Rotating Zem

[Trankuil]

Why isn't this a monthly thing?
Curious.

[cd288]

The staff are unpaid volunteers and changing code and pushing out patches just to do that is probably work that would take away from time to devote to their real life responsibilities. That would be my assumption.

[Swish]

https://i.imgur.com/apRp7TQ.gif

[loramin]

https://i.imgur.com/apRp7TQ.gif

Actually, that isn't true. On live they did rotate ZEMs, two years into the game:

As of the next patch, you will receive additional experience (per kill) in the following zones:
Droga increased by 12%
Nurga increased by 12%
Solusek's Eye (SolA) increased by 13%
Najena increased by 13%
Befallen increased by 13%
Paw increased by 13%
Permafrost increased by 13%
Kaesora increased by 18%
Qeynos Catacombs increased by 20%
Runnyeye increased by 20%
Kerra Ridge increased by 20%
The Hole increased by 25%


It would be 100% classic for P99 to rotate ZEMs every couple of years, just as live did.

[Eisai]

ZEM purpose is to populate unpopular zones? Can't imagine why you would even attempt to match the timeline for that. If the tool existed then use it for it's intended function.

[Swish]

They just changed the ZEM during the Velious timeline (as you quoted), they didn't rotate ZEMs or have hot zones in era for us.

[eisley]

Other servers do this (rotating "Blessed" zones) and it works really well. It's not classic, but at this point can we even honestly claim to be trying to be classic?

I think it's a great idea.

[WarpathEQ]

ZEM is largely irrelevant on P99 as it was really a tool to address overcrowding in some zones and encourage players to explore the world more. At the populations these servers run overcrowding isn't an issue

ZEM doesn't really impact player behavior on P99 if you look at the ZEM list, many of the most popular zones in the game have some of the worst ZEM, yet places like permafrost and Kedge remain virtually empty despite having the highest ZEM.

[eisley]

ZEM is largely irrelevant on P99 as it was really a tool to address overcrowding in some zones and encourage players to explore the world more. At the populations these servers run overcrowding isn't an issue

ZEM doesn't really impact player behavior on P99 if you look at the ZEM list, many of the most popular zones in the game have some of the worst ZEM, yet places like permafrost and Kedge remain virtually empty despite having the highest ZEM.

Do they? The Hole (melee near ent, clerics in the crypt, basically all classes tbh), Permafrost pits (dru, shm, rng, mnk), and Kedge (dru, enc, mag) are all pretty popular soloing spots.

That said, I do largely agree with you. The convenience of KC will always win out.

[WarpathEQ]

I would consider a zone that has 1 or 2 people soloing in it as virtually empty. Furthermore I have confidence that if the ZEMs changed those zones would still continue to have the same 1-2 people soloing in them at any given time.

[Vivitron]

ZEM doesn't really impact player behavior on P99

50+ pick up groups went from being mostly Hole to rarely Hole when they last rotated the zems on p99.

[Jimjam]

50+ pick up groups went from being mostly Hole to rarely Hole when they last rotated the zems on p99.

Hole was good for puggers to take a massed holiday to, but you can't really beat the convenience of KC. Okay cash loot, a couple of cool items and a tonne of easily accessible level 50 mobs.

[loramin]

if you look at the ZEM list

There is no ZEM list. There's only a live-based but inaccurate for P99 list (which sort of, kind of, loosely resembles the P99 list), on the wiki.

[cd288]

I would consider a zone that has 1 or 2 people soloing in it as virtually empty. Furthermore I have confidence that if the ZEMs changed those zones would still continue to have the same 1-2 people soloing in them at any given time.

But that's not quite true in recent history. During one of the last ZEM rotations when the Hole was bumped, it was packed until the ZEM change that buffed KC. Velks was also buffed at one point and had a bunch of groups in it IIRC. I remember Gorge also having one or two groups in it at any given time when it's ZEM got buffed and we were still in the period where lower level characters were being XPed on.

People definitely follow the ZEM. Now, does that mean they'd go someplace like Kedge, or TOFS, or Siren's Grotto? No. Those places are just too pain in the ass/dangerous to even justify the ZEM. But other places it definitely has an impact

[Eisai]

If you +ZEM it, they will come. If they don't, +ZEM it more. :)

Really though, spreading out people probably isn't needed right now: true. Maybe just a single lotto picked zone every month(week!) just to change the flavor of the month. Heard it's a packet from server side so easy python random number generated (bonus_winner = randInt(0, (zone_list.length())) then +ZEMBonus zone_list(bonus_winner) could even do it with quake. Will be fun hunting to figure out which zone it is each time!

