Project M

[Norsegryphon]

Anyone else who played in the classic days remember a little fun side called Project M? Where you would be able to spawn as a random lowbie monster. To hunt and terrorize noob zones as that spiderling, or if you got real lucky, that level four Orc Centurion. I'm guessing quite a few do. But i'm wondering about the feasibility of that same thing being done here. Probably a scripting and code nightmare. But was always something i remember fondly and was great fun when we had it on retail. Anyone know the chances, of something like that appearing here?

[Brut]

Was pretty cool yeah. Recall best I got was some 20ish lizardman at CT, unfortunately the zone was a graveyard. Some gator killed me while exploring the zone anyways.

Recall if you had LFG or AFK tag up the players could see it.

[mostbitter]

I vaguely remember this being a lot of fun

[ForeverLost]

Lol, this was so fun! I remember killing a few level 1 newbies as a rat because they didn't understand how to joust.

[Rasah]

They should enable that on the red server.

[Kevynne]

[roject m was the funnest shit ever.

[Dirtnap]

This would be a really cool to have here. I remember it very little, I think I only did it once or twice.

[SamwiseRed]

i could never get a good casting mob but i did level my snake to 6 or so and raped face. i would jump at other mobs to see if they would jump back, if they did i would follow them or they would follow me and we would double team/triple team dat newb ass.

[Norsegryphon]

The worst i got was a goblin in Rathe mtns, there was nobody in that place back on bertoxx, best was Orc in gfay, hide behind the druid rings and pounce on those level 2 nabs, so funny.

[Sarkhan]

Maybe i'm remembering wrong but I thought for sure it had only been enabled on the PvP servers and had only lasted one night and was gone the next day... I could be wrong, but I thought my brother was pretty upset because I played all night (or until servers crashed?) and he didn't get a chance to try it because it was gone the next day

Highest lvl I got was a muddite in gorge of king xorbb but zone was dead :-/

I remember if you had killed any other mob you were then KoS by all mobs... Also, if you tried to zone you'd die. I could see the OOCs and shouts of other players but I don't think anyone was able to see what I wrote or tried to /shout.

[Norsegryphon]

Was it pvp? might have been, i played bertox SZ, TZ, was about 10 yrs ago, so maybe it was one of them :)

[Nordenwatch]

This sounds like a ridiculous amount of fun... team of bears.

[Sturgeon]

I doubt we'd see it here since it'd be a coding nightmare but it'd definitely get blues to come try red and possibly convert them to trying a red character.

[Thulack]

Anything that didnt involve me playing my actual toon if it was Project M or Monster missions i had no interest in and found no enjoyment out of.

[Leeyuuduu]

I won the lottery on this one and got will-o-wisp in qeynos hills...invulnerable to most weapons newbs had then + quite a few levels higher = oh fun joy and slaughter. I kept praying they'd implement it somehow into EQ, Lotr and Asheron's Call did something somewhat similar, but alas...the tears would be just too salty and sweet to handle anyways..nom nom nom

[Vynn]

Once got a level 14 (which was the level cap IIRC) Orc Shaman in Stonebrunt Mountains after randoming Odin knows how many Fire Beetles in Misty Thicket. Awesome spellset, not one person in the zone. Then it was gone. Sad days.

[NachtMystium]

God please implement this PLEASE, devs!!!!!!!!!

[Estu]

I don't believe this was only in PVP servers, but it was only for a weekend or something. Nilbog's talked about implementing this at some point but has said that it's low priority.

[shooteneq1]

It wasnt just on pvp servers. I played on Terris thule a non pvp server and i remember this.

[ForeverLost]

I do remember something about it being only on PvP servers. Like it didn't matter where you came from, but your NPC characters were only on the PvP servers.

[ForeverLost]

------------------------------
November 7, 2001
------------------------------

** Project M Implemented **

Tonight we have patched something to the PvP servers that many players
have been waiting for. The ability to play that gnoll, orc, or the cute
and fuzzy rat. On your character select screen you will notice another
button in the upper right part of your screen called "Monster".
Clicking this button will randomly place you in a low-level NPC in a
random zone. You will be given full control of the creature to do with
it what you like. You may hunt and kill other creatures. You may even
attack other players.

Some things to remember when playing your own personal monster (NPC).

-You will not be able to interact with players or NPC's other than
moving and hitting attack.
-You cannot speak, trade, sell, or do anything else that a player can
do.
-You will spawn with normal loot for the monster you are playing and
Player Characters will be able to kill you for loot and experience.
-If you are a spell casting monster you might want to take a moment to
memorize some spells.
-Once you die, you will return to the character select screen where you
may choose to return as another NPC or play your normal character.
-You may gain experience, levels, and skills as this NPC, but once you
die, it is all lost. You will need to start over the next time you
choose to be a NPC character.
-You can't zone as a monster.
-Monster PCs (MPCs) can not loot, sell, or gain items. They only get
what they start out with.

This ability to play a monster is being implemented for PvP servers
only as we have no plans to implement non-consensual PvP on a non PvP
server.

However, we are still working with this system. We may find other ways
to implement Project M on the non-PvP servers that are acceptable. We
aren't done looking at the possible uses of this new feature.

^It was never mentioned in any patch notes ever again. I think once they discovered that people were griefing newbies with it, which might hurt their ability to bring in new players, it was removed and they acted as though it never happened :P

[rafaone]

haha that project was fun, i recall it too

[Norsegryphon]

I wouldn't say lowbie zones are dead here, playing PST i see numerous low levels, tho i will say, misty thicket is a ghostland, as is qeynos at some hours and even nektulos averages 2-5, but EC is always bumping, and Gfay/Butcherblock have a good amount. I'm glad to see there are others around who remember this as well as i did. But if a system like this was activated, you would see a lot more new toons made and logged in to have fun with it i think. Though being a lvl 2 spider against some asshat twink wouldn't be too much fun for the spider. :)

[Sturgeon]

I'm all for Devs adding this to a to do list and getting to but I'm not going to kick and scream if they never get to implementing it. But yes I don't see any negatives to this project other then the amount of work that the dev team would have to implement.

[vinx]

I remember it very little, I think I only did it once or twice.
Same. think i tried it but there was nobody around.. instead i switched to an alt in Gfay to look for these MPCs but i dont remember killing any :mad:

[Bigcountry23]

Kept changing mobs until I got a madman in Oasis and ran amuck until a group tracked me down and took me out. Good times. I would love to see this, even if only for a couple days (for those of you wondering what happened, it went away due to people griefing newbs)