Field Report - PoP

So, logged in after servers came up, went to fighting mobs for discos (I don't know why I still do this) damage was non existent. Examining gear they had managed somehow to mess up all infused/reforged gear.

I didn't play beta, but it feels sort of sparse and disjointed that is, I don't really see a direction to got besides randomly scattered quests here and there.

I did play for a little bit and did one quest, but was too tired to continue especially spending all that while getting it so I could actually fight mobs.

This is the first time I have seen gear get screwed up so bad at the start.

The servers came back up around noon and update to fix gear issues was not done until 6

Logging in to play more see how it goes this time.

 

I see no hype anywhere and apparently the population hasnt moved at all if the server status on their front page is worth a damn.

Fallen Gate still has the most activity, despite a brand new expansion being released. WHAT?

 

There's no excitement for the expansion even on their own forums. The most I've seen folks be able to muster is: It doesn't suck as bad as you think it does.

Outside of the EQ2 bubble, the game barely exists. DBG has burned down whatever goodwill they had with fansites and reporting sites, and are clearly continuing the unwillingness of SOE to advertise.

 

I checked server status at Game Server Status | Daybreak Game Company several times yesterday afternoon, and the only server I saw at "high" was Maj'Dul. Fallen Gate was not the highest at any of my checkpoints. I saw 12 instances of PoP on Halls of Fate; someone reported 15 instances on Maj'Dul.
This morning, the four US Live servers and Thurgadin are at "medium," all others, including Fallen Gate, are at "low."

 

OMG ITS A REVOLUTION!

A BRAND NEW EXPANSION AND TWO SERVERS REPORTS A HIGH POPULATION; TIME TO CALL THE PRESS!

Lets get the hype train moving

 

Hehe! Only one server wast at "high," not two.

Checking server status again several times this morning (because I'm curious like that) shows Thurgadin now at "high" - the only one.

 

Well... low could be one player, Medium could be two... and high could be three!

 

I prefer to judge things by forum activity. At this time, there should be all kinds chatter.

There isn't. Same was true for beta - no where the activity that one would expect.

I think after getting burned, especially over the last 2 expansions, a whole lot of people are in wait and see mode.

 

Even though I'm not big on Discord myself (at least super populated ones with lots of activity, I do use it for chatting with friends), I do think it's fair to say that the EQ2 Discord is at least partially responsible for some of the drop in forum activity the last few months (obviously some of it can be attributed to attrition as well).

 

Huge solo sig line grind before you get to anything that you can group, before you can get to ascension levels. I just wonder why they do things this way. Getting players in an MMO would seem to be about getting people to play 'together' in groups doing basic things, but we are discouraged from doing that until you do all this solo work.

 

Hours played is the current metric

 

For what it's worth, you can get to the Ascension trainer after finishing the second quest in the Signature line. However, that still requires getting mostly through at least one faction line (for access to the Artisan realm), so yeah, it's a fair amount of basically solo play. Things flow pretty well but that flow is *required*, which breaks the precedent of being able to jump straight into instances if you wanted.

I'm enjoying the expansion, but I'll admit that it is in large part because I'm much more chill about it...I don't feel the urgency to get things done, I'll do it when I do it.

(I also spent a lot of time in beta, so I'm enjoying playing without scrutinizing every bit of dialogue and pausing play to report bugs and upload screenshots and wipe and redo things. It's nice to just clickclickclick through quest text sometimes. <grin> )

 

You can't use forum activity as a metric for EQ2 interest. They're so toxic most people I know avoid them.

When I was on last night there were 21 instances of PoP on Skyfire. This morning at 6am PST there were 6 instances. Not bad, but I'm betting those numbers will decrease real fast once people have run 1 char throught the sig questline.

 

Forum activity is historically a small percent of a game's population, and I believe that is still true for EQ2. So if you drop from 100 regular posters over the course of 2 years to 10 regular posters, it reflects a corresponding decrease in the game population.

The word toxic gets thrown out a lot, but EQ2 forums are actually quite mild in comparison to some others.

Though I do agree, the forums for EQ2 are not a good judge of interest from the market as a whole, as in that regard, there really isn't much outside of those who already play, if they realize EQ2 hasn't already been shut down.

And like the low, medium, high server status indicators (rather than values) the number of instances also isn't a clear indicator of population. At least once the number required to spin up a new instance has been reduced, and all it takes is one person to keep an existing instance open.

 

Thankfully its not that bad. Been sick for the past couple days. I will admit I played A LOT today, but I was able to get all three factions done and I need 4 more sig quests and I have everything completed. Total play time, probably around 20 hours. Mind you though, i play a conj, so for lower dps, adjust accordingly.

PS: Do the Pakiat line second, that line will suck the life out of you. Yzra is the easiest, imho, and Vahla is not bad.

 

So if folks are hitting level 110 and completing the signature line (which is basically the content) in the first 2 days, what is left for the next year?

Dungeon grinds only go so far, I would think...

 

Heh, I did the Pakiat line first precisely because it is the most time-consuming (lots of flying all the way over here then aaaallll the way back there and then aaaaaalllllllll the way back again ).

 

Don't worry, in 4 or 5 months you'll be able to do the exact same dungeons again only with more hp and slightly higher stat gear rewards. Isn't that exciting?!