I apologize for being vague, I had forgot that the entire population would be waiting to flame people on the forums... I had assumed you'd be able to figure out from my first post that it's not a difficulty issue but more a time versus reward issue... You tell a friend "hey you can download league of legends with 2 clicks and start playing" and then tell them "hey you can spend a couple hours downloading, installing multiple CD's for a 10 year old game" it's a tough sell.

See how I have "somehow" in italics? That's because I know it's not something the admins can't easily do!

The issue as I see it is as follows:

1. P99 as a whole has a limited audience of player that want to relive the classic EQ gameplay. Of all the EQ subscribers that ever were, only a small percentage has heard of P99 and wants to relive the experience.

2. Only a limited number of these players experienced/enjoyed the PvP servers. The nostalgia for most was probably in a PvE setting.

3. The current playerbase on Red99 may be off-putting to new players because the vocal minority of Red99 comes across as a huge circlejerk of bad memes, plus all the 'pals' and 'pras' and 'u mad bro?' that permeates everything; newer players may assume everyone is like this (and maybe they're right) so they decide against joining Red99, or Project1999 altogether.

If you want new players, the community (not just Red99) needs to appeal to the already limited audience of players interested in Classic EQ, not just the mouth-breathing 'bros' that ForumQuest all day. Given the last (almost) 4 years of lurking on these boards, I'd say that may not be possible.

Having played DAOC origins, the massive influx of people and the death of Uthgard, i beleive now that a new server could bring some people back.

The problems i saw in the beginning were: Guards not defending people, way too harsh pvp xp loss penalty, essentially transforming the server into a PVE one because not alot wanted to eat xp death and the ones pvping were the gank trains like holocaust. This led later on to Nihilum gaining a huge headstart in gear without anyone being able to challenge that zerg. DAOC Origins had the problem of people joining zergs to level super fast to 50. This problem was tackled after 2 days. They waited a year and a half to fix xp loss in pvp here, which first drained the box of all the casuals getting griefed and probably some Rallos old schoolers who thought wtf is this xp loss shit. Then a second bleed of players when the server reached the join Nihilum or dont do content, nobodys challenging Nihilum because of xp loss point. The idiotic, bullying part of the community, who think laughing at someone because hes in a wheelchair will get them forumquest xp.

Red failed because devs reacted way too late. Too little, too late.

If i was the one to set up a new server, id put no xp loss in pvp, fixed resists, item loot, 4 lvls difference, and patch in a couple of recurring events that drop no drop item sets, to offset the harshness of item loot, XP at 2.0, at least, this being the third box. Scrap that PnP nonsense. If the pop cant gather enough folks to keep the griefers in check through pvp, then the box is gonna die anyway, why prolong its agony with ill-advised PnP life support. With the regulation of pvp being left to players, the GMs now have time on their hands to pilot fun events like the halloween event of 2001, making things fun for players and making them stick around for more.

Coupled with velious, word passed around that a new server is opening up, this would have a chance to resurrect the pop. But fat chance of this happening

If someone makes that kind of server, with an xp rate that is better than red, somewhere along 2.0 to 3.0, I could see it killing red like Origins killed Uthgard.

item loot is by far the worst penalty on a eq1-pvp server. i would roll a mage or wiz and play them naked all day long filling my bags with other players equipment. i wouldnt even bother to loot npcs while exping

Not if you dilute the harshness with custom no drop sets that drop from fun events

so we will have players with no drop sets and new players without being griefed out of the server once again, good idea!

Yea lets not think an idea through and debate its pros and cons in a civil manner before we shut it down with trolling, good idea! Thats what makes these forums great amirite.

maybe because there are no pros with item loot? i dont camp a fbss for hours or spend a plathora of dkp for a haste cloak just to lose it in one unlucky lagspike.

u think the current red situation scares people to play here? item loot would just scare them 100times more.

an active GM presence could help a tad