Zone overpopulation

[Jauna]

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

I can get to any zone in the game within 5 minutes due to dial a port.
So really no idea what you are talking about.

Thats just you, now trying to wrangle 5 others. finding them, trying to convince them to move, travel across the world and hope you can fill that missing square peg before the others get bored or has a cat catch fire before or during things get rolling

[Keza]

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

This does not work a lot of the time. It's like socialism. It might look good on paper but try it out and you end up with a disaster. All it takes is the tank or healer to say "Sorry guys but I have to run" and the parties over. They will all say at the beginning they got a few hours to play but it never fails that 30 minutes into the grind someone has wife aggro or work just called or they go LD and never return.

Yeah. A friend and I made a duo and were pretty twinked. I wanted to avoid the highway so we would form groups for paw, sol A, lower guk etc. It wasn't too terrible getting the actual groups together because my main was a druid, and I always offered ports when the group broke, but it was seldom that groups lasted very long.

There's a lack of common courtesy when it comes to grouping on p99 that you would expect people to have, but maybe some people lost it over time. FFXI was the same way. You join a group on there and you better damn well have at least an hour, and that's without making any promises.

Another thing is most people play EQ for literal decades and still don't know some zones. Probably because of the exp highway itself, and a lack of any.. you know.. quests.. taking them to other zones. Leading a group of randoms to Kaesora or Dalnir will absolutely end badly for one reason or another. For instance in paw on this server past the first double doors there's a heinous pathing glitch on that wooden bridge that results in 20+ gnolls training you and instantly killing everyone.

* But I do wish people would branch out. There's plenty of untouched zones. Some of them suck, sure. Even to the point that some zones are too unfun to even level in, for reasons like the paw pathing glitch, but there's still quite a few barren areas in the world.

[Neon Archie]

Swamp of No Hope, Beholder’s Maze, Runneye. Under 20 you and/or your friends can have the whole zone and xp with no competition. Early 20s Najena or start the entrance to CT or Permafrost. Keep working your way in until mid 30s. There are roads less travelled...

[Diogene]

I saw groups in najena earlier on

[wagorf]

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

This does not work a lot of the time. It's like socialism. It might look good on paper but try it out and you end up with a disaster. All it takes is the tank or healer to say "Sorry guys but I have to run" and the parties over. They will all say at the beginning they got a few hours to play but it never fails that 30 minutes into the grind someone has wife aggro or work just called or they go LD and never return.

If you are in KC and the tank leaves you /ooc hands group looking for replacement tank.

You are in Kedge and the tank leaves then everyone has to leave and make the long journey back to KC where they might find a group or have a shot at getting a tank replacement.

yep, lots of people here love to give theoretical talks without in field experience

[Vizax_Xaziv]

Originally Posted by snyder43 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I totally agree with this. There are some zones I walk into that are completely empty because they have crap loot, lack of ZEM, or are just difficult zones, so people opt to exp elsewhere else. Some that come to mind are Najena, Runnyeye, Paw, Kedge, Dalnir, Nurge, and Droga.

Add cazic thule to that list as well, unfortunately
Love xping there

[DMN]

Back in the day it was either fight for scraps in places like unrest or head on out to the often neglected places in the world. I remember being giddy i had 2 whole spawns to myself at the arena entrance in lake rathe.

[Ennewi]

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

This does not work a lot of the time. It's like socialism. It might look good on paper but try it out and you end up with a disaster. All it takes is the tank or healer to say "Sorry guys but I have to run" and the parties over. They will all say at the beginning they got a few hours to play but it never fails that 30 minutes into the grind someone has wife aggro or work just called or they go LD and never return.

If you are in KC and the tank leaves you /ooc hands group looking for replacement tank.

You are in Kedge and the tank leaves then everyone has to leave and make the long journey back to KC where they might find a group or have a shot at getting a tank replacement.

Guild groups are the exception. Even if one or two players need to leave early, reps are easy to come by. People have no reservations about joining a guild group in progress, even if they're practically strangers and all the way out in the sticks.

For PUGs, it's easy enough to convince those who are lfg in KC to form up and leg it over to Chardok. Just depends if there are enough of the right classes at first. A healer and tank should be enough to attract others into joining via ooc.

But it's like any ism/system on paper; no one version is going to prove terribly effective with any great consistency unless it includes elements of the others. They're lopsided and often inadequate without different types, similar to classes in EQ.

So join a solid guild that groups regularly but don't depend on them for exp. Use the forums to start having regular groups in the underappreciated zones. Or just be more active in recruiting others, using /who all. It can be tedious, but it's better than semi-afking at the zoneline waiting for more of the same xp grind.

Dalnir has a great atmosphere to it and it's quite safe once you break in the spawns. Just have a puller who knows what they are doing. Same could be said for Kaesora once the group gets past the overlap of spiders and undead. Bind melee outside and the CR time isn't any greater than the usual dungeons. Warrens is also well worth the port over, just be prepared for lots of adds. And again, get bound right outside.

[Foxplay]

News flash, ZEM does not matter if your competing for camps or don't have ample mobs to kill....

If your constantly full mana or high mana with nothing to kill... go to a different zone stop waiting for X camp, the ZEM bonus will not make up for 30minutes or hours of making crap or no exp that you would get of constant exp gain in a zone with low ZEM

While I agree some zones should have a much higher ZEM for what they are worth/challenge. In the end its not classic to change them (although it would'nt be the end of the world if they did either) But sounds like a you problem if you don't try and go to different zones

[ScottBerta]

13 Paladin do Kurns tear up the undead!