Old School bay-bee. Frenzy Camped. No list.

[El Gallo]

Old-time EQ is back.  Sadly, the new noobs won't get to stare at the spellbook anymore. 

http://www.mobhunter.com/001473.html

Wow, do I have some interesting news. I droned on a lot this morning so I'll cut into some of the more interesting stuff right away.

There will soon be a "not a classic server" server. This server will begin with only the original game unlocked at first. As groups or guilds defeat certain triggered encounters, new expansions will become unlocked. It will be a no-transfer server so everyone is starting off at the beginning of the game. All the new non-expansion features will be there like chat channels, LFG, and new UIs, but features such as Plane of Knowledge won't be active until that expansion is unlocked. All of those who have screamed on the forums for months about a "classic server" will now get their chance to put their money where their mouth is. It sounds pretty interesting and SOE is expecting it to be popular. With some core features removed that we take for granted these days like the Guild Lobby, Nexus, Knowledge, Bazaar, and LDON Magi, it will be interesting to see how much old-world people are willing to take.

. . .

I was corrected on my terminology for the new non-classic classic server which is known, officially, as a "Progression" server. SOE doesn't have exact details on what will open up new expansions, but the mechanics of the unlocking will basically be like unlocking the expansions as if you paid for them. If you are a player who only owns the original game, much of the newer content is cut off. The Progression Server simply treats every player as though they didn't play. Certain free features like POK will still have to be shut off manually.

The exact methods to unlock new expansions is not yet known, but the intention is for more than a single group or guild to do it. The mind quickly falls back to Nagafen raids with individual buffs and camping to chat. For players who do not desire such challenges, expansions will unlock as groups unlock them just as though a new expansion was released. There is a lot of interesting potential, though whether players can really live through the old style again remains to be seen.

I can't wait to see what the unlocking mechanism will be.  Fanbois have been screaming for an old-time server for a long, long time.  I predict an initial flood followed by rapid disenchantment.  Shocking, I know.

[Nebu]

I can hardly wait to log on, zone into my first area, and yell "CAMP CHECK!".

[Llava]

All the expansions will be unlocked within two weeks, I betcha I betcha.

[Nebu]

All the expansions will be unlocked within two weeks, I betcha I betcha.

You think?

[Merusk]

I dunno.. can you even hit 50 in two weeks without the zone-boosts from Luclin and Kunark?  The PGT will be an 'uber' weapon until SSOYs are out there, too. 

Come to think of it.. this also means no Kerrans, Iksar and whatever other races they've added-in since I stopped playing.  Wonder if they're going to use only the oldschool models until Luclin is unlocked... .Dark Elf Bootay party!

There's a TON of things that people take for granted that came in with the later expansions.  I think a lot of folks forget how craptacular the original L50 EQ gear is when compared to even a lowly L30 sword from Luclin.

[Furiously]

Wonder about expansion spells....and AA's....

AA's would make a wizard fun.

[shiznitz]

This will prove yet again that what players say they want, they don't actually want.

[Count Nerfedalot]

All the expansions will be unlocked within two weeks, I betcha I betcha.

Does past experience lead anyone to believe that they will release with the code to unlock the expansion even in place, much less functional?

[Shockeye]

All the expansions will be unlocked within two weeks, I betcha I betcha.

Does past experience lead anyone to believe that they will release with the code to unlock the expansion even in place, much less functional?

The sleeper MUST awaken!

[Trippy]

There's a TON of things that people take for granted that came in with the later expansions.  I think a lot of folks forget how craptacular the original L50 EQ gear is when compared to even a lowly L30 sword from Luclin.

Yup it's going to be a tough slog in the beginning, especially with no rez sticks for a while.

[shiznitz]

There's a TON of things that people take for granted that came in with the later expansions.  I think a lot of folks forget how craptacular the original L50 EQ gear is when compared to even a lowly L30 sword from Luclin.

Yup it's going to be a tough slog in the beginning, especially with no rez sticks for a while.

They should go really old school and put the racial penalties and hell-levels back in! YEAH! In fact, make it so only 100 SSOYs/PGTs/EBWs/etc drop in the server's life! YEAH!

