Hardcore Season - Other Servers Bonus Please

[OfElectricMen]

Not all of us jump on the Hardcore server when it comes up. Since the HC season kills grouping to a large degree (and I don't know about the other servers, but grouping is already not great on G-land), I'd like to propose a continuous Buddy Bonus on the non-HC servers for the duration of the HC season to make up for the highly reduced player base.

Thanks.

[ribazs]

Not all of us jump on the Hardcore server when it comes up. Since the HC season kills grouping to a large degree (and I don't know about the other servers, but grouping is already not great on G-land), I'd like to propose a continuous Buddy Bonus on the non-HC servers for the duration of the HC season to make up for the highly reduced player base.

Thanks.

Yoo!
/agree

[Fallout47]

Not all of us jump on the Hardcore server when it comes up. Since the HC season kills grouping to a large degree (and I don't know about the other servers, but grouping is already not great on G-land), I'd like to propose a continuous Buddy Bonus on the non-HC servers for the duration of the HC season to make up for the highly reduced player base.

Thanks.

This is a very good idea. Last night, on G-land, during peak North American time, there were very few lfms, sometimes only 3. I think they have finally realized the negative impact that HC has on the overall population and have shortened the length of this season as a result. I know that the 10% buddy bonus of the week before turbo-charged grouping.

It would be interesting to see if they implement this as a way to reduce the hemorrhage of players from non-HC servers. I have been suspecting over the past couple of years that they simply don't care. Obviously, players like yourself still do care. Thanks for the good suggestion.

[jskinner937]

Give boost to named loot drops, including raids during HCL.

[dredre9987]

I think they have finally realized the negative impact that HC has on the overall population.

You do realize all those people are just playing on HC right? There is no overall population drop they just went to another server.

[erethizon]

You do realize all those people are just playing on HC right? There is no overall population drop they just went to another server.

Yes, which decimates the other servers. We need some kind of group bonus (the bigger the better) to encourage all the people that normally solo to group instead. Ideally everyone that remains on the main servers will be looking for a group instead of trying to solo. Grouping on Orien is usually pretty good, but I did find myself soloing quite a bit last night due to the much lower than usual population.

[TophatAces]

I don't agree they should add this because Hardcore is on .

They should turn buddy bonus on permanently for the good of the community.

The hamster wheelers like the grease.

The community needs to be kicked into life.

The best thing on hardcore is groups take about 1 minute to fill up and reminds you it's an mmo.

Let's make grouping the most effectively way to level permanently

[Oxarhamar]

I don't agree they should add this because Hardcore is on .

They should turn buddy bonus on permanently for the good of the community.

The hamster wheelers like the grease.

The community needs to be kicked into life.

The best thing on hardcore is groups take about 1 minute to fill up and reminds you it's an mmo.

Let's make grouping the most effectively way to level permanently

I agree Buddy bonus should be full time on the regular servers

Perhaps the loot boost mentioned during HCL is a good one too

[Kza]

Not all of us jump on the Hardcore server when it comes up. Since the HC season kills grouping to a large degree (and I don't know about the other servers, but grouping is already not great on G-land), I'd like to propose a continuous Buddy Bonus on the non-HC servers for the duration of the HC season to make up for the highly reduced player base.

Thanks.

Agreed 100%

Khyber has gone from like 15-20 lfms to 0-4 lfms

[Tyrande]

Not all of us jump on the Hardcore server when it comes up. Since the HC season kills grouping to a large degree (and I don't know about the other servers, but grouping is already not great on G-land), I'd like to propose a continuous Buddy Bonus on the non-HC servers for the duration of the HC season to make up for the highly reduced player base.

Thanks.

/signed

yeah, turn it on... or have it on permanently.
Why is Aggronessen still 20 group LFMs though?

[superevbully]

[QUOTE=Kza;6485490]Agreed 100%

Khyber has gone from like 15-20 lfms to 0-4 lfms[/


this is true sadly

[fatherpirate]

If SSG gave all the other servers a +15% exp bonus during HCL, I would not really care.
sure, go for it.
or whatever

[sturmbb]

I don't agree they should add this because Hardcore is on .

They should turn buddy bonus on permanently for the good of the community.

