EverQuest - If you could design your perfect TLP server

Design your perfect EverQuest TLP server. Choose up to 12 options below that you would want.

  • Rule: Boxing - Truebox (can only play one account per computer)

    Votes: 25 62.5%
  • Rule: Boxing - Multibox (play as many accounts as you want on a single computer)

    Votes: 10 25.0%
  • Rule: Loot system - Live (just like normal Live servers)

    Votes: 9 22.5%
  • Rule: Loot system - FV (just like the FV server)

    Votes: 19 47.5%
  • Rule: Loot system - FV except all Bind On Equip (just like FV server, but everything is BoE)

    Votes: 11 27.5%
  • Rule: Loot Drop Rate - Live (just like Live servers)

    Votes: 19 47.5%
  • Rule: Loot Drop Rate - Accelerated (faster than Live servers)

    Votes: 18 45.0%
  • Rule: Mercenaries - Available from day one

    Votes: 13 32.5%
  • Rule: Mercenaries - Available when Seeds of Destruction expansion opens

    Votes: 17 42.5%
  • Rule: Agent of Change instances - Available

    Votes: 28 70.0%
  • Rule: Agent of Change instances - Not Available

    Votes: 5 12.5%
  • Rule: Race Unlocks - Match expansion they were introduced in

    Votes: 8 20.0%
  • Rule: Race Unlocks - All races available day one

    Votes: 26 65.0%
  • Rule: Class Unlock - Match expansion they were introduced in

    Votes: 8 20.0%
  • Rule: Class Unlock - All classes available day one

    Votes: 24 60.0%
  • Rule: Race/Class Combo Unlock - Match expansion they were introduced in

    Votes: 4 10.0%
  • Rule: Race/Class Combo Unlock - All race/class combos available day one

    Votes: 28 70.0%
  • Rule: Expansion Unlock Rate - 1 Month

    Votes: 6 15.0%
  • Rule: Expansion Unlock Rate - 2 Month

    Votes: 19 47.5%
  • Rule: Expansion Unlock Rate - 3 Month

    Votes: 14 35.0%
  • Rule: Starting Expansion - Classic

    Votes: 25 62.5%
  • Rule: Starting Expansion - Shadows of Luclin

    Votes: 12 30.0%
  • Rule: Starting Expansion - Omens of War

    Votes: 4 10.0%
  • Rule: Starting Expansion - House of Thule

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Rule: Experience Rate - Same as Live servers

    Votes: 13 32.5%
  • Rule: Experience Rate - Slower than Live servers

    Votes: 5 12.5%
  • Rule: Experience Rate - Faster than Live servers

    Votes: 21 52.5%
  • Rule: AA Auto-Grant - Never

    Votes: 8 20.0%
  • Rule: AA Auto-Grant - 2 expansions after unlocked

    Votes: 17 42.5%
  • Rule: AA Auto-Grant - 3 expansions after unlocked

    Votes: 10 25.0%

  • Total voters
    40
  • Poll closed .

Pharone

Trakanon Raider
1,134
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This is 100% hypothetical, so take it as such.

Pretend that you worked at DBG, and you was asked to design your perfect dream version of an EverQuest TLP server.

In the poll, pick UP TO 12 choices. Feel free to pick more than one choice for any given rule, but keep in mind that there are exactly 12 choices you are allowed to make, so if you pick more than one for any given rule, you won't be able to vote on one of the other rules.
 
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Sterling

El Presidente
12,958
7,855
Fast xp like Selo, ~ 6 week unlocks, double loot, normal instance lockouts. Luclin start was actually pretty awesome. killing Aten on my mage with empty gear slots was amazing. Luclin start is whatever though, the first part is what matters. The half instance lockouts made that shit endless especially including openworld early on and then later when you're doing multiple expansions worth of stuff it gets to be a huge slog. So double the loot and keep lockouts normal kind of like what they did on Phinny with UF progression raids.
 
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Mrniceguy

Trakanon Raider
616
334
Rules

The Dream
Boxing- No boxing at all
PvP- Anyone not in your guild, Raid, Group is flagged and within 5 levels of you is flagged for PvP. You cannot heal someone engaged in PvP if you're more then 4 levels below or above them.
Loot- FV rules
Unlocks/starting expansion- SoV start. 3 month unlocks. LDoN/LoY unlocks 1 month into PoP. GoD still comes out 3 months after PoP. All Level 70 expansions are 2 months.
AoC- No, faster spawn rates in Open World(cause pvp)
XP- FV rates once you hit OoW. Ragefire+ 50% Classic-GOD

Something that could actually happen
Boxing - Truebox but actually enforced again
PvP - Nope
Loot - FV + everything drops again during the correct era Mana stone, the removed VT items ect.
Unlocks/starting expansion- Same as above
AoC- Yes
XP- Same as above
 

Pharone

Trakanon Raider
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I would say that I am surprised by the number of people voting for Truebox, but when you consider the high number of people voting for starting in Classic, it makes sense. It's only later in the expansion unlocks when Truebox starts to really suck ass.
 

Lambourne

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
2,713
6,523
One of the main issues is how hard it is to catch up on most TLPs during the era in which they have the biggest appeal to many players. The Kunark-GoD era has the biggest draw but catching up is really hard for a solo player that has missed the initial rush.

So I'd say do a classic start, but have a catch-up mechanic in place once Kunark comes out. Could be mercs or even just the TSS out-of-combat regen, as long as it lets people solo any class to a point where they can group with players at the level cap, in a reasonable time. It would mitigate population drop off and could even keep people subbed once newer expansions come around. I've seen many posts saying they are interested in playing expansions past GoD but the servers are either dead or impossible to catch up on by then.

So something like Live-Selo XP, 2-3 month unlock, out of combat regen from Kunark on might have some staying power.
 

