About people de-leveling for adepts, I'd rather see people actually WANT to do them more rather than just the 55 traek/pounders/nalia crew. Sometimes you can gather alt armies for them and a few are 3-4 member affairs early on but if my choices are 'don't do this adept ever except without a post on the forums a month in advance on a full moon with a blood sacrifice' or 'have a high chance to do this adept except a de-leveled 65 wants to roll on the hexdoll/slow sword/nifty clicky' I'd take the latter hands down.
The sub level 50(lv 60?) levels are desolate
- Thread starter fuwok
- Start date
Zaos
Dalayan Adventurer
After returning here from playing a few new games and P99, the one thing I find most likely to discourage new players is the old EQ client. IMO, the best thing SoD devs/staff could do is pour their SoD time into getting a better client up and running. Of all the people I returned to play with, none of us could get things running right (so it felt like EQ). Our cursor speed is like 300% what it should be, and movement is completely whack. Even with EQPlayNice and in game options adjusted, its still not right. After tweaking things and creating custom mouse profiles, we still can't look up or down in 3rd person view. This is faar far more likely to discourage new players than the aforementioned things in this thread. And lets not even get started on the lack of hotbars. 1 hotbar is almost unbearable.
Get 2.5 running and put SoD on EQEmu this server would have 300+ in a matter of months, if not weeks.
Get 2.5 running and put SoD on EQEmu this server would have 300+ in a matter of months, if not weeks.
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darksabbath
Dalayan Master
The movement and mouse issues are generally tied to multi-core processors. use bind affinity on the patcher, should clear that up. Also, I found eqplaynice to screw things up more than help for win7 and win8 machines.
Daffie
Dalayan Pious Diety
Other people have had the same issue resolved in the tech support forum area. I'm posting on my phone or I would search and link for you. It would be fairly easy to find the solution with a quick search. (I think it is an FPS issue that can be resolved with eqplaynice fps adjustments, but my memory may be wrong.)
It does for me.When boxing I need to bind each client to a different core or the game starts lagging noticably.
Also regarding to your other post I ran SoD on about 10 very different computers mostly very low end since 2009 and never had any game stopping
bugs or other issues,besides the occasional crashing when zoning although even this vanished with my latest ultra low end pc (2oo euros).
Zaos
Dalayan Adventurer
I've tried all the fixes suggested in every major "fix" thread over the last decade. I've had the same problems every time I've loaded SoD on every PC ive had from win XP to win 7. My computer doesn't lag. Everything runs fine as far as lag is concerned, but none of those fixes correct the way movement is on this client or the fact that the cursor moves 3x faster than it does in windows while inside the client. Sometimes I wonder if folks even remember the way things are supposed to work after playing here for a while. You get used to it, but if I switch to live or p99, its a huge relief.
Point being, if every person I've invited to play this server (over the course of 8 years) is having the same problems, chances are its one of the leading causes of players not playing. When someone tries a custom server like SoD, regardless of how many wonderful things it has to offer like tons of hand crafted content, the great community, and the amazing staff, they are still going to stop logging in if the game doesn't work from the get go. Thats just the way people are.
darksabbath
Dalayan Master
Sorry to here you are having these issues, but the only time I every had anything close to it (choppy movement, warping across the map), it lent up being a bind affinity issue. Only other thing I could suggest, would be an antivirus/firewall or maybe a net proxy issue.
There can be many issues here for sure, but you are the first I have seen that has this mouse/movement issue that couldn't get it easily resolved.
There can be many issues here for sure, but you are the first I have seen that has this mouse/movement issue that couldn't get it easily resolved.
Zaos
Dalayan Adventurer
I never said I was having choppy movement or warping. The only problems we have had are with the rate at which we turn, and the fact that you look up/down slower than left/right in 3rd person. That and cursor speed. Its way out of whack, but setting up a mouse profile and eqpn help.
