Please stop the quakes

[cd288]

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

Fairly certain I claimed the quakes are catering to raiders for the most part. Newer players aren't raiding yet. They don't get much in game attention/support from the CSR team here, which focuses mostly on the top end. On Blue there aren't many low levels and on Green a new player can find groups only sporadically. Quakes don't help this.

The quake mechanic doesn't appear to be a huge magnet for new players. Many newer players are finding servers with dev/csr teams that cater to new players as well as top players. Things like special event zones, special rewards, and time limited dungeons. Essentially p99 has competition that has made itself more appealing to the new player base by looking at mechanics for new players beyond quakes.

It's somewhat ridiculous to claim that quakes are monopolizing too much CSR time meaning that new players never get petitions answered. CSR are unpaid volunteers, they get to things when they can. I've had CSR answer me on issues on lower level characters. They do what they can.

Also curious where there is data on newer players choosing servers based on CSR. The only new server we have is Quarm and a ton of those people are people who have played on P99...it's not like there's this massive untapped player base just waiting for the right mix in order to try out EQ. Quarm is also large because it's new...not because of any CSR assignments or anything (in fact, the Quarm CSR policy is even worse because they're all allowed to play on the server, which will inevitably lead to corruption and favoritism).

Saying that new players don't play P99 because of the CSR is pretty ridiculous. New players don't come here because 1. Lots of people just don't know about classic EQ emulators, 2. People are old with responsibilities and simply don't have the time for classic EQ, and 3. The servers are really old and mudflated at this point, lower level zones are hit or miss on whether you'll find groups, and there's lack of clarity on the future of Green/a new server so why join and sink a ton of time in right now.

[Naethyn]

The number of petitions in 2023 is so low as a result of quake meta. When there will be another competition next week instead of next month it turns down the srsbsns level.

[Menden]

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

Fairly certain I claimed the quakes are catering to raiders for the most part. Newer players aren't raiding yet. They don't get much in game attention/support from the CSR team here, which focuses mostly on the top end. On Blue there aren't many low levels and on Green a new player can find groups only sporadically. Quakes don't help this.

The quake mechanic doesn't appear to be a huge magnet for new players. Many newer players are finding servers with dev/csr teams that cater to new players as well as top players. Things like special event zones, special rewards, and time limited dungeons. Essentially p99 has competition that has made itself more appealing to the new player base by looking at mechanics for new players beyond quakes.

Got some ideas what we could do for the non-raiders? We do perform a lot of corpse recoveries and reimbursements. But that goes for all players.

It's hard to create events for just non-raiders, we don't want to tell raiders they can't join these events. With their level 60s or even their twinks.

[boromn]

As a newish player, I can safely say that the things people are bitching about here are not what keep "new" players away. The real answer is that they either don't know about it, or there are simply better games out there. I don't know why anyone would really have much desire to play this game unless they did on Live or have a friend that did on live and convinced them to join up.

That covers the "new" part. What you are really talking about is what drives away "returning" players. The nostalgia wears off pretty quick and you are left remembering what a time sink this game is. That's pretty much it. Couple that with mostly empty zones for leveling and you are left with a game that just doesn't measure up to all of the other options out there.

I really enjoy P99 for what it is. A trip down nostalgia lane for those of us who lived and breathed this game for years of our lives. Outside of that, quit trying to make it into something it isn't. I think they have done a great job capturing their niche. Know your market, and they do.

[eddrick]

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

Got some ideas what we could do for the non-raiders? We do perform a lot of corpse recoveries and reimbursements. But that goes for all players.

It's hard to create events for just non-raiders, we don't want to tell raiders they can't join these events. With their level 60s or even their twinks.

In a competetive gaming space like p99 is in with other new emu that were deployed less than 4 months ago innovation occurs. One place to look for new ideas is what is working for the competition. The competition appears to have created these events for new players in the last month. These are examples of what is appealing to new players. Dev/staff involvement special events with rewards for lower level players. Similar to events like in classic on live.

Blue had these kinds of events. Green to a lesser degree. My guess as to why we don't see them more often here has to do with programming/staff availability of resources. Could be wrong.

Holiday Event: Domain of Frost
https://old.reddit.com/r/ProjectQuar...main_of_frost/
>>
Enter the Domain of Frost, and reap the rewards within.

