New EMU Under Development - EQ Launchpad

[mgellan]

Hi there:

I've been running an emu for several years, mostly as a playground for my P99 guild (Omni) to practice on. Over the past few months I've been working on beefing up the server to get it ready to offer a more robust experience for players. Here's what I was planning to do with Launchpad:

* A Trilogy server that will form the basis of new custom expansions which will maintain the same feel as Trilogy, not trivialize older content, and not cause mudflation.
* Intended to be difficult (classic xp rates, death penalties, CRs, minimal fast travel etc.) and challenging
* Some modern client conveniences - We will be leaving in some conveniences in the client such as guild management, raid management etc. that do not impact game play. Otherwise we will try to follow the classic experience as closely as possible, but if someone says NOT CLASSIC they'll be told to go play on P99.
* Multi-client support - use Titanium, Underfoot, RoF, RoF2 etc. as well as any future supported clients. Expect to download a special DLL to turn some client stuff off.
* Allow limited two-boxing - want to do an xfer in EC or buff your baby alt? Fine by me. As long as you're not getting xp feel free. Anyone found xping using boxing will however be subject to progressive discipline.
* Expansions that might include releases of content close to Live where it fit well with the Classic kind of feel (for example we're talking about a fairly stock PoP expansion (except no PoK per the "no fast travel" rule) as well as complete custom expansions to introduce playable races like Vah Shir and Frogloks).

Questions:
* Would you play on this server?
* What would you like to see change?
* Are you interested in taking on a role on this server eg Guide, Developer, GM etc.
* Would you like progression from Classic to Velious on a fixed timeframe or just start in Velious and start building expacs?

Your input is appreciated either on this thread or on the forums at:

http://eqlaunchpad.freeforums.net

Currently the Dev server is up and running with Betabuffers (to 60 with Velious gear) at most banks and at Vox / Naggy (52 with classic gear) hosted on a scalable Amazon EC2 instance. Hosting will be top notch, no basement home network stuff. Beta planned for Sept 1 and live Dec 1 2015 with Trilogy content so people can start levelling up.

I'd love to hear your input!

Regards,
Mg

[Grimjaw]

started with stock EMU & PEQ db? If so, how much work has been put into it so far to bring it back to a classic feel.

Also what client, Titanium? (Nevermind I missed that part - multiclient)

And is Launchpad the name of the server?

[Swish]

oh boy, a new forum to join! ;)

Answered there :)

[mgellan]

EQ Launchpad Dev (Trilogy, Legit, RoF2, betabuffer) is what the loginserver says -- Mg

[mgellan]

started with stock EMU & PEQ db? If so, how much work has been put into it so far to bring it back to a classic feel.

So far just a lot of blowing stuff away thats post-Velious, PoK books, Wayfarers Camps, etc. Decided to start fresh a while back (the PEQ database I had was pretty old and had a lot of issues so starting fresh with something that would work well with the new autoupdate stuff seemed a good idea) so most current emu code and database. Now going through all the zones removing NPCs that don't belong there and removing stuff from merchants. Turning off frogs and cats as well. Lots to do :)

Regards,
Mg

[citizen1080]

Good luck with the new server sir!

Personally I don't see myself starting on a fresh normal xp server unless it went to POP. But its a cool idea and I am sure you will get a good pop if its done right, judging by the Hidden Forest server there is a demographic for this.

[mgellan]

Good luck with the new server sir!

Personally I don't see myself starting on a fresh normal xp server unless it went to POP. But its a cool idea and I am sure you will get a good pop if its done right, judging by the Hidden Forest server there is a demographic for this.

Thanks Bob - you caught this one is probably going straight to PoP after Velious right? There seems to be a lot of interest in a good PoP server atm...

Regards,
Mg

[Pringles]

Personally I don't see myself starting on a fresh normal xp server unless it went to POP.

[citizen1080]

Thanks Bob - you caught this one is probably going straight to PoP after Velious right? There seems to be a lot of interest in a good PoP server atm...

Regards,
Mg

I read it as custom pop content after velious...i took that as hidden forestesk custom zones.

If everything but PoK is in game than I would play that.

[Sirken]

Hi there:

I've been running an emu for several years, mostly as a playground for my P99 guild (Omni) to practice on. Over the past few months I've been working on beefing up the server to get it ready to offer a more robust experience for players. Here's what I was planning to do with Launchpad:

* A Trilogy server that will form the basis of new custom expansions which will maintain the same feel as Trilogy, not trivialize older content, and not cause mudflation.
* Intended to be difficult (classic xp rates, death penalties, CRs, minimal fast travel etc.) and challenging
* Some modern client conveniences - We will be leaving in some conveniences in the client such as guild management, raid management etc. that do not impact game play. Otherwise we will try to follow the classic experience as closely as possible, but if someone says NOT CLASSIC they'll be told to go play on P99.
* Multi-client support - use Titanium, Underfoot, RoF, RoF2 etc. as well as any future supported clients. Expect to download a special DLL to turn some client stuff off.
* Allow limited two-boxing - want to do an xfer in EC or buff your baby alt? Fine by me. As long as you're not getting xp feel free. Anyone found xping using boxing will however be subject to progressive discipline.
* Expansions that might include releases of content close to Live where it fit well with the Classic kind of feel (for example we're talking about a fairly stock PoP expansion (except no PoK per the "no fast travel" rule) as well as complete custom expansions to introduce playable races like Vah Shir and Frogloks).

