Let's Fix EverQuest's Worst Problem

There is a problem on progression servers that’s creating player conflict, straining customer service, & causing players to end subscriptions prematurely.
Link to Forum Post: forums.daybrea...
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#EverQuest

[@mando7647]

Another +1 for Mischief. It solved a lot of these problems, and the community is going strong there!

[@gibboa]

We are half way there on mischief. Theres still some bottle necks but lots of otherwise rare items are plentiful here

[@IonBlaze1]

That's awesome how Mischief solved the problem too

[@the_flushjackson]

The game is mismanaged, completely. They've done nothing to make the game more approachable, continued to prop-up boxing while somewhat punishing it as well. They need to look at FFXIV and see if they can implement systems that reward players to group up and perhaps flatten the entire world with some kind of level sync feature. Hot zones are moronic, the entire game should be accessible to everyone below level 110 (I don't know, guessing at the level.. could be 105, 100, etc). The things that will fix EverQuest is developing modern features while preserving the spirit of the game. Want to level from 85 - 100+, do Gribbles HA which is on some moronic 3 hour lockout timer, great example of how poorly the game is managed. I know that TLP and Live are somewhat different, but they need to also flatten lockout timers and spawn timers (possibly more instanced content) as well as general flagging of old stuff. It's so painfully obvious they just release an expansion per year and move on with the same broken systems, when a few modern ones would breathe life into the game. I'm not even touching on Kronos, which make the game a complete joke -- on regular servers you can get access to most anything via Kronos and on FV it's basically how everything is done.

[@IonBlaze1]

That's a really thought out comment. I totally agree with making the game more approachable. I can't imagine someone new trying to understand how the heck to play the game.

[@thevinceedward]

@@IonBlaze1 I played from launch 1999 to Luclin. Tried to pick it up a few times between 2012 and 2018 and it was just too confusing to figure out what to do.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for sharing that Vince. Yeah there was a big discussion on the forums when Josh Strife Hayes streamed the game a few days ago. It's very unaccessible.

[@the_flushjackson]

@@IonBlaze1 Have a link?

[@antondovydaitis2261]

It's been a while since I listened to your videos, but I remember that I found you first of all the MMO tubers. Thank you.

[@IonBlaze1]

Hey man thank you for the support Anton. I appreciated the help you gave in one of the videos I put together.

[@Elias_Halloran]

Soo happy for myself that I got a chance on Agnarr to be in a group that took down Lord Nagafen and then Lady Vox. It was possible due to instances and made me proud my second go around at the game.

[@IonBlaze1]

Oh that's awesome you were able to do that. Happy for you

[@undignified2843]

Some of my best memories in EQ come from Agnarr

[@Greldek]

On live you can spawn a version of most bottle neck mobs that drops nothing but a no-drop version of the epic drop needed. Just put that in for every single bottleneck epic drop. Talk to the npc, a mob pops, has the epic drop. the people move on. No way to farm it and bottle neck it no matter how many mage armies you get, cause people can just pop their own get the drop and move on.

[@IonBlaze1]

That would be an awesome way to fix it too. Harbingers yeah? Thank you for sharing that Greldek

[@jeffkoenig7402]

it's still an imperfect fix. Take the Bard 1.0 for example - Sure, the Undead Bard spawns 12 HOURS after Trak is killed, but only one Bard can use it for the gut strings. 2nd bard has to wait for Trak respawn, 3rd Bard has to wait for Undead Bard again, etc. There's no reason whatsoever that a live server player dong their 1.0 should ever have to wait for a mob spawn. There's barely any reason to do most of them even without that. IMO there needs to be a spawn NPC perma up for anyone who needs it at any time.

[@bilefroth89]

Hello Ion, Fipp from Yelinak here! Thanks for the shoutout in the video if anybody needs any targets killed on Yelinak Hit me up i dont charge too many krono's. I dont think your solution will work Ion, in fact I think its currently designed the best way possible. Should daybreak use your model of making raid mobs spawn in 12 minutes, then the server will die in 2 weeks instead of 6 months because people would become BIS in 1 day, play a few days then quit. Daybreak will sell no krono because there wont be any reason to buy them. Then Everquest will crumble into bankruptcy. You should view Krono farmers as daybreaks biggest support, we create demand for krono giving life to the game. I also dont understand why you keep calling me toxic in your videos im such a nice guy!

[@rdizzy1]

If krono farmers are the only thing that is holding EQ up, then let it fail, and I say that as a huge fan of EQ since original beta eq. Krono farmers are scum.

[@SmidgenPC]

It’s interesting to see how this mirrors the problems in the original release back in 1999. And you’re a absolutely right about the root cause of the issue. If something is too scarce it’s no longer a skill check, it’s a time sink checking and ultimately, bots will always beat real players there!

[@tickenTag]

During The Darkened Sea expansion they added Harbingers that basicly did the same thing, they respawn short window and only drop epic pieces, to help stop bottlenecks for epics while people kill for the other special loots(AoN example) if the said raid boss is not up. Doesnt stop TLP issues when its current. if some way they could impliment that in TLP in some way, each harbinger can only drop 1 random epic, but in Openworld same thing would happen they would be perma camped too and sold, but instances an extra chance to drop one.