I think if you could increase XP from groups, allow the de-leveling thing, and also cut the amount of xp needed from 1-55 by 60% and then slowly increase the xp curve from 55-65 (ie 55-56 50% less, 56-57 45% less, etc ending at 64-65 only being marginally faster than in vanilla, but with groups being easier and xp being faster in them at 55+, this would hopefully both alleviate and still allow for faster progression). I also wouldn't complain if skills leveled up ~250-500% faster and if spells were either auto granted or free from 1-65 (though providing quests to get normal 'rare' dropped 61-65 spells would be cool) would be amazing.
This is my suggestion, for making the leveling process easier. I know most new players tend to drop out somewhere between level 15 and level 30 or so. 27-50 is a slog, and 50-55 isn't much better. Especially solo.
This is my suggestion, for making the leveling process easier. I know most new players tend to drop out somewhere between level 15 and level 30 or so. 27-50 is a slog, and 50-55 isn't much better. Especially solo.
darksabbath
Dalayan Master
Are you using a custom UI? Logged in tonight on a toon with an extra customized UI (bags on side of hotbar and such), and he had serious lag-like issues. Loaded a more basic UI, and boom, it all went away. So, if you are using a UI from live, for example, that may be your issue.
Zaos
Dalayan Adventurer
Again, I don't have "lag", but no, these problems existed upon my initial install without anything additional. I tried installing from my 8 year old SoD client, my titanium client and the live client. Same issues existed on all three. Of the half a dozen people I've brought here, all of them have had similar issues without exception patching from different operating systems and various clients.
We are getting off track though. I'm not even worried about these issues for me as I've learned to deal with them. That will not be the case for new players. The solution to the desolate lower levels is easy. Improve the client and then slap SoD up on EQEmu server select. I pretty much guarantee that those two things alone would cure the shriveling population.
Hesyous
Dalayan Elder
Not just that. Keeping people. I see 65s LFG all the time, the ones that aren't in a 'clique' or whatever and no one EVER responds to them. No one wants to play with people who don't have a life and drown themselves in this game. THAT is a problem too.
donfolstar3
Dalayan Master
Just going to put this here again. It seems like #2 is something staff is mildly interested in but cannot do until 2.5 if at all, though Vitali's posts suggested otherwise. #3 would be one of the easiest fixes in the history of the universe, but doesn't directly address the unwelcoming "why would I invite you when I can box just fine and keep all the phats" problem. #2 DOES. It does it all. Probably not hard to do either?
I like SoD and want it to thrive. It seems like the common belief at this point is that 2.5 will happen and it will completely change the server population in the right direction. However, I cannot see people coming to SoD then reading threads like this, the Monk thread, Kedrin's (and many other) QoL threads where reasonable requests and player input with considerable support* go ignored and thinking "this is where I want to invest my time". If someone on staff, or someone added to staff, could have the job of releasing just one QoL/player happiness change a month that would be HUGE for morale and server curb appeal.
*the 6 likes, two positive followup posts, and myself who "liked" the post quoted above represent ~1/5th of active forum posters and a depressing % of active players. I recall neglected "idea posts" by Susvain, Vitali, Kedrin, and Grinkles which garnered even more support.
cornelweezy
Dalayan Elder
New client will be an ocean sized leap in the right direction. Hundreds of more AAs, hopefully the elimination altogether of the clunky tome system, better graphical options, and just oodles of more features will give the devs the latitude they need to make all the player satisfaction improvements we can throw at them.
I have always wondered why there aren't more individual exp bonus incentives. I remember the tribute system from live where you could give items and platinum to an NPC and be rewarded with stat bonuses and even an exp bonus...why not implement something like that using SoD's deity system? Quick fix, hard to exploit, creates another cash sink and makes truly rot loot valuable. The exp bonus could cap and be something rather affordable for up and comers.
