Player recruiting.

F

Fogged2

Dalayan Beginner
So I came back to SoD after 2 years of life getting in the way. One thing I have noticed is that there is an issue with a lack of maintained players coming into the game.

As a new player (highest level is 39), I have noticed a lot of things. Mostly how empty the game is compared to 2 years ago. There are often 1 or 2 people to group with, but that only lasts till about 20 or so. After that, its kind of empty.( You do see alts from time to time, but then you do see their level 65 characters running behind them, and most of the time I get no response from them what so ever regarding any type of grouping.) And I am assuming its because people are quitting around this point. Most of the people I have come across that actually tread through the thickness of it are 2 boxing to do it. Which isn't bad, but I don't think its helping the situation either.

One thing I have noticed in other mmorpg's is that in EverQuest and EverQuest II more than half the population is maxed level, and want nothing to do with lower level players unless they are related or friends of guildies. This is a major problem. Coming from a player that started EverQuest I in 1999, everyone is pretty much elitist (and I say that lightly). Now I can understand not wanting to help lower levels coming into the game, because there is a huge chance they might just disappear and all your hard work meant nothing. Due to it being F2P.

Which leads me to think, there needs to be some type of interaction between the two sides (lowbie and high levels), that benefits them both. Possibly even making some friends, and getting more recruits worth having around. I honestly detest seeing so many guild recruit threads only asking for certain classes, not giving much of the end game seekers much to go on to even put forth the work to climb to level 65 and get AA'd. Or even downloading the game for that matter. So, my assumption is, the players just playing for the fun of it are finding it not to be like the EverQuest they knew, or the game they thought it was going to be due to it feeling empty for a major chunk of the games progression.

For the record, I haven't even tried to get in a guild, due to every guild I see, requires 65+, or at least , level 65. Which worries me about the endgame life I am going to have, but I am patient and hoping for the best. I have already gotten my father, my fiance, and an old EQI buddy to join me, and we find Shards of Dalaya very tasteful, and I personally think this is how EQI should of been back in the day. Which is my drive to type this forum thread. I would very much like this emu to succeed.

Just by 2 copper.


Edit*)
Those who want to start a guild, regardless of level, and perhaps get some type of beginner progression rolling, just PM Ludis in game, he will check your name off the list. :]
 
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Fogged2 said:
So I came back to SoD after 2 years of life getting in the way. One thing I have noticed is that there is an issue with a lack of maintained players coming into the game.

As a new player (highest level is 39), I have noticed a lot of things. Mostly how empty the game is compared to 2 years ago. There are often 1 or 2 people to group with, but that only lasts till about 20 or so. After that, its kind of empty.( You do see alts from time to time, but then you do see their level 65 characters running behind them, and most of the time I get no response from them what so ever regarding any type of grouping.) And I am assuming its because people are quitting around this point. Most of the people I have come across that actually tread through the thickness of it are 2 boxing to do it. Which isn't bad, but I don't think its helping the situation either.

One thing I have noticed in other mmorpg's is that in EverQuest and EverQuest II more than half the population is maxed level, and want nothing to do with lower level players unless they are related or friends of guildies. This is a major problem. Coming from a player that started EverQuest I in 1999, everyone is pretty much elitist (and I say that lightly). Now I can understand not wanting to help lower levels coming into the game, because there is a huge chance they might just disappear and all your hard work meant nothing. Due to it being F2P.

Which leads me to think, there needs to be some type of interaction between the two sides (lowbie and high levels), that benefits them both. Possibly even making some friends, and getting more recruits worth having around. I honestly detest seeing so many guild recruit threads only asking for certain classes, not giving much of the end game seekers much to go on to even put forth the work to climb to level 65 and get AA'd. Or even downloading the game for that matter. So, my assumption is, the players just playing for the fun of it are finding it not to be like the EverQuest they knew, or the game they thought it was going to be due to it feeling empty for a major chunk of the games progression.

For the record, I haven't even tried to get in a guild, due to every guild I see, requires 65+, or at least , level 65. Which worries me about the endgame life I am going to have, but I am patient and hoping for the best. I have already gotten my father, my fiance, and an old EQI buddy to join me, and we find Shards of Dalaya very tasteful, and I personally think this is how EQI should of been back in the day. Which is my drive to type this forum thread. I would very much like this emu to succeed.

Just by 2 copper.
Click to expand...


