1. When I said "they group", I meant the tard and his buddies. Not avatars. I know avatars can solo the entire Lyme, if they want to. Why would anyone think otherwise?
2. My opinion is that 3x20s contribute on Lyme proportionally to their levels. They have 300ma of cure serious, which is more, than a peri. Also, they can use a velvet wand, a lamb or call for help (or get their main). I've saved Surf about x2-3 of exp, of what he got my bard, this way.
The only exception is 8x20 chars, who have twice more levels with the same power. And 8x20 are exceptions, not the rule.
Which brings another point:
3. You only analyze one avatar, who drags his buddies, and it's Surf. Therefore, you apply your assumptions about him to other players. Yet, you apply the restrictions you want to apply to Surfnazi to other players, including me.
You are right that I might lead a newbie around lyme, either a friend or follow someone else in a remort. But first, I'd check, if we can do better exp 2man on other conts with my alts, just because my alts don't have 350 levels on them. And I'd prefer to group with my buddy on/offlyme, rather than get an extra mil/hr. I think Dr would've done the same. Which, I guess, only works for you, because you'd get twice more players grouping offlyme.
But guess what. If you want me or my buddy leave Lyme, I'll come with him and I won't invite others in. I'd rather get more exp for my buddy, so he could get to Lyme, rather than take on more ppl. You can object this as much as you want, but I bet you love tight 2-3 man groups more, than huge 10+ groups, when it comes to grouping with your friends.
However, he doesn't have time for groups now, so this is a not issue for me. Dr and Tembikai don't play any more. Back to point 3.
4. I don't like that you say who I should group with. It's my decision and just forcing my hand in this sucks.
Imposing any limits instead of providing a constructive critique and improvement doesn't lead to anything.
I'll allow myself to quote Abraham Lincoln, I mean, Neptune from an email:
Neptune wrote:The important thing here is to not allow ourselves
to be victim to supposition and misinformation. We are always looking
for ways to encourage player growth, and welcome ideas. But as history
has shown, we cannot, more often than not, promote addition by subtraction.
You suppose too much and want to apply a general rule in a unique case. It shouldn't be done this way.
Though I agree that we need more mid-level groups and I've already suggested my ways to fix this.
5. When you say that tards hit Lyme regardless and will not move elsewhere, it is just a guess or a more precise estimate of what would Surf would do. How do you know others will do the same, when there's no one else leading newbies on Lyme? Again, go to 3.
Also, even if you push experienced players in alts offLyme, you assume they'd lead or join groups. What makes you think so? Up until 1x40 or so, solo exp is great. 1x40-3x40 exp is great in 2-3man and I'm not sure I'd let just about anyone to follow me on my exp runs. As for large groups, they exist regardless of Lyme, unless chop exp exceeds offlyme exp with bonuses.
6. You said:
Ezekiel wrote:the fact that we allowed newbies on to Lyme to chop way back in the day so as not to isolate them. It's now having the opposite effect. Even if 9x40's did decide to run their newb friends around SS/AH, they'd have to then do it at a cost to their xp/hour...which it should be.
But they do run on lyme, so it did allow people to group on Lyme regardless of character level. It works, just not how you like it. But it works.
In fact,
unknown newbies can't join Lyme exp groups is because there are no chop groups, since chop was nerfed. Not because *one avatar* wants to let others tag buddies around.
Also, there are no Lyme groups, since most exp is solo, and DoT and Mystica require a good number of avatars and a dashing leader. Sadly, I don't know DoT well enough and Mystica needs even more avatars to survive ambushing mobs that hit -700hps/round.
Again, there are issues, but mostly because:
- we need to bring chop back and make it as good as exp off-Lyme w/o exp bonuses.
- an incentive, not just remorts, for tards to play their alts
- we need complex 5x40+ forges
- we need more players
- we need high-end content for 9x40 avatars (I heard the Spire was made for them, but I don't see them rushing into it. Why?), so they'd stick to Lyme and keep grouping/playing
I sorted the above by how easy it is to do them.