EZ Server

Wondering what can be done to help server population....numbers are dropping. I understand that we have not had any "new content" in years but what else can be done in the interum? Thoughts? Ideas? GO!

At the very least, an active GM presence...it's been sorely lacking since Hateborne was around. I didn't agree with a lot of what he did or how he went about doing it, but I never questioned his dedication to his role as the server caretaker.

It's got to be tough.  They have lives.  I'm just happy the server is here.  Yes, would be great to have more folks on, and they trickle in here and there.  The next tier will immediately bring the morning EST level to 200, as opposed to the current 85-100'ish that I log on to most weekday mornings.  Bring the Halloween zone on in some form always accessible, and that would jump population, but just for the elites who were formerly here all the time.  BTW, I think paying 50MMpp for a 7 day instance, or even 100MM pp would be a great way to drain some plat from the server and bring prices back around.

To your question more to the point, invite friends, former players from the old days, meaning the live old days, etc.  May help a bit.  I love playing here since it's at your own pace and you can always go to any zone from the old days for nostalgia.  Good stuff, hope the server stays around.  I've been on for over 10 years now.

My ideal and would be great to remove some of the billions plat from the game is make where you get a Halloween instance that cost 5mil plat per hour.

Some alternative lower tier content might help aswell.

Mind you..I have all the respect to you guys who has already been grinding like hell to get where you are. But personally I struggle keeping the interest after so and so many hours of continious grinding. The tiers (atleast so far) seems to be somewhat monotone... Kill x-number of mobs for y-chance of getting gear type z..repeat until all characters have it.

Of course there are some tiers which differs... And again..I mean no disrespect trying to find some easy-way up to the higher tiers. Just suggesting one might be able to get more (new) players to the server if there could be some more alternatives to either tier and / or gear progression.

Tier 10 has been the killer for me. The grind is brutal, and hard to stay focused.

Lack of new content, GM presence and leveling up new toons burned me out. I've been MIA for about 5 months now and will keep lurking until something exciting happens.

Year-round zone pull drops would go a long way in reducing the grind I think. I'd love to be able to instance Halloween as well. I'm always appreciative that the server exists at all in any case.

I decided to come back today, so there is that :P

The time sure does fly, i cant believe i haven't played in over a year...

I do think the server is suffering from far to rare GM  and lack of new content. I would suggest Akk appoint another GM to help revitalize the server, someone with programming skills and a long history with the server. One who has shown willingness and interest in helping the population in general. I am suggesting that Akk consider Dimrwar if he is still interested. I have played the game with Dimuwar for a long time and I think he would be able to stay in line with Akk's  vision while adding new life to our ripe server.

Dimur and Natedogg would have my vote

i vote for same guys

Make Dim a GM!

I’d do it if I could keep my toons :)

As much as I realize and understand that this is more or less a non-profit spare time project that is far from Akkadius main priority and rightfully so. I can't help but to think the players and especially the few veterans that have been here for about 10 years and still going strong, deserves more than what EZ have had for quite some time. By the looks of it EZ lacks someone with time and motivation to keep new content flow at a decent pace.

It's been nearly 8 months since we started the T11 thread and there has not been much happening in those threads we worked on..and many felt it was long overdue back then even. Some of us worked really hard on those ideas and thoughts.

Dimur for GM? Sure, if that was an alternative Akka would entertain. Can't really think of anyone better suited. Perhaps others in the EQemu community are interested? I guess Akka would know best, as he is active in the community and knows a lot of people.

Hope you all take this the right way, only want whats best for the players and it is what it is... not been the greatest as of late, from a players perspective.

I've been trying to think about how to address this and clarify my stance.  When Rent is around, he's a big asset to the server and EZ community as a whole.  He's an ideas guy and he is always open to feedback, he keeps things light with humor and he truly is the server caretaker.  It's when Rent isn't around that things become stagnant and people lose interest in logging in.  I get that this is a thankless job and RL comes first, but my dig was more directed towards Rent as a Hey, don't forget about us!  As long as Rent is willing to do the job, we're lucky to have him.  There are a handful of us that are ready to help out if needed, and I do appreciate the endorsements, but if we can get a bit more random Rent is due messages I think we'll be fine.

