Devs : considerations for better community activity and health

[Khaleesi]

Presumably most people noticed by now that not all things are classic here on Project 1999, and with that said, instead of arguing what things they changed, I figured we could discuss some things that would benefit the community and health of the server, by increasing it's population and activity levels in what are now quite dormant areas of Norrath.


To start, I am one to always look for out of the way places to experience and adventure. This has pros and cons.

Pros :


Fun
Break from the normal grind areas
Not overly populated/swamped


Cons :


Depending on where it is, it may be particularly time consuming or difficult in STARK contrast to normal/old world/common places
Leads onto hard corpse runs
Ultimately discourages people


Before people rebuttal that this is EverQuest and not meant to be easy, and that the pros of the out of the way places are worth it.. yes I agree, though as a community we seem to be consistently seeing (after how many years?) players (both new and twinks/alts) swamping the usual areas - EC, Guk, Unrest, Mistmoore, Karnors etc.

I can understand for people who are new and do not know others, cannot afford to pay for a lot of portals everywhere and/or are short on time because of real life, that they cannot manage to make the commitment to say doing Kaesora or <insert out of the way place here>.


And this is why I'd like to see two things happen :

1. Open up Surefall Glade portal. It would help breathe life back into Western Antonica, and encourage new players of all types to go back and forth for a myriad of reasons. New players may not be able to afford the Dial a Port service, however they may get a kind free ride with all the new traffic in the area. This traffic will see an increase in general activity and generate more trade /business as well. The added population will mean great zones such as Black Burrow, Qeynos Catacombs, Halas(starter lake for the win!), EverFrost and Permafrost will get more attention like they should. Subsequently Odus will be for more than just new Erudite twinks and Hole groups(which are still not as abundant as they should be). Even now, the Warrens is practically dead. There should be way more teenage level players in there, but why be an Erudite when you have to take the (sometimes broken) long boat to Qeynos, only to have to run all the way to Commonlands, if not lucky enough to find a teleport somewhere along the way, because you couldn't afford one in Toxxulia Forest, provided any one was even there to do it?

2. Increase the experience modifier in outdoor and indoor(more so) zones in out of the way places - which is OOT/Timorous, most of Kunark and parts of Velious. People who make the long journey to Dalnir for example need to be rewarded and rewarded well. And even more to a particular point, we do not spend enough time fighting miscellaneous open world mobs such as goblins on the coast in Butcherblock, or Iksar Bandits in Warsliks or ..there's just so many things to experience off of, yet they give a terribly low value in contrast to other more easy to reach/safer locale monsters, and particularly old world which are weaker, do not cast as much and take less effort to kill - and of course are closer to towns and vendors so you can sell, run back from a bind point etc.


I am of the strong belief that a little focus on these aspects, would see a healthy growth on that side of the world as well as encourage what I call 'nostalgia' players(oh an EQ Emulator, cool let's see what it's like, it's probably crappy, I'll just poke around a few minutes in Qeynos and relive my first Bard experiences, but I won't expect much..let's just have a little run around for ol' times sake), to stick with it and not be put off by the fact the game isn't loaded with players like they remember it years ago, where practically everything was camped and taken at all times.

Here they have some amazing advantages they never did previously, yet they can't reach or participate in them in ways that they should.

Heck even something miscellaneous such as camping a cleric in a dangerous zone and then coming on for a few hours, offering rez for donations, isn't much of a lucrative venture any more because there's no business to be had. Imagine a zone full of players in Permafrost from level 20(?) right up to 58 Druids camping in the pits, or groups on the third floor of Dalnir. Kedge rez anyone?

I have my issues with some of the things that are not classic here, that they've left in, yet they are what they are and we get on with it. However if the intent was to leave them in for the betterment of everyone, than that suggests to me that the developers aren't completely adverse to something 'not classic,' if there's enough of a good reason.


Any ways, food for thought.

[nostalgiaquest]

What I would like too see would be use of the LFG window. I know it's not classic, and I'm not above doing a /who all 20 30 and sending tells for groups, but I sure do wish that was a better way to group up, especially for schmucks like me playing at oddball hours.

That and flying mounts, can we have flying mounts too?

[Blitzers]

Kerra Isle revamp make it a level 60 raid zone. Right now it's worthless.

[radda]

Kerra Isle revamp make it a level 60 raid zone. Right now it's worthless.

This
custom content

[Spyder73]

What I would like too see would be use of the LFG window. I know it's not classic, and I'm not above doing a /who all 20 30 and sending tells for groups, but I sure do wish that was a better way to group up, especially for schmucks like me playing at oddball hours.

This +1,000,000

The LFG function is already hard coded into the game, just activate it.

People could make LFG like - LFM Kedge Keep; LFM Hole group

Some of these "out of the way zone" would all of a sudden become more popular if people could actually assemble groups in a reasonable manner other then /who all over and over

[renordw]

While I am not a strict-classic kinda guy, there isn't really much going on in Western Antonica in the first place. There's not really any reason to go there. If you're wondering, there is a (wizard) port to Western Karana, and if you evac from there, it takes you to WK/QH ZL which is closer than Surefall.

Aside from that I really do think there are some things that need to be considered to maintain community health.

I'm not sure if the damage is mitigable at this point, but the server is churning out a ridiculous amount of 60's, due to Chardok AoE groups. The server can't really handle as many 60's as it has, and there are going to be more every day. The high end raid scene is just a cluster. Chardok definitely needs a revamp.

