Fresh pure classic server opinion?

[oldschoolguy]

just was thinking how classic (not kunark velious), but pure classic had a very unique feel to it. would you guys play it if they released one? why or why not?

all opinions welcomed.

[Loadsamoney]

just was thinking how classic (not kunark velious), but pure classic had a very unique feel to it. would you guys play it if they released one? why or why not?

all opinions welcomed.

I would play a Kunark Classic server if it STAYED Kunark and never transitioned to Velious.

[putrid_plum]

Luclin or bust

[Loadsamoney]

Luclin or bust

Doesn't seem like anyone here likes moon kitties, or AA's for that matter.

[Croco]

Doesn't seem like anyone here likes moon kitties, or AA's for that matter.

Nah there's a very large contingent of people who love the idea of luclin or even pop. On the other hand there's a very small but EXTREMELY vocal minority who are opposed.

[Loadsamoney]

Nah there's a very large contingent of people who love the idea of luclin or even pop. On the other hand there's a very small but EXTREMELY vocal minority who are opposed.

I wouldn't be against Luclin or PoP for Blue server, or a separate server for it if the P99 team is ambitious enough.

Preferably, what I'd like to see is some select AA's on Blue as part of their "Classic-inspired custom content" plans.

[Tunabros]

sounds cringe

i want p99 but unrooted dragons

[PatChapp]

I want green reset, and slower XP. One account per person, and PvP options for camp disputes. A man can dream

[eqravenprince]

Nah there's a very large contingent of people who love the idea of luclin or even pop. On the other hand there's a very small but EXTREMELY vocal minority who are opposed.

I disagree, the majority do not want Luclin. Why don't you put up a poll?

[eqravenprince]

just was thinking how classic (not kunark velious), but pure classic had a very unique feel to it. would you guys play it if they released one? why or why not?

all opinions welcomed.

Would love this. Vanilla is big enough for us casuals and the hardcores would eventually leave making this a fantastic server.

[Croco]

I disagree, the majority do not want Luclin. Why don't you put up a poll?

Every time a poll is put up, which has happened a few times, the people wanting luclin or beyond win. Do some forum searching and you'll see.

~edit~

Majority of people in favor of resetting the sleeper. (https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=352720&highlight=poll)

Over 60% of people voted they'd be willing to donate for Luclin/Pop (https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=276963&highlight=poll&page=13)

Almost 54% of people voted for their favorite expansion as one that was beyond the current scope of the server. (https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302671&highlight=poll)

These are just examples from a quick search of 5 pages searching the word "poll".

[eqravenprince]

Every time a poll is put up, which has happened a few times, the people wanting luclin or beyond win by a wide margin. Do some forum searching and you'll see.

Exaggerate much? Go ahead and post some links of this so called luclin winning by a wide margin. Quick search of Luclin or Expansion tells me a different story.

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=371937&highlight=luclin
https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=397532&highlight=luclin
https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=305280&highlight=luclin
https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302671&highlight=expansion
https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73554&highlight=expansion

Edit
After reading your edit and adding links, that is hardly luclin winning by a wide margin. More mixed bag of results.

[Gustoo]

The most active people on the forum are not the most active people in the game,

In any case play another server to go past velious, there are many.

A vanilla locked server would be great. We can dream

[Loadsamoney]

The most active people on the forum are not the most active people in the game,

In any case play another server to go past velious, there are many.

A vanilla locked server would be great. We can dream

Kunark locked would be great, IMO. Level 60, just enough twinkage to stand out, and the epics are in play. Vanilla no expansions just doesn't have enough, IMO.

[Gustoo]

Vanilla is a lot more "beatable" no doubt about it. The best part about vanilla is the gear progression is all on point. Cloth and leather and ringmail and bronze all fit, and are all bettered by banded, which is bettered by the quested crafted lambent ivy etched armor, which is bested by planar.

All that goes out the window with kunark and the whole old world progression turns to vendor gear. Like, the short sword of ykesha is the best example of something that turns from top tier to junk tier overnight its just a bummer. 1 year is too short for vanilla.

[Tunabros]

unroot dwagons

[eqravenprince]

Vanilla is a lot more "beatable" no doubt about it. The best part about vanilla is the gear progression is all on point. Cloth and leather and ringmail and bronze all fit, and are all bettered by banded, which is bettered by the quested crafted lambent ivy etched armor, which is bested by planar.

All that goes out the window with kunark and the whole old world progression turns to vendor gear. Like, the short sword of ykesha is the best example of something that turns from top tier to junk tier overnight its just a bummer. 1 year is too short for vanilla.

Absolutely agree.

In addition, I like vanilla because there are 18 bind spots in and 16 different zones you can get group ports to. Vs kunark only 3 reasonable bind points and 3 group ports. And way less overpowered twink gear. Majority of best in slot gear is mostly no drop and requires a group or raid. In kunark, you want best in slot, you can just farm guards with your solo character, then turn around and buy best in slot gear for your alt.

[Arvan]

Absolutely agree.

In addition, I like vanilla because there are 18 bind spots in and 16 different zones you can get group ports to. Vs kunark only 3 reasonable bind points and 3 group ports. And way less overpowered twink gear. Majority of best in slot gear is mostly no drop and requires a group or raid. In kunark, you want best in slot, you can just farm guards with your solo character, then turn around and buy best in slot gear for your alt.

Sorry you don't got best in slot (vp)

[Pint]

Luclin or bust

+1

[Loadsamoney]

Vanilla is a lot more "beatable" no doubt about it. The best part about vanilla is the gear progression is all on point. Cloth and leather and ringmail and bronze all fit, and are all bettered by banded, which is bettered by the quested crafted lambent ivy etched armor, which is bested by planar.

All that goes out the window with kunark and the whole old world progression turns to vendor gear. Like, the short sword of ykesha is the best example of something that turns from top tier to junk tier overnight its just a bummer. 1 year is too short for vanilla.

Vanilla better have some cheap weapons that are better than 0.5 ratio...

[area]

I want green reset, and slower XP. One account per person, and PvP options for camp disputes. A man can dream

putting yourself on /list should make you pvp enabled until you leave the list.

[Loadsamoney]

Of course, the exp penalties means nobody will want to group with Hybrids, even useful ones like Bards. Rangers are gonna go hungry.

[Jimjam]

putting yourself on /list should make you pvp enabled until you leave the list.

Give this volunteer poster a 50% raise!

[Croco]

Exaggerate much? Go ahead and post some links of this so called luclin winning by a wide margin. Quick search of Luclin or Expansion tells me a different story.

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=371937&highlight=luclin
https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=397532&highlight=luclin
https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=305280&highlight=luclin
https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302671&highlight=expansion
https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73554&highlight=expansion

Edit
After reading your edit and adding links, that is hardly luclin winning by a wide margin. More mixed bag of results.

My links speak for themselves. I edited out "wide", as that was obviously not the case in the instances I linked. The point stands that greater than 50% of responders would prefer post-classic content.

If the devs decided to put in a poll that you had to respond to when you logged in I'm willing to bet a large pile of plat the post-classic content would win by an even larger margin than represented by these forum polls.

~edit~
eqravenprince you need to learn to read the data from the links you posted, all but one of them supports my conclusion not yours.

~2nd edit~
actually sorry I misread one, they all support my conclusion, every link you posted lol

[Gustoo]

Vanilla better have some cheap weapons that are better than 0.5 ratio...

?? Like are you trying to say Vanilla is going to need to up its game to win your over? lol.

It is what it is. The best rogue weapon is 13/30 crystalline spear and one of the best warrior weapons is 8/24 SSOY

Mithril 2hs is one of the better 2 handers at 21/40 with built in haste.

