While I certainly respect that attitude, and I love the idea, the reality is that until you have a sizable population, your wish for people to team up probably won't happen. Nostalgia is a wonderful thing , but it also tends to gloss over the poorer aspects until we are subjected to them again. That nearly vertical difficulty curve, harsh death penalties, OP casters and UP melees are all things I don’t quite miss.
It is a shame, but that is the way it is. I popped on for a bit in this server's infancy and found nearly no one on. I rolled an Enchanter at first but quickly changed to a mage, because again as you state, that is a solo class. I'm not willing to box, so I made due with what I had. I did quite enjoy it (think I was low 20s maybe? I can’t quite recall.)
It certainly has great flavor, and I love the concept, but myself as a very casual player who gets 20 minutes here and there recognizes that this server is not quite for me. I'm not able to sit there for a few hours, hope someone logs on, is around my level, not boxing, and not antisocial. That’s what live eventually devolved into for myself playing a berserker.
If this server takes off, sure that kind of play will work for some, but unless or until you get a sustainable population, forcing grouping for just general progression is not going to work in my opinion.
Immersion, challenge and storyline are things I highly value in games, the problem is that I fear I am in the minority. Also I’ve become bitter, cynical and antisocial in my old age, so that probably doesn’t help much either
You do absolutely have something unique and special here, but I almost think it would make a better single player experience, or at least have a gradual difficulty curve added to it. Sure, it may be no harder than classic Everquest was, but you also had extremely high population there at the beginning, and things have gradually taken a turn for the easy in the past dozen expansions are so. They realized their mistake.
Hybrid Mode
