Poll: PoP Zone Entry RequirementsFollow

I voted for the alternate access to everything. Its not totally open but, the reason being is that there are other reasons to be there that have nothing to do with 'uber' loot or guild prestige that make it a road block for solo/casual players getting things done.

Namely epic 1.5. I am not flagged for water earth or air zones but I got back flagged for fire when my guild was messing around when another raid finished early and we took out the fire boss for fun. That meant that I had to scrounge for ever from different ppl all the components from the elemental planes to put my 1.5 together. My guild never goes back there for raiding because it is a 100% waste of time. When we beat Fenin Ro ALL his loot rotted except me and a couple other ppl got the back flag thing. Nobody wanted that crap for good reason, its crap. My guild raids 2.0 epics, Anguish, and Theatre Blood all the time and we will very most likely, probably never ever go to those zones again.

Also, what about the tradeskillers who want to make something that is only foraged or looted there. We could care less about the crappy green experience mobs, we just want such-n-such meat or root or crab leg or something. Why the heck does Sony ONLY let Bakers from 2003 lvl 65 'Uber' guilds make the Bucket-o-crab-legs meal? I could care less about anything or any mob in plane of water, but darnit, I wish I could just get some of my own Baking ingredients instead of having to find/convince 5 other ppl to go to a zone they hate, to waste time, so I can get a few tradeskill items.

Nobody even sells the crap I need in bazaar anymore.

Every expansion, minus LoY and LDoN, have had a major key quest/progression quest. For Kunark; VP. Velious; ST. Luclin; VT. Etcetera. In the case of PoP and a few others, the key quest is progression based.

PoP marks the cutoff between one-groupable key quests and raid-required key quests. This would be fine, however, loot in the elemental planes is inferior to loot that is much easier to obtain in GoD and beyond (which, its worth noting, exp is also marginally better), where as loot in Qvic+ for GoD is on par with much of the gear. Qvic also takes only one group to enter, but thats a differant story.

Plane of Time, nowadays, is open to anyone who wants in. CoA+ guilds often host open time raids where the keys are readily available. In addition, open raids are held by the general population of almost every server, if not every server, on nearly a weekly basis. Anyone who has any desire to be flagged for PoTime can be.

I am fully EP flagged, and have been for quite some time. The only times I've zoned into them in the last three years, however, have been to get tradeskill supplies and to fool around, and to help friend's with epics that involve them. The loot is pretty terrible to today's standards, and the experiance is just bad.

On a slightly differant note, there are numerous 2.0 quests, like the beastlord and ranger ones, that involve the EPs. I have friends who have been roadblocked by these for weeks or months because they cant find enough people to 1/6th them in. Epic quests are challenging enough as is, let alone needing to get together more then a dozen additional groups and a few more raids.

Now, you could say that many open raids are available, so people who really want to get in can. But you need to think, other then satisfaction, what are these people who show up gaining? 7 AAs, a nice charm slot, and the ability to zone into empty zones?

Open it all based on level; The expansion is underused as it is.

I think it should stay the same. There are a lot of guilds that are working on PoP. Working to get things is the name of the game. Why should everything be made easier as new expansions come out? Some people are motivated more to go after something that isn't that easy to get.
I will hope that once my other toons get high enough to do PoP they will do it the same way my Bard did it...

I'm not seeing that. We'll have the occasional 75 toon, but the raid level average seems to be 67 whenever I've thought to notice it...and we still, um, wipe. PoP raids are more about strategy than gear. We compete with at least 3 other PoP raiding guild/groups for targets.

Joph, I had to google Frobozz! /your nerdiness has increased by 1





Edited, Feb 27th 2007 5:16am by Elinda

it would be nothing less than stunningly stupid to drop the current requirements.As others have said, its not nearly as hard to do progression now anyway, with higher lvl toons than were available when expansion was new. as for the whiny ******* who complain that it should be opened up so they can get in everywhere in 5 minutes or less, let them be reminded that the name of the game is EVER QUEST, meaning there are SUPPOSED to be quests that take forever. If you need 5 minute rewards, get an x-box, or the adult pay channels, *******

Time is farmed already, this would not change anything. The Time Raid has a timer of one week before you can do it again. This would free up some raid spots for the average player wanting to try joining a raid on the weekend. The TIME gimp "flags" are usually reserved for the raid players alts, so they can "twink" them. POP zones can be some fun times for the average player, but spending a year getting flags to get into them is a thing of the past. Open them to the average player(no flags). The time people spent to get flagged was well spent, oh maybe when pentium 2 was the hot item. Let's move on now (nanochips) and let go of the past.

I say NO WAY to opening up any zones that currently require keys, flags or quests to get into them. The way it SHOULD be is "If you want to accomplish that, do the work and earn it!".

However, the fact is that it is nearly impossible to get a raid together to do any of those PoP raids nowadays. Almost nobody is interested.

The VAST majority of EQ players are only interested in loot and gear and the best experience, and they don't want to go back to do PoP raids again when they can get much better loot, gear and experience in the more recent expansions.

