Anniversary Event - October 6th

[Rogean]

I wanted to be clear on a few things regarding the event from last night.

Originally the event was proposed by a few members of the CSR Team. At minimum for any event that will have special items given out, any special mobs spawning, or any scripts running, it would require a GM+. Depending on the amount of preparation, it could be done without Management present if the mobs, scripts, and items were prepared ahead of time, then a GM could execute it. If the preparation work wasn't done, then it would require Myself or Nilbog to spawn special mobs, run manual scripts, add special properties to live mobs, etc.

The event was discussed among Senior Guides and above, and we decided to set it for Saturday. I had also planned for this to serve a dual purpose to test the new Green hardware, which I would move Blue over to on Friday Night.

Unfortunately, real life took over for almost all of us. Nilbog got tied up with an emergency all week. I had a similar emergency and had to leave the state all weekend. Due to this, I rescheduled the event for Sunday night, thinking that I would be back in time. Llandris and Menden had plans Sunday night but both thought they would be freed up by 9 PM.

This also did not leave much time, if any, for the actual planning of the event. This would have been something we could normally do several hours in advance and then execute the event in very little time. It would also have resulted in a much better experience for everyone involved as a scripted event could introduce a lot of mechanics and ways to participate rather than just spawning a mob(s) that everyone needs to zerg down.

I had to drive 5 hours yesterday to get back home, and tried to leave early enough but due to traffic my final arrival time was 9:50 (My original ETA was 10:20. I did a lot of speeding o.O). Llandris and Menden were unable to break away from their Sunday commitments. I almost cancelled the event, but I felt bad that everyone had already congregated for it, so I figured I'd try to put something together. This is the reason I gave the disclaimer, at the beginning of the event, that due to an unfortunate circumstances, we were not prepared to run what would be deserving of a 10 year anniversary celebration..

I know there's not many that are criticizing the event but I felt it was still necessary to point out the facts regarding everything. I'd like to thank Galach, Khikik, and Medris for jumping to action and helping me throw this together last night. I'd still like to run a fully prepared event, but I'm going to talk to the staff and make sure we have a concrete plan together before committing to a date.

Regarding the stress test portion, since I had to head out of state I did not have the time to move Blue to the new hardware for testing. I did, however, reboot West Commons (After the second crash) into the new hardware, as well as North Karana. It did seem to perform much better, however there's only so much that we can do to handle 600+ players congregated into a single spot. As I've mentioned before, everyone being in one place puts an exponential amount of additional load on the zone process, as packets are duplicated to the people in a player's vicinity. There is definitely room for improvement, and I've already identified some areas where that can be done if we have time, but I do feel confident that we can handle 500+ players in a single zone if necessary, provided that they are either spread out or separated into multiple groups.

Thanks all.

[Axlrose]

Thank you for all your hard work! And thanks for even considering a ten year anniversary event - you could have easily and simply ignored it. :p

[Danth]

On my end, West Commons was performing fine at 400 population and decent at 500. It began to show some wierdness (character warping/etc) by 600 but kept working. The highest I saw before losing connection was 685. It probably got a little higher than that since I was only doing a /who every 20 seconds or so. Considering that zones choked and died in the original game with populations of not much over a hundred, sometimes less (again depending somewhat on character proximity just like here), this should be regarded as superlative performance.

Danth

[Deathrydar]

Thank you for all that you do to keep this project moving and to keep it as classic as possible!

I love you.

[elwing]

Thanks for the event, it was great, even if a bit too much for my tiny handheld to handle in any non slideshow mode, it was fun!

[Madbad]

I had fun! The WC conga line was a highlight!

Link to the album (https://imgur.com/a/FcHBEgq)

[FungusTrooper]

I took a bunch of screenshots of the event as it unfolded, from the Dreadlands dragon, to WC, to NK and finally to Iceclad:

Link to album. Lots of images! (https://imgur.com/a/DxpmJ5K)

[Cecily]

I hope the emergencies you and Nilbog had went ok. Thank you guys for the playground.

[Muggens]

I hope the emergencies you and Nilbog had went ok. Thank you guys for the playground.

Word

[Lhord99]

It’s clear you guys went Family, Friends, Self, p99 - in that order.

