P1999 Loot Specifics

[Salient]

Since my prior EQ playing experience was on a POP server, I am finding myself increasingly unfamiliar with many classic era details. For instance, I noticed that many of the gear items linked on the P99 wiki are lacking the caster focus effects etc., with which I am accustomed. So if someone could specifically address a few of my questions it would greatly appreciated:

1) Is there a specific date that P1999 is most closely modeled after? Yes "P1999" seems an obvious answer. But I've discovered, what seems to be, EQ era loot conflicts while comparing P1999 wiki gear links with actual 1999 era drops listed on the EQ Internet Archive Database and on Alla's Lucy page.

For instance " A Dread Widow" located in the DL drops "Drachnid Thyxl" : a caster only item, without the ERIII focus, that this server lists as loot. However on Lucy it says that this loot's initial entry was 12/27/2002. http://lucy.allakhazam.com/itemhistory.html?id=11981

So knowing a few of these details will greatly aid my time spent researching what loot is or is not available on the server.


Which then leads to #2

2) At which date or era were caster focus effects first implemented? Because I've never not known them to exist. :D

and

B) If there are focus effects presently available on this server, is there a server list compiled of those working or broken? As often seems to be the case on many of the other EQEmu servers?

I guess that about does it. I haven't started a character yet but I've been looking into the possibility of getting involved here. And since the Classic era has it's definite, accentuated, challenges and rewards, I just want to have a clear understanding of what lies ahead for the commitment it entails.


Thanks. Your knowledge and comments are appreciated.

[SamwiseRed]

wut? no focus items yet. when they added focus to items they added the effect to classic loot as well.

also wiki is player created/maintained.

[pharmakos]

P99 is currently modeled after a patch or two before Velious' release

if you see stuff that is not era appropriate for that, post it in the Bugs forum. preferably with links (like the link you already have :)) to support your bug claim.

and welcome to the server. :)

[Thulack]

Focus effects weren't added to items til after luclin i believe it was. The only items with focus effects on them atm are the mage quested items with pet focuses and the Book from Inny that has pet focus for necro. Lucy's dates only go back so far because Lucy wasnt around when EQ was created. p1999 is trying to follow the Classic>Kunark>velious timeline as much as possible but die to patches in the future and such some bugs and changes have slipped through the cracks so there are always bug reports to make. Having evidence from archived class sites and alla's and such are how they go about changing things.

[heartbrand]

It's a shame about focus effects particularly for pvp they add meaningful item progression to casters in a melee dominated world

[kylok]

http://web.archive.org/web/20000511085510/http://everquest.allakhazam.com/

This link shows that the item was in game as of Oct 26 2000 with no focus effect - I believe that the entry of lucy that you linked was when they added the focus effect to it, and probably re-entered the item into the database (hence why it says initial entry in 2002)

[Kender]

http://web.archive.org/web/20000511085510/http://everquest.allakhazam.com/

This link shows that the item was in game as of Oct 26 2000 with no focus effect - I believe that the entry of lucy that you linked was when they added the focus effect to it, and probably re-entered the item into the database (hence why it says initial entry in 2002)

nah lucy was created in 2002 so all items can only have at the earliest a 2002 first entry regardless

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

By the time eq got to planes of power, the game was well into the era of truly "fat loot." Items with lots of stats, and lots of +hp and +mana, proliferated. This inflation of gear *has not started yet*. p99 is in the late Kunark era currently, and really outrageous gear is the rarest exception, not the norm. During the current era on p99, one is usually getting "excited" about gear upgrades that often only have maybe an extra 2 or 3 points in a certain stat. Just take a look at currently in-game caster robes for a rough idea of how modest classic era loot is.

The inflation of loot only starts, imo, in the upcoming Velious era, and really then starts to take off in the next era, that of Luclin. Of course, Velious is not here yet; as for Luclin, if the p99 devs even do that expansion, my ballpark estimate is it would probably be sometime around 2016 before we would see it.