Then there is planar stuff later.

Best in slot for monk is like..full cloth armor. A real ostere monk its a badass class in vanilla.

[Master Roshi]

Knights support this idea.

[Jimjam]

?? Like are you trying to say Vanilla is going to need to up its game to win your over? lol.

It is what it is. The best rogue weapon is 13/30 crystalline spear and one of the best warrior weapons is 8/24 SSOY

Mithril 2hs is one of the better 2 handers at 21/40 with built in haste.

Then there is planar stuff later.

Best in slot for monk is like..full cloth armor. A real ostere monk its a badass class in vanilla.

I love how the monk’s power came from rejecting possession. It was such a cool theme.

[Loadsamoney]

?? Like are you trying to say Vanilla is going to need to up its game to win your over? lol.

It is what it is. The best rogue weapon is 13/30 crystalline spear and one of the best warrior weapons is 8/24 SSOY

Mithril 2hs is one of the better 2 handers at 21/40 with built in haste.

Then there is planar stuff later.

Best in slot for monk is like..full cloth armor. A real ostere monk its a badass class in vanilla.

So what, a twinked Ranger is going to be in full banded and Ebony Bladed Longswords?

No, give me my dual Lammies, give me my Sarnak Backstabber, my Jade Mace, give me weapons that aren't butt.

[Gustoo]

Twink ranger is ivy etched with a hero bracer and rubicite BP and fbss and trueshot long bow.

Djarns and 5/55 rings

Frog crown or tranix crown

Cloak of flames

Yeah the twinkage is a lot weaker the power of droppable items in kunark is like 3x the power of items in classic but you can see that those two helms and the cloak of flames and djarns ring remain supreme for all time which is nice

[Loadsamoney]

Twink ranger is ivy etched with a hero bracer and rubicite BP and fbss and trueshot long bow.

Djarns and 5/55 rings

Frog crown or tranix crown

Cloak of flames

Yeah the twinkage is a lot weaker the power of droppable items in kunark is like 3x the power of items in classic but you can see that those two helms and the cloak of flames and djarns ring remain supreme for all time which is nice

Yeah but how much do they cost in classic relative to their price in Kunark? With the level cap being 50 and the gear being weaker (and no epics, except maybe Fiery Avenger?), raising plat is not as easy in Classic, unless you have a Druid alt and port people all day I guess.

If there was a Classic only server I might play it, but I think Kunark only is more interesting for the higher levels and the dedication required to grind them out, the Epics, the big increase in end-game content while the planes still stay relevant, and of course, Iksar.

Maybe have a Yellow server for Kunark, reset Green (merge it with Blue first) and make it Classic only.

[eqravenprince]

My links speak for themselves. I edited out "wide", as that was obviously not the case in the instances I linked. The point stands that greater than 50% of responders would prefer post-classic content.

If the devs decided to put in a poll that you had to respond to when you logged in I'm willing to bet a large pile of plat the post-classic content would win by an even larger margin than represented by these forum polls.

~edit~
eqravenprince you need to learn to read the data from the links you posted, all but one of them supports my conclusion not yours.

~2nd edit~
actually sorry I misread one, they all support my conclusion, every link you posted lol

Sorry I missed all your edits. You originally posted and apparently still think that people want Luclin by a wide margin. I was right, you were wrong, it was a mixed bag of results not a wide margin as you continue to believe. Post a new poll to get new results, maybe you'll be right on the new poll. I've been with p99 from the start and my experience here tells me that the majority did not like Luclin back in the day, I don't see that changing. However, with that being said, it's possible we get custom content which has been supported.

[Gustoo]

Again I don't really understand what argument you are trying to make. I don't care about how easy it is to do anything in Vanilla vs Kunark era, I am just talking about how it is most fun.

Best in slot item like cloak of flames is very difficult to obtain in era as it is best in slot for all melee and one of the best droppable haste items forever basically.

Ivy etched on the other hand is an enjoyable quest, a very rewarding experience that doesn't get cock blocked by big guilds so much, same with trueshot longbow. You can get near best in slot items in Vanilla era all on your own or with a couple of friends and be ready for some planar raiding.

You don't really need platinum for anything except fletching components and you will have plenty just from grinding through the levels, there is very little you need to buy if you choose to progress in the game organically, and this is extra easy during vanilla era where most items drop in pretty easy to get spots.

The big money plat camps are mostly in LGUK, frenzied ghoul, arch magus, ghoul executioner, froglok king, this is where you start getting cock blocked as a group of level 50's can handle these camps pretty easily once familiar with the zone. But they are obtainable and a lot easier to get your hands on than say a fungus covered scale tunic where its like a permanent mafia run camp handling operation (one blue / green) for the fat stacks of plat it earns you.

[LHK]

Personally if there were a "Classic Vanilla Only" server, I'd play that for the rest of my life lol. I really enjoy the balance of that era - weapons aren't so strong that melee DPS outperforms nukers to the point of them being worthless, mobs aren't so strong that Charming is almost a must for efficiently grinding through mobs, and end-game gear isn't so strong that twinking with it trivializes the whole game. It's frustrating when I came back to blue in Velious (and now, Green in Velious) and every group had so much damage and HP that as a cleric or wizard I felt basically useless. There was no tension in groups, just CH and everything is fine. Just auto-attack and everything melts. No decision making or crazy moments, just mindless grinding. I've so many memories from crazy groups almost wiping but scraping by in classic green, and i'll probably never forget them.

The gear progression in Classic is great, you work your way up from trashy cloth to platemail, and having + stats is a luxury because it's not really super needed in classic. The content is beatable by working together with other people, which is the point of an MMO. Giving a lowbie a SSOY isn't remotely close to giving a lowbie a T-Staff, for example.

Planar gear being gated by being 46+ as well as no-drop is great too because it mitigates the problem of twinking while still giving higher end players something to strive for - especially with something like Sky in Classic, god that's painful but gearing everyone up with the absolute best Planar gear they can get, it's possible.

There are problems in Classic for sure - The endgame can be really bottlenecky, only having SolB and Lower Guk to hunt in kinda sucks, but if it were only Classic forever maybe people would explore grouping in Kedge more often as a third option. Only having Naggy/Vox to target for a long time sucks, too, but that makes that gear all the more prestigious and desirable (Planes fix that issue nicely, though)

Classic to me is the most fun, and I think a lot of people feel that way - If green is any indication, player numbers were absurdly good in Classic, dropped off a good bit with Kunark, and have really fallen off with Velious. Both of those expansions add a lot of content for the higher end player, but that gear always funnels down to the alts and lowbies and causes a major problem - the "new" expansions are focused for higher level players but the gear funnels down to the lower end / casual playerbase and ruins the original / vanilla game and people quit, and most people who play aren't interested in raiding or doing endgame stuff so Velious doesn't offer them much anyway.

Personally my partner and I are discussing what we're goin to do in Green 2.0 as opposed to playing anymore. We're over green, and don't want to go back to blue. Classic was special, and we're just waiting for that. I'd love to hear some word on what's going to happen / when / if, so I can take full advantage of that special 12-ish months of time.

[Jimjam]

Vanilla classic just so good. I wish there were a server locked at each xpac

[Gustoo]

LHK Yep I agree.

I will add that the excitement of a new server would dissipate whether or not kunark and velious got released. It's fun being there when everyone is scrappy and once it gets top heavy the experience kinda concludes a bit. That's just how it goes.

A server locked at each expansion would be cool. That is a lot of servers to be operating though.