[@IonBlaze1]

Dang, it's like the solution is already there it just needs to be implemented earlier. Thank you for the comment Tickentag :)

[@utuber3476]

what do you think the best TLP to start on would be? I've been recommended mischief as being the most active and successful server? My priority is just to find groups and I don't want to join a TLP thats likely to die soon

[@AlyxiSistahTweaky25]

Mischief is likely the best option right now, but even there, low and mid level grouping might be scarce depending on day and time. But it is also the easiest to level and gear up on, and there are (almost) always a ton of helpful players and guilds, just takes a bit of patience at times.

[@asaru8224]

Would love to see Daybreak do this. Sadly I don't expect them too. It would bring me back to the game though!

[@Erekai]

It's interesting how it seems like they may have heard your plea. Oakwynd has solved *SOME* of these problems. They tried something experimental this year, and it actually turned out to be quite good. Maybe didn't fix the exact issues you reference here about NPC scarcity, but it DEFINITELY helped with the KSing problem.

[@maxpower2511]

I remember on live back in 1999 that you had mobs like Grenix mucktail on a 6 hour spawn timer and dragons were a week. Absolutely ridiculous.

[@IonBlaze1]

Oh yeah it was brutal back in original era but people didn't know everything too

[@maxpower2511]

@@IonBlaze1 I think the biggest thing back then was the monthly fee. They fed you just enough to keep you coming back but made it so you really needed to put time in to get the big items. Now, most MMOs are FTP and you can just get instant gratification by paying $$.

[@dawson70]

They've kept the spawn timers far too long on purpose over the years. They know(?) that keeping it this way helps generate revenue via Kronos to pay for loot rights, or recurring monthly subscriptions. That’s my opinion looking in from the outside since Y2K. Every key spawn timer is set in a way that they believe will maximize monthly revenue at the cutting edge of retaining/losing customers for some odd reason. When did staring at low res polygons for days equal epic or what not? Originally, the long spawn timers were created to slow down the player base to allow them the time to create new content. The same goes for keying for raid zones, or dungeons like Old Sebilis. Shawn's a loving robot channel touches on this from time to time as well. Spawn times are a field in the database that can be easilly changed whenever they see fit. I, like many, think they're too stingy and out of touch with the last two decades worth of gamer expectations. 72+ hour spawn timers.... is there any other game studio who does that? This is definitely a frustrating topic for many EQ folks, and thank you for making this video highlighting one of their blatant shortcomings. We're in "enhanced maintenance mode" at this point as far as I'm concerned, and I hope they'll start addressing some low hanging fruit like this in the near future. I'm not holding my breathe though. 😶

[@IonBlaze1]

Oh thank you for sharing this info. I had no clue the spawn timers were intentionally made that way. Very good comment Ron :)

[@mhill-fm5cr]

One word answer to fix the scarcity issue - instancing. Longer answer - putting an epic behind a dozen or so "make an attempt once a week for a 10% drop chance, assuming you weren't blocked by someone else from even trying" mobs/events is not a test of skill, but of patience and dedication. Why not simply instance every raid/epic/worldboss mob, and make the instance difficult? Have level and player number ceilings, to preserve "The Vision." Test skill and organization, not patience and who has the most accounts + free time. Never understood the concept of slowing the rate at which items appear in the world, and doing so with maybe the frustrating method possible.

[@IonBlaze1]

That's a really good suggestion mhill. Thank you for sharing that

[@FrostyMaine]

2kr for a white scale still! The other issue that occurs is that it is a combo of scarcity + new content and nobody wanting to go back to it.

[@IonBlaze1]

Ooof that's horrible. Thank you for bringing up how nobody wants to go back to old stuff

[@jibantik00]

Quest mobs should be triggered instead of being on timers. For instance, while doing an epic, you have to inspect an item to trigger the spawn. Once killed, you can no longer trigger the mob. Now to keep from losing the epic drop, instead of having to loot it, it pops into your inventory along with a system message letting you know that you now have the item. Success or fail, a 20 minute timer starts. Failure could be either a wipe or the person who triggered the spawn leaves the zone, the mob despawns and the timer starts. I don't know, it's something I've thought about for a very long time because I have had a hell of a time in the past getting epics completed because I worked odd hours and couldn't do the raids with everyone else. This was my proposed solution years ago, but it fell on deaf ears.

[@timothylunsford8917]

You know that's a really good recommendation I hope Daybreak hears this. I think this would benefit the player base a lot and it would cut back on the krono farmers from farming Epic mobs.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for the support Timothy :)

[@kalebclemons]

this is only an issue on tlp servers, and emulated servers. but tlp servers, even then, its not that bad anymore with agent of change. and on live servers these mobs stay up until the server goes down. and these weapons and quests were desgined to take a loooong time. thats why its epic. all the work personally, and done with a team. none of these things were issues when the content was live because everyone was struggling to achieve the same things. adressing the boxing people camping a mobs for days on end should be a thing, but dont yall have guides and stuff on the emu servers ?

