EZ Server

[wangerinlee]

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

quality custom content that is very well thought-out & polished. GREAT dev team and GM's.

There is no GM, if you need anything you better hope you have a SS or fraps running. Content is 99% copy and pasted. Polished? You mean like the birdbath eating epics and gear or server lagging out during a 50 minute shadow fight? Don't get me wrong the server is fun for a while but even hunter has said its still pretty much a "Beta".

[Lucrio40]

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

There is no GM, if you need anything you better hope you have a SS or fraps running. Content is 99% copy and pasted. Polished? You mean like the birdbath eating epics and gear or server lagging out during a 50 minute shadow fight? Don't get me wrong the server is fun for a while but even hunter has said its still pretty much a "Beta".

He was talking about Hidden Forest.

[wangerinlee]

Originally Posted by Lucrio40 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

He was talking about Hidden Forest.

Ahh, ok my bad.[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Tibador]

Not to piss in your cornflakes but you guys acutally think P99 does not have boxers so ya your numbers are around 500-700 normaly -minus those boxers your probally 350-550.

Not everyone boxes 6 on ez real numbers are probally around 150-200 people.

[Arkanjil]

How dare you piss on cornflakes!

[abegeden]

p88 sucks

simples

[Lucrio40]

WTF? P88 rules? How can you compete with classics like this.

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And this

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[Omnimorph]

As said, EZ is fun to begin with, but having to repeatedly do the same quests and farming becomes tedious and is why i quit after getting cle, war, rang, bard, rog all 3.0s etc.

[Messianic]

Originally Posted by Lucrio40 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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Heat Man's fully charged weapon or Metal Man's metal blades kicks Wood Man's butt.

[Secrets]

Gonna chime in here and say something,

EZ has been around since 2007. The reason they, and any other server like EZ, are still around is because they have one thing above everyone else: The amount of uptime. This is why green's uptime is such a huge criteria for non-developers; they have established themselves and have contributed a stable place for players to play in.

Hunter has gotten Legends due to his population. Even though people 6-box, that's 100-300 players (600 / 6 or 600 / 3). Hidden Forest has even *less* than this, let's say every player on The Hidden Forest 3-6 boxes. That leaves for 150 players online at a single time divided by 3 or 6. That's a very small number in comparison.

Whether or not the content is good is a different story. I personally think Storm Haven, BotA, and Hidden Forest have the best content of all the servers out there right now. Out of those three, I'd say Trevius' server (Storm Haven) or Akkadius' server (Blood of the Akkadian) have the best custom content server hands down. If you log on Blood of the Akkadian, and even just see the tutorial, you'll see what I mean. The level of attention to detail on those two are tremendously good.

I think the only thing Storm Haven doesn't have that makes me not play on it is a general direction. Sure, there might be content that releases that is top-notch and quality, but without the 'umph' behind it that keeps people coming back to you (Which, mind you, EZ does a hell of a good job doing) it's why Trev's population has been so low, and it's also why BOTA has been increasing. Trevius knows this too, which is why he's making that extra effort to make new players come to his server and stay there. (by the way, check both servers out if you are looking for a custom experience. or hell, even the hidden forest too.)

Now, what *is* on Storm Haven can be blown through in about a month or so. Compare that to BOTA, and Storm Haven has a bit more content.

All being said I still don't get the appeal of EZ other than its grindyness.

Speaking of grindiness... I've always categorized server content like this:


1) Grindy - This is the meat and bones on what drives your population. This is about 50% of player rentention. They love to be able to do things over and over, as stupid as that may sound. It's why World of Warcraft's kill 5x rats, return to questgiver questlines work.

2) Raid/Other Player Interaction (PvP Included) Content - A bit less important than Grindyness, but can be tied into Grindyness as well. It is for that hardcore group of players that loves that niche thing, whether it be raiding, pvping with friends, grouping, or just social interaction in general. I'd say this is the next 25% of player retention.

3) Storyline/General Server Direction - This is even less important than grindyness, less important than server interaction, but as noted on project 1999 and a few of my personal projects... people like a good story. However, if you must forgo all story, and make content with no general direction, you gotta let the player know ahead of time that you are doing this. Otherwise, players are left in the dark until the server administrator says, "Hey guys, new zone!" at which point your playerbase dwindles down to 1-8 players (INCLUDING boxes!) I'd say this is about 15% of what your server is.

4) The first of the last 5% is, believe it or not, GMing, player interaction, and learning to deal with the players and receiving their feedback. You know you have a good server when the players don't critique the mechanics, they don't critique the server administration, and best of all, they are willing to help us, help you. This is noted in Vallon Tallon Zek especially; I've heard that the majority of PVPers do not even go here and wait for a new PVP server and then flock as soon as they hear about it. A majority of the EQEmu players on p1999 are ex-vztz players from 2008-2009 when Daxum handed the server off to the community.

5) Last 5% is innovation. If you do something that is creative, it may be received well initially, but unless it has a bit of 1, 2, 3, and 4, it will die a slow and painful death when players realize the only thing you've done is create a mechanic. This is apparent in Edge II, back in 2007, when I created the database. I made a bunch of crappy zones, and never expanded thinking players would not beat them. It turned out, due to exp mechanics, that people got bored of grinding. This is very small, but it can be major if you overlook it.

That wraps up my wall of text, just thought i'd chime in on what i've seen since 2007/2006 and recently of course. It also gives some insights on what I believe works in a server. I've done a lot of 4 and 5, while a majority of servers have stuck to 1, 2, 3, and 4.