I have always wondered why there aren't more individual exp bonus incentives. I remember the tribute system from live where you could give items and platinum to an NPC and be rewarded with stat bonuses and even an exp bonus...why not implement something like that using SoD's deity system? Quick fix, hard to exploit, creates another cash sink and makes truly rot loot valuable. The exp bonus could cap and be something rather affordable for up and comers.
Zaos
Dalayan Adventurer
Have to disagree. People who see sub-100 player servers are not even likely to play without a good recommendation. Once they actually scratch the surface, they'd be much more likely to continue playing than to leave as the quality of all forms of content on SoD is far superior to any other EMU (and I've played almost all of them). SoD is like a polished, rebalanced EQ on steroids (with a very unpolished client).
Not really sure what more people would want to retain players. The average player that comes to SoD likely never finishes all the content that currently exists. The only reason they would leave is because not enough players are coming in to actually experience what already exists.
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Vitali
Dalayan Master
I guess the view is someone will come to SoD unsure, after playing servers where they can box as many clients as they want (EZ server, Grand Creation, etc) or have no AA or alternative to exp (P1999), and immediately accept the mountain of exp and drama they will have to deal with to progress their character.
Someone coming from P1999 will see they need to exp to 65 basically solo. Then grind 500~ AA, and depending on class (basically anyone who isn't a healer) will have to either two box or pray for some high tier person to adopt them like a pet to gain exp. "There there little fella, all you need to do is loot corpses for me. Thanks champ". After all AA are complete you now have over 100 tomes to work on. Again if your class is like (heaven forbid) a tank , good luck. At this point you may have a guild, I know Prophecy is always recruting. So you might have some rot gear and a few friends from raiding. You can start to trudge through tomes but even then the time investment is huge.
Exp aside, let's not forget quests. Some quests are almost required for classes. Or a charm? Archaic? Ritual? Relics? Ancients? Runics? Gosh that seems like a lot of work, and even more time.
Also those little nuances that push your character over some thresholds. Dragons/ Giants ally aug. Gotta pick a faction and complete that to progress the main story and access Dreadlands (SC/BS/ third I can't remember). Don't forget to do MQ as well, that aug is nice and required. The Vah while not required is a seriously nice item. Even I don't have it, but I sure wish I did. ToT item?
By now my point is made. I stand by what I said. If something isn't changed about how these things and many others work themselves out, a typical EQEmu player will see all that and try. Try to do it, try to figure it out, and likely just say forget it. Then they'll leave.
With that, we come back to the initial purpose of this post: How do we make the leveling process not so desolate? What can we do to retain people and make them want to level/ make an alt, etc.
Someone coming from P1999 will see they need to exp to 65 basically solo. Then grind 500~ AA, and depending on class (basically anyone who isn't a healer) will have to either two box or pray for some high tier person to adopt them like a pet to gain exp. "There there little fella, all you need to do is loot corpses for me. Thanks champ". After all AA are complete you now have over 100 tomes to work on. Again if your class is like (heaven forbid) a tank , good luck. At this point you may have a guild, I know Prophecy is always recruting. So you might have some rot gear and a few friends from raiding. You can start to trudge through tomes but even then the time investment is huge.
Exp aside, let's not forget quests. Some quests are almost required for classes. Or a charm? Archaic? Ritual? Relics? Ancients? Runics? Gosh that seems like a lot of work, and even more time.
Also those little nuances that push your character over some thresholds. Dragons/ Giants ally aug. Gotta pick a faction and complete that to progress the main story and access Dreadlands (SC/BS/ third I can't remember). Don't forget to do MQ as well, that aug is nice and required. The Vah while not required is a seriously nice item. Even I don't have it, but I sure wish I did. ToT item?
By now my point is made. I stand by what I said. If something isn't changed about how these things and many others work themselves out, a typical EQEmu player will see all that and try. Try to do it, try to figure it out, and likely just say forget it. Then they'll leave.
With that, we come back to the initial purpose of this post: How do we make the leveling process not so desolate? What can we do to retain people and make them want to level/ make an alt, etc.
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