I see a lot of posts about XP gain. if Soney would take the time to develope a few zones where classes could go to solo/group from 50-60 i believe that would be a large improvement. I have taken toons from 1-45/50 in around 2-3 weeks, usualy pretty easy. Then at 50 it's like you hit a wall. no where to solo, no groups want you. you are either to high or too low.

I see many good players get frustrated and struggle for a time. soon they park that toon and start a new one. I believe it is that crutial area that causes people to stop having fun with the game, as anyone who makes it past that point is usually so annoyed with being stuck there forever that they don't want to go back and help anyone else who might still be stuck.

To summarize my ramblings. Give us a zone or 2 to solo in from 50-60 so people don't lose interest as easy.

Howdy,
Since my son is on my pc playing in Plane of Innovation atm, I on my wife's computer and call me noob but I for some reason cant log onto my premium here on Alla. Those that know me my name is Dryake Skylancer on the Tarrew Marr Server.
Everquest has gone in many directions good and bad over the years and for the longest time the main dynamic and encouragement to most players was to progress to the high end raids and zones. It took months of playing if not years to develop your charachter till a High End Raiding Guild would notice you and shoot you an invite. Then you were able to get those nice items often linked in the game, and you could go and see those far off lands.
It was common to see some people in those high end guilds take long breaks from the game or sometimes even quit EQ. Not solely due to EQ and their patches or class differentials but because they had gotten burned out from Raiding round the clock....from being told what they needed to do and when they needed to do it. The game was no longer fun when forced to do whats in the best interest of the guild and put their friends outside the guild on hold.
EQ2 brought a new start for several of those people. They were all Noob's again and they did not have to serve the tedious roles they once did in those near daily raids.
So yes several have left the game from Tarrew Marr and it did seem discouraging (but expected). There is still hope though. Tarrew Marr is far from dead and even some of the high end guilds are alive and kicking in exceptional form.
I am not from a high end guild. Nor am I from a guild that Raids all the time (although lately it seems we have). We are a family orientated guild in the aspects that we stick together and group together and sometimes sit in POK doing Tradeskills just shooting the breeze. So many of our charachters are well beyond 65 but we had never quite had the man power to attempt even plannar progressions in full.
There are several other guilds that have a similar mindset on TM Great Guilds but just not enough people to get the job done.
Now Many will say why not just merge. I wish it was that simple. Most guilds have Deep Deep Roots in this game and would never give up their Guild Tag for a Merged one. I also feel why should they have to. So we tried something which isnt unique....but its growing incredibly.
Currently there is an Alliance in Tarrew Marr that is growing like no other. Unlike the old backflag alliances this alliance is one to start up. So far its been a great Success. We currently have 4 Guilds with 3 more highly interested. The Goal is that everyone can stay in their family style guild amongst their friends with their guild tag......and through the alliance we can progress through the Planes and then on to GoD, then Omens.
The Planes of Power do not offer quite as nice items as do the Newer expansions, yet it is more of a hidden push to be elementally flagged. Something that stems amongst all of the guilds from years of being left behind.

So I would have to say I am very happy with my servers current status. Anything is possible and for those of us who have the RL issues to deal with but love to get on game in a guild "where everybody knows your name" Everquest is still alive and kicking. Especially since between the 4 Guilds we are averaging a grand total of 140 active players throughout each week. Not Alts, not the guy that logs on once per month....no 140 people that log on for a few hours at least each week. The Alliance chat channel is commonly 15-30 people a day with the highest nightly total being 40 (thats not including some who disable the channel from time to time to avoid misc. chat).
So from my experiences, yes the server has shrunk some but not enough for me to really care. I have all of my friends, Guildmates and Allied Guildmates still going strong and together we still can do most anything. We are also growing every day.

Just my experiences and motivation.

I have played EQ for several years now. I have multiple characters, all on Tribunal , and my main is a level 70 paladin that i poured my heart and soul into for a long time to get him to where he is at now. This includes 260+ AA's , time keyed, VT keyed, KT flagged , VP keyed and many more accomplishments. At this point in time, i feel its all for naught.
There is little fun to be had at lower levels due to lack of groups. There is little fun to be had at higher levels , in part due to lack of groups (altho easier to find at 70 then 24) but also because *The Grind* is just too much to bear anymore. Omens was a bungle and forced everyone 65+ that still want to make decent progression into 4-5 zones. Thats it. You dont make exp elsewhere. To gain one AA , one can spend a few hours in MPG, or all day in , say , BoT - or PoEarth , or Barindu . Sony renders its own content useless. With the severe loss of people on ALL servers , it has become increasingly difficult for anyone to make any progress at all. This , combined with the fact that EQ never was a *fast leveling* game has turned it into a barren wasteland. And it is a shame. I love EQ and its realms. I love that there is so much content. But there is no way people can enjoy it all when so many factors stack against them.

