Isn't it time to find out what lies in the future for the servers?

[sajbert]

We're rapidly approaching the end of Velious and release of the final bits of content to be available on Project 1999 Green Server. Isn't it about time that we find out what lies in store for us in the future?

Some speculate that Green will be rolled onto Blue and that we will see a new Green server. Others hope it will be a new Red server. Fact is, nobody outside of the Project 1999 team really knows.

Why is it important for us to know?

It's no secret that we have become invested into our characters in Everquest and that most of us are balancing real life with gaming, hopefully with a healthy ratio.

For me and I'm sure many others choices like making a new character or pushing for X goal in the game are difficult to make when we don't know what's in the future. As much as I enjoy the journey, I can't motivate myself to start X character only to halfway have to abandon it as a new server is announced with all of its implications.

Thus I humbly request that us, the players, are also to be let into the know of what the intentions are for the future of the servers?

[torpori]

Hot take:

Allow people on green and blue to /movelog and designate one server for p99-style FTE racing, the other for classic-era server type rotations.

While probably pretty unpopular around these parts, community-led content rotated servers were definitely a thing in classic eras covered by p99.

Rathe server had a pretty simple one - needed to kill a raid mob once via FTE (either a guild was slacking or they let you try) before being added to the rotation list. If you couldn’t kill when your mob was up within X hours of its spawn, you needed to pass to the next guild. If you made Y attempt(s) and failed, you needed to pass.

Elflawyering goes down as a happy side effect.

[cd288]

They are going to merge the servers. Why would they pay for two pve servers at exactly the same stage in progression? That’s expensive and there’s no reason for it. It’s also become clear that we can’t sustain two servers with the current population. Frankly I cannot wait for a merge; zones are ghost towns outside of a select few hot spots, the economies are completely slow and stale, since the servers are top heavy it can be hard to find full groups for leveling, etc. and that applies to both Blue and Green

[unsunghero]

The longer they delay doing something and leave the servers separate, the happier I’ll be

My guess is they will delay for a long, long time and then eventually merge green into blue and reset green

Take your time devs! No rush

[unsunghero]

Frankly I cannot wait for a merge; zones are ghost towns outside of a select few hot spots, the economies are completely slow and stale, since the servers are top heavy it can be hard to find full groups for leveling, etc. and that applies to both Blue and Green

Green has healthy pops in lowbie zones still. I was in oasis of marr passing through yesterday and there were still 17 lowbies exp’ing there at 11pm MST last night, way past prime time hours

Edit: Nektulos forest every time I’ve passed through usually has about 5-10 different lowbie dark elves all level 1-10 all hours of the day/eve

Haven’t been to gfay, BB, MM, or the karanas in a while, so can’t comment on those areas

[Jibartik]

hopefully its teams

[AenorVZ]

Merge won't happen until the Sleeper is awakened on Green.

[cd288]

Green has healthy pops in lowbie zones still. I was in oasis of marr passing through yesterday and there were still 17 lowbies exp’ing there at 11pm MST last night, way past prime time hours

Edit: Nektulos forest every time I’ve passed through usually has about 5-10 different lowbie dark elves all level 1-10 all hours of the day/eve

Haven’t been to gfay, BB, MM, or the karanas in a while, so can’t comment on those areas

Lol says the guy who is terrified of the merge coming in January 2023. I play on green regularly and lowbie areas are usually ghost towns as are almost every dungeon besides like a few

[Ravager]

As far as the future of the servers, it'll just be more of the same. Either you're happy or disappointed by that.

[unsunghero]

Lol says the guy who is terrified of the merge coming in January 2023. I play on green regularly and lowbie areas are usually ghost towns as are almost every dungeon besides like a few

I’ve said I didn’t want a merge at all, won’t deny that. Nilbog’s financial situation isn’t my problem until he says it’s my problem, and I have donated in the past to improve it

I’ve been on 1 raid thus far. Considering it took me almost a full year to get in level range TO raid, at the rate I’m going I may be able to do another 3-5 raids by Jan 2023 when everyone will supposedly get dumped into Blue’s raid scene drama

So yup, the longer the better!

[unsunghero]

I play on green regularly and lowbie areas are usually ghost towns as are almost every dungeon besides like a few

Did some checks at 7:00 MST

I think I know what the problem might be. Did you by any chance accidentally somehow log onto the Teal server?

[unsunghero]

I play on green regularly and lowbie areas are usually ghost towns as are almost every dungeon besides like a few

Unrest a ghosttown?

Well, yes, technically there are undead mobs there. Also, there's lots of players

[Tethler]

I seem to remember reading that the original merge plan was to do it like a year after the final content update on green. Unless I'm misremembering, that's still a ways off.

[cd288]

Oh wow man you found a day where things are slightly less of a ghost town! Wow! Guess I just have to hope I happen to log in on one of the 20% of days where it’s crowded in lower level zones.

Also I said it’s empty outside of a select couple of dungeons. So thank you for proving my point by citing literally two of those exact dungeons in unrest and CoM lol

[unsunghero]

Oh wow man you found a day where things are slightly less of a ghost town! Wow! Guess I just have to hope I happen to log in on one of the 20% of days where it’s crowded in lower level zones.

Also I said it’s empty outside of a select couple of dungeons. So thank you for proving my point by citing literally two of those exact dungeons in unrest and CoM lol

Yeah I secretly check every day, for months I’ve been doing that. Then I saved the best possible day just in case I wanted to demonstrate something on the forums

Or I just happened to pick when I got home from work on the day someone called Green a ghost town

I could have picked more places but I wanted jog outside. I don’t see it as further worth my time

[cd288]

In any case it will be awesome when the merge happens and we go back to having one server with a great 1500 person pop with groups and people in lots of zones

[unsunghero]

In any case it will be awesome when the merge happens and we go back to having one server with a great 1500 person pop with groups and people in lots of zones

I’m not much of an alt-maker so all I see is what could be ahead of my current level, content-wise. An even more top heavy end game seems like it would disappoint me

So maybe it’s more a me problem

[Nachtsuchen]

We're rapidly approaching the end of Velious and release of the final bits of content to be available on Project 1999 Green Server. Isn't it about time that we find out what lies in store for us in the future?

Some speculate that Green will be rolled onto Blue and that we will see a new Green server....Fact is, nobody outside of the Project 1999 team really knows.

They literally, in their own words, have said something to the effect that Green is going to be rolled into Blue some period of time after the last patch and a new Green will be formed some time after if there is demand (at earliest January 2023). That much isn't speculation - it's literally what they said. Lol

[Videri]

They literally, in their own words, have said something to the effect that Green is going to be rolled into Blue some period of time after the last patch and a new Green will be formed some time after if there is demand (at earliest January 2023). That much isn't speculation - it's literally what they said. Lol

That's right, and here's a link if anyone wants to see it for themselves:

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=333743

Project 1999 Green is a new PVE server without any patches or expansions enabled upon release. Old-style mechanics and drops will be enabled, including legacy items such as Guise of the Deceiver and Manastone. The server will then progress through all patches on the same timeline as Everquest's original launch, all the way up to the last patch in Velious.

Green Lifetime
The green server will, at a time yet to be decided, eventually merge into blue and start over again. This merge will not happen until at least 6 months after the last patch in velious (No earlier than January 2023).

[ReoDobbs]

They literally, in their own words, have said something to the effect that Green is going to be rolled into Blue some period of time after the last patch and a new Green will be formed some time after if there is demand (at earliest January 2023). That much isn't speculation - it's literally what they said. Lol

Yeah but then there was uproar and they walked it back to "we are going to continue discussions as to the future of the server".

I'd still be surprised if they didn't. The population isn't strong enough to support three servers, Green would be the new red

[rahni]

The only people who are worried about a merge are the ones who are speculating or will have their existing blue investments mucked with.

Blue and Green will join like captain planet.