[@Celestias07]

Woohoo some prime classic resurgence raid kill footage in this one ! Also agree that certain bottlenecks could be improved and people would still enjoy the game imo. Krono is an important part of db business model and needs to be relevant so there has to be enough trading to keep it that way… otherwise I’m afraid there will be no more tlps, but I feel there’s still enough commodity out there without the bottle neck selling everything as a krono MQ to do that. More instance or faster spawns for really long timer rares would be nice. Perhaps a tlp to test the theory in the future. Upped spawn rates tlp or more agent of changes?/lower cooldown dz? Edit* just realized the link to the forum post says this as well 😅. I’d give a server like that a try for sure.

[@IonBlaze1]

Oh yup Resurgence raiding :) Thank you for that different take on Krono & the support Celestias

[@goferjones3517]

For Live - it is such a great party game. But the world is dead and mercs fall off, making solo play very tedious past level 60. Boxing almost becomes mandatory and can become expensive. Maybe this is the way it has to be for the game to stay afloat, but it sucks that it's not worth it for me to play anything but TLPs if I don't want to box

[@Guyonthecouch420]

It is funny your brought up the jboots farm spot. I watched one of your videos from awhile back and you admit to taking this spawn from someone else. I want to let you know I feel that was a super low move. Putting it mildy

[@IonBlaze1]

It is what it is. A lot of us are forced into it. I just wish that conflict didn't need to happen.

[@mikeparsons1746]

If they fixed the scarcity problem using one of the ideas presented in your video or in these comments, I would try out the next one for sure.

[@yistkim7496]

Return to EQ with my wife after watching your video~big fun~thx a lot！

[@IonBlaze1]

Oh thank you for the kind words :)

[@kraze1982]

Obviously something needs to be done to allow players to complete epic quests; however I don't know that trivializing mobs entirely is the solution. Epic quests are supposed to be long and difficult and come with the feeling of accomplishment. With that said I think 12 minute timers on certain mobs erases that difficulty; that accomplishment. I would think it better to utilize solutions that have been used successfully in the past such as instance zone or alternate paths to receive the items required. I've created probably 15-20 epics(6x paladin, 6x cleric, 2x druid, 2x mage, 2x shaman, 1bard off the top of my head) on various servers including TLPs and I think that instancing has solved most bottlenecks and I'm not sure that decreasing spawn times would solve the rest. For example putting phinny on a 12 minute timer should solve the scarcity issue but who's to say a 20box crew wont just sit there and continue to make the item unobtainable without dealing with the boxers so I think if effort is to be put into solving the remaining issues then it needs to be implemented in a way that megaboxers cannot take advantage of it the same way everyday players can. If phinny is our example again, reducing the lockout timer on the instance(to be fair I don't know the current lockout timer) by half down to 3 days from 6 or 1 day makes more sense than completely erasing ANY difficulty from obtaining something. Again I do think something needs to be done about the remaining true bottlenecks but overall my point is there are other options. Take pally epic for example: ghoulbane+soulfire+dragonbooks and lich fight+ keeper of souls and minor item obtains ghoulbane: originally only obtainable by killing lord in upper guk but later added joren nobelheart as dropper and nobelmans bag quest so went from 1 to 3 options to obtain dragonbooks: originally after getting burnt and frost books from red and blue dragons you were required to turn these no drop halves in to a darkelf to get the full droppable book of scale and later they added a second npc in qeynos to accomplish this again giving you 3 options to obtain. so yeah i'd be of the opinion that simply decreasing spawn times isn't the best answer though it might be the simplest. I'd gladly come up with better solutions to any bottlenecks that remain as long as you'll provide the bottlenecks.

[@xkallubar]

Removing krono or making it unobtainable till a certain expansion would significantly reduce the amount of mage box armies monopolizing mobs with sought after drops. Bottlenecks on quests are just large bumps on already rough roads, I am at the point where I have done everything but get a soul leech for my sk epic on p99, and getting it has taken waaay longer than the rest of the quest. These quests should be even roads, not easy and all of a sudden insane. It should be fighting the mob and getting the item, not poopsocking for 12 hours every 7 days, then contesting the mob, fighting over it, hoping you end up killing it and not another guild, somehow outbidding no-lifers with hoards of dkp who always end up selling the mq, hoping you can loot it before someone ninja loots it (p99 only) or it rots, and then continuing the quest.

[@IonBlaze1]

Xkallubar!!!! If you had to ogre-talk this entire comment, I would have mad respect. Yeah I'm right there with you. I wish it was more accessible.

[@Nanan00]

Make quest and raid NPC respawn quickly but give players a multi day lockout so they can't attack or participate in fights with those mobs.

[@IonBlaze1]

Hmm that's an interesting take. Thank you for sharing that :)

[@mikemcmahon3118]

wows personal loot is where this ends up if you follow this to its logical end because if you do this then it becomes i am unable to help my friend who needs it for quest not saying its a terrible destiation just thats whaere it goes i think also u gotta look for stuff that can be done without affecting live@@IonBlaze1

[@jgomez9426]

I think this would still not fix the issue as the price would drop but botters would still hold camps. For raids bosses I think the fix is simple instanced loot lock outs should mirror open world timers on bosses. The game and spawn timers were balanced around year long expansions. Now with TLP servers spawn times should be adjusted accordingly to mirror the shorter durations. Just my 2 cents

[@Remianen]