There are some guilds actually that do take lower characters, though they are indeed few and far between. Most of the established guilds do not take lower characters for several very good reasons, the foremost among them being their focus on raiding. Raiding is limited to 18, and lower level characters are pretty much prohibited from coming along due to particular rules. In addition since a character must be "actively helping" to even loot in xp zones (pristine items), you're not going to be really hanging out with higher level characters in xp groups, even if they have the room. The rules get fuzzy up in your 50's, but I can assure you no one is going to take the risk. Essentially joining a raid guild on a lower level character would have you doing pretty much exactly the same thing you would be were you unguilded. Just the way it is at the moment.


There are many more reasons than just that of course. There's the time investment required to get a character up to par, skill level, etc.

You're also not going to see much in the way of people getting recruited low or new 65 by higher guilds for the simple reason that backgearing is a gigantic pain in the ass, and no one wants to do it.

Some more interaction encouragement would be excellent, but I really don't know how it would be done.

On the upside, once you do get to 65, you'll find things are a bit more active. I would suggest watching for people farming who hold leech groups, or learning the popular higher level farming spots and asking if you can tag along. Most people are more than willing to let you hang out and just get xp, and you can develop some good connections that way. Also, go lfg in ooc alot, eventually you'll develop enough of a rep to get an invite to some guild, or app and get into one.

There was an adept guild last I checked. Frenzy, not sure if they are active still, you may try them. If not, why don't you start one? Way way back when I started there were some kinda family guilds. Huge range of levels, some of them still play, although now they're much much higher level. All you need is 10 people present, then petition. If you are really short on people let me know and ill log on a bank alt or something and help you start it, but it shouldn't be a problem finding the people.
 
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If its a family guild I will normally make a guild with a smile and a promise that there will be 10 members within a day or so.
 
Fogged2,

My wife and I just recently started to play as well, we are slowly gearing up through the quests in Oggok, and Grobb as a Shadow Knight, and a Shaman (neither of us wish to 2-box) we are only around level 10, but if you want to group up just name your time and place and we will do our best to be there!
 
Hit me up too, I got a powerful level 2 monk (Jhon) and his close friend, a level 1 shaman, I plan on dual boxing.
 
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Well reading all the posts you guys give me hope and I feel a little more welcome, so thanks for that. As for the the first reply, thanks for the useful info, it does mean a lot. Now as for the player interaction, EQII did a mentor system, which im not sure could be done and if it could, would be worth the trouble. But its an idea.

As far as gearing goes, yes I know back gearing is a pain, wich is why most games make armor sets and weapon sets u can grind for that are not nearly as good as the stuff you get from the raids them selves, but are like -2 under-equivalent. I am not sure if that has already been thought of or discussed, but its still another idea. I just think there are ways and it would be more beneficial to figure those out instead of mass advertisement, because I don't think advertisement is the big problem, or the big solution. (But i'm ignorant to begin with.).

As far as the people who said they would like to join us, that's great. The only problem is, me and my friends pretty much make up a full group. (If I can get some promises on you guys being able to play every night at a certain evening time, we would not even care about dropping some boxes for your characters. I will log in and contact anyone who is interested in starting up a new guild, maybe get the show on the road for some newcomers.

You can contact me by giving a tel to Ludis, or Awage. If I get some semi-dedicated people to make a guild, I would gladly do it. First I need to find you ghosts and cross some streams.

EDIT*) We are also all american, or fall within the american time zones, mainly central.
 
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delphwind24 said:
Fogged2,

My wife and I just recently started to play as well, we are slowly gearing up through the quests in Oggok, and Grobb as a Shadow Knight, and a Shaman (neither of us wish to 2-box) we are only around level 10, but if you want to group up just name your time and place and we will do our best to be there!
Click to expand...

Next time leave me some names to contact ><! Hope to get in touch with ya.
 
Count me in if you want to get a guild of some sorts going. I had the most fun in EQ1 just leveling with people and going to random zones just because they were there.

I can't guarantee play times nowadays, but I can log on somewhat frequently as long as I don't get wife aggro.
 
Just a few improvements are needed imo.
With the patcher you have to save it to the eq directory(or at least i do) then specify what folder to patch, then point it at eqgame.exe seems like a simple check of its own directory would make this alot less clunky. (This isn't HUGE or anything but would go along way to making it seem alot more legit)
Edit: also if you could build in a way to detect multiple cores off the bat in the patcher and auto select number 1 if there are would also clear up alot of newbie confusion and also play into making it seem alot more legit and streamlined.

Edit Edit: Make downloading Mumble optional its by far the longest taking file we download from the patcher and 2/3rds the server doesn't even use it.

If it is at all possible a better starting UI or atleast some way to be like hey hit h when you see this mob, I stuck my friend on a new account to get him to play after setting it all up myself and he had no idea what he was doing never having played EQ1.

