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Classic = populated
Beanchilla
Member Posts: 260
im a newb to daoc
but im starting to play more
been about a month now
i just have 2 toons and one is on classic Gareth(which is quite populated)
and one is on the 2nd most populated one which is merlin
Gareth is classic,
and merlin isnt
merlins got ToA
and gareth doesnt
so why is it that no one likes ToA ??
Just another handsome boy graduate...
Comments
Why people do not like ToA is very hard. ToA has been adjusted over the years so it is far easier than it was. In any case, I can give you some of the big reasons why people didn't - and still do not - like ToA.
1. Raiding. ToA was marketed as solo/group quests and a few large raids. It turns out that it is mostly huge raids. Raids have gotten a lot quicker, but they are still long and even longer years ago.
2. Grinding MLXP - Not only do you have to do the ML raids, you need to do them more than once. You need to earn ML XP in order to advance in master levels (the whole point of raiding).
3. Artifact power - many artifacts have powers and stat bonuses that complete changed (and overpowered) then game. In order just to survive you needed to get some yourself. People are now forced to do more PvE at level 50. Then, you had to work on building a "template." It all became out max/min and craming in the most abilties. It was always like this, but now the differences of not having a near perfect template became far more deadly
4. Artifact grinding - at one time you had to do the enounter over and over to get it to drop (sometimes the thing you needed to kill would not pop for hours/days). Then you needed to get scrolls. Scroll drops were rare (not so much now on most of them). You needed to spend litteraly days in game killing mobs to get scrolls. Then once you had the scrolls and the artifact you could activate it. Finally, you had to level you artifact. So more pointless killing. At one time it had to be very specific on where and what you killed in order for it to get XP. Now, you still have to grind through levels, but any kill will give it XP.
5. ToA destroyed the economy/crafting. At one time, Mythic made a verbal commitment to its customers - Crafted gear will be the best available in the game. ToA changes that. Not just artifacts, but quest and droped items were better. Crafted gear became almost worthless. You would only need a couple of pieces for your level 50 template. ToA also killed off the demand for 99% armor (at this point you really do need the few extra imbue points for spellcrafting you get at 100% in order live longer in NF). So what you had was a massive drop off in demand, but a new demand for 100% only gear. Then all of the grinding you do with ToA generated a huge amount of plat. This drove up the cost of scrolls, artifacts, and any other desired items.
Many of this issues have been addressed, but not all. You still have to raid and grind XP on your artifact. Artifacts are a lot easier to get now. Scroll drops are some common on most of them you get easily afford them or spend a little time to get them. Some encounters have been made easier for groups/raids to speed things up. Some of the requirements have been removed to make it easier. Many things now grant MLXP so you do not have to do ML 1-10 two or three times.
I guess you can sum it up this way. Around the time of ToA, at least 50% of the DAOC playerbase came from EQ. We did not want pointless PvP. We did not want the level cap to be raised. We did not want cryptic quests. We did not want a Raid expansion. But someone, and some of the playerbase DAOC made the mistake of listening to, did want this shit. So by adding master levels you have in a way raised the level cap. You added in cryptic quests (now not a big deal because of people figuring it all out). You have an expansion based on raiding. On top of that none of this was really optional because without at least some of this stuff, you would die in RvR. I remember being on a Raid before when someone was trying to take our relics. So there was a choice to be made. Abandon the raid to defend the relics, or finish the raid and let Alb have them. In then end, enough people left to make the raid impossible to finish, but not enough people left in order to defend the realm. This is not really an issue anymore because of many changes over the years.
ToA was and is only one part of a larger problem. It is not just the ToA abilities/items, it is that in combination with realm abilties. Then changes to the frontier gives advtanges to certain playstyles and character types. I can kill someone that is high realm rank, or buff botted, or high ML. I cannot kill someone that has all 3.
Gareth is populated, but the other two Classic servers Lamorak and Ector are dead. They'll probably all be clustered soon.
ToA was really bad when it was first released. It took two weeks sometimes just to farm one scroll out of three to activate one artifact. It was really horrible, killed the casual players and seperated the haves from have nots. The casual players got shafted.
Since then Mythic has dumbed down ToA and what I spent a few months doing can be done in two weeks.
http://www.TheGamersAssociation.com
Another reason some -- including myself -- prefer Classic Servers is that there are (pretty much) no buff bots. On the normal servers, having a second account running concurrently with your "real" account is almost a requirement to be competitive. IMO, that's crap and it's the reason I cancelled my account back in 2003.
I fight with people all the time and I always win with this one. Buff bots were only required if you soloed or if you were a stealth class and soloed. Any other person was in a group with a healer/buffer anyways, so you already have buffs and a real person playing your healer/buffer.
I have one account and have always had one account and I have never had a problem in TOA servers, because I was always grouped. Realms are balanced on the realm level, therefore ensuring that you NEED to group. So buffbots aren't a problem like people would have you think UNLESS your a soloer. And if your a soloer, your playing the wrong game in the first place.
Now buffbots did ruin the PvE somewhat, because people would rather be PL by their bot or buffed by their bot instead of grouping.
Aside from the soloers leaving TOA because of the BOTS and others because of the Raid and Artifact content, other people left because the game was not newb oriented because Mythic allowed any lvl 50 person the ability to level all their alts from 1-20 by just typing the /lvl command.
I fight with people all the time and I always win with this one. Buff bots were only required if you soloed or if you were a stealth class and soloed. Any other person was in a group with a healer/buffer anyways, so you already have buffs and a real person playing your healer/buffer.
I have one account and have always had one account and I have never had a problem in TOA servers, because I was always grouped. Realms are balanced on the realm level, therefore ensuring that you NEED to group. So buffbots aren't a problem like people would have you think UNLESS your a soloer. And if your a soloer, your playing the wrong game in the first place.
Now buffbots did ruin the PvE somewhat, because people would rather be PL by their bot or buffed by their bot instead of grouping.
Aside from the soloers leaving TOA because of the BOTS and others because of the Raid and Artifact content, other people left because the game was not newb oriented because Mythic allowed any lvl 50 person the ability to level all their alts from 1-20 by just typing the /lvl command.
Not really, for 8v8 maxed setup you need buffbots too, 2 for group (for Albion, dunno how 8v8 looks for best group in other realms). For 8v8 best group fights even smallest advantage can decide about win/lose.