The Domain of Frost is a level 30 to 45 zone, being split right down the middle in terms of difficulty - the far side being much more difficult than the near side.
The Domain of Frost has a passive +0.05 experience boost within its walls.
Trivial Loot Code is enabled in the Domain of Frost.
There are rumors of a container of considerable storage within - if you manage to find one, it will require you to be of the 30th season to loot.
Bards who have lived to tell the tale also share stories of a hidden compartment in the well - guilds may be interested in completing the trials within to get a time-limited reward. There are multiple ways to get this reward. Know that this encounter is the most difficult of the raid encounters adventurers have faced thus far.
>>

https://old.reddit.com/r/ProjectQuar...ower_of_frost/

Holiday Event, Pt. 2: Tower of Frost
>
The Tower of Frost (AKA Oops, All Icebones) is now available as a Level 8 to 25 undead zone featuring everyone's favorite friends: icebone skeletons.
>>

[eddrick]

*competitive

[eddrick]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It's somewhat ridiculous to claim that quakes are monopolizing too much CSR time meaning that new players never get petitions answered. CSR are unpaid volunteers, they get to things when they can. I've had CSR answer me on issues on lower level characters. They do what they can.

Also curious where there is data on newer players choosing servers based on CSR. The only new server we have is Quarm and a ton of those people are people who have played on P99...it's not like there's this massive untapped player base just waiting for the right mix in order to try out EQ. Quarm is also large because it's new...not because of any CSR assignments or anything (in fact, the Quarm CSR policy is even worse because they're all allowed to play on the server, which will inevitably lead to corruption and favoritism).

Saying that new players don't play P99 because of the CSR is pretty ridiculous. New players don't come here because 1. Lots of people just don't know about classic EQ emulators, 2. People are old with responsibilities and simply don't have the time for classic EQ, and 3. The servers are really old and mudflated at this point, lower level zones are hit or miss on whether you'll find groups, and there's lack of clarity on the future of Green/a new server so why join and sink a ton of time in right now.

You are putting words in my mouth so this is my last response to you.

If there are events for lower level players and if devs/csr team cater to new players then that's where new players go vs servers that don't have those benefits. People respond to incentives.

[Menden]

CSR team would love to have more scripted events, but we just don't have the dev time. Ideas float internally, but that's about the extent of it. We try to throw events that are within our abilities. Mostly in the form of raid challenges, pretty easy to orchestrate with the UN channels.

It's fun seeing all the cool stuff PQ is doing, but they have that dev time.

[eddrick]

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

CSR team would love to have more scripted events, but we just don't have the dev time. Ideas float internally, but that's about the extent of it. We try to throw events that are within our abilities. Mostly in the form of raid challenges, pretty easy to orchestrate with the UN channels.

It's fun seeing all the cool stuff PQ is doing, but they have that dev time.

I think you might be inadvertently proving my point. Raid challenges aren't something new players can participate in. I understand the CSR team here might not have dev time compared to newer emu.

Much of the work on that other emu is open source including the new zones / special event zones. While the TAKP code and the p99 code have differences like lua/pearl and client level differences, it might be possible to import some of Quarm's ideas and adjust them to work here. This would require Nilbog or Haynar level dev expertise more than likely whose time is likely valuable but is feasible.

As for what kind of events/temporary zones/other ideas are appealing to new players, the other emu appeared to solve this by adding trivial loot code to the events.

[WarpathEQ]

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

CSR team would love to have more scripted events, but we just don't have the dev time. Ideas float internally, but that's about the extent of it. We try to throw events that are within our abilities. Mostly in the form of raid challenges, pretty easy to orchestrate with the UN channels.

It's fun seeing all the cool stuff PQ is doing, but they have that dev time.

-Insert any event that involves a newly created character for the event - We're planning a lvl 1 undies run accross norath for our guild as a fun guild event.

-Level bracketed PVP tournament (1-10, 11-20, 21-30, ect). Would have to be dropped on short notice to prevent end gamers from endlessly twinking every bracket.

-Randomized loot shake up (unfortunately this one prolly requires devs and immediately gets shot down) but mix up the loot tables of all mobs in the game randomly and sit back and enjoy the entire server trying to figure out which of the thousands of mobs and in what obscure zone the Vulak loot is going to drop from. There are probably mobs that haven't died in months or years in random corners of the world.

-Scavanger hunt. Randomly place some desirable things accross the world and have people search for them (could focus on placing them in low level zones for accessibility but not disclose that in the event so the lowbies have a better chance of finding the stuff)

-P99 olympics. Each race competes alongside their kin against the other races of the world in a variety of competitions (diving, sprinting, archery, tradeskills, ect.) Creates a different team dynamic that breaks apart guild alegences and requires no affiliation to others on the server to be part of a team.