Grr bark bark grr! SOE launches another EQ progression server on Feb 15th

[fuser]

Tried out p99 last night, surprising amount of people around. After doing two corpse runs I promptly logged out for the night. I'll play again even with rose tinted glasses, there's just something about the game that pulls me back in. It hits some cord with me of a good group/community effort vs the harsh cruel world.

It took me 5mins to remember you had to "hail" NPC's 

[Chimpy]

p99 has a quite sizeable community. I have heard anecdotally that if your guild wants to progress on the server, you need to give the guy that runs it money (take that with a grain of salt). He is also rabidly anti-box to the point that you can only have one character logged in per IP address (can't play with your roomate if you NAT).



EZ Server is where it is at. Takes out the absolutely retarded mechanics of EQ that no one uses anymore (specifically level loss and having to go loot your own corpse). Also has some other major changes. But old school EQ progression it is not. Heh.

[Segoris]

p99 has a quite sizeable community. I have heard anecdotally that if your guild wants to progress on the server, you need to give the guy that runs it money (take that with a grain of salt). He is also rabidly anti-box to the point that you can only have one character logged in per IP address (can't play with your roomate if you NAT).

Unless a LOT has changed in the last 90 days or so, that's just not true. The raiding guilds bicker amongst each other sicne they all feel entitled to everything and the GMs get pissed at having to deal with drama they don't want to deal with, but no money is involved. As for no boxing, that is true but exceptions are made for people who prove to have multiple people playing from the same IP. For the most part the server is pretty good about not having a lot of people botting and abusing that rule, and if caught the privilege is supposedly removed.

Overall, P99 is a really good place. Small enough community to not be over populated and making pve suck ass due to lack of fights, but large enough to find groups/raids/etc and make it feel populated for now. Come RoK and SoV I don't know how that will work out, but during vanilla eq it has been good.

As for EZ server, those can be some fun. I like running 6 chars at once and tearing through some content from time to time. If only I had more than 1 comp/monitor/kb/mouse to make it a bit easier.

[Tale]

EZ Server is where it is at. Takes out the absolutely retarded mechanics of EQ that no one uses anymore (specifically level loss and having to go loot your own corpse). Also has some other major changes. But old school EQ progression it is not. Heh.

I actually find that post offensive, a bit like everything they added to EQ after Velious :)

[Simond]

Fippy is full, second server being brought up "tomorrow at the latest".

[CharlieMopps]

I logged into a regular server for a bit... lots of nostalgia... I'd play but there's no way I'm paying $15/month for EQ1. Their idiots for not making it F2P, and I don't mean like EQ2 extended (which is the worst piece of garbage I've ever seen) They should bring up a progression server and everything from the original EQ1 should be F2P... then charge for the expansions and new classes/zones. They'd make bank. But since SOE's business model has revolved around alienating as many customers as possible as often as possible, I doubt it will ever happen.

[raydeen]

God I'd forgotten what a rats maze Neriak is. I thought they'd revamped the place but I guess it was just Nektulos.

[Merusk]

God I'd forgotten what a rats maze Neriak is. I thought they'd revamped the place but I guess it was just Nektulos.

Nope, they only revamped it for EQ2.   Neriak was pretty easy to get your mind around, it was Qeynos and the maze around Halla that always fucked me over.

Shit, I forgot that game didn't have maps.  No way in hell I'm doing games without maps ever again.

[Sky]

It's funny the things I've pushed aside in my memory. Like having a folder of maps printed out that I kept next to my computer to figure out where the hell I was going in EQ. Now I don't just want maps, I want maps with the EQ2Maps plugin so I know right where I'm going for quests. And the old school people can die in a giant testicle vise.

[Lantyssa]

EQ nostalgia on a live server lasts about as long as this server's namesake.

[Simond]

God I'd forgotten what a rats maze Neriak is. I thought they'd revamped the place but I guess it was just Nektulos.

Nope, they only revamped it for EQ2.   Neriak was pretty easy to get your mind around, it was Qeynos and the maze around Halla that always fucked me over.

Shit, I forgot that game didn't have maps.  No way in hell I'm doing games without maps ever again.

It has maps.

