P99 makes gear obsolete, an MMO analysis

[azxten]

I was just thinking, the basic formula of EQ was that you need gear to progress. Almost every class is dependent on good gear to better perform their role either for grouping or raiding. This is the "carrot" that is supposed to make the grinding rewarding.

On P99 the end raiding game has no guild that is gear dependent. There is no guild that was able to gear up the best and maintains an elite core of members that can down raid mobs with very small groups due to their superior equipment. All guilds are now zerg guilds. The ridiculous numbers of high levels, account sharing, known strategies, etc has turned raiding into a player numbers game not a skill or equipment issue.

The reason is that fights are trivial and the only "fight" that happens is a race to FTE no matter how the system changes to tweak this game. Raiding is entirely an FTE game now which means the only thing you really need is numbers to ensure you can kill whatever you FTE. A guild that tried to rely on skilled highly geared players will just be working extremely hard to first win an FTE and then actually win the fight compared to other guilds that will have an equal FTE chance but a much easier time securing the kill.

In short, player skill and gear is meaningless. Gear won't change if you can FTE better and skill is pointless if zerging is the better strategy for ensuring you get loot.. but the loot is meaningless.

Similarly group content is trivial. You could say that better gear lets you kill faster or live through fights you wouldn't otherwise but to what end? Presumably you are grouping to either level up or get gear. We just determined gear is pointless except to level faster. It has no bearing on raiding now.

Logically then P99 is only about leveling fast. Raiding doesn't matter because the gear doesn't matter for raiding. It only matters for power leveling other characters because you're already max level if you're raiding.

All effort in P99 is to level alts faster. The "ding" of a level giving you a dopamine hit or being able to say you "beat" another guild at getting FTE is the only goal on P99. Your character is pointless. Your guild is similarly pointless or basically only comparing FTE skill.

Just an observation of the state of things...

[Darkslide632]

Here's an observation...

There's plenty of fun to be had that doesn't include raiding. I'm just waiting on my IP exemption so I can hang out with some friends and check out zones I never checked out. Weirdly enough, I play to have fun. Getting new gear is fun. Therefore not pointless.

[azxten]

Originally Posted by Darkslide632 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Here's an observation...

There's plenty of fun to be had that doesn't include raiding. I'm just waiting on my IP exemption so I can hang out with some friends and check out zones I never checked out. Weirdly enough, I play to have fun. Getting new gear is fun. Therefore not pointless.

Getting new gear is "fun" but pointless in its utility. This means it is merely the dopamine hit from the skinner box. The random reward. Same as raiding. Who will get the FTE this time? Who will win the roll? What will be dropped?

It's as fun as playing a slot machine, sure. I'm just saying EQ had other aspects that aren't present on P99 but could be. P99 is unique in that it's attempting to recreate classic but certain things are creating an extremely unclassic environment. Maybe it's possible to tweak raiding or the gameplay to stop the trivialization of content.

People will get upset at the truth of what I'm saying but I'm just saying it because it should be addressed for the good of the server. Things should change until the game is difficult enough that the FTE race is no longer a concept or at least much smaller than it is now.

Things are getting awfully unclassic...

[Darkslide632]

I disagree. I play p99 for all the reasons I played in 99... and it's not raiding.

[guggle]

I have a blast exploring and slowly leveling. DNGAF about high level gear and raiding

[Morton Jr]

Dude theres 1 boss mob per week, and 1000 players

On aradune your guild ( Regardless of how big it is ) Can weekly open an instance and do your raid content

if you have 20 people, you can try vox with 20 and its actually difficult

No trains, no griefing, no drama, lower guk had 35 instances before i got suspended for the 4th time and quit

p99 has always been like this with the exception of the RED SERVER where small crews tried to snipe bosses with the risk of pvp which made it even more challenging

if you play blue / green its your own fault, you wait in line for gear and have 0 fun

even leveling in mistmoore is fun fighting twinks, how can people play blue or green it boggles my brain

[magnetaress]

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

Dude theres 1 boss mob per week, and 1000 players

On aradune your guild ( Regardless of how big it is ) Can weekly open an instance and do your raid content

if you have 20 people, you can try vox with 20 and its actually difficult

No trains, no griefing, no drama, lower guk had 35 instances before i got suspended for the 4th time and quit

p99 has always been like this with the exception of the RED SERVER where small crews tried to snipe bosses with the risk of pvp which made it even more challenging

if you play blue / green its your own fault, you wait in line for gear and have 0 fun

even leveling in mistmoore is fun fighting twinks, how can people play blue or green it boggles my brain

Need red 2.0 item loot. Kunark only.

[normal]

I want to be the very best. Like no one ever was.

[guggle]

It's all about what you want to get from the game. If I wanted instanced content, I'd play more a more modern MMO.

[Morton Jr]

instancing is how you deal with 1000 players and 1 boss

the boss has 32k hp and theres hundreds of players + lag

you are lucky to get 1 hit in