EZ Server

First things first allow me to get a couple things out of the way.  Yes, I'm aware that Akkadius informed us a couple events ago to take advantage of donations while they were available.  Myself, I was fairly new to the server at the time, but even so, I dropped a good deal of cash on donating.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful for the server and I was happy to donate and help support this community and server.  The rewards for donating were nice, but I really did also want to help support this community.

Allllll that said, I'm finding it a bit rough having run out of ZP's.  If it was honestly all from my own advancement, I really wouldn't care so much.  However, I have used A LOT to help advance new players, the majority of which I've never seen log on again.  Perhaps that's on my own naivety for not realizing what I was doing.  Long story short, I'm totally out of ZP's.

In any case, I'm trying to advance some new toons and it would be really nice to have some Zone Pulls to help the process along.  My main crew is in T10, so it's not like I haven't done my part so to speak.  Given the nature of the server, I almost feel they're required to a point.  Guess I'm just asking if donations cannot be enabled currently for any particular reason (I really don't want to be viewed as some kind of beggar), if there's any reason that ZP's couldn't at least be tradeable?  I have a feeling that a lot of maxed out folks have waaaaaay more than they really need and it would open up yet another good trading route for lower level players and players (like myself) that may just not have been really ready the last time an event rolled around.  Another option I've tossed around is having them ultra-rarely dropping at all times and not just during events.

I fully realize and accept that I'm a newer player in the grand scheme of things that hasn't really known much of the struggle without the convenience of zone pulls, but I also feel that at the current point in the life of the server, they are almost a necessity for an acceptable level of progression.  Maybe I'm out of line, but just how I'm feeling right now.  Thanks for reading.

Well if you focus a little longer on your main gang (or just on warrior as it stands) then you will get tons of zps in around 2 months … by that time and with your play style you should have full UA, the necessary gear from st and so you can focus on HoS .. starting with a big pull and continue over and over with zps .. after the event you can level all other toons and zp as often as you want

Greetings and see you soon
Mongo

Maybe they could drop in the next zone that comes out?

Well that's really part of why I made the post.  My job hours are pretty stupid at the moment and my play time has really suffered.  That isn't helping either of course.  I don't have the kind of time necessary to do much in t10 at the moment heh.

Good to see ya mongo

Ah that is bad but RL is always more important.
But anyway I still would use my play time for t10 if I was you
Every small step is a step pf progression towards maxing out of your warrior (and other toons)

I do the same … every time I log in atm I try to kill some orcs / sarnaks and hope for GSS … as I am too stupid for ZPs even tho I have 4 UA parts already, I do big pulls ..

I totally understand your point and atm I would like to have ZPs, DLs and TLs tradeable but as I said soon this wont be necessary anymore (I hope)

I don't wanna come here and be the bad guys/ass hole but ZP Spears are not needed to complete any part of the content on EZ.

Do they make it easier, sure..Have people become reliant on them, definitely.

This is EZ=Extended Zone, not EZ=Easy, stuff is meant to be hard, t5 is not meant to be done in 2 days etc..

People have become almost too helpful these days, I don't mind helping people out but you've got people just pulling tier after tier for people and they get to t10 and can't do anything because they don't have SoA maxxed or any form of EoBA...

These things were implemented as a bonus but now people almost half expect someone to pull a zone for them or open them a triple, hell I've had people get pissy with me because I wouldn't run them through the whole of T10 and get them their 1000pb kills or do their faction for them...

You've got people joining the server and getting to t10 in under three weeks, that's not right but hey ho.

In the end you said it best

Perhaps that's on my own naivety for not realizing what I was doing

Akka has his reasons for closing donations and that's just the way it is at the moment.

Tank

Yeah, so I wouldn't expect this from you but it is what it is.  It was just a question.  Everyone's received some help, myself certainly included, but despite my short tenure let's not pretend I started a week ago and rode someone's coat tails the whole way.  Not to mention I never asked for anything.  Anything I've gotten outside of a trade was 100% offered and quite often demanded that I take it.

All I was suggesting is that an avenue was opened up for people that had put some time in.  Go ahead and give 50 zone pulls to a level 70 and let them zone pull qvic.  I'll bring the popcorn.

As far as quoting me, yep I stand by that.  I did it because of the assistance I received.  Sucks to be a nice guy.

And for the millionth time im not begging for donations to be opened.  Like....providing alternatives.  My apologies.

What if one would add a ZP for every 750 kill in SR? Or to every boss kill in SR / ST? By the time one is able to do that kind of stuff you dont need that much help anymore or you already got some help to reach that point.

Anyway IMO adding ZP to drop list would not change people getting carried thru the game. There will always be people who are beggin to get carried thru the content no matter if there are some more ZPs available.. and there are always people who want to help others thru the content. Those are the guys with tons of ZPs and stuff like that.

Since my return in late January (damn time flies) I‘ve seen many people getting dragged to SR / ST in no time … some of em are gone.. some still play.. that is the way it goes.