[cd288]

I’m not much of an alt-maker so all I see is what could be ahead of my current level, content-wise. An even more top heavy end game seems like it would disappoint me

So maybe it’s more a me problem

Yeah I mean I would t say it’s going to be even more top heavy. For one, by January 2023 green will be entirely top heavy even more than it already is. And then most of the people who are close to or at max level on green right now are the same people at the top on blue so it’s not an influx of brand new top heavy players

[unsunghero]

Green would be the new red

I’ve said before on this forum that I think it would be cool to be asked to come raid because there isn’t enough people online to kill something

The end game population shrinking far enough for that to occur seems a long way off

Right now what I hear in guild chat goes like this:

“Hey [x] raid target is up, who wants to come kill it?”
[people begin volunteering and forming into groups]

[20 seconds later…] “nm it’s dead”

I’ve seen that same scenario repeated multiple times in a night where targets die less than 2 minutes after spawning, the last time was around 1:30am last night

Dead end game? Gonna take a while for that it seems

[cd288]

I’ve said before on this forum that I think it would be cool to be asked to come raid because there isn’t enough people online to kill something

The end game population shrinking far enough for that to occur seems a long way off

Right now what I hear in guild chat goes like this:

“Hey [x] raid target is up, who wants to come kill it?”
[people begin volunteering and forming into groups]

[20 seconds later…] “nm it’s dead”

I’ve seen that same scenario repeated multiple times in a night where targets die less than 2 minutes after spawning, the last time was around 1:30am last night

Dead end game? Gonna take a while for that it seems

Yeah dead end game will never happen. I mean look what’s happening on Green, it’s the same hardcore raiders from Blue doing the same raids on two different servers. When you’re locked through two expansions the top guilds never move on to newer targets

[unsunghero]

Yeah dead end game will never happen. I mean look what’s happening on Green, it’s the same hardcore raiders from Blue doing the same raids on two different servers. When you’re locked through two expansions the top guilds never move on to newer targets

Ya the more I learn about the end game the more it disappoints. But I can’t say it was a surprise, people had been warning me on the forum for years

It seems that after killing a named raid mob the uber guilds will just set a timer to know the second it will spawn again, and then just leave their char logged out right at that spot, ready to log it on a minute before it spawns. Leaving their char logged out for like a week doesn’t affect them, because they have multiple max or near-max level chars

Even bosses like some dragons that require lower levels (51 or less I believe?) can’t be killed by newer players because the uber guilds have alts permanently kept at those levels where that dragon spawns, logged out with a timer running

So maybe I should start getting more into alt-making…

[sajbert]

Ya the more I learn about the end game the more it disappoints. But I can’t say it was a surprise, people had been warning me on the forum for years

It seems that after killing a named raid mob the uber guilds will just set a timer to know the second it will spawn again, and then just leave their char logged out right at that spot, ready to log it on a minute before it spawns. Leaving their char logged out for like a week doesn’t affect them, because they have multiple max or near-max level chars

Even bosses like some dragons that require lower levels (51 or less I believe?) can’t be killed by newer players because the uber guilds have alts permanently kept at those levels where that dragon spawns, logged out with a timer running

So maybe I should start getting more into alt-making…
Oh no my boy. They know when the boss enters the time window when it can spawn. Then they or someone else in their guild tracks the boss using track or being there or looking at someone's stream of them being there. This usually takes many hours and eventually once the boss pops they alert everyone in guild and on discord, people log on and kill the target in seconds.

So yeah, it's even LESS fun than had imagined.

[loramin]

Ya the more I learn about the end game the more it disappoints. But I can’t say it was a surprise, people had been warning me on the forum for years

It seems that after killing a named raid mob the uber guilds will just set a timer to know the second it will spawn again, and then just leave their char logged out right at that spot, ready to log it on a minute before it spawns. Leaving their char logged out for like a week doesn’t affect them, because they have multiple max or near-max level chars

Even bosses like some dragons that require lower levels (51 or less I believe?) can’t be killed by newer players because the uber guilds have alts permanently kept at those levels where that dragon spawns, logged out with a timer running

So maybe I should start getting more into alt-making…

It's not nearly as bad as you make it out to sound. For instance, Vox and Naggy aren't even major targets for guilds in Velious, so smaller guilds have a much better chance of getting them now.

But when talking about any raid mob here, you have to remember that Rogean and Nilbog want things to require unclassic levels of effort ... because we have unclassic amounts of raid players here vs. live, and the only other way to solve that would be with unclassic instancing or unclassic rotations.

And thankfully, while they used to be purely about the unclassic effort (ie. "competition") solution back in the day (which led to one raid guild monopolizing all top-end raiding for years), they've since started mixing in rotations (eg. "bag limits"). Quite honestly, raiding on P99 is better now than it was years ago ... unless you were in TMO years ago.

P.S. One thing everyone seems to be forgetting is that the Green-Blue merge will coincide with a brand new Green 2.0 server. No one knows if they'll be staggered or happen at the same time, but the point is very soon a new server will open up, and that giant mess of Blue-Green players are going to largely abandon "new merged Blue" to play on Green 2.0.

[unsunghero]

It's not nearly as bad as you make it out to sound. For instance, Vox and Naggy aren't even major targets for guilds in Velious, so smaller guilds have a much better chance of getting them now

I've only paid attention to one Vox kill, but from what I heard one of the top 2 guilds on the server had a small army of level 51 or 52 chars with their epics (I'm guessing that meant it was an alt of someone's) logged out near her, and they got her less than a minute or so after she spawned

But that was just one kill, maybe interest will wane over time

[starkind]

do firiona vie

do full on hardcore trivial loot code

do pvp

no pnp

allow kill stealing

sullun zek rules

that is the only way to revive deadquest outside of just a nostalgia wall simulator

https://i.imgur.com/Xapk0xu.jpg

[cd288]

I hope they don’t do green 2.0 right away. I would love to have awhile where there is just one server with a very healthy population as opposed to two low population servers. Don’t get me wrong to a certain extent it’s nice to be able to basically do whatever you want because the pop is low, but it just feels empty and not like a true EQ experience.

I also think that delaying Green 2.0 for a bit will help get a large population on that server when it restarts. Let the anticipation build and let people get back into the mode of being excited to start fresh after they’ve played on the merged server for a bit.

[boukk]

Lol says the guy who is terrified of the merge coming in January 2023. I play on green regularly and lowbie areas are usually ghost towns as are almost every dungeon besides like a few

They re pretty populated at peak time, some zones are ghost town but they ve always been.

[Shinko]

Merge won't happen until the Sleeper is awakened on Green.

soon.tm

[JDFriend99]

They are going to merge the servers. Why would they pay for two pve servers at exactly the same stage in progression? That’s expensive and there’s no reason for it. It’s also become clear that we can’t sustain two servers with the current population. Frankly I cannot wait for a merge; zones are ghost towns outside of a select few hot spots, the economies are completely slow and stale, since the servers are top heavy it can be hard to find full groups for leveling, etc. and that applies to both Blue and Green

They don't pay for anything. Ask him. You'll find out how it's done.

[Videri]

Hot take:

Allow people on green and blue to /movelog and designate one server for p99-style FTE racing, the other for classic-era server type rotations.

While probably pretty unpopular around these parts, community-led content rotated servers were definitely a thing in classic eras covered by p99.

Rathe server had a pretty simple one - needed to kill a raid mob once via FTE (either a guild was slacking or they let you try) before being added to the rotation list. If you couldn’t kill when your mob was up within X hours of its spawn, you needed to pass to the next guild. If you made Y attempt(s) and failed, you needed to pass.

Elflawyering goes down as a happy side effect.

I love it. This would be a dream for many players.

[Graahle]

TLP >

[starkind]

I want to reiterate an RP server with class/race/god hardcoded restrictions (ur god will not let u heal an evil troll if u are a paladin! (maybe an agnostic one tho! (or quested teams so ppl can 'become a good troll'))) in place and no common language and hard faction limits (no dark elfs becoming felwith eleves) iksar always being KOS to good alinged npcs (can get faction in evul guilds) + 'no such thing as no drop' and trivial loot code of +/- 10 levels to the npc would be legit fun! + lowered stats on velius/endgame vp items and more access to tradeskill items/a low lvl set of tradeskilled minor +stat items that would make playing an elf.. or aquiring a small 8/32 +4 agi katana more doable etc

more dialogue from npcs!

thats how classic EQ should develop!

also survival modded food consumption so like food isnt stackable, lasts longer, and u also die of dehydration/starvation and hot/cold zones make u eat more or need to wear cold protection/fur boots/cloaks or be like 'slowed 5%' and like 'hot foods' can help that.

bring back stamina!!!

give alchemy to everyone and allow more crafted varieties of like 5 charge unstackable lore potions for healing/downtime for melees that u can use to kill like 10 super light blues or something/ delete severely nerf really broken items, wands/charged stuff/redwood /spells like torpor, charm, jbb, druid epic, except leave wizard dps clickies in and give them a few more! more moderately 'spaced out' and level appropriate dps options in line with like paladin sustained dps. (Or even make them very powerful, yet very expensive 1 shot deals that allow a melee to solo a named on par with like a decently geared mage)

half or quarter the percents on all pc castable/usable hastes/slows

buff mr/dr/pr etc ac/atk etc on some npcs, nerf on others! add a slight varience! increase mitigation slightly with +agi in combat code like 1-4% from 120-225 agi

randomise buff stripping with higher lvl dispells! (give npcs access!)