That’s the way it should be, lads.

Thanks for leading this amazing server; thanks for being a role model for us all, as we often forget the priority of things. Gnome pots is a huge highlight!

[Dolalin]

No worries dude, it's amazing you guys put in as much effort as you do, and all for free.

[zodium]

thank you very much and congrats again on year 10

[aspomwell]

As one of the newest members of P99 it was everything I remembered Everquest to be! :)

Of course, only being level 8 I couldn't contribute much but now I have a mission to kill that Druid in WC over and over and over...

[MaCtastic]

Pras

[jacobar]

thank you very much and congrats again on year 10

[Master Roshi]

it was still cool, seeing everyone around and all, ty for trying to get it going off the cuff!

[Nirgon]

Take away the pet window

[Drakborn]

Unfortunately, real life took over for almost all of us.

Shit happens, real life takes priority. Thanks for everything you, Nilbog, and the whole GM/Guide team do!

[honeybee12874]

I'd still like to run a fully prepared event, but I'm going to talk to the staff and make sure we have a concrete plan together before committing to a date.

First of all, thank you for considering to run another event at a later time :) I know how hard you guys must have worked to throw together the event last night for us, even if it wasn't how you hoped it would be. To be able to have an event at a later time would be amazing and as always, we appreciate the hard work you put into the server! Take all the time you need to plan! It will give me some more time to level up my character so perhaps I can be a bit more useful next time around.... :D

[bigjeff100]

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!!!!

[Dynatron768]

It will give me some more time to level up my character so perhaps I can be a bit more useful next time around.... :D

Haha, I definitely know that feeling. I was a 25 Necro(now 24 because the griffin one shot me!), about all I could do was send in my pet and run away from a druid npc. I'd be surprised if he landed a single hit, but to be fair he survived for a lot longer than I did.

[Grimstrike]

Thank you for putting on the event last night, we appreciate the effort in engaging the community.

[AenorVZ]

Hope all is well with you and your families.

[enesis]

Was fun seeing everyone in wc!

[honeybee12874]

Was fun seeing everyone in wc!

Agreed, was awesome to see how many people showed up. Seeing the fireworks go off around the Druid ring, swimming in the lake. Weren't you turned into a Piranha at one point?

[Jibartik]

Agreed, was awesome to see how many people showed up. Seeing the fireworks go off around the Druid ring, swimming in the lake. Weren't you turned into a Piranha at one point?

https://i.imgur.com/VCm2pgY.png

Maybe should replace prison inmate with red99 player hehe

[soronil]

cheers to the dude doing the voice grafts. You had almost everyone fooled, and the most fun part of the event was hearing the pirrahna, skeleton, and zombie shout and watch 500 people run from place to place. Hundreds of people swimming in the WC pond trying to pick the fishing grubs and roots off the ground while the server crashed was awesome.

Make that guy a guide imo

[enesis]

Yeah my brother Ulgrumm and I got to fight it out in piranha form for a bit! The illusions were a lot of fun. Looking forward to taking some screenshots with the potions too.

[ReadOnly]

^^
https://i.imgur.com/WUE02TJ.png

[Reptilican Trump]

Feel free to plan and execute a similar event for Christmas. :-)

We still had fun, especially seeing the Ogrebros dueling it out as giant fishies.

[Baler]

I thought the event was great. It was about the community not the rewards.

----
peanut butter and jaaaaaaaam!!
what the fuck are you doin phil?
RIP mustard tiger

[thedonkdonk]

Really appreciate the info here Rogean.

[zodium]

cheers to the dude doing the voice grafts. You had almost everyone fooled, and the most fun part of the event was hearing the pirrahna, skeleton, and zombie shout and watch 500 people run from place to place. Hundreds of people swimming in the WC pond trying to pick the fishing grubs and roots off the ground while the server crashed was awesome.

Make that guy a guide imo

i'll think about it :o

[Aescher]

I've been leveling in NK for a few days now. Often I'm the only one in the zone. Having the party come to NK was a very nice diversion. I also discovered that the Gypsies will give me 57plat for the party favor potions. Not too shabby!

Thanks to the P99 staff for all you do here.