[Sutro]

I'm going to play. Love it or hate it, and a lot of times, dear God, I hated it, EverQuest dungeon runs seemed like the most intense affairs I've had in gaming. Unrest, in particular, has a lot of really great memories for me as far as being challenged in a MMO. Strange that a stupid lowbie dungeon would get that nod, but it was essentially PvP... you're fighting not only against monsters, but against everyone else's stupidity.

[raydeen]

I don't know if I could ever get back into EQ again. I logged in and my old mains were still there on Cazic. Logged in my BL and ran around for a few minutes for the fun of it. Then logged back to the start screen, chose the new progression server, rolled up a DE mage, played for about an hour and managed to get halfway to level 2  . I kept waiting for a ding that wouldn't come. I just don't think I have the time and/or patience for EQ anymore. Not at $15 a month at any rate. As big a world as EQ is, I think they could stand to lessen the downtime and up the XP gain by a few factors without the fear of people blowing through content. It's just too fecking slow by today's standards. It was fun 10 years ago. It's not fun now.

[Hawkbit]

It's funny what that Ding! will do to a person.  I'd wager that if they took the level cap from 50 to 1000 and scaled the stats up incrementally so that Ding! happened much more frequently but players were exactly as powerful at the respective level, they would retain more players. 

The power of the Ding! compels. 

[sam, an eggplant]

EQ1 had the best ding sound ever. To this day, hearing it gives me the chills.

[Merusk]

I'll agree with that.   I remember hearing it on some TV show years later where the character was playing an online game and still getting a little giddy.

[raydeen]

Heh, it would always scare the crap out of me when it would go off and then I would become elated that I was now slightly more powerful. It was like someone jumping out of the shadows yelling 'BOO!' but then giving you a big warm hug and blowjob.

[Simond]

I don't know if I could ever get back into EQ again. I logged in and my old mains were still there on Cazic. Logged in my BL and ran around for a few minutes for the fun of it. Then logged back to the start screen, chose the new progression server, rolled up a DE mage, played for about an hour and managed to get halfway to level 2  . I kept waiting for a ding that wouldn't come. I just don't think I have the time and/or patience for EQ anymore. Not at $15 a month at any rate. As big a world as EQ is, I think they could stand to lessen the downtime and up the XP gain by a few factors without the fear of people blowing through content. It's just too fecking slow by today's standards. It was fun 10 years ago. It's not fun now.

You should probably play on a normal server then. 
(The two progression servers have a slower xp curve and the out-of-combat mana/hp regen system disabled. Deliberately so, as it's supposed to be as close to '99-era EQ as possible).

[El Gallo]

Low-level XP is brutally slow, much slower than EQ originally was.  Apparently, they added some very low cap on xp per kill, but it's functionally waived for groups.  So if you try to level 1-5 beating up skeletons and froglok tads solo (like everyone did in 1999), you'll level much slower than you did in 99.  Hundreds of kills per level.  If you group and zerg the shit out of the noob zone, you level much faster.  Hell, my level 5 guy soloing the same mobs got more xp per kill when he was grouped with 4 boxed characters doing nothing at all than he did when killing them solo.

Anyway, I quit at level 7.  Made it to 60 last progression server, but just not feeling the love anymore. 

[raydeen]

Ok, that makes sense. It seemed way slower than I remembered but I haven't played in forever so I figured it was just going from the Ferrari (WoW) to the Model T (EQ) that was making things seem so slow. :)

[Surlyboi]

Ok, that makes sense. It seemed way slower than I remembered but I haven't played in forever so I figured it was just going from the over-tuned Civic with the decals and fart-can exhaust (WoW) to the Model T (EQ) that was making things seem so slow. :)

Fixed that for ya.

[Azazel]

No, there won't be any staring at spellbooks, and when did you play EQ having to wait 5 - 10 minutes between fights? 

1999 and 2000, quad-kiting Walruses in Velious or killing the Druids in Karanas.  Kill 4, you're OOM then the mana bar took about 5 mins to fill up.  Those were the pre-KEI days.

I did that for some time. These days, I can't believe that I did.

[UnSub]

Both this and the UO shard thread are interesting insights into what was once considered fun. 

[Koyasha]

Learning about those changes to solo exp has really turned me off of playing this again even after I get the stuff that's got my immediate attention out of the way.

That Project 1999 server sounds like it would be fun except for that apparent restriction on multiboxing, too. 