I think you're in a similar position as Don Quixote. DBG doesn't care that you want to finish an expansion before the next one unlocks. Probably because they're already planning their next cash grab "classic experience". If instancing is the answer, the question then becomes, where do you draw the line? Do you instance every mob of significance? Every expansion has a bottleneck mob or encounter. I camped Pained Soul for 17 hours (STRAIGHT) to get my key to Veeshan's Peak eons ago. First brood dragons are scarce. Do we instance those too? I understand your frustrations. I shared them decades ago when running those encounters (when they were new/current). My perspective is DEFINITELY skewed because I was present and raiding when epics were first introduced. EVERY cleric on the server wanted Ragefire instanced because they didn't have the means to keep Nagafen down so he could spawn (much less the resources to actually beat him). Raid guilds had no problem rolling alts and leveling/gearing them to do that. Enter pearlescent shards. 🙄I just don't think the EQLive team is creative enough to come up with a solution that isn't simply Monty Haul in practice OR more of a pain the arse than the existing system (hi pearlescent shards). They're not going to make it EASY for anyone, whether it's the right thing to do or not.

[@marzix427]

Getting rid of MQs, increasing spawn rates for rares that arent actually rares like Raster, Targin, Pawbuster, and the Betrayer for the monk epic. So many times I would see a new pick in KC and I would be trying to form a group, or a group i am in would be swapping out people and here comes boxer druid and his couple alts dragging Pawbuster to the entrance to kill it and immediately "WTS Metal Pipe MQ 2kr" or when I have seen an iksar betrayer up and tried forming a group for that, only to have some bot army come in and take the mob while trying to form the group. If the mob wasn't so rare, it wouldn't be that bad. There are other rares that I have discovered while doing armor quests on my SK and Shaman that are just super rare for no reason anymore. It's a time crunch to get epic, because nobody wants to go back to Kunark now that Velious is out.

[@Valyn]

Good vid. Hiring GMs is a response to a symptom, not a response to the actually root cause, scarcity.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for the support Qix :)

[@badgaf21]

Like it or not, scarcity is what keeps the game interesting. If everyone got everything they wanted in the first couple of weeks of a new server or a new expansion release, then what is the point of playing the game after you have everything you want? While I completely agree with and understand what you're saying about krono/bot farmers, I have to wonder how decreasing spawn timers on bottleneck mobs resolves that issue and doesn't just make said botters/farmers richer faster? Also, I see people say that Mischief resolved a lot of the issues with random loot and extra loot, but I've also seen people complain that there was TOO much loot on Mischief. It's impossible to make everyone happy. DBG already took steps to discourage permacamping epic bottleneck mobs by making a lot of the quest pieces not be able to be multi-quested, which makes permacamping them pointless unless they're trying to sell loot rights to the items. You want to enjoy the game more? Take the game for what it is and how you choose to play it. YOU choose to play the same era of the game over and over again and subject yourself to the same issues OVER and OVER again and complain about the same "issues" OVER and OVER again. You want a more modern game that isn't subject to the issues of a game created over 20 years ago? Try out modern EQ, a lot has changed for the better. Instead of leaving TLP XYZ after Planes of Power to join TLP YZA, try riding a server out to some of the later eras of the game. I used to do the same thing, because PoP era was the sweet spot for my nostalgia, but I've rode out the Mangler server to what it's in now, Reign of Fear, and honestly, after Underfoot, the game has been a blast. Always something to do and not a bot army in sight. Do people still box? Sure, but you're never going to get away from boxers on Everquest, for the some of the exact reasons you're complaining about. Because people don't like to wait. They want to play when they want to play and don't want to have to rely on other people to do it. Just my thoughts on the subject of people wanting devs to overhaul a 20+ year old piece of a game that really only exists on new servers for a couple months a year.

[@undignified2843]

You may have been harsh in your initial rant, but you weren't wrong and it wasn't unwarranted. Opening up the accessibility to these bottlenecked items/mobs breaks a bit of EQ's identity but if daybreak can't get the farmers under control then it's a fine trade off.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for the support undignified. At least if you want that old school EQ experience with that difficulty, you got P99. I always felt TLPs are supposed to be the accessible way to play.

[@enntense]

I'm not sure how a krono farmer can hold a epic mob against your entire guild. I think when you get to Omens it takes a whopping 14 in zone to trigger an instance. Some older outdoor zones take up to ..mm 63 or something big.

[@rdizzy1]

Because some mobs only need 1 group to kill. Shouldn't have to bring an entire guild to kill something that requires 4 people.

[@abalamdepaimon6891]

Easy fix would be to make all the raid mobs for epic pieces triggerable, but only drop the epic piece and perhaps 1 random chance of the original mob's loot table. That was way you can work on your epic and people will still want to help you out since there's a chance of a loot drop for them, even if it's not multiple items like the live spawn version. Some nameds are on a 1 week spawn time. That means 52 possible epic drops in a year, with 1000+ people playing the server, and sure, not all will require that named for epic...but it shows how frustrating this is. It destroys entire guilds of friends just because they are not able to compete with the neckbeards no lifeing the spawns and batphone eachother.... TL;DR: leave the spawns alone, but give players the ability to spawn a quest version for epic drop. Works for Druid Epic and that sea dragon. Why not for other classes ? What's the point of bottle necking an epic to 1 new epic a week at best ?

