Maccolyn
Dalayan Beginner
Let me preface this by saying that I want to thank the staff for all their work keeping up this great server. I recognize that many of my suggestions would require many staff hours and since the server is quite top heavy, there are more pressing matters to attend to. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read my thoughts!
Newbie quests - Give boosts to low level quest rewards. Most classes have quests that can be done from levels 1-20. These rewards could give 30 hp/30 mana/3+4 applicable stats (or be levelable to this point) and make the quests much more desirable to do. Having done many of them for fun, it is a shame that more players aren't choosing to experience them due to lackluster rewards. It would put them on par with Starfall quests and give the characters a great boost while leveling.
Related to the above request, it would be great if the ornate quests could be buffed or levelable so that people have a reason to do them. One of the great things about Shards is the availability of quests to do and it's shame that these older quests aren't being done.
Adept system - Revamp the adept system so that a brand new group of 2-3 characters can do them. Much of the difficulty of conquering adepts lies in the large amount of hp/substantial damage output. If adepts were more reliant on mechanics rather than being able to heal through damage/sustain a good dps output, it would make it easier for players to achieve the gear from them. Due to the low population of the server, it's sad to see the higher level adepts remaining up for days on end due to the high player requirement on them. It would be helpful if these encounters were tuned to reflect the current server population.
Another idea for adepts would be to make the adepts be inclusive for a level range rather than having a hard limit, whether that be 5 or 10 levels. I understand that characters lower level than the adept can participate and acquire loot from them, but they are hard-pressed to be much help in the encounter. If for instance Tidefang had a 5 level below and 5 level above cap, one would be much more likely to find help in conquering this adept. Also, it would present players who are eager to play more Shards but want to progress through adept loot with the option to level if they had more adepts within a range they were eligible for. I tried the server once before this for a couple days and was excited by the adept system until I realized I had to either A. make an alt to play B. lock my experience and not continue exploring the world or C. seemingly hamstring my character because quest rewards from newbie quests were horrible in contrast to adept loot.
Low level dungeons - I ended up opting to not get adept loot due to the above reasons and have farmed mostly dungeon loot, sticking to dungeons like crystal caverns where the items were much better than other zones. I recognize the amount of work that would be required, but adding better stats to items from lower level dungeons would go a long way in people trying out more content rather than just sticking to the zones with better loot. I have also noticed that these dungeons are farmed by higher level players on occasion. If the stats on the items were more equal across dungeon tiers, at least the high level farmers would not be monopolizing the better zones.
Faction grinding during main quest - Increase the faction rewards on each quest so that players can opt out so many of them. This is a tedious grind and unless you're privy to the fact that the earlier quests can be done at lower levels, you'll be spending hours of your time grinding on grey mobs. Ideally, it should be sufficient to do a couple quests per tier to get faction with your choice. I don't think this takes away from the game and still keeps the spirit of having to perform service for your faction to gain their trust.
Simple maps - Increase the droprate of simple maps. I leveled slowly, mainly in dungeons, from 1-65 and have seen exactly 1 of these maps. This 1 map dropped in Lasanth when I was too high level to do the map. During the levels where I as eligible to do simple maps, it wasn't affordable for my character to buy maps from listsold. I'm not sure if I was extremely unlucky or if the droprate is just very low. I can confirm that the people who I have been playing with who began on the server recently have never received a simple map as a loot drop.
Tradeskills - as with progression on live EQ, they eventually introduced the auto-combine feature. While I know that that is probably a hard no for the devs of this server, I would request that instead of the skill gains being based on X combines per level that there be a random element to it and a hard cap of how many combines you do without a level. It could work such that if a skill up at your level has a hard limit of 6 combines, you could get a skill up on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or if you're unlucky, you will get it on the 6th. I liked the idea in theory of deviating from the random nature of EQ tradeskill skill ups, but the shards system just feels more grindy than it has to be. The experience rewards for leveling to 250 seem to be negligible, so I don't think it would be gamebreaking to change this from a carpal tunnel nightmare into something more fun for casual players to do.