[loramin]

I love it. This would be a dream for many players.

It is mine too, and I'm sure LOTS of players here.

But, sadly, 10 years of this place have demonstrated that a "non-competitive" server is very much not R&N's dream :(

We can only hope/dream that will someday change ... but I wouldn't hold your breath.

[YendorLootmonkey]

I love it. This would be a dream for many players.

LOL... I mentioned this as a hypothetical path for the next time a new server starts up. One competitive, one rotation server... let players choose what works best for them. Caused a complete hissyfit by merely bringing up the idea.

I don't get why something we do on a rotation server would impact anyone on the competitive server. Especially when the response is "go play on an instanced TLP server then". Why does it matter whether I am playing on a P99 "rotation" server or a TLP instanced server?

The only answer I can think of is that hardcore players are worried AF that the population of the competitive server would rival that of Red, which tells you all you need to know about the dynamic that exists here.

[Imposter]

burn it all down, delete all characters.

[loramin]

LOL... I mentioned this as a hypothetical path for the next time a new server starts up. One competitive, one rotation server... let players choose what works best for them. Caused a complete hissyfit by merely bringing up the idea.

I don't get why something we do on a rotation server would impact anyone on the competitive server. Especially when the response is "go play on an instanced TLP server then". Why does it matter whether I am playing on a P99 "rotation" server or a TLP instanced server?

The only answer I can think of is that hardcore players are worried AF that the population of the competitive server would rival that of Red, which tells you all you need to know about the dynamic that exists here.

Have you ever been doing something the wrong way, and when someone points it out, you get mad at them, because it makes you realize you've been doing it the wrong way the whole time? I think it's a bit like that.

I think the "care bear" server would just be massively more fun for everyone, and even the competitors know it ... so they fear it, because they've already conditioned themselves to want "competition" over all else ;)

Also, more practically speaking:

hardcore players are worried AF that the population of the competitive server would rival that of Red

Seriously: the "competitors" would be stuck on a server with like 200 fellow competitors, and that would make them miserable.

But again, it doesn't matter, because R&N are the competitive type.

[Bhairava]

burn it all down, delete all characters.

i like the way u think big dawg

[Issar]

Have you ever been doing something the wrong way, and when someone points it out, you get mad at them, because it makes you realize you've been doing it the wrong way the whole time? I think it's a bit like that.

I think the "care bear" server would just be massively more fun for everyone, and even the competitors know it ... so they fear it, because they've already conditioned themselves to want "competition" over all else ;)

Also, more practically speaking:



Seriously: the "competitors" would be stuck on a server with like 200 fellow competitors, and that would make them miserable.

But again, it doesn't matter, because R&N are the competitive type.

The dream for me is P99 with instanced raids, disabled MQ’s and loot locked world mobs. And as you suggest, I’m most likely not the minority. Most of us are well into our careers, have wives and children. Raiding on a schedule would be bliss. Unfortunately most of us just don’t have the kind of disposable time to justify classic “competition” of EQ.

That all being said, I’m fully aware just how far away that is from classic and that’s not the goal that our devs have in mind. Completely fine with that. But I’d be curious to see how successful and populated that server would be compared the current rule set.

[unsunghero]

The dream for me is P99 with instanced raids, disabled MQ’s and loot locked world mobs. And as you suggest, I’m most likely not the minority. Most of us are well into our careers, have wives and children. Raiding on a schedule would be bliss. Unfortunately most of us just don’t have the kind of disposable time to justify classic “competition” of EQ.

That all being said, I’m fully aware just how far away that is from classic and that’s not the goal that our devs have in mind. Completely fine with that. But I’d be curious to see how successful and populated that server would be compared the current rule set.

With ya there

TAKP server would normally be the answer, if there wasn’t as many boxers and if mouse scroll worked (I know TAKP regulars hate hearing these gripes tho)

[loramin]

That all being said, I’m fully aware just how far away that is from classic

The rotations piece really isn't; many have reported that their server ran rotations in classic.

Now of course, even the classic live servers weren't rotating the top content ... but then again they weren't time locked forever either (they had Luclin).

[Trexller]

At first I was like wtf no mouse wheel how will i gawk at my toon's ass?!

After a few days without mouse wheel, I didn't miss it anymore.

now I roflmao at others who draw the line there

[unsunghero]

I plan to set up TAKP as soon as I feel plateau’d on main without serious effort raiding or farming and have tried a minor twink

Because then I will have experienced all I can feel P99 can offer and then would want to commit to boxing since I have a year+ experience with it on live, probably 3box to see new content

[Ooloo]

Does TAKP have the original cloud graphics? I hate the generic catch-all skies we have now.

North ro, South ro and Oasis all used to have a separate "desert" sky, most other zones had the two layers of clouds (unless it was raining), or they were foggy zones likes gfay, innothule or toxx. And then when kunark launched all the kunark zones had a unique cloud graphic, which I think was also used for outdoor velious zones like iceclad.

[TheConsortium]

HurbQuest is a fresh install of EQEmu server ... titanium client base install, no special files or dlls ... first 8 expansions.. hosted on Amazon Web Services impenetrable Jeff Bezos Cloud for free

http://www.eqemulator.org/index.php?pageid=serverinfo&worldid=3264

[Castle2.0]

That’s expensive

What is the CPU, RAM, and bandwidth needed to run 1 server?

How much USD is it per month?

[Castle2.0]

https://everluclin.boards.net/thread/13/server-performance

^^^

In other words, Seedy (per usual) has no idea what he is talking about.

The cost to run an EQ server is trivial.

[BlackBellamy]

No one here needs to know anything. Stop adding another level of stress by gaming the merge meta. Play the game you are given, realize it might be gone forever in mid-play and be happy with that.

[starkind]

Necromancy only server next.

Then maybe a cleric only. Or wizard only server.

[Swish]

Can't wait to get a manastone on the next box despite having a job and commitments outside the game. Am I being realistic?

[Ooloo]

Here's my proposal for what to do at the end of green timeline:

Merge green and blue. This server would be the museum server and would have everyone's characters from green and blue intact with all their gear and titles from botb and all those histories and memories, and you can still log them in if you want, but all the raid mobs and quests are disabled.

At the same time the next green server would launch fresh, and if you want to actually *play* everquest you need to roll on the new green. All your elf pixels still exist for history's sake on the museum server, but this would incentivize people to participate in the new green server and avoid further splitting up the populations. When green 1.0 launched I was honestly pretty baffled that people were actually sticking around on blue and continuing to raid there. I have a 60 epic torpor sham on blue and I don't think I've logged her in once since green launched.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Here's my proposal for what to do at the end of green timeline:

Merge green and blue. This server would be the museum server and would have everyone's characters from green and blue intact with all their gear and titles from botb and all those histories and memories, and you can still log them in if you want, but all the raid mobs and quests are disabled.

At the same time the next green server would launch fresh, and if you want to actually *play* everquest you need to roll on the new green. All your elf pixels still exist for history's sake on the museum server, but this would incentivize people to participate in the new green server and avoid further splitting up the populations. When green 1.0 launched I was honestly pretty baffled that people were actually sticking around on blue and continuing to raid there. I have a 60 epic torpor sham on blue and I don't think I've logged her in once since green launched.

It's quite simple why a lot of people stick to blue, myself included. For many people it took years to get their toons leveled and geared on blue. Not everyone has the time or desire to do that again. EQ isn't like Diablo 2, where you can make multiple high geared characters in a few months.

The museum idea is interesting, but if you can't play the game it is honestly a waste of server hardware and bandwith. People won't play it at all, and you might as well delete it at that point. The problem is you aren't going to be able to force blue players (or green 1.0 players who feel the same way with their chracters) to play Green 2.0. They will just quit if you deleted the old servers or turned them into a museum. So it doesn't solve the player base split issue sadly.

[Danth]

That post smells of, "Someone likes something I don't like? Destroy it!"

Danth

[DeathsSilkyMist]

That post smells of, "Someone likes something I don't like? Destroy it!"

Danth

Agreed.

There are probably only two ways to fix the player base split issue, and neither will happen for obvious reasons:

1. The Dev's discontinue making new Green servers, and everyone plays on a merged Blue/Green. This will never happen because the Dev's plan for the past 10 years has been Green, and I am not saying new Green servers are bad. I think it is a great idea, I just don't have the time/inclination to start over. If Green came out 5 years ago I would have been much more excited.

