Nostalrius Begins - Quality wow vanilla realm (1.12)

Hey everyone!

Since Nostalrius is on a possible comeback I wanted to ask / suggest to host a new WoW Instance (Server) that is progressive over 1 - 1 1/2 years and then shuts down and starts from the beginning again.
Let me give you an example what I mean by that (just example timeline):

Day 0 - Server starts
1 month - UBRS opens
1.5 month - MC / Ony available
2 month Maraudon opens
2.5 month - world bosses gets added (azu / kazzak)
3 month DM opens
4 month alterac opens
5 month bwl opens
6.5 month zg opens
7 month dragons of nightmare
8 month AQ40
10 month Naxx

I know that a lot of you guys prefer a "realistic" blizzard timeline, but in the end that blizzard timeline doesnt make much sense without the patches and the experience everyone of us has by now. So the timeline that I mentioned above is just an example how the progression could look like. I also tired to take care to give everyone enough time to catch up. I wouldn't even mind if the content release speed would be slower.

So what happens after Naxx release? Naxx should be open for about 6 month and after that the server can shut down (maybe even be offline for a week or so) and restart from day 0. People who achieved great progress in PvE or PvP should be honored in a hall of fame (maybe even ingame in a monument or so).
In addition to that PvE difficulty (raid boss health / dmg output) can be adjusted (increased or decreased) on every season of the server, depening if certain bosses like Kel'thuzad etc. were killed by a reasonable amount of player.

I just thought about this the other day since I think it would be really "unloving" to just bring up the old Nost servers with their current status and characters. I think it wouldn't encourage a lot of ppl to start playing on Nost again especially when you were already raidlogging with your characters.

As mentioned I just thought about this for a few moments and wanted to share this with you. Let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Flo

Haha, this was an idea actually someone suggested on Twitter to Mark Kern before he met with Blizzard.

Oh, didn't know that. Just started to play on private Servers with the release of Elysium.

Has there been any talk about this? Or lets ask this way, what did the people think about this idea?

No idea if he actually brought it to Blizzard with him. All I remember was when Mark was asking for suggestions of questions and ideas on Twitter someone replied with that idea.

Wouldn't work up to AQ/Naxx.

40 raid members. 55+ Raiding core for a SOLID guild. That is a lot of gear to need to be dropped for everybody to reach their goals. And if you knew the server would reset/start over, motivation is lost after you get that final boss kill.

No reason to keep farming to get your wish list completed if you are gonna just lose it all shortly down the road. That type of progression system and start over only truely appeases to the world first and quit type players.

Naxx is a bitch and takes tons of preparation, more than the actual time you spend raiding due to the amount of consumables you need.

Most guilds (including mine) back in the day immediately stopped progression raiding once TBC was announced. The end goal of BiS was gonna be taken away. Only about 1 guild per server still did naxx, and it was mainly to test the 2.0 patch for abilities to see if they could do better.


Give the players a choice to start over or not, don't force it upon them to restart every 1.5 years. The unstable nature of the Private Server Scene has already done that to us.

To the OP Undertanker is correct on wiping the server every 18 months, its just a bad idea. More importantly the original vanilla time line should stay intact. It takes a serious amount of time to gear up 40 people. Though the content is cleared easily now (due to having end game talent builds rather than per patch builds) the content still doesn't drop enough gear in such a short time table.

@Undertanker and Docholy I hear you guys but don't see any suggestion how to work arround that?

Still, arugments like

40 raid members. 55+ Raiding core for a SOLID guild. That is a lot of gear to need to be dropped for everybody to reach their goals. And if you knew the server would reset/start over, motivation is lost after you get that final boss kill.

Most guilds (including mine) back in the day immediately stopped progression raiding once TBC was announced.

It takes a serious amount of time to gear up 40 people. Though the content is cleared easily now (due to having end game talent builds rather than per patch builds) the content still doesn't drop enough gear in such a short time table.

don't make much sense to me. Something has to happend with the Server anyway. Either with the "Blizz Timeline" he would upgrade to TBC which basically is a full reset. (yes I know naxx gear works fine in the first raid tier of TBC, but so dues heroic dungeon gear). If a new Server is started and the old one keeps running it just a) raises useless costs for keeping 2 servers up at the same time and b) population of the first server will go down rapidly when people will figure out that they have nothing to do beside "farming" naxx once a week to get their BIS items.

What I want to say, either way Vanilla is a journey that ends with the kill on Kel and once your reached that, there is no reason for you to keep playing beside of raids where you will maybe get some more BIS gear.

And again, keep in mind - the timeline I posted was just an example. You can delay content even further or even just partly release the 5 Naxx wings one by one.

I just dont see why people want a progressive server, but dont want the server to restart at some time. The only reason why you play the game (farm reputation, dungeons, etc.) is because you got something to do beside of raids. And that is why ppl want progressive servers. Once that is taken away, there is nothing you can do as a PvE player.

