EZ Server

This is a thread I've been meaning to post for a couple of days, but I wanted to give feedback about the flow of progression in and around T10 as it stands right now and the clear issue with GSS. I realize a similar thread has been posted about GSOA being a problem right now, but I want to differentiate that from this in that both GSOA and GSS are for upgrading character equipment, GSS actually hard-locks you out of progression right now.

I've progressed to this point organically in that I've never traded or interacted with the community simply because at the top resources tend to pool and people are friendly and they will happily trivialize a tier or 4 for you by trading you the excess they have for basically nothing. The result for me has been a really really satisfying experience working through the tiers and learning about the server, I would recommend it to anyone. However, I am just at the point where I am finishing up my third faction in T10. I have never looked to speed through tiers, for instance in both orcs and gnolls I have added to my crew and thus stuck around doing extra... I haven't just tried to rush through the factions. In the process of finishing these three factions, I have killed 800 of the 1000 PB I need, I have found 120 essence pretty much exactly as many as I need (enough to mana neck my 3 necro and now have 100 essence ready to go when my warrior hits 79), however I have only ever seen 3 GSS. How many do I need? Well just to bring my whole group into the next half tier I need 45. Maybe I could just bring one group for now? For that I would need 15. Eventually I would want no less than 75.

My only point is that most resources in this tier are paced pretty well where right as I'm finishing up the factions, I'm also finishing up the other resources but I am basically nowhere near able to move to the next zone. I would be 1000% down to be able to move to the next tier but find I am not well enough geared and as such must farm, what sucks is the idea that I need to farm extremely rare drops from a tier I "finished" in order to get equipment that isn't even necessary to do the tier but rather just as a hard "to zone in you need this" check. I would strongly suggest putting something in place to make this progression more natural.

As far as I'm aware, the drop rate of gss was a way to bottleneck because after t10 there wasn't any content so people didn't really have anything to do apart from farm t10 for gss...

I'm all for a bump in drop rate, always have been, always been told no chance..

Tank

Yeah, I agree.  Because of the GSS hard stop for progression, I have barely played for months. I don’t particularly like T10 (that’s for another thread) and the thought of spending literally months farming it for enough GSS to move on is not appealing at all.

Why is UA the requirement to move on to Sleeper and VP? I can understand why it is such a low drop rate since UA was supposed to be super hard to get because it was/is the final armor (until T11?) and because there wasn’t anything else to do after it. But in my opinion UA shouldn’t be used as a progression check, it should only be some awesome armor you have to work you ass of to get. 

I am not sure what should be used to progress, probably some other quest that allows you to progress all characters at the same rate, rather than one at a time. I think that’s what bothers me the most is that for all other tiers, you are basically progressing everyone at a similar rate, then once you complete t10, it’s a hard stop to 1 character at a time.

In all honesty, until/unless something changes, I probably won’t play much if at all anymore.

And that's the worst part about it, not the fact I don't get the loot I want(I've been on EZ a long time, I'm used to it), The fact that it is literally making decent people quit, and people that are coming back two years later are seeing it's still the same and they now need even more GSS if they want to see VP are just noping straight out again, we got told that the drop rate in VP would be better than SR, Why?! So we can all just trade away everything we have to those that are able to farm them in VP?... Just an absolute kick in the dick again for those in SR or those that have quit because it's so bad they just don't feel like wasting months to get nowhere.

Tank

I agree that the GSS drop rate should be improved in T10 now that we have more content. I feel it's an unnecessary time sink and will harm the future of the server more than it will do any good. I've seen people stop playing more than once due to this and also friends that decide to not continue on EZ/T10 due to GSS rarity.

