Server not thriving anymore

[Jenni D]

Pudge is one smart cookie
good post

[Labanen]

when we raid with an average of about 20, with a max somewhere just below 40 on a 180 person box we re not anywhere near 50 % of the server pop. Havent been for a long time either, not really since the sad days of 45 main time and 2-7 at off time.

There is plenty of possibility for competition if the opposition was able to work together. The few times they did they gave us a run for our money.
For a couple of weeks there was pretty fun pvp to be had over naggy.

[Labanen]

35+ person raids has happened 2-3 times since kunark too... we really arent as many as you give us credit for.

[Jenni D]

Ruban the problems are;
1) many dont have the patience and just join nihi
2) some new players join red without even considering joining "the competition"
3) "the competition" have no clear individual leader who knows everything vital
4) nihilum wont close recruitment
5) "the competition" fight amongst themselves more than fighting nihilum

none of which are really your guilds fault bar point 4.

server will never have competition until one person takes control who has respect of everyone

[Tradesonred]

Even if we say in theory Nihilum doesnt have the numbers it used to, its a weak spot in the ruleset. It means zergs, be it the new zerg on the block, or the old zergs, can stop people from attempting to contest their raids, camp spots etc just by the sheer numbers of their roster.

If the penalty is heavily lessened (say, if you only lost your health/mana bars and had to med for a while instead of losing xp, thats still a penalty for dying, so is running back to get your body) it leaves the possibility for smaller guilds to attempt to guerilla contest for some fun times. Shit, with Nihilum sitting on piles and piles of Plat, i can envision them hiring another guild as protection and buffer while they down a raid target, with pvp happening alot more. Less penalty for the attempters at contesting nihi (or any dominant guild) so they try, less penalty for mercs hired by Nihi from dying, so this scenario is actually appealing to some up and coming guild. This makes end game alot more interesting and less set in stone, IE one guild succeeds in sucking up half the server on their roster, they rule for 6 months, then get broken by another guild, that new guild sits unchallenged for another 6 months, rinse repeat.

It makes having alts fun again (for me) because they are not just a huge grind staring me in the face (because people would pvp alot more without xp loss), i can actually sit my guy at level 12 or 16, and have him as a fun pvp times alternative when i get bored of high end. I wouldnt have to think about "Oh if i die 3 times during the pvp session, ill have to grind some xp grind on top of the xp grind i need to do on my main to keep up with pvp attempts". If we didnt think EQ pvp was fun, we wouldnt play it. I doubt anyone beside a small fraction of poopsockers would complain about the server having quite a bit more of pvp action and interest generated. Its also more friendly to the new people rolling to the server, as if they get demolished by twinks, at least they dont have the added demotivation of losing PVE grind, on top of the frustration of not being able to attempt guerilla fighting the twink and get better at the game.

Who the hell has the time to say, have 3 alts on the side for fun and a main. The only way you can do this, is by almost completely forgetting about pvp on your 3 alts, unless you want progress to slow to a crawl on your main. So it basically transforms the server into a PVE server for your alts, unless you have absurd amount of time to devote to grind xp back for pvp on 4 different characters. Alts to me are important for not burning yourself off the game. The way its working now, its just more burn, not a nice change of pace from the grind of my main. You could "enjoy the journey" on your alts have them stop for a while at level 16, 24, whatever just to pvp (if the numbers pick up, people get interested in playing alts again besides getting PLd the fuck out)

Of course im sure lots of Nihilum must read this and not want this to happen, because it would mean they would actually have to pvp quite a bit to be able to claim some PVE targets (IE, earning them) instead of nobody challenging them because of their numbers.

Again, it could be any zerg down the road, not necessarily Nihilum.

You wanna talk about no purpose? Theres no purpose, xp loss in pvp is only making the server more boring and helps zergs own zones without contest/ helps griefing naked noobs starting out and bleeding out potential long term players of the server.

At this point im not even talking to Sirken, just trying to make a case for xp loss to be either removed (with low bars penalty) or heavily lessened for all the reasons ive just layed out.

[Labanen]

a guild that closes recruitment dies... it can happen fast or slowly, but its a given. So cant really give in on that one.

I think you re right though, that there is no leader types on the other side of the fence right now. From the outside looking in, it looks like noone really did that since Samwise built VV. But should we then stop playing the game untill one emerges ?

[Labanen]

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

If the penalty is heavily lessened (say, if you only lost your health bars and had to med for a while instead of losing xp, thats still a penalty for dying, so is running back to get your body) it leaves the possibility for smaller guilds to attempt to guerilla contest for some fun times.

Of course im sure lots of Nihilum must read this and not want this to happen, because it would mean they would actually have to pvp quite a bit to be able to claim some PVE targets (IE, earning them) instead of nobody challenging them because of their numbers.

Fuck, i would love that. We always hope Azrael will bring the fight when we see they have 20 + online. they never do, and i guess i can understand it as an unressable pvp death at 60 costs like a blue bub each time.

[Jenni D]

Come on ruban dont play dumb - u a smart cat n cool to boot.
Nihi dont have to close recruitment forever. just pause and let the competition grow some. of course, if your leaders want competition.

Either way, nihi's open recruitment is just a minor issue. Real issue is no organisation or leader on the other team. or patience within the ranks

[Tradesonred]

Item loss would have been great, but we are past that now. So im suggesting to have an optional mode added in: A voluntary flag for item loot.

How it would work is you flag yourself for item loot at an NPC (Priest of Discord?). You can now loot people who also flagged themselves for item loot. You would have to "KS" that person, IE make more dmg to player than other non-flagged players so that its harder to exploit. You could only flag yourself on-off every week or so. The only way to figure out if someone is flagged for item loot would be to kill them and try to loot.

This is a completely separate idea from the appeal to cutting xp loss, i think it would have a nice layer of pvp stimulation on top of the already stimulated pvp scene (because xp loss has been cut) and would be voluntary.

It would create an economy for low level items, making it more fun for newbs camping lowish end items as they are leveling up as people would actually buy those items to fuck around on item loot characters.

Feel free to critique this idea, im sure theres holes in it i havent seen, but please dont mix em up with my xp loss plea, they are 2 completely different suggestions, although they would complement themselves.

[Tradesonred]

After all that, you put some events in like the halloween event of 2001 once in a while, with open ended/sandboxy pvp magnets with similar nodrop gear drops (you can look up the stats im sure somewhere?) as cherry on top, and this would make the server thrive big time, i think.

Just like that event you guys organized in Blackburrow, that was pretty cool.