It could be a way to cancel the server cycle (merge) thing. You can start at vanilla and play till you're done and then take a 1 way trip to the next expansion, and then take a 1 way trip to the next expansion if you want.

So new players can always choose where they want to start and there won't need to be big server merge events.

LHK I have reasonable hope that the next timeline progression server on p99 will be a PVP server again, as the pvp project 1999 has been on its deathbed for a very long time, and does offer a unique playing experience in MMO's in general and eq specifically.

About half the items in the game gain relevance when PVP is enabled, its a lot more dynamic way of looking at the gear and items and your character.

[Loadsamoney]

Melee has such a hard time soloing in Classic too, far moreso than most casters, especially the ones that have pets or can root rot. With banded and weapons that are decent by Classic standards, by level 20 or so you can't kill more than a single Blue without some downtime, and if you pull two or more, you either zone, or you die.

It's "too" difficult for pure melees and hybrids, short of Bards, to play solo because of how weak the gear is, but nobody will want to group with the hybrids because of the exp penalties. So Rangers, Paladins and SK's just have to go hungry?

There was too much class elitism in Classic and Kunark, too much bias against Hybrids, everyone only wanted pures like Wizards, Warriors, Clerics, etc.

[Gustoo]

Stating facts about everquest class balance doesn't change anything.

Melees and Hybrid Melees have their upsides and their downsides.

During Vanilla things are stacked one way, during kunark things are stacked another, and during velious things are different yet again.

I think vanilla is the coolest and most fun, and my favorite classes are melees.

Yeah, melees can never solo as well as casters, that just happens to be the way everquest ended up being.

Anyone not grouping with hybrids due to EXP penalties are idiots, join or create a guild. Yeah the EXP penalties don't actually make a lot of sense in 2022 when we know how things stack up, but in 1999 being a guy who could fight with blades and cast spells, the EXP penalty was easily worth it.

And you will have 10 years to get to level 50 so no worries on the level up speed.

And you will have plenty of money for food and drink.

Play the game however you want to play it. I recommend playing the character you want to be right from the get go instead of grinding through a caster to get money for your other character, but I am more of a role player than a lot of people in 2022 playing p99.

But don't bring the have / have not stuff from real life to project 1999. Make an enchanter necro druid shaman bard mage if you want an easier time of leveling and collecting money. Make a melee if you want to be a bad ass melee.

Are p99 players comparing eachothers in game 401k's and feeling regretful if they didn't get enough plat in X amount of play time? If you play it like a game you will have fun.

[Loadsamoney]

Time is plat.

[Old_PVP]

Bring back the blood, sweat & tears. Bring back pure classic. Fighting in rags how Brad intended.

Fuck Kunark, fuck Velious. Game just gets filled with super twinks and overpowered end game gear. It's the death of fun, meaningful PVP.

[Loadsamoney]

Bring back the blood, sweat & tears. Bring back pure classic. Fighting in rags how Brad intended.

Fuck Kunark, fuck Velious. Game just gets filled with super twinks and overpowered end game gear. It's the death of fun, meaningful PVP.

It's "fun" having to fight tooth and nail with nothing but banded armor and fine steel weapons all the way to 50, having a single blue clobber you within an inch of your life every one on one encounter?

[Old_PVP]

Don't be so dramatic. You aren't fighting with "banded and fine steel" all the way to 50... and if you are, then you are leveling too damn fast. Go do some quests, go farm a camp for a couple better pieces of gear. Stop and enjoy the journey instead of burning through to end game in nothing but cloth. Or don't.

But yes, this is what I'm looking for. Hardcore, elitist, painful. I want to go back to the days where people actually knew how to play their class... because every skill was needed, every spell was considered and sometimes used. Dungeons were actually tough, "MAGIC" gear actually meant something and in PVP people had to decide whether or not to wear stat gear or resist gear, because it was one or the other.

[Loadsamoney]

Don't be so dramatic. You aren't fighting with "banded and fine steel" all the way to 50... and if you are, then you are leveling too damn fast. Go do some quests, go farm a camp for a couple better pieces of gear. Stop and enjoy the journey instead of burning through to end game in nothing but cloth. Or don't.

But yes, this is what I'm looking for. Hardcore, elitist, painful. I want to go back to the days where people actually knew how to play their class... because every skill was needed, every spell was considered and sometimes used. Dungeons were actually tough, "MAGIC" gear actually meant something and in PVP people had to decide whether or not to wear stat gear or resist gear, because it was one or the other.

...alright, I'm game for that.

Question is, will Rogean entertain the idea of a Classic only server? What if we all started a petition?

[Croco]

Sorry I missed all your edits. You originally posted and apparently still think that people want Luclin by a wide margin. I was right, you were wrong, it was a mixed bag of results not a wide margin as you continue to believe. Post a new poll to get new results, maybe you'll be right on the new poll. I've been with p99 from the start and my experience here tells me that the majority did not like Luclin back in the day, I don't see that changing. However, with that being said, it's possible we get custom content which has been supported.

Sorry, I was wrong about the wide margin part. I am not wrong that every single poll you and I linked shows people liking and wanting post velious content. I have been playing p99 since 2011 and the LOUD voices opposed to post classic content have always been the same people and they are always in the minority.

[Gustoo]

...alright, I'm game for that.

Question is, will Rogean entertain the idea of a Classic only server? What if we all started a petition?

What level is your begging skill?

[Loadsamoney]

What level is your begging skill?

Your skill in Begging has increased. It is now DSP.

[Psionide]

A vanilla server would be awesome to me. It is my favorite era of EQ and it is correct that it has a certain special feel to it. Having zones like Blackburrow, Runnyeye, Paw, Cazic Thule, Crushbone, etc all being populated is awesome. Seeing someone in full purple cleric gear or gold russet or rubi is amazing.

[Gustoo]

Just make "legacy" items super rare drops at various places so you just get em eventually and by luck and /random 100 for them

Rather than stand in a poop sock line building up your EQ 401k (manastone, guise, lustrous russet)

[GardylooGubbins]

I would definitely play on a classic only server. All my favorite memories and zones are in classic, so +1 for the idea.

[Valdain]

Pretty sure the agreement with Daybreak prohibits any expansion beyond Velious.

As for a pure classic server, I'd be down to dabble on that. I've invested so much time into Blue in my time here that I couldn't see it being my main server, but if I could still have Blue up while I run a classic server like on Green, I'd definitely flit around on there

[Loadsamoney]

So the only class that has any sort of Epic in Classic is the Paladin, with the Fiery Avenger?

(and yes, I know that's more of a pre-Epic, or a 0.5 Epic)

That's the main reason why I love Kunark so much and would prefer Kunark only over Classic only, the Epics.

[Gustoo]

Yeah pretty much.

In classic people wore a mix of bronze and banded to look cool with plate without being too heavy.

In kunark you just have super badass gear for like every slot.

All the expansions have some awesome things and being stuck with vanilla is a sacrifice in some areas.

Coolest thing is human monks and non iksar necros
Not being obsolete and the monk being an actual
Monk like full naked class versus just tons of 0 weight 10
To all stats items in kunark

[Twochain]

Yuck.

[oldschoolguy]

Yeah pretty much.

In classic people wore a mix of bronze and banded to look cool with plate without being too heavy.

In kunark you just have super badass gear for like every slot.

All the expansions have some awesome things and being stuck with vanilla is a sacrifice in some areas.

Coolest thing is human monks and non iksar necros
Not being obsolete and the monk being an actual
Monk like full naked class versus just tons of 0 weight 10
To all stats items in kunark

yeah kunark basically obsoleted most race choice for monk/necro. and too much good gear brought on heavy twinkage. classic had a much better feel to it imo. kunark imo had some cool things too, but classic i think was just a more eqish eq.