I quit twice during the T10 farm, after finally completing it I dread making more characters just due to the faction farming required - It's numbingly boring

I'm fast approaching this. In the next day or two I will be done with my third faction and all I'll have left blocking my progression is GSS. I need somewhere between 18 GSS (one of my three groups in ST) up to maybe 30 (one of my groups in VP... if I decide not to key my other two groups for ST). So far I've seen 3 in the time I've completed three factions, my slowest factioner gets 86 faction per turn in (750 kills, which is roughly 8 pulls of all the mobs of a faction) which means 20 turn ins to get to ally or 160ish factionwide pulls. I guess pulling all of one faction is slightly less kills than 1/3 of a zone pull and thus I am something like 300 zone pulls from being able to zone a group into sleepers or so? Let's not even consider that I think one of my GSS didn't even come from T10 but rather from halloween (is this possible? I don't know memory is faint).

My point is that I don't think this is a "let's bump up gss drops a little" problem. If progression will be gated behind them, the drop rate is like 10 fold off. I'm guessing many would not be happy with that level of change, so my thought is that the best thing would be to just remove UA requirements from progression. Let UA continue to be a really rare status symbol with stat benefits without slamming your newer and more casual players into a weird artificial wall. One of the things that has always kept me playing this server is that when I first enter a tier I often feel honestly overmatched and need to develop understanding and strats, forcing me to gear in order to overcome this is my favorite thing. Forcing me to check a box in order to slaughter stuff I suspect I can already handle is deflating.

I can understand why a minimum requirement in UA is required.  I think it's to save you from embarrassment in the next level/tier lol.  Say the requirement was removed and you only have T10 gear/armor, you will not progress very far in the next zone Sleepers or VP due to lack of gear and/or DPS (especially VP)

I have 9 decently equipped toons (war, pally, cleric, bard, enchanter, zerker, ranger, monk, necro) and I think I will need to make an additional 3 toons minimum (thinking 2 rogues and an extra pally) just to, possibly, have enough DPS to progress further.  Damn, Enslaved dragon soul with random unresistable/uncurable debuffs.  Once it procs, i'll be lucky if I still survive the encounter.  What more as I progress thru VP where mobs are getting considerably tougher, when I'm not even halfway thru the zone (/cough Draca).

You can see it as a bottleneck, sure, but even if it were removed, you won't get very far.  I mean, at least you get to see a new zone  ;D

Exactly! If you worked UCv4 on only dps...and have UCv3 on healers...you are going to have to go back and farm the UCv4's for the healers....at this point weapon dps means nothing because you are hitting for 60-90 but taking 500k+ and the mobs arer quadding on you...so you are talking HUGE hp swings...you will be spamming your clerics heal...of course I still watch tv and just turn my head and spam click "4" key to heal.....

Just an idea but what about the possibility of adding a vendor in VP that you can trade GSS into for a GSoA...a 1=1 trade....just a thought.

I have made the decision to remove the UA requirement from Veeshan's Peak, Sleeper's Tomb will remain as it is.

There will be no adjustments in difficulty in VP, nor will any of the quests from Sleeper be made available anywhere but Sleeper.

I implemented a UA requirement for VP because I had to pick a gear level for which to tune too, and the difference between faction level gear and UA is substantial enough that tuning to faction sets would make it pretty trivial with UA. Without an Ultimate Armor requirement, someone coming in with faction gear may find it quite impossible and in turn, frustrating. Unfortunately, gear on EZ only makes a huge difference to the tank, so at a minimum a well geared tank should get you going.

As for other concerns about VP, it was initially quite a bit more difficult, and would require more attention than single button mashing every so often, unfortunately it means that random wipes are considerably more common, which can be frustrating, and more dynamic fights weren't that popular, especially when players didn't have the right class mix to make it work.  Everquest isn't a super dynamic game anyway, but with some lessons from VP, going to continue to work out more exciting ideas for T11.

i think that’s a good call. thanks!

I'm not so sure the issue is accessing VP, it's just poor drop rates as a whole for the "Key" items top-end players are seeking.

