More help for the staff from the greatest server of all time, Vallon Zek

[Aenor]

The staff has made Loot n' Scoot, a player-created and -enforced policy that originated on Vallon Zek, official server policy. On behalf of the Veterans of Vallon Zek, I would like to thank the staff for this tacit acknowledgement that Vallon Zek was the greatest server in the history of online gaming. We've always known this to be the case, and we appreciate your assistance in getting the word out.

With that in mind, what follows are more ideas that were forged in the crucible of greatness. This is my most-developed proposal for a teams ruleset. The staff has assured us repeatedly that teams is coming, in spite of any temporary delays. You, gentle readers, may be assured that I will not let this fact slip your minds.

What follows is Rep Yo City 3.0. A city-based team server, which the staff has stated is under consideration, would create an experience closer to the race war ruleset than the Sullon Zek ruleset. Why is this important? Please see the wise words of Sirken in my signature. Three hard-coded teams created the Sullon Zek mentality, which our CSR lead assures us is the genesis for the most toxic behavior on our server.

So, three hard-coded teams (i.e. Sullon Zek) = toxic behavior. Four soft-coded teams (i.e. Vallon Zek) created the environment from which Loot n' Scoot originated. Rep Yo City 3.0 opens with 12 city-based teams divided into three factions. Each team has the option to ally with the other three city teams within their faction. They also have the option to attack the other city teams within their faction. The existence of such options, commonly referred to as "soft coding," is what produced the greatness that was Vallon Zek. To simply hard code the three factions into teams would be to fall into the same trap that produced Sullon Zek and all the toxic player behavior described by Sirken in my sig quote.

The one drawback of soft-coded teams is the phenomenon of immortal healing. To address this, Rep Yo City 3.0 recommends a dynamic flagging system for PvP. You are allowed to heal players within your faction but outside your team, but not without consequences. If a member of your city team is engaged in PvP with a member of another city team within the same faction and you cast a beneficial spell on the player your teammate is fighting, you are flagged as PvP+ to your own team for as long as you remain in that zone. When this flagging occurs, the flagged player's name should change colors to indicate to the player's teammates that the player is now attackable.

So, cross teaming is possible, as it was on the Race War servers, but immortal healing is not. As soon as you heal outside your team, you lose PvP protection from your own team until you zone. The staff has already proposed a dynamic level range system to address out-of-range healing. The combination of this proposed dynamic flagging system with the dynamic range system proposed by the staff would eliminate immortal healing altogether.

Here are the 12 city teams divided by faction:

Human faction:

Erudin
Qeynos (includes Surefall Glade)
Halas
Freeport

Evil faction:

Neriak
Paineel
Grobb
Oggok

Elf and shortie faction:

Rivervale
Kaladim
Kelethin (includes Felwithe)
Ak'anon

As discussed in previous threads, a division such as this would deny essential raid classes to certain teams. As listed above, the evil team would lack monks and bards while the Elf/shortie team would lack shaman. The immersion-breaking introduction of the dwarf shaman has been suggested previously, but Rep Yo City 3.0 proposes to keep the server as classic as possible. As such, upon creation of a barbarian shaman, the creating player will be prompted to select Human faction or Elf/shortie faction. Upon creation of a human bard starting in Freeport, the creating player will be prompted to select Human faction or Evil faction. And upon creation of a human monk in Freeport, the creating player will be prompted to select Human faction or Elf/shortie faction. The selection made will be permanent and final for that character.

Players who select a faction other than the one that controls their chosen starting cities can expect to be outcasts until they are able to relocate to areas controlled by their chosen faction. Players from the controlling faction for a given starting city will see the names of such outcasts as red to indicate that the player has chosen an enemy faction. Players who choose outcast status can expect to be attacked and decried as "fairy lovers" as long as they remain in their home city.

You will note that Rep Yo City 3.0 does not allow the option for human monks to select the Evil faction. This is because the evil team dominated Tallon Zek for its entire history, and they did it without monks until Kunark. The Evil faction on Rep Yo City 3.0 will have to make do with shadowknights as its feign death class until Kunark is opened and Cabilis is joined with the Evil faction. Man up, Evil faction.

Other restrictions will include that shadowknights and necromancers are only allowed within the Evil faction while druids and paladins are only allowed within the Human and Elf/shortie factions. Rep Yo City 3.0 is not perfectly balanced, but it combines the best aspects of Race War, the most successful PvP ruleset in Everquest history, with solutions for its few shortcomings. Rep Yo City 3.0 also recommends a +/- 6 level spread for PvP, the ideal compromise between the bluebie fest that was Rallos Zek and the more prolific PvP of Race War.

[BrobbVZ]

Who were you on Vallon Zek? Daak here

[Clark]

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

Rep Yo City.

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Pretty interesting post though [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Smedy]

Vallon Zek was great, so much fun playing when 90% of pop followed rules but you still got that 10% of fuckery to spice things up

The teams part surely made Vallon Zek more fun for the newbies having someone to trust on your own side at the beginning, but towards the end it really didn't matter much

The thing i liked the most was that your reputation had a huge impact on your character, if you were labeled as a douche you wouldn't get into a guild, which was great cause that lead to everyone actually giving a fuck

Red Dawn shows promise where they boot players who break rules, nizzar speaks of doing it but he is only interested in winning and that means keeping numbers. No one is ever getting booted from nihilum unless there's pixel drama.

[Aenor]

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

Who were you on Vallon Zek? Daak here

Aenor the Betrayer, human druid of Surefall Glade, was born the day Vallon Zek came online. Scroll down to the entries for the Journal of Bregolas if you appreciate full immersion:

http://z9.invisionfree.com/Mordred/ar/t61.htm

[Dullah]

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[Aenor]

Smedy, if you do a promo video for Teams99, here's the soundtrack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-THg68cxEWY

[Beastro]

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

The thing i liked the most was that your reputation had a huge impact on your character, if you were labeled as a douche you wouldn't get into a guild, which was great cause that lead to everyone actually giving a fuck

Much the same was the case on RZ, but it takes a certain mentality that is alien to most PvPers because of the SZ taint.

[Smedy]

i will have to negotiate new terms for promo video, i need to either

1 be on staff
2 get a mandatory aon summoned

until then i will continue to work on my sirken album

[Danien]

This absolute cesspool has little resemblance with SZ. The vztz crowd have by far had the most toxic impact on player behavior here.