[zodium]

I've been leveling in NK for a few days now. Often I'm the only one in the zone. Having the party come to NK was a very nice diversion. I also discovered that the Gypsies will give me 57plat for the party favor potions. Not too shabby!

Thanks to the P99 staff for all you do here.

pretty sure players would have given you a lot more than 57pp

[Nilstoniakrath]

Thank you Rogean! Appreciate the effort in spite of all the RL stuff that got in the way.

[wrighter00]

Thanks for the event. I hope all is well IRL. I had fun. It was a unique chance to join everyone on the server and kill a large raid mob for a chance at legacy loot. It's kinda cool to actually see 660 characters in all their gear in one place.

/cheer

[AwesomeSquared]

Kittens had a ton of fun with Khikik in DL, and I had a great time trying convince everyone to get in a single file line in WC. It was great as (I think at Twochain's suggestion?) it morphed into what is probably the biggest conga line the server has seen.

For those of you who did not duck in the conga line you can expect a visit from the police, or at least a fine in the mail. I made it very clear it is illegal to participate in a conga line while standing upright.

[Aescher]

pretty sure players would have given you a lot more than 57pp

Ah. Good to know. I didn't sell them.

[Kethrylyn]

It may not have been the event you planned... However, we still had fun participating!! Thank you for all you do!

[Shyynmoore]

Kittens had a ton of fun with Khikik in DL, and I had a great time trying convince everyone to get in a single file line in WC. It was great as (I think at Twochain's suggestion?) it morphed into what is probably the biggest conga line the server has seen.

For those of you who did not duck in the conga line you can expect a visit from the police, or at least a fine in the mail. I made it very clear it is illegal to participate in a conga line while standing upright.

Can confirm, Xyram WILL be looking for you non-duckers! :p

In the meantime, here are a select few of the 976 (no that's not a typo) screenshots I took last night. :D

meow meow meow (https://imgur.com/a/cF7ySav)

[Cen]

Can confirm, Xyram WILL be looking for you non-duckers! :p

In the meantime, here are a select few of the 976 (no that's not a typo) screenshots I took last night. :D

meow meow meow (https://imgur.com/a/cF7ySav)

Oh BTW I haven't seen you since we were both still looking for the damn robe in SS, grats on that! (Cenro)

[Kuren]

I had heard you guys had IRL issues to deal with and I hope everyone can understand that has to come first. And even though I'm new coming back from my childhood years playing on official Kunark and was too low level to make the trip to the real party sites for this event, I absolutely had a blast playing this weekend. Even on the night of the event I met so many great people in FoB that buffed me or gifted items that have really helped me out :D Love this game and love the p99 community :)

[Nagoya]

It was my first time doing any kind of special event, or even killing a big target with a huge group (I was in Dreadlands) as I have never done a single "raid" in my 20 year Everquest ride. 4 Guise of the Deceivers were given away. Dancing around the lake in WC was fun. Yesterday I was meeting friends that also play EQ and I spent a whole 30 mins telling them the story of the 10 year anniversary and showing them screenshots. And I can't wait to use that Gnome potion on Nagoya she will be awesome.

All this to say thank you man. RL first and fuck the haters. It can be improved but it was fun & memorable :)

Here's to another ten year!
Cheers xx

[Llandris]

Personal apology from myself, I was not able to break away from RL like I intended. We will make it up to you

[ReadOnly]

Personal apology from myself, I was not able to break away from RL like I intended. We will make it up to you

If you can make my ALS Necro's Lich illusion look like this, I'll forgive you!

https://wiki.project1999.com/images/A_cold_spectre.png

[bradsamma]

Personal apology from myself, I was not able to break away from RL like I intended. We will make it up to you

Wow, that means a lot. I think most people would just respond with a giant pile of ego. I personally appreciate that.

I honestly think all that really needs to happen is better communication. RL>EQ. If we had gotten a heads up that it wasn't doable at the time of the event I think we would have all been ok everything.

Thank you again for that message!

[username17]

Befallen cat room was the place to be.

[gkmarino]

Best moments were definitely the WC lake swim party! A piranha even convinced people to go on a scavenger hunt. Most people just went for a wash and others went for a nude romp around.