[@nonnel0355]

good thought, but is it an epic if u get it done in 1 day ? : (

[@d_Brian67]

This has been an issue for many, many years. Some see it as a pro of "classic" games, but IMO it's an outdated feature. Great suggestions.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for the support David :)

[@maxpower2511]

I agree and while P1999 has that nostalgia, I honestly have come to see that unless you are comfortable with just that, nostalgia, and not raiding the biggest content, it is fine. For me many of the things in classic are just grossly outdated and are for the true neckbeards

[@jonathanbreckenridge4758]

I’m gonna be honest the number one reason I could not play was the community. It is extremely toxic and not friendly to new players.

[@IonBlaze1]

What was it like?

[@rdizzy1]

I don't think p99 community is toxic to new players whatsoever, in fact it is 100x less toxic than it was back in the day.

[@boss_gamers]

Hoping to catch the premiere!

[@IonBlaze1]

Lol it's only 4 minutes. The good stuff is later in the week

[@EQOAnostalgia]

The main problem with EQ is still the main problem? Dang. . . i hope they listened to you, or listen.

[@demris15]

I see an even easier solution… make these epic drops very very rare global drops, or global zone/level specific drops. I’m sure you could add a trivial loot code in there somewhere so if you didn’t get xp for the kill, you won’t get those global drops. That forces people to group and kill level appropriate mobs.

[@iindiar]

another option is random mobs....in commonlands, Inny and other raid mobs have a rare chance of spawning and cause havoc!......in Crushbone, Venril Sathir spawns in the tower! .....in Kael Drakkal, Phinny spawns on the bridge!

[@SomeCanine]

The reason the quests were originally designed that way is so the epic items would SLOWLY roll out into the playerbase. They were the best items you could get at the time and the game designers didn't want everyone to have them too quickly. The scarcity is intentional. I think you were right the first time to police the toxic botting. I just don't think they will because they earn the company money.

[@IonBlaze1]

Link to Forum Post: forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/let%E2%80%99s-make-everquest-better-for-all.286423/

[@PeterLustig-ff7si]

Over time increasing spawnrates would maybe devalue high tier items hence sorta removing the point of farming for them by boxed teams but wouldnt change much shortterm imo. Even more spawns to monopolize. and if DB would drastically increase spawnrates/lockout acces is this really a everquest you wanna play? where every twink and the grandmothers twink has evry valuable item possible? The lootrules of that one server, forgot name, where loottables where randomized just restricted by level and type of mob u killed was the best as it gets

[@hom-sha-bom]

The mischief & thornblade servers did solve these problems but most tlp players just hated on the rules. If you look at players actions, you can see that most of them don't actually want the scarcity problem solved. They just like to complain about it. If everything was super easy to get that makes the game boring and you run out of stuff to do. When you have nothing left to do you log in less eventually you realize you're only logging in once a week and then you ask yourself why am I still paying for this sub?

[@IonBlaze1]

Yeah those servers did fix the problem like you said. You make a good point about running out of content. It is a hard line to make. Some of these expansions just don't give a lot to do & you can finish everything in 2 weeks.

[@joshcantrell8397]

I just wish they’d upgrade the damn graphics

[@IonBlaze1]

An updated EQ would be awesome to see

[@chrislittle7701]

The Earring of Rallos Zek requires players to complete Hunters Achievement for ToV xpac. Spent 2 hours in Great Divide the other night named hunting and found ZERO. The quests only get harder man.

[@jeffkoenig7402]

Should have happened a long time ago. I play on live, where the respawn timers are in some ways even more ridiculous. You think KSing is bad on TLP? Try finding raid mobs alive on servers where any bored player can basically one shot them. ;) I don't need it, but it's taking me forever to PoP flag *even though I'm only doing that for funsies* (ok and the TS earring), just because bosses that are beyond trivial to solo for most of the server still have multi-hour or multi-day respawn timers. There's *already* a glut of most raid drops in people's banks. 10-20 minute respawn timers on everything from, say, at least HoT and earlier isn't going to change anything except make it easier for people who (for whatever reason) still want to do that content to do it.

[@IonBlaze1]

Huh I wasn't even considering Live but you make good points. Thank you for the comment Jeff :)

[@baronofgreymatter14]

Thornblade and Mischief solved alot of this by making the items drop off any same level boss making it hard to monopolize. This went a long way to make it alot more fun

[@Paul-jo6xj]

I have to disagree about the scarcity issue. Instanced lockouts are enough. The reason being is that if everyone in the world has a Ferrari, there is nothing special or rewarding about getting one. Instanced bosses will allow everyone to get everything they need. It just takes time and effort. No, I do not like Krono but as long as greed exists it will happen so there might as well be an official method to help protect the players. I do wish there was more GM presence in an effort to enforce the old 'play nice policy' but that's me. It cuts into the bottom line though as you mentioned. Just please do not white knight the issue of removing scarcity. Otherwise why play the game at all? Skill is not enough as there is nothing in the game that requires so much that a group of friends cannot make any encounter a non issue these days. Instanced lockouts should be implemented more if a mob is that much of an issue, not just having them spawn repeatedly.

