Isn't it time to find out what lies in the future for the servers?

[Ooloo]

Here's my proposal for what to do at the end of green timeline:

Merge green and blue. This server would be the museum server and would have everyone's characters from green and blue intact with all their gear and titles from botb and all those histories and memories, and you can still log them in if you want, but all the raid mobs and quests are disabled.

At the same time the next green server would launch fresh, and if you want to actually *play* everquest you need to roll on the new green. All your elf pixels still exist for history's sake on the museum server, but this would incentivize people to participate in the new green server and avoid further splitting up the populations. When green 1.0 launched I was honestly pretty baffled that people were actually sticking around on blue and continuing to raid there. I have a 60 epic torpor sham on blue and I don't think I've logged her in once since green launched.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

Here's my proposal for what to do at the end of green timeline:

Merge green and blue. This server would be the museum server and would have everyone's characters from green and blue intact with all their gear and titles from botb and all those histories and memories, and you can still log them in if you want, but all the raid mobs and quests are disabled.

At the same time the next green server would launch fresh, and if you want to actually *play* everquest you need to roll on the new green. All your elf pixels still exist for history's sake on the museum server, but this would incentivize people to participate in the new green server and avoid further splitting up the populations. When green 1.0 launched I was honestly pretty baffled that people were actually sticking around on blue and continuing to raid there. I have a 60 epic torpor sham on blue and I don't think I've logged her in once since green launched.

It's quite simple why a lot of people stick to blue, myself included. For many people it took years to get their toons leveled and geared on blue. Not everyone has the time or desire to do that again. EQ isn't like Diablo 2, where you can make multiple high geared characters in a few months.

The museum idea is interesting, but if you can't play the game it is honestly a waste of server hardware and bandwith. People won't play it at all, and you might as well delete it at that point. The problem is you aren't going to be able to force blue players (or green 1.0 players who feel the same way with their chracters) to play Green 2.0. They will just quit if you deleted the old servers or turned them into a museum. So it doesn't solve the player base split issue sadly.

[Danth]

That post smells of, "Someone likes something I don't like? Destroy it!"

Danth

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

That post smells of, "Someone likes something I don't like? Destroy it!"

Danth

Agreed.

There are probably only two ways to fix the player base split issue, and neither will happen for obvious reasons:

1. The Dev's discontinue making new Green servers, and everyone plays on a merged Blue/Green. This will never happen because the Dev's plan for the past 10 years has been Green, and I am not saying new Green servers are bad. I think it is a great idea, I just don't have the time/inclination to start over. If Green came out 5 years ago I would have been much more excited.

2. The dev's push P99 into Luclin and merge the servers. That way everyone keeps their existing characters, while also not being on a "beta server". This will never happen either due to the dev's wanting to keep the timeline where it is, and I agree with them. I prefer the Classic-Velious timeline, and while I am kind of itching to play Planes of Power again, I could do that on TLP.

[Swish]

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

Here's my proposal for what to do at the end of green timeline:

Merge green and blue. This server would be the museum server and would have everyone's characters from green and blue intact with all their gear and titles from botb and all those histories and memories, and you can still log them in if you want, but all the raid mobs and quests are disabled.

At the same time the next green server would launch fresh, and if you want to actually *play* everquest you need to roll on the new green. All your elf pixels still exist for history's sake on the museum server, but this would incentivize people to participate in the new green server and avoid further splitting up the populations. When green 1.0 launched I was honestly pretty baffled that people were actually sticking around on blue and continuing to raid there. I have a 60 epic torpor sham on blue and I don't think I've logged her in once since green launched.

Not everyone wants to start again, and sometimes you stick with your pals.

[Skarne]

Sucks when all your pals quit 2-3+ yrs ago…so now you’re stuck by yourself de-leveling your main with raid gear down to 4…just for the journey to 60 yet again where you can make new pals.

[Ooloo]

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

Not everyone wants to start again, and sometimes you stick with your pals.

I know, it's just that I dont see any other solution that doesn't result in further and further fractioning of the p99 population, which will *ensure* the ultimate end of the project. Upsetting the few people who *only* play blue and refuse to start over would still probably be a net gain in population and an injection of fresh vitality for the whole project.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

I know, it's just that I dont see any other solution that doesn't result in further and further fractioning of the p99 population, which will *ensure* the ultimate end of the project. Upsetting the few people who *only* play blue and refuse to start over would still probably be a net gain in population and an injection of fresh vitality for the whole project.

It isn't a "few people" who only play on blue. If that was the case our population would mirror that of Red[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] At peak hours there can be 1000 players on Blue. Unless you have any evidence to suggest the majority of the player base is boxing?

There are hundreds of players who haven't (and probably will not) switch over to Green. Removing or gimping the Blue server would just make those players quit. It isn't like they will suddenly want to roll all new characters from scratch on Green. They have had the chance for more than a year now lol.

Having hundreds of players quit wouldn't solve the population split, it would just reduce the number of people playing P99.

You are going to have another problem as well when Green 1.0 is rolled into Blue: A lot of THOSE players will not want to give up their hard earned loot (legacy items, raid items, etc.), and they will want to continue playing those characters on blue (after the merge). Those players would probably quit if they couldn't play their characters anymore.

I think everyone here would agree it is better to have two servers with 700ish players instead of one server with 700ish players[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

EDIT: I think what will end up happening is the dumping server (blue) will end up having a larger population than the subsequent Green Servers. Probably something like 600 players on Green and 1.2k players on Blue. This is because all of the people who want to play their awesome characters will primarily play on Blue, and everybody who boxes blue/green, wants to progress over again, wants legacy loot, or wants double the raid targets, will roll characters on Green. I don't think this is a bad outcome to be honest, and one of the things P99 was missing for a long time was multiple servers to choose from, which was something live had. Even having 2 servers that people can play on simultaneously give both the hardcore players something to do, as well as the casuals. I am excluding Red obviously, as their sub 100 population for years shows most people are not willing to box red/blue, even before Green was released.

[cd288]

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

Here's my proposal for what to do at the end of green timeline:

Merge green and blue. This server would be the museum server and would have everyone's characters from green and blue intact with all their gear and titles from botb and all those histories and memories, and you can still log them in if you want, but all the raid mobs and quests are disabled.

At the same time the next green server would launch fresh, and if you want to actually *play* everquest you need to roll on the new green. All your elf pixels still exist for history's sake on the museum server, but this would incentivize people to participate in the new green server and avoid further splitting up the populations. When green 1.0 launched I was honestly pretty baffled that people were actually sticking around on blue and continuing to raid there. I have a 60 epic torpor sham on blue and I don't think I've logged her in once since green launched.

No offense but this is one of the worst ideas I’ve heard.

Green was fun but I haven’t logged on there nearly as much as I have blue these past couple months. I’m having a blast on blue right now. If I wanted to just perpetually reroll on progression servers and have my prior server be a ghost town then I’d go play TLP

[Ooloo]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

No offense but this is one of the worst ideas I’ve heard.

Green was fun but I haven’t logged on there nearly as much as I have blue these past couple months. I’m having a blast on blue right now. If I wanted to just perpetually reroll on progression servers and have my prior server be a ghost town then I’d go play TLP

Well sure if you play on blue obviously you won't like it.