Why are you moving to the progression server?

[Manizeh]

So this means that having the EQ game itself impose extra rules (which zones you can go to, which gear you have access to, etc) changes the game.

It only changes where you exp Yakk, not the game.

Unless what you are saying is that this progression server is all about uber loot, or is it?

What if you like the gameplay that old-EQ entailed?

Have you searched the yellow pages under Lobotomy yet?

People know the hot spots, people know how to play all of the classes, people know where stuff drops... it is no fun to wait 15 mins for a boat no more Yakk (at least not for most).

Dead = Level 1 ruins the old gameplay

Or not.

It just changes the game focus to survival. Making it to level 50. Stay as level 50 as long as possible, racking up points based on exp you get at level 50 to make it to the "Hall of Fame" by level, by max kill points, max HPs, max mana... whichever.

Maybe people get tired of dying and leave sooner this way... maybe it really encourages grouping, because it is pretty hard to die with a full group in day 1 EQ, since people know how everything paths even. Maybe it cuts down AFKs to zero. Maybe people get to play in populated old worlds longer this way.

Because in the end, what is this progression server about, uber loots or having fun? For uber loots there is the normal servers, although maybe people go as far as farming VT shards and flagging for PoTime... only time will tell.

Quite possibly the current progression server rules don't provide what the people on the server want. In which case, SOE may try again.

True that.

[Fian2]

"it is pretty hard to die with a full group in day 1 EQ"

LOL have you seen all the corpses in the zones? People are dying a lot more in the sub-50 game than they ever have in modern EQ. And they were killed without Sony resorting to uber mobs that kill them in 3 seconds.

[Manizeh]

LOL have you seen all the corpses in the zones?

Yes, people can be capable of some amazing stuff, but a full group with a slower & healer (you know, when druids could heal and stuff)... I just can't see moss snakes and orc pawns wipe entire groups or zones. Yet again, I am sure it has happened

My guess is a good chunck of those corpses are from soloers and/or people boxing.

But this is a "why you moved to a progression server" thread, so I will take my leave now (I didn't mean to derail it).

As long as you have fun, it's all good.

[Saellis]

Edit: this comes off as rather snippy and cross, but it's not really meant that way~

There is nothing to accept. People can do whatever they want with their time and money.

But if you want to play in old zones with a bunch of other low level people, you need something like Dead = Level 1, nothing else will accomplish playing in populated old zones for long.

(emphasis mine)
Obviously there is something to accept, because people don't need anything extra to make the content enjoyable.

"Nothing else"? Nothing will make the older zones populated for ever. Just because they will die out again eventually doesn't mean anything was done wrong or people didn't actually enjoy themselves...

Yes, people can be capable of some amazing stuff, but a full group with a slower & healer

Did you actually play EQ before you got to 50? shamans slowing adds started to be useful in the 40's, and sometimes on named mobs, but otherwise it's more effective to heal/dot/nuke.

Slowing was never an expected duty of my enchanter until pop opened up, and I never heard to term "slower" used outside of raiding before then.

Slowing in seb wasn't always a big deal~

My guess is a good chunck of those corpses are from soloers and/or people boxing.

an uninformed guess to say the least. The majority of deaths are caused by people not understanding the dangers present in older content, because it's always been skipped for easier content like paludal/overthere/dreadlands.

Most people don't know that if you let a kobold run away in the warrens, half of the zone will be on you in a few moments to wipe you out... and everyone at the zoneline (since someone always makes it there). Many people hadn't learned of griffons in north karana, giants in commons and ro, getting 3 wizards at once in sola, LDCs and kobold priest in solb, moldmaster in runneyeye... etc etc.

There can be over 70 people in blackburrow, and there will still be trains to the qeynos hills zoneline, killing people on the way.

It's so much fun

[Fian2]

Yes, the main source of death right now is trains. But beyond that, it would be overpulls, and runners that bring a lot of friends. To be honest, the old EQ dungeons are much more challenging than what you see in modern EQ. I have yet to see another dungeon that compares to Befallen, for example.

Having uber mobs has made the game one where devs have been forced to design single pull dungeons, and has made it impossible for poorly itemized tanks to even perform their role. Then, if you have the properly designed group, you are almost always getting single pulls. Contrast that with old EQ, where you have 4 or more mobs returning from a pull, and if a healer heals the tank, 3 of those mobs are going after the healer. Then other players have to get creative for ways to get the mobs off of the healer. Wizzies need to decide if they should cast an AE spell for the extra damage, but the risk of getting aggro from multiple mobs as well. Group ends up beating all of the mobs with no one dying, yet several dropping below 50% health, and congratulations go around on great teamwork. And what is the modern EQ group doing? Just another single pull where you are more apt to fall asleep than actually have to do something creative to keep the group alive.

[Yanditik]

I wasnt planning to play there at all, but I was talked into giving it a shot a week after launch.

So far I have been having a blast, up to level 33 now and just doing lot of old school quest that I never did on my main back when I started mid velious.

There are a lot of things that makes these servers different from making a level 1 twink on a normal server. First of all there is no Temp, that one spell have completely changed the low level game on normal servers imho. It actually took me 32 levels and fairly decent gear progression server wise to get the same amount of HPs unbuffed that temp adds on normal servers.

Plat is also very hard to come by, and with the plat it is possible to gather you cant really buy anything that improves your toon a lot. There isnt any items that will make your toon super powerfull sub 50 like fungi tunics or 50-100 hp items with no lvl restrictions.

It is still very painfull to loose a corpse deep in a dungeon, Spirit of wolf is a very desired spell, and breeze/clerity makes enchanters the most desired class to get into a group there, besides enchanters really shine in this content, at least until pop+


I doubt I will be playing there once luclin opens up, but instead of logging into my two normal toons on AB this is a fun retro thing for a while at least.

[Yakk]

Remember, Luclin wasn't all that bad if you where far from max level.

Crystal Caverns is in the running for one of the best EQ dungeons.

[Montaigne]

CC was velious, no?

[Yakk]

CC was velious, no?

D'oh!

[Saellis]

I may be going to hell for such a necropost, but that's probably a foregone conclusion.

There's an EQemulator server that's remaking classic EQ, and will be adding kunark and velious as soon as drops, bugs, and quests are ironed out. There are problems like mez not blurring and mobs running a bit to fast, but I think it's a much closer reproduction of classic EQ than what Sony tried here, and it won't eventually be turned into a regular server (luclin will never be added). The plus side is the developers there are determined to reproduce the actual gameplay EQ originally had (though they need prodding on memblur).

No pok, no beastlords, no drakkin, no space kitties, no KEI, and no monster missions. The boats even work intermittently.