[@DantesTyphoon]

This was perfectly fixed for epic 1.5 and 2.0. your turn in spawns the raid boss. I think that's a fantastic fix. I may be remembering wrong but I don't think there was any issue like this in OoW

[@AlyxiSistahTweaky25]

Long spawn timers on some of the mobs still create bottlenecks. Windrush and Wygrish for Monk 1.5, then Kaiaren for the 2.0 are big ones...took me a month after OW dropped on Mischief to get my 1.5, then a few more weeks to get 2.0. Despite having everything possible done ahead of time. Just didn't have the batphone power to beat the botters and bigger guilds. Bard was another one with HUGE bottle necks.

[@Bigmbrennan]

Every zone just needs an AOC like mob that lets you spawn a DZ of it, problem solved.

[@IonBlaze1]

That would be the best definitely. Just not sure they can afford the server architecture

[@Bigmbrennan]

@@IonBlaze1 I dunno, feels like they're certainly selling enough krono...

[@heath1796]

Couldn’t disagree with you more. Instance raids destroyed EQ, went from a social game to a single player game. 12 minute spawns would make it world of clones and remove the feeling of achievement. What you could do to solve these problem is have a quest you have to complete to spawn the rare monster you need. This quest would take longer than the respawn timer of the monster. This spawning could be limited and only the spawners (raid / group) could damage the quest mob once spawned. Alternatively you could create an instance race. So everyone who wants the quest mob spawn competes in an instance for rights to the quest mob.

[@demris15]

Love both of those ideas , but in practice, they would never happen… DBG devs are lazy and don’t understand their own game… plus the ROI isn’t there… making the items you need drop off every raid mob might be a better idea

[@th3ghote770]

Making Phinny dpop every 15 minutes seems silly - everyone wants their shit and they want it NOW.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for the different take Heath. That is definitely an interesting way to address the problem. It still keeps it a challenge. I would prefer this but I'm not sure if it can be done with how much dev resources it would take.

[@JSwiftBlade]

Horrible idea on spawn timers. No offense... If they spawned every 15 minutes, the gear would be farmed in a week and people would quit until next expac lol.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for giving the video a shot MJ :)

[@matthewperez4598]

That’s part of the game now if it wasn’t for krono eq would die 🎃

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for giving the video a shot Matthew

[@LexFilm]

Thanks man. Keep your positive attitude.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you Lex :)

[@papadwarf6762]

The problem is EQ needs a major graphics upgrade

[@TheMorpher80]

You just need to come play with us...

[@IonBlaze1]

Pumbaa!!!! Yeah I missed the boat on Mischief

[@Dunning-Kruger-effect]

Yes you were wrong. You weren’t harsh enough with the most horrible MMO company in the world, Daybreak. Daybreak’s paid staff do so much less than p99’s volunteers. Day break could hire GMs. Daybreak has an over 90% profit margin. The reason they won’t hire GMs is because the owners don’t know about or care about the game, not even a tiny little bit. They aren’t game devs they are grifters. Volunteer staffs of 3 people do more in their spare time than Daybreak does with millions in profit. Their pay to win is egregious. EQ’s problem is Daybreak. It is impossible to be too harsh with Daybreak. They are grifting parasites and a cancer on the MMO community.

[@IonBlaze1]

I hope one day it changes. Maybe if there's enough attention, EQ can be made relevant again

[@Dunning-Kruger-effect]

@@IonBlaze1 Yes. They need to be sold though. A metaphore comparing Daybreak to decent publishers would be Daybreak is an abusive pimp while normal publishers are a happy family. Can’t see that changing anytime soon. They are toxic and abusive of their customers.

[@wolfdar2009]

When I was on cyclops island and I got an AC legit of course I am going to sell it. But I also keep track of what is going on and if a monk is trying to get his jboots i do whatever I can (pull adds off ) or whatever to help out. But if i get a legit pull i'm gonna pull it and kill it. I'm solo and I can compete where ever. Thx Ian for putting your thoughts out there.

[@IonBlaze1]

Wolfdar!!! Thank you for coming by & sharing that

[@joshcantrell8397]

So you’re camping the cyclops and preventing other people from getting the drop they need for stuff, just so you can sell and make money? Ya I’m sure you’re fun at parties.

[@th3ghote770]

Just lower the threshold for new picks and reduce instance timers a bit. You can also flag someone once they have a phinny kill, and they zone into instance number 2 until a timer runs out - then once the mob is down they have X time before they are merged over. TBH only the super hardcore have problems getting epics, because they all want them NOW. I've able to do several epics in luclin without any issue or real access problems - Lord Bergugrgle is mostly uncamped as one you mentioned. A lot of the problem is people want instant gratification - they want their epics in the first couple of weeks of kunark, the game isn't the problem it's the players.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for the different take Ghote. You're right about the competition fading as time goes on

[@richmauney6719]

I wish they would listen. This is sage advice. I believe the loss in Krono revenue would be more than made up for in increases in subs. Alas, I don't think they care.

[@ksmith4712]

Not everyone is meant to have everything in Everquest. Only the strong and determined will have an Epic. Allowing everyone to just get it done cheapens it. It becomes nothing special and not really an achievement at all.