A slightly less important point is that Bard AoE does sort of the same thing, if I were king of the server I would probably make Bard AoE only hit 4 targets. OR... at the very least Bard AoE only should hit 4 targets if they are GROUPED.

Then after those two things are fixed, then I think ZEM is an important issue to touch on.

Fourthly, I think we need to address the fact that the intended race for an XP bonus was human. Although it was mistakenly input as halfling for the first few years in EQ, original devs have stated that it was indeed a mistake. Every other game in existence works like this, humans are the most boring, so they get some kind of bonus - such as xp.

As for the LFG window, I am not convinced. It's not classic, EQ is meant to be hard. It's not a malfunctioning or exploit mechanic such as the things I spoke about here. It's just a functionality that was not invented til much later.

[Rygar]

I personally don't believe opening up a Surefall Glade portal will have a major impact on the server. I have been told zones like Permafrost suffer from mobs healing through walls and such that makes grouping there in your tweens extremely difficult, so basically it is a bear pit / vox / item camp zone.

Blackburrow is a nice zone but I did see a decent amount of people there about 4 months back. Gnoll Fangs are excellent xp, so people can easily make the one time long run from the karanas (a right of nostalgia passage... lets be honest about that) and get a bind in Qeynos.

As far a LFG window, I have mixed feelings. Its not that hard to find someone to duo or trio with, building a full group of 50+ people is tough but not always necessary. The hardest thing I ran into was absence of key classes such as cleric or enchanter to group with when building. So not sure LFG window would restore that.

[Izmael]

SFG Portal: I like how everything west of WK is a little distant from the rest of the world. IMO it's fine to leave it as it is. People who want to exp in BB already do it regardless.

Increase exp: I dunno if there is a need for this in the age of bard swarming and Chardok AE'ing.

[Bummey]

I've always thought the exp modifiers should change week to week, to get people out of Mistmoore and into Crystal Caverns or Crypt, Dalnir, Runnyeye, and other less frequented dungeons.

[Bboboo]

Kerra Isle revamp make it a level 60 raid zone. Right now it's worthless.

Did a trio in this zone a while back and it was actually a nice spot and some decent low end drops. A full group would be more ideal, but it's a decent zone to exp in with a near by port ins and quite a lot of mobs.

Not to mention easy to get to with amazing guilds such as Dial A Port

Eh...EH?...

[EQBallzz]

I have done Dalnir a couple times recently on my monk and it's pretty good XP. I think Dalnir has an "unknown" ZEM but it seemed to be at least on par with Kurn's if not better. The biggest drawback to places like Dalnir is finding other players to fill groups. I would be in favor of adding a bit more incentive to hit more out of the way places.

[Haynar]

Its a classic server.

Asking for non-classic things is usually a non-starter. Impact of such changes are not even considered.

Same request. Different day.

Same result.

[Destron]

I've always thought the exp modifiers should change week to week, to get people out of Mistmoore and into Crystal Caverns or Crypt, Dalnir, Runnyeye, and other less frequented dungeons.

[Ocelo]

http://i.imgur.com/dNsTjKn.gif

[JurisDictum]

Releasing Luclin would do far more to alleviate the problems of the server (mostly it is top heavy) than any of these custom content ideas or tweaks people come up with.

Keep it to the orignal game and release 2 more expansions imo. Its ok if it takes a long time

edit: IMO no bazaar is a problem. It makes the game unnecessarily hard on new players

[Ravager]

I thought Glade Portal is in timeline just before Luclin, or am I mistaken?

[Senn]

Its a classic server.

Asking for non-classic things is usually a non-starter. Impact of such changes are not even considered.

Same request. Different day.

Same result.

Was tab-cycling thru targets classic? No.
Was third person scrolling classic? No

[JurisDictum]

Was tab-cycling thru targets classic? No.
Was third person scrolling classic? No

I would put those things in a different category than how much exp you get in a zone etc.

[Kevris]

Was tab-cycling thru targets classic? No.
Was third person scrolling classic? No

The second they figure out how to remove those, they will.

The stuff that's not classic that's in right now is only because they haven't found a way to remove it.

[Danth]

The second they figure out how to remove those, they will.

The stuff that's not classic that's in right now is only because they haven't found a way to remove it.

That may not be accurate. I seem to recall Haynar posting awhile ago that he had a fix for mouse wheel scrolling available but received a directive from above not to implement it.

Danth

[Kevris]

That may not be accurate. I seem to recall Haynar posting awhile ago that he had a fix for mouse wheel scrolling available but received a directive from above not to implement it.

Danth

No way...

[Tasslehofp99]

I thought Glade Portal is in timeline just before Luclin, or am I mistaken?

Yeah, I believe we will get surefall glade port spells on this server. I thought it came out around the same time as the chardok revamp. Although, I could also be mistaken. :D

[Lojik]

Ehhh, quite a few unclassic things on this server. I think giving mobs xp bonus that goes up as they stay alive would be cool, would make adventuring and finding new places more rewarding. Let's be honest, this game stopped being an adventure years ago for most of us.

[fadetree]

What we really need is PoP. *My* personal definition of 'classic' runs up through PoP, and stops abruptly.

[drktmplr12]

mobs should level over time. that's how to fix it.