2. The dev's push P99 into Luclin and merge the servers. That way everyone keeps their existing characters, while also not being on a "beta server". This will never happen either due to the dev's wanting to keep the timeline where it is, and I agree with them. I prefer the Classic-Velious timeline, and while I am kind of itching to play Planes of Power again, I could do that on TLP.

[Tunabros]

Hot take:

Allow people on green and blue to /movelog and designate one server for p99-style FTE racing, the other for classic-era server type rotations.

While probably pretty unpopular around these parts, community-led content rotated servers were definitely a thing in classic eras covered by p99.

Rathe server had a pretty simple one - needed to kill a raid mob once via FTE (either a guild was slacking or they let you try) before being added to the rotation list. If you couldn’t kill when your mob was up within X hours of its spawn, you needed to pass to the next guild. If you made Y attempt(s) and failed, you needed to pass.

Elflawyering goes down as a happy side effect.

what a great way to split the population more than it already is!

great thinking there bud! also it doesn't hurt to know that rogean and nilbog HATES

rotations!

[loramin]

what a great way to split the population more than it already is!

great thinking there bud! also it doesn't hurt to know that rogean and nilbog HATES

rotations!

That post smells of, "Someone likes something I don't like? Destroy it!"

Danth

[Tunabros]

loramin go back to editing the wiki please

[Swish]

Here's my proposal for what to do at the end of green timeline:

Merge green and blue. This server would be the museum server and would have everyone's characters from green and blue intact with all their gear and titles from botb and all those histories and memories, and you can still log them in if you want, but all the raid mobs and quests are disabled.

At the same time the next green server would launch fresh, and if you want to actually *play* everquest you need to roll on the new green. All your elf pixels still exist for history's sake on the museum server, but this would incentivize people to participate in the new green server and avoid further splitting up the populations. When green 1.0 launched I was honestly pretty baffled that people were actually sticking around on blue and continuing to raid there. I have a 60 epic torpor sham on blue and I don't think I've logged her in once since green launched.

Not everyone wants to start again, and sometimes you stick with your pals.

[Skarne]

Sucks when all your pals quit 2-3+ yrs ago…so now you’re stuck by yourself de-leveling your main with raid gear down to 4…just for the journey to 60 yet again where you can make new pals.

[Ooloo]

Not everyone wants to start again, and sometimes you stick with your pals.

I know, it's just that I dont see any other solution that doesn't result in further and further fractioning of the p99 population, which will *ensure* the ultimate end of the project. Upsetting the few people who *only* play blue and refuse to start over would still probably be a net gain in population and an injection of fresh vitality for the whole project.

[cd288]

Here's my proposal for what to do at the end of green timeline:

Merge green and blue. This server would be the museum server and would have everyone's characters from green and blue intact with all their gear and titles from botb and all those histories and memories, and you can still log them in if you want, but all the raid mobs and quests are disabled.

At the same time the next green server would launch fresh, and if you want to actually *play* everquest you need to roll on the new green. All your elf pixels still exist for history's sake on the museum server, but this would incentivize people to participate in the new green server and avoid further splitting up the populations. When green 1.0 launched I was honestly pretty baffled that people were actually sticking around on blue and continuing to raid there. I have a 60 epic torpor sham on blue and I don't think I've logged her in once since green launched.

No offense but this is one of the worst ideas I’ve heard.

Green was fun but I haven’t logged on there nearly as much as I have blue these past couple months. I’m having a blast on blue right now. If I wanted to just perpetually reroll on progression servers and have my prior server be a ghost town then I’d go play TLP

[Ooloo]

No offense but this is one of the worst ideas I’ve heard.

Green was fun but I haven’t logged on there nearly as much as I have blue these past couple months. I’m having a blast on blue right now. If I wanted to just perpetually reroll on progression servers and have my prior server be a ghost town then I’d go play TLP

Well sure if you play on blue obviously you won't like it.

[Ooloo]

I mean there's no other alternative. Only a finite number of people at any given time even know about p99, and of those a smaller set are able to play regularly. If you keep bifurcating that population by opening a new green but allowing people to continue on the old server as if there is no new server, you'll keep shaving that population down eventually. The ultimate goal of the project is to experience classic EQ, which to me consists of the journey from vanilla through velious.

Think about the experience of starting a new character on blue, or even green right now, as an outsider. It's so topheavy there is nothing to do but rush to 60 and then hopefully get in the back of the line in some guild capable of raiding. That's hardly a classic experience, it's more of a specific type of late-stage p99 server experience now.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

I know, it's just that I dont see any other solution that doesn't result in further and further fractioning of the p99 population, which will *ensure* the ultimate end of the project. Upsetting the few people who *only* play blue and refuse to start over would still probably be a net gain in population and an injection of fresh vitality for the whole project.

It isn't a "few people" who only play on blue. If that was the case our population would mirror that of Red:) At peak hours there can be 1000 players on Blue. Unless you have any evidence to suggest the majority of the player base is boxing?

There are hundreds of players who haven't (and probably will not) switch over to Green. Removing or gimping the Blue server would just make those players quit. It isn't like they will suddenly want to roll all new characters from scratch on Green. They have had the chance for more than a year now lol.

Having hundreds of players quit wouldn't solve the population split, it would just reduce the number of people playing P99.

You are going to have another problem as well when Green 1.0 is rolled into Blue: A lot of THOSE players will not want to give up their hard earned loot (legacy items, raid items, etc.), and they will want to continue playing those characters on blue (after the merge). Those players would probably quit if they couldn't play their characters anymore.

I think everyone here would agree it is better to have two servers with 700ish players instead of one server with 700ish players:)

EDIT: I think what will end up happening is the dumping server (blue) will end up having a larger population than the subsequent Green Servers. Probably something like 600 players on Green and 1.2k players on Blue. This is because all of the people who want to play their awesome characters will primarily play on Blue, and everybody who boxes blue/green, wants to progress over again, wants legacy loot, or wants double the raid targets, will roll characters on Green. I don't think this is a bad outcome to be honest, and one of the things P99 was missing for a long time was multiple servers to choose from, which was something live had. Even having 2 servers that people can play on simultaneously give both the hardcore players something to do, as well as the casuals. I am excluding Red obviously, as their sub 100 population for years shows most people are not willing to box red/blue, even before Green was released.

[Ooloo]

Live only had multiple servers because of the population. Well, they had pvp servers and non pvp servers. P99 now has 2 pve servers that combined have a population that might sustain one original live server in late velious.

My point is that if you keep repeating this process, you will keep spreading a finite population between more and more separate pve servers that are all at the same stage of progression. You either have to upset late-stage green or late-stage blue now. Or, you can bank on the fact that a sizeable portion of both populations *will* hopefully reroll on a new green progression server.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Live only had multiple servers because of the population. Well, they had pvp servers and non pvp servers. P99 now has 2 pve servers that combined have a population that might sustain one original live server in late velious.

My point is that if you keep repeating this process, you will keep spreading a finite population between more and more separate pve servers that are all at the same stage of progression. You either have to upset late-stage green or late-stage blue now. Or, you can bank on the fact that a sizeable portion of both populations *will* hopefully reroll on a new green progression server.

I think you are missing the point. They will not keep opening Green Servers. They will almost certainly roll Green 1.0 into Blue, and make a new Green 2.0, maintaining two servers indefinitely. That is the only logical way to keep P99 going. That way people can play their awesome characters on blue, and anybody who wants to re-progress can roll again on Green. Since you can box Blue and Green, there should always be a decent population on the subsequent Green servers, it is just you will end up seeing more players on Blue than Green. The only reason why Green 1.0 has more players is because a LOT of Blue players missed the original progression, and wanted a shot at it. Now that they have had their chance, there will be less people willing to go again, since now they have the awesome items they were looking for, the experience of progression, etc.

This isn't unprecedented either, games like Diablo 2 have been doing this for years (dumping ladder back into non ladder), and it was fine.

[Ooloo]

Yes but many blue players don't *want* green to be merged in. And many green players don't want a merge either. So you will inevitably upset somebody, the question is which demographic really sustains the project?

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Yes but many blue players don't *want* green to be merged in. And many green players don't want a merge either. So you will inevitably upset somebody, the question is which demographic really sustains the project?

That answer is easy. Most players don't want to give up their awesome characters. Many people will complain about a Green/Blue merge, because it will upset the economy, but they will happily play their manastoned character while posting in Rants and Flames on the forums.

If you just delete Green 1.0 and Blue (and force people to roll new characters), you are just going to bleed hundreds of players each time you create a new Green server. Remember, there will be NO economy on a deleted server lol, and for most people that is worse than an economy that is not desirable but still functioning.