[@thomasgrant2307]

could just play on a server where this isn't a problem, like Pop or beyond. there's tons of them

[@IonBlaze1]

You're right it is not really a problem later on but the population drops hard

[@sweatter8213]

Have to disagree with you on instanced raids, I think they destroyed Everquest not make it better, Just take a look at p99? No instanced there and both servers have a constant 1-2k people playing and enjoying it

[@truckstation527]

No F… the me me me me I want it now players. There’s a reason in modern games there is nothing memorable. Guides/GMs should address kill stealers on these types of spawns.

[@jackw.3504]

GM's will almost never help you when dealing with gold farmers botting a critical camp. Reason? Simple that gold farming botter pays for 20 to 50 accounts and you pay for 1 maybe 2 or 3. Day break can't afford to lose that many accounts. Played on Thornblade at launch. I never saw a rare mob (save for the named gator in the Desert of Ro). On every named mob spawn point was a near naked bot that could out damage your whole party. What they need to do is go after the botters, but they won't.

[@casrogue]

Easy fix make epic mobs faster in spawn and make items only loot by class. Maybe throw a 3 minute timer on items before they disappear. Anyway make agnarr free to play , LoL had to include that ! Free agnarr from the paywall!!

[@JON_CORE]

No. Trying to say this and not be a offensive. But this is what EQ is all about and has always been about. Back in the day I had to sign up and wait in lines on the forms for spawns with my guild. Did another guild try to KS me? Yes.. did I pull the whole zone and train them and my guild still won the DPS race and I got my item.. yes! This is one of the pillars of EverQuest and having an Epic. It means something. Your epic is not about having your bis. Your epic shows so much about you. And with the removal of artifacts there is really not much left in the early TLP days of a server. Same reason why we should only wake the sleeper once per server. The game is built around this concept and it should not be changed. I know you think this will help the casuals. But they are only NPCs to sell items to for Kronos... Someone has to pay 18 bucks for the Kronos so I can sell it to you for 8 ;)

[@emailSethTurner]

There is already a fix; private servers. The EQ EMU community actually cares about EQ and the players. P99, TAKP and others are the best places to play EQ. Krono ruined EQ live. I won’t ever go back while Krono exists.

[@NebulositySirus]

I played EverQuest for 20 years... You are right there is no reason why they shouldn't make mobs spawn quicker... But I get it the Kronos market is good.

[@Markus-Domanski]

Actually the non-instanced world created social dynamics that made the game so interesting. You had to figure out a way to deal with antisocial behavior.

[@Kulaan]

Great video my guy!

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you Hunter :)

[@JonathanVachon777]

Well if you make mobs respawn that fast, it wont be an epic anymore

[@runepetersen5698]

Or they could alter their game code to detect 3rd party programs and actually ban the people using Isboxer and similar programs. They are breaking the rules and its the ONLY reason these kronolords can do these things. Its virtual machine cheats and gameplay assist. Actually crack down on the cheaters and it'll all even out. Sadly, this suggestion and your own, would make fewer Krono being sold and Daybreak isnt interested in that. Alternatively, they could make a server where Krono wasnt usable, double the price to play there via sub and it would be well received by the majority, because the majority are playing the game legit and remove Truebox or use relaxed truebox from the get-go.

[@zahhari3170]

TLDR. I couldn't kick my addiction and I'm back.

[@IonBlaze1]

Hahaha. I havent touched EQ1 in awhile but I've been playing other stuff in the mean time. Thank you for the comment Zahhari

[@rammur]

main reason i quit too ya hit the nail on the head i started back in 2000 too stopped roughly around the time smedley brought in the damn microtransactions

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for the support Rook :)

[@deltaquadrant5861]

Better make these highly camp npc spawn in a instance where it won’t be a guaranteed to drop have a lockout timer but why would Daybreak won’t fix easy if these bot farmers are selling drop rights from Kronos meanwhile players are buying them daybreak is making money

[@montanafreedomhomestead3949]

Played EQ for years but need a new game.

[@noodles2459]

Make the entry point to the game easier for new players and the game will come back

[@calvin6449]

No. Let's not make this another wow. Decreasing scarcity will lower the value of items. EQ is unique due to this.

[@joshcantrell8397]

You weren’t too harsh…

[@IonBlaze1]

Dunno, people are pretty sensitive now adays

[@matthewperez4598]

So stop crying about it and just play the game my god oh I can’t get a quest item, get your guild and just beat them

[@belban69]

I would like to see a TLP server go from original through all expacs with out krono, boxing and mercs

[@IonBlaze1]

I wonder how that would work :)

[@thomasgrant2307]

not many people would play there

[@th3ghote770]

Krono would simply be replaced by plat, people would quit because playing most classes solely is boring as shit, mercs - not sure.

[@belban69]

@@IonBlaze1 would be like the original EQ, people grouping together to kill and have a good time

[@belban69]

@@th3ghote770 it would force people to group and not make 6+ accounts and play alone. it's a MMORPG grouping is key and more fun

[@silk2612]

Well said ion!

[@baronofgreymatter14]

Remove KRONO ...PUNISH BOXERS

[@Random49558]

Let's GOOOOO

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you Random :)

[@redrumdrake]

This sounds like you would rather play wow. everything Instanced and no sense of a an actual world. Not everyone should get everything. It's the multi-boxing and bots that ruin it.