[maskedmelon]

mobs should level over time. that's how to fix it.

Oh now THIS is an exciting idea! ^^

A+

[kined]

live got to how it is by always finding things that need to be "fixxed" for server health. P1999 avoids that by eliminating all debate and going as classic as they can. dont start trying to change the process now, the server is fine. we have to take the rough parts and the good parts - but atleast this way there is very little question of this server leaving us behind and changing the game like every MMO has done to its oldest fans; the reason why we are all here.

everyones got ideas for how you can improve this old ass clunker game from an objective standpoint - but thats not what this server is about; its a museum for those of us that were left behind because of a shift in the game. even though your changes are minor they open the floodgates

[Ravager]

Just seems like the fixes have been selective.

Why do you care that I care? Stop stalking :)

It's not stalking when you're everywhere.

[Zuranthium]

Its a classic server.

Open a new server.

[Brontus]

1. Open up Surefall Glade portal. It would help breathe life back into Western Antonica, and encourage new players of all types to go back and forth for a myriad of reasons. New players may not be able to afford the Dial a Port service, however they may get a kind free ride with all the new traffic in the area. This traffic will see an increase in general activity and generate more trade /business as well. The added population will mean great zones such as Black Burrow, Qeynos Catacombs, Halas(starter lake for the win!), EverFrost and Permafrost will get more attention like they should. Subsequently Odus will be for more than just new Erudite twinks and Hole groups(which are still not as abundant as they should be). Even now, the Warrens is practically dead. There should be way more teenage level players in there, but why be an Erudite when you have to take the (sometimes broken) long boat to Qeynos, only to have to run all the way to Commonlands, if not lucky enough to find a teleport somewhere along the way, because you couldn't afford one in Toxxulia Forest, provided any one was even there to do it?

2. Increase the experience modifier in outdoor and indoor(more so) zones in out of the way places - which is OOT/Timorous, most of Kunark and parts of Velious. People who make the long journey to Dalnir for example need to be rewarded and rewarded well. And even more to a particular point, we do not spend enough time fighting miscellaneous open world mobs such as goblins on the coast in Butcherblock, or Iksar Bandits in Warsliks or ..there's just so many things to experience off of, yet they give a terribly low value in contrast to other more easy to reach/safer locale monsters, and particularly old world which are weaker, do not cast as much and take less effort to kill - and of course are closer to towns and vendors so you can sell, run back from a bind point etc.



These are excellent suggestions! The lack of a port for Surefall Glade in the original EverQuest and up to Luclin was a glaring oversight. Eventually the portal spells were added after Luclin during November of 2001 just 31 months after EverQuest went live in April of 1999. It is now 6 years and 9 months after the release of P1999 in October of 2009. Surely enough time has passed for the inclusion of the Surefall Glade portal spells.

From a lore perspective it makes no sense that the Jaggedpine Treefolk who have their base of operations in Surefall Glade with high level trainers and spells would not have access to nearby druid rings which are physically present but unused in Surefall Glade. It is impractical and inconceivable that the druids of the Jaggedpine Treefolk would have to travels miles to the North Karana which is the nearest functional druid ring.

The Surefall Glade druid portal would open up the entire west coastal areas of Antonica and revitalize the zones you mentioned.

The experience modifier idea for non-used zones is a marvelous idea for the reasons you stated!

While I appreciate the philosophy and intent of the admins with regard to their stance on simulating the original EverQuest, it's high time to stop falling back on the trite "it's not classic EQ" fallacy to block much needed changes to the P1999 version of Norrath that would enhance the player experience and help to alleviate the artificial herding of most players into a few high ZEM zones.

Due to twinking via mudflation and the glacial release of expansions, the current state of P1999 in no way shape or form resembles near the classic EverQuest player experience. Your changes are spot on and would go a long way in alleviating some of the problems and not degrade or dumb down any of the classic EQ gameplay brought to us courtesy of P1999.

[Trollhide]

These are excellent suggestions! The lack of a port for Surefall Glade in the original EverQuest and up to Luclin was a glaring oversight. Eventually the portal spells were added after Luclin during November of 2001 just 31 months after EverQuest went live in April of 1999. It is now 6 years and 9 months after the release of P1999 in October of 2009. Surely enough time has passed for the inclusion of the Surefall Glade portal spells.

By this logic Project 1999 should also have AAs right now.

[Khaleesi]

The point here is that we know people are lazy and goto the common easy spots too often. We also know that if htey wanted to, even as new players with no coin for teleports or friends to help them, they can make the long journeys. The problem is that because it isn't particularly easy or convenient, then they avoid it. And with a population that's 2/3 or 3/4 less than old live servers, that means there's not many players in those areas.

If we were to have things implemented/opened in the game, it would give them incentive to not crowd areas, and start to span out to other areas. Given that the server is not 100% strict classic, then it's not unreasonable to suggest such an idea.


This +1,000,000

The LFG function is already hard coded into the game, just activate it.

People could make LFG like - LFM Kedge Keep; LFM Hole group

Some of these "out of the way zone" would all of a sudden become more popular if people could actually assemble groups in a reasonable manner other then /who all over and over

While the LFG may help make things a little easier, that's not the core issue.
Realistically, doing /who commands is not that difficult..

And another reason I did not mention the use of the LFG feature, is because it's one of the concepts that eventually led to the 'anonymous' dungeon play found in modern MMORPGs.

