Cats on the Moon

[ziggyholiday]

Started playing shortly after Luclin came out, played a wizard from then until EQ2 came out. I was bothered for ports every day I logged on....every day. So while it seemed to some of you that there was less player interaction due to spires and pok, there wasn't from my perspective.

During pok I was one of a handful of GM tailors (on my server) that were making elemental gear, yes I used the bazaar trader function to sell but I was sent tells by people looking for a good deal just as much as I had people just come and buy from me for the price I set.

EQ was still a group centric game when SoL and PoP came out, those expansions didn't change that.

AAs where an awesome way to increase your character strength after hitting maz level and gave you a reason to get online and get a group, the problem with them was when they became a barrier for raiding.

[Deathrydar]

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

EQ was still a group centric game when SoL and PoP came out, those expansions didn't change that.

It absolutely changed that! It perhaps didn't completely kill it, but it absolutely 100% changed the group centric" element of the game!

[ziggyholiday]

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

It absolutely changed that! It perhaps didn't completely kill it, but it absolutely 100% changed the group centric" element of the game!

In what way(s) did it "absolutely 100% change the gorup centric element"?

If anything, soloing became less viable (for the vast majority of players) during these two expansions, especially PoP.

[Hithrohir]

Maybe the implication was that raiders distanced themselves too much from the rest of the playerbase, thus trivializing groups and turning them into just exp vectors. That's my belief, anyway. Luclin and onwards was when you could no longer get fairly high-end through trading and group content, and when raiding became exclusively an uberguild thing as opposed to anyone being able to do planes and the lesser raid targets of the first three eras. This trend kind of started in Velious, but nowhere near to the degree of Luclin and especially PoP and onwards. Luclin was when raiders completely stopped caring about non-raid content and wouldn't be wearing a single piece of gear that came from the market, quests or groupable dungeons.

[guineapig]

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

If anything, soloing became less viable (for the vast majority of players) during these two expansions, especially PoP.

Soloing was alive and well in PoP. You just had to pick your spots well.
First time I saw a Shadowknight soloing in the planes was during PoP era in the Plane of Disease fear kiting the bugs outside. Saw rangers and bards soloing regularly as well (in the planes). That's just naming some non-typical soloing examples. I know clerics did quite well solo during PoP although I do not believe they were doing so in the Planes themselves, but rather on old world content. It all depended on how much time you were willing to invest in AAs.

[ziggyholiday]

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

Soloing was alive and well in PoP. You just had to pick your spots well.
First time I saw a Shadowknight soloing in the planes was during PoP era in the Plane of Disease fear kiting the bugs outside. Saw rangers and bards soloing regularly as well (in the planes). That's just naming some non-typical soloing examples. I know clerics did quite well solo during PoP although I do not believe they were doing so in the Planes themselves, but rather on old world content. It all depended on how much time you were willing to invest in AAs.

That's why I said the qualifier "vast majority of players". Also, I was refering to soloing for exp in PoP zones.

[guineapig]

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

That's why I said the qualifier "vast majority of players". Also, I was refering to soloing for exp in PoP zones.

All of my examples (other than cleric) were examples in the Planes.

In my opinion just because the vast majority of players didn't solo in the planes does not mean that they couldn't have. But you are correct, it wasn't exactly a popular past time. Due to the hitpoints of planar mobs it tended to be slower exp'ing solo than in a solid 6-person group and by that time there were no exp penalties and the group exp bonus was pretty nice too.

[Kingofqueens123]

Baz was great, people talking about missing out on interacting with other people? who wants to deal with poeple....[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Stormhowl]

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

AAs ... gave you a reason to get online and get a group

Implying that one NEEDS something to progress to have a reason to log on.

[starspun]

No, implying that someone who wasn't content sitting on their ass while twiddling their thumbs doing nothing at all would have a reason to log in.