There is a combination of frustrations right now among the veteran playerbase (And likely some of the more advanced newer players)

• Tier10 takes absolutely FOREVER to complete, even with triple loot and zone pulls, and feels like an artificially gnarly triple-faction grind intended to be EZ's final zone - This is a soul-crush for folks without these perks, and very frustrating for those of us realizing we need more rogues to clear VP in a timely fashion.
• UCv4 farming sucks, it's not even fun at all, and the drop rates are so random that some folks have seen half dozen, while others have seen zero
• Halloween no longer allows zone pulls, which means those of us that missed that don't have the 20million+ surplus AA's that the guys who were able to ZP currently have, on many characters (Maybe all). This also affected the ability to refresh stock of ZP spears, triples, doubles, augs, and the awesome gear from the event
• New players can't easily find EZ, which means upcoming folks aren't gathering GSoA drops and selling to the end-game players for essences, etc.
• GSoA have now become the prime currency, as we need 52 for the earring (Required or you do no damage), and another 50 for the Legendary Ring of the Ages (Completely game changing, folks will view this as a tank requirement). They also drop less frequently than GSS, at least in my experience.

I'm probably missing more of this, but as a whole, the top-end of EZ is extremely stagnant. For what it's worth, I don't think removing the UA requirements from VP is necessarily a good idea, either. People will enter with faction armor, as you stated, and get completely wrecked - plus realize they don't have the DPS or survival to really perform well in the zone.

Most of the grumbling is due to lack of key drops that we need to have "FUN" here, which is the main point of playing the game. While a good RPG grind is rewarding, I feel things may be reaching a breaking point for many players here.

Hopefully this doesn't come off as too much of a bitch-fest, but it's a compilation of thoughts that are absolutely not exclusively my own, but a general feeling among everyone I talk with "Except maybe Sarthin".

So finally, I shouldn't just complain without also proposing an imperfect solution, right?

Well, we need more options / paths to obtain items that players don't want to sell (GSoA, AA crystals, GSS) - I outlined this in another thread but didn't really see many responses http://ezserver.online/forums/index.php?topic=6198.msg74201;topicseen#new (http://ezserver.online/forums/index.php?topic=6198.msg74201;topicseen#new)

Hopefully these much-needed adjustments don't arrive too late!

I think the player base, as a whole, appears to have chjanged...most of the "old guard" those players who have been on EZ for WELL over a decade...who have been building toons up for YEARS...now you have some newer-ish players who are playing a major game  of catch up....most people are not going to stick to a game for a decade...so maybe instead of poo-pooing it off (as I know I have done in the past) we bend an ear....but I don't think we need to make it easy on folks either...it took me YEARS to complete the RoA to 1k...heck I remember when it was only RoA 100!

Same, but it was RoA50 max =)

Huh?

I only mean to say that I haven't seen you mention any concern over shortage of GSoA / GSS / etc. That's all, mate.

Oh, I have voiced my opinion both here in the gss thread as well as in the gsoa thread.

Was it?  I don't remember...was a long time ago...could have swore it was 100....

I will take ball crushingly hard every single day of the week above mind numbing zone pulling low danger stuff for what amounts to aesthetic upgrades on characters whose equipment doesnt matter. The absolute best part of this server is hitting those walls and then building your crew to overcome it, so let us fail if we are going to fail. I've played on this server for over a decade with lots of breaks and long ago there was a really bad habit of conflating repetitive with hard, farming gss isn't hard it's just boring.

I'm really excited to zone into vp and try to figure out how to not get my ass kicked unfortunately I'm guessing that will mean completing my main tanks UA before anyone else gets any which puts me further behind in ST keying but I know I'll just quit if I have to log in always after day and just zp t10 for an ultra rare drop that happens once every week or two.

I'll hit the points I want to address right now. Understand, this isn't to simply defend myself, nor do I take this stuff personally, but I obviously have opinions about certain things, and they quite possibly won't always jive with the community. I may live in California, but can't make decisions about the server based on a popular vote.

So was Abyss when it was released. Yes, Sunderock isn't easy, and it's not fast to work through, but it won't be the final zone in the game for too much longer, but will remain another hell level type grind on the progression ladder. If people choose to quit because of it's difficulty, that's up to them. People have been quitting at various stages of progression for a long time, it doesn't always mean it needs to be changed, and I don't think the progression part of Sunderock needs to be.