[Ooloo]

Well I think the word "most" is doing too much lifting there. There are certainly people who fit that description, I just don't think it's most. I had no problem at all bailing on my 60 raid-ready blue toon when green launched, cause green is like the maiden voyage purpose of the whole project. Let's not forget the vast majority of players already *have* bailed on other awesome characters in their storied everquest careers. The willingness to re-roll is kind of a requirement for p99 unless you're the rare breed who is playing here and is actually new to everquest.

I would wager that most people who play or want to play, or would play here, feel roughly the same. But granted that's just based on my gut and not any kind of data.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Just look at the Server populations and you can see the answer. We have had plenty of time to see a complete decay of Blue if it was going to happen.

If you were correct, and most players wanted to play on Green exclusively, the population on Blue would probably be around 200-300. It would consist of the hard core raiders who want double the raid targets, and the people who like boxing on Blue/Green.

Instead, you see a fairly even population split, indicating a lot of players like their Blue characters more than the idea of re-rolling. I can guarantee you a lot of players on Green have become attached to their characters in the same way. Now that people have their manastones, beads, warder loot, etc., they want to PLAY with those items.

Unfortunately EQ just takes too long to progress, and in the years that go by between servers, people become more or less busy. Some people could play 12 hours a day on Green for two years, and then they have a wife and kids, and they can't do it anymore. If they want to play a little bit for nostalgia, fun, etc., they can hop on their OP character and have some fun. It isn't like Diablo 2 where you can get into Hell difficulty in a day or two, and already start farming end game loot.

[Ooloo]

No as you mentioned before you can box blue and green. We wouldn't really know how many people prefer to play on which server unless that wasn't possible.

And I also didn't suggest "deleting" blue and green. They would be combined into a museum server with no raid mobs and no quests. You could still log your chracters in, farm loot from non-raid mobs, tunnel quest, whatever. It would just encourage people to maybe reroll. Your p99 blue character doesn't exist in a vaccume, it could be deleted tomorrow if the project becomes financially or personally too much of a burden for the owners and we shouldn't forget that.

This way all those characters would still exist, they'd be rolled into the museum, and the progression ("green") server would become the primary server, because classic everquest is the primary goal of the project. A perpetually frozen end-stage velious is hardly classic. A repeating classic era progression server like a diablo 2 ladder is much more in tune with what most people are here to play for.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

No as you mentioned before you can box blue and green. We wouldn't really know how many people prefer to play on which server unless that wasn't possible.

And I also didn't suggest "deleting" blue and green". They would be combined into a museum server with no raid mobs and no quests. You could still log your chracters in, farm loot from non-raid mobs, tunnel quest, whatever. It would just encourage people to maybe reroll. Your p99 blue character doesn't exist in a vaccume, it could be deleted tomorrow if the project becomes financially or personally too much of a burden for the owners and we shouldn't forget that.

This way all those characters would still exist, they'd be rolled into the museum, and the progression ("green") server would become the primary server, because classic everquest is the primary goal of the project. A perpetually frozen end-stage velious is hardly classic. A repeating classic era progression server like a diablo 2 ladder is much more in tune with what most people are here to play for.


Your museum idea is the same as deleting the server. It is basically just an expensive Magelo page:)

It sounds like you seem to believe something like 600 players are boxing Green/Blue. If that is the case, we are in serious trouble as a community, as it means we have been bleeding players left and right.

You also seem to think there aren't hundreds of players who no longer want to re-roll on Green. They must be taken into account too, as they will not re-roll again.

Realistically speaking the boxing count is probably somewhere around 100-200 players at best. It is not easy to play two games at once on two different servers, you can't even duo those two characters together. For most people you can really only AFK camp while boxing Green and Blue, or raid on both because most of raiding is waiting around.

[Ooloo]

Well what are you basing those figures on? I grant that I don't know, but then neither do you.

Everquest itself is just an expensive magelo page. That's kind of what I'm getting at, what players of this game value is as diverse as the players, but the project itself as a whole can only survive if the small handful of people who keep it afloat are willing to keep doing it. What to do after velious has always been the hard question with this project because of the nature of the genre. Most players back in 2000 were waiting for the next expansion. We know there isn't going to be another expansion here, so what's the next best thing? Well the next best thing we can wish for to a "new expansion" here is a new p99. That's what I'm getting at.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Well what are you basing those figures on? I grant that I don't know, but then neither do you.

Everquest itself is just an expensive magelo page. That's kind of what I'm getting at, what players of this game value is as diverse as the players, but the project itself as a whole can only survive if the small handful of people who keep it afloat are willing to keep doing it. What to do after velious has always been the hard question with this project because of the nature of the genre. Most players back in 2000 were waiting for the next expansion. We know there isn't going to be another expansion here, so what's the next best thing? Well the next best thing we can wish for to a "new expansion" here is a new p99. That's what I'm getting at.

People want to play the game. Your argument doesn't make sense that a fully functioning server is the same kind of Magelo page as a heavily gimped server. If everyone just wanted a Magelo page, they wouldn't play the game, they would just live on the forums.

I don't have access to the data. But I play on Blue, and if 500 players were just boxing, you wouldn't see anyone grouping, it would take forever to get responses to messages, etc. It would be pretty easy to tell that everybody is not paying attention. I have never had that kind of experience on Blue from the inception of Green until now.

While I cannot definitively prove it, I would be greatly surprised if most P99 players can multitask two different servers to the point that they are indistinguishable from a single boxing player.

Honestly you would see the same issue on green, because right now there are 800 players on green and 700 on Blue. If 500 players were boxing on both, it would feel like a ghost town on both servers, as I described above.

[cd288]

I mean there's no other alternative. Only a finite number of people at any given time even know about p99, and of those a smaller set are able to play regularly. If you keep bifurcating that population by opening a new green but allowing people to continue on the old server as if there is no new server, you'll keep shaving that population down eventually. The ultimate goal of the project is to experience classic EQ, which to me consists of the journey from vanilla through velious.

Think about the experience of starting a new character on blue, or even green right now, as an outsider. It's so topheavy there is nothing to do but rush to 60 and then hopefully get in the back of the line in some guild capable of raiding. That's hardly a classic experience, it's more of a specific type of late-stage p99 server experience now.

What’re you even talking about? There’s plenty of low level leveling groups on blue at the moment.

[cd288]

No as you mentioned before you can box blue and green. We wouldn't really know how many people prefer to play on which server unless that wasn't possible.

And I also didn't suggest "deleting" blue and green. They would be combined into a museum server with no raid mobs and no quests. You could still log your chracters in, farm loot from non-raid mobs, tunnel quest, whatever. It would just encourage people to maybe reroll. Your p99 blue character doesn't exist in a vaccume, it could be deleted tomorrow if the project becomes financially or personally too much of a burden for the owners and we shouldn't forget that.

This way all those characters would still exist, they'd be rolled into the museum, and the progression ("green") server would become the primary server, because classic everquest is the primary goal of the project. A perpetually frozen end-stage velious is hardly classic. A repeating classic era progression server like a diablo 2 ladder is much more in tune with what most people are here to play for.

You’re just biased and only want everyone to play on the progression server and just completely reset every time. You’re clearly worried that you’re not going to have fun on green 2.0 because you think people won’t want to start all over again unless they’re forced to. Guess we should just make everything work for you

[Gustoo]

Once green is at end of timeline there is no reason for it to remain distinct from blue so I doubt it will.

No more box pharming on two PvE servers at the same time, sorry!

If I played on green I’d be psyched to have my green guys re United with blue guys.

[Gustoo]

And don’t worry the next progression server will be PvP so you can rest happily for a while in the combined blue green complete server

[azxten]

My prediction is...

Blue and green have always been almost the same population wise because there is a core of no life neck beards who play both servers. These are mostly players focused on blue but who realize that they should play green for a chance to bring more look back to blue especially legacy items.

The novelty of this will fade eventually, maybe green 2.0, 3.0, etc doesn't matter. That will eventually starve the green server of population as the core blue players stop bothering as they have enough legacy items. This will make non-core green players get bored of playing on a mostly empty server causing green to slowly die.

Blue will continue on with it's no life loser core of about 200 players fluctuating between 200-800 depending on if raid mobs are up and how many non-core players are around.

That is the future of the servers. There won't be anything new or interesting. Green and/or blue will get iteratively more classic. That's it. Eventually the project will be "finished" and something will happen likely the whole thing will get shut down by staff apathy and disappear either overnight or in some kind of final server event before the plug is pulled.