Thanks Dim,

Old guard!

U have bashed Rent in OOC for the past year Dim really ? LOL

Maybe you don't get Dim and Rent's relationship.....and stop trying to stoke a fire that isn't there.  ;)

Well I mentioned it in a thread a year or so ago and got bashed by everyone essentially, but the bottle neck that is T5 is a major issue. Also since this is a boxing server, maybe stream lining some context where it can be soloed buy one full group of toons instead of 12. I run a 5 box team and I accept that I will not reach T7 and beyond, but it would be nice to be able to box 5 toons at a time (my comp sucks as does my boxing ability so I keep my group short) and make it to T7. I mean we are already talking T11 now I think T7 should be the real bottleneck for diehards. In all honestly, for newer players its a bit intimating and a long learning curve especially with all the code and macros you need to learn just to experience progression but thats not the servers fault, its EQ make up. I still would like to see the bosses in T5 streamlined and easier to pop without having a spreadsheet in front. And I know the vets will pipe in "well thats the fun, grinding" yes I understand but to the certain degree it gets too repetitive. I rarely play now Ill admit, after spending 300 hours plus on one tier (granted I suck) and missing about 12 bosses left, Ive burned out. BTW I am not a brand new noob just a casual player. I can bet ive been on this server longer than most that are in t10 now, just adult life has drastically cut my playing hours for a few years now. Its a great server with tons of content and fun, but at this point I rarely play and when I log on I can only really look forward to grinding for my ring to get any advancement.

I just recently did all content up to T10 with 6. I don't understand why T7 would stop you.

Also for as much shade as T5 gets, I think it's a fun and interesting zone... I think most of the distaste isn't from people going through it their first time, it's the 4th time through where you can't just zone pull everything and be done with it. To be honest I much prefer specific boss hunting to like T8 where I just need to kill 1000 telks until ranger boots drop or whatever.

Ahh man, the age-old T5 gripe... Lol

T5 is ok aside from the corals, there are just too many and I get lazy. I remember beta testing it, and telling Hunter the zone was going to mentally break a lot of players. He laughed and didn't change a thing. Back then call of the hero didn't work in the zone, either... I don't foresee Akkadius changing a thing with it, as Hunter designed it to work exactly as it does. (He loved to troll players).

It's sad to see the population slowly die down, but the server is over 10 years old fellas. It's amazing to see it still here.

I can't see any reason for T5 to ever change, or even be slightly modified.

The zone is such a classic "Hunter" zone. T5 really embodies his style and flare.

I love that the zone is in our game and that it won't ever change. It is fun to see it come up in discussion from time to time though.

how about adding T5 mini version like befor ?

I agree with this.....it did help in a way for folks.  I am unsure of what all "exploitation" was going on in this zone but maybe that issue could be addressed and allow the zone to open back up.

As someone who is working their way through T3/T4 currently, just curious:

What is so bad about T5?

Likewise, what is so good about it?

I get the 100 bosses thing, not so much the other stuff...

You wont really get the 100 boss thing until you experience it :). There will be a handful of bosses that you will swear are broken because you have tried 1000 times to spawn them to no avail!

Aside from that one particularly painful thing in T5 are the Corals. They are mobs that are underwater and rooted, so you have no choice but to get your ass down there and swim to each one. This one is far more annoying when you are going through it for the first time as you often need your entire group to kill them and due to them being rooted your boxes will die frequently.

I enjoyed the zone myself but certainly got sick of it. I personally dont see any harm in making it easier for the new folks. Nothing crazy, just a boost to the boss spawn % so people spend less time to get through it.

I mean I get it, I actually dont mind the zone too much it was fun and challenging, but those last 20 or so missing bosses is a pain. After logging in and seeing the same zone it does kind of take the fun away in a sense. But I understand its purpose. I was just adding my 2 cents coming from someone that isnt T10 and doesnt have the time to play 2 hours a day. Most EQ players at least now have families and responsibilities (damn we are old already lol) so its nice to feel like you can log in play 4 hours a week and feel like you are progressing in some way. I mean either or I will log in from time to time just for nostalgia but I guess Ive already made peace with not advancing past T5 for a while due to my lack of playing. The only reason I brought it up is for new players, thats all.

