A 4-team, hard-coded setup that could work
 

My previous thread discussed a Rallos-style setup with +/- 6 level spread for PvP. There was some insistence in that thread that only a team-based setup could work.

Therefore, here's my proposal for a 4-team, hard-coded server:

Team: Darkies
Races: Dark Elf, Ogre, Troll, Gnome
Cities: Neriak, Oggok, Grobb, Ak'Anon
Classes: Cleric, Enchanter, Mage, Necromancer, Rogue, Shadow Knight, Shaman, Warrior, Wizard

Team: Lighties
Races: Dwarf, Halfling, High Elf, Wood Elf
Cities: Kaladim, Rivervale, Felwithe, Kelethin
Classes: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Enchanter, Mage, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Warrior, Wizard

Team: Evil humans
Races: Human, Erudite, Barbarian
Cities: Freeport, Paineel, Halas
Classes: Bard, Cleric, Enchanter, Mage, Monk, Necromancer, Rogue, Shadowknight, Shaman, Warrior, Wizard

Team: Good humans
Races: Human, Half Elf, Erudite
Cities: Qeynos, Surefall Glade, Erudin
Classes: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Enchanter, Mage, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Warrior, Wizard

How do you decide which humans/erudites are good and which are evil besides clr/pal/shd/nec?

This would be a hard-coded setup like Sullon where each team would be unable to group with, guild with or cast beneficial spells on members of other teams. Unlike Sullon, I again suggest the +/- 6 level spread for PvP as a compromise between the +/- 4 of Rallos (which I found too restrictive) and the more wide-open +/- 8 of Tallon and Vallon Zek.

Obvious drawbacks:

Paineel is not classic.

Lighties get no feign death class

Other than that I think it works pretty well. Paineel is necessary so that each of the human teams gets 3 starting cities and races. The Darkies and Lighties have the advantage of an extra starting city but the drawback of only 9 or 10 classes vs. 11 each for the two human teams.

As with the other thread, I suggest that in zones like Sol B and Lower Guk, all level restrictions be removed. What other drawbacks do you see? Which team would you pick on a server with this setup?

Just that. It gives the world context. The story of this server is that it's post-Race War. Freeport is fallen and all good humans have retreated to Qeynos. The Barbarians have declared war on Qeynos and the gnomes have finally revealed their despicable nature by joining with the darkies.

The original Race War servers would have never worked as hard-coded servers because the Elf team got screwed on classes. Elven Royal Guard were the one guild on Vallon that stayed Elf purist. Every raid target they took down was a major accomplishment given the restrictions they imposed on themselves.

Sullon did not work because opening the server with Kunark gave the evil team an insurmountable advantage. Evils had an entire expansion to themselves where they could level to 60 without ever seeing a good or newt, while the latter were in each other's faces from day one, often sharing starting cities.

One thing I liked about Vallon was that whoever started in the same city as me was on my team. You don't log in to random ganking as it was on Rallos so it's more friendly to new players and supports a larger population.

At the same time I think 3 teams is too few. One team ends up being underpopulated and it's basically very close to WoW-style good vs. evil which blows dick. Race War was incredible back in the day because the cross teaming allowed a lot of political options. For this server, however, I say go hard coded to solve the problem of immortal healing.

Having teams without bards on a pvp server is a joke.

From my understanding, Darkies won Tallon and were extremely competitive on Vallon without Bards. Point not taken. However I did miss bards on the Lightie team. That gives them 10 classes and softens the blow of no feign death class somewhat.

Wont work.

Bards are too essential. Only have get SKs. Eh, not going into detail, but this wont work.

There are only 2 possible ways to do teams, open race / class combos for the traditional 3 team setup, or make it 2 teams.

I favor the opening of race / class combo... so my Ogre bard / monk can rock out.

n=2, statistically insignificant for forecasting.

Anyway, you would have to be retarded to knowingly roll a character on any team without bards & sham buffs. Evil humans win. Next server.

Neg. PDM won TZ, with massive amounts of invuln healing / xteaming / gear advantage / massive numbers.

No druids either

All 3 of our opposing teams had to band together just to compete.