Seems pretty quiet these days

duncandun

Dalayan Adventurer
Been playing with my aforementioned friend the last few days, around 9-11 PM PST. It's so dead... I don't think I've ever seen it this dead in the years I've been playing on and off. Like an average of ~30-40 players on when we are playing.

I'm going to do my part and try to advocate SOD on various forums and what not, but I just wondered if there has been much discussion about the current state of affairs with the population and shit, and what if anything can be done 'bout it.
 
Much has been said from the player side, but little of it has been acted upon so far. Kedrin has had a couple nice threads about it, so have others come up with good ideas.
 
It's so dead... Like an average of ~30-40 players on when we are playing.

Saw 170 players on on Monday(why Monday!?) EST.
Other than that I can only repeat what I said before several times,its a mystery to me why SoD doesnt have
thousands of players,maybe the newer mmorpg player generation likes to buy their way up with rl money
instead of actually *playing* the game.
And why P99 has ~800 players in the average at peek times is an even bigger mystery for me,EQ
without AAs(tomes,and what not) is most boring.
But I am not worried,my (german) UO home free shard (Vetus Mundus)still has a very active staff despite
the population declined from 150 to now 30 in the average in the last 5 years.Again,this thing is better than
the original,all the OSI content + incredible tradeskill additions and *named* mobs everywhere,even the
economy isnt totally broken with so few players.
 
Saw 170 players on on Monday(why Monday!?) EST.
Other than that I can only repeat what I said before several times,its a mystery to me why SoD doesnt have
thousands of players,maybe the newer mmorpg player generation likes to buy their way up with rl money
instead of actually *playing* the game.
And why P99 has ~800 players in the average at peek times is an even bigger mystery for me,EQ
without AAs(tomes,and what not) is most boring.
But I am not worried,my (german) UO home free shard (Vetus Mundus)still has a very active staff despite
the population declined from 150 to now 30 in the average in the last 5 years.Again,this thing is better than
the original,all the OSI content + incredible tradeskill additions and *named* mobs everywhere,even the
economy isnt totally broken with so few players.

P99 is bigger for several reasons.
A larger playerbase already existing encourages people to start/continue playing. This means a bigger game will usually hold on to a decent population longer than a smaller game. Plus attrition of players, while bad for P99, is not as big a deal to them as it is to SoD due to the percentage of the population each player fills.
People that are looking for the Everquest experience and not similar-but-different will go to P99 more often than not.
Many players looking for a similar-but-different MMO will go to something newer with fancier shinies, and that appears more readily on google searches when looking for free mmo's. I'm not even sure how people find SoD without a current player telling them or seeing it casually mentioned on another EQEmu. Google searches for EQ servers show EQEmu and P99 but not SoD.
The population comparison affects new players: Look at SoD, look at P99, see populations and pick P99 because they want people to play with. Imagine wanting to log in to an MMO for the first time, hitting server select and seeing only 40 characters. If you're looking for a social choice you're adding SoD to the Con list instead of the Pro before you even make it to character select. Go log into P99 during peak hours and you'll see as many people in a popular newbie zone as SoD has in a city (our most populace zones).
SoD has a toxic problem with retired bots. It's become so pervasive I now run into people that feel they cannot progress unless they have access to high tier toons. Guess what happens to people that want to play but groups/raids fill up that role with retired ringers? Attrition. P99 has the population to enforce a No Boxes rule.
(Big one) P99 does not have a years of playing gap between new and old players. Character strength only goes so far because they've only released Kunark according to their webpage. The difference between an SoD new character and top character is staggering.

(Biggest one) The new player experience. Log into SoD and try to find people to group with as you level. It's painful and lonely. The only plus is it doesn't take long IF you get the exp to start flowing. Now log into P99. Leveling takes longer to get to 60 but your leveling zones are populated; you can find groups quickly even without a global chat. You can level in groups from 1 to 60 rather than spend hours sitting lfg because you didn't make a box. And once you hit 60 there's not a mountain of exp to still get.

Oh yes, the boxes. In SoD you'll get told in /ooc -our double edged global chat- when you ask about grouping that you should have made a box. I made mine long ago because of the population problem. P99 has the population to say no boxing allowed; that rule and the population support people being willing to socially group instead of being antisocial. Being new in SoD brings the realization that you won't be great for a long time unless you get picked to fill a spot and jump tiers in a guild.

One silver lining of SoD's character strength disparity is tiers in the raid game. The multiple tiers delay congestion. P99 by design does not have a plethora of raiding content. They have 13 targets/zones if you're 60. The competition there is so toxic the GM's enforce a rotation on many targets. Imagine trying to raid in SoD if there were only 13 zones/targets in the whole game. Now picture it with P99's population size. However once P99 releases Velious a lot of that goes away as Velious will double their raid content.
 
Personally I started playing on the real EQ when it became f2p. Mainly because all the friends I had here have moved on and the ones I can get to try this server usually burn out playing solo. Where as you can hit the f2p eq and have many people on there starting new characters and playing. Plus if you can't find a group you can always hire a merc. With all that being said, I still return here and play every once in a while because I have so much time invested in my character and I don't want to forget about it.
 
Personally I started playing on the real EQ when it became f2p. Mainly because all the friends I had here have moved on and the ones I can get to try this server usually burn out playing solo. Where as you can hit the f2p eq and have many people on there starting new characters and playing. Plus if you can't find a group you can always hire a merc. With all that being said, I still return here and play every once in a while because I have so much time invested in my character and I don't want to forget about it.