Questions:
* Would you play on this server?
* What would you like to see change?
* Are you interested in taking on a role on this server eg Guide, Developer, GM etc.
* Would you like progression from Classic to Velious on a fixed timeframe or just start in Velious and start building expacs?

Your input is appreciated either on this thread or on the forums at:

http://eqlaunchpad.freeforums.net

Currently the Dev server is up and running with Betabuffers (to 60 with Velious gear) at most banks and at Vox / Naggy (52 with classic gear) hosted on a scalable Amazon EC2 instance. Hosting will be top notch, no basement home network stuff. Beta planned for Sept 1 and live Dec 1 2015 with Trilogy content so people can start levelling up.

I'd love to hear your input!

Regards,
Mg

only allow 2boxing until a certain predetermined population number.
allow global ooc until you hit the same # to assist with group finding.
how will you prevent and enforce MQ2/SEQ?

dont listen to players. build what you want. if its good people will play. if you try to please everyone, most times you'll please no one. do what you want to do, and you may love it. if you love it the project will do better. you shouldnt need other people/players to validate your ideas ;)

good luck

[mgellan]

only allow 2boxing until a certain predetermined population number.
allow global ooc until you hit the same # to assist with group finding.
how will you prevent and enforce MQ2/SEQ?

I agree on the /ooc, don't agree on the limited 2boxing. Its easy enough to flag when someone is getting xp while boxing that I'm ok with xfers and buffing etc. that are bannable on P99. The no xp rule prevents ppl from just boxing and not grouping. MQ and SEQ will have to be similar to P99 obv. I've already resigned myself to building a DLL to adjust client stuff anyways.

dont listen to players. build what you want. if its good people will play. if you try to please everyone, most times you'll please no one. do what you want to do, and you may love it. if you love it the project will do better. you shouldnt need other people/players to validate your ideas ;)

good luck

I want to build what people will play - that usually involves asking :) However, the real secret is ignoring the stupid ones.

Thanks pal :)

Regards,
Mg

[mgellan]

I read it as custom pop content after velious...i took that as hidden forestesk custom zones.

If everything but PoK is in game than I would play that.

Yeah thats where it seems to be headed. The debate atm is how to do that without completely obsoleting the rest of the game. Feel free to hit my forums and express your opinion.

Regards,
Mg

[HappyTr33z]

If this thing got up and running you can bet that I'd be there on day 1!

[Foggon]

don't agree on the limited 2boxing. Its easy enough to flag when someone is getting xp while boxing that I'm ok with xfers and buffing etc. that are bannable on P99. The no xp rule prevents ppl from just boxing and not grouping.

I had this discussion with someone before about a quick transfer should be allowed, a sow, a buff. But when those buffs turn into thorns.. Is that okay? When those thorns turn into heals, is that still okay? Where exactly is the line?

So my theory here is that if you allow a little boxing over here, how much more difficult is it going to be to catch the illegal boxing happening over there? When there is 50 people on the server are you going to go check every group? When there is 100, 200, 500 people can you check every group?

But Sirken is right(and yes I see the irony of backing this statement after giving my 2 cents).. Make your server, don't make our server that we are too lazy to make but eager to suggest. =) run it how you want to run it and you sound like you know what you are doing so I hope it is a great success!

[khanable]

Neat idea Mg

I'll check it out whenever it's around!

[Swish]

If this thing got up and running you can bet that I'd be there on day 1!

[Zade]

I was on board till I saw the 2 boxing. People will undoubtedly abuse it. If 2 boxing wasnt allowed period, you would have my sword.

[Swish]

I was on board till I saw the 2 boxing. People will undoubtedly abuse it. If 2 boxing wasnt allowed period, you would have my sword.

Yeah I think there's an argument for having a shared bank slot or even an NPC trader(?) coded over boxing.

Every other emu seems to allow boxing, would be nice to try a no boxing alternative.

[Knuckle]

Limited two boxxing. Lol.

[SamwiseRed]

dont listen to players.

best advice here

[mgellan]

Hey there:

Lots of work being done on the new server, testers are wading through the content to bring it to close to Trilogy on the day before Luclin was dropped. We're not religious about classicness but it's nice to be close if we're putting the effort in!

Some recent developments for testers (besides betabuffing to 60 with BiS items) are starting characters are now equipped with Charm of Testing Prowess (32k hp 32k mana +100 to all saves, clicky gate, allows testers to test raid content without having to die a lot), Charm of Healing (clicky Cheal) and Staff of Forgetfulness (clicky memblur) to faciliate content testing.

Parameters such as Xp, runspeed, etc. being tuned to classic levels, loot tables have had all post-Velious items disabled, drop rates adjusted, NPCs being added/removed to restore the database to Velious state, zones being restored to pre-Luclin states.

Lots of discussions ongoing on our Forums about future expansion modules at: http://eqlaunchpad.freeforums.net/

Come join the fun!

Regards,
Mg