EQC Dead in the Water

[Anesthia]

Not a huge surprise:

Many of you have recently reached out to me asking about the project's status, so I might as well take the time to address everyone.

Testing started on April 5th and I recently closed it on July 9th. The testing environment was very small, so our testers simply exhausted the content (I was only expecting the content to keep them busy for three or four weeks). I have recently become very busy at work, so I am not yet sure when the next testing phase will begin.

We did discover a few key things from this first testing phase. Starting with the bad, roughly 10% of users experienced an issue with the UDP/IP handshaking stage (this stage occurs when connecting to the server and while zoning). The severity of this issue ranged from an occasional problem to completely preventing the connection. We do not yet have enough data to say this for certain, but this seems to be a problem with recovering from packet loss during the handshaking stage (a number of these users were connecting through hotspots and other wireless connections). We have also experienced a number of issues with running the client under Windows 8, but I believe most of these have been resolved by now. On the plus side, we learned that our work is unbelievably stable. In the 2,250+ hours the server was online, we only experienced two crashes, both of which were due to silly mistakes (an infinite loop in the forage routine and a race condition in the PC trading routine). This level of stability for software that was never tested in the past is just absurd and we are really happy about that.

As some of you already know, I reached out to SoE in February with a partnership proposal, which exchanged full liability and monthly subscriptions for the rights to possess and distribute their intellectual property (IP). Although the deal was entirely in their favor (I would have essentially been an unpaid slave), they ultimately said no. I believe I have made it quite clear in the past how critical legitimate data is to me (there is no close; you either have it or you don't), so it should come as no surprise when I say I have zero interest in hosting a server without it. Plus, despite what so many others will have you believe, it is unlawful to distribute SoE's IP without their consent--you cannot argue against this.

Although I was not expecting SoE to accept my proposal, I was relying on them doing so. At this point, my only option for this project is to create an original content server, but I doubt I will have the motivation to do so. While I refuse to be involved with any classic-era content server, this does not mean one cannot exist under our work.

[SamwiseRed]

thats always been his stance, what is your point?

[Zadrian]

All that is going to mean is, once the project is complete, they will hand it off to someone who is willing to host it illegitimately.

[Misto]

Not a huge surprise:

Many of you have recently reached out to me asking about the project's status, so I might as well take the time to address everyone.

Testing started on April 5th and I recently closed it on July 9th. The testing environment was very small, so our testers simply exhausted the content (I was only expecting the content to keep them busy for three or four weeks). I have recently become very busy at work, so I am not yet sure when the next testing phase will begin.

We did discover a few key things from this first testing phase. Starting with the bad, roughly 10% of users experienced an issue with the UDP/IP handshaking stage (this stage occurs when connecting to the server and while zoning). The severity of this issue ranged from an occasional problem to completely preventing the connection. We do not yet have enough data to say this for certain, but this seems to be a problem with recovering from packet loss during the handshaking stage (a number of these users were connecting through hotspots and other wireless connections). We have also experienced a number of issues with running the client under Windows 8, but I believe most of these have been resolved by now. On the plus side, we learned that our work is unbelievably stable. In the 2,250+ hours the server was online, we only experienced two crashes, both of which were due to silly mistakes (an infinite loop in the forage routine and a race condition in the PC trading routine). This level of stability for software that was never tested in the past is just absurd and we are really happy about that.

As some of you already know, I reached out to SoE in February with a partnership proposal, which exchanged full liability and monthly subscriptions for the rights to possess and distribute their intellectual property (IP). Although the deal was entirely in their favor (I would have essentially been an unpaid slave), they ultimately said no. I believe I have made it quite clear in the past how critical legitimate data is to me (there is no close; you either have it or you don't), so it should come as no surprise when I say I have zero interest in hosting a server without it. Plus, despite what so many others will have you believe, it is unlawful to distribute SoE's IP without their consent--you cannot argue against this.

Although I was not expecting SoE to accept my proposal, I was relying on them doing so. At this point, my only option for this project is to create an original content server, but I doubt I will have the motivation to do so. While I refuse to be involved with any classic-era content server, this does not mean one cannot exist under our work.

You sound like you work for the fuckin' government.

