My idealized terribly unclassic suggestions to hopefully encourage people to spread out to underutilized zones:
1) Boost group xp bonuses so that adding a 3rd member's division in total xp is halved, 4th is quartered and the 5th and 6th members would be essentially free with no further reduction in group xp rewards. Encouraging large groups and going to less crowded/more dangerous zones.
2) Give all Kunark & Velious zones a modest base ZEM boost to reflect the increased hp/damage tables & difficulty those areas have over old world content. 5%-10%.
3) Indoor dungeon zones gain a base ZEM bonus over outdoor zones of 10%. Additionally up to a small 5% base ZEM bonus based on length of respawn times, 5% max at 25+ minute respawn times. Additional small base ZEM bonuses subject to barriers to entry, ie. key, quest item or port requirement etc.
4) Indoor dungeon zones gain a dynamic ZEM modifier that reflects usage:
For every total in game day (72 minutes) that 13+ players have been active (killing/receiving XP from any significant amount of monsters, ie. 5+ kills) The ZEM decreases 1% or if no or <7 players active ZEM increases 1%. Never going lower than outdoor zones base modifier with the bonuses from #3 and never going higher than a 200% total or double bonus over base outdoor XP. So up to 12 players could hunt in a dungeon zone with no - change in ZEM, Single group or abandoned areas accumulate a bonus and popular areas slowly decline down to base value. I'd favor not publishing the current ZEM anywhere but maybe showing a small "green" or "+" for zones with a strong bonus maybe on a /who report at least initially to encourage exploration.
5) Most controversial suggestion- Severely reduce XP base value of city guards/NPCs. Guard killing/camping should never have become the most profitable and safe source of XP & cash at mid to high level game. New characters in the yards and doing quests retain the big ZEM but guards spawning statically and alone shouldn't be notably better XP than clearing rooms of harder, patrolling spawns in remote zones.
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