I've been playing on and off, for about 4 years.
Initially started and got to right where i was ready to do MCP, I had my UC all ready to go and decided to take a break to go back to other games/rl.
When i returned i was happy to find the wall of content had been slightly shifted up to t5, with the .5 epic steps introducted, DT removed from MCP ect, I had a blast starting to get my group up to date, i did avoid getting aug stuff in favor of begining the grind for UWs, ending up finishing uw2, and 100 dmajors and 50dminors before another break time, but that also brought me about halfway through t5.
recently returned and i've found the below list (exluding stuff t6+ since i'm not there yet) to be basically exaclty the answers to why I was 'burning out' each time.
Back many years ago I did do cutting edge EQ progression, the 30+ hour camps for each piece of VT key, or original epics, ect.
And I do think a lot of the grinds on EZ have a great concept behind them, but I personally know that my burnout would be reduced with reduction on the gear walls to see newer content.
I know charms drop much more from many more places, resists too, but I do feel like the entrance "fee" of time here so to speak should be pushed up some. A lot of people here talked about how t5 is the "gut check" and that they were happy it was causing people to burn out and quit, but what benefit is there to encourage that feeling?
some people at the top talking about how they're bored there so it's a good thing other people burn out earlier so they don't have to feel the pain of being bored at the end game, I don't understand this mentality.
If you're at the top and bored you always have the option to go back and create challenges for yourself (start a new group, limit yourself by not using zerkers or something)
Why campaign against lowering the bar for entrance into content though, the more people in each tier the better the feedback can be.
The people on the highest end will always be able to remain on the cutting edge if they want to, other people progressing at a faster pace than you did years ago does not diminish you.
Posted this from work sorry it's not clearly formatted and intelligent.
TL;DR I think hulk's suggestions would be pretty much all really great for increasing player base/retention.
Since Hulk can't follow basic directions/requests from a GM, I'll help him along
Recently I had the pleasure of leveling another set of characters through all the tiers except t9 and wanted to provide some suggestions as to how the experience could be made potentially more enjoyable for future and current players. Addressing these issues could reduce player burn out/frustration and further increase the population of the server. Most of these changes are not making the game easier, rather they're addressing the issue of time investment vs. reward. This game has never been hard, just time consuming.
New ideas:
1.) Add crystal quests to progression zones
2.) Allow more classes to throw down ae damage similar to zerks
3.) Make paladins and Sks beefy enough to tank
4.) Reduce hp of mobs in Velks lab
5.) Add a quest that rewards an arch type beneficial item that may be upgraded in each zone from 1-70.
6.) Make lower level charm upgrades stackable.
7.) Make resist Augs stackable by rank
8.) Remvoe aug combine recipes from t1 and add in augs to treasure chests.
9.) Implement XP mask earlier in the game and allow players to upgrade via quests as they level. (E.g. rank 1-10 = 2 rare drops from first zone / set amount of aa)
Waypoints:
Add NPC that sells waypoint item and explains how to use it.
Reduce cost of instance creation/reset.
Tserrina tank pet buff item:
Remove this item from tserrina's loot table and make it a quest item for T1 pet classes.
Crystal quest:
Implement some kind of one time quest that rewards newly leveled characters with 200-500 or so aa.
SoT quest:
Make the reward yield a rank 3 or 4 scepter instead of rank 1 and make rank 1s rare drop off lower tier bosses. Rare drop scepters could increase in rank as players go up in tier maybe 1 rank per tier like resistance stones.
Add more ranks past rank 10 attainable via higher level quests.
Qvic:
add armor exchange vendor like in T1
Change rare boss to spawn after x amount of bosses killed.
LDON:
significantly increase drop rate of all cards since ldon armor is under used.
reduce the amount of cards needed per armor piece
CT:
add armor exchange vendor like in T1
T1:
increase drop rate of essences to 20%
Change ancient dragon spawn to spawn after x amount of bosses killed
T2:
increase drop rate of essences to 20%
T3:
increase drop rate of essences to 20%
T4:
Add armor exchange vendor
increase drop rate of essences to 20%
T5:
increase spawn chance of triggered mobs
T6:
add Jelvan's keepsake to list of chests that may be opened with /open
T7:
Increase respawn time of zone to >8hours
T8:
Increase drop rate of scales for UCv3/add rare spawn chests containing scales
add armor exchange vendor
Increase drop rate of essences on bosses
