In my opinion, the only real issue in this thread is not having anyone to group with at certain times. Some classes are completely reliant on other players to get anything done and therefore are screwed when this happens. This reliance on others is great and one of the things that made classic EQ such a great game, but being screwed due to a lack of players online is not classic EQ at all.
This is not about XP being too slow, or having to go to specific areas to find groups (this was true in classic too), or having to be proactive to find and create groups, or not having good enough items available, etc.
One suggested solution was to play at different times. In my opinion, this is a ridiculous suggestion. Anyone willing to reschedule their life around an emulated EQ server has bigger issues than not being able to find a group.
Another suggestion was to allow players to bind wound to 100%. This would reduce the impact of not having players to group with for some classes, but it is far from an ideal solution. The stated goal of the server is to recreate classic EQ, and binding wound to 100% certainly isn't classic EQ. Also, IIRC some classes (at least monks?) were able to bind wound up to 70% if they got their skill high enough (without AA). Allowing all classes to bind to 100% takes away a defining feature of these classes.
Another was to re-roll as a class with solo ability. Working with what you have now (normal bind wound, no boxing, etc.), this is the best solution. If you know warriors are screwed if there's no one to group with, and you know you'll be playing at times when there may be no one to group with, then rolling a warrior isn't the greatest idea. I don't think this is the ideal approach though, because I do think someone should be able to play the class they want to play regardless of play time. Also, it could lead to a very non-classic class distribution. Regardless, making a warrior (or rogue, etc.) knowing how the server actually is now and complaining about the situation you've put yourself into is silly. Reroll for the time being and come back to your desired class if and when something's changed that makes that class more viable for you.
While rerolling certainly works, it couldn't hurt to at least discuss alternatives that would fix the problem without limiting the class choice of off-hour gamers.
I think implementing some sort of boxing is the ideal solution. The source of the problem being discussed is a lack of characters online at certain times. Boxing increases the amount of characters online without sacrificing anything classic. I know boxing has been discussed to death on these forums, but I think some sort of limited boxing can be implemented in a way that fixes the "I play a warrior and there's no one online to group with atm" problem without creating many of the problems that the anti-boxing crowd fears. It is all about attaching enough penalties to boxing so that there's minimal appeal unless you absolutely need it, and/or forbidding it unless certain conditions are met.
Here's some ideas:
* Large XP penalty on both characters when both are online simultaneously
* Boxing only allowed when the server population is bellow X players
* Boxing only allowed when the population of characters between levels X and Y falls bellow Z, and then boxed characters must be between levels X and Y (having multiple rules like this to cover different level ranges)
* Boxing forbidden in certain zones (ex: fear, hate, sky, maybe solb, lguk and perma too)
* Boxed characters must be within X levels of each other
* Boxed characters cannot engage certain mobs
* Magic items do not drop from monsters killed by boxed characters
* Add some sort indication so that other players know when someone is boxing (ex: * in front of both chars names in the /who list)
* No more than 2 chars online at once
Etc...some have flaws, but you get the idea.
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