Now that the "beta" Blue server has run its course and the fresh Green/Teal servers have launched, many players have turned their eyes to the possibility of the long-awaited "custom content" Rogean, Nilbog & Co. have talked about for years. There are obviously numerous possibilities for what exactly "custom content" could look like, with varying degrees of difficulty involved in creating it. For example, would the custom content be entirely new? Or perhaps just carefully selected portions of Luclin and PoP? Those are the most commonly bandied about ideas, at least.
I have another proposal for "custom content": a server that makes small balance changes to the game in an effort to more accurately reproduce the
spirit rather than the
letter of classic EverQuest. Following the launch of Green and Teal, it became obvious to many players that scrupulously recreating the content and mechanics of classic EQ is paradoxically not the best way to recreate the feel of classic EQ. This is because 20 years of game knowledge and experience has fundamentally altered the way that people play the game. That being the case, the only way to more accurately emulate the actual gameplay of classic EQ is to make minor changes to the game that discourage powergaming and cheese tactics. At the same time, we can use this opportunity to make minor changes to class balance. These changes are made with the benefit of 20 years of hindsight and are conceived with the effort of promoting maximum balance between classes with minimal modification to the game.
All that being said, the Classic Spirit server I'm proposing would have the following custom changes:
- Item recharging disabled
- Multiquesting disabled
- Midnight Mallet effect changed to proc
- Ivandyr's Hoop effect removed from item
- Wooly Spider Silk Nets changed to LORE
- Soulfire clicky changed to Paladin-only
- Reaper of the Dead clicky changed to SK-only
- All high-level droppable weapons and armor tagged with level requirements (twinking still possible but you must use more level-appropriate gear rather than super-high end stuff)
- ZEMs of uncommonly utilized dungeons increased
- "Hot zones" with additional XP bonus rotated regularly through uncommonly utilized dungeons
- Particularly dangerous/annoying leveling dungeons (Runnyeye, Cazic-Thule, etc...) optimized for easier play (i.e. fix excessive NPC mana pools and healing/aggroing through walls)
- Legacy items (Manastone, Guise, JBoots, Rubicite, etc...) NOT in game. They demonstrably cause more trouble than they're worth on a new server
- AOE spell limit in place (no Chardok AOE)
- All charm spells limited to a fixed six-tick duration (36 sec). They either resist outright or last 36 seconds every time (Charm becomes emergency CC and/or risky short-term DPS/tanking, not the OP monstrosity it is now)
- Clarity removed from Enchanters and given to Wizards
- Wizards given innate spell criticals
- Paladins and SKs given innate undead criticals
- Melody implemented for Bards
- Monk AC/mitigation nerfed to post-Velious patch level
- Lifetap spells restored to lure/unresistable status
- Pet window enabled (QoL)
- Torpor overwrites runspeed buffs and drains 50 mana per tick
- Hybrid XP penalty removed
- -25% XP penalty for solo players
- 5% XP bonus removed from Halflings and given to Humans
- Player-enforced raid rotations mandatory, with semi-regular simulated server resets (Earthquakes) that are FFA on all raid mobs
tl;dr a server with no item recharging, no MQs, no legacy items, reduced twinking, penalized soloing, discouraged powergaming/poopsocking and minor class balance changes to nerf Enchanters/Shamans/Monks and buff hybrids/Wizards.
Would you player on this server? What other changes would you propose for a Classic Spirit server?