[eisley]

But that's not quite true in recent history. During one of the last ZEM rotations when the Hole was bumped, it was packed until the ZEM change that buffed KC. Velks was also buffed at one point and had a bunch of groups in it IIRC. I remember Gorge also having one or two groups in it at any given time when it's ZEM got buffed and we were still in the period where lower level characters were being XPed on.

People definitely follow the ZEM. Now, does that mean they'd go someplace like Kedge, or TOFS, or Siren's Grotto? No. Those places are just too pain in the ass/dangerous to even justify the ZEM. But other places it definitely has an impact

Yep. I mostly leveled my Mage in Velks because that was the pug spot at the time. Before that was my ranger in The Hole. Now it's KC. In all cases, I stayed there for weeks.

Shuffling the ZEMs or even daily blessed zones with bonus exp would be a massive boon to the game. We've long since abandoned classic, so why not?

[Eisai]

Yea and having the same zone all the time makes the economy tank for the items it contains as well.

A yellow text serverwide:
Left undisturbed the denizens of ____ have blah blah blah

[cd288]

Yea and having the same zone all the time makes the economy tank for the items it contains as well.

A yellow text serverwide:
Left undisturbed the denizens of ____ have blah blah blah

Good point. There are some solid items in KC for example that to some extent have become trivial. People just passing on them constantly now in groups.

[Jimjam]

Good point. There are some solid items in KC for example that to some extent have become trivial. People just passing on them constantly now in groups.

I saw an Oggok cleaver on vendor the other day. People used to fight over loot rights!!

[Old_PVP]

I saw an Oggok cleaver on vendor the other day. People used to fight over loot rights!!

People sell shit to vendors like they are playing WoW or something. The amount of good gear i've found on vendors over the years... let me tell you!

[Wakanda]

Actually, that isn't true. On live they did rotate ZEMs, two years into the game:



It would be 100% classic for P99 to rotate ZEMs every couple of years, just as live did.

It truly is classic. I remember hotzones too. You know how people always say they remember where they were when 9/11 happened? I was at school that day when it happened. They let us out early, and I remember being in the Mines of Nurga (because it was a hot-zone at the time.).

I also only discovered Crypt of Dalnir because it was also a hot-zone, and for me Dalnir is an iconic zone because of this because I remember being a high schooler and exp'ing there with my fellow teenage friends. Ironically a lot of people don't know about Dalnir at all, so that's always interesting for me.

I think if people want to make leveling post-kunark "true classic" then making the Sarnak Fort in LOIO have a huge exp buff, as well as perhaps the mobs surrounding the windmill. Because that was the absolute meta leveling path when I played the game.

Windmill area > pulling alongside beach > Sarnak Fort > Giant Fort in FM > Pulling random mobs along the wall in OT > pulling random mobs along the wall outside of KC in DL.

Leveling in dungeons was never classic after Kunark launched. I know it's fun to level in places like UR, and Mistmoore over outdoor zones, but it's not classic at all. Also in true glassic LGUK and RE was at least competitive with UR.

We actually still see this on fresh TLPs and even saw this on freshly launched Quarm to a lesser extent.

P99 has a really extreme narrow path for leveling and I think it would be easily countered with adjustments, but it is what it is.

I also liked how on P99 green you could get a group in CT and do 30-45 in a single day fairly easy. For whatever reason, people don't know this in 2024 and no one even goes there.

In true classic people sought blackened iron armor because it was magic. On P99 there's not even a market for blackened iron stuff.

Like I enjoy City of Mist as much as everyone, but that was not a truly classic experience for me, lol. I've always told people too that LOIO was the original barrens chat. I went from playing EQ to playing WoW in a relatively short time period and always thought Barrens chat was kind of mild comparatively. I remember the LOIO that had 100+ people in it and all the random pointless bickering in OOC ! It's just surreal to me that Sarnak fort is consistently empty when I remember there being so many groups just in the front entrance alone, backdoor would have a ton too, lol. Like that is actually true classic. Not a LOIO that is empty with an occasional high level invising into the Sarnak Fort for their key. Which all of these mobs were way more rare back in the day. I camped a sarnak station earring an entire summer. Never got one. But only saw chancellor 2 times.

[cd288]

The only thing I disagree with you on is that leveling in dungeons wasn't classic once Kunark launched. It absolutely was. But the reason you have so many memories of non-dungeon leveling in the classic era was because there were often so many people on a given server that dungeon groups had waitlists and you could find plenty of people to PUG in other places even if it wasn't as efficient as the dungeon group.