Scout Quest is Going Away (Woot)

[loramin]

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

this is the actual issue, it's not the game it's people playing it that are the problem.

I disagree: the people playing it are constrained by the staff, and the staff enforces the lottery ticket. Before that, the way we got the lottery ticket was that the staff enforced the (even worse) clickfest.

Of course, P99 isn't live, so we can never have true classic (where Scout just sat there un-used, for hours or even days). But, only the staff can make it closer to classic.

Imagine if you got to Scout and everyone had a minute or two window to turn in their tools. Then, Scout's normal message would change, ever so slightly: "Great! I was wondering when they would send someone out to give me these, Loramin ...." It would then be my raid force's responsibility to help ..., just like Ring Wars, Spirit of Garzicor, etc.

To be clear, I'm not condemning the staff (for not making more work for themselves): they have so much work already just so we can play a free game! I completely understand why they keep the lottery ticket system.

I just think it's a necessary evil (from not having enough staff/hours), and if it wasn't the staff would fix it ... because fundamentally lottery tickets are not classic EQ.

[Ekco]

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

I disagree

you don't high end raid i take it, didn't read the rest.

[loramin]

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

you don't high end raid i take it, didn't read the rest.

That has nothing whatsoever to do with the conversation AND is 100% inaccurate.

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[shovelquest]

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

I disagree: the people playing it are constrained by the staff, and the staff enforces the lottery ticket. Before that, the way we got the lottery ticket was that the staff enforced the (even worse) clickfest.

Of course, P99 isn't live, so we can never have true classic (where Scout just sat there un-used, for hours or even days). But, only the staff can make it closer to classic.

Imagine if you got to Scout and everyone had a minute or two window to turn in their tools. Then, Scout's normal message would change, ever so slightly: "Great! I was wondering when they would send someone out to give me these, Loramin ...." It would then be my raid force's responsibility to help ..., just like Ring Wars, Spirit of Garzicor, etc.

To be clear, I'm not condemning the staff (for not making more work for themselves): they have so much work already just so we can play a free game! I completely understand why they keep the lottery ticket system.

I just think it's a necessary evil (from not having enough staff/hours), and if it wasn't the staff would fix it ... because fundamentally lottery tickets are not classic EQ.

exploiting classic game mechanic is classic everquest.

The problem is that people are hording wealth for years.

Delete all characters after time locked Luclin expansion is released and start over.

That's classic.

[cd288]

Edit: Nvm saw Danth brought this up

Wasn't Luclin released at the end of 2001? These posts appear to indicate that it was added in April 2001 (if people discovering something is to be used as valid evidence of the earliest date it was added).

So how would that be unclassic? Seems like if anything this just means the scout quest gets added at/toward the end of the timeline.

[red_demonman]

I mean other posters already pointed out the mechanics are all classic. If you are arguing for the behaviors of players not being classic well people do what people want, and in this case they chose to work together and not waste everyone's time.

There are a whole bunch of non-classic things that happen because of player behavior, not game mechanics, and this being a 20+ year old game. I don't think there is a lot of interest in enforcing classic player behavior, and this wouldn't be the first thing to look at if there was.

[loramin]

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

I mean other posters already pointed out the mechanics are all classic. If you are arguing for the behaviors of players not being classic well people do what people want, and in this case they chose to work together and not waste everyone's time.

There are a whole bunch of non-classic things that happen because of player behavior, not game mechanics, and this being a 20+ year old game. I don't think there is a lot of interest in enforcing classic player behavior, and this wouldn't be the first thing to look at if there was.

Please, countless other mechanics have been changed here to make the server more classic. Something something rooted dragons.

But I'm not talking about the mechanics, I'm just arguing that guilds ... not a random assortment of players wanting to win the lottery ... did Scout in classic. Which is a fact, just like the fact that guilds did every similar Velious quest that way: no one lottery ticketed their Coldain Ring or their Ethereal Bladed Naginata on live!

You can say whether you like or dislike what P99 does, but it's incontrovertible that there were no lottery tickets (for Scout or anything else) back in '01.

[Ciderpress]

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

But I'm not talking about the mechanics, I'm just arguing that guilds ... not a random assortment of players wanting to win the lottery ... did Scout in classic.

Guess what happens when not many people show up to scout roll because it's at an odd hour? The winner asks their guild for help. Sometimes things go sideways and the "winner" doesn't get the disk and captain depops before the force can recover. Your "lotto ticket" analogy is full of caveats.

Emergent player behavior is classic, and the devs choosing to alter or not alter emergent player behavior depending on it's nature is also classic. Rooting dragons sadly made sense here because it was a complete clusterfuck letting guilds pull everything to ent or wherever. By contrast, the server community organically coming to an agreement about scout is totally fine and people prefer it that way, thus the devs don't have to and shouldn't intervene.

[WarpathEQ]

Interesting take that its lottery-like not because its a /random roll but because the community stays and helps the winner with the engage...

[loramin]

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

Interesting take that its lottery-like not because its a /random roll but because the community stays and helps the winner with the engage...

It's because of both.

Look, if it was purely a random chance for some loot, and either you or your group had to kill something to get that random chance, it'd be classic (and like every other normal item in the game). If the loot required both random chance and a raid force, so you had to join a guild (or otherwise motivate a raid force yourself), that too would be classic: every raid mob and every Velious raid quest works that way ... except Scout.

In classic no one got a Talisman of Benevolence, Coldain Ring, or that spiffy Naginata, just for showing up and being lucky. That is 100% unique to P99, and it doesn't fit the "DNA" of classic. On live doing stuff by yourself got one level of gear, joining a group got you better gear, and joining a guild got you still better gear: that was the game.

Again, showing up and hoping to be handed raid gear for being lucky is not classic EQ ... it's a lottery ticket.