Or is something else going on? Because I can't remember the last time I saw only 122 people online during peak hours. It was eerily quiet the last couple of nights I've played. I'm not moving to Quarm either, one because I like this server, but two because Quarm's developer has a lengthy history of burning himself out and abandoning projects full stop, and even though I know he has a passion for Everquest, I'm still not convinced that he's in it for the long journey.
I think most PQ players came from elsewhere, with only a small number from TAKP. I actually find what they are trying to do on EQA more appealing, especially when you're not fighting for mob camps ever. So, both new servers are taking some members of TAKP I'm sure when TAKP guilds aren't raiding. NAG hasn't had any raids since Thursday for example but do tonight. The new servers are nice little distractions in the downtime.
I said I'd never play on a single box server and restart, but curiosity got the better of me, and I could never have accounted for the nostalgia factor, and actually seeing populated zones. As a result, I happily put my foot into my mouth, and admit I've been playing there, and basically haven't touched TAKP since. I know of a couple other people there from TAKP, but not sure on actual numbers. I'd say the vast majority of players are from p99 from what I can tell, and how quickly the p99 vernacular and prices have become the norm of the server. As to whether the server will have longevity or not will remain to be seen.
peak population seems to have gone from ~600 characters to ~400 characters according to this eqemu chart some people still blame the removal of /who all zone change maybe it's just that most players only log in for raids these days, since everyone's 15th alt has maxed out their AAs by now
Per that site, it doesnt look like this is an issue specific to TAKP but more of a broader drop in playerbase across all the eq emus.
I was curious if there's been any talk among the guilds to consider more of a server based approach to back-flagging, mostly to help with new player retention?
Guilds will typically help with powerleveling and flagging if they join. I think most guilds don't have a raid requirement at this point. Can just join the raids to get flagged, then group with other guildies essentially.
I mean flagging to the elementals is one thing with a backflag cycle, but having new chars make it to time with many of the current time guilds being unable to field forces for MAoE, RC, etc. is going to be a challenge. And will new players be happy just getting tossed on a shared guild toon to participate but not do so on their own chars?
I can't comment on what other guilds do, but any of our members will earn DKP, no matter what character they are playing, so that when they do get into Time (or EP's/etc), they can spend that DKP on their own characters. It does take time to get new characters flagged. Its also been done so many times by raid leaders in piecemeal and full runs, I'm sure raid leaders are kind of tired of it. I guess I'm not following you entirely.
I mean, how are you raiding time content if you can't do elemental raid encounters for backflagging? we get bigger turnouts in NAG for backflag raids than for potime heh, it seems people never wanna miss out getting their new chars and alts flagged an option devs might conisder would be 85/15 rules and/or time phased quinetessence drops from phase3 as a QoL and player retention bone but it would also be nice to get some other QoL fixes too while we're at it...
I think Quarm is part of it, but I also will echo what others have said about raid logging. Once you are max AA and have a bunch of time gear it can feel a little difficult to find the urge to log in. I can’t raid at the moment, so pretty much I log in and check for rare old world spawns. Since that’s what dozens of other people do, and because many are time geared and can trio the old targets, I never find them up. So then I just log out. Also important to remember that the end Luclin/ start of PoP era was the most populated TAKP has ever been. If you are comparing the population now to that era, it’s going to seem shrunken. If you compare the population and activity to the kunark/velious era, the population is still larger and more active. I remember playing during the Velious era and you could go 6-10 hours without a single person talking in alliance.
I think PoTime raiding creates quite a bit of burnout as well (and thus people stop playing). Doing P1 over and over again. The difficulty level of PoTime makes the raid feel more like a job to some people then a game.