When people have /who and then /tell and discuss grouping, it's a lot more involved and thorough.

I would much rather get a tell and have a talk to someone about joining a group in Kaesora(while I'm in Permafrost), to get a bead on whether it's legit/long term - worth the time investment. Anonymous LFG type systems begin to lead to laziness and then people seeing that your LFG far away from them. Therefore, just like it is now when they /who; they won't bother as you're too fair away (so they believe) - which makes the LFG feature moot yet simultaneously potentially harmful.

While I am not a strict-classic kinda guy, there isn't really much going on in Western Antonica in the first place. There's not really any reason to go there. If you're wondering, there is a (wizard) port to Western Karana, and if you evac from there, it takes you to WK/QH ZL which is closer than Surefall.

Aside from that I really do think there are some things that need to be considered to maintain community health.



A) The point about a Wizard is moot - if people can afford a port to and from, then for new players, that's half the battle solved.
B) To think that there's nothing of interest, especially experience wise on that side, is very ignorant I'm afraid.

Even if it wasn't about leveling experience per se - simply the adventure and activities, the zones and the sites ..it's definitely worth it. And in contrast to all the worn out regurgitated areas most people go to, it's a nice change of pace.

I personally don't believe opening up a Surefall Glade portal will have a major impact on the server. I have been told zones like Permafrost suffer from mobs healing through walls and such that makes grouping there in your tweens extremely difficult, so basically it is a bear pit / vox / item camp zone.

Blackburrow is a nice zone but I did see a decent amount of people there about 4 months back. Gnoll Fangs are excellent xp, so people can easily make the one time long run from the karanas (a right of nostalgia passage... lets be honest about that) and get a bind in Qeynos.



Are you claiming Permafrost is bugged? Because healing through walls happens in many places. Should we also avoid grouping and fighting in Cazic Thule - or any other location where mobs heal through walls?
As far a LFG window, I have mixed feelings. Its not that hard to find someone to duo or trio with, building a full group of 50+ people is tough but not always necessary. The hardest thing I ran into was absence of key classes such as cleric or enchanter to group with when building. So not sure LFG window would restore that.[/QUOTE]

Right, LFG system would not resolve that underlying issue; yet how many times have you gone to /who and ask a Cleric or Enchanter to join you while in an out of the way place, and find them already grouped somewhere mundane like Mistmoore or Unrest or Karnors, and for the ones that are LFG, they don't want to experience any where that isn't one of the common easy to get to places?

SFG Portal: I like how everything west of WK is a little distant from the rest of the world. IMO it's fine to leave it as it is. People who want to exp in BB already do it regardless.

The only reason it's good that it's 'out of the way' is because it means there's less people there; that's a catch-22.. What's worse though is when things are lopsided as they are now. Even if they did what I've requested, the ratio would always tip towards the way things are now, just a bit less for everyone's benefit.

Increase exp: I dunno if there is a need for this in the age of bard swarming and Chardok AE'ing.

Erm, not many people do either.

I've always thought the exp modifiers should change week to week, to get people out of Mistmoore and into Crystal Caverns or Crypt, Dalnir, Runnyeye, and other less frequented dungeons.



Not a bad idea - it's done on other servers. However people would probably miss out due to various reasons and in the end get frustrated to the point where they don't bother to even look at the modifier updates(provided the developers posted it[could turn out to be a secret])and end up staying in the normal spots.

[Khaleesi]

Mods should just instantly remove threads like these. There are so many.

Or they could do something about it...

These are excellent suggestions! The lack of a port for Surefall Glade in the original EverQuest and up to Luclin was a glaring oversight. Eventually the portal spells were added after Luclin during November of 2001 just 31 months after EverQuest went live in April of 1999. It is now 6 years and 9 months after the release of P1999 in October of 2009. Surely enough time has passed for the inclusion of the Surefall Glade portal spells.

From a lore perspective it makes no sense that the Jaggedpine Treefolk who have their base of operations in Surefall Glade with high level trainers and spells would not have access to nearby druid rings which are physically present but unused in Surefall Glade. It is impractical and inconceivable that the druids of the Jaggedpine Treefolk would have to travels miles to the North Karana which is the nearest functional druid ring.

The Surefall Glade druid portal would open up the entire west coastal areas of Antonica and revitalize the zones you mentioned.

The experience modifier idea for non-used zones is a marvelous idea for the reasons you stated!

While I appreciate the philosophy and intent of the admins with regard to their stance on simulating the original EverQuest, it's high time to stop falling back on the trite "it's not classic EQ" fallacy to block much needed changes to the P1999 version of Norrath that would enhance the player experience and help to alleviate the artificial herding of most players into a few high ZEM zones.

Due to twinking via mudflation and the glacial release of expansions, the current state of P1999 in no way shape or form resembles near the classic EverQuest player experience. Your changes are spot on and would go a long way in alleviating some of the problems and not degrade or dumb down any of the classic EQ gameplay brought to us courtesy of P1999.

Thank you I am glad someone actually read and understood that - at least in regards to Surefall Glade, this was something that should have existed but Verant/Sony didn't manage to do it in time before Luclin ; and how beneficial it could be. I also appreciate your lore angle as well.