Muligan

Trakanon Raider
3,213
893
I'm a nostalgic fool so don't judge.

I would like to see Agnarr but with seasons of some sort the revolve around lore and custom events. Zones could become raid zones with special gear/rewards (cosmetic) that would become collectible somewhat. You could have a season around Unrest, Sleepers Tomb, etc. That would be my dream.
 

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
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The reason I don't play on TLPs is because 1: the content is stupid easy and 2: it's the same every time basically. So I've got two ideas: 1. shake things up, 2: make it harder

I've always thought the TLPs could be more flavored and modeled after Path of Exile's seasons where every new season things are shaken up a bit with potentially dramatic balancing and one-time / new mechanics. So I'm going to totally ignore this voting in this thread and come up with bullshit instead.

How seasonal flavor translates to EQ I'm not really sure. It's such a fixed game that's hard to quickly adjust, so it'd be up to the devs to come up with ideas that are easy to implement reliably. Ideas could be:

. Adding events that trigger when a named mob would've spawned that spawns some level-appropriate named mob with special and OP loot would be interesting.
. Adding some dramatic one-time change to each class, ex: mages can only summon fire pets but those fire pets are much stronger. Wizards can only cast ice spells, but they are more damaging etc. Some classes, ex, warriors, are so one dimensional early on that you really can't change much.



The other idea that is a TLP extension of the idea I'm pushing in the ToV beta raid forums. That idea is that T3 raids are released with a 100% increase in mob hp / dmg and it decreases by 5% every week. When the first guild kills the boss, that increase is locked until the summer-time or something. So if they kill it with a 30% increase, everyone else has to kill it with the same increase until it gets a scheduled nerf.

For TLP that could be taken much farther and broken up by each zone. As in, when TLP is released all content is 50% harder, and the initial zones reduce by 10% every day. So those orc pawns and snakes in West Freeport will have 50% more hp/dmg on day 1, and on day 2 it'll be 40% etc. The next tier of zones, ex Commonlands, go from 50% to 40% on day 6 of TLP release, and the next tier of zones (whatever they are) go from 50% to 40% on day 11. You might need to have them start higher and reduce the range of mobs you can get xp from (ex, dark blues or whites only), whatever you'd need to do to basically force any competitve players to dig deep on fighting tough mobs to stay on the right side of the leveling curve.

The thing that makes me totally disinterested in TLP is how stupid easy the game is, this would actually make me consider playing on a TLP server just to fight hard content. I bet all the TLP players would hate it :D
 
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Mrniceguy

Trakanon Raider
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The reason I don't play on TLPs is because 1: the content is stupid easy and 2: it's the same every time basically. So I've got two ideas: 1. shake things up, 2: make it harder

You can't make a game with 3-10second cast time spells be "hard."
 

Flobee

Vyemm Raider
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Maybe not hard in a mechanical sense but you can certainly design encounters to force interdependence between players and thus be 'hard'
 

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
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You can't make a game with 3-10second cast time spells be "hard."
tenor.gif
 
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Kharzette

Watcher of Overs
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3,563
Hmm my perfect server...

I'd want Yerm's idea first of all. Start at Luclin but have x month level limits. That way well geared people could fight tougher stuff early and such.

Then I'd want them to give me access to the client code. I'd fix audio, lighting, that incredibly annoying bouncing mana bar bug, the goofy turning problems with varying framerates, bad normals on models, texture seams, color keying problems etc... I had an enormous list that died in a power supply accident.

I'd also like votes or some other random choice of wacky new race / class combos. Maybe one or two a server with no special code or content to handle them. So a troll wizard would have no wizard guild etc (just an example).

Steal P99's achievement stuff. That has been very entertaining watching the butthurt and jealousy as Kossa tears up the list.

Maybe launch a box friendly server at the same time? I'm not sure about this one, but maybe it would keep that element away from the other server. Truebox also isn't really cutting it anymore. Need a more draconian P99 style no boxing rule.
 

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
45,409
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Hmm my perfect server...

I'd want Yerm's idea first of all. Start at Luclin but have x month level limits. That way well geared people could fight tougher stuff early and such.

Then I'd want them to give me access to the client code. I'd fix audio, lighting, that incredibly annoying bouncing mana bar bug, the goofy turning problems with varying framerates, bad normals on models, texture seams, color keying problems etc... I had an enormous list that died in a power supply accident.

I'd also like votes or some other random choice of wacky new race / class combos. Maybe one or two a server with no special code or content to handle them. So a troll wizard would have no wizard guild etc (just an example).

Steal P99's achievement stuff. That has been very entertaining watching the butthurt and jealousy as Kossa tears up the list.

Maybe launch a box friendly server at the same time? I'm not sure about this one, but maybe it would keep that element away from the other server. Truebox also isn't really cutting it anymore. Need a more draconian P99 style no boxing rule.
What does p99 do to stop boxing?

Would be interesting to see a free boxing server and a draconian no boxing server.
 

Kharzette

Watcher of Overs
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3,563
Only allow one connection from an IP I think. Not sure if it is oft circumvented or works well. Regulars would know more than I.
 

Korrupt

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,832
1,228
TLPs are getting worse and worse every run since I started on Ragefire. They need to do something to reinvent these releases and freshen them up and be able to field more people than an emu.

I’m one of the few out of my group that prefers old EQ but what I hear most about is FV and PVP which are whatever to me.
 

Pharone

Trakanon Raider
1,134
1,006
There are some solid winners right now in the poll, but interesting how some are truly divided nearly right down the middle. Too bad we couldn't get all 1000 (if that many lol) people still playing EQ on TLP servers to vote.
 

Slyminxy

Lord Nagafen Raider
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There was no option to select where DBG would actually ban the cheaters and hackers :p
 
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