Quote:
Originally Posted by lite
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variance accommodates to guilds that want to be able to operate with just friends and not tag everything that comes into line of sight. No shame in it, without variance it's a numbers game as Checkraise and Kergan have stated numerous times. No fun for us.
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I'm going against my troll nature for one moment to respond to this honestly.
EQ was, is and always be a numbers game. The game was built in a way that allowed people to stream roll content with 10 times the numbers the raid encounter was designed around. Gear is literally the
only meaningful differentiating factor in EQ character development. The only other options you get are a handful of face choices, what race you pick and where you enter your extra 30 stat points at character creation. We don't even have armor dyes in this era.
For the first 4 expansions, the live team pretty much went with the idea. Raid targets began to scale upwards in difficulty at an exponential scale. They quite literally embraced the zerg mentality and not only made it the "ez mode" but REQUIRED to progress at the end game. But that type of content development could not continue forever, and facing declining server populations they began adding instanced content with raid caps in Planes of Power.
You simply can't do the end game in EQ in the Velious era without the zerg. The content in Velious was designed around the assumption you'd be hitting it with 50+ people and adjusted accordingly. We have the benefit of knowing exactly what is going to happen, and your idea of 15 pals getting together to raid and hang out will not work to get the top tier of loot in Velious.
So truthfully, you want to know why Nihilum stays on top and why it will always stay on top? Because nobody wants to leave the guild and risk missing out on end game Velious raiding. Combining all the factors I've outlined (gear only means of progression, need for huge raiding numbers, etc) with the current server population and you have a recipe for what is happening right now. We could probably sustain a 2nd big guild on R99 if all the lower level people in Hokuten stick around and that guild is able to stave off hemorrhaging their top players to Nihilum. But you're also fighting human nature...the desire to take the path of least resistance to what you ultimately want.
I realize not everyone plays the game to kill AoW/Phara Dar, whatever. But you're in the very small minority. If you want to do nothing but PVP why even have a guild at all? Why even raid at all? Why care about variance or what is happening in the raiding scene? Just go PVP and enjoy the fact that you have tons of targets to kill. Plenty of people do that now, like 90% of the top 20 of the leaderboard.
Variance does absolutely nothing to change the future of this server even if it works
exactly like you say it will (which for the record, I do not believe it will). Nihilum or whatever the top guild is still going to lock down the top content, how long do you think a level 60 neckbeard in Hokuten is going to enjoy killing Fay or Talendor for nothing they can use with an almost non-existent chance at killing a mob they actually get an upgrade from? They'll eventually either quit out of boredom or app to the top guild to see the top content/gear. All your variance plan would do if successful is get a handful of people some gear before they join the uberguild (or quit), where they would have got the same gear 10x easier and months before.
The ONLY way this changes is if a guild can challenge Nihilum directly. This means engaging them in PVP, defeating them, and taking the top raid targets. It's not like that hasn't happened before. The only difference is Nihilum keeps humming along and every other comparable force has proven to be a flash in the pan for various reasons not worth discussing.
You make a lot of posts on how much you hate the way this server is Lite. You seem to care about the server and EQ in general or you'd have been gone a long time ago. For once, try to think of changes that will have a meaningful impact for the better, and not just the same anti-Nihilum stuff that is ignored by the players and staff alike. We get it, you hate us. You think we ruined R99. Everyone who has ever played on this server or read these forums knows this already.
You want this server to change for the better? Then start doing something to help it change for the better.