SOE drops the ball on the Progressive server

Sephiroth9 · April 2006

It just goes to show how SOE will never truly listen to its players. We all scream for a classic server and they give us progressive. I have never come across more stubborn people than SOE. Money is clearly the motivator in the progressive plan so that people will still have to buy expansions. Which would make more money though? Thousands of monthly subscribers on the server, or considerably less on the server that a small percentage of them have to buy an expansion? At one point do they put their egos aside and just give the people who are technically paying them what they want?

sebbonx · April 2006

You expext anything else from the company that destroyed EQ?

Wickes · April 2006

I tend to agree with you that they're dropping the ball, but I think your theory is off base. Anyone can buy the game with most of the expansions with one of the packs they're offering now, so I don't think selling expansions is the plan. I think they seem to believe they can get a lot of real newbs starting the game, and I really doubt that. Virtually everyone I've heard talk about this server is a vet who just wants to relive the old experiences on a new server, i.e., with a lot of people aorund. And there are a LOT of people who want this.

What's unfortunate is that they seem to be gearing this for new people rather than for the large numbers who have clamored for a classic server. SOE never seems to have a grasp on what people want ... they just keep throwing things at the wall until something sticks ... witness EQ2.

Nevertheless, so many old time vets plan to try the server that I will certainly give it a shot. Just to go through the old zones again with a bunch of people could still be fun.

Sephiroth9 · April 2006

I, myself will be trying it out, but unless they make expansions take at least a year to unlock, the "new-ness" won't last long on the server and it will be just like any other. What I would like to see is about a 6-month period to unlock Kunark and an additional 6 for Luclin (or Velious, can't remember which came second) , then almost a year after the first two before the Planes expansion becomes un-locked. The Planes is seen as the beginning of the downward spiral of EQ. SOE would be wise to make the un-locking of the Planes take a LONG time. That said, I expect to see the Planes opened within a week of the server launching.

Wickes · April 2006

I totally agree that the unlocking of expansions should be time-based. If I have no alternative but to get back into the grind-fest/raid-fest again, I’m not going to be around long. If I felt like doing that I could just crank up my old toons.

If they don’t have time limitations, I honestly don’t know how long it will take people to unlock them. A lot depends on how much they roll things back. There were a lot of mobs which were tough to kill with the equipment which was originally available, uber guilds or not.

I hope they roll things back quite a bit. For one thing, the new tutorial must be removed. If they leave it in it will unbalance many things in the game and tradeskills.

Sephiroth9 · April 2006

I agree that the new tutorial should not be there. I feel that the tutorial for the Progressive Server should take players to level 3 tops (assuming that the cap will be 50). Also, tradeskills need to not be neglected as they should play a more prominent role in the economy if the original game content is launched. SOE in a way holds their fate in their own hands this time. If they do this well, it means old players should come back in droves. If they screw this up, this could really hurt the company in terms of money. Now would be as good a time as ever for them to start looking at the forums closely.

Odenathus · April 2006

I must have missed it, but I've never seen anything other than player based, related to a new EQ server.
Where are you finding this information? Shoot me a link, so I can catch up.

Thanks

Sephiroth9 · April 2006

They have a whole section devoted to it on the official forums. It's their way of giving us our "sort of classic" server.

Odenathus · April 2006

From SoE's forums. http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board?board.id=Progression

Originally posted by KythereaI have started this board to temporarily house all Progression Server discussions. Please post all discussion threads about the Progression Server here. As usual all normal forum posting policies apply.
Kytherea ~~wielding a giant hammer & a hairless War Hamster~~
"I'm late, I'm late...."

So, I'll check this forum out tonight, when I get a chance, but the leading post doesn't actually look like a SoE supported product, rather an agreement that the volume is just excessive...

Wickes · April 2006

It's almost scary to see SOE actually listening to players' suggestions, but here you have it:

We've been having a lot of meetings to hammer out the details of the server. While I think this is a really interesting way to avoid the tutorial balance problems, I'd be wary of telling a new player that the last 5 to 10 levels are just throw away and they have to start over from level 1.

But...I also think the loot coming out of the tutorial is just too problematic for the old world eras so we have to do something with the tutorial.

To get to the root of the problem, we sort of took a step back and thought about the purpose behind the tutorial. First, its to teach game principals. EverQuest is a very complicated game and if you're brand new to it, it can be very intimidating. Second, its to congregate lower level players so they can more easily find other players. With the number of new characters being lower, finding them when you're scattered about the various starting cities leads to a frustrating gameplay experience. Starting in the same spot as many other players helps tremendously with that.