This server is waaaaay stretched out as far as its time scale goes. If you are familiar with the PoP era mechanics and loot, we are talking about this server maybe sometime around 2020.

tl;dr version: loot inflation starts in the Velious era, starts to really take off in Luclin, where you also have the AA point malarkey, and basically almost turns into a different game by the time we get to PoP.

Get used to very tiny differences in loot, in other words. Forget about getting a bunch of stuff that each adds +75hp and +75 mana and double digit stat numbers. That's stuff that simply is super-super rare during this era.

[pharmakos]

^^ the devs have said that this server will never get Luclin, nor any expansions past that

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

^^ the devs have said that this server will never get Luclin, nor any expansions past that

That is because they fear the end of their massive, and subtle, plat farming via a vast network of druid and wizard porters.

43@r the N3xUs

[Savok]

nah lucy was created in 2002 so all items can only have at the earliest a 2002 first entry regardless

[Salient]

^^ the devs have said that this server will never get Luclin, nor any expansions past that

Really? I personally liked all the expansions through POP. But I would especially look forward to Velious & Luclin. However the charm of this server, for the time being, is in traversing Norrath and conquering the old world zones with the limitations of the Classic era; something I never was able to truly appreciate before.

[Aerar]

Luclin ruins all. From the insane XP of PC to the Bazaar destroying EC tunnel to stupid looking models and horses.

[Vohl]

Luclin ruins all. From the insane XP of PC to the Bazaar destroying EC tunnel to stupid looking models and horses.

++

[Ele]

I think the majority* of players here believe classic-Velious had the right idea.

Luclin onward.. I just can't get onboard with. I played the expansions up to like omens of war. It was all right, but mostly just a big waste of my time.

I'd rather have a completely custom game after Velious than rebuild that fail. Cats on the moon not happening on my watch.

[pharmakos]

luclin/PoP minus PoK (and maybe the nexus), the bazaar, and the stupid models would be nice imo

oh and horses were sorta dumb i guess, but not horrible

AAs were awesome, as were caster focus effects

[Atmas]

To answer the OP:

Focus effects were added later in the game, at a point after Velious which is were this server is currently scheduled to stop adding content. In other words if things go as planned items will never have focus effects here. The reason you see effects on old items when looking at some sources is because on live they were added retroactively when focus was added to the game.

As far a Luclin goes. I enjoyed it, sure it had its downsides with VT being mind numbingly boring, but things like AAs that really gave casters some real end game toon development were awesome. Ssra and a lot of other zones were fun too. Mounts and some interesting clickies on gear added more dimensions to the game. Velious for example is terribly itemized for casters but still a good expansion.

IMO too many people get way to bent out of shape about cats on the moon or whatever. I know a lot of people are on this server because they liked the game up until only Velious, but a lot are here because they appreciate the level of effort put into authenticity and it is the best option. I enjoyed the game through PoP and would love to see the server go that far, but its not my call.

[Spitty]

Cats on the moon, talking lizards in the desert - whatever. Lore/canon content isn't terribly concerning.

Luclin, however, was a fail of an expansion overall and I would be dismayed to see it once again stifling the greatness that was/will be Velious.

[uygi]

Cats on the moon, talking lizards in the desert - whatever. Lore/canon content isn't terribly concerning.

Luclin, however, was a fail of an expansion overall and I would be dismayed to see it once again stifling the greatness that was/will be Velious.

Are you sure you'll still feel the same way after 4 years of farming Velious?

IMO the best solution would be to take the original P99 server and add either fully custom content or release Luclin (probably in chunks) in modified form to maintain the spirit of classic EQ. Different devs have suggested that there might be new custom content after the P99 timeline was completed.

Even if Velious released today we'd still be about a year from the end of P99 timeline.

One thing a lot of people don't seem to understand, though, is that SOE took over EQ during Velious era, and a lot of the late Velious changes were really part of the same meta design shift that took EQ through Luclin and PoP.

[Spitty]

Yes, I'm sure.