Your thoughts and mindset of "how to work around that" in regards to gear taking a long time to get for all members of the guild, being unsatisfied with having a toon reach their peak and staying there and nothing to do but farm rep and dungeons while waiting for raids was the beginning of the end, which we now have in Retail.

Since Pre-TBC how to work around that? Down size raids, make tokens rather than actual gear drop so you don't have to wait for ever to get that tier item of your class that doesn't seem to drop, or to not see loot you don't need drop (#DruidTier after first month). They removed forcing people to do progression at their own pace by implementing daily dungeon - tokens to buy gear rather than work your way up within the raid scene.

Nothing to do but farm? Let's have pet battles here as well......

People want progressive servers to have a reason to do the lesser content. If the server opens with all raids open, the vets will get the OP Pre-Raid blues, jump right into BWL, Loot Council all items to 1 tank, 2 healers and 1 melee/ranged dps, and in 3 weeks be doing AQ.

Progressive servers add longevity to content that otherwise would be blown by and give a chance for the players who are not hard-core to experience things while they are still relevant.

"What I want to say, either way Vanilla is a journey that ends with the kill on Kel and once your reached that, there is no reason for you to keep playing beside of raids where you will maybe get some more BIS gear."

That may be your preference, but their are many others that don't want their gear obsolete after working so hard for it a few months down the road. That alone turned me off from retail with patches for next raid being pushed out faster than you could finish your BiS list, and if you did finish your list it was going to be obsolete soon after.

Get this. The name of the game. World of Warcraft. What is the reward for raiding, gear. Use that BiS gear and go crush the opposing faction.

@Undertanker, first of all I did not suggest how Blizzard should handle retail Servers. I wanted to make a suggestion to Nost. This includues doing some small timeline changes and putting up monuments at the end of a seasonal server. The raid downsizing and introduction of tokens you mentioned would require tons of development work.
While I would prefer being able to 10man the whole content just with my friends, its not realitic that Nost will change the game that much and if they would, other ppl will complain. Thats why I dont suggest such kind of stuff.

Nothing to do but farm? Let's have pet battles here as well......

I dont get that kind of sarcasm. Thought we are talking seriously here.

People want progressive servers to have a reason to do the lesser content. If the server opens with all raids open, the vets will get the OP Pre-Raid blues, jump right into BWL, Loot Council all items to 1 tank, 2 healers and 1 melee/ranged dps, and in 3 weeks be doing AQ.

Progressive servers add longevity to content that otherwise would be blown by and give a chance for the players who are not hard-core to experience things while they are still relevant.

I know, but my question was why you want a progessive server, if you want progression over the first 1 1/2 years and then sit on your bis gear and never being forced to do something again? What is the point of logging in when everyone in your guild has maxed out bis gear. Yeah sure, you can do some pvp then, but beside of that? I can assure you that most ppl wont log in on a server every day serveral hours just to pvp in their bis gear. Not to mention the countless month before that where ppl are just logging in to see that single item dropping (or not dropping) that they are missing for their bis gear. Don't even want to think about everyone getting their favourite legendary lol.

The thing is... I got a friend who just thinks as you do. On a new server he never joins us because he doesn't see any kind of long term perspective. While we are farming 5 mans, farming reputation, even soloing / duoing dungeons while they are still relevant for money/loot. Once all of that is gone since you got your mount and your pre raid bis gear for all kind of speccs he suddenly kicks in and want to do useless stuff (in my opinion useless) because we got the good gear now and can easily do everything outside of raids with 2-3 ppl. He is then always confused when we don't join this because there is no reason for us to farm additional gold / mats when we got everything that we wanted already.

You might think different and then maybe a seasonal server is nothing for you, but I can tell ya that most ppl who are playing on vanilla servers love the experience of the first few month. Where playing the game every day for multiple hours actually matters and where you can farm new better gear on your own or just with a few friends. The aim of a seasonal server is to bring that experience again and again while rewarding you with a monument ingame when you did good in a season.

World PVP and make an alt. The game is different from a different perspective/role.

Also being a person that was BiS, I still ran instances all the time that were not of use to my toon gear/money wise.

It is an MMO, IMO you should have taken those chances your friend wanted to run something to strengthen his toon. If the person beside you gets an upgrade, it is an upgrade for you as well if there is EVER a possibility of you guys playing together in the future.

Honestly not playing with your friend because you had what you needed already, is pretty damn selfish. If 1 person in your guild / friend needs an item from somewhere, you all need it. Because it then increases GROUP performance.

Even when my group had everything, we'd still run instances for the fun of it. Games are meant to be played for fun as well. Not just obtain your items and quit. Use what you obtain. Help others. Not just yourself.

You truly carry the 10 man LFR mentality by what you present to the community.