Seriously, this server should have a large exp bonus or it will be a ghost town in two months. No one in their goddamn right mind wants to ride that boat again, especially since 90% of the people that will play this server have already "been there and done that" back in 2000.

[El Gallo]

I don't think they ever took racial penalties out, actually.  At least they hadn't when I left right about the time GoD was released.  They did kill off the hybrid class penalty though.

[Azazel]

Well, it's for the whiny bitch segment of the rose-coloured-glasses group of players.

Heh, maybe it's there in part to torpedo some of the Vanguard fanbois-in-waiting who long for old-style EQ with all of the thimbscrews intact and hope that VG will have all of the same in it.

I hope they make you stare at a fucking fullpage spellbook until level 35 as well, but I guess if they're keepng the new UI then that won't happen.

[Llava]

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

[Strazos]

Wow,I almost want to give this a shot. No mudflation might be kind of fun, if the leveling is somewhat brisk. I yearn for old-school Temple of Cazic Thule and Oasis Orc Highway.

It could be fun, but I just don't have the time to try it out. Oh to be unemployed....

[Surlyboi]

All the expansions will be unlocked within two weeks, I betcha I betcha.

Does past experience lead anyone to believe that they will release with the code to unlock the expansion even in place, much less functional?

The sleeper MUST awaken!

As long as you don't use terrain features to keep mobs from aggroing your raid and then have SOE yank it from you...  :-D

[Merusk]

Wow,I almost want to give this a shot. No mudflation might be kind of fun, if the leveling is somewhat brisk. I yearn for old-school Temple of Cazic Thule and Oasis Orc Highway.

This begs another question.  There's several changes they made outside of the regular expansion.  Revamping of the gobbie zone behind the halflings, the gorge outside that zone (names elude me)  The splitpaw revamp, Cazic was turned into a 55+ only zone at one point.  Are they going back to the original versions of those zones too, or will they just be abberations in the 'classic' eq.

What about the spells they added in as well.  CLerics didn't get their first rez until 20s and their first xp rez in the 30s..t hen they added in some rezzes as early as 14.  Are those in there or will the be 'unlocked' at some later time?

[hal]

OMG to make a high elf pally and camp the basement in unrest. This has gotta be one of those "you can never go home again" things. Damned if it isn't tempting. I could burn them with it to. unsub eq2 and sub eq1. *mutters*

[Murgos]

I hope they go back to the original Jboots camp in Najena.  I want to see what happens when an unstoppable catass hits an unendable camp.

[Azazel]

Wow,I almost want to give this a shot. No mudflation might be kind of fun, if the leveling is somewhat brisk.

mate, it's supposed to be "old-school"!~

you know what that means in terms of levelling....

Levels 1-4 in the first 8 hours or so, since we know where many of the quests are. From then on, 2.5 levels a day till you hit say 12-13, then 1.5 levels a day till 20ish. That's the schedule on regular-person-catass mode. As opposed to shared account round-the-clock with buff bots.

It could be slightly faster than that I suppose since exploration would be a moot point. We know about Redwind and Permafrost for example, so no point running there.

[Merusk]

Redwind?

The amusing thing is, I know most of the hardcore catasses ahve moved on.  The majority of those remaining have either forgotten what it was like, or joined after initial EQ.  Stories of 'oh well they leveled the first Iksar to 50 in a week! It's not that hard."  are still around.   Oh the criest of frustration will be so sweet.

[hal]

What was the story of the first frog? Cleric with his epic in a week? Am I remembering right? If its the original EQ catass to 20 in a week is more like it. God the memory's, as a magican selling summoned bandages to the guys hunting dorfs in BB. Unrest, my first trip to south karana. Hell my first time getting through high pass hold. That games was a bitch, and I loved it.

[Azazel]

Yeah Redwind. You know, the Icy orcs camp in the middle of Everfrost. They added a skelly pet to him later.

As for the hardcore catasses, take a look at the Vanguard board for a whole bunch of such misty-eyed-for-the-old-days catasses-in-waiting. I even know at least one person that would likely love this.

I think, in all honesty, I'd enjoy this server for about 2 weeks-a month, just based on a bit of nostalgia. Past that, I think it'd become boring very quickly.

