How do we get players to return to Project1999?

[Lazortag]

The server has probably lost hundreds of players from unnecessary burnout at the high end. Here, people have to invest unreasonable amounts of time to accomplish things that took less time in classic. With epics out, the gap between the top players and the bottom players increases even more because lots of epics require drops from boss mobs that most players will realistically never be able to see in this expansion (Bard, Druid, Ranger, Mage, Necro, Wizard, Warrior, and SK epics are extremely difficult to get if you're not in a top guild). So lots of people probably quit when they realized how much content they were never going to see, that they rightly would have been able to experience in classic without too much effort.

That being said, velious will fix a lot of the above problems, so there's no reason for any "the sky is falling" type posts.

[Armolad]

They say that you can never go home again and I've found that to be true as far as EQ is concerned. It is especially true that it is hard to compete with memories of the past.

In this case I remember the early days of EQ. The crowds at West Freeport, multiple groups working, and sometimes fighting, together at the orc camps in the commonlands. Always being able to find a necro passing through that could use a stack of bones. I remember taking forever to get my first wizard to level 16 to get the mystical spell of invisibility. And then getting killed shortly after only to be knocked back to level 15 for a day. Having a full time job and family tends to make one a casual player. If it's all about the high end content then things are fine the way that they are, but if it's about growth, then there needs to be more activity at each step of the way rather than just at the top.

Imho, this would be a good start to get another influx of players.

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

Restart a new classic server, giving everyone three months notice so word can spread before it opens.

[HeallunRumblebelly]

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

They say that you can never go home again and I've found that to be true as far as EQ is concerned. It is especially true that it is hard to compete with memories of the past.

In this case I remember the early days of EQ. The crowds at West Freeport, multiple groups working, and sometimes fighting, together at the orc camps in the commonlands. Always being able to find a necro passing through that could use a stack of bones. I remember taking forever to get my first wizard to level 16 to get the mystical spell of invisibility. And then getting killed shortly after only to be knocked back to level 15 for a day. Having a full time job and family tends to make one a casual player. If it's all about the high end content then things are fine the way that they are, but if it's about growth, then there needs to be more activity at each step of the way rather than just at the top.

Imho, this would be a good start to get another influx of players.

Can't disagree. Once pets / skillcaps and whatnot are worked out why not? It'd be neat to see P99 with the fixes in from the beginning, although, some would be unhappy about losing their hard earned characters.

[Atmas]

I hurt to burst the bubble on all the top guild hate but a lot of people need to realize the concept of this server is almost inherintely tied to lower population.

A lot of us are fanatical EQ lovers but many people won't spend years playing content they have before and for those that do they won't play it indefinitely. Even if every issue someone mentioned in this thread was addressed with all parties being satisfied you have to understand EQ's day has come and gone.

Velious will defintely be the biggest help with "new" content. No knock on the Devs because it is awesome they do this for us, but realize Kunark content which people had no clue about when it had launched has been end game much longer than it was on live.

[Fountree]

All i sense here from these last few posters is jealousy of TMO and no real solutions or valid additions to the thread. Isn't it funny how people have this natural need to find a scapegoat for every problem they face? I agree, let's keep the RnF speak to RnF from now on.

[Tr0llb0rn]

Content is King, for both the servers.

While velious is not done yet and so its understandable the blue server is stuck, there is no excuse why the red server has been stuck in classic for 8 months now zzzz.

This again points to a issue that gets brought up time and again from everyone from the casual player to devs themselves: Only Rogean can patch the live servers, and there could be a changelog 3 pages long waiting and ready to go, but that does not mean a thing if it does not get patched.

[Galelor]

I'd be able to spend more time playing if I was allowed to box a melee with my shaman. Soloing is boring as shit, and it is really really hard to find groups... I love the feel of playing on this server because it is very close to true EQ, but there are never enough people on line. Playing 1 char gets boring when anything you want to do requires more than one player and no one is on line... I boxed a shaman with my pally twink for 6+ years on live (even into the years when finding a group was impossible and there were not hired hands...)

[falkun]

Stop drinking the "TMO's fault" kool-aid. TMO has already admitted their place in driving off a solid chunk of high-end players. Agreement reached, move along.

The valid points people are bringing to the table about the slip of population are:
1) summer slum
2) server instability
3) melee weapon skill "bug"
4) People are getting bored of Kunark
5) The snowballing slow exodus of players

Now, I don't think these issues will be fixed purely via "King Content".

1) The summer slum is something we're going to have to get used to until next fall/winter.
2) I doubt there is much the normal P99 player can do for the server instability other than report it.
3) The melee weapon skill "bug" requires statistical documentation and evidence digging to refute.
4) Velious will help here, but honestly people just need the drive to want to "complete" Kunark. Its honestly nice that TMO didn't contest Trak for BDA yesterday, and I know on the last Gore attempt BDA had, it was nice of TMO to allow BDA to regroup after Gore fell through the world. I'm not saying I like you guys, but on a few occasions, you guys have proven you can play with honor instead of training.
5) This will always happen in any game. WoW made cross-realm instances, we don't have that luxury. I'm open to ideas.

[Supaskillz]

The key to a stable population is not to have another 200 players who are raid ready, the key is an steady influx of new players keeping the 1-59 busy. During this era of kunark very few of the players percentage wise killed trakanon or Venril Sathir much less raided VP.

Frustration with the end game has led some people to leave this server. No doubt live eq had the same issue with some people getting sick of one guild getting everything or growing bored of seb or hs every night. If we want a vibrant classic server we need players in all level ranges. Bringing back a bunch of lvl 60s is not really what this server needs. I would like to see more new players.

[Lazortag]

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

The key to a stable population is not to have another 200 players who are raid ready, the key is an steady influx of new players keeping the 1-59 busy. During this era of kunark very few of the players percentage wise killed trakanon or Venril Sathir much less raided VP.

Frustration with the end game has led some people to leave this server. No doubt live eq had the same issue with some people getting sick of one guild getting everything or growing bored of seb or hs every night. If we want a vibrant classic server we need players in all level ranges. Bringing back a bunch of lvl 60s is not really what this server needs. I would like to see more new players.

Level 60's will have way more time to play on their low level alts if they don't have to spend ungodly amounts of hours tracking mobs.