PvP Server Too Small For Velious

[easy_lee]

I believe the pvp server is too small to support the Velious expansion. Furthermore, I believe it was too small to adequately support Kunark. There are other reasons why I believe the original, vanilla EQ had the best PvP on p1999.

PvP Premises
1) For PvP to happen, people have to be in the same area at the same time. This isn't a kiddie game like WoW where people can just join battlegrounds. PvP in EQ is over individual mobs, camps, and zones. Every zone added, especially the huge zones of Velious, spreads players out and makes PvP less common. Our population is too small for Velious PvP.

2) For PvP to happen, players need to be close in level. During the classic timeline, where there were only 50 levels, this was much more often the case than it is now. Starting with Kunark, finding PvP at certain level ranges was difficult. Level 60 characters had nothing to do much of the time. This continues to be the case.

3) The gear barrier to entry for PvP has grown with every expansion. Kunark brought us Fungi Tunics, epics, and ridiculous weapons that made PvP without those things near impossible and brought on hoards of twinks. Velious is making this worse. Powerful gear also decreases the effectiveness of casters due to casters having no gear to increase spell damage or decrease target resistances. We saw this during Kunark, with resists making many casters useless. Many changes to the resist code were made to address this, but none were successful.

4) The larger zones make it difficult to plug, which is good, but Velious is really a PvE expansion. A significant chunk of the player base only logs in to zerg raids and then quit. The widening gear discrepancies and decreased effectiveness of casters as a result makes it even more difficult for a smaller raid to contest mobs than it was in Kunark.

In short, the current game world is too big for the server population. The ten extra levels since classic have made it difficult to find players to PvP with who are of your own level range. Stronger Velious and Kunark gear have made many casters ineffective and have made it difficult to contest zerg raids with a smaller force. People are running around getting pixels rather than engaging in PvP.

I could discuss teams, too, but it's been done to death. In short, having teams not only helps discourage zergs, but also prevents players from grouping and then stabbing each other in the back. Thus, it would help our community.

As others have said, we have always had a team server in effect; the zerg team vs everyone else. That might still happen with a teams server, with one team having a majority. But at least players would know what they were getting into, could form sub-communities based on team, and could not just switch teams on the same character. And a classic timeline would enable those smaller teams to still compete.

A classic-only teams server would be much better for PvP and server community than what we have now. This wouldn't need to affect the blue server, which has always been about progression. Thus, development efforts in Kunark and Velious wouldn't be wasted.

[Tassador]

I didn't read a word of this but you did it. You managed to solve why a 1999 game is not working like in 99 in 2016. *CHEERS*

[dontbanpls]

teams is just a code enforced reason to zerg. needs to be guild v guild or you'll see more of the same sorry to burst your bubble. you are right about velious being too much content for the player pool on red tho.

[Bokke]

Teams is blue as fuck and should never happen.
Everything else I sort agree with. A classic red FFA server would be a lot of fun.

[iruinedyourday]

should be yearly wipes with vanilla

[SamwiseRed]

Really they do. Probably why Diablo 2 had better replayability. Ladder resets were always fun.

[Laugher]

Did not read, except I did agree with that last line of OP: Needs only classic
Sure it'd die down sometime, but every MMO/server does eventually.

[hurt]

It does seem that the population has shrunk recently too. Which doesn't help.

I play during offpeak (Asia) and I remember there being around 80-120 people online during my playtime. Now there are usually around 30.

I usually log in, port around for an hour, not find any pvp and log off.

Last night I spent a good 3 hours roaming around and only ran into Reptoyd, who was a good sport and had a fun 1v1 for a while.

I could only imagine how boring it must be for melee and non-port classes during offpeak.

[iruinedyourday]

230 on right now just sayn'

[easy_lee]

Originally Posted by dontbanpls [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

teams is just a code enforced reason to zerg. needs to be guild v guild or you'll see more of the same sorry to burst your bubble. you are right about velious being too much content for the player pool on red tho.

With server population being as low as it is, that may be a better idea as long as guild size was limited. The trouble with the current setup is that zerg is the only possible outcome. Teams are one way to ensure players pick based on their preferred race / class / what have you, but we may not have enough players to even pull off three factions properly. In the old days, one faction was always underplayed. Here, that faction may be so underplayed as to not exist.

People always move towards the path of least resistance. The P1999 administrators can steer the community in any direction they desire via the right tweaks. Limited guilds could work, as long as there was something in place to prevent guilds from collaborating with each other.

But I stand by the classic-only point. It was the most balanced time for PvP among the classes, and was when the most PvP happened due to fewer zones. Besides, it wouldn't take any new development.