Everyone has an equal chance for drops of UC4's, RNG as always can be finnicky. From the opening of Sleeper's Tomb until I quit playing, I killed at least 1000 Kerafyrm's, never got a single UC4. I would agree the Rose drops for questing the UC4 are a little all over the place, but it's a powerful item, it's not supposed to be automatic, and the number of drops in VP are considerably higher than questing or Kerafyrm drops were producing in ST.


You can actually farm HoS quite efficiently without zone pulling it. It's been admitted it was a mistake to allow zone pulling it to begin with, so there are some people who benefited from that advantage, but it doesn't mean that you can't farm what you need quite quickly pulling the zone, or zone areas normally. Yes, it's  more work, it actually requires more than equipping Guardian Charm and facerolling a zone pull. Halloween is an excellent zone, it has rewarding quests, and interesting bosses, but in no way is zone pulling the only reasonable way to farm it.


Yes, they are indeed a prime currency, they certainly are more common than GSS's, although they certainly have renewed interest..


If you're referring to the key quest to get into boss rooms, how easy should it be? If it's not done in a day, it's too much? It's not a monthlong ordeal to get keys, sure RNG plays a part, but it requires a single key for the whole raid to access the room, not every character to have their own. Zone loot drops are quite good, maybe UC4's aren't falling out the sky, but given the loot logs I can see, people are doing pretty well. My definition of fun may be different than the average player, but working through a quest that ultimately (literally) opens up new mobs or new loot, is more rewarding when you finally complete it, than simply walking up to the bosses and smashing them.
Took 'key drops' a little too literally...

This point I go agree on. Unfortunately the EQEmulator login is jank, and if the server drops off the EQEmu server status page, the only way to restore it is to reset EZ, sometimes time and again, until it gets picked up. This isn't something that's fixable from our side, unfortunately.

Final thought:

I am not here to make changes to make anything easier, just for the sake of making it easier. Yes, people may quit if they get to a point in the game they don't like, or they feel stalled by progression, that has always been true. That being said, I don't want EZ Server's population to dwindle to the point it's a dying community, but I plan on combating that with new content, not gimping previous content to get people into it quicker. Yes, some progression sucks more than others, some quests suck more than others, we all know this, we've all played through it. Neither ST or VP was intended to be a progression zone, ST was Rent's first solo zone development, as VP was mine. They are kept simple on purpose, and we both did the best we could given our experience and abilities. That being said, while Rent moved off after launching ST, I have no such intentions with VP. I have learned a lot both in the development of VP, as well as the weeks following it's launch on what works, and what doesn't, and I'll be using that in T11. There are some issues in VP that still need to be worked out, and they will be, but I'm clearly still learning. As I always have, I want to know what people think, things like the class balance survey will be heavily referenced during T11 and beyond, and I'll do my best to make classes relevant, but VP was never really going to be that.

As most are aware, I was a player not long ago. I was banging my head against the same walls you have, or are now. I also know that sometimes the end of the struggle is a reward in itself, and being handed everything isn't fun or rewarding, as it then has no value. I know the same feelings of thinking things are unfair, or quests long, but ultimately I worked through them. EZ will continue. I didn't give up playing on the server I love, with a great community, and friends, to let it wither, but I won't make it less challenging either.

Finally, the point of this post to begin with, GSS are out there. I can see them being looted, and I can see people holding them. I understand if people want to play it straight, but making reasonable trades at the end of the game in order to progress isn't breaking the game, it's part of what the community is there for. Start auctioning for them, I'm sure you'll find some people willing to make some reasonable trades.

Not to derail the thread too much and start talking about halloween but given that the event is available for only a limited amount of time and zone pulls have now been disabled, I honestly would recommend increasing the trigger rate of bosses to compensate. That zone was really so well done it would be nice if it was available year round just to give us more content. You can get rid of the double, triple loot, and zone pulls if you want the quests and everything else are rewarding enough.