Anyway just 2 small ideas to make getting started that much easier.
 
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Another idea to motivate the high end to help the low end get a foothold, and i know this is more GM time but (HELLO NEW GMs), Just have a dev admin anyone really who can do it, pop around and see if a higher end is helping a lower end or hear about it ect something to this effect, and offer a small amount of fame or some token clickie (you know how we love our clickies).

Things like when that one person would just give away lots of droppable gear in DB /gu comes to mind, That one paly whos always going 65 Paly LFG to help lower levels, Things like this i think deserve to be rewarded.

Or just moments ago i saw in ooc some newbie asking for help killing a quest mob in everfrost, someone responded and logged in there other char to help this person. That deserves some kinda incentive so it happens more often.
 
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Newer player here. Been playing about a month.

I think the biggest problem with being a new player is getting into the higher levels and finding... nothing to do. 65 is a brick wall when it comes to progressing for a new player. Leveling up was fine. At lower levels, you can actually solo dark blue XP mobs at a rate of more than 1 every five minutes with little danger to yourself if you play it right, and the groups are willing to take just about anyone when they do form. Not so at 65, since soloing effectively for most classes requires tons of gear and AAs which, well, you won't have as a new player. The mobs just become too tough. So then I look for groups which I can't find.

I don't know if this is because I picked the "leper class" (I'm a mage) or simply because the population of the server is xenophobic and/or elitist and doesn't want me because I don't have an uber character already, but I've spent literally about 10 hours LFG in the past few days and found nothing at all. Almost every single one of my 18 AAs since I've hit 65 has come from slooow treasure map groups that pretty much took pity on me since I'm not really that effective with my 63 pets and slow mana regen, and according to the wiki information won't be able to really do anything about that without being able to find groups and raids in the first place.
 
When you are lfg, are you ooc-ing for a group, or just sitting there lfg. Where are you trying to hunt for xp? I can think of a few places you could probably go and solo db mobs. Look me up. :) If I'm not already up to something, I might even drag you somewhere and kill you.. err.. help you get xp. *whistles innocently*
 
I use both ooc and /lfg on. I try anywhere with dark blue mobs but most of them hit for 160-180+ a hit which is too hard for my 63 mage pets to take, even with the 64 mage pet heal spell. It's pretty much impossible to solo any xp at a respectable rate and like I said, no groups.
 
Zapple said:
I use both ooc and /lfg on. I try anywhere with dark blue mobs but most of them hit for 160-180+ a hit which is too hard for my 63 mage pets to take, even with the 64 mage pet heal spell. It's pretty much impossible to solo any xp at a respectable rate and like I said, no groups.
Click to expand...

Boxing is the way to go,Cleric if you hate button mashing all the time,Druid if you want to get
the most out of your playtime,forget Shammies(sucker healers and even more button mashing).
 
Well, what you are saying isn't much different from when I was a newby.
That depressing reality stated, there are things you can do about it.
1. find a guild. People like to play with people they know over other considerations.
2. Think about boxing a healer. Most mages I know do, to supplement pet heals.
3. Players often do maps for alts or new guild healers. Look for empty spots because many will include a class archetype to prevent a rot.
4. If you have the cash, maps used to pay for themselves up to D maps. At D, you may lose money.
5. I soloed a lot of hartuks and crap in sorcs lab for gear cash.
 
I too first logged on about two years ago - raised a character to 36 or so and then stopped. I probably went 20 months or so without playing. When i came back, naturally there were those feelings of "o this isn't what it used to be." Follow this link for a post concerning lvl 30 "stagnation."

SoD is different. But honestly, its way more alike than say my childhood town or parts of Eastern Europe (in the past 2 years). What Im saying is the game world changes slowly and the real world changes quickly. We come to game worlds like SoD for an escape. When the slightest thing is different here we lament (because lord knows so much has changed in our ordinary lives). But i argue its not so bad. This game actually isn't bound to immutably and consistency. Thats a good thing. If one wants the same thing, they aught to investigate single player games (such as Planescape: Torment) and enjoy a good storyline that doesn't change per ce.

My suggestion to you is: don't reroll a character. stick with the 30 leveler you got. Don't get pushed around - don't feel inadequate. Everyone still speaks in /ooc on an equal ground. Not everyone boxs, etc. --- Maintain your character! --- This way you wont feel "searching" in the low levels. Rather you will be "reaching" to where everyone else is at. Do this and you may come back to SoD safely.

I have a lvl 47 Ranger, named Dibbs. Send me a tell and ill help you with some quests.
 
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