New players Server?

[Buns]

I recently found that a friend had started playing EQ before christmas, but had given up as he had found it frustrating to find a group and compete with existing players. He refused to beg (quite rightly) for equipment, but at the same time found that no one really wanted to group with an ogre warrior wearing a cloth sack and wielding a rusty sword. From speaking to him -

Wouldnt it would be good if newbies were pointed to a single server where they might find others new to the game to join up with.

Would also be an idea to upgrade the new character default equipment too, take it to a level where a new player can actually contribute to a group of most likely twinked players. Would it really be overpowering new players if they started life in their Fine Steel Armor (or equivelant) rather than having to run around in a new sack.

Im not writing this for any developers to see, just wondered what you guys thought!!

[Artemisia]

You can get reasonable equipment with armor quests even at lower lvl, saying that, low lvls are often twinked and newbie quested armor cannot compete with that.


If your friend is on AB tell him to look for me and I am sure there is something on one of my mules I would gladly get rid of, and he/she could use.

[Melinia]

Just a suggestion... If your friend would consider returning.. a few ideas:
1) Skim the various message boards to view the various guilds that are available. There are bound to be several guilds that do stuff from scratch and will help a newbie in thier journey.
2) If your friend finds a server that interests him (likes the guilds that are available, general "community" atmosphere, ect), he should make a posting stating "i'm new" and asking to see if anyone would be interested in setting up a time for lower level toons to hunt "old world" style.
3) If your friend is interested in the Maelin server.. have him send me a Private message so we can group up! I have 2 newbie toons that I am playing "old world" style (trying to resist power leveling and twinking). I play them sparatically at the present time...

Your friend would be surprised at the number of players that do like to play with out twinking (until they cant take it no more). If someone isnt wanting to group with your friend based on the fact he is new/un-twinked... he has learned what toons to avoid. there are many that will be willing to steer him in the right direction in getting his own shiny new gear.

* Also, creating a new server for new players will end up being pointless because in a short period the server will be filled with the same high level/twinked toons as all the other servers have. I'm not sure if the community would be big enough on that server to make it worth while.

[Xenephex]

After I had played off and on for 5 years, one of my sons finally started playing recently. He made a warrior, found a guild willing to take him in and in a couple of months was level 65 with 100 aa's.

Even without a guild, it's not that hard anymore to level up a 'self-twinked' character of any class, and by self-twinked, I mean getting stuff that is cheap and freely available in the bazaar. A little bit of farming of low-level items should be enough to accumulate enough plat to reasonably equip a character. Add in some potions and you can take even a warrior at least to level 50 soloing (and can do it pretty quickly).

Going through the tutorial will get a new player considerably better equipment than a rusty sword and cloth armor to start with. Home city armor and weapon quests will improve on that.

[Itek]

They used to have a "prefered server" (in green maybe) on the log in screen, to which it was recommended that new players go to balance server populations. But then again that sends new players to "under-utilized" servers... i.e. those with lower population.

You might consider power-leveling your friend if possible yourself. Sometimes that's not an option (you might be using the same computer or not have the correct playtimes) ... if you belong to a guild you might see if one of your guildmates has an alt they wouldn't mind leveling up. I know that a lot of people have a ton of alts they want to play more, but have the same "I can't find anyone level 30-40 to do LDoNs with" type problems.

Or if your friend isn't attached to a specific server... have them post here and see if one of the other members is looking for a hunting partner for one of their alts. (I don't do alts, or I'd offer. Plus the next 7 weeks I'm trying to graduate so NO EQ. And I'd offer TheWife and her army of alts but she's not playing much, as she's prep'ing for a half-marathon.)

But yeah, it'd be nice if there were more support for "true newbies" from SOE / the game interface. LFG tool helps some, but only if there's other people LFG in the same level range.

Wish your friend my best.