The zone modifiers is more of a custom job, specifically and intentionally because we don't have the real ZEMs here. We know that Kunark zones for example were tinkered with among others. They should spend some time redoing them how they see fit.

And you additionally summed up Project 1999s woes in an eloquent way where upon we need any thing we can get to help put some actual classic feel back into the game. If making slight modifications or speeding up the timeline can assist with this, then it's worth considering - given the FACT that there are plenty of non classic things going on, that are NOT due to technical reasons. As I stated in the beginning, the developers saw things that would make the emulated server more popular and appealing, so they included or did not include them, despite not being classic.

It is definitely time we got off the 'classic' high horse.


Its a classic server.

Asking for non-classic things is usually a non-starter. Impact of such changes are not even considered.

Same request. Different day.

Same result.


Troll much?

Was tab-cycling thru targets classic? No.
Was third person scrolling classic? No


The list is far far deeper than that. Haynar's comment is ludicrous and disingenuous. But he is right about one thing ... nonsensical developer comments = same requests, different day..same results..

It's amazing how they shoot down things whether it be tweaks, ideas or a new server and yet on the front page it reads " ...and several modifications making game mechanics similar to how the game used to be."
Similar, not exact.

And...

"The server will stop at Velious, at which point many options will be considered, including possible custom content that will maintain the spirit of the game, and/or an additional new server starting over at Pre-Kunark."

Might as well bold the entire sentence since here we are..at Velious, 90% or more of the content complete and on lock down.

Custom content ideas - shot down an dismissed as a waste of time
New server ideas - shot down an dismissed as a waste of time

Same request. Different day. Same result.

[lonmoer]

PLANES OF POWER WILL SOLVE ALL!!

[Jimjam]

Roll back to pre-basic planes will solve all!

[Rygar]

Are you claiming Permafrost is bugged? Because healing through walls happens in many places. Should we also avoid grouping and fighting in Cazic Thule - or any other location where mobs heal through walls?

In regards to Permafrost, I never tried grouping there, but another poster mentioned the heal through walls causes you to pull mobs back, but the pathing can be buggy (people mention mobs running through walls or depopping) and give you big trains. This can be difficult for people to handle at that level.

It would be nice to see more people use empty zones, I'm all about that, I was just saying there may be a reason people don't stick around in that zone.

I personally LOVE the Hole, but a ton of mobs heal through walls, so I'm not saying to avoid zones like that. I learned the zone well enough to know where I can fight mobs and pull them to. However, the pathing in that zone is phenomenal, never had any bugged or glitched pulls. For the record to the devs, that is not classic. Mobs running in circles and bringing 10 golems to your party was a major problem. Little 'quality of life' improvements are OK to keep a classic experience.

[Zuranthium]

By this logic Project 1999 should also have AAs right now.

What do AA's have to do with Lore? Bad logic.

[Evia]

These are excellent suggestions! The lack of a port for Surefall Glade in the original EverQuest and up to Luclin was a glaring oversight. Eventually the portal spells were added after Luclin during November of 2001 just 31 months after EverQuest went live in April of 1999. It is now 6 years and 9 months after the release of P1999 in October of 2009. Surely enough time has passed for the inclusion of the Surefall Glade portal spells.

From a lore perspective it makes no sense that the Jaggedpine Treefolk who have their base of operations in Surefall Glade with high level trainers and spells would not have access to nearby druid rings which are physically present but unused in Surefall Glade. It is impractical and inconceivable that the druids of the Jaggedpine Treefolk would have to travels miles to the North Karana which is the nearest functional druid ring.

The Surefall Glade druid portal would open up the entire west coastal areas of Antonica and revitalize the zones you mentioned.

The experience modifier idea for non-used zones is a marvelous idea for the reasons you stated!

While I appreciate the philosophy and intent of the admins with regard to their stance on simulating the original EverQuest, it's high time to stop falling back on the trite "it's not classic EQ" fallacy to block much needed changes to the P1999 version of Norrath that would enhance the player experience and help to alleviate the artificial herding of most players into a few high ZEM zones.

Due to twinking via mudflation and the glacial release of expansions, the current state of P1999 in no way shape or form resembles near the classic EverQuest player experience. Your changes are spot on and would go a long way in alleviating some of the problems and not degrade or dumb down any of the classic EQ gameplay brought to us courtesy of P1999.

100% agree. And I usually scream "not classic" call it your custom content if you must, but you've gotta admit this guy has some great ideas here.

Bonuses or added benefits for hunting in certain zones that you guys change up periodically would not only get people hunting in obscure areas, it would also promote with it the Everquest adventurous spirit. It might also inspire someone to level up alts, adding to the population in the leveling scene.

I don't know. I get it that some things aren't classic. And you always have to ask where you draw the line in regards to changes,but p99 needs some inspiration of sorts. Some pure "classic in spirit" changes to a world that resembles nothing of the good ol' EQ we grew up falling in love with.

[Trollhide]

What do AA's have to do with Lore? Bad logic.

These are excellent suggestions! The lack of a port for Surefall Glade in the original EverQuest and up to Luclin was a glaring oversight. Eventually the portal spells were added after Luclin during November of 2001 just 31 months after EverQuest went live in April of 1999. It is now 6 years and 9 months after the release of P1999 in October of 2009. Surely enough time has passed for the inclusion of the Surefall Glade portal spells.


What does lore have to do with anything?