I'll come back to the teaching part, but with this new server, particularly since it will initially only have the old world zones and all new players, the player congregation issue isn't a problem. We can discount that reason for this server, at least temporarily while the server grows.

That leaves us with learning the game. If you think back about how you learned to play the game (assuming you're an old EQ player), it was generally from other players. You'd ask them questions about how things work. You may be totally lost, but someone would be there to help you out. If there are enough other new players around, the hurdles of learning the complex systems of EverQuest fade a bit.

With that in mind, the balance issues with having the tutorial in place outweigh the benefits of it being there so we've started looking into ways to disable the tutorial on the progression server and have players start in their home cities instead. Assuming it can be done, at some point along the progression, the tutorial will open back up once the balance problems are no longer an issue.

Basically, that's a long winded way to say "We're working on a way to disable the tutorial on the progression server", but I wanted to explain the why behind it as well.

Rashere

http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board/message?board.id=Progression&message.id=3260#M3260

Wickes · April 2006

Hot dang, they're actually *thinking* about what should be rolled back or disabled. This is really getting interesting now:

This is a good thread. Let me add my list. Feel free to call out anything you see that's missing. With over 1300 different zones/datasets in the game, we're bound to have overlooked a few when compiling this list and I'd love to correct that oversight now rather than later.

This is based on zones that would cause a significant balance problem if they were enabled when their expansion opened up. If the zone is newer, but wouldn't cause a significant problem, its not on the list.

Zones to revert to previous datasets if available. These will upgrade when the appropriate expansions open up that would balance them out.

Cazic Thule
Split Paw
Hate
Nurga
Droga
Firiona Vie
Veeshan's Peak
Mischief

Zones to disable temporarily. These will open up with the appropriate expansion.

Tutorial
Plane of Knowledge
Bazaar
The Hole
Solusek C
Chardok B
Vexsar
Forgotten Halls

Zones that may be a problem, but we need to scrutinize more before deciding.

Stonebrunt
Jaggedpine (and Nedaria)
Runnyeye
Grieg's End

Rashere

http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board/message?board.id=Progression&message.id=3487

Sephiroth9 · April 2006

things are heating up

Joekabuke · April 2006

finally something to look forward too. Hello newbie log.

Malakai · May 2006

Originally posted by Sephiroth9
It just goes to show how SOE will never truly listen to its players. We all scream for a classic server and they give us progressive. I have never come across more stubborn people than SOE. Money is clearly the motivator in the progressive plan so that people will still have to buy expansions. Which would make more money though? Thousands of monthly subscribers on the server, or considerably less on the server that a small percentage of them have to buy an expansion? At one point do they put their egos aside and just give the people who are technically paying them what they want?

Did it ever occur to you that this is more then likely SOE's way of seeing if a "classic" server would have a viable market? I personally think that the progressive server will be a success, at least until the newer expansions are unlocked

. However lets just say that the progressive server is a failure. What has SOE lost by doing things this way? Not much because eventually the server will become like the other ones in time. And when that happens all they have to do is merge the progression server into Stromm which was the former newbie server. Problem solved - SOE is no longer paying for an extra server and the Stromm players will not be upset because the characters coming onto their server are newer then them. If the server maintains a nice population at least until the newer content is unlocked, then this would be a strong indication that a classic server would be a good idea.

DVsilent · May 2006

I truely think SoE destroyed EQ myself, i enjoyed the game so much back when they had old school models (which you can still play them i think) old school spell graphics which i loved, the game is ruined now with all the new stuff

the_traveler · May 2006

Hey guys,

I played EQ from launch and for the next 3 years. Then quit and never played again. I've played every MMO under the sun since then, but NEVER have I got the butterflys and excited feeling that EQ gave me. In fact, I just happened to look on here and read some threads for the hell of it, and the more I read, I got those butterflies all over again!!! I can hear the music playing in my head as if it were yesterday.

Now my question.

Being in essence a completely new player again to the game, do you think that these new servers are really going to bring about that old EQ feeling, or is it going to be a mad powerrush to 50 for current old timers and new players will be lost and brushed aside?

Anofalye · May 2006

http://www.bioware.com/

That work pretty well as an anti-SoE addiction.

They are currently working on a MMO, who care about any competitor now?

Go BioWare Go!

Anofalye · May 2006

Originally posted by the_traveler
Being in essence a completely new player again to the game, do you think that these new servers are really going to bring about that old EQ feeling, or is it going to be a mad powerrush to 50 for current old timers and new players will be lost and brushed aside?

Nope it wont.

Classic servers would maybe.

Non-Raiding server would likely have succeed (unless they don't distribute the raid loot in any way).

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SOE drops the ball on the Progressive server

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SOE drops the ball on the Progressive server

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