The Hidden Forest

Probably some of the most challenging parts of THF are involved with getting flagged into zones. HoH flags and VT flags are weeks of effort and have some of the more intricately worked out quests in the forest.

So now Luclin drops VT tokens every time. I realize that for a LONG LONG TIME Luclin was not up and VT tokens were rare drops from other boss mobs. Well Luclin is up now, so like other zones, I'd suggest that only Luclin drops VT tokens and that they are rare, not every time drops. Maybe 5% drop rate or something.

Anyway, much of the game's challenges come from advancement to new zones, it wrecks THF if everyone can simply get a VT token and skip all those challenges of Sleepers, Air, VT, DSK1, the FFFFFing Reaper, Chaos etc.

I'm even such a curmudgeon (hey old SKs are crusty!) that I would suggest you can't use a token unless you are flagged up to killing the boss mob of the previous level. So you couldn't use a VT token unless you have killed Chaos. But that would be a hard sale roll back. Just making VT tokens drop like Xeru tokens would help, however.

My main character, Rafe, got one token, sleepers, several months into THF. He did all the other quests. I've been around gaming for years and with a good one, like THF's, I want to take my time and enjoy the ride. Tokens do get you to end game fast, but you do miss a lot of "scenery" and it cuts short the interesting times on the server.

I share your thoughts Rafe. Some changes might be implemented soon.

I can agree with it not being 100% drop (since previous bosses were that way). But changing the ability to use the tokens seems a bit much.

That would basically kill the use of tokens even for new chars/alts. When I last made a new character it was handy to be able to Kill a boss until a token dropped versus going back and killing Emp, Vulak, Fennin, Xegony, Cazic and PD, DSk1 then 2, farming endlessly to loot essences, killing reaper, killing mini minis, killing minis, killing HoH bosses, nadox, and DSK3. Catch up mechanisms are almost always needed in a long running game/server. Is it a little annoying to a long time player that someone new can buy a token off khasva or Luclin and skip all th ehard work I've done over the years? yes, but that's better than new folks joining, seeing a long list of requirements to get to where most of the playerbase is and leaving.

Revisiting old tier bosses doesn't sounds like a bad idea, it's actually fun! Maybe if we could lock the grind out and just focus on the boss kills?

A better long term solution (albeit probably a difficult one) would be to make all the raid tiers like VT (non guild restricted) and allow a % of unflagged to go in. Then make the flag tokens no drop. That way you have to participate at least somewhat to get the flagging.

That stops the just leveled to 70 bought a VT token and now have skipped everything. But gives a way to flag new friends or alts easily.

I agree with lowering the drop rate on the VT tolens from Luclin. 5% might be a bit low but closer to the other bosses drop rate would be fine. I usually don't sell my tokens anyway since I am an altoholic and the flagging tokens are great for my alts to catch up quickly. I almost never give/sell tokens to a new player that hasn't done any of the flagging quests. Everyone needs to go through the longer way first to get the experience. I have found that in my several years here that while some might leave because the requirements for such and such zone may seem impossible most leave once they buy or are given that flagging token and are now in the end game with zero chance of going anywhere and doing anything or get geared from rot until they feel they have nothing to play for

I remember when I first started here I did skip Ssraeshza Temple with Vulak tokens because I hate that zone(I hated it on live too) but I felt a good sense on accomplishment when I was finally able to kill Fennin(damn his guards) and then the avatars and so on. I still do the "normal" flagging process sometimes just because I think it is fun to revisit some of those older zone bosses and gear up the normal progression way.

Personally I think the worst parts of the normal progression are the Emp keys and the Essence drops for the Reaper fight. Depending on your luck the essences can take you days or weeks which I guess is both good and bad. Maybe have those drop a bit more frequently. It is what a .5% or 1% chance or something? Maybe bump that up to say 5% or maybe 10%. Its not like you couldn't still get duplicates or fail the combine anyway.

The shared raid instance like VT for the other raid zones bu Nilbus is also a fine idea. It would give folks who are in different guilds or not in a guild to play with others and progress or get a totally different experience.

How about a server reset on flags? Everyone starts at Tier 1

With the age of the server sadly to alter the token flags would be more harmful then good. I understand the lowering the drop rate on them but the server is so old that most every one is end game or near end game. I play from 10 to 15 hours a day here and im sad to say id be playing completely alone if not for those tokens to group in end game. I will say ive went back and done prog after the token turn in but its very nice to actually play with a player everquest has always been known for its social aspect being very friendly kind people. With my medical problems i have nothing but time to play all the time and do all the quests i had skipped and trust me ive been doing a lot of them to be up to par. But with that being said it isnt fun to try progress alone and be forced to boxing loads or asking for hours in /o for help till someone comes online to help and assist. To me those tokens are about the only reason i stuck around as i was able to play with others learn emotes on the server etc from elders. They are to me a good thing really depends how you look at it and situation.

xadien wrote:How about a server reset on flags? Everyone starts at Tier 1

Hush you