a simple poll

[Rushmore]

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

People don't quit because of the grind. People quit because they aren't having fun. If your only reason for playing is to get to level x and get item y, then you will quit after you get it anyway, and your opinion cannot be seriously considered.

whats your opinion on YT? the people want it! what have you say!

[mitic]

daxum, so you say easy exp is bad... why have we been able to box and get lvl 50 within a week playing casualy on your server 3 years ago ?

iam not sayin that i want it as easy as vztz was but iam rly amazed about daxums writings in here

[TheLieka]

I learned a lot of things over the years. I just shared one of them with you.

[mitic]

thinkin about it, hotzones might be the best idea.

hotzones helps new players to stick together/to group and also helps to find pvp!

i could see following zones as hotzones

faydwer:
crushbone
unrest
mistmore

antonica east:
oasis
najena

antonica south:
lower guk

antonica central:
runyeye

antonica west & north:
blackburrow

kunark:
that low lvl dungeon at field of bone

odus:
lol whut?

[Awwalike]

I tell ya h'whut

[TheLieka]

Well, if you're getting into specifics, here are my two cents. It's list time!

There are a few things you have to keep in mind before choosing Hot Zones.

1. Do not make newbie zones "hot zones".
2. Make sure people can't farm inintended high level NPCs from hot zones (either by buffing the NPCs or lowering the NPCs' levels).
3. Hot Zones should not be common. Going to a Hot Zone should be exciting, not a time that you plan to zone in and take a smoke break.
4. Hot Zones are great at bringing players to content that they would not typically experience. I do not believe that giving players a cookie for experiencing content that they would have experienced anyway is a good idea.
5. Finally, the worst thing that a staff can do is increase drop rates in Hot Zones.
   Yes, a Hot Zone should attract players, but monkeying with the loot tables in order to attract players is a bad idea. Stick with the Hot Zone xp bonus, and leave it at that.

Now for the actual zones that I would pick:

1. Beholder's Maze (Antonica)
   8 - 25
   
2. Kerra Island (Odus)
   15 - 35
   
3. Kaesora (Kunark)
   30 - 45
   
4. Kedge Keep (Faydwer)
   35 - 50
   
   either:
5. Howling Stones (Kunark)
   50+
   or
6. The Hole (Odus) <-- My preference, but I understand why promoting the new Kunark content would be preferable.
   40+

[SearyxTZ]

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

The basic problem here is that you guys (the self-proclaimed voice of the people) are trying to push ideas to the staff by holding population numbers as the carrot. The server's staff cannot, and (if they're smart) will not make knee jerk decisions with the direct goal of increasing the server's population. Making decisions with the goal of increasing the server's population always amounts to pandering. Pandering makes the game easier. Making the game easier is better for a player, but worse for the server.

The discussion of blanket xp bonus vs no xp bonus is moot; it really comes into reducing the time it takes to level, thus reducing the content with which players interact, thus reducing lifetime of the available content.

The discussion of hot zones vs no hot zones has the goal of promoting interaction amongst the existing population without forcing it. Increased interaction should make the experience more fun (or at least more memorable). A fun and memorable experience will generate more buzz, which will attract new players and keep existing players without making it the express goal of the action (i.e. better game, better experience, better population, no pandering required)


TL;DR:
1) The staff should not make project decisions in an attempt to increase population.

2) The staff should make project decisions to make the box more fun; if the box is fun, the population will increase as a result (without pandering).

Summary: Hot zones are good. Blanket xp bonuses are bad. If you want to know why, read the rest of the post, numb nuts.

Agreed on all of this.

Pandering to whiners is a door you don't even want to crack open, because once you set a precedent for it then it never stops (and good god did I ever learn this the hard way).

Separating real feedback versus a players personal preferences is not always easy especially with this community, but I do think the polls give a lot of hard data.

And there's a wide chasm of difference between "I want to level fast because I'm lazy and want to play Counterstrike With Elves. DO IT" and "I'm leveling on your server and it isn't fun because I've seen five people since I started and have to solo grind and opportunities to pvp are extremely fleeting due to the size of the world combined with the size of the playerbase combined with the lack of design considerations to funnel players in the same areas". I really think the 1-40 player experience is what needs a look. I think the high level experience is probably pretty damn solid and has lots of good pvp opportunities, which is the only reason I'm playing and gutting it out. I know I'll be able to roll into KC or Seb and find plenty of people to kill.

The staff here have very rarely communicated with the players on the forums though Dax, about anything. To some extent I'm sure you can understand why. It's not.... fun, dealing with this kind of player discontent. I think Nilbog actually does care but he's been doing this for some 3+ years now and is also responsible for the blue server iirc.

I also think this box is like one patch away from being in a state where it can be left alone, and players have this tendency to exaggerate minor gripes or complaints. Like "I'm not playing because this server doesn't have YT".... really? Of all the reasons you could not play on an EQ PvP server, that's what's holding you back? You were cool with Monks kicking for 300 and MQ2 script kiddies running shop and incomplete item/npc databases five years ago, but you're not cool with this?

thinkin about it, hotzones might be the best idea.

hotzones helps new players to stick together/to group and also helps to find pvp!

i could see following zones as hotzones

faydwer:
crushbone
unrest
mistmore

antonica east:
oasis
najena

antonica south:
lower guk

antonica central:
runyeye

antonica west & north:
blackburrow

kunark:
that low lvl dungeon at field of bone

odus:
lol whut?

This server needs 2 hotzones. No more 3.

Any more than that defeats the purpose. We have 50-100 players to work with, spread across 60 levels.

Rotating would be fine. I personally wouldn't highlight zones in out of the way locations, as cool as some of the lesser-visited zones are. I'd stick to Kunark. That's where people are going to be anyway, and travelling in EQ is a god damn pain. Something as simple as this:

Low/Mid Hotzone: Lake of Ill Omen (or Overthere)
High Level Hotzone: KC (or Seb/Chardok)


bam -- lowbies are leveling in Lake. Instead of being spread across Lake, Overthere, Warsilks, FM, Oasis, Guk, Unrest, Crushbone, Blackburrow, Solusek A/B, etc.... they're in that one zone. They're fighting eachother. They're grouping. It almost resembles a classic red server.

[SamwiseBanned]

why make it the less populated zones, everyone knows unrest is the place to be for lowbie pvp, no reason not to make it a hotzone. tbh hotzones arent needed, how about just keep xp bonus. people are gonna level where they are going to level regardless of hotzones. if you make it some zone noone wants to go to people wont come, maybe a power leveler but i would go to unrest whether its a hotzone or not.

[SamwiseBanned]

make runnyeye/kedge a hotzone, bet itll be as empty or low populated as it was before hotzone.

[SearyxTZ]

Unrest would be fine. That's probably the only old world zone worth considering (maybe Upper/Lower Guk).


Something like Unrest and Dreadlands/KC being highlighted would work wonders.

Keeping in mind that there are ~106 zones in the game with Kunark. Also keeping in mind that traveling on foot across Antonica and then taking the boat to Kunark can take upwards of two hours.