Recent Decline In Population

[Dynaguy]

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

right. I forgot to answer your question. My reason for not logging in as much anymore is because my necro is now 59 and essentially xp capped. I also don't really feel like playing my alts too often so I simply don't log on as much.

That is a big reason why I will forever miss AAs on this server.....unlimited(for me) character leveling, which is what I like to do.

^ This exactly. Now that I hit 60 I twink and play alts, which is also a lot of fun admittedly. On live I used to XP for AA's, which for some reason never got old (altho farming them in PoFire did). I guess any way of improving your character will always feel good. I really hope we get AA's in some way or other (new server skipping luclin and including PoP?)

[skorge]

some of its probably from the hardcore crowd hitting level 60 so dam fast and then realizing the majority of the people are still only level 45-55, getting bored, burnt out and already taking a break...i still don't understand why some people work so hard to get to max level, KNOW they will get burnt out and quit, and still do it???

[naekko]

Population has steadily declined for a bit. Seb and KC used to be camped 24/7, now I'm getting 15-20 people in Seb during primetime.

[Shiftin]

Some people hit 60 and only log on for raid targets. Some number of people got frustrated they can't raid and quit playing. Summer started, schedules changed. Server is still quite healthy, no worries.

[naekko]

The biggest problem for the server is that there's nothing to do at 60. There's one raiding guild that's getting everything (last spawn cycle TR got every raiding target but naggy). You either join TR or you don't raid Kunark.

Kunark isn't like classic where casual guilds could still get some of the best gear in the game by clearing fear or hate for armor drops. In Kunark if you're not capable of mobilizing and killing Trakanon, you're never going to see new content. That same armor set you had at 50 last year, you're going to be wearing until Velious. Just wait until epics are released and anyone who needs a scale is blocked because TR is still killing every dragon, you're going to see real frustration then. Don't get me wrong, nothing against TR, Kunark raiding is just badly designed and will hurt the server population the way things currently stand.

[falkun]

Which came first, VP or epics?

[Muligan21]

In regards to Fippy, just roll in FP and you'll see a brand new zone, music, etc. There is nothing classic feeling about it. I tried Fippy for the free 45 days and i'm sure many have/did as well. EQ is no longer the EQ it was and if you are like me, even the music is important in respect to the nostalgic experience.

This server is really solid. Population for all games go up and down. The server might need to do exp weekends for like Memorial Day, 4th July, Father's day, etc. or even a item giveaway event. Just a little creativity and advertisement would go a long way. Though, I think we are just fine. Maybe in honor of our winter months, maybe part of Velious this year and the other half next year. I don't want the server to cap too fast.

[Odeseus]

I attribute the slight decline in population to 2 things.

First, its the beginning of summer. People's schedules change drastically. For me, I went from having a set play time because I was in school and so were most of my friends. Now that school is over, some of my friends have a lot more time to do other stuff than p99. I personally have less time because I'm working and as since it is a temporary position, my schedule fluctuates pretty wildly from week to week depending on what's going on. Its also nice enough to go to the beach, to the pool, go play some basketball outside or just generally hanging out away from a computer. A few months ago the weather was shitty and none of us really wanted to go outside to do much of anything.

Second is burnout. People worked so damn hard to grind to 60 that they severely burned themselves out. Getting to 60 is a HUGE time sink. But it is also the absolute best way to improve your character. No amount of gear can make up for those 10 levels. The increase in overall power is just huge. So you grind and grind and grind and grind, and congratz, you're now 60!.......but now what to do?

Before, people just rolled an alt to mess around with. But the thought of leveling anything after the grind to 60 is just horrifying. If you're a solo class, you can farm up some plat.........but kunark didn't add too many new "solo" cash areas. Seb can be great cash solo, but it can be somewhat difficult solo even for a skilled necro. Few ill-timed FDs and a few lucky ice-comets and you're toast. So you have to group and not everyone is up for that, unless you want to go back and farm furies and get KS'd by a mage or see a druid or bard quad 4 furies for a half hour for the millionth time....ugh.

And then, as many people have accurately stated, the raid scene is pretty well locked up at this point. TR has a strangle-hold on all the bosses, and many people have no desire to raid PoSky (ugh) or Fear/Hate for trash drops. So there isn't a ton to do raid wise at the moment. This will probably change when VP is released and TR will be spending most of their time in that zone. But that is a ways off yet.

TL;DR - burnout + other RL shit to do = people don't have the same desire to log on at the moment

[Shiftin]

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

Which came first, VP or epics?

VP by a significant margin, but it's important to point out that they're not holding on to VP or the hole to try and fit them in an abstract timeline. They released kunark without them ready so people could enjoy kunark and VP being in plays no part in that for 95% of the server.

VP was revamped on live, so bringing it back to classic VP undoubtedly took some time. As I understand it, VP was nilbog's baby and he was hit really hard. For the server's sake I hope the Devs were working harder on the hole and epic than VP because those will keep far more people playing than opening VP.

I assume Trak's spawn time being fixed means VP is pretty close though...weeeee!

[Rasah]

Some of the problem might be from player perceptions. I started a druid, and then levelled a mage once the druid got to 50 before Kunark was launched.

My druid had certain abilities that I had grown used to upon making the character, and that became my baseline. Since that time, the following things have occurred: DS times got reduced. Dots stopped stacking. Dot effectiveness dropped 33% if mobs are moving. Snare and root no longer stack. The only thing that was added was charm no longer checks against charisma. Now if only there were more animals...

For mages, first innate Dual Wield was removed unless you hand it 2 weapons, and now pet damage is nerfed.

I suspect other classes may have similar gripes.

Sure, now those 2 particular classes are more like classic. And I suppose if I started playing today, I wouldn't know the difference. But the reality was that I was enjoying playing 2 classes, and through various patches they became less fun. I suspect the disappointment over what peoples characters can no longer do has had an impact on people's eagerness to log on.