Once you have the economy, bugs/exploits, and end game content under control please release some fresh start servers. This is a good game that has been badly managed and exploited and it is very difficult to want to put time and energy into achieving / progressing in a game that has been this badly taken advantage of.
When you make this decision to create some fresh start servers please consider:
You should have PVP servers like most your contemporaries. make the starting zone and cities safe otherwise you step outside you are in danger.
Adds buffs to xp, gathering, monetary gains to compensate for the risk of getting pancaked at any given moment. Make it an easier grind to 60 and high professions on PVP server to entice some of the less pvp centric folk to risk rolling on PVP server for the bonus rewards.
Do not allow transfer to the fresh start servers for 6 months+
Assuming full loot is no longer an option, add actual rewards for world pvp (within level range to stop newbie camping) in form of points towards end game pvp equipment, monetary rewards. People can drop their bag contents only (not gear), or gold reward based on their overall gear/bag contents
I just want to point out to anyone that thinks these are a good idea. You will get the worst of the worst exploiters in these fresh start servers that think “nows my chance to show these new exploits off” I know because I’d be the first one to come over with some fancy exploits that didn’t make it to the forums.
There’s been literally a new exploit or cheat every week since launch. And instead of being serious about banning cheaters and exploiters, and closing exploits, AGS is more interested in pushing new features (and bugs every time they do), and retaining the remaining 10% or so population they have left, even if most of them are exploiters, cheaters, botters, and RMT.
The time for a server fresh start is way past. If they wanted to do that, they could have done so instead of merging servers or handing out free transfers that just let exploiters grief whole servers before leaving.
If they enabled better scaling, I would level again on a PvP server. I level slow and the idea of doing it again sounds awful… But man this game was so obviously made for forced PvP.
I don’t see how you think the time for fresh servers has past:
mergers are for players STILL playing the game, fresh server is for players who left over the plethora of issues
the bugs, endgame and economy are not fixed yet so how could we be past the time
No one is going to come back and invest the time to re-level to 60 on a fresh server in a state of “live beta” like we have now. How can you say its past time when they are literally in the middle of completely overhauling how 500-600 itemization works and the game at 60.
I agree RandManly it makes sense to put bonuses xp, gathering, crafting on a PVP server. you need a risk/reward scenario to pull all mixes of pvpers to the server and most who fresh start will have already experienced the 1-60 game. Why make it longer than it needs to be.