[Vheran]

No. This is a classic server. They aren't going to change it. Just stop. Do you realize how many people would stop playing here if they started messing around like that?

How many people in the future are going to stop playing the game because nothing fresh is implemented? 5 years from now when no ideas are considered and are scoffed at by the devs repeatedly, instead of even given constructive criticism or responses, I'd love to see the statistics of how many people are staying to do the same thing with nothing to look forward to versus the bleeding of population who got tired of it.

[Trollhide]

How many people in the future are going to stop playing the game because nothing fresh is implemented? 5 years from now when no ideas are considered and are scoffed at by the devs repeatedly, instead of even given constructive criticism or responses, I'd love to see the statistics of how many people are staying to do the same thing with nothing to look forward to versus the bleeding of population who got tired of it.
How many people quit live to play here, or quit live many years ago despite "fresh" content being released there for the past ~15 years since Velious? I don't think this is a relevant argument for people who just wanna play some classic EQ. People will leave the server once they tire of it yes, but no game is supposed to live forever and people are on P99 because it is classic EQ.

[Jimjam]

I've been rolling alts and having fun meeting people or goofing around for 3 years now. Find fun people to fun with and fun will be fun!

[myriverse]

How many people in the future are going to stop playing the game because nothing fresh is implemented? 5 years from now when no ideas are considered and are scoffed at by the devs repeatedly, instead of even given constructive criticism or responses, I'd love to see the statistics of how many people are staying to do the same thing with nothing to look forward to versus the bleeding of population who got tired of it.
If I wanted fresh content, I probably wouldn't be here. I don't even ever plan on visiting Velious. /shrug

[fuark]

No. This is a classic server. They aren't going to change it. Just stop. Do you realize how many people would stop playing here if they started messing around like that?

This.

Wouldn't be playing if they started doing all of this.

As for things that are not classic currently - well it is what it is. There is a big difference between keeping tab cycling in game because they can't remove it and revamping kerra isle to a raid zone.

Variance is a bad, not classic idea... this, however, only proves that they should stick to keeping it classic.

New players can't afford ports? I give ports and buffs all the time for free. Most tasks, such as travel, are arduously and illogically time-consuming in EQ. That's one of the reasons we play it. Not to mention, most items are icredibly underpriced. New players have it made.

Chardok and bard AOE kiting is incredibly overstated as well. All of these level 60s that people are churning out are the exact same people. Most players will never have the roughly 160k to blow or connections to level a char from 55-60 in Chardok.


How many people in the future are going to stop playing the game because nothing fresh is implemented? 5 years from now when no ideas are considered and are scoffed at by the devs repeatedly, instead of even given constructive criticism or responses, I'd love to see the statistics of how many people are staying to do the same thing with nothing to look forward to versus the bleeding of population who got tired of it.

I've been playing P99 for... 6, 7 years now and still considering alts to make or gear to get (for my main). People playing P99 are playing it for nostalgia purposes, not new content. I would question the sanity of someone playing P99 for fresh content.

[Expediency]

Bonuses or added benefits for hunting in certain zones that you guys change up periodically would not only get people hunting in obscure areas, it would also promote with it the Everquest adventurous spirit. It might also inspire someone to level up alts, adding to the population in the leveling scene.


I typically am in the camp of "keep it classic and dont mess with it" but I think that adding 25%-50% exp modifiers in 2-3 zones at a time and rotating it each patch is an incredibly good idea that would not change gameplay much at all other than getting people to try out more of the world. If the devs dont want to make a flat exp modifier, change the group modifier in these zones instead.

When the game was new, people did not have the same knowledge they have now and exping was spread all over the world. The reason people congregate in certain zones here is because for the most part those zones are just the best places to level. Most of the group leveling here is done on "outdoor dungeon" zones like mistmoore, CoM, and KC because you get the benefit of easy pulling, a good exp modifier, services are around to buy, and you can still cast outdoor spells.

I'm here for classic content and there are quite a few zones I'd love to exp in, but its 10x more difficult here than it was on live to get a group in those places. The chances of getting a pickup group in permafrost, cazic thule, befallen, kerra, the warrens, splitpaw past the entrance, or pretty much any outdoor zone are very low. On my druid at primetime I would make a group of LFG people and go to one of these zones, but inevitably after an hour or two someone has to go and if they are a critical class your group has to leave. There's never anyone to fill the slots except maybe a twinked solo class who probably wont join anyway.

Please consider the rolling exp modifier idea.

[Khaleesi]

This.

Wouldn't be playing if they started doing all of this.

So you would actually quit and blow all your time invested because they opened up Surefall glade portal? Right, sure... and where were your complaints when they started making non classic changes (or maybe more importantly, did not implement classic things until years later [coughepicrestrictionscough])?


As for things that are not classic currently - well it is what it is. There is a big difference between keeping tab cycling in game because they can't remove it and revamping kerra isle to a raid zone.

Right, it is what it is, and it didn't all happen at once, where upon they then stated 'ok that's it, no more!' Rather, they kept doing it over time and they're still doing it - if it meets their agenda (whatever that is).

Though your comment is a perfect example of why people should READ things properly. The comment about revamping Kerra is silly and came from someone wasting our time.


Variance is a bad, not classic idea... this, however, only proves that they should stick to keeping it classic.

Variance = perfect example of non classic feature, and the logic to trying to stay ultra classic after the fact, is because they weren't classic in the first place, check.


