P99 Green: The way I see it.

[Handull]

It'll be fun if they release a time accurate server. One of the drawbacks of p99 as it stands is how many lvl 60 toons with best in slot gear exist. On a fresh server the top end wouldn't be so heavy, and raiding would be different at the very least.

You can assume people would be allowed to play both servers at once, and a lot of people would.

Having the "green" server roll into Blue would be a challenge as far as what happens if someone has more than 8 toons on the same account between blue and green? I don't see the addition of top end No Drop raid loot being an issue, since blue already has so much of that. The only thing I could see being a problem would be the trade-able items like Manastone that no longer drop. Since they are so expensive on Blue, I would expect a good number of people to farm them with the intention of holding them until the server rolls over into blue so they can resell. Making these items No Drop would be one way to combat this.

Personally, I would love the chance to see this new server. I started on Live during Kunark and never raided there, and on p99 I started in Kunark as well. I'd love to see Fear/Hate/Sky as level 50 raids, see the one MM raid, etc. I think it would also be interesting to see Kunark/VP/Velious without everyone having best in slot gear. Of course I'd want to try and get a guise too. But I'd take the new server to roll a new class I haven't played before and have some fun. It would probably get stale if they then immediately rolled a second green server after the first ended, but I'm sure there's a way to make it fun.

[Sillyturtle]

Originally Posted by LordRayken [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think it's a little stretched to think a new server would be anything different. After splitting the playerbase, the same exact things would occur again on the new server, and the "progression" would end. The only thing worse than doing the same content for years is repeating progression cycles.

The way to make the server fresh is figure out some custom stuff that still feels and or maintains the idea of classic. Race/Class combinations, possibly adding Vah Shir or something but having them start elsewhere, maybe a new class, like Archer that focuses totally on ranged weapons and can crit with ranged weapons, or just a race the community votes on as a whole way down the line, like Gnolls or Orcs. I know work has been done on texturing mobs and they CAN be modified to wear armor. (I realize this may never ever happen, but a small change to me that keeps things fresh is better than restarting over and over).

Simply repeating progression servers until we're out of colors is probably a good way to kill healthy userbases.

See, I disagree completely with this.

There are other games and other franchises that prove that this is false. Diablo 2 ladder reset for example, Private Vanilla wow servers. The same population moves from one to the other doing that endless reset as that's what they enjoy.

I'm quite certain there's the same group of people here. Nothing would turn me off P99 more than custom content. I'm here because it's as accurate as possible for Everquest of this period. I'd leave the second custom content got introduced.

Regarding the previous' user comment that the same things would happen and it would eventually be the same as Blue 99 is correct. But for a long time while we're going through the content it would be a VERY different experience than now. Fresh economy and limited access to the strong gear we have now would force a very different type of playstyle. People would do things together much more than they do now.

And you don't have to be a neckbeard to get those items you mentioned. Yes it would be camped but anyone could obtain it if they worked for it. But things like that SHOULD require effort.

[andvarion]

Honestly I think they really only need to do three things to better capture a true classic experience, and interestingly enough I don't seem to hear enough mention of them:

1. Change the traveling direction of the OoT boat back to the way it was on Live. Even if it was "wrong", our memories are of it being wrong. Part of a classic experience is recapturing classic memories.
2. Weekly server downtime (or simulated downtime), which incidentally causes repops (and no variance for that matter). Part of a classic experience is wanting to play on that certain day of the week and being unable to, and actually logging into the chat server (yeah, remember?!). Now I don't know if our Titanium clients even still have a chat server but that's what these forums are for. Then when the servers come back up let the neckbeards rush for mobs without variance. Variance does nothing to stop them, or help them, it's just simply not classic. Neckbeards gonna neckbeard. Let them do it classically.
3. Now this last one is perhaps my most controversial idea. My first two points deal with changes that would directly replicate what could be found in live. But this final point is more about abstractly recapturing one of live EverQuest's most defining characteristics: intrigue or mystery. Obviously we can't all forget where the bank is in Freeport. We can't forget how to play our favorite class. But these sort of things don't really change the way the game is played. What does change gameplay is knowing how itemization will change with future patches. On Live there wasn't a list of players waiting to camp Holgresh Elder Beads. It was often camped, sure, but it also often wasn't. You could walk up and find the camp empty at times. And here is the controversial solution: the staff should ever so slightly shift loot tables. Maybe the Holgresh Elder Beads don't get removed. Maybe FBSS does instead. Maybe the Manastone doesn't get removed and instead the fungi tunic does. My examples are probably wild and horrible, but you get the idea. "Item A is going to be added to the game next patch, and then removed two months later. We gotta camp the hell out of it!" is not classic. "Surprise! That powerful item you just happened to get, or that item you didn't bother to get, has been removed! Count yourself lucky/unlucky!" is classic.

[fuark]

Sillyturtle: Nah, no one with a normal life schedule is going to have the time to get a guise or a manastone. Even stones on red were permacamped until they were removed and that's with a fraction of the population interested in actually getting lvl 40-50 on a pvp server.


Also the only feasible way to make a green server work is to just wipe it after progression is reached and restart. There's no way they are going to roll the green server into blue. There are a million problems that come with that and I doubt staff want to deal with that headache. This would be the most fun option too because it renders gear inconsequential and makes perma camping stones and guises pointless.

[Handull]

What are the problems with rolling green into blue? One I didn't think of what duplicate names, but that's easy enough to fix. For me the idea of rolling green into blue is based on Diablo 2 & 3 having ladder seasons that roll into the main pool. Diablo 3 goes as far as to even have custom items you can only get in the season. Not saying p99 is the same as Diablo, but there are models for rolling seasonal players into a general population.

[Sillyturtle]

Originally Posted by fuark [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Sillyturtle: Nah, no one with a normal life schedule is going to have the time to get a guise or a manastone. Even stones on red were permacamped until they were removed and that's with a fraction of the population interested in actually getting lvl 40-50 on a pvp server.


Also the only feasible way to make a green server work is to just wipe it after progression is reached and restart. There's no way they are going to roll the green server into blue. There are a million problems that come with that and I doubt staff want to deal with that headache. This would be the most fun option too because it renders gear inconsequential and makes perma camping stones and guises pointless.

Except they will, because it was easily achieveable when Phinigel, Ragefire and Lockjaw launched. Can't argue with history.

[fadetree]

They should start from alpha when rangers were OP. Just sayin.

[Kotopes]

@andvarion

They also need to introduce modem lag and disconnects as well, that shit was classic for good 3/4 of the playerbase back then :P

[nectarprime]

It's not classic if my dad doesn't get woken up at 3am by skeleton noises and beats the shit out of me

[Thulack]

Originally Posted by Sillyturtle [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Except they will, because it was easily achieveable when Phinigel, Ragefire and Lockjaw launched. Can't argue with history.

None of those servers have the dedicated players that p99 has. The camps will just be handed off between guildies. a few randoms will get lucky and might get one but the major campers that we have now will just continue on. Green and blue would be no different because it would be the same people playing on them. The mentality would just carry over. Yes raiding would be slow at first but the same people would be at the top on green that are on blue.