Quote:
Originally Posted by vsab
I don't think mob density has any relevance to that really. If you think there are what 10 starter cities? Then think about the number of zones per level range after that. Then think about the quests people undertake- at least at first these are very linked to home cities, and they take you to zones relatively nearby. When you take just that small sample of zones, in order to have a full group in each of them you need a population of 300+.
Currently there's only one server that has that kind of density - P99.
There are different solutions of course - EQLive used the tutorial for newbies, then HotZones so it's massively beneficial to go to a certain zone for your level range. Custom servers quite often have a smaller set of zones, so the population will be more dense, as well as hub zones so you actually get to see other players (I went back to EQ2 for a few months and I actually never saw a single player in the 3 months I played!).
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I get what your saying and I agree in the general sense and scope of things, but at the same time if grouping is more a prerequisite of progression due to the difficulty of soloing along with group xp bonus's and such they'll be more inclined to do so.
Also a lot of what your saying can be addressed to extent by centralizing races into fewer cities and by utilizing fewer overall zones. A lot of servers cater to EQ from classic up through velious or beyond. This is focus on classic that eliminates a lot of zones in and of itself. In addition to just using classic Odus, Antonica, or Faydwer continents could be eliminated hell even two of them could be if you wanted to be more extreme about it.
Now the other thing is it's not purely just about helping to foster groups which it could and should in theory depending on how it's used it's also about making the world less barren giving it a more living and breathing feeling with more mobs closer together and the increased challenges and unique aspects that can present.