I outright quit during Luclin on live, and would sadly do the same if I had to deal with it again on P99.

8 years of expansions and "improvements" did nothing to change my mind. 4 years of Velious seems like a luxury compared to what EQ became after Luclin warped the essence of the game I grew up playing.

[Thulack]

Yes, I'm sure.

I outright quit during Luclin on live, and would sadly do the same if I had to deal with it again on P99.

8 years of expansions and "improvements" did nothing to change my mind. 4 years of Velious seems like a luxury compared to what EQ became after Luclin warped the essence of the game I grew up playing.

There is your problem.

[Spitty]

Explain how that's a problem.

[Thulack]

Explain how that's a problem.

Because you still looked at EQ as the game you grew up playing instead of just adapting to the changes in the game. There are many things that came along in EQ that were cool and made the game worth playing. God could you imagined more xpacs with just levels and no other way of advancing your toon? Would have been horrid kinda like how p99 will be after 6-7 years of still having a level 60 cap.

[Retti_]

Twat?

[Spitty]

You're wrong, but I can see how you'd surmise that based on a snippet of one sentence in one post on this forum.

I have hundreds of played days' worth of time on live spanning over ten years. That's a couple thousand AAs (loved that system), plenty of MM's (those were fun), tens of thousands of plat sunk into mercenaries and more than one character at level 85 or 90 or wherever I stopped.

I adapt, encourage and apply myself to change just fine. That doesn't change the fact that when Luclin was released as an expansion, I simply didn't enjoy playing it.

[Thulack]

You're wrong, but I can see how you'd surmise that based on a snippet of one sentence in one post on this forum.

I have hundreds of played days' worth of time on live spanning over ten years. That's a couple thousand AAs (loved that system), plenty of MM's (those were fun), tens of thousands of plat sunk into mercenaries and more than one character at level 85 or 90 or wherever I stopped.

I adapt, encourage and apply myself to change just fine. That doesn't change the fact that when Luclin was released as an expansion, I simply didn't enjoy playing it.

If you loved aa's and lore doesnt concern you what did you hate about luclin? I mean just saying you don't like something and then defending it by just keeping saying you don't like it doesnt help anyone understand you any better.

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

My take on this is, the game had no "vision" of how to develop content beyond just keep making characters more and more powerful, and of course scaling the mobs and adding some different mechanics.

This problem emerges naturally after a few expansions. Everquest turned into "Gear Hunter." AA's were a cop-out, armor sets became more and more ludicrous.

I date the shark moment after PoP. I quit the day after I got a kill shot on Quarm, which is just not right. I suck, I'm not supposed to get kill shots.

This is a problem that emerged gradually. New content ideas vs. just turning on the gear and aa spigot and making how powerful your charatcer can get the point of the game.

And the model that won -- we all know which model won -- gets tiresome after a while.

eq ran out of ideas how to create new content, new mechanics, and new lore.

And then it turns into gear hunter.

But PoP was alright. It was delightfully broken but fun at the same time. That's my take.

[Spitty]

Nexus. Bazaar. Initial AA time requirements and limited functionality. Raid encounters that were too easily broken/interrupted by malicious guilds. Ugly Fucking Graphics. Bizarre loot tables that oftentimes trivialized hard-to-get Velious drops, or were way less powerful than easy-to-get Velious drops.

There's a plenty long list, but I don't see any value in getting granular when the end result is when Luclin was released "classically", I went and found a different game to play. I returned a few expansions later when a lot of the mechanics had been refined, got my Seru horse and moved on.

[pharmakos]

One thing a lot of people don't seem to understand, though, is that SOE took over EQ during Velious era, and a lot of the late Velious changes were really part of the same meta design shift that took EQ through Luclin and PoP.

Sony always owned EQ

Qeynos is "Sony EQ" spelled backwards

[Tikker]

Luclin was mostly terrible

PoP tho was a fantastic return to fun gaming


Luclin was tedious, PoP was a lot of fun (minus the flagging system)