[Gustoo]

In vanilla you are buying elite ivy etched armor from rangers as they collect thorny vine.

In kunark all of that is vendor status ivy etched not even fit for a twink

[MrSparkle001]

yeah kunark basically obsoleted most race choice for monk/necro. and too much good gear brought on heavy twinkage. classic had a much better feel to it imo. kunark imo had some cool things too, but classic i think was just a more eqish eq.

Yeah classic vanilla had the best feel but it would get old pretty quick unless there was also PvP, and PvP has its own problems. In classic there is what, lower guk and the two dragons? That's about it. Would be great to revisit all that again (I totally missed it on Green) but everything would be crowded and it would get old. With PvP there would at least be something else to do and a way to contest the few camps that exist but EQ PvP is a mess.

So a purely classic server would be a fun novelty for a while.

Plus, at what point in time would the classic server be? Manastones forever? I would actually like that lol. A perpetual snapshot of the first few months of EQ. But then there would be no Paineel and that's one of those things I think should have existed in EQ from day one. Think maybe it wasn't finished in time so they kept the entrance blocked off. The Warrens and The Hole too maybe should be included in a purely classic server. They're part of the old world and should have been there at launch.

[Immok]

I would do a perma-death classic server. You could have statues in the lake rathe arena as a tribute to the person of each race/class combo to make it the furthest. Maybe be able to pass on one heirloom item to your next character.

Very custom but would make playing in Classic era a little interesting for a while.

[cd288]

Yeah classic vanilla had the best feel but it would get old pretty quick unless there was also PvP, and PvP has its own problems. In classic there is what, lower guk and the two dragons? That's about it. Would be great to revisit all that again (I totally missed it on Green) but everything would be crowded and it would get old. With PvP there would at least be something else to do and a way to contest the few camps that exist but EQ PvP is a mess.

So a purely classic server would be a fun novelty for a while.

Plus, at what point in time would the classic server be? Manastones forever? I would actually like that lol. A perpetual snapshot of the first few months of EQ. But then there would be no Paineel and that's one of those things I think should have existed in EQ from day one. Think maybe it wasn't finished in time so they kept the entrance blocked off. The Warrens and The Hole too maybe should be included in a purely classic server. They're part of the old world and should have been there at launch.

Both paineel (and also Kunark by the way) were originally planned for day one release but were not finished in time. So yeah if you go paineel for the pure classic server then I think there’s an argument for kunark being in it also lol

[MrSparkle001]

I would do a perma-death classic server. You could have statues in the lake rathe arena as a tribute to the person of each race/class combo to make it the furthest. Maybe be able to pass on one heirloom item to your next character.

Very custom but would make playing in Classic era a little interesting for a while.

Wouldn't there be a lot of connection pulling? Wasn't that a thing back in old days? Not sure if it works on P99.

How about a system where you retire a character in order to give a new character some bonuses? I've seen that on private servers of some other games. In a Neverwinter Nights server I played in the early 2000s you could retire and delete a max level 40 character and the next character you create could become a custom race depending on the line you chose, like if you were going down the undead line you could recreate as a zombie, then ghoul, then eventually a lich, or goblin to orc to eventually a giant.

Would be quite an endeavor to do something like that in Everquest without a toolkit and easy scripting like NWN had, but maybe stat bonuses, regen, or something that makes it worthwhile to delete a max level character and recreate it brand new so that there's always a reason to grind instead of camping the EC tunnel and eventually just moving on to another server.

[MrSparkle001]

Both paineel (and also Kunark by the way) were originally planned for day one release but were not finished in time. So yeah if you go paineel for the pure classic server then I think there’s an argument for kunark being in it also lol

The big difference is Kunark was a separate paid expansion, and a massive one. Paineel, The Warrens and The Hole were merely added to the game in old world locations. They didn't come as an expansion or DLC, just added along the way.

[cd288]

The big difference is Kunark was a separate paid expansion, and a massive one. Paineel, The Warrens and The Hole were merely added to the game in old world locations. They didn't come as an expansion or DLC, just added along the way.

Yeah but the point is kunark was originally planned to be included as the base game they just didn’t have enough time to get it done. I don’t think the fact that they eventually decided to charge for it is a good argument for treating it differently

[ScottBerta]

I’d play up to Kunark or keep it as is.

[Gustoo]

Kunark and Velious are both part of the original vision. It doesn't change the fact that the whole game progression doesn't line up. Kunark obsoletes 90% of old world and Velious kinda does the same thing again except mostly for high end gear.

I think the Kunark -> velious is less world breaking than Vanilla -> Kunark

Except level 60 pvp guys seem to think that PVP gets messed up in Velious because there is just too much +10 all stats items for everyone to wear and the balance between normal people and day-job-raiders gets kinda broken.

[oldschoolguy]

Kunark and Velious are both part of the original vision. It doesn't change the fact that the whole game progression doesn't line up. Kunark obsoletes 90% of old world and Velious kinda does the same thing again except mostly for high end gear.

I think the Kunark -> velious is less world breaking than Vanilla -> Kunark .

i think so too. At least Kunark to some degree has factions that matter, although most are useless... (no value in being friends with goblins for example). In Velious your diety is irrelevant, your race is irrelevant... it obsoletes main RP aspect of classic.

I still prefer classic over kunark personally though. just has a better feel, and the difficulty is higher. Kunark brings epics which is nice, but also some very crazy gear for just about every class in every slot. that's the part I think I don't like about Kunark, the obsoletion.

[Jibartik]

I like the zones, lore, and art in classic more than kunark, but the gameplay and loot in kunark is spectacular.

[Weekapaug]

Yeah but the point is kunark was originally planned to be included as the base game they just didn’t have enough time to get it done. I don’t think the fact that they eventually decided to charge for it is a good argument for treating it differently

Have a source for this?

[Weekapaug]

Kunark and Velious are both part of the original vision. It doesn't change the fact that the whole game progression doesn't line up. Kunark obsoletes 90% of old world and Velious kinda does the same thing again except mostly for high end gear.

I think the Kunark -> velious is less world breaking than Vanilla -> Kunark



Been watching a lot of recent dev interviews lately and this is something a couple of of them gave talked about. One of them acknowledged that the jump in itemization was probably too pronounced, but it was balanced around the new content. Another mentioned that Kunark was originally supposed to be another 50 levels of content but there was an engine limitation that prevented them from going beyond 60 so they had to compress it all down to 10 levels. He noted that the spells you otherwise would have gotten about every 5 levels you got every level instead.

Funny thing about that is, from a business standpoint, it probably worked very well. I was in lower guk on bertoxx the night before Kunark went live and it was packed. Everybody who had been playing plus people who'd taken a break all back jazzed for the new content with everyone chatting about it in ooc. There was a minority but not small number of people insisting that it was not going to be a big deal and they were saving their money. After a week of Gem Encrusted Rings falling from the sky you heard none of that again. You might run into someone waiting because of performance issues or something, but nobody took a pass on anything related to content once word got out about the loot that was dropping, much less showing up in EC tunnel.

What's really funny is more than one of these devs said that the original bar for success was considered 75k players sustained for a year then they expected to just be making a new game. Then, with Kunark, that was going to be the expansion then they were going to make a new game.

That mudflation sells game and expansion boxes tho, evidently.

[A Knight]

I started with Kunark and enjoyed it a lot. I would have to enjoy all my spoiledness in Kunark, before I go back to being a neanderthal and hunting mammoths.