[Anesthia]

The project director of EQC is ridiculously thorough and would probably produce an ultra-pure classic experience. That's why I was secretly hoping he would be successful legitimately. Otherwise, there's no point in playing anything other than p99.

[stormlord]

I was always amazed at how rapid the project1999 server came online. I think a big part of it was that they chose to use the Titanium client and to accept that the experience would not be completely classic. I mean, I first learned about all this at the everquest classic website. But it was so slow. Then I learned about project1999. Yes, it wasn't a perfect experience compared to 1999, but it was active and strong. In the end, people didn't want a perfect replication of eq classic. For the most part, project 1999 is a universe apart from eq live and this is what makes it so appealing. It doesn't have to be exactly as it was in 1999 to be distinctive.

BUT I greatly respect the eq classic project. I also agree that if this cannot be done legit then I don't want to be part of it. It's a little late for them to be saying this, but then again, they probably went a long time on pure enthusiasm, without thinking through the ramifications. This was my reason for leaving. I play on eq live instead. I wish there was more widespread support for classic-like servers, but it's just not a popular thing. I know some people can play on project 1999 without hte legal issue crossing their mind, but if you read the license supplied by the client, you'll see that it forbids the client from connecting to a non-official service.

If you're aching for something LIKE eq classic... I still recommend Wurm Online. After I left project 1999, I floated around and tried different MMO's. Eventually, I settled on Wurm Online. It's a sandbox mmo, but it has many features that remind me of how EQ was in the 1999-2002 period. Literally, there're corpse returns and trains and similar mechanics. No in-game map. Other things too. It's a lot more too. Wurm Online has hit me like nothing else ever has. It's hard to explain. It's BETTER than eq classic. Just try it.

The hand holding and safety features in modern MMO's has ruined the fun for a minority of players, including myself. MMO's like this will pop up forever so long as players like myself still exist. There's just nothing else that can compare to being thrust into a dangerous world with only a couple tools and some basic advice. It's about living on the edge. It's about earning every scrap. It's about feeling the pain when you fail. The failures make the success more substantial. The whole world around you becomes more real-ish, almost as though you could really touch it if you were there. All the added weight just pulls you into it.

Somdeay soon I'll revisit Wurm Online. Getting that itch slightly. I'm on Chaos. It realy is a kick *** mmo. I could write several threads on it. I don't lie when I tel you it's something special. I subscribed to it twice. They recently upped sub to $21 for 2 months, but it's still low, if you don't include deed costs.

Of course, nostalgia can only be met by going onto live. I'm enjoying my time so far. I don't know how compelling my argument is, but at least when you play on live, you're not breaking the EULA. And for free you can do quite a bit. The 250 aa cap for f2p is not high, but it allows you a lot of freedom without paying a dime from your pocket. For $5 can you make your account silver and gain access to more things and 1000 aa. Anyway, just thought I'd mention that EQ live still has value for us eq classic old timers.

[Ghordo]

Is their a server like project 1999, thats not project 1999...lol ?

[OngorDrakan]

Why don't they just give up their code so somebody can fix the connections properly and get it hosted already. Shit. Its been 5 years, what are you doing, remaking the game? I just want a Classic UI sometimes. I would enjoy playing it like it was in '99...But you aren't going to get SOE's blessing on it, ever. So get with it.

[Langrisser]

Yea too bad but hopefully the work is used at some point. Really dedicated team.

off topic from the WO faq:
"What can I do in Wurm?
Mount various creatures, from horses and carts to unicorns, bears and even dragons!"

sold! gonna mount the hell out of some stuff.

[Visual]

All that is going to mean is, once the project is complete, they will hand it off to someone who is willing to host it illegitimately.

Yea right

A selfless act in the spirit of altruism. Keep dreamin

[Swish]

Still a better server than the Sleeper

[Daldolma]

lol @ eqc

it's vapor ware

[TWDL_Prexus]

lol @ eqc

it's vapor ware

EQC was vapor several years ago. Shit's all evaporated by now.

[pointyhat]

Looks like the implosion is now complete.

http://www.eqclassic.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3893

[Swish]

Looks like the implosion is now complete.

http://www.eqclassic.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3893

I can see some Toop/Kegz in this Yeahlight guy. He's paying too much attention to the community and taking it all personally.

