You read what I said, but apparently didn't understand what I was driving at.
A lot of content in this game is not doable unless you have a certain population.
I've played enough EMU servers to state that two groups or so can do all the Kunark content (not sure about Veeshan's Peak though, even the "Old" version).
But then you get to Velious and you just can't do things like Temple of Veeshan or Kael Drakkal without a raid type force.
I'd go on to Luclin but you get the idea.
Now if you are content with only doing group content from Velious forward, a low population server will work. Even at that you are going to need a fairly beefy pop of unique players by EMU standards. Unless you have a "band of brothers" that is going to tackle stuff in an organized manner you really need a playerbase of about 30 to 50 people just to have the group game work.
People know all the strategies and tricks now, but there is still a lot of stuff like the Ring War and the Bracer of Benevolence quest that is hard to pull off without a group or two.
Then we get to trade skills. All the farming areas will be free, but you are still going to have to put in a ton of work to level those things up. The Earring of the Solstice alone will be an utter nightmare, without other crafters to sell stuff in the bazaar, and newbies putting all those HQ bear pelts for sale.
BTW, there are a lot more quests than people think that take fairly high level trade skills. It just wasn't a problem on live. When you have a small playerbase, and no one is really interested in taking tens of hours to level tailoring from 175 to 195 it is a lot worse.
I'm not mad or offended or anything of the sort. But I've played this game, as everyone who reads these words will have. There are certain facts of life in this game that are just not going to go away.
I think they can be gamebreakers, and eventually cause players to quit playing because there just isn't much their 55 Paladin can do solo anymore, and he needs a group to go with him to Howling Stones. Heck he can't even find a shaman who makes potions.
And eventually people also get tired of the metagame "How far can I get in Plane of Fear solo as a 60 necromancer with some Luclin era spells?
Geez. Spells. No bazaar. Anyway you get whatever picture I want to communicate. I hope these guys make it work, but most EMU servers run into this issue if they play it at all straight.
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