I feel bad seeing posts like this because I'm contributing to the problem.  I think I'm approaching nearly a year since I was active on the server.  Population issues were a big concern then, so I don't know why I felt it would be different now.  It's hard to keep people interested in a game over 20 years old.  I agree another GM could help bring attention back to the server.  On the evenings AKka or Rent (or Hateborne for that matter) would hang out with us it always kept me online longer and felt more engaging, especially if we got some updates or Q&A.

The YouTube page was an attention to help draw people in, and even that has been neglected by me due to life events.  Long story short, lots of good stuff, desk broke in a move and never set up my computer.  When things settle down, I want to be back on the server and back to making videos, but I think all of us have that same mindset.... mostly.

Reboot the server, delete everyones chars, let shit start over.

That'd probably fix the issue. Or am I wrong? - it'd be like starting on an EZ progression server =D

I would be tempted to start again, I absolutely loved T1-5. Plus new people who started up, would experience those tiers, as they should be experienced. Filled with other players.

I don't see how that would fix the problem with population. I find the problem being that you can box as many toons as you may want without the need to interact with others - making the whole server feel as a single player mode.

That's the whole fun in the server IMO

I personally understand that being the point of the server, but I do wish if the server was built around being a "solo player" with multiple boxes, that it would be tuned in a manner that would allow 1-2, maybe 3, -boxing to be enough to adequately clear content. Needing 6+ is excessive, in my opinion. It would be better if the server was built for 6+ needed if a single person couldn't do more than, say, 2-box and had to interact with others.

The downside to needing interaction with others is when population is low, players can never clear content. That's why I usually lean towards solo-type servers. However, like I said, 6+ boxing is just excessive.

Would it be correct to assume that the reason you are averse to playing 6 or more toons is because you don't use MQ2?  I'm asking honestly because with MQ2 there's really no difference in playing 2, 12, 24 or whatever your system can handle since you'll have one character as your control toon sending the commands you want executed to other toons in the EQBC channel.  Also, it's entirely possible to play through all content with 2 or 3 characters, albeit the time spent killing mobs with limited dps as well as the resources required on at least the tank are considerably higher than 6 or more.

As far as suggesting a complete gear reset so everyone starts from scratch again, I'm not sure how that would help.  If it's a case of being too far behind to bother dusting toons off again to catch up, it is pretty retardedly easy to flag through to T10 if you've already progressed through at least T8, since that's the only zone post T5 that drops class specific armor pieces.  If it's a case of nostalgia, all the lower tiered zones are still there and it should be no problem to make new characters and consume all that content.  But doing a gear reset is only going to bring people back to the same starting point, the grinders are still going to grind it up like they do and the casuals will still chug along at their own pace...there's always going to be disparity between the two because of the amount of time they each choose to devote to playing.  It might pique your interest for a little while, but it's not going to fix whatever it is about EZ that lost your interest in the first place.

There’s nothing wrong with EZ, it’s just an old game with an aging population. I say we keep playing EZ and in our free time we make our own modern MMORPG... then profit $$$$$$.

I, personally, haven't had a problem with the boxing. I use EQBC also. I'm just looking at the potential problem objectively is all. It can be somewhat annoying having to manage several characters, even through MQ2. I think an ultra-difficult server where someone only has to play a single character can make gearing that character feel extremely rewarding. If you're boxing, that feeling is slightly diminished because you have to get said upgrades twice. 3-boxing diminishes it a little further, and so on. It's not like that awesome feeling of upgrades ever goes away--it will always feel good--it just feels better when you are your character and you're getting stronger. It feels less important when you're no longer your character because you're now multiple characters.

I definitely think EZ is fine the way it is, especially considering how old it is, and I enjoy it anyway, but I do wish I saw more people online. It doesn't help any that EQ, overall, is old and dying off slowly (at least the EQEmu scene, anyway).