New players can't afford ports? I give ports and buffs all the time for free. Pray tell how they would know that?


Most tasks, such as travel, are arduously and illogically time-consuming in EQ. That's one of the reasons we play it.

When people say they like that you had to travel in EverQuest, they do not say 'I like the hard journeys in EverQuest, because take four hours.' They say that because it's in stark contrast to the single click world wide teleporting methods of modern MMOs which makes the world feel small. So do not misconstrue.
Not to mention, most items are icredibly underpriced. New players have it made.

No one was talking about items..but anyways the prices are far from underpriced across the board. We have this nasty habit of trying to stay soooo classic, that we model our pricing after live era in 1999-2001, instead of a proper dynamic market place based purely on P99's own variables. However I would agree that (especially because of Velious) prices on equipment that would normally be out of a new player's budget, are within reach.
I wouldn't say this is necessarily a good thing - it's the inverse of the above


Chardok and bard AOE kiting is incredibly overstated as well. All of these level 60s that people are churning out are the exact same people. Most players will never have the roughly 160k to blow or connections to level a char from 55-60 in Chardok.

So..on the one hand money isn't an issue, but yet on the other it is?





I've been playing P99 for... 6, 7 years now and still considering alts to make or gear to get (for my main). People playing P99 are playing it for nostalgia purposes, not new content. I would question the sanity of someone playing P99 for fresh content.

Where are you going with this, what has it to do with opening Surefall so we can increase general activity on Western Antonica? How is adding a small piece of content that came into live not long after anyways, to be considered as 'fresh'?



Your rhetoric and rebuttals seem left field and generic. I seemed to be feeling the need to say thanks for providing them, but it's entirely not constructive material.

[Brontus]

I am a member of a well known guild of druids that offers ports on Blue. I have been porting people for many months. I have ported players both low level and high level, both rich and poor, both new and veteran.

Without fail, at least once a week I get a request from a player for a port to the Qeynos. Then I must give them the bad news when I tell them that the Surefall Glade portal is not currently in the game.

Most of them are puzzled and exasperated as to why there is no druid portal on the west coast of Antonica. I too share their frustration as do many loyal players. I also tell them that eventually the EverQuest game designers realized their mistake and added in druid portal spells to Surefall Glade after the release of Shadows of Luclin.

The admins of Project 1999 have needlessly painted themselves into a corner by promoting their strict interpretation of what constitutes "classic EverQuest". Instead, what they should be promoting is the "spirit of classic EverQuest". The addition of Surefall Glade portal would be a welcome addition to P1999 and is truly in the spirit of classic EverQuest.

[Danth]

The addition of Surefall Glade portal would be a welcome addition to P1999 and is truly in the spirit of classic EverQuest.

The Surefall port's due to be added, eventually. It was a pre-Luclin spell.

Danth

[fuark]

Re my anecdote that: I give ports all the time for free.

Pray tell how they would know that?

This sums up your entire post.

My response: They shouldn't.

It's a game. You have to actually play it.

[Khaleesi]

...

The admins of Project 1999 have needlessly painted themselves into a corner by promoting their strict interpretation of what constitutes "classic EverQuest". Instead, what they should be promoting is the "spirit of classic EverQuest". The addition of Surefall Glade portal would be a welcome addition to P1999 and is truly in the spirit of classic EverQuest.

Normally I would say that this is a case of fact vs interpretation, and that the latter could fail due to poor interpretation and then ultimately implementation.

However P99's in a unique situation where the choices made have no put us in an even less than classic scenario.

This is why I stated that the developers are clearly not incapable or unwilling to make changes, if they are worthwhile to them.
From a community point of view, we do not know what actually constitutes 'worthwhile.' Have we ever seen Rogean sit down with us all and explain why a lot of things were done, are as they are and may or may not be in the future?

I get that you can't 'talk' to mobs or crowds ; and if the government shared things daily with the masses of sheep, we'd constantly have riots and discourse.

Never the less, P99's staff could work on their PR, because it is sorely lacking - and no, Sirken going tit-for-tat with people in RnF, is not what I mean by community interaction.

The Surefall port's due to be added, eventually. It was a pre-Luclin spell.

Danth

But does it fall within the time line - again, we're not certain that we'll get all of the Velious era content.

This sums up your entire post.

My response: They shouldn't.

It's a game. You have to actually play it.


You've taken one point and then mashed it together with something else that doesn't make sense.

I can can only comment that if you're giving free ports, no one would know that and thus the idea that free ports is not hard to come by, becomes moot and irrelevant. I'd also question how often you sit around in the Qeynos area offering these - as opposed to EC or OT?

[heartbrand]

P99 has already fallen months behind on the velious time line and people are asking for custom requests as if they have any chance at being implemented? Lol?

[Tecmos Deception]

Kerra Isle revamp make it a level 60 raid zone. Right now it's worthless.

Fuck you. Kerra Isle is a great zone.

[Raev]

Personal opinion here: cap PBAE spells at 30 targets, fix /w all LFG, automate a repop once every two weeks, GM rotation on normal targets, gradually pull zones from later EQ expacs in while retuning them for L60.

I wouldn't expect anything, though. The server is what it is, either enjoy it or don't.

[Brontus]

Have we ever seen Rogean sit down with us all and explain why a lot of things were done, are as they are and may or may not be in the future?

