Project M for p1999!

[Rais]

Lets do it, the hell with pvp!

[Zigfreed]

That would be awesome! I was stupid when they did this and didn't participate.

[Uaellaen]

what project M? there are like 28394792374983274 project M's out there ...

[YendorLootmonkey]

what project M? there are like 28394792374983274 project M's out there ...

The one where you got to randomly spawn as a low level mob and fight players.

[Gorgetrapper]

That would be the most fun ever honestly.

[Rael]

Project Grief

[azeth]

Project Grief

only if youre lucky enough to spawn as like "a gnoll shaman" in Qeynos hills, or some variation on caster newbie mobs. Especially with Dots :p

[Uaellaen]

ahhh yeah i remember ... couldnt remember thats called project M ... whenever i entered it i always was a rat or a bat in freeport ><

[azeth]

ahhh yeah i remember ... couldnt remember thats called project M ... whenever i entered it i always was a rat or a bat in freeport ><

afaik you can randomly join as a mob up to lvl 5 or 6.

[Killua]

afaik you can randomly join as a mob up to lvl 5 or 6.

It was higher than that, my friend was an Orc Cleric in Oasis, he'd run around root and nuke people then gate away. He also spawned as an Asp once and ran around training undead on people.

On test unfortunately many of the zones you'd spawn in were empty, I spawned as a froglok shaman in Uguk but there wasn't anyone in the zone. I also spawned in Gfay as a orc shaman, I played nice though and went around buffing newbs.

[Taddare Plume]

My favorite was when I spawned as a skeleton in Field of Bone. I spent my time playing second pet for an Ikky necro. Skeletons also have all the physical emote motions, so even though you can't talk you can sort of communicate.

[Jenni D]

this sounds like great fun i must say!! unlikely on here, though :(

[quellren]

LoL I loved this. Myself and a few guildies would 're-roll' untill we were mobs in EC then help newbies by not attacking back so it was free exp.


Until I spawned as a wisp. Then I beat some people up. =)

[StinkyGreenBud]

Lets do it, the hell with pvp!


Damn dude i was just about to make a thread about this. Was wondering if people remembered this. Was great fun. Best time was spawning as a gnoll in SFM and pwning noob gnomes or just messing with them.

[maximum]

Original discussion from 2010:
http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15672

[moklianne]

It was actually on live test for quite a while many years ago. It was tons of fun. Then suddenly they just pulled it. Not really sure why.

[Foxx]

i was spawned as an orc warrior in oasis of maar, and slaughtered noobs

[Gibcarver]

My orc shaman experience was far more brutal. that was so much fun! you got experience for kills and could gain levels though you never learned new spells or abilities. I got 2 or 3 levels on the orc shaman before a couple higher lvls joined up and got me (stupid snare).
Think it was only on live servers for like a week.

[Jigga]

Did project M make it to all the servers i know it was on tz for a short time then it dissappeared

[Dawgrin]

I loved this for the short time it was available. It is not something I would devote days and days at a time to, but it was something fun you could do if you only had an hour to play and wanted to mess around.
I never did spawn as anything great, just rats in freeport and once as a madman in N Ro, but I was killed in one shot while sitting to mem my spells so that was the end of that...=p

[Dawgrin]

Did project M make it to all the servers i know it was on tz for a short time then it dissappeared

I am almost certain that I remembered playing on Morell Thule and doing project M.

Also check out these comments from Craig Napp about project M (http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/news_article.vm?id=50029&month=092005)

What was Project M and how did it affect the creation of monster missions?

Project M was an experiment done back in fall of 2001 where players could select a monster at the character selection screen. The intent was to allow players to hop into the body of a low level creature and challenge other creatures and players, but the design of the system at the time had some significant problems that prevented Project M from staying on servers long.

Why didn't Project M work?

First, Project M didn't fit into the immersive world of EverQuest as players were simply choosing an NPC at character select (such as a moss snake). In addition, a small minority of players used Project M to grief new players which introduced a PvP element on PvE servers that was unintended. As you can imagine, the only people who typically had fun were the griefers and even then it was a short term play-style as players never earned rewards.

[moklianne]

Those are the excuses given. I'm pretty sure they felt they didn't 'need' this feature anymore since they were going to introduce shrouds and instances right around the corner.

[Slave]

I remember this very well! It was totally freaking awesome.

[Dawgrin]

Those are the excuses given. I'm pretty sure they felt they didn't 'need' this feature anymore since they were going to introduce shrouds and instances right around the corner.

Being that it was 4 years from the time they removed project M, til DoDH came out with shrouds and MMs, I do not think that was the reason. I personally think that things went down just like Craig said. It was a fun feature, but it was SO fun that people ended up slaughtering the new players and the powers that be did not want to lose subscriptions from that...

/shrug I think that the P1999 community would be the perfect place to bring it back since the majority of us have played before and enjoy a good challenge and a surprise or 2...=)

Here is another article describing the fun at the time...

http://wafflesatnoon.com/2008/07/01/online-memories-my-day-as-a-monster/#more-70

I never really used the Everquest test servers, but I heard talk of a new feature coming out called an MPC, or Monster Player Character. “Project M” it was called. As I recall, this feature actually went live for a day or two. If you were one of the lucky few lucky enough to see this fun fiasco, you certainly remember it.


The specifics are vague, but here’s how I recall it.

On the player log in screen, there was a button labeled “Monster” that you could click and be inserted into the game as a random monster. It was typically a low-level mob. That first day (and perhaps the only day) was absolutely insane. I had to feel bad for anyone who had happened to sign up that day.

There were rumors of swarms of rats and skeletons outside of the newbie area of Qeynos, waiting to attack unassuming low levels players who stepped far enough outside of the guard’s realm of protection.

I kept going into the game as different monsters, landing in different zones each time. I finally made it to Qeynos as a low level rat. I stood back and just watched, literally laughing out loud. I saw a low level character saunter out past the guards… and get ambushed and quickly killed by about 7 MPC rats. I noticed MPC rats attacking each other all around the area. Eventually one of the MPC’s attacked me and I died.

You could level your monster up during that session, but you couldn’t save your progress. Once you died, you were back at the character select screen and that monster was gone forever. MPC’s could not communicate at all. I recall another zone (can’t recall the name) and there were probably 15 MPC’s, waiting just behind a hill for someone to walk by. We couldn’t communicate, but somehow we all knew that we were there to cause havoc.

After a couple hours, I logged off, having had one of the most unusual nights I had ever had in an online game.

The next day I logged on and my beloved “Monster” button was gone. Apparently the powers at be never imagined swarms of MPC’s ambushing new players. Rumor was that it introduced a PvP element that the programmers had never intended.

It’s one of those rare events that is almost forgotten now.