Newbie quests - Give boosts to low level quest rewards. Most classes have quests that can be done from levels 1-20. These rewards could give 30 hp/30 mana/3+4 applicable stats (or be levelable to this point) and make the quests much more desirable to do. Having done many of them for fun, it is a shame that more players aren't choosing to experience them due to lackluster rewards. It would put them on par with Starfall quests and give the characters a great boost while leveling.
Related to the above request, it would be great if the ornate quests could be buffed or levelable so that people have a reason to do them. One of the great things about Shards is the availability of quests to do and it's shame that these older quests aren't being done.
Adept system - Revamp the adept system so that a brand new group of 2-3 characters can do them. Much of the difficulty of conquering adepts lies in the large amount of hp/substantial damage output. If adepts were more reliant on mechanics rather than being able to heal through damage/sustain a good dps output, it would make it easier for players to achieve the gear from them. Due to the low population of the server, it's sad to see the higher level adepts remaining up for days on end due to the high player requirement on them. It would be helpful if these encounters were tuned to reflect the current server population.
Another idea for adepts would be to make the adepts be inclusive for a level range rather than having a hard limit, whether that be 5 or 10 levels. I understand that characters lower level than the adept can participate and acquire loot from them, but they are hard-pressed to be much help in the encounter. If for instance Tidefang had a 5 level below and 5 level above cap, one would be much more likely to find help in conquering this adept. Also, it would present players who are eager to play more Shards but want to progress through adept loot with the option to level if they had more adepts within a range they were eligible for. I tried the server once before this for a couple days and was excited by the adept system until I realized I had to either A. make an alt to play B. lock my experience and not continue exploring the world or C. seemingly hamstring my character because quest rewards from newbie quests were horrible in contrast to adept loot.
Low level dungeons - I ended up opting to not get adept loot due to the above reasons and have farmed mostly dungeon loot, sticking to dungeons like crystal caverns where the items were much better than other zones. I recognize the amount of work that would be required, but adding better stats to items from lower level dungeons would go a long way in people trying out more content rather than just sticking to the zones with better loot. I have also noticed that these dungeons are farmed by higher level players on occasion. If the stats on the items were more equal across dungeon tiers, at least the high level farmers would not be monopolizing the better zones.
Faction grinding during main quest - Increase the faction rewards on each quest so that players can opt out so many of them. This is a tedious grind and unless you're privy to the fact that the earlier quests can be done at lower levels, you'll be spending hours of your time grinding on grey mobs. Ideally, it should be sufficient to do a couple quests per tier to get faction with your choice. I don't think this takes away from the game and still keeps the spirit of having to perform service for your faction to gain their trust.
Simple maps - Increase the droprate of simple maps. I leveled slowly, mainly in dungeons, from 1-65 and have seen exactly 1 of these maps. This 1 map dropped in Lasanth when I was too high level to do the map. During the levels where I as eligible to do simple maps, it wasn't affordable for my character to buy maps from listsold. I'm not sure if I was extremely unlucky or if the droprate is just very low. I can confirm that the people who I have been playing with who began on the server recently have never received a simple map as a loot drop.
Tradeskills - as with progression on live EQ, they eventually introduced the auto-combine feature. While I know that that is probably a hard no for the devs of this server, I would request that instead of the skill gains being based on X combines per level that there be a random element to it and a hard cap of how many combines you do without a level. It could work such that if a skill up at your level has a hard limit of 6 combines, you could get a skill up on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or if you're unlucky, you will get it on the 6th. I liked the idea in theory of deviating from the random nature of EQ tradeskill skill ups, but the shards system just feels more grindy than it has to be. The experience rewards for leveling to 250 seem to be negligible, so I don't think it would be gamebreaking to change this from a carpal tunnel nightmare into something more fun for casual players to do.