So that leaves the very few quest-oriented types of players, ones who like challenges and love the sense of accomplishment from getting things done that take effort, even when the loot, gear and experience is pitifully poor in comparison to the more recent expansions. And the sad fact is that there just aren't enough quest-oriented types of players around at any given time to do the PoP raids.

So I find myself torn.

I would LOVE to keep it the way it is and get my last few pre-Elemental and Elemental flags, but nobody will help. I posted a poll in my guild forums about PoP back-flagging, and offered to lead the raids, but out of over 600 members, only 14 people expressed any interest, and MANY people chose the poll entry "Been there, done that, have no interest in going back to help others do it". I posted to a PoP-flagging alliance website for my server, and got ZERO interest there. I advertised open PoP raids, and couldn't get more than 10 people interested. So I have tried, but it seem hopeless.

I think it would ruin the entire point of EverQuest to get rid of all the key, flag and quest requirements for older zones, but I don't see any alternative, because it is virtually impossible to get those keys, flags and quest requirements done nowadays if they require more than a couple of good friends willing to help.

I said it before, and I'll say it again. EverQuest is an awesome game, but the attitudes of the majority of people playing it SUCKS BIGTIME. It's supposed to be a social game where people help each other accomplish things, but most players still playing are only interested in the best loot, best gear and best experience they can find, and aren't the SLIGHTEST bit interested in helping ANYONE else do ANYTHING. There's nothing wrong with the game itself ... it is the selfishness and self-centredness and greed of the majority of people still playing EverQuest that is ruining the game and causing lots of quest-oriented types of people to quit playing.

Just wondering why people are so upset about this. As has been stated many times it is just a game and if relaxing the flagging process a bit or even removing it all together is done who will it hurt. Most of the people who went through the long flagging process have either moved along to newer expansions or maybe even quit the game. Or like myself have retired the lagged toon and play other players. I would love to take my Zerk/Cleric duo to the EP's for some fun but the thought of going through the flagging is a little frustrating. I remember how I felt when they did the dro thing for Time access, which happend to be right after the majority of my guild had gotten flagged. Many of my guildmates were a little upset but they all were happy that we could get those who were still needing some backflagging in so they could have the same opportuniy at the same gear as everyone else. I do not recall any ill feelings about the "nerfing of Time" as some used to say we were all just happy the twice weekly back-flagging raids were over. So whats the big deal? If they relax the flagging a bit would it really have much affect on you? I am sure some will say yes but I just cannot see it. It has been 7 expansions since PoP was released and although it is still one of the best it is behind the times, most gear that drops there can be eplaced in Baz with some funding so why not let those that wanna see it have the chance?

Just my opinion
Kenitz
70 Paladin (retired)
Tunare(formaerly of Solusek Ro)
Dolathon
69 Berserker
Tunare

Edited, Feb 27th 2007 3:24pm by Kenitz

Edited, Feb 27th 2007 3:25pm by Kenitz

To be quite honest, if they open up PoP zones to level requirements, than EQ should just shut down. Planes of Power plays a huge role in the storyline of Everquest. The quests to complete PoP progression maybe long, but it is actually still fun and rewarding.

On the same note, it is obvious that people don't do quests any more. They simply want level 75, their epic weapons, and the highest zone accessable just handed to them. Hense, Ebay...purchasing platinum...and ridicously MQing epic quests instead of earning it. The decision to open PoP zones would also take away more than half the credentials that many many serious plays have built up over the years. The majority of us paid 30.00 for that expansion and willingly completed the progression. Voting yes would be a waste of money and a year of many players times.

If you want an easy game, go play WoW or Mario Brothers. Stop messing with EQ!

I voted No -- yeah its long ... its a pain for some parts ... but most expansions have their progression and journey this is the one for PoP. And this is EverQUEST. Progressions are also a Quest.

I said NO but make alternate quests available, i can appreciate all the hard work that was done when PoP came out, i've done it too, but i'd like to get alts in some of those zones for tradeskill stuff, loots, etc. I've done my time and effort to get to Time and am not into doing it all again due imo to that i think its harder to get Time flagged than it was back in the day, guilds back then had raids set up hard core to get progression flagged, today even though a baz geared lvl 75 could easily do it, its just the lack of people to get the hits done, if you do manage to get a hit here or there it can take months/years to finally get this done not too mention getting a raid force to progress through the EP's...thats not 1 or 2 groupable by any means.
But i definately think you should still have to work for it via either the origional way ,an alt access route, or a mix of both as time is still a prestigious zone that still wows the noobs out there and should not be opened for all the mm bot noobs in the game. Face it though this is old content with inferior gear but still fun, it may bring more people out and heck LFG for time progression group may bring back some of the good times.
my 2 cents

Hail and well met:

I vote no. I think it should stay like it is. I was one of the people that worked really hard to accomplish this. It took years but it was great fun and I had a really awesome feeling when it was finally accomplished. Why spoil that for younguns coming up now? In fact, I had so much fun with the PoP progression, that I am doing it again with my cleric alt. Would I like to be 85'd or just allowed to walk up to Quarm with my 2nd toon because of my level? No Way. I think that when people are given something that they have not been made to earn, they do not value it.