It's like Aoe 2, and Aoe 1. Aoe 2 is more controlled, fair, and advanced, so it feeds that need of a new game. But now I love Aoe 1, because it's a legit lack of control game.

I just need to finish Kunark for a while longer.

(Also, Kunark could just be better. I won't know until I get bored of it, and want to try classic only.)

[7thGate]

I will say, Kunark feels really good when its played without using the items to twink. As part of a natural progression where you get your items by questing or camping them Kunark becomes a small upgrade instead of an enormous one because most of the really good stuff doesn't become available until a lot later. Its still a boost; stuff like a Goblin Backstabber is like fourth best in slot if it was in classic and is doable in your 30s, but its not jarringly off like passing down Seb or KC items to a level 1.

There's a lot of good progression quests in Kunark and a lot of neat lore and environments around all of the dungeons there. Was a very good experience leveling up in ALS crawling through mid level Kunark dungeons and old world quest locations alike for upgrades.

[pogs4ever]

if the original trilogy could be tweaked where tradeskills could present a reasonable alternative gearing path, i think it would be quite fun.

I always felt the tradeskills updates were always several months behind relevance.

[cd288]

Have a source for this?

I was trying to find some of the statements old EQ devs have made about it, but haven't yet. The PC Gamer article from the anniversary makes brief reference to it:

"Unable to match their initial scope for Norrath, continents and a few features were trimmed from the original release."

I've definitely seen devs say they had hoped to have Kunark in there by launch. Granted, was it the same Kunark that happened with the expansion? Probably not. I'm assuming there are items and some quests and things that were thought up in the time between launch of the original game and Kunark that weren't conceived of back in 1999. But I know there have been devs who said they were working on the lore and continent of Kunark and just didn't have the time to be able to fully focus on it and get it done by launch of the original base game, so they used that as the first expansion. There's other evidence I remember seeing, such as statements from Brad early on in EQ development saying the world is going to be 5 continents at launch (which would seem to indicate Velious was considered too). For Kunark, various Kunark factions were already included in the original game and you could affect them via killing certain mobs etc.; the lore was already partially built into the base game and certain NPCs will reference it if you talk to them, parts of quests were built in as well. But again as I said I think the Kunark we got was very different (especially with things like graphic detail and itemization) from the Kunark that was originally planned for base game launch.

Separately, there's also a sign in Erudin I think it is about boat passage to Velious that was there prior to the expansions launching, but that's not really the same thing because I haven't seen anything that said Velious was also included in the original launch plan besides the statement I referenced from Brad above.

[Weekapaug]

The reason I asked is I just spent a bunch of time last weekend watching a bunch of dev interviews from fairly recently and one of them was the guy who created Kunark. Said it sat in his desk for a year before it became apparent that they were going to need more content so he pitched it. But from your elaboration, what you describe isn't necessarily mutually exclusive from that, either. I was just curious.

I gather you might dig this dude's channel so here's a link...

https://youtube.com/channel/UCFl_3ktLNPYUeicLmhSvB1Q

It seems he was a junior dev at the time but has continued on in the industry. Started a twitch channel just to hang out and talk about eq and it evolved into him bringing on pretty much everybody. Sounds like he plays on p99 also. These interviews are great tho, if you like longform discussions that go deep.

[cd288]

Yeah I think I’ve watched that channel before it’s pretty good.

Yeah unless that guy is talking about the very beginning of the EQ planning stage he can’t possibly be being honest. Because they references kunark from the beginning so it definitely wasn’t something a junior dev came up with for an expansion later unless were talking like the first year of development before anything was even disclosed to the public

[Danth]

Said it sat in his desk for a year before it became apparent that they were going to need more content so he pitched it. But from your elaboration, what you describe isn't necessarily mutually exclusive from that, either.

No, it fits just fine. From the earliest designs there was intent to have landmasses called "Kunark" and "Velious" but they were cut from initial release and little or nothing was actually built. Fast forward a bit, EQ becomes a commercial success, Verant decides to make an expansion out of the planned-but-shelved Kunark concepts and incorporates some of this dude's ideas into it.

It is flagrantly obvious looking at Kunark zones and art styling that it was created much later than the pre-expansion game given the zones aren't even built the same way, textures and monster models are styled differently, polygon limits are higher, etc. Heck, it was originally described as a dead land that was the original home of the trolls. Seems like all that was carried over from the original concept was the name and not a lot else.

------------------------------------

I like classic-era design the best, but it isn't very tolerant of high populations. Guk and Sol-B with 100+ people aren't much fun. It reeeaaalllly could've used one of those extra landmasses.

Danth

[starkind]

Fresh pure classic red w/item loot and RZ rules imo.

[Weekapaug]

Yeah I think I’ve watched that channel before it’s pretty good.

Yeah unless that guy is talking about the very beginning of the EQ planning stage he can’t possibly be being honest. Because they references kunark from the beginning so it definitely wasn’t something a junior dev came up with for an expansion later unless were talking like the first year of development before anything was even disclosed to the public


No no, the junior dev is the guy who has the channel. If you watch the Kevin McPherson interview (might recognize the name from Halas) he gets into all of this. Said he came up with Kunark entirely fron scratch because he just did that kind of thing as a pen and paper gamer. Then it just sat in his desk for a year until they decided they were going to need more content.

He also said this surprised everyone. They thought they were going to get 75k players for a year then make a new game. Then when they made Kunark they thought that would be the expansion then they would make a new game. Someone in one of the other interviews said something about that, too but I forget which. Jeff Butler maybe.

[Weekapaug]

I like classic-era design the best, but it isn't very tolerant of high populations. Guk and Sol-B with 100+ people aren't much fun. It reeeaaalllly could've used one of those extra landmasses.

Danth

Me too. I'm a huge fan of guk so watched the interview with they guy that designed that on that channel. Might be the same guy that did the spells, but I'm fuzzy. I watched like 9 of these last weekend. Anyway, he said guk was supposed to be one zone but they had to split it into two because at full size nothing at the time could reasonably run it. It's not a stretch to imagine that extended to pretty much every other zone. And how cool it is they pulled off the big outdoor zones.

[cd288]

No, it fits just fine. From the earliest designs there was intent to have landmasses called "Kunark" and "Velious" but they were cut from initial release and little or nothing was actually built. Fast forward a bit, EQ becomes a commercial success, Verant decides to make an expansion out of the planned-but-shelved Kunark concepts and incorporates some of this dude's ideas into it.

It is flagrantly obvious looking at Kunark zones and art styling that it was created much later than the pre-expansion game given the zones aren't even built the same way, textures and monster models are styled differently, polygon limits are higher, etc. Heck, it was originally described as a dead land that was the original home of the trolls. Seems like all that was carried over from the original concept was the name and not a lot else.

------------------------------------

I like classic-era design the best, but it isn't very tolerant of high populations. Guk and Sol-B with 100+ people aren't much fun. It reeeaaalllly could've used one of those extra landmasses.

Danth

I'll work on finding the stuff I read, because I definitely remember quotes from devs saying they had been working on some Kunark stuff with the intention of including it in the base game and then ended up not having the time to finish it before launch. Like I said in an earlier comment, it's entirely possible that some of the things we saw in Kunark (such as graphical stuff) would not have been present had Kunark launched with the base game; could have used the additional time to flesh things out more.

But yeah there's some Kunark associated content in base original EQ such as factions etc. that didn't get fleshed out till the expansion.

[Danth]

Having extra content planned seems to have been Mcquaid&Co's modus operandi. They did the same thing with Vanguard, planned out quite a bit more landmasses than they actually launched with. Just the latter game failed commercially so none of the extra stuff was ever built for it.

