You could all stop being greedy little goblins too. I don't ever see the point in keeping stuff rented when someone could potentially use the item. You could trade items to other clans for items you want. You could sell them. You could donate them to some newb. It's exactly reasons like that that people get discouraged and annoyed at the current equipment system. People like you hoard all the gear on your alts and nothing loads so they don't see the point in playing. I get that you like to flex that you rent your wyrmslayer and shadowbane in your girdle, but that's only making you look like a tool.
Or... You could remove the item limits. Then it doesn't matter what Corey or anyone else does in regards to hoarding. Ilya and Corey have, historically speaking, LONG been known/disliked for their hoarding of eq and information. Why are they my biggest allies in the desire to take the eq hoarding away from them? The bottom line is that Corey isn't doing anything illegal, or even wrong by hoarding eq. Rather than being in one clan when there were a bunch of people in it, it's now on a few people and their many alts, because less people that Corey plays with are actually playing. The net gain/loss of eq to the average player is zero. Removing item limits lets people who don't usually see eq see and use it. Right now, you can't even tell if you've solved something fun, because it's already gone, and it's likely to stay gone. That sucks, and is the sole reason I haven't even bothered to explore some of the new zones. Everything good is gone, so I don't even know if I've solved anything.
I agree with Bro’s post as well. In the current state of Arctic, all you need is legend characters and a set with decent bonuses and you can do all content in the game as long as you pop your dps some +dams. I can think of at least one set thats easy locate thats +4 dams. With ranks and 28 str, +10 dam is easily attainable without any hardships endured. I have been playing the game casually for about 1 to 2 months with basically two naked characters in a group of players who are all basically naked and we can do whatever content we want at the moment. If limit one items became unlimited, The game would just be far too easy. And a game that is that easy is like reading a book in which you already know the ending. I’m not going to sit through 1000 pages of reading when I already know exactly what’s going to happen. That doesn’t interest me. If I wanted easy I would go play World of Warcraft where the only investment you need is time to be elite.
I do however agree with Jorakes point that spell loads are Absurdly low and makes the process of legending caster classes far too dependent on RNG. Im personally a fan of skill/intelligence over RNG.
I also agree in part that certain sets should be unlimited and relatively easy to pop. I like to think of them as ‘starter sets’ in which if you dt or get pked, you can get a decent set quickly instead of just being screwed over and quit. Ive recommended to imms to bring back the sharkskin set. Maybe armaboro should load 2-3 pieces instead of 1 per run. Maybe the ivory set should load more frequently. That way the staff can help the players at the bottom or returning players without adding to the power creep.
This viewpoint confuses me. One one hand, you're saying that all you need is time to become elite (being able to do whatever content you want definitely counts as being "elite"), then, in that same hand, you're saying that you wouldn't play if all you needed to invest was time... If you can do whatever content you want with the trash items you say you have, then what difference does it make if you have the fun items, too?
I'm not a higher level immortal, and I don't currently have much more information that any other player would have. That said, the game is fighting 2 battles. One is the inherent power creep. The group limit being reduced over time is one way to combat this. Lots of things have lead to power creep in the game. Most recently reincarnation, but most frequent is new creation content with high end fancy items. So while the staff wants to manage the power creep curve, creators want to make cooler items then ever before. I am very much on board for thinking of cool ideas to manage equipment and the decay cycle/system, as to me this is both the most fun part of the game (something cool loaded!) and the least fun part of the game (managing decays, especially when I can't always manage my play times). Step 1 of any solution is outlining how you want something to be. You've mostly done this step. The next step is outlining how to accomplish this in a cohesive system that works for the game. While you have numbered 6 things, 1,2,3,4,6 all are specifically related to character power. The problem with making things too easy, is no one will care to bother playing the game. If there is ZERO challenge, why play? It's a glorified chat room and will quickly die. So you can't just make the most elite items (wyrmslayer etc) unlimited, make acid mist and stun guild. You'll start with numbers that you now have in the late wipe and probably maintain those few, but you'll have lost many people who like the challenge. Now, this isn't an all or nothing scenario. We can think of ways to make elements of this work. It may be possible to have more than 1 of traditionally limit 1 items, but not make it unlimited. But you still have to find a way to manage the balance of the overall game and what that does for early game / mid game / late game content. This leads into the 2nd battle the game itself is fighting. Keeping players/characters motivated to keep playing. If you make things too easy and make 2/3 of the game trivial, it isn't enjoyable for anyone and just serves to make it an unnecessary grind. When offering big types of changes, try to think of ways to implement it for the entire playerbase, not just your experience, and from a standpoint of keeping the game challenging while still providing a carrot (reason to play, strive to play more) for players to keep playing. Currently the carrot is trying to get limit 1 items or rare spells, or highest rank achievable, but there are other ways to implement the carrot. I think this administration is very receptive to ideas, but they need to be nuanced and seriously thought out to be considered.
Regarding your #5, playing more characters. I can say I personally don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. A good many people don't want more then 2 right now. For me, one of the things I miss most about "old" Arctic is how the social part of the game has significantly decreased. There's less shout communications / fun shenanigans going on, and very rarely do you ever see random pick up groups occurring. Adding more characters per player reduces this even more.
Just my feedback. Again, I'm not a high level imm and I don't know much more than anyone else posting in this thread, but I bet I'm right. If you want actual feedback, you need to post more detailed thoughts on how each of your suggestions would be implemented and the effects it would have on the game itself, other players. If you make an earnest effort to do that, you'll get a higher immortal's attention and either public or private feedback. I can promise you they are interested in hearing complete concepts about gear / spells / power creep. Posting a wishlist of things you want is nice and has generated some excellent discussion, but we need to get at least a step further if there's any hope for implementation.
Personally (and I understand that this doesn't speak for everyone, or even the majority) I think you're wrong about the "carrot". To me, the goal is to enjoy solving zones, exploring places, and loading eq, whether or not I keep, sell, give away, or drain it. I don't care in the slightest if every single other person playing knows how to load every piece of eq from a zone I have not yet solved. My goal is to solve that zone, and enjoy doing it. If a zone loads nightmare and I need nightmare, I'd like to be able to do it. If I had nightmare, and that same zone loads nightmare again, I'll sell or give it away. I don't care who else has the spell, it doesn't affect me in the slightest. Same goes for eq. If I want to play by myself, or with my friends, it just doesn't matter who else has what. There is no pk, so the competition for equipment is just annoying. Corey has what he has, and no one is going to take it from him for a couple reasons. First, and foremost, he's good at pk. If you can kill him, you better believe he can kill you back. Second, it helps when Corey is bored and decides to use some of that eq to speed up zones for random groups. I know this, because he's been in mine a couple times. I'm not terribly interested in the social aspect of the game. I have a few people that I like playing with, but, being able to play by myself when/have the time to play is far more attractive. I shout for groups several times a week, and almost never get any responses. I play a tank/healer, know how to lead most of the zones in the game, rarely get lost or mass rip unless people aren't paying attention (another drawback of the social aspect of the game, people have lives, I do not) and there are a couple people who tell to me asking if I'm zoning and have room. That's it. The social aspect is playing with people you already play with.
