1. Will certainly be abused, you will just have bots/alts filling those spots afk
2. If you boost outdoor kunark zones it will just mean bards, druids, wizards level faster and you'll see even more PL groups. I do agree that end game dungeons could use a little tweaking.. . but outside of those, ultimately I think you'd just see the majority of them being used to level up alts faster via PL ala runnyeye.
3/4. How much faster do you want levelling to be than it is now ? Your solution of making it easier to level overall with further incentives or using complicated mechanics to artificially control xp seems counter to the point of classic EQ and what makes it interesting. This type of over thinking is what lead mmo's into a death spiral in my opinion
5. There are only so many zones with guards to kill. By eliminating this, you're robbing people of a relaxing solo playstyle enjoyed by many. Some don't like grouping or being funneled into what you deem is the only way to play the game. This would also just result in more stress and people fighting over a now a reduced amount of solo spots.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rajax
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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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