Working on some stuff prior to launch doesn't preclude the possibility that said work was chucked in the trashcan when work on the expansion started in earnest. We could see some of that with Warcraft (a different studio, obviously, but same industry) since some of the un-used assets for original hellfire penninsula and zangarmarsh did actually make it into the release installation, albeit never used in-game. I would have liked to see "original Kunark." One of my complaints with the Kunark we got was it deviated too much from the style of the pre-expansion game.

[Weekapaug]

Having extra content planned seems to have been Mcquaid&Co's modus operandi. They did the same thing with Vanguard, planned out quite a bit more landmasses than they actually launched with. Just the latter game failed commercially so none of the extra stuff was ever built for it.

Working on some stuff prior to launch doesn't preclude the possibility that said work was chucked in the trashcan when work on the expansion started in earnest. We could see some of that with Warcraft (a different studio, obviously, but same industry) since some of the un-used assets for original hellfire penninsula and zangarmarsh did actually make it into the release installation, albeit never used in-game. I would have liked to see "original Kunark." One of my complaints with the Kunark we got was it deviated too much from the style of the pre-expansion game.

I'm just going by what they've actually said in these interviews. I always thought they had a larger plan for rolling out new content, too, but that's not really the impression they give when discussing it.

Haven't heard any of them say they didn't consider it as a possibility, which is why McPherson was asked to get something together early on, but they don't sound like they were really expecting to need it, either. Most sound like it was a bit of a surprise that they did and it was, evidently, a complete surprise to Sony.

[Danth]

I'm just going by what they've actually said in these interviews. I always thought they had a larger plan for rolling out new content, too, but that's not really the impression they give when discussing it.

Probably that reflects the disparate roles of the various individuals within the company. We saw the same during Vanguard's development, where Mcquaid would come onto the forums talking about this or that, and one of the other developers with more hands-on contact would have to correct him that, no, said feature wasn't actually in-game yet.

[Bardp1999]

I disagree, the majority do not want Luclin. Why don't you put up a poll?

We have had 13 years of classic/kunark/velious

I think people might be more welcoming of Luclin now with AA's and more to do instead of leveling alt #9

I dont like Luclin but if done by P99 I think it would be great (IE take out some of the more egregious bull shit and give it the P99 feel)

[cd288]

I don’t think people want Lublin itself. I think people would be fine with AAs being added. Or like PoP raids being added without PoK. I highly doubt anyone would want 100% of Luclin. Not to mention the population can barely support 5 continents with ghost towns everywhere, much less a full expansion’s worth of zones lol

[Jimjam]

Luclin is pretty good for getting the 4 people in crushbone, the 3 people in unrest, the two people in guk and mistmoor and getting them all in the same zone.

[Croco]

I don’t think people want Lublin itself. I think people would be fine with AAs being added. Or like PoP raids being added without PoK. I highly doubt anyone would want 100% of Luclin. Not to mention the population can barely support 5 continents with ghost towns everywhere, much less a full expansion’s worth of zones lol

A ton of people want 100% of Luclin. It's a great expansion. It's only the extremely vocal minority on this forum that are vehemently opposed. It would be a perfect direction for blue to go in after it merged back with green. Blue only started having tons of "ghost towns everywhere" after green became a thing.

[applesauce25r624]

so classic it makes me sick

[Tethler]

Classic has its charm, but the lack of content would get old fast.

Personally, my dream server would be a no-boxing server that went to Planes of Power and stopped.

[Croco]

Classic has its charm, but the lack of content would get old fast.

Personally, my dream server would be a no-boxing server that went to Planes of Power and stopped.

[Arvan]

A ton of people want 100% of Luclin. It's a great expansion. It's only the extremely vocal minority on this forum that are vehemently opposed. It would be a perfect direction for blue to go in after it merged back with green. Blue only started having tons of "ghost towns everywhere" after green became a thing.

Aren't you a vocal minority? Where's the people who really want it then?

[Ripqozko]

Aren't you a vocal minority? Where's the people who really want it then?

He’s a minority in the fact that he is guildless. Imagine getting kicked for open raid and the other person that went is back in riot. They could drop luclin and he would be stuck grouping in Greg’s end . Hope that helps.

[Weekapaug]

I'd be down for Luclin and PoP/Ldon. I'm good up to around OoW and Don, really. The crazy inflation started around Luclin so it gets the ire but it already started with Kunark, really, and didn't go completely off the charts until much later. Luclin gets blamed for introducing AA but AA is really cool until later when you need 1000s of them. My only real problem with Luclin is it's not high fantasy. Not sure how we wound up in space in a fantasy game. Ssra is one of my favorite zones for the same reasons cazic and guk are, with more to do, really.

All of that said, didn't the agreement with daybreak prohibit them from going beyond Velious or am I misremembering that?

[Ravager]

Custom classic with rebalanced classes, more quest content, scripted events, dynamic zone spawning and rotating zems would be baller.

[Weekapaug]

Custom classic with rebalanced classes, more quest content, scripted events, dynamic zone spawning and rotating zems would be baller.

I mean, it's been a while since I've done it so I don't know about this moment exactly, but that's pretty much what you get browsing eqemu servers, just not limited to classic.

[Ravager]

I mean, it's been a while since I've done it so I don't know about this moment exactly, but that's pretty much what you get browsing eqemu servers, just not limited to classic.

Yeah, tried Shards of D-something before I found P99 back in the day. I should give that another run. But I like the classic zones and I'm too lazy to learn any new zones.

[Croco]

Aren't you a vocal minority? Where's the people who really want it then?

Look back at all the polls. Hell create a new one. Luclin is always the most popular (non-troll/bush911) vote in those polls. I did the research.

[Croco]

Yeah, tried Shards of D-something before I found P99 back in the day. I should give that another run. But I like the classic zones and I'm too lazy to learn any new zones.

Come try out Wayfarers Haven (formerly project 2002). It's a great server.

[Arvan]

The polls of what? People here on this forum? Lol

[Croco]

The polls of what? People here on this forum? Lol

I'm sure if the powers that be wanted to they could have a poll show up when you log in and get literally everyone's opinion but yes, the various polls over the years on these forums.

[Ripqozko]

I'm sure if the powers that be wanted to they could have a poll show up when you log in and get literally everyone's opinion but yes, the various polls over the years on these forums.

you should prob get guilded beforehand, hope that helps.

[ScottBerta]

No, Kunark is to awesome. And I’ve invested way to much time on this server to leave for another one.

[Tethler]

I’ve invested way to much time on this server to leave for another one.

I feel this. I probably wouldn't start anywhere else unless p99 goes offline.

[Croco]

you should prob get guilded beforehand, hope that helps.

I've got a great guild. My wayfarers haven duo just hit 44 last night, Tulenk has been a great help getting me up and running. Very fun server.

[Croco]

I feel this. I probably wouldn't start anywhere else unless p99 goes offline.

sunk cost fallacy is a hell of a drug

[Ripqozko]

I've got a great guild. My wayfarers haven duo just hit 44 last night, Tulenk has been a great help getting me up and running. Very fun server.

Tulenk and Taigam, what a combination.

[Croco]

Tulenk and Taigam, what a combination.

Absent the vq toxicity he's been a great guildy. I've been happy to play with him and he's been a great help getting me started on WFH.

[Ripqozko]

Absent the vq toxicity he's been a great guildy. I've been happy to play with him and he's been a great help getting me started on WFH.

that VQ app should be in any minute now

[Croco]

that VQ app should be in any minute now

Never. You'll see me with a Seal Team tag eventually or you'll never see me in game again.