*I modified the HW zone bit to better reflect my thoughts*

I agree very strongly with what Draca said about T10. If there is no achievement to completing that zone, what is the point? I know I am not alone in thinking that cheapening the value of GSS by making them more common would be a great injustice to the struggle that is T10.

 Yes it can get old and you can burn out... my advice is to take a break and don't make it a job. T10 when done in chunks is very rewarding and I think fun...even though I have put something like 50 toons and helped many others through it.

I am a bit bummed about not being able to ZP Holloween, but I feel the logic is sound here. Being able to zp it really diminishes the experience...I would also agree that named mobs NEED to have a better chance to spawn. They are rare even with ZP and without it would take forever to see a specific one. LIKE 2X AT LEAST.

I also would like to see it more often, but don't think it should be available all the time. Maybe for like a week every two months or something would be about perfect...or 4 days at the beginning of every month would be even better.

Thanks again Draca and Akkadius for all you do. It does my heart good to see this server still chugging along.

You are conflating two things: T10 and GSS. T10 is fine. It's a well balanced zone where you are likely to struggle at first (unless boosted) and eventually be able to master it. The factions go quick by the end and around that time you'll be finishing up PB. At that point you level to 79 and you should be "done" just like in every other zone (I assume this will be enough to enter T11 when the time comes). The real issue is that when you finish the zone you'll have only a few GSS. I ended up with 3 total, at those rates I would have to do T10 6 times just to key my squad for ST. I can't recommend enough getting away from this regressive mindset that grinding hours and hours at trivial content is an accomplishment that makes for good gameplay.  It's not a struggle and really not worth getting a sense of "achievement" from, take pride in creating engaging and interesting content not mind numbing low risk grinding.

Lest you think I just want things to be easy, I've been playing on this server since 2012. I've never accepted anything from anybody on purpose. The economy is broken because players sit at the cap and so pretty much every sub-top tier resource has 0 value to those players. I got 3 GSOA today, I could have keyed basically an entire group for ST today with that but I'm not interested in skipping through content like that. However, I'm just trying to point out that there's a serious problem in moving past T10 and the rates are very out of wack.

What does GSS stand for I'm a noob now

For Ultimate Armour Quest...

http://wiki.ezserver.online/Glowing_Sun_Shard

Tank

Nothing changes!!!

Noobers

Same questions my noobbutt had too heheh

I still say don't make GSS more available. They can be traded for, and everyone doesn't need a bunch of GSS. This zone is a gut check, UA is very high-end.

I think making this more available doesn't only cheapen T10 progress, it cheapens the whole experience. I think that way too many people have been pushed through T10... faction is over way too quickly is the issue, not the rarity of GSS (I know this from first-hand experience, I realize I assisted too many too much. My heart was in the right place but I shoulda thought of the big picture consequence.)

I feel the same way about GSoA. You only *need* it on your main war. Everyone else is a bonus. If you fought through the tiers and through T10 you will have at least two toons, for example, your MT and ST with ear 50s and on the way to getting a third done. There are other viable alternatives for DPS, every monk/pali/etc doesn't need an earring.

GSS and Gsoa are the real currency on this server, and to a lesser extent, essences. Introducing more is directly inflating the economy, thus literally cheapening the experience for people who put in the time to farm resources. Farming resources is an essential aspect to this game and one of the principals EQ was founded on, and we both love it and hate it.

Anyone saying they are about to quit...believe me, I have been there. And I realized I was mainly just being whiny. I was trying to get too far too fast and taking the content and grind for granted. My intention here is not to insult anyone, only to relate as I can with my personal experience. This is not a job, it is a nostalgic/hobby project. Every project like this has setbacks, gut checks, and frustrating moments. It is a good idea to step away when it becomes too much of a grind and return later.

BTW, I am willing to help when I am on to get over a hump. Again, I will not hand hold as I did in the past, but I am willing to help.
As for the new zone, I am a newb all over again and have yet to give it a proper go. I have been very busy as of late and have not been on much.

