Nerfing highkeep exp on green is NOT classic.

Another week, no pickup exp groups anywhere but the hole. No one exploring. No one trying anything outside the hole who is 50+ and wanting to exp. Loam spreading like a plague, every person's 4th caster alt in a full set.

#notclassic

SG and HS should have the highest ZEM's by a good margin, followed by chardok and dragon necropolis (but only for rats), then seb and the hole. Velks/kc etc a minor zem.

Reward the difficulty, access, recovery.

If we're being honest (and looking to the upper-left corner of this page), I think the only "correct" answer for Project 1999 is to use the classic ZEMs.

Now I can already hear the replies: doing that won't fix the "XP Highway" problem. You're right, but here's a newsflash: nothing classic ever will! ZEM highwaying was fixed on live by having new expansions, with new zones ... new zones with better loot and (often) better ZEMs (eg. Paludal Caverns). And of course "classic ignorance" (of what ZEMs were) was also a factor.

Since it's impossible to restore ZEM ignorance, and since we will never have new zones here (or maybe we'll get our first custom one in 2030), this is inherently an unsolvable problem: classic EQ was never designed to be played for this long without new content! Thus, P99 can choose between the classic option (classic ZEMs), or the "we're trying to fix a game that's inherently broken in it's recreation here" option (rotating ZEMs). But while the latter option would be better for the game, the staff will almost certainly never institute it, because it's not classic.

If that's the case ... let's just go back to the classic ZEMs. Their current choice, "unclassic ZEMS that create XP highways", doesn't seem to serve the project.

P.S. FWIW though, as much as I'm arguing for what I think is "most classic", because that's what this place is about ... if I had a vote, I'd vote rotating ZEMs. Yes it's unclassic, but the even bigger principle than "keep it classic" here is the principle of "classic EQ was freaking awesome, and this place exists to let people experience that awesomeness".

Highways don't let people see a huge percentage of the content, so in that sense they don't serve the even larger interest of the project. Rotating ("mysterious") ZEMs, unclassically every 6-12 months or so, would still be close to live ... and would let people see more of the awesome game of classic EQ.

nerf all ZEMS

Wasn't there a post where dolalin showed all the classic ZEMs, and then we just ignored them anyway?

Yes, I have mentioned it as well. Just search bug form for ZEM and you'll find it. Basically everything was like 75 if I remember right, some zones were between 75-100, and only a couple dungeons were slightly over 100. Something like that. If the ZEM list on Wiki is anything close to accurate where Perma gets 170 that is almost 2x classic exp rates.

Yes, that was the "classic mystery over classic ZEMs" thing I mentioned. The staff absolutely knows how to make ZEMs classic; they choose not to in a (rare) decision to prioritize how the server feels over making it literally the same as it was in 1999.

But again, while that's a noble aim (and I applaud them: I think making this place feel like '99 is far more important than making every number be exactly equal to what it was in '99) ... without rotations, in practice it just "forces" everyone to ignore 90% of the game's content.

I lean to believing this. Since starting here on green i have always felt the leveling experience to be too easy compared to my experience back in the day. As a quadding wizard who played everyday, it took me nearly a year to hit 60.

- I agree, I wish the server would rotate zones with the same XP mod as the hole. It would really help with experiencing different content and learning the zones you will never really see again.