[@mgaming7]

Krono ruined the game. just buy them from some sketch site, cheaper than DBG sells them and buy BiS while sitting in the tunnel. I play almost every TLP. I get to lev 50 and unsub. I am not fighting for epic pieces. I am not going to join a Bat-Phone raid guild. Either make the stuff available to me in some form or fashion or I am gone. as the video says. Day break needs to make ONE server where Krono isn't an option and selling plat gets you insta banded and watch what happens. They will have to make more than one server or the Queue will be 3 days. You will retain more old school players that hate Pay to Win.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you for sharing your experience Doc. I miss those old school days before the monetization

[@Augustus087]

Very disappointed that you evidently chose to delete my comment last night.

[@IonBlaze1]

What was deleted? KZbin auto filters comments a lot. If you put in Pally, it holds it for review

[@Augustus087]

@@IonBlaze1 Okay, thank you Ion. I will try to post again tomorrow. It was about how nostalgia is not enough to justify going back, and how I was emotionally hurt by some others recently (whom I did not name.)

[@Augustus087]

​@@IonBlaze1 Ion, I had an extremely negative experience happen to me that permanently affected the way I will view Everquest. I was part of a guild that does streaming. I hung out with these guys for a year, chatting with them every night. I considered them all my friends. Then, a change took place. I was no longer invited to exp groups. Indeed, I was deliberately left out. I feel this was because I am an old schooler, and only run one toon at a time. Then, when I was two steps away from finishing an epic quest, the wrong piece (vampire dust as opposed to vampire essence) was assigned to me during a raid. I discovered this later, after the fact. When the guild leader inquired about possible raid targets, I suggested going back to get the missing piece. The response was "do it on your own." Running one character, this was an impossible task. Then two days later, I was unceremoniously booted from the guild and their associated discord. I cannot tell you how deeply this hurt me. I had hoped to recapture the magic I had with my original guild, Triad Continuum on Luclin, which was beautiful. There was no response to any attempt at communication, inquiring why I had been booted. What an evil, horrible thing to do. As a result, I have deleted all EQ content, including EQ2, and doubt I will ever revisit the game. I am reminded of something my late mom told me, which was "If they are putting down other people behind their backs, they will eventually do the same to you." So thank you for letting me vent a little. You are correct. The nostalgia of memories past is not enough to justify playing today.

[@IonBlaze1]

I'm sorry that happened to you. That is messed up what that guild did. I gotta remember that phrase from your mom. That is some really good wisdom. Thank you for sharing that Augustus

[@bowenjones6462]

What a great video.

[@IonBlaze1]

Thank you Bowen :)

[@goferjones3517]

Krono needs to exist if DB isn't going to heavily moderate the game, because otherwise, people are going to buy plat from botters that farm all day. People don't like Krono but as long as MMOs have currency that matters like it does in EQ, people will cheat if they can't circumvent grinding for the currency. And I don't think most people think it's fun or engaging to grind for hours and hours for money.

[@IonBlaze1]

I see your point. Yeah if daybreak wont offer RMT then some 3rd party website will.

[@bluethunder7391]

You are taking this game way too serious kid. If you don't like it, quit, simple.

[@immutablecantrip]

if naggy had a 10 minute respawn timer someone could farm 30 kills in a night and there would be so many cloak of flames that they wouldnt be rare anymore

[@IonBlaze1]

Eh well that's basically mischief. People like loot :)

[@immutablecantrip]

@@IonBlaze1 I look back on my magelo from Omens of War era and even playing EQ like it was a job for 4 years I still had a bunch of items that were only +30 hp in a lot of my slots. I like that in EQ even if there was a "best it slot" item it was UNLIKELY that anyone had a best in slot in every slot, and if you even had a few it was something to feel really good about. Compared with modern games where you are EXPECTED to have a best in slot in every slot just to be able to play with others

[@matthewmchenry2889]

It takes a lot of charm out of the game when everything is made accessible. Like how PoK was a big blow to the charm factor when travel was effectively eliminated. I still remember stories from Vex Thal raiders and how I kept trying to get Ssra keyed expansions later.

[@undignified2843]

This is true, but the spawn farmers put the charm deep into the 9th level of hell. Pick your poison.

[@joejackson3091]

I thought half the reason people played progression servers was because they missed the "good old days" where everything was a competition. On live servers, half the population being botters is the biggest issue.

[@godsfavoriteant9293]

STOP MISUSING THE TERM SCARCITY!! It is NOT the same thing as saying something is rare. It just means that commodity is not freely available (like the air you breathe). Potable water is a scarce commodity, however it is anything but rare. Saying something is scarce just means you're saying that decisions have to be made about how it will be made available.

[@mgaming7]

scarcity: the state of being scarce or in short supply; shortage. There is a "shortage" of Epic Quest Pieces. The MOB spawn is rare. Not the item it drops. So since the mob is rare, but drops the piece every single time, there is a "short supply" of those items. scarcity fits perfectly here.

[@Canoweissmon]

@@godsfavoriteant9293 I disagree with you and I agree with doc B. The definition 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of people go for is the one doc B mentioned.

[@godsfavoriteant9293]

@@Canoweissmon you can agree with whomever you like. You're still wrong and your reasoning is a logical fallacy known as argumentum ad populum. Just because something is popular doesn't mean it is correct.

[@Canoweissmon]

@@godsfavoriteant9293 ok 🤓