So I would say people who actually play and kill in SR and above can surely be rewarded with a ZP after some kills. It still will take some time to use it in that zone

     Zone pull spears were intended to be a fairly rare, thus fairly valuable novelty. Most players were unable to zone pull Hills of Shade, and so for a while they were. At some point though, as more and more maxed out players began stacking up, the amount of zone pull spears has increased exponentially (I have 4000+).  Due to this, it definitely makes it feel like it's something you have to have, or that you're being cheated if you don't have immediate access to them, and neither one is true.  Do they help cut down some of the more monotonous aspects of grinding? Of course they do. Are those grinds not doable without them? Of course not, they just suck, like they were designed too. They are a limited time available item, if you weren't ready the last time they were available, whether through EZ Credits or Halloween, just make sure you're ready to capitalize on them the next time they are.

     Akkadius has explained before that donations are only to help him cover the operational costs of running the server, it's not a business for him. At some point, the EZ Server piggy bank simply has enough to cover costs for a significant amount of time, and donations must be shut off.

     I don't speak for Akkadius or Rent, but I wouldn't vote to add zone pull spears to any bosses, or quest rewards, and won't add them to any of my developments in the future. While the Halloween event timing, or donation availability is not always perfectly timed for everyone to be able to capitalize, that has always been true, and no one is at any specific disadvantage.

Most certainly an appreciated and logical response.  I completely understand and appreciate you taking the time Draca.  I also appreciate your understanding of my position.  Hopefully the next time HoS rolls around I will be more prepared.  Thanks again.

I think you took what I was saying too personally. It wasn't intended as an attack on you in the slightest...

Draca just put what I said more eloquently.

Tank

You're good, and I apologize.  A lot of it was my bad day at work coming out :(

Zp's make things easier... also it also killed some of the allure of this server. so it's  balance. I understand newer players get frustrated not having them but in reality you wont really get full use out of them until later anyways. IG pets are a huge upgraded and only drop when the event is going on. it's the same type of thing. They are rewards for doing the special events. making them full time would take away from spirit of the event.

Honestly I would just like to purchase a race change for my main toon. Mistakes were made ...

Does it make a big difference? I mean my main is a friggin frog … lol

Yeah mines a frog too and it was supposed to be male ...

Not a big diff but all my illusions are bald and I prefer having hair. Anyways I would gladly toss some money to fix my idiocy

Alternative ways to aggro the whole zone might be an idea.  Like a quest to unlock zone pull on zone in by zone or tier could be interesting.

Here's my take on this which obviously is full of my opinions which you may or may not heed. When I started on this server many years ago I finally made it to the first custom content PoT, zoned in and a high level was pulling the whole thing... they didn't need anything so I looted everything and was on my way to the next tier in an hour or so. Something very similar happened in LDON and before I knew it I was in PoD without ever really having played any of the content. I was used to moving up fast so playing myself felt boring and insufficient; high levels would zone in and I'd just grab crap they didn't need. I realized that I was missing the entire game for no good reason so I started over.

On my second play through I decided that I wouldn't interact with ANYONE, everything I did would be for myself and I'd enjoy the struggling and progression. The problem is that people are nice and for a high level the things you need have little to no value so they will be happy to push you through an entire tier in a short period of time. Even without ever asking for it, I've pretty much had to thankfully decline help at every tier. The player base is mostly friendly and it costs them almost nothing to make your party significantly stronger. The thing is, in the end, there's nothing really waiting for you at the end of this game, this isn't a AAA title, content won't outpace your progression. Enjoy the content, much of it is really good and I'm actually shocked at how good progression feels through the tiers when you have the gear you are supposed to have. The most fun part of each tier is getting your butt whooped for a minute, being fragile and in danger and seeing your raid grow in strength... it also makes the heavy farming parts much more tolerable because the early gearing is actually impactful. I could go on and on about this and it's now the approach I take in basically every EQ emu and I think it makes them much more enjoyable.

I was already in T9 or T10 when ZPs were released and I didn't farm too many of them during the initial Halloween event but I think if you get used to zooming through the game at that speed, you won't be happy with the game at normal speed.

I say Play as you want. You don't have to take help at all, people know some people want to take it slow here. If they don't listen simply leave the zone.
Personally, I would take the help, get your crew up fast and once you are at the top make a new group and go through the content at your own pace. There are instances so you can absolutely do as much or little on your own here. I have restarted at least ten times here and have had a blast doing it. It's nostalgia on rewind yet I find something new each time through.
If you ooc something you are going to get people who want to help, it is actually part of the charm here and we have all reached out for help from time to time, it is just that we have had the content maxed out for so long here thus the push for new content and older players taking a good break.
Believe it or not this community is a sign of success, so many gamers wish they had it this good on their servers.  

I would say that it would be a blast to have a concurrent server that started from scratch here with all content unlocked or a progressive version of this server that reset every 2 years or so. You know what's going to happen going into it, there is no need to hord materials or something you live for the moment. That would be doable and practical because it would be a completely seperate entity.

There have been discussions around different versions of EZ, content wouldn't be vastly different, but availability of certain items would be. No time frame, or anything concrete, but Akkadius has indicated his approval of such a server, so we'll see where that leads in the future.

That would be awsome I think. Would even have the opportunity of tweaking it quite a bit, we are most likely going to have to do this eventually anyways. Think of actually being able to scale evasion and such so that we can actually use it in future content.