[El Gallo]

What was the story of the first frog? Cleric with his epic in a week?

Yeah, may have been even faster than that.  He was being PLed by an uberguild necro charming in Disease, iirc.

[Simond]

This is a very nasty way for SOE to spoke Sigil's wheel, a month before E3.
I approve. 

[Xilren's Twin]

What a great idea!

Seriously, other than the nostalgia factor does anyone think they would enjoy this for more than two weeks when they could be playing a similar game with 95% less headaches in it?  While I too had fun when it first came out, that was mostly b/c it was the first mmorpg a lot of people played; it was better than the alternative b/c there was no alternative.  (UO not withstanding; the games were very different; AC was next and just never hit critical mass due to it's own sets of issues so for many people EQ was it).

Expecting people to select original EQ with all it's moronic design choices would be like intentionally trying to bicycle to work rather than driving a car b/c hey, biking was fun when i was 10!

I call PR move, nothing more.  Train to zone!

Xilren

Xilren

[Azazel]

Well, a PR move plus wanting to take the wind out of Vanguard's sails - after all, have you read the VG board? It seems like at least 50% of those fanbois are just clamouring for old-school EQ with all timesinks and thumbscrews left intact, which is why they think Brad is their messiah since until his recent discussion about "core" players said that he wanted them to catass their way to uberness. Actually, he identified himself as one now that I recall in his "Catasses they call us" speech at the Reichstag...

Combine all this with the not-so-glowing reports coming out of the VG beta threads and the fact that VG is essentially targetted pretty much primarily at the Former EQ1 segment of EQ2 players (are there any other EQ2 players?) If SOE can snag a server's worth of players for 6 months to a year. or more.. - unlocking all that content as you go is a pretty good catass carrot - We opened fear! Server first! We Opened Kunark! Server First! We cleared TOV! Server First! ...and so on.

[Venkman]

The buzz around this will last for exactly the two week period people can maintain interest in the server.

Not saying Vanguard's the cat's meow either, but old-skool EQ1 is the reason there's a WoW at all.

[Azazel]

For people like you and me, I agree. For the VG fans that are into severe self-flagellation? well, we'll see..

[Venkman]

Oh, no doubt this'll hold them over for a bit. But really, even they'll realize how far the genre has come, unless they quit before Kunark and have lived in a closet until VG was announced.

[NiX]

Oh, no doubt this'll hold them over for a bit. But really, even they'll realize how far the genre has come, unless they quit before Kunark and have lived in a closet until VG was announced.

Do you really want to know how many people actually did this? I'm sure the number is startling.

I think this server idea is interesting. Some days I do miss the old EQ even though it caused me to hate myself and the grind was so numbing no women could give me blue balls to compare the type of pain it caused. But, I met a lot of poeple I still game with today there and enjoyed some of the silliest shit in EQ1 that only DAoC has come close to rivaling in hilarity.

[Strazos]

As "bad" as EQ1 was, I had a lot of "memorable moments" there, especially since it was my just about my first MMO (we can argue about Gemstone).

Getting your surname? Hot.

Getting your epic? The New Hotness.

Realizing that if you run forward AND strafe at the same time, you can get away from pretty much any mob? Priceless. (Or, I could put in being the only survivor when my raid was wiped by 200 lvl 65 skeletons. I forget which zone this happened in.)

EDIT: Sorry, but I'm still not going to do it. My warrior in WoW is on the up and up, I just tanked Uldaman for the first time as a 43, and I got this to replace my Whirlwind Axe.

[El Gallo]

I'll play too many hours a day every day for two weeks and then never speak of it or respect myself again.

[shiznitz]

EQ1 never updated the old world graphics did they? Those have to be complete and utter ass still - especially considering what other games have done since. Yes, the player models were updated but the tunnels of Guk must look horrible relative to modern games.

[HaemishM]

The Progression Server simply treats every player as though they didn't play.

It's already treating me like that, since I wouldn't play this shit if you paid me.

I loved EQ1 at the time, but I'm not going back. The old bitch is crazy, has syphilis and a latex allergy.