The hard part of P99 (and eqemu in general) isn't the source (although some of the game mechanic tweaks are hard) but rather it's the database, and getting all the data right.
As an exercise, go and set up your own server using stock Eqemu and a ProjectEQ database dump, and try making changes. Revamp a zone. I did this with Splitpaw and GeorgeS's tools. It ain't easy. In fact it's absolutely frustrating at times.
And now imagine dozens of people crawling all over that code trying to make tweaks and changes and breaking everyone else. Because even big software houses find it incredibly hard to get automated testing working on this stuff, and EQEmu was absolutely not designed with testability in mind, lol.
Sometimes it really is a case of less is more.
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