I've heard it phrased in many ways as 'burnout' and there's a reality to that when all of the guilds were pushing through to progress, but I agree completely that many that were heavily active moved on or are much less active at non-raid times. Those that 'beat the game' in downing Quarm have seen the furthest we can go on this server. From the sounds of it, Temerity and NAG will be fine, especially if they're getting turnout for elemental gods and backflags! On the other hand, Paragon, Destiny, and Imperium likely made it at the height of server activity, but with lower active numbers, could really be struggling to maintain a force to repeat what they previously did. I'm not even sure how some of them could achieve Earth B access now, let alone Ginto and RC. I believe all guilds (not sure about Temerity and Imperium) are still actively recruiting? Looking at it from a recruitment aspect, it's going to be hard for guilds to actively recruit and retain if they can't push through content they used to be able to. Back-flagging for most guilds seems to be between 3-6mo now. There's nothing scheduled currently in the back-flagging spreadsheet. The difference compared to previous expansions is that it didn't take a whole raid force to acquire flags to be able to access content. There's also elements of 'loyalty' to the original guild tag. Destiny, AG are in that boat. On the other hand, are we looking to see a server that will end up like many other EQ emu guilds where we end up with 2-3 main guilds that over time dissolve and reform and shuffle, or will we retain the current format with all still being in the rotations even though they can't necessarily do that content anymore and people relying on the kindness of the guilds to do backflagging periodically offering out flags? And will those guilds capable of getting into time still lockout non-members from Earth B access and elemental gods? It doesn't affect me a lot personally, but with the population down, I think these are questions the existing population has to keep in mind to help maintain healthy server numbers without newcomers getting discouraged and leaving prematurely because of the pop flag structure.
I think this is part of it. The other new servers have some nice QoL as well as being *new*. The raw TAKP client can log into EQA without any changes at all. That makes it real easy to just select one server over the other. I wouldn't be surprised if more servers pop up and compound the issues here. Perhaps some things can be (re)considered to help here for a more healthy server population. Stuff like /who all zone that doesn't affect gameplay at all, it just helps people find groups faster or find empty camps faster. I think perhaps its time to consider very minor stuff like this. Stuff that doesn't affect game mechanics. Stuff like the Luclin Casino with DE clicky illusion rewards, etc.
/who all zone being gone is honestly a pretty big deal. It's so much harder to get anything started now without it. Interaction these days is mostly limited to guild-only stuff because that's the easiest /who to check. It had the effect of making everything much more lonely/quiet.
Astute, that's a good take. Numbers are down and the crunch is on. Destiny intends to start a backflagging push in the new year, and we'll see how it goes! That said, anyone looking to meaningfully take part in real advancement and the EP experience through to Time is encouraged to join us in this effort, either guild tagged or not. It's going to take community effort for the rest of us to move forward and Destiny is looking to push past Phase 3 of PoTime at long last.
If it's a broader issue, then why? What is so special about Quarm that it's able to draw numbers from every other EQEmu server, including the most popular ones, TAKP, TGC and all variants of P99? I hope this isn't literal. The last thing I'd want to see is Quarms prices skyrocket to 1mil+ for White Dragon Scales and see a massive waiting list of Bard alts butting heads with each other over who is going to get their Epic next.
Worth noting that this is still the only EQEMU server that has mac support. PQ explicitly doesn't (although they probably could). This is not true for anyone playing on a Mac. Given that this is a recreation of EQMac, I think that's an important thing that will keep at least some people here. Although I do find it somewhat ironic how much flack I get in-game for playing on Al'Kabor on a Mac....
I said TAKP client, not EQmac client. And EQA admins did say they would try to get it to work on Mac. You need a launcher with server specific settings basically for any server.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here? TAKP is EQMac. Thats the native system it was intended for, it’s a native Mac client that people have worked to allow Windows to use, with some errors. It’s right there in the name: Al’Kabor was the Mac server. Saying EQA supports “the TAKP client” (a Mac client) without any changes when you cant connect from a Mac is... an interesting statement to say the least. At some point, EQA may support playing on a Mac, but it currently does not.
I wasn't aware that the original Mac client could be used without a launcher. I thought a launcher was required. Just like replacing the dll's was required to play on PC.
FWIW, TAKP's Mac compatibility isn't a great selling point anymore. The last MacOS version that TAKP worked with came out in 2018. Apple doesn't support it anymore. Forevermore, new Macs will require weird OS hackery to work with TAKP.
This is why you buy an old Mac to play this game. 10.14 came stock on 2010 Macs, so those or anything earlier will run the game just fine.