The real point here is please just disconnect T10 and GSS. GSS can still be rare and whatever status symbol you want, but don't stop progression while people farm them. Many of the people who glorify what they've done or how much effort they've put into this or that have farmed this stuff while the server sat for a solid month on 3x loot between gms or by having powerful friends ZP over and over with ill-gotten spears. As someone that has never interacted, grouped or traded with anyone else on the server, I'm telling you you'll hit 79 with your raid and still be dozens of GSS short of the current requirements. In fact, it's probably worse for me because I actually did all three factions one at a time.



Then up the faction requirement but realize that if you want it to match the imagined "difficulty" of farming GSS for your whole raid that is currently required you are talking about making the faction grind 5-6 times longer.


GSOA don't hard gate content so do whatever you like, also speaking as someone who actually has grinded alone without any help, I've  have one level 43 earring and am out of gsoa. I'm sure if someone is ZPing T10 on double/triple loot while you do T10 you might end up with multiple earrings. Doing it the right way, you will not... which is fine and totally doesn't matter since GSOA doesn't gate progress.


Again I think we agree, I don't care about gss or gsoa except that they currently hard gate content


It's not like this is some task that is just so hard I'm going to quit, I'm just saying that most people aren't going to sit around praying for GSS every month or so while annihilating single loot instances, there's not a lot of motivation to log in. It's not fun. On the other hand, if there was some content that was too hard for me to do without this gear I need to grind for then I'd be all for it, but I think we all know my cleric or rogue or whoever doesn't need 3 pieces of UA for my group to be successful in ST. It's been said in this thread already, gear only matters on the MT so sitting around trying to farm what amounts to an ultra-rare key isn't that fun.

The problem has been already partially solved, I can now move on to VP once I finish up with T10 and that'll be good enough for me.

The last thing I'll say is that what made EQ good was the ever-present danger. Dying deep in a dungeon threatened your entire weekend. Forgetting to bind when you went across the continent cost you a day of your life. The principle that made EQ so addictive was the way it could punish you and the way it could lay you low like that was proportionate to the heights you felt for accomplishments.

Without UA you won't survive in VP so the removal of the requirement was a bit of a puzzle for me to be honest...if anywhere, remove it from Sleeper and put a 3 piece check on VP instead of 5...

At the end of the day everyone will play the way the want and everyone will have different opinions on what is best... The people that have done t10 and gotten the gss to flag all their toons really don't want anyone else to have it easy because they didn't have it easy, as if upping the drop rate by .5% is going to have some drastic effect on the server that it won't be able to recover from..

The mentality of "It was really hard when I did it so it has to be hard for everyone else" Needs to be addressed...The drop rate was pitiful to keep people in T10 because there wasn't anything to do after that, now there are two zones after T10 and the drop rate has stayed the same and the GSS have been added to another two zones 1 in which the drop rate has been increased(No idea about sleeper)...

The fact that I was able to purchase 16 GSS from one person in VP just shows you how much more often they seem to be dropping in a tier two above the quest zone, which as I've said many times, is a flawed way to go about it...

Where plat was useless apart from augs/uw/soa, it's now the hot commodity along with GsOA.

Tank

This is true, and an example of a founding dynamic I both loved and hated. EZ server never did capitalize on this aspect of the game like live or P99 did, it is a completely different entity and an alternative to such servers.


I never had much care for status symbols, I am more of a function guy. I took the time to farm up resources so I could have a large crew and help others. The connection to progression is entirely what makes GSS worth having. The scarcity makes it valuable.


I have respect for this. You earned your own way and were not pushed through. You also have a very good point when you say just grinding for these just to get your crew up to snuff is not at all fun.
I will say, perhaps the best way to address this would be increasing GSS drops in T10 as opposed to dropping more in Vp. Specifically, giving bosses a better chance to drop them might be the best way as they basically don't have a chance in hell right now...and you have to earn bosses.