The hamster wheelers like the grease.

The community needs to be kicked into life.

The best thing on hardcore is groups take about 1 minute to fill up and reminds you it's an mmo.

Let's make grouping the most effectively way to level permanently

I agree with this. I know some people just enjoy playing solo, but if SSG can encourage just one person to group than it is definitely worth it. I play plenty of single player games. The Number one reason i play this game is to socialize. (thats why i mainly play on HC). If SSG started encouraging grouping, we may be able to get DDO back to the fantastic grouping game it use to be.
(my heart soared on Wednesday when i logged into HC, multiple people running around, lots of LFM's up. I posted an LFM and got a hit within 20 seconds and they person said shall we start. (If we was on Live i would have said yes no point in waiting as invariable your lucky to get one person hitting your LFM never mind 2+) anyway i said lets wait and within 2 minutes we had a full group i cant tell you the feeling of what running with a full group is like (i came back to live about a month ago and didnt get anyone hitting my LFMS ) Great times are back ) and the whole group played like a team, nobody ran off and decided to complete the quest on there own while aggrooing everything in the quest and getting dungeon alerts lol

I would love to get Live back to the grouping fun i love. but i think that ship may have sailed. Also on live the population is spread out on multiple different servers which doesn't help. they could address this by

A megaserver, unfortunately i believe SSG have already stated that this is not possible, but i saw someone mentioned it in a previous thread that you could open the grouping up to people on different servers. (i cant find the post now, but they mentioned another game does this. were someone on Cannith can group up with someone on Wayfinder etc) i believe this is another possible way forward.

[dredre9987]

Just treat it like another event.

[Bjond]

propose a continuous Buddy Bonus on the non-HC servers

I couldn't see them adding an incentive to NOT try the special event server they opened.

However, grouping incentives are always a good thing. IMHO, just make it game wide AND scale it up even more for grouping with low-life characters, too. One of the coolest things I saw in any MMO was the way newbies are treated in FFXIV and the newbie-in-group bonus is big reason for that.

I'd keep any grouping bonus VIP-only, though. Some would just pack the group with F2P bots otherwise, which would defeat the entire purpose of the bonus.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

You do realize all those people are just playing on HC right? There is no overall population drop they just went to another server.

The remark would have been more exact if it had been : "on all NON-HC servers".

[Airmaiden]

Not all of us jump on the Hardcore server when it comes up. Since the HC season kills grouping to a large degree (and I don't know about the other servers, but grouping is already not great on G-land), I'd like to propose a continuous Buddy Bonus on the non-HC servers for the duration of the HC season to make up for the highly reduced player base.

Thanks.

100% Agree

Give people that do not want to play HC a reason to log on and or not drop ViP during HC season because the regular servers are empty.

[Wizard1406]

I agree with this. I know some people just enjoy playing solo, but if SSG can encourage just one person to group than it is definitely worth it. I play plenty of single player games. The Number one reason i play this game is to socialize. (thats why i mainly play on HC). If SSG started encouraging grouping, we may be able to get DDO back to the fantastic grouping game it use to be.
(my heart soared on Wednesday when i logged into HC, multiple people running around, lots of LFM's up.

+1 ... One shouldn't have to play hardcore to have an active LFM scene. (HC is not for everyone) Hardcore is also not always on, so people that only want to group probably just drop VIP/stop buying points until the next season begins. Give them incentive to play on the regular servers too and not take a break.

I hope devs acknowledge the problem on the live servers sometime.

There have been so many suggestions to make grouping better /easier. :-)

Teleport to group, auto-quest share, bigger party bonus, flagging (and waypoints) persisting through TR, higher power leveling and overlevel range in heroics (at least when server is low-pop), etc.

[GramercyRiff]

Yes. Also yes make buddy bonus permanent. Also yes boost drop rates of all named items especially raid items. While you're at it increase the number of raid runes that drop with each completion. Thanks

[droid327]

Why not give a bonus to solo xp to incentivize people who want to group to play solo instead? Mitigate some of the fallout of hardcore migration, if you have to solo anyway...

I mean if we're bribing people into playstyles they don't voluntarily want to play, why can't it go either way?