The fact that he's still responding to people's comments on the forum suggests a temper tantrum and still wanting to work on the project. But yeah, he's so far off getting it done that all the people who actually played in 1999 will be dead before release.

[Bardalicious]

Nostalgia is a helluva drug.

[scarthearmada]

All that is going to mean is, once the project is complete, they will hand it off to someone who is willing to host it illegitimately.

Yeahlight has said that he would rather do whatever he can to see P1999 fail than share his (his emphasis) source code with the P99 team.

[Swish]

Yeahlight has said that he would rather do whatever he can to see P1999 fail than share his (his emphasis) source code with the P99 team.

From what I read over there, and I'm no techie... the source code there wouldn't be compatible with the code here anyway.

People get all nostalgic for "true" 1999 EverQuest but when it comes down to it a lot of those people couldn't handle the old UI/meditate button/no item links... and such a server wouldn't sustain the crowd on the same level as P99.

Overall people will jump ship for anything if its deemed a new server..."screw climbing the P99 plat mountain, I want to go and be king of that small hill over there".

EDIT: Also, tried to make an account over there - it was never approved :D

[a_gnoll_pup]

Ironic that he says it's his source code when he copied most of his work from EQEmu.

[scarthearmada]

From what I read over there, and I'm no techie... the source code there wouldn't be compatible with the code here anyway.

That isn't the important point. The important thing to remember is that P99 is a team of people willing to take the legal risk of hosting a server that SOE does not approve of. And further, it can't be denied that the core team behind P99 has a lot of technical talent between them.

People get all nostalgic for "true" 1999 EverQuest but when it comes down to it a lot of those people couldn't handle the old UI/meditate button/no item links... and such a server wouldn't sustain the crowd on the same level as P99.

A lot of the EQC people had a lot of fun playing the alpha testing server a few months back. But I think you're trying to speak for people that you don't know or understand.

Overall people will jump ship for anything if its deemed a new server..."screw climbing the P99 plat mountain, I want to go and be king of that small hill over there".

It doesn't seem accurate or fair to say this. There are specific things that people seem to flock to, and another group of things that people seem to avoid. We can nail down at least a few of these for certain when it comes to games and MMOs specifically. Nobody wants a classic EverQuest server because it would be, in any way, easy. Easy to play. Easy to be the king of. Easy to control. Whatever. If there is an interest in any project, some group of people will come forward to work on it. EQC has apparently come quite close, but its leadership is unwilling to finish it.

[JackFlash]

Rogean already said he wouldn't want the code anyway.....

[scarthearmada]

Rogean already said he wouldn't want the code anyway.....

Any insight about why he feels that way?

[a_gnoll_pup]

Any insight about why he feels that way?

Despite their claims, it's nothing special and no one wants their 'work'. The client they use is incompatible with modern systems and the server code is atrocious.

[scarthearmada]

Despite their claims, it's nothing special and no one wants their 'work'. The client they use is incompatible with modern systems and the server code is atrocious.

Alpha testing seems to have went very well on Windows 7 64-bit, so I don't think that point is true. However I really have no idea what the server code looks like. I'd be surprised to hear the P99 team really has no interest in the EQC code, if the EQC code does actually work. I always thought the P99 team didn't have the time or energy to go through all of the work that the EQC team did.

I guess any sort of cooperation moving forward is out of the question? If that's the case, the dream of a classic EverQuest server is now completely dead.

[a_gnoll_pup]

Alpha testing seems to have went very well on Windows 7 64-bit, so I don't think that point is true. However I really have no idea what the server code looks like. I'd be surprised to hear the P99 team really has no interest in the EQC code, if the EQC code does actually work. I always thought the P99 team didn't have the time or energy to go through all of the work that the EQC team did.

I guess any sort of cooperation moving forward is out of the question? If that's the case, the dream of a classic EverQuest server is now completely dead.

They have stated that they do not want cooperation with P99. No one needs EQClassic's code to do a classic EQ server though; It can be reversed engineered using the same methods that EQClassic has made their server with. They have created a logical fallacy that their server is the only server capable of creating a classic EQ server using the Trilogy client, and that is where the issue really separates them.