Yeah, I love the EZ content and all that one can do but having to do it for your own army of characters - that requires EQBC/MQ2 to manage - makes it a job and that's not fun. But EZ isn't going to change for the minority, and that's fine. I wish I could do it all solo (as in one character) with trial and error, but I also know that's just a wish :P

The reason EZ has gone downhill (from a high end, long time player perspective) is due to getting away from the winning formula. We need a new zone and then you make the previous zone more accessable. Simply put, the time spent vrs reward is laughable now. And you don't have to make T10 ez mode, honestly just unnerf it so it actually drops sun shards. Fixed.
What we did instead was nerf the drop rates, tease that new content was coming and it never did. The community offered up so many good ideas we figured T11 was a lock.
It also didn't help that the greatest version of the halloween event that ever happened was nerfed along with server wide drops. I understand that the drop rate was stupid common at first but now it's not even an event. What is the fear of people having zone pulls and double loot boxes that put the time and effort to farm them? They genuinely made the game fun again, it was like a reboot and our enjoyment surged but now it's all fallen off. This game now quite simply is an utter waste of time which deeply saddens me because I would have played it forever.
Also, what is the harm of free trade? Toons and items were literally worth thousands, now worthless. You could even charge 10% to do so, netting life sustaining gains for this server. It was never a problem that people bought and sold here, only that you failed to profit from it, thus the shutdown. Make a trading place on our website, all above board and legit and you get a share of the profits, easy peasy. This is the greatest opportunity that EZ missed out on. Of course it's going to go to shit without funding, making new content is work and you should get paid to do so. Also, the RL prices of items on the trader are laughably high, your bread and butter in such businesses are the small transactions in volume, remember people buy these things times 11+ accounts.
Having items and toons actually worth something does something you cannot do any other way, it gives people vested interest in this endevor. Using this model, we would have grown and grown instead of stagnating and dying. Our currency was worth more than some third world countries when this was running full steam back in the day.

TL;DR Let's make EQemu great again! We need T11, unnerf the goddamn sun shard drops, allow us a way to get the zone pulls and open up the halloween zone (unlimited instances, it's stupid to go to every instance to see one guild in all of them) which will at least give us something to do until T11 is done. Also, let's bring back the free market!!! .
I want to play here again so bad, and everyone that's been here does too.

I say, nuke it back to zero - see what happens.

I'd be back - atleast for a few hours :D

Don't think many people would be happy with that idea :P And the army-boxers would just get to the same place they are now eventually ;p

Shame, been a lotta good suggestions to get things hopping again without a whole lotta time/work/effort involved but ignored. Nerf is the answer, if u been here for 4 years or so its obvious.

I haven't seen anything posted about nerfing anything....but I know it sure has felt like things have been nerfed in T10 as far as GSS and essences....I haven't logged in that much as of late.  Matter of fact i am trying to remember my username/password for EQ live atm to see about giving that a spin again.

I haven't been on in a while because of a new job taking up most of my time and energy. I was halfway through getting my ultimate armor. Every now and then I'll have a night when I'm looking for something to do, but yeah, what are the chances of getting one GSS in one hour if you're pulling whole camps? Not worth it. Maybe one day I'll return when I have larger chunks of time to spend hoping for a single drop I'm after.

The way I see it, I'm either gonna burn out before I finish my UA, or I'll burn out shortly after I finish getting it since there will be nothing left to do. Why not unnerf like people were saying? Give people a shot at being able to do something productive in an hour's time, and they'll continue playing.

Pre-nerf Halloween would be nice, a 2 week access (starting Oct 15th) with zone pull item drops and higher odds for higher lvs for GSS. Exp 4x for the duration of the event (with higher exp crystal drop) and lower rng for edibles would be super to bring up some logins. Maybe even add SLS here and there. Yes there will be some that pull in some hardcore 3rd work hours during event but who cares? Personally Im not even past tier 5 and I dont care if people above me are doing massive pulls in their own instance. But October for the history of the server has been THE MAIN event, why not make it a once a year special that it deserves? At this point theres so few people really on that it shouldnt really hurt anymore. I havent played in a year and the year before that was spotty here and there with my play. But Ive almost always logged in for Halloween event and tbh the last halloween was very lackluster.