Tankus makes a good point regarding people in VP, these either already will be or will be quickly just extra GSS, just like tofs drops in Sleepers crashed their value.

Drops aren't being increased in Sunderock. If someone chooses to play through the game without relying on any community help, or trades or outside assistance in any way, then they are more than welcome. Part of playing in that fashion, is what's required to farm GSS's for Ultimate Armor if you solely rely on Sunderock.  Should anyone choose to do this at any point in EZ's future, it will remain exactly as it is now, and has been, incredibly time consuming, as it was intended to be. I honestly haven't asked Akka if it was intended to be a time sink, it certainly looks like a time sink, and smells like a time sink, so it's probably a time sink, and it shall remain.

I have done what I can to help get GSS's filtering down at more reasonable prices, by increasing the supply, for those who aren't holding themselves to that 'no assistance' standard. I really fail to understand why it matters where the GSS has been looted, if you were willing to trade for GSS from Sunderock, or Sleeper, than trade for some from VP, they work exactly the same. Sunderock GSS drops are very rare, there's alternative sources now, either work with the market, or struggle as everyone else did before you to farm GSS's in Sunderock, it's up to you.


T10's progression doesn't include UA. T10's progression remains as hard as it ever was, despite some obvious issues with use of certain items that make it easier than it could be. T10's progression is fine as it is, it takes some time to work through, definitely a hell level of progression, but people get through it.


As I've said multiple times, there has to be a tuning baseline for a zone. My choice with VP was UA equipped characters, and as people have found out it's pretty necessary to have. It's necessary for tank survivability, it's necessary for DPS classes to be maximized, it's necessary for healing classes (more than paladins) to be maximized. I didn't want people to zone in with lesser gear and get beat down really hard but not realize it's because they are underequipped, thus a 5 UA requirement was added. As people complained about this requirement, I chose to simply let them in, and if they can progress through VP with T10 gear, than good on them, although I know it will be exceedingly difficult.

As I'm sure everyone can see, there is no answer, on any topic that we really get a consensus on. As such, I don't expect that everyone agrees with me, or the EZ Admin Team's decisions on certain topics. Ultimately, we have to make a decision though, whether we make a change because it's reasonable, or we don't because we disagree with it, decisions must be made that affect you, the players. I do my best to make well-informed decisions, but they can't possibly make everyone happy, and sometimes it seems hard to make anyone happy ie. "WE WANT MOAR GSS's!!"  "Here's a new way to get some" "NOT FROM THERE!!1", but either way I have to make these decisions.

GSOA's remain rare, they have found new value with Legendary Ring of the Ages combines, and while they do drop in VP, it's by no means in enough quantity to depress their value, and in fact I'd suspect people are paying considerably more than market value for them right now.  Platinum has also become a lot more valuable, which was obviously expected, as the amount required per upgrade is quite substantial.

I never simply discount people's ideas, or that they feel something is unfair, but I won't make changes just to make changes. I understand everyone's point with Sunderock GSS drops, they are very low, so I added a solution without making changes to existing content. Maybe you don't love the solution, maybe you just want what you want. Well, as we've all heard before 'you don't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might just get what you need'. Grinding on a point doesn't necessarily change my mind, not that I'm stubborn to be stubborn, but take the option that's available to you.

First of all, I am very appreciative of all the work put into this server. I cannot even fathom how you do that, for free, and have your own life on the side.
I read everything, and I get that you have to make decisions as the content creator.

Taking away the GSS requirement for VP solved your GSS tied to advancement problem, we don't need more to drop in VP for this.
Gss dropping in the zone is fine, I have no issues with that. However, they are NOT rare at all to people who know how to farm them. These GSS drops extra, not needed GSS for that party or will be very shortly (again, as seen with TOFS essences dropping in Sleeper...exact same thing.)

TL:DR: GSS is THE gold standard... and GSoA is silver. Having so many drop in VP effectively crashes the market. Having a healthy market is what makes this thrive.

In the end, I am just happy to be here. Do as you will, I am along for the ride. Thank you for all you do.