Alternate time line everything still happens this way but first some kind of custom content is added for blue to keep people interested as population declines but this will only doom things further as the "classic" nature of the server is even more removed than it already is.

[cd288]

My prediction is...

Blue and green have always been almost the same population wise because there is a core of no life neck beards who play both servers. These are mostly players focused on blue but who realize that they should play green for a chance to bring more look back to blue especially legacy items.

The novelty of this will fade eventually, maybe green 2.0, 3.0, etc doesn't matter. That will eventually starve the green server of population as the core blue players stop bothering as they have enough legacy items. This will make non-core green players get bored of playing on a mostly empty server causing green to slowly die.

Blue will continue on with it's no life loser core of about 200 players fluctuating between 200-800 depending on if raid mobs are up and how many non-core players are around.

That is the future of the servers. There won't be anything new or interesting. Green and/or blue will get iteratively more classic. That's it. Eventually the project will be "finished" and something will happen likely the whole thing will get shut down by staff apathy and disappear either overnight or in some kind of final server event before the plug is pulled.

Alternate time line everything still happens this way but first some kind of custom content is added for blue to keep people interested as population declines but this will only doom things further as the "classic" nature of the server is even more removed than it already is.

For anyone who needs a TLDR on this: the whiney guy who says he doesn’t play on the server but somehow has nothing better to do with his life than come to the forums and rag on the server and the staff is yet again making negative comments about the server and the people who play on it, and making a negative prediction about its future. Shocker!

[Tethler]

If I played on green I’d be psyched to have my green guys re United with blue guys.

This. I didn't farm legacy stuff to get rich on blue, just stuff for personal use. I made class selections specifically to complement my roster of blue characters without having overlap. If they don't merge, then I would have definitely played other classes on green than the ones that I chose.

[Balimon]

Yes but many blue players don't *want* green to be merged in. And many green players don't want a merge either. So you will inevitably upset somebody, the question is which demographic really sustains the project?

Both demographics do, as evidenced by the similar pop numbers on both servers.

[Fammaden]

Its only been similar populations since Velious launched on green. During the classic era green was WILDLY more popular, and significantly more popular still during Kunark although it lost some population after classic.

[ShampooChicken]

If you want a larger player base your focus should be on making the game easier to install.

I tried to join in 2015 but it didn't work with the copy of Titanium I had. This is a major block for tons of people.

[cd288]

If you want a larger player base your focus should be on making the game easier to install.

I tried to join in 2015 but it didn't work with the copy of Titanium I had. This is a major block for tons of people.

It’s really not lol

[Boptop]

I couldn't get it going as a mac user either

[DeathsSilkyMist]

It’s really not lol

He does have some merit to the point that P99 (and other emulated servers in general) are more difficult to install than other software, which is typically just an installer with an automated patcher. I agree it isn't super challenging, and the guides are pretty clear. But it is a bit of a pain for first time users, and plenty of people have abandoned software for lesser infractions lol.

However, ShampooChicken may not know this is generally the problem with this kind of emulated MMO software. The P99 developers do NOT have access to the source code of the client, and therefore must employ non-standard methods to get the client working with their server. You do not normally develop software this way, and thus it will not follow the standard people are used to.

Sadly there isn't any way to fix this barrier to entry, unless whoever owns the Everquest IP gives the P99 developers the source code for the client. It is simply a technical issue baked into the cake.

[azxten]

For anyone who needs a TLDR on this: the whiney guy who says he doesn’t play on the server but somehow has nothing better to do with his life than come to the forums and rag on the server and the staff is yet again making negative comments about the server and the people who play on it, and making a negative prediction about its future. Shocker!

You love it

[vegam]

We're rapidly approaching the end of Velious and release of the final bits of content to be available on Project 1999 Green Server. Isn't it about time that we find out what lies in store for us in the future?

Some speculate that Green will be rolled onto Blue and that we will see a new Green server. Others hope it will be a new Red server. Fact is, nobody outside of the Project 1999 team really knows.

Why is it important for us to know?

It's no secret that we have become invested into our characters in Everquest and that most of us are balancing real life with gaming, hopefully with a healthy ratio.

For me and I'm sure many others choices like making a new character or pushing for X goal in the game are difficult to make when we don't know what's in the future. As much as I enjoy the journey, I can't motivate myself to start X character only to halfway have to abandon it as a new server is announced with all of its implications.

Thus I humbly request that us, the players, are also to be let into the know of what the intentions are for the future of the servers?

What are you going to do? Leave your P99 Green toons in your will to your great grandchildren?

Everything must end.

[vegam]

I think our consciousness should be bound to our accounts when we die, so that we can play P99 Green until the sun turns into a red giant and vaporizes earth.

[Bardp1999]

The project is done, hope you had fun. If you missed it, get fucked

[Ravager]

I think our consciousness should be bound to our accounts when we die, so that we can play P99 Green until the sun turns into a red giant and vaporizes earth.

By then the servers will be run on positrons and we'll be playing our way back in time to the actual, original classic.

[ReoDobbs]

The project is done, hope you had fun. If you missed it, get fucked

You seem lonely...

[Darkwulf58]

I think our consciousness should be bound to our accounts when we die, so that we can play P99 Green until the sun turns into a red giant and vaporizes earth.

Humans will have populated the galaxy, ridding it of any vile Xenos scum ... wait which game am I playing?

[unsunghero]

Devs are gone

Servers will stay split for years. Some of the hardcores will drop off due to lack of interest or other IRL reasons. Then, once the hardcores lose their semi-monopoly on all the high end raid content due to a lack of players, us casuals will rise! The day of the casual is coming

We are the silent majority. We are mighty

[Ooloo]

Devs are gone

Servers will stay split for years. Some of the hardcores will drop off due to lack of interest or other IRL reasons. Then, once the hardcores lose their semi-monopoly on all the high end raid content due to a lack of players, us casuals will rise! The day of the casual is coming

We are the silent majority. We are mighty

I've been in a few different raid guilds on p99, both original blue and green. But I've been more casual lately since green got into end stage velious, and it would actually be legit interesting to see a guild of all casual players who maybe haven't done the higher end content before try to figure that stuff out from scratch, unimpeded by the neckbeard guilds. There would be so many wipes, which is pretty classic honestly, it would be glorious.

[Jibartik]

Considering there is little to no future for anyone at all I doubt there is much of one for p99

[Bardp1999]

You seem lonely...

As a young doctor, I am wildly rich and popular - sorry the devs don't care about your game anymore.

When was the last event the server had? There is your clue about how much they care about P99 - for fucks sake they didn't even announce Velious going live on Green, they just stealth patched it in without even a forum post.

[Tunabros]

p99 died with sirken and aftermath

[Trexller]

As a young doctor, I am wildly rich and popular - sorry the devs don't care about your game anymore.

When was the last event the server had? There is your clue about how much they care about P99 - for fucks sake they didn't even announce Velious going live on Green, they just stealth patched it in without even a forum post.

they knew they were only a couple months away from getting their ass kicked by TAKP's PoP release

[cd288]

As a young doctor, I am wildly rich and popular - sorry the devs don't care about your game anymore.

When was the last event the server had? There is your clue about how much they care about P99 - for fucks sake they didn't even announce Velious going live on Green, they just stealth patched it in without even a forum post.

You need to relax. Sorry that the unpaid staff who have lives and jobs aren’t throwing random GM events to make you happy. Frankly I couldn’t care less about server events. The fact that they keep working on this server to any extent along with the fact that it exists and I can play classic EQ whenever I want is sufficient and more than any of us deserve.

[Swish]

I'm enjoying my EQ experience, the numbers playing suggest a lot of people are versus a few whiners in here.

[Bardp1999]

Servers population is at a ten year low

[Jibartik]

Servers population is at a ten year low

Considering there is little to no future for anyone at all I doubt there is much of one for p99

everquest is real life

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57003722#:~:text=In%202020%2C%20the%20general%20fe rtility,measured%20racial%20and%20ethnic%20groups.

[cd288]

Servers population is at a ten year low

Lol no it’s not. Even with the split it’s still higher than it was 10 years ago. If you combined the servers it would be some of the highest pop we’ve had at primetime

[Swish]

Servers population is at a ten year low

Not even close.

[Bardp1999]

Not even close.

