks who log on when mains get stomped in 60 pvp.

Yes a thousand times to everything in this quote.

well written. I think you exclude one other key reason why the population is so low. And thats the community as such which is very negative and even toxic at times.

When there is talk about getting rid of ooc, its in order to make this fact less obvious to a new player, with the obvious tradeof that the server may appear quiet and dead.

There is no easy fix to this though, i was against global ooc, and i still am. I very rarely see it used for anything but "pras"'ing, trolling or selling items. The selling part is easily done through the forums, and the other two i think we can live without.

Still, with all this said, i think we gotta live with global ooc a bit longer, as its the only illusion of human interaction a new player will see, its not a good time to get rid of it. If the population increases i hope we can get rid of it though.

Could be fun to reroll everyone to level 10 with the velious launch. Let people keep their gear, and have massive pvp fests in the levelling zones. As nothing comes after velious on this server, there is no rush to get through it as fast as possible. Would fuck any actual newbies up a bit though i suppose, but damn it could be fun.

A better version of removing anon/role is just taking out /who so you never know who is in the same zone as you