[Ripqozko]

Never. You'll see me with a Seal Team tag eventually or you'll never see me in game again.

the same ST that is comprised of VQ and riot members, the same guild that booted you out and you dont want to join? seems like a good idea

[Tethler]

sunk cost fallacy is a hell of a drug

I suppose it's less that I don't want to lose what I have, it's more that I've grown accustomed to having access to a variety of classes at levels high enough to do things. I've felt pretty constrained on green with the two characters I have there. On blue, I've got 5 characters in the 50's and 3 in the 40's, so it's easy to jump around and do different things at a whim. I really like that kind of flexibility.

[Croco]

I suppose it's less that I don't want to lose what I have, it's more that I've grown accustomed to having access to a variety of classes at levels high enough to do things. I've felt pretty constrained on green with the two characters I have there. On blue, I've got 5 characters in the 50's and 3 in the 40's, so it's easy to jump around and do different things at a whim. I really like that kind of flexibility.

Come try out wayfarers haven. You can have all that in short order, a much better community, and raid scene.

[cd288]

A ton of people want 100% of Luclin. It's a great expansion. It's only the extremely vocal minority on this forum that are vehemently opposed. It would be a perfect direction for blue to go in after it merged back with green. Blue only started having tons of "ghost towns everywhere" after green became a thing.

Yeah, I don't think so. The vocal minority is you and other people who want Luclin. It's not like we've seen a million posts by the majoity of current players saying "add Luclin now!"

If you like Luclin so much why play on P99 when there are other servers that have Luclin?

[Croco]

Yeah, I don't think so. The vocal minority is you and other people who want Luclin. It's not like we've seen a million posts by the majoity of current players saying "add Luclin now!"

If you like Luclin so much why play on P99 when there are other servers that have Luclin?

Sorry my friend but you're wrong. There's an extremely vocal minority of about 25-50 people who are extremely anti Luclin for some random reason and triple or more than that who are in favor. Just among people on the forums who have voted in previous polls and expressed opinions in threads that don't contain a poll.

I am playing on a different server atm. I have a monk/shaman duo that just hit 46 on Wayfarer's Haven (formerly project 2002) and I'm having a blast. Great community, no cut throat competition, no raid petitions, no camp stealing, no RnF, super active staff and devs. It's great. Every few days it seems I see another p99 refugee come check things out. All of them seem to be having a great time.

[GardylooGubbins]

Sorry my friend but you're wrong. There's an extremely vocal minority of about 25-50 people who are extremely anti Luclin for some random reason and triple or more than that who are in favor. Just among people on the forums who have voted in previous polls and expressed opinions in threads that don't contain a poll.

I am playing on a different server atm. I have a monk/shaman duo that just hit 46 on Wayfarer's Haven (formerly project 2002) and I'm having a blast. Great community, no cut throat competition, no raid petitions, no camp stealing, no RnF, super active staff and devs. It's great. Every few days it seems I see another p99 refugee come check things out. All of them seem to be having a great time.

The reason I play on P99 has nothing to do with the presence or lack of Luclin. If they were to add Luclin, I'd probably try it out. I play on P99 for the relatively higher population and the lack of boxing. As far as I can tell most other servers don't meet those criteria.

[Jimjam]

Newbie zones are scarcely populated. Its tricky finding groups for teens / low twenties due to spread, especially off peak. This is how I remember late velious on live.

Add a fast travel accessible to most newbies to a central hub with some quick xp low hp mobs that drop basic armour for melees. Economy is making it useless to sell mid range weapons too, we need an afk vendor mode to help shift stock to newbies.

Put an area with this stuff somewhere really remote (except for the fast travel). Oh and kerrans are cool, make them playable somehow.

No to Luclin.

[Croco]

Newbie zones are scarcely populated. Its tricky finding groups for teens / low twenties due to spread, especially off peak. This is how I remember late velious on live.

Add a fast travel accessible to most newbies to a central hub with some quick xp low hp mobs that drop basic armour for melees. Economy is making it useless to sell mid range weapons too, we need an afk vendor mode to help shift stock to newbies.

Put an area with this stuff somewhere really remote (except for the fast travel). Oh and kerrans are cool, make them playable somehow.

No to Luclin.

So remake Luclin except not Luclin. Got it. lol

[GardylooGubbins]

So remake Luclin except not Luclin. Got it. lol

Well, to be fair, it looks more like "give us bazaar and paludal, and nothing else."

[Ripp]

I'll come back to a fresh server if it has the small QoL features they removed. Some things should just be in the game, regardless of what the ol' fogies say.

[Dural_Levant]

sounds cringe

i want p99 but unrooted dragons

Been meaning to ask this for a while now, WHY are the dragons rooted?

[TheBlob]

Been meaning to ask this for a while now, WHY are the dragons rooted?

I believe it has to do with making them harder. When they aren't rooted, they can be pulld to a corner and more people can avoid the AoE by hiding behind the corner.

[htabdoolb]

A vanilla classic only server would be wonderful. The original oldworld zones are definitely my favorite part of EQ. They just have this unique look and feel, from the vast, open grass and woodlands of the plains of Karana, to the frozen everfrost peaks, to the thick and dense swamps and jungles of the Innothule and Feerrott, to the mysterious foggy forests of Faydwer and Odus.

Compared to classic, I think Kunark just looks.. ugly. Pure and simple. Ugly ugly. The zones themselves are annoying to travel through or fight in, especially the outdoor ones. The ground is never flat and the trees are thick and constantly moving their branches, making sightlines ridiculously short in many places. Plus, the color palette they chose to use is just drab. Boring browns, muddy greens, and faded grays, ugh. The bright colors of the artstyle of the original zones is just so much more pleasant and fun to look at.

I also like how the original game was itemized. It took time and effort to get gear with stat boosts, which made even basic levels of gear like bronze, ringmail, and cloth valuable well into the 30's and 40's.. which makes sense to me. Magic gear should be rare and hard to come by.. and stats boosts, even small ones, should matter. Having +5 or more to multiple stats on a single piece of gear, as is common on Kunark and especially Velious items, makes everything too easy. I like having to choose between limited options for a single slot.. for example, the classic Thick Banded Belt versus Flowing Black Silk Sash dillemma: one gives great boosts to armor and strength, and the other nothing but haste (which is otherwise very hard to find). Both are valuable to have, but you can only choose one!

As someone pointed out earlier in the thread, Ssoys are great! Until five minutes after Kunark becomes available, that is. And yes, the lower quality of the gear makes the game harder, but that is the point, and totally part of the charm. Mobs are overpowered compared to players, especially melee who have to stand toe to toe with them.. so you need groups, you need friends and allies to work with to defeat your enemies and gain skill and levels.. or you could just toss a fungi and a pair of exquisite velium whatevers on your new twink warrior and solo them to 50. Woo, sounds fun.. blech.

So, that's another vote for a Classic only server from me. Down with Kunark! Down with Velious! Odus, Antonica, and Faydwer forever!

[Old_PVP]

A vanilla classic only server would be wonderful. The original oldworld zones are definitely my favorite part of EQ. They just have this unique look and feel, from the vast, open grass and woodlands of the plains of Karana, to the frozen everfrost peaks, to the thick and dense swamps and jungles of the Innothule and Feerrott, to the mysterious foggy forests of Faydwer and Odus.

Compared to classic, I think Kunark just looks.. ugly. Pure and simple. Ugly ugly. The zones themselves are annoying to travel through or fight in, especially the outdoor ones. The ground is never flat and the trees are thick and constantly moving their branches, making sightlines ridiculously short in many places. Plus, the color palette they chose to use is just drab. Boring browns, muddy greens, and faded grays, ugh. The bright colors of the artstyle of the original zones is just so much more pleasant and fun to look at.

