I guess I started once the population started to shrink because I went an absurd amount of time to get templated on a fresh 50. Legion raids on NA times were either interrupted by opposing realms or not ran much when I played It made templating very challenging. I had tons of currency that I couldn't use because of the merchant lockout.
So, I started working on making templates for Molvik characters. With the gear changes because of babies crying about people who mainly play BG's, Molvik templates are trashed, and the population takes an even bigger hit.
I was super impressed with how well the server was put together and the systems that were in place to get people playing this game again. But sadly, the recent direction feels like its counterproductive to the longevity of the server. As for the gear changes, I honestly wish the merchant gear would have capped all stats with toa bonuses so the people who were complaining would have just been able to template without work. Instead, you break templates, so nobody has capped gear. And all the time people spent on making templates was just wasted. A big FU to a bunch of your players.
The idea of BG's was to master the skills of your characters, learn how gear matters, find friends/guilds, learn teamwork, and gain some rvr experience so that when you do get to 50 you are not so far behind the people who are already 50 don't walk over you just from RR alone. There are RR levels for BG's and it can take weeks to reach these caps. So, people XP off to gain RR to cap, or they may just like having a BG toon for when NF turns into a ghost town, and they don't like running around for hours in a vast open land and find nothing but quest to do, or possibly they just don't feel like leveling another character to 50. Some want some quick action for an hour or two to unwind from a long day and don't have time to put into the raids to gear 50's. Whatever the reason it was a poor decision to gimp all the time they did put into making templates.
When I did rvr as 50 it was zerg keeps, towers, or other zergs. The only time I was able to get solo, duo, 5man, or 8man it was by zerg surfing . And when running smaller groups doing deserters or rvr quest larger groups just run over to the deserters that give credit for small man deserters (solo/duo/5main) and steamroll anyone that was there. There isn't really an incentive to look for a fair fight. Most think, If you want a 8man fight go to the island. But if you are lower realm rank, go there if you just want to get rolled.
My two coppers...
- Revert the gear changes.
- Remove the completion credit to be able to access merchants with currency. Lot of people have currency but can't use it because of this.
- Try to find out why people are leaving before you add more changes. The current changes are causing the drop in players. Figure out what you changed that made the most negative impact to population and reverse it.
The work you have done is impressive. However, with the recent population dropping quickly I feel that if positive changes are not made soon, the work will all be for nothing. Thanks for what you have created I just hope that its not to late to revive. Currently, its on life support.