We all know classes need to be more balanced. We all know that grouping has become an increasingly difficult issue to deal with. Sony should consider revamping its exp gain , solo-play ability and quest functions.

If things weren't so hard to accomplish on your own , or if certain drops didnt take Forever to get , people might be more inclined to actually log on and play , group or no group. The trick is to entice the individual to play . if you can get one single person to provide fun for themselves while logged in , without being so dependant on a cleric or a tank, more people would be inclined to log on again and actually play. This boosts server population , and hence, makes grouping actually more popular. But when you are railroaded off the bat into no progression without groups - people get discouraged very easily and they look for other entertainment to occupy their time.

If the individual player had more incentive to log on and actually make individual progress, more people would play. The more people that are playing, the more you will be inclined to look for groups to take on harder content.

Quest drop rates can be ridiculous at times. The Task system has so much potential , but at the moment , just doesnt offer enough for the time spent on projects . In a game with SO much content , i would think sony would want to pick up the pace on quest drops , exp gain , and actually make things worthwhile for people to want to log on and play. Im so sick and tired of grinding in MPG for AA"s (which seems to be the only thing to do in a group at 70) that it would be refreshing to actually go to , say , Hate and get the same exp. Why cant that be done? Simply because it is a lower level zone? That mentality has to go. Make it enticing for people to want to grind in these areas. There are hundreds and hundreds of AA's for players to gain - why not let people gain them? There are tons of easier , rewarding quests that could be implemented , why not implement them ? And whats wrong with Solo play? **Because it is supposed to be a social game** - well the social boundries are wearing down. If it were made possible for say, a warrior to solo in a high end zone, actually make decent exp , and survive in a decent manner , this would at least give people the incentive to log on and have a little fun of thier own and actually populate the servers again. Now you might find yourself with 10 people solo'ing in a zone (instead of a dead empty zone) and these people might actually decide to group together to kill a boss mob in that zone.

It all starts with small step thinking, but big revamping of the entire mentality of how the game is played - and has been played for many years now. I for one enjoy a little bit more fast paced play now , and cannot stand grinding for 2-3-4 hours at a time in the same boring zones to gain one AA - i just dont feel like i accomplished a whole lot.

Just my 2 cents worth - but Sony should consider an out and out overhaul of the game - quests - classes - and exp gain if they truly want to keep things interesting. Not shovel out more content.

**edit - i would like to see Sony try to actually bring people back to the game than start merging servers first. Altho im sure it might be the best option in some cases - i would rather see the game become fun again and offer something more than just grinding and LFG for hours

Edited, Fri Jan 21 03:36:17 2005

Why can't invis spells have a deffinite time, why do they have to be random?

PvP was on the decline, but it wasn't new MMOs per se, that has led to the recent heavy decline, it is acutally to changes made to the PvP servers that are doing it to a lot of people. That combined with the inavailability of transfers from PvP to blue servers (other than Legends) are causing people to flee from the PvP servers to new MMOs.

I play a 63 Shadowknight on Prexus Server, and most of the time the only way for me to get a good group goin is with the other LFG people in my guild. Zones that used to be packed, are now empty.

The new expansion won't help matters at all. Your simply adding more places for people to go, but there isn't that many people left, so we have even MORE empty zones.

So basically your left with 2 options: 1) Let the game die, and you'll be left with a lot of angry people, because there are a lot of people that still like to play, and would like to continue to play. 2) Merge the servers. This would solve a lot of your empty zones, LFG for hours, not enough people to raid, and low server population problems.

Now i know that this forum probably won't be read by anyone at SoE that matters, or if this forum IS read by someone that matters at SoE...they really won't give a flying f**k, but if it isn't laid out in plain veiw everywhere that the players can post it, then we haven't done our part to try to get SoE to remove their thumbs from their currently worthless @$$es.

Thanks,
Beefits 63 shadowknight

I dunno, but I got a sinking feeling about that.

We'll see.