I also like how the original game was itemized. It took time and effort to get gear with stat boosts, which made even basic levels of gear like bronze, ringmail, and cloth valuable well into the 30's and 40's.. which makes sense to me. Magic gear should be rare and hard to come by.. and stats boosts, even small ones, should matter. Having +5 or more to multiple stats on a single piece of gear, as is common on Kunark and especially Velious items, makes everything too easy. I like having to choose between limited options for a single slot.. for example, the classic Thick Banded Belt versus Flowing Black Silk Sash dillemma: one gives great boosts to armor and strength, and the other nothing but haste (which is otherwise very hard to find). Both are valuable to have, but you can only choose one!

As someone pointed out earlier in the thread, Ssoys are great! Until five minutes after Kunark becomes available, that is. And yes, the lower quality of the gear makes the game harder, but that is the point, and totally part of the charm. Mobs are overpowered compared to players, especially melee who have to stand toe to toe with them.. so you need groups, you need friends and allies to work with to defeat your enemies and gain skill and levels.. or you could just toss a fungi and a pair of exquisite velium whatevers on your new twink warrior and solo them to 50. Woo, sounds fun.. blech.

So, that's another vote for a Classic only server from me. Down with Kunark! Down with Velious! Odus, Antonica, and Faydwer forever!


A+ would read again!

[A Knight]

I remember talking to a guy at a party. I think it was during the time that EQ died. I was probably angrily telling him about it, and he said, "I liked classic better, so imagine how much I think the game has died."

I don't know if that guy was talking just to talk, or if he meant it. I like Kunark, currently, but it would be nice to make a server for anyone like that guy.

An expansion would eventually be needed, though.

That makes it sound like I hate classic. Of course, I don't. A classic only server would be cool.

[A Knight]

I would like classic only on Pvp more than Pve.

[Croco]

I love the parts of the game that are boring as fuck.

I'm glad most people don't share your opinion.

[htabdoolb]

I'm glad most people don't share your opinion.


Why? It's not like it's any skin off of your nose if I don't like the expansions very much. It's not like a classic only server is likely to ever happen anyway. The p99 devs have been pretty clear that it's going to be red, blue, and green cycling and merging into blue from the very beginning.. and that's probably it. And Luclin is right out.. not that that losing that particular expansion is any great loss. Everything I said about Kunark goes triple for Luclin, hehe. Such a hideous collection of zones, art styles, stiff animations, and ridiculously overinflated items.. super yuck.

[Zoolander]

pure classic is fun, especially when its a red classic server.

[Vizax_Xaziv]

I would like classic only on Pvp more than Pve.

As someone who strongly dislikes Red I would ABSOLUTELY be there day one for a Classic PVP server. Even Kunark.

Speaking from my experience playing on Tallon Zek from Classic to POP, it was Velious onward that completely destroyed EQ PVP. Skill no longer mattered. If a Warrior with full NTOV gear jumped your Kunark-geared ass you were dead. And well-geared Monks and Rogues could literally one-round undergeared Casters.

Man playin a Cleric was fun back then. You were ALWAYS the #1 target but a skilled Cleric was VERY hard to take down.

[PatChapp]

As someone who strongly dislikes Red I would ABSOLUTELY be there day one for a Classic PVP server. Even Kunark.

Speaking from my experience playing on Tallon Zek from Classic to POP, it was Velious onward that completely destroyed EQ PVP. Skill no longer mattered. If a Warrior with full NTOV gear jumped your Kunark-geared ass you were dead. And well-geared Monks and Rogues could literally one-round undergeared Casters.

Man playin a Cleric was fun back then. You were ALWAYS the #1 target but a skilled Cleric was VERY hard to take down.
Vztz PvP box launchs in January, time locked to 2 months of classic 3 of kunark. Is 2.0 of one that was just done but died at velious,as all PvP boxes should.
Gonna be lit

[Worry]

Just make a server where Luclin is released with no Bazaar and POP's raid zones are placed throughout the world with no Knowledge or Tranquility.

That would also free up the many very awesome Velious raid zones for less hardcore players. And would probably bring in a large amount of people from TLPs for a much more healthy pop.

Maybe one day.

[Garnaak]

I like the idea of perma-death, one toon limit classic (pre-Kunark). I would add Paineel and The Hole to the server though. Not sure on Warrens, I like the zone but it is sort of an early version of Paludal Caverns.

I enjoy the early levels of tailoring up your first patchwork or raw silk armor set. Making your first tarnished weapon. Earning enough plat for first non-tarnished weapon and shield. Targeting low level quests and mobs for upgrades and some stats. Trade skills that actually mean something on the journey, not only valuable once skill level is maxed out.

Possibly even make all mob dropped higher end magic items no drop.

Make food timers dependent on food quality. My toons are bored with milk and muffins.

Edit - Also, add "Play as Monster" option that they tried back in the day, if you want a change from your normal toon.

[Garnaak]

Edit 2 - Thinking about it, you could add expansions to the original game in the same server. You could have a mechanic where the boats to Kunark and Velious get in a shipwreck after dropping you off on the new shore. "Mystical forces" prevent you from casting port spells back to classic zones. Make the trip to new expansions one way. You could add Luclin into game, but once you are on the moon, no going back to Norath. People can play at what ever level expansion they want with no mudflation in your expansion from future ones.

[A Knight]

Edit 2 - Thinking about it, you could add expansions to the original game in the same server. You could have a mechanic where the boats to Kunark and Velious get in a shipwreck after dropping you off on the new shore. "Mystical forces" prevent you from casting port spells back to classic zones. Make the trip to new expansions one way. You could add Luclin into game, but once you are on the moon, no going back to Norath. People can play at what ever level expansion they want with no mudflation in your expansion from future ones.

I had an idea like this. It was due to the problem of multiple expansion. Once 7-9 expansion is reached, it begins to add ludicrous amounts of content to the game. So, how would one fix that, with also making it lore legit and feel really attached to a world?

I figured it could be, teleporting to the planes of the Gods, or something with a better less egotistical sounding name. But you can teleport back to the physical, regular planes of existence Norrath. When you teleport back to Norrath, you return to whatever items and stats your character had before you entered.

If you were to level a new character, you would start on regular physical plane of existence Norrath. Maybe keep something like Fungi tunic only farmable in old world, to force people to return.

Then when you need to raid again, you teleport to the Spiritual plane, (Or whatever its name is.) and gain your wings. Then become able to fight in the Spiritual Plane, and be level 200, with 200,000 Hp, or whatever ludicrous stats.

[A Knight]

I know Spiritual Plane sounds like Planes of Power but ehh... I think my idea is independent enough to still be able to call it the Spiritual Planes, and be its own thing. /shrugs

[Mygicmeen]

I want P99 gold: the unofficial patch.

Like the unofficial patches that fix skyrim or kotor, kotor 2. Finish unfinished quest lines, mostly, maybe some qol stuff for raiding and what not? I know I am a heratic. Not hitting mage pets with every nerf bat they can find. That sorta thing. Maybe make the mage epic obtainable =x

[Weekapaug]

Make it happen or...oh well.

I'd love to see it, myself. But there are issues.

[Castle2.0]

I disagree, the majority do not want Luclin. Why don't you put up a poll?

P99 Forums = perfect representation of P99 population, let's do it!

[Jaydee82]

Combine green and blue and make it pvp.

[Arvan]

the 15 people who want to pvp are already on red