The server being at the lowest population in 10 years isn't a dig, it's just a fact. 500-800 people on at prime time boxxing between Blue and Green

[unsunghero]

The server being at the lowest population in 10 years isn't a dig, it's just a fact. 500-800 people on at prime time boxxing between Blue and Green

I dunno about the boxing numbers. If it is safe to assume that every hardcore is boxing a char on green and blue, then it should also be safe to assume every casual player isn’t and is just playing one char on either

Now neither of those statements are true, but I think in generalities they are. And since there are more casual than hardcore players on p99 (like every mmo), then there should be more people who aren’t boxing than ones who are

This is coming from a casual player with no interest in playing chars on two servers at once

[cd288]

I dunno about the boxing numbers. If it is safe to assume that every hardcore is boxing a char on green and blue, then it should also be safe to assume every casual player isn’t and is just playing one char on either

Now neither of those statements are true, but I think in generalities they are. And since there are more casual than hardcore players on p99 (like every mmo), then there should be more people who aren’t boxing than ones who are

This is coming from a casual player with no interest in playing chars on two servers at once

I would expect that roughly 20-25% of the server base is playing on both simultaneously. However boxing in this instance could mean something as simple as playing on one server and have your mule up in EC on the other or having a DAP character up on the other

[derpcake2]

Rogean gets tired of your complaints and flips it off.

Hope this helps.

[TheConsortium]

the irs and fbi ask about wire fraud and tax evasion and rx pills across state lines and suddenly Whaaaaa happppen

[Gustoo]

As far as the future of the servers, it'll just be more of the same. Either you're happy or disappointed by that.

I sure hope so. The servers are optimal
Complete classic experience as best as this team can offer. Anything else can be found elsewhere.

P99 is on point, just needs to consider being more communicative even saying that they have no intentions of more communication would be nice.

Green blue merge was already communicated and they have stuck to stated timelines very robustly

[Xer0]

https://everluclin.boards.net/thread/13/server-performance

^^^

In other words, Seedy (per usual) has no idea what he is talking about.

The cost to run an EQ server is trivial.

then start one.

[bomaroast]

With some luck all P99 servers will be deleted and brought back up as a fresh, single, PvE server. Many people here need a reminder that this is a game and it's for fun.

[Ooloo]

The (monetary) cost to run an EQ server is trivial

[Ooloo]

With some luck all P99 servers will be deleted and brought back up as a fresh, single, PvE server. Many people here need a reminder that this is a game and it's for fun.

I honestly kind of agree with you. People keep threatening that if they were to just wipe everything and start a new green that they'd quit.

Like, no you wouldn't. Give me a break. You didn't quit everquest before, because you came back for p99. And you'll come back again, and you know it.

"I'm QUITTING everquest cause this is bullshit" -me in 2002 when POP came out

"Oh hey a new fresh classic eqemu server sign me up!" -me immediately when p99 was announced

[cd288]

The (monetary) cost to run an EQ server is trivial

Oh rogean told you what he pays?

[Shac]

Oh rogean told you what he pays?

did rogean tell anyone this?

[Ooloo]

No you god damn dunces, of course I don't know what he pays. It might be substantial, I literally have no idea.

I was saying that the mental and emotional costs of running this god damn shit show might be a far higher tax than some bill. You guys are humans right?

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Saying it doesn't cost a lot to run a game server with 1000+ people on it is silly.

Let's strong man the argument and say his power/internet bill is not much higher than the average person, lets say 2x as expensive due to computers running 24/7 and the requirement of running a high speed internet service.

Those are not the only costs that go in to maintaining the server. They cost a lot of time to manage if don't want frequent outages. The fact that these servers are so consistent on their up time is pretty impressive.

Who is monitoring the servers to ensure there isn't a problem when the server manager wants to go out on a date with their wife, or on vacation? Either you are paying someone else to monitor it, or you are watching it yourself, which means you aren't really enjoying that date or that vacation.

Whenever hardware goes bad someone has to go out, buy the parts, fix the computer, and make sure everything is ok.

Also, the Dev's are not just keeping the server up, they are actively developing new code and watching for cheaters/RMTers. That also takes a lot of time out of your day if you do it semi-frequently.

Managing a server, even one that is relatively small like P99, isn't easy, unless you don't mind there being tons of problems and spotty coverage. If the Devs were like that, however, P99 would have died years ago.

There is a reason why Amazon Web Services is so popular. Most people prefer someone else to handle all of the headaches that go in to server management. But of course you could be paying quite a lot on AWS based on usage.

[loramin]

There is a reason why Amazon Web Services is so popular. Most people prefer someone else to handle all of the headaches that go in to server management. But of course you could be paying quite a lot on AWS based on usage.

This is true, but Rogean does it "old school", without AWS or any other cloud provider: he actually used to post pics (back in the days when he posted) of the P99 servers themselves.

[cd288]

No you god damn dunces, of course I don't know what he pays. It might be substantial, I literally have no idea.

I was saying that the mental and emotional costs of running this god damn shit show might be a far higher tax than some bill. You guys are humans right?

Oh so I guess you have no idea about the monetary cost then

[Midfrost]

Yeah dead end game will never happen. I mean look what’s happening on Green, it’s the same hardcore raiders from Blue doing the same raids on two different servers. When you’re locked through two expansions the top guilds never move on to newer targets

I'm certain it must be lucrative. As in measured in real dollars.

It's usually at this point that I normally suspect even the people that own the servers of real money trading when I hear something like this.

[Mblake1981]

This is true, but Rogean does it "old school", without AWS or any other cloud provider: he actually used to post pics (back in the days when he posted) of the P99 servers themselves.

Interesting, did you save any of the photos or wiki link?

https://twitter.com/vharron/status/970753675386765313

[DeathsSilkyMist]

This is true, but Rogean does it "old school", without AWS or any other cloud provider: he actually used to post pics (back in the days when he posted) of the P99 servers themselves.

Oh yes, I understand that P99 is done the old school way, which is much more difficult to maintain. I simply brought up AWS because it's existence is proof of the difficulty of handling your own server. If it was so easy to do it yourself, AWS wouldn't be that popular.

[loramin]

Interesting, did you save any of the photos or wiki link?

https://twitter.com/vharron/status/970753675386765313

If you wade through all the posts Rogean ever has made, you should find one with the photos of the server ... but I'm too lazy to do that (and given the weakness of this forum's search feature, I think you'll have to wade through them all to find it).

[cd288]

I'm certain it must be lucrative. As in measured in real dollars.

It's usually at this point that I normally suspect even the people that own the servers of real money trading when I hear something like this.

I don’t think you realize that this is what these people find fun. It’s not about RMT. They literally have fun by making sure their guild is the top guild and our competes the others.

[p99deadstarre]

I don’t think you realize that this is what these people find fun. It’s not about RMT.

i have a bridge to sell you

[Castle2.0]

Oh rogean told you what he pays?

No, there are LOTS of EQemu servers. Info is out there.

then start one.

It doesn't matter what it costs, I have zero interest in running one. My point still stands: servers are cheap. Try google.

[Castle2.0]

I googled it to silence the idiots (cd 288, et. all)

Honestly, I run my server on a single core 1.6ghz with 3gb of ram and an old 5400rpm HDD. And honest it runs fine even with alot of accounts logged in at once. You can get a 120gb ssd for literally 20 dollars online. I'd invest in the ssd. As far as storage goes 120 would be plenty.
Source: http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=42316

Yeah man it doesn't take much to run a server. I've got mine running on a single core 1.6ghz 3gb ram laptop with 5400rpm hdd. And I can run it with 50 zones easily
Source: http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40228

literally can run it with 2gb ram
dual core pentium
and 25gb hdd
Source: http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41749

I'll stop there. Try google, friends. It's amazing!

What does such a VPS cost? GOOGLE SAVES THE DAY AGAIN!


$5 to $20 per month

[cd288]

i have a bridge to sell you

I mean if that were 100% true you’d have basically everyone in the top guilds banned every year for RMT yet that doesn’t happen. Pretty crazy that you’re here yet somehow have the inability to believe that there are people on this server who are just THAT addicted to and immersed in this game.

[cd288]

I googled it to silence the idiots (cd 288, et. all)


Source: http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=42316


Source: http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40228


Source: http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=41749

I'll stop there. Try google, friends. It's amazing!

What does such a VPS cost? GOOGLE SAVES THE DAY AGAIN!





Oh so you did a ton of research to tell us that Rogean hasn’t ever told you how much it costs him to run P99? Solid post

[Trexller]

Every few months this topic comes up, and nobody ever remembers:

Rogean doesn't just own P99, he owns EQEMU. He makes money off of ALL the servers by donations to EQEMU, and P99 donations.

Rogean isn't just P99, Rogean is ALL OF THE EMULATORS except for TAKP which does not use EQEMU. (TAKP really isn't an emulator, its the actual legit Mac client, and therefore the most accurate.)

chances are he had connections to verant/soe back in the day, i mean who would really let some strange random person use their IP for free?