Yes, those sound like contradictory complaints.  I like soloing when I want to zone out and grind some exp.  I like running around with two or three multiboxed characters when I want to challenge myself with something difficult to take down that simply can't be soloed for various reasons.  So Bard/Cleric/Tank (I've used a warrior, shadowknight and paladin at various times) is a nice combo for that sort of thing.  CoH shenanigans (before they nerfed it) were also fun when I could bring along a mage.  I was one of those people who had the login info for half of my friends, so I could access pretty much any class I needed.

And I still say that one of my favorite things about EQ was its slow combat pace, that allowed me to relax enough that a marathon session chainpulling mobs for hours and hours on end was kind of a zen experience where I'd just fall into a perfect pattern of clearing every mob within pull range to the point where I was pulling right as they respawned without even thinking about it too much. 

It's also kind of funny to me that people complained about bard twisting being rough, when most games today require more button presses per minute than playing a bard ever did.  In WoW some classes are expected to activate something once every GCD, which is 1.5 seconds (sometimes even less) while a bard had to press buttons every 3 to 3.5 seconds in order to keep up a 4-song twist.

[Merusk]

Both this and the UO shard thread are interesting insights into what was once considered fun. 

We haven't even gotten into the loveliness of killstealing/ true ninja looting.

Nowadays people get all bitchy if you tag a mob they were moving towards, or looking at.. or considering killing.   In ye old EQ days, he who did the most damage won the loot.  What's that, you just got the rare 6 hour spawn with your quest item to pop?  Too bad me and my 3 friends are all DPS and you're by yourself.  Thanks for waiting around for it, though, and better luck with the next spawn.

Unlocked corpses = REAL ninja looting.  Oh hey, you're struggling to fight off those spawns that all came at once in that dungeon camp you've been at for the last 3 hours?  My stealthy rogue just happened to be walking by and saw all those corpses lying around with nobody looting them while your group was occupied. Thanks for the plat and the rare weapon drop!

Oh, speaking of rogues, here's another one.  EQ mobs originally decided their loot table when they spawned, not upon death.   Also, there was no alternate loot table for stealing, so rogue pick-pocketing took plat from the group or was able to go around stealing quest items off of mobs until they got flagged "no steal."  (This was a direct hold-over from the CIRCLE and ROM MUDs EQ stole much of its combat so heavily from.)   I recall many a rogue in my guilds chuckling about having stolen the Hill Giant heads and half the plat off of giants when others were camping them.

[Koyasha]

Permanently locked corpses is still one of the things that pisses me off to no end about newer games.  At least in EQ, if there's a drop someone you know wants and they aren't there, you can still call them over to get it since the corpses are only locked to their killers for a certain period of time (I think it was like 30 seconds originally, then upped some time later).  I don't know if WoW was the first to do it or not, but it seems like every game since then, if you weren't present at the moment the monster dies, you can never loot the item, and if there's a nodrop item on that corpse, too bad, it's rotting even if none of the people who can loot it want it. 

The other loot thing that EQ did right in my opinion, until they started trying to copy WoW's quest system, was that you didn't have to be 'on' a quest to get a quest drop.  I found more quests that way that I just kinda went along and completed because I killed a mob, it dropped a thing, and I had to figure out what to do with the thing.  For some things it makes sense.  You're not gonna cut the head off something you kill unless you know there's a bounty for it.  For other things the 'you have to be on the quest' method makes absolutely no sense.  Like for pretty much anything the guy you just killed is carrying.  You're telling me I skin rats for their pelts and collect the claws of the dodo birds I kill, but I didn't bother to go through that guy's pockets and find some object of significance just because nobody specifically told me to get it?

I think the rogue thing was changed pretty early on - not sure which expansion it was in, might've been pre-Kunark, or even as late as Velious - to have rogues pickpocket from a separate pool of cash and loot.  In a way I preferred the original method (and no, I never played a rogue past like level 5) cause it makes more sense.  99% of the time if you ask me whether to go with what makes sense or what's convenient for the player, I'll come down on the 'makes sense' side.