You know, every since I read the original post here, and eventually made my comment. I've been playing with the thought of "restarting" the server. And I see a lot of you currently playing folks, wouldn't be too happy about that. I get that, a lot of hours has been poured into your current project. But for someone like me, who played a lot during the T2 - T8ish era, it would be awesome. I hardly remember what shit I have on my chars =D On the other hand, I doubt I'll ever pick it up again as it is now.

So! Would it at all be possible, to do an EZ - TEST - Progression server, where the Ts are opened at a 4-6 month interval - good googly mookly that would be awesome. I realize, there are a lot of stuff to consider - including instances and whatnot, which has been improved and changed over the years - but that could be some brainstormin' sessions and shit on the devs parts.

It would also, be able to generate enough $$ - with people having to re-buy the legups along the way. It works great for Daybreak atm, so why wouldn't it work great here too?

Am I alone on this? - In that case, I'll drop it  ;)

A progression type server would absolutely breath new life into this. Don't delete the old server, which is low population and will be almost 0 anyways if we do this, just make a new one and start at like tier 3, then every 3 months, release a new tier.

Or just copy paste the server and have everyone start at 0 again, This would be fun as all hell and would give us at least a full year if not two of distraction until some new content could be made for the "classic" server.

There are all kinds of possibilities with this that would get everyone back just like that. There are also many ways to make this a revenue generator since that aspect cannot be ignored if we want any real dev involvement/content creation not to mention just the costs of keeping this damn thing up. Let's take a vote on this idea with the commitment of everyone who votes offering to donate $25 a head if this takes off. We can then do this every 6 months, averaging out to $5 a month to play unlimited toons and support a project that means so much to us. This can be a litmus test to see if such a concept is what people really want, make sure to reach out to everyone you know that might want to be apart of this. We seriously also need to open up transparent trading on this site with fees to keep the stream going.
I remember a time when people donated and traded literally thousands of dollars to buy characters/resources here. Let's bring this shit back, people!!!

I've progressed thru all tiers with like 30 toons. The idea of doing it again from scratch makes me feel ill.

I would much rather see that small amount of dev time available spent on new content, not a reboot.

I've played ultra-casually for years. Only in T7 atm. I'd be pretty bummed out for a restart. Optional restart, as in second server, might be okay, but definitely don't wipe current server. I probably wouldn't ever log back in. But as you said, I would prefer the little dev time be spent on other things.

Yeah, it should be a test server scenario, without wiping anything there currently is - Pretty sure, it wouldn't take too many from the current pop - but it would definently motivate old players and for sure, it would bring some new people to the content aswell. In my humble opinion T1-T5 was hella fun, when that was all there was.

But, I haven't got the faintest idea of what goes into creating a new server, or if the current hardware could even pull it off. But as I recall, the hardware got a major haul a few years back, so might be possible.

Wouldn't it just be easier to implement an item that caps your ability to progress, if you're truly interested in grinding the lower level tiers?  Buy the item off a vendor for free, if the game sees it in your inventory or on your person, you can only flag through X tier.  You could also limit the ability to receive overpowering MGB buffs you don't have access to and basically make it as grindy as you want.  I guess I just don't get why you can't experience a more classic feel on the server as it is, since all the content exists and the only limiting factor is your willingness to restrain yourself from continuing to advance through higher tiers if all you're after is the nostalgic feeling of lower tier content.

I think what drives a server the most, other than awesome content, is community and playing along with other people. In my experience, at the point where the server is now, you're pretty much doing your own thing in the high end tiers, and the lower ended tiers are basically empty. If the lower ended tiers was all there was, it would be much easier for new people to get into it, and there would be more people around where they are when they start up.

Its not 'just' about the grind, but its also about the grind =D Also, I realize that this is a "piss your pants to keep warm" solution to the problem, but I think for atleast a year or two, it'd be great.

I myself was looking to get back onto the game after the new year, just dont have time like i used to have to be on 4 to 8 hours a day so see how far along i can get before burning out again t10 is a rough grind.

I'm finally back after 2 years!

Sunderock seems way easier but the weapons don't seem to drop as much. And to get level 79 I just do the 1000 plagues and turn in 100 weapons?

And I'm looking for a guild since my last one disbanded ^_^

HMU old timer!