Why was P99 allowed to continue, when the eqclassic.org project (which started years before P99), was nailed with cease and desist orders from SOE?

Think people, THINK.

[Dolalin]

Saying it doesn't cost a lot to run a game server with 1000+ people on it is silly..

You can get the hardware to run a p99 for under $1k. My eqarchives indexer box could probably do it if I set up raid storage. I'm guessing that's going to be the biggest expense/maintenance issue. Right now I just do a weekly Google drive backup of the VM image.

[Castle2.0]

Oh so you did a ton of research to tell us that Rogean hasn’t ever told you how much it costs him to run P99? Solid post

Sorry your brain doesn't work and you don't know how to abstract or extrapolate.

Or, just too proud to admit you were wrong ;) Probably the second :D

"You don't know what I pay for my vehicle registration! You only know what everyone else pays... huehuehue."

[cd288]

Sorry your brain doesn't work and you don't know how to abstract or extrapolate.

Or, just too proud to admit you were wrong ;) Probably the second :D

"You don't know what I pay for my vehicle registration! You only know what everyone else pays... huehuehue."

Thank you for continuing to confirm that you have no knowledge of what Rogean pays!

[Castle2.0]

Thank you for continuing to confirm that you have no knowledge of what Rogean pays!

See above facts. We know approximately what Rogean pays. We don't need to know exactly, because that isn't even the question, fool.

The question is "What does one need to pay to run a server?" Rogean will be +/- that number within a small range. If he already has hardware, he may pay very little or nothing.

We have answered that question. You lose. Nice try. Sorry you can't BS away the obvious fact you put your foot in your esophagus.



$5 to $20 per month

[DeathsSilkyMist]

You can get the hardware to run a p99 for under $1k. My eqarchives indexer box could probably do it if I set up raid storage. I'm guessing that's going to be the biggest expense/maintenance issue. Right now I just do a weekly Google drive backup of the VM image.

You should read the rest of the post. I wasn't claiming it is guaranteed to be a ton of money to run the server, that heavily depends on a bunch of factors. The effort comes with maintaining the server, stability, developing new code, watching for cheaters/RMTers, managing a dev team and GMs, etc. Time is more important than money, and that is a cost.

Running a stable game server as a service while actively developing is not the same as running your portfolio website on your own server in the corner of your room hehe.

[cd288]

See above facts. We know approximately what Rogean pays. We don't need to know exactly, because that isn't even the question, fool.

The question is "What does one need to pay to run a server?" Rogean will be +/- that number within a small range. If he already has hardware, he may pay very little or nothing.

We have answered that question. You lose. Nice try. Sorry you can't BS away the obvious fact you put your foot in your esophagus.

Dude it’s a little strange how you keep commenting over and over reaffirming that Rogean has never told you what it costs him to run P99. We get it, you don’t know. We don’t need multiple replies of you saying it over and over

[Chortles Snortles]

the only logical conclusion is a server merge
i really don’t see Nilbog reneging on his published statements from launch

[DeathsSilkyMist]

the only logical conclusion is a server merge
i really don’t see Nilbog reneging on his published statements from launch

[Castle2.0]

Dude it’s a little strange how you keep commenting over and over reaffirming that Rogean has never told you what it costs him to run P99. We get it, you don’t know. We don’t need multiple replies of you saying it over and over

You are wrong and diggin in. You look like an idiot ;) Facts don't care about your feelings :D

[cd288]

You are wrong and diggin in. You look like an idiot ;) Facts don't care about your feelings :D

I mean I’m just trying to save you some time man! I was just letting you know you don’t have to reaffirm my point over and over, but obviously if that’s what you want to do then alright to each their own!

[Castle2.0]

"To each their own" is a loser's attempt to save face. Well done. Wrong again.

With google on my side, there is no idiot I can't defeat with simple facts, huehue

[cd288]

"To each their own" is a loser's attempt to save face. Well done. Wrong again.

With google on my side, there is no idiot I can't defeat with simple facts, huehue

Dude it’s alright that Rogean hasn’t told you what he pays. He hasn’t told any of us. It’s not a slight on you

[Castle2.0]

Dude it’s alright that Rogean hasn’t told you what he pays. He hasn’t told any of us. It’s not a slight on you

Still wrong. We know what servers cost. Doesn't matter what one person pays.

[Gustoo]

Every few months this topic comes up, and nobody ever remembers:

Rogean doesn't just own P99, he owns EQEMU. He makes money off of ALL the servers by donations to EQEMU, and P99 donations.

Rogean isn't just P99, Rogean is ALL OF THE EMULATORS except for TAKP which does not use EQEMU. (TAKP really isn't an emulator, its the actual legit Mac client, and therefore the most accurate.)

chances are he had connections to verant/soe back in the day, i mean who would really let some strange random person use their IP for free?

Why was P99 allowed to continue, when the eqclassic.org project (which started years before P99), was nailed with cease and desist orders from SOE?

Think people, THINK.

are you telling me that TAKP has managed to somehow get ahold of the actual EQ mac server client??

[cd288]

Still wrong. We know what servers cost. Doesn't matter what one person pays.

I don’t know why you feel so badly that you don’t know what he pays. It’s not embarrassing or anything to not know. We can all acknowledge that he hasn’t told any of us. You’re not missing out on anything don’t worry.

[cd288]

Every few months this topic comes up, and nobody ever remembers:

Rogean doesn't just own P99, he owns EQEMU. He makes money off of ALL the servers by donations to EQEMU, and P99 donations.

Rogean isn't just P99, Rogean is ALL OF THE EMULATORS except for TAKP which does not use EQEMU. (TAKP really isn't an emulator, its the actual legit Mac client, and therefore the most accurate.)

chances are he had connections to verant/soe back in the day, i mean who would really let some strange random person use their IP for free?

Why was P99 allowed to continue, when the eqclassic.org project (which started years before P99), was nailed with cease and desist orders from SOE?

Think people, THINK.

With respect to your point about eqclassic.org what year was that? I could see a couple possible reasons. For one, if it was years before P99 launched that could have been during the time when EQ wasn’t really a completely dead game on live; so SOE had a real motivation to control the IP in that way. Once Daybreak started running TLPs they may have viewed P99 as a bit of a marketing tool for them; people see P99 and either start looking at what other “progression” type EQ servers are out there or otherwise decide they don’t like full on classic but they want some of that experience so they go pay for TLP…P99 has never really approached the kind of player base that would have made Daybreak concerned about competition so better to just use it as a marketing tool in a way.

[Trexller]

With respect to your point about eqclassic.org what year was that? I could see a couple possible reasons. For one, if it was years before P99 launched that could have been during the time when EQ wasn’t really a completely dead game on live; so SOE had a real motivation to control the IP in that way. Once Daybreak started running TLPs they may have viewed P99 as a bit of a marketing tool for them; people see P99 and either start looking at what other “progression” type EQ servers are out there or otherwise decide they don’t like full on classic but they want some of that experience so they go pay for TLP…P99 has never really approached the kind of player base that would have made Daybreak concerned about competition so better to just use it as a marketing tool in a way.

we were alpha testing for eqclassic.org in like '07 or '08ish. Nilbog might remember the dates better, he was a dev there too.

[Toxigen]

consider blue

[DeathsSilkyMist]

consider blue

[Castle2.0]

I don’t know why you feel so badly that you don’t know what he pays. It’s not embarrassing or anything to not know. We can all acknowledge that he hasn’t told any of us. You’re not missing out on anything don’t worry.

Bro, I know what the dude paid to have his passport get processed and he hasn't even told me. I am just a genius like that.

[Castle2.0]

UPDATE:

I now know what Rogean pays to send a first class envelope in the US.

Just call me Columbo.

[Danth]

With respect to your point about eqclassic.org what year was that?

You're on the right track. P99 received C&D letters early on as well. Either of them (and EQ-emulator in general) survived for a long time mostly because Sony wasn't interested enough in heavily pursuing action (contrast that to, say, Blizzard). P99 didn't get its official sanction until 2015 by which time EQ had changed overall ownership. By then EQC was yesterday's news, and it has never launched at all, much less built any sort of stable well-known community. Simply put, P99 got the notice and sanction it did because it's the (relative) big player on the classic scene.

Danth

[Shac]

is there any point on playing green or blue if a new server is coming out in a year?

[Toxigen]

is there any point on playing green or blue if a new server is coming out in a year?

if you really want to get theoretical...there is zero point in playing p99 at all

[Cen]

is there any point on playing green or blue if a new server is coming out in a year?

I hope for your sake a hardcore nihilist doesn't try to turn you :O