As for killstealing...ahh, yes.  In a way I miss that to a certain degree.  I remember a sort of epic fight that built up over Zordak Ragefire once that I was personally involved in.  This was during the Skyfire era, when it was a week long spawn, and I had been helping a cleric friend camp the spawn all week (most guilds pretty much respected that on our server, that if the cleric had been sitting there all week, it was pretty much her dragon - as long as she could form up a raid within like 15 minutes of it spawning, at least).  Some group wasn't respecting that though, and it spawned at an odd time when there weren't a lot of people online in either of our guilds, so it kinda turned into a race to see who felt ready to activate him first, and then they tried to outdamage us.  I still recall frantically logging on like six characters across my two computers, every high-DPS character I had access to, in order to get the kill.  And of course, the Velious Age of fighting over dragons that had First Brood Talismans sometimes came down to a DPS race on Klandicar or Zlandicar.

The competition of the Velious Age was something I loved at the time, too.  Don't know if I'd still feel the same way...part of me thinks I would.  Many an early morning patrolling the Western Wastes and Dragon Necropolis between 4-8 AM, waiting for Klandicar, Zlandicar, or Sontalak to pop so I could get on the phone and start calling people to get them out of bed so we could kill the damn dragon before the other high-end guild on the server did.

Ah, but then bards always had the best tools for both griefing and wreaking vengeance on others who griefed you.  In the Planar Age some group stole my group's miniboss in Bastion of Thunder, and I waited for the opportune time, then used Song of Highsun.  Gate him back to his spawn point, and a lot of the time NPC's would regen half their health or more during a gate (it was kind of unreliable, sometimes they'd gate and regain full health, other times it wouldn't regen them at all) and he did, and he also picked up a dozen or so friends and obliterated them with a train.  Those who were smart always knew enough never to fuck with a bard.  Although I was one of the nice ones, I rarely intentionally trained anyone that hadn't done something to me, first.  Then again, I distinctly remember de-leveling some guy that really pissed me off once, with how many times I killed him.  I don't remember what he did to anger me so, but I do remember he didn't get his corpse back by the time I had to log off.

[Strazos]

Eh, I think the rogue pickpocketing from general loot was still active up through LDoN; I specifically remember skimming from the group's pull. I had 2 modded Steins of Moggok and offered to do all the loot selling to get the highest value. (Hey, I was poor as shit in that game)

Also, stealing DF belts as a lowbie was fun.

[Lantyssa]

(This was a direct hold-over from the CIRCLE and ROM MUDs EQ stole much of its combat so heavily from.)   I recall many a rogue in my guilds chuckling about having stolen the Hill Giant heads and half the plat off of giants when others were camping them.

DIKU, too.  "c 'locate object'"  <yoink>

I stole so much stuff with my thief.  Well, when I didn't just stomp on the mob.  Though a lot of gear loaded equipped so stealing it wasn't an option.  I kind of miss mobs using what they had.

[Tale]

That Project 1999 server sounds like it would be fun except for that apparent restriction on multiboxing, too.  

Seriously. It's called Project 1999. Nobody multiboxed at that time. And if you need that to experience fun on an otherwise retro server, you don't understand anything at all.

[Engels]

The whole fun of EQ was trying to game the system. Seems like it's not koyasaha that doesn't understand.

[SuperPopTart]

I've been playing the progression server since the second one opened. It has a 3 month lockout for expansions (If I am not incorrect) and there are already level 50's on the server. Barring that, it's not a bad place to be, stinks of old world EQ where banded armor went for 2131212PP a pop, and blackburrow was still a hot spot.

It's also terribly amusing to watch the nuEQ players bitch, moan, and complain about how it's hard to play with an untwinked (insert class here).

[Tale]

It's also terribly amusing to watch the nuEQ players bitch, moan, and complain about how it's hard to play with an untwinked (insert class here).

Pic from a friend in Project 1999 - see the realisation dawn on player Zarix that it doesn't hold your hand like nuEQ/WoW ...

[SuperPopTart]

Tale:

I giggled a little.

Okay, I lied.

I giggled a lot.

The whiny ones never cease.

[Surlyboi]

Oh man, that's awesome. I need to fire up the 'doze machine and get back into the old girl just fir the lulz.

[trias_e]

Prancing, Ceridon, Tiemas, Dagnabit are why EQ is a good game. 

Playing project 1999 is a welcome relief from playing WoW simply because it has a community and everyone isn't perfectly self-sustainable.  I like being able to log in, /who all zone, and be able to recognize half of the people in the zone.  WoW LFD with a non-stop stream of random douchebags is less enjoyable than camping a room with good, fun players you've grouped with before.  Of course, this is lower level when there is less catassery going on, but hey, don't kill my buzz man.