I think there should be a daily limit on ZP's, maybe that'd stop people dragging other people through tiers of content in a week..

Tank

The best way to do that and incorporate ZP drops in my opinion would be to have 2 different ZP items. One would be the one that is currently only drops in game in the Halloween event whenever that is live, (if that is the correct information). The 2nd would be one that would drop wherever, would be lore, unlimited casts but a really long cool down. Maybe have different tiers of it to reduce the cool down. Or could even be a quest item that could be upgraded like several of the other items we have. Just some thoughts.

Hmmm you can pull a whole ass zone?

Yes Nate, you can pull every mob in a zone apart from Sleepers..

I don't really do ZP's as it's no fun to just stand there click a stick and wait for the mobs to arrive to die and then use loot macro to loot them all, that's just me though, I might do it in at halloween but even that I can't really get enjoyment from.

Tank

yup, been a thing for a few years now - Wiki ZP Page (http://wiki.ezserver.online/Zone_Pull_Spears)

lol, extremely rare is a bit of a push, some people have 20,000 of them banked...and continue to farm them when halloween is on like they can't possibly miss out on getting more...to put that in perspective they are $2 each on the credit merchant, people have in excess of $40,000 of zone spears just hanging around... I find that highly amusing..

Tank

yeah it's funny  :) - the zp page needs updating to include HW zone, they are a little more common there p

Edit - added a quick note on that p

These issues primarilly came about due to people reaching the ceiling and having nothing else to do for so long. So they helped others skip through content and made 100 alts that are top tier. They stacked resources.

Fixing old content that is already here is a very slippery slope and almost impossible to really "fix" without some major nerfs (disable zp or delete all but some, ((possibly make new long refresh item,)) make exp single target or self) and don't forget, even doing these drastic measures would still leave things very lop sided as the rich stay rich and all content up to sleepers trivial.

Best solution I see is leaving things as are here. Make a clone server (without the toons) and dial back evasion, disable all ZP (or create new long refresh item) and make exp buffs single target. Every other "solution" is just a bandaid. The new server will have future content. This one either wont or will have things added very.....very slowly.

In conclusion, without severly nerfing things and pissing everyone off there really is no way to "fix" these things...and content is going to be a huge bitch to create.

I would say we should in general step back from mass buffing and pushing people through content. It only seems to spoil the fun in the end for a lot of people. I will always be available to help kill a boss or give someone those last 5 essences to get that next UW but I wont hand hold anymore.

The worst thing I heard the other day was someone complaining about the "long camps" of mass pulling for resources. Yikes. It took me the better part of a year to get my first set of gnoll armor, and I don't even know how long for orc.

A "solution" to Zone Pulling would be to give it a debuff on cast that either decreases Guardians effectiveness or decrease Stonewall slightly so that it would make zone pulling in your current tier very hard or impossible, but still allow you to use it in one or two tiers back. I am sure a lot of people would not like that, but in my opinion, being able to zone pull your current level of content cheapens that content. Going back to some trivial tier to farm something is one thing, but ZPing SR and making all your other characters pointless isnt a good game mechanic.


One thing that might help as far as pulling people through content goes, is that rather than making EXP buffs, single target, they could be set to scale down (more than they already are, if that is even working) and all other buffs could be made to scale down to the appropriate level as well. For instance if Crab IV is cast on a lvl 70, they would only get Crab I. 

Are people really able to ZP SR right away? I doubt anyone could ZP before grinding out at least full orc armor, and maybe a piece or two of UA. By that point you're basically in sleepers anyway.

I am not sure, probably not easily. But since SR is "Endgame" it probably shouldn't be trivial for someone fully sleeper equipped. Which is why I think SR shouldn't be ZPed at all. Is it fun for you guys that do to just click ZP and stand there and wait for everything to die, then loot and repeat for days and days?

I'm actually glad I can't ZP SR because of LD issues, people moan about grinding out SR stuff yet all they do is zone pull it, that's not grinding

I ZP'd to get my toons UCv1/2/3 and that's it really.

The problem is people have nothing to do so they'll drag new players through ten tiers of content in two weeks and then we lost that player because there isn't anything else to do, they don't wanna stick around and do the same for others because they don't have zp spears so off they go to another server.

Too much stuff is tradeable, I'd love to see it go back to when essences were non tradeable and you actually had to put in work.

Tank

You can't technically ZP SR like the previous tiers, even with full UA. There's a little bit of prep work you have to do  ;)

You don't need any ua to zp SR.

Tank

Going back to the topic of pulling people through zones, Since this is usually caused by someone back farming essences and just letting someone loot the progression stuff. Would it help if there was a way to have a "back farming" instance of the lower tiered zones, that once you are 4-5 levels above could access. And give the back farming instance a higher drop rate to encourage people to use it over the standard instance? For instance a Back farming Qvic that could only be entered once you were 74+? I am not sure how difficult it would be to implement, but probably doable.

I think also it's just bored people as soon as someone says "aww man, xxx just won't drop!" Helpful people will just obliterate the tier for them .. and then why not just quickly knock out the next one too etc.