Time invested is a huge reason I still play this game. I leveled up during SoD's time of 300+ peak time. Now my characters are very strong which lets me finds a ton of things to do without the need of a group. It would be a different story if I was still in the T1-3 range. Plus I'm a war/clr duo so it's fairly easy to make my own group if I need help. But even then I'll /ooc to let people come exp with me and it will be silent. This year I've been extremely focused on charm farming; I'm 230k from my second supreme in 1 year as a result. I've already made a new toon (which I use my current characters to make leveling way easier because of my earlier points) to help keep me entertained after I buy it since I've done everything in the game except a few tomes and T11-13 raid content.
 
Couldnt agree more. But I feel that SoD is left behing because it is not shown on the eqemu listing.

You have a brand new server (2 months old) with very poor content, but has a progression feeling, fill up to 100 people just because it is shown there and it got the greenstatus
 
ror isnt that bad of a guy just reach out to him to get on the list.
it's unfortunate that it doesn't seem like the 2.5 update will necessarily mean SOD will show up on EQemu? there some kind of bad blood between the guy who runs it and SOD?
 
it's unfortunate that it doesn't seem like the 2.5 update will necessarily mean SOD will show up on EQemu? there some kind of bad blood between the guy who runs it and SOD?

There were posts a year or so ago from admins stating that not being on the list was due to eq emu not being willing to have us due to our ancient client version. I'm too lazy to search and link, but it was said that once the version was updated and the username stuff was resolved, SoD would display on the list. I'm just paraphrasing what I remember reading so I could be wrong... (I've also heard about the bad blood thing, but I heard it as rumor.)
 
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There were posts a year or so ago from admins stating that not being on the list was due to eq emu not being willing to have us due to our ancient client version. I'm too lazy to search and link, but it was said that once the version was updated and the username stuff was resolved, SoD would display on the list. I'm just paraphrasing what I remember reading so I could be wrong... (I've also heard about the bad blood thing, but I heard it as rumor.)
Ah. Yeah, I read that too. Then I read some more recent stuff and I think Zaela or some other dev in the 2.5 forum was saying the update to 2.5 wont necessarily change anything on that side. Made me sad:(.
 
Ah. Yeah, I read that too. Then I read some more recent stuff and I think Zaela or some other dev in the 2.5 forum was saying the update to 2.5 wont necessarily change anything on that side. Made me sad:(.

Cross your fingers because we need it...
 
I always thought that 2.5 got us features in-game but 3.0 was the change that makes it EQEmu compatible but I could very well be mistaken
 
I always thought that 2.5 got us features in-game but 3.0 was the change that makes it EQEmu compatible but I could very well be mistaken
I checked the 2.5 forums and read one of the early threads on it, which said it was only network related changes and sounded like it was going to be a quick release. That thread was from over a year ago, and based on some of the recent posts in that forum section, tons of stuff is getting updated not just networking code. It looks like 2.5 might really be 3.0? I guess only an admin could tell us what it would take to get into the eqemu listing, and if 2.5 truly is 3.0...
 
it's unfortunate that it doesn't seem like the 2.5 update will necessarily mean SOD will show up on EQemu? there some kind of bad blood between the guy who runs it and SOD?
some current members of sod beleive he doesnt want us on the emu list because ti takes players away from his servers
 
Sod is mostly driven by dual boxing players from what I've seen over my years here. Progression is dependent on you having a 2nd box (be it borrowed, or self-raised) in order to progress most content. When population was high, this wasn't an issue however when population plummets, it works against growth. It discourages social outreach

One fix for this would be to actually create kitable content; which SoD lacks greatly. Creatures summon a lot on SoD, which I understand the need, but I don't agree with how widespread it is. Too many things have devastating range abilities or are simply unsnarable/rootable. No one would say awesome loot should come from kitable creatures, but i don't see the argument for removing them, all it does is encourage exp leaching which is detrimental to our players because it makes the game feel less engaging, and more like a chore.

Another deterrent I've found Is broken quests, broken content, etc; which is actually quite prominent.

I've seen alot of bugfixes, and it seems like the server is progressing. However, with volunteer developers you should expect to see pretty steady turnover, and with the standard ethics the dev's / gms used to follow of "if it's not yours, don't touch it" has left many lowbie/mid level zones broken, with no end in sight. Nothing is more discouraging than seeing broken content when you join a new server ; it feels like hamfisting against a brick wall. With so many free-to-play games nowadays, it's easy to game flop (which isn't what we want).

Old players get frustrated at broken end game content, but old players will always check back, new players that write SoD off as bug ridden and broken are far less likely to ever return (especially considering the substantial download required)

I see the newbie quests being added as good for growth, but i genuinely think what SoD needs is a massive offensive on bugs. I know there's work required here, but considering how happy to help our playerbase is the project workload could be drastically mitigated by just pooling the community.

Just my 2cp.


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Examples would be:

Oggok mines (and all the quest involved within).
Vah starting quests, specifically the war; which often results in fractured quest states;
Cult (newport sewars) progression ( cleric is known to result in issues);

Ebonblade (remove this please, unless you really did fix it)
Most of the miniquests for Dragons/Giants loot is horrid compared to cheap BoE's: (speaking of sentries quest in WW; and the quest to destroy the statues in Stormkeep)
Othmir's in WFC are still bugged (two healer cracheks from pre-MQ days when he was just a rare spawn on roamers;
Now that the bug that caused zone instability from massive pets being summoned, we should consider adding the war content back to HMAL; and unbreaking all the content from the vah outpost.

All of these have just been written off as unimportant, but honestly, that says something to new players and it's not the sort of thing you would want to say to encourage players to stay and dedicate their time to your content.


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This being said, I am eager to investigate mielech's lab.
 
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