I get that you can't 'talk' to mobs or crowds ; and if the government shared things daily with the masses of sheep, we'd constantly have riots and discourse.



I greatly respect what Rogean and all of the devs and admins here have done in emulating the most classic and authentic version of EverQuest. We owe them a lot of gratitude for their hard work.

Part of the classic EverQuest experience is that the SOE devs were in a constant state of dialogue with EQ players on their forums. Without the input of the dedicated playerbase SOE would have probably failed to make many of the changes and improvements to the user experience.

In 2004, in the face of a widespread player revolt, John Smedley and SOE staged a weekend guild summit where the concerns of the top guilds and others were brought to the EQ dev team for consideration.

Here's an article of what went down.

http://www.moorgard.com/mobhunter_archive/001330.html

Passionate MMORPG players who provide bug reports and thoughtful feedback have always been one of the greatest assets of classic EQ. No other video game community has done more to shape the future of a video game genre than the MMO playerbase.

I think the P1999 staff would do well to make the effort to open up channels of communication and harness that same passion here in the P1999 community. This could be done by conducting polls and surveys at first. Later it could include direct and respectful mutual dialogue. After all, we are all in this together.

[Danth]

If I could have a single non classic change I'd like a banker placed in the EC tunnel near Shady's area.

Danth

[EdTuBrutus]

This has been an interesting thread to read through and I thought perhaps I might add my experience as a genuine newb to P99 and what I've found with my first experience re-acquainting myself to classic EQ. I'm not making any requests or asking for any changes, it's not my place.

Short background, I played from Beta to early 2003, almost certainly too much, I was never in a top guild, endured public raids till my midlevel guild was large enough to do their own raids late Kunark into Velious. I love going back to old games, I even play an emu of the Amiga classic Colonial Conquest at least a couple of times a year. I first tried returning to relive EQ with the Daybreak servers a couple of years ago, hated it, didn't like the shared newbie city and lack of unique starting cities, the new landscapes (those I saw) were terrible. It wasn't EQ.

When I found out about P99, I was genuinely excited about being able to go back to the graphical world I remembered. I want to stress that, graphical world. I wanted the look and feel of EQ back in the day. For me, this is where the enjoyment and nostalgia of going back to an old game comes from, you can feel yourself transported back in time just by the visuals in front of you.

Spawning back in Halas was magical, it felt amazing trying to remember the layout (didnt even google it), I really loved getting stuck in the water for 10 minutes trying to work out why I couldnt get back out, cos, well, that's what really happened back in '99. (I did have to google how to get out).

I really wanted to dive back in, level up my Shaman, then build a Monk and Wizard for a fun little three box I could explore the world with. I never multi-boxed when levelling back in the day, so I was really looking forward to seeing how it went for that portion of the game. I spent nearly two hours going through the Wiki, re-familiarising myself with the options, the things to look forward to.

I'd only logged in to see the world again and maybe play a few levels. But now I wanted to play.

Then I went out to start my adventures.

Died three times before I killed a mob. Yeah, sure, lack of prudence on my part, noobishness, not respecting the challenge. But boy, that's a steep first step. Pretty sure it didn't happen when i first played, when my initial character was levelling, the newbie grounds were kill stealing sprees in the madness of the first few hours of live, maybe I did in Beta. But you know, it made the first kill sweeter, it was rewarding in many ways and completely different to every other game these days (online or off).

But then I started trying to level. And it was slow. Level one was not quick. Level two felt like a hell level. I'm not the same person I was in 1999. I don't have 40 hours a week for several months. I don't have a network on the service to twink and powerlevel me. Levelling in Everquest is just not something I am prepared to do.

Which is a same, because there is so much depth in the class design in this game, and there is a lot of content to explore once you get to a decent enough level (and if you refuse the easy teleports). But that content is just not accessible. In '99 I had no idea what was out there, it was worth keeping going by persuading myself there was a golden rainbow at the end of the slog. But I know what's at the end now. And a lot of it is pretty fun. But it is not worth the effort required - at least to me. And I think an awful lot of others.

So I won't be sticking with it. I'll definitely try and find the time to get to Level 9 so I can do the run from Halas to Kelethin. I did it back in '99, on a Friday night, on the third day of live. It took about 10 hours with three corpse runs. But it was the most fun I ever had in Everquest. In over 3 years of heavy play, that 10 hours on the third day of live was the best experience I had. I know that now, I didn't then. It's why I just can't bring myself to go through the levelling and the time requirements to get the less enjoyable (but still reasonably fun) stuff at 50+.

Everquest is brutally punishing on its players.

For me, the game isn't hardcore, its unfair. And that's the nub of it. In this thread I noticed there seem to be two sides, those completely committed to a version as close to 99 as possible and those who want to build a larger player base. I don't know if those are as incompatible as people think. As I said at the start, the heart of the nostalgia from playing Project 99 is reliving the sights and sounds of the old game. But there is no reason at all that levelling four times faster (yes four times not 20% more XP in unpopular zones) would reduce that nostalgic enjoyment.

In any case, it's not my place to ask for changes or tell anyone what to do. That's my experience, please take from it what you will

[Lhancelot]

I like the idea of opening the druid portal for SFG. That part of the world is truly isolated and this portal being opened would only bring more players to it, and offer opportunities to leave that area.