A Biography of a RZ vet. ( Resist key details to classic inside)

[Bockscar]

SZ was much better since everyone on the server had a much easier ability to gear up. It wasn't based around who made the most alliances and being forced to join a guild or you're screwed.

Dunno about that. One of the server's biggest problems was that basically everyone outside of Hate was two expansions behind on gear. 75% of the server was pretty much bazaar geared all the way up into GoD because the available raid content for all but one guild was so far behind the current expansion that you could buy better droppables. I remember as a decently geared ranger having half the hp of Hate's wizards. It was ridiculous. SZ was pretty good during Velious and some of Luclin, and then it became a pointless server where it frankly wasn't worth playing if you weren't in Hate.

[MakeYouMad]

Originally Posted by Bockscar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

One of the server's biggest problems was that basically everyone outside of Hate was two expansions behind on gear.

No way, neuts had VT. Plus all the people that were transferring to legends server then coming back with leet gear.

Originally Posted by Bockscar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I remember as a decently geared ranger having half the hp of Hate's wizards. It was ridiculous. SZ was pretty good during Velious and some of Luclin, and then it became a pointless server where it frankly wasn't worth playing if you weren't in Hate.

I was on evil team during velious, quit server, came back as a neut during PoP and had no problem killing Hate wizards. I was a warrior with max offensive AA's and Dathor Great hammer + staff of 4 winds tho.

Doesn't seem like a ranger should have trouble killing a wizard during PoP...did you have a crappy bow and no AA's or what.

[Palemoon]

I played on both RZ and SZ and both servers ruleset had its charm. I liked the "make your own alliances" aspect of RZ and I loved the "roleplay/diety" alignment aspect of SZ.

The other two servers, VZ/TZ had what looked to me from the outside looking in, the most retarded ruleset of them all. Gnome SK and Halfling Paladins on the "same team" ok whatever.

Diety/Alignment teams make far more sense then VZ/TZ ruleset.

The whole thing about Evil team on SZ getting so far advanced had a lot to do with the failure of good/neut team. In a three way contest, if one side gets too far ahead, the two weaker sides should of joined forces to hold them in check. This never happened on SZ. I guess it sounded good on paper when designing the ruleset, but did not pan out that way.

SZ ruleset would work very well though, on a server that stops in Velious (like this one.....) Of course the devs would have to find a way to limmit peoples new accounts, or everyone will have several acccounts on all three teams.. (this is something I hope they address in general anyways, the whole "lol im banned, let me open up a dozen more accounts then" syndrom.

[Softcore PK]

As a VZ player, I feel that VZ and RZ were the best rulesets. And this is because all the politics were player-driven, dynamic and creative. I don't feel that TZ ever amounted to what it could have because they all went 4-team long before VZ. SZ could have been great, but from what I heard much of the game became PvTrain.

When I first started on Vallon Zek, most of the server seemed to be Elf vs Dark vs Short vs Human, as the rules suggested. We did have some 4-team guilds, and I remember thinking they were bad guys. Dark team was pulling ahead of the other teams, and very quickly the three other teams came together to form "light" team. Or a lot of them, there were still us purists around. "Light" team was really made up of the "anti-pk" crowd we had on Vallon, though they would never admit to it. They didn't kill other lights, just the darks and the other purists. The server was largely light vs dark for a short while, and then the "x-teamers" came to be. Raiding guilds comprised of all 4 teams. The lights saw the x-teams as bad guys, having decided to exp with and even guild with darks. Then end-game was light vs dark vs xteam, and the xteam guilds had a habit of KoSing each other (sometimes on and off).

My least favorite people in the game were lights. How dare my fellow elves join up with the evils of dwarves, gnomes and humans! They were responsible for deforestation and global warming, after all. And when the xteam guilds became major players, these lights had the GALL to call them cross-teamers! Such hypocrisy, and all in the name of being blue.

While as a responsible elf, I was sworn to murder all shorts, humans and darks, I was especially ruthless with these lights. There was another guild that only included elves, Elven Royal Guard. And though they only allowed elves into their guild, they were lights. They happily exp'd with dwarves and attended some raids with them. They sickened me, and one of my favorite things to do was track these exp groups down with a friend or two and kill their exp partners then make them lns. The fallen elves would get so mad :P

This actually escalated into a guildwar that lasted weeks. Though blasphemous to kill elves, these elves had it coming.

Anyway, as I neared 60 I realized how much of the game I was missing out on, because there simply weren't enough elf purists to accomplish much raid content. I wish I had been dark team, they raided until the end. So I did the sensible thing, and joined a 4-team guild so I could continue killing the dreadful lights. Most purists went 4-team, 3-team had arbitrarily decided to disclude one of the teams. The lights were actually always the most progressed raid-wise, and this was because of Defiant. And as a light in any other guild, or no guild, you didn't have to put up with Defiant (or a LARGE percentage of the server, actually) PKing you.

VZ was great accidentally, and all because the devs didn't think to hardcode the teams. I could not have experienced EQ as I did anywhere else. Here's another story:

I once made an alt. A dark elf warrior, and I twinked her a tiny bit (bronze armor, decent weapons). And I took her to gfay because that was my favorite leveling area. I got a bind from a guildie (xteam) and started exping. The newbie lights in the area saw me and of course attacked, but I decided not to fight back. I told them that I didn't want to fight, and that we could be friends. They killed me a lot, but as I never attacked back many of them stopped attacking me, until eventually (few weeks later) I was actually invited into their exp groups. And I did make friends with these lights. Other lights would sometimes attack me, but then my friends would say, "No! Leave her alone, she is nice!" and they would usually stop.

Sort of a Drizzt story, and again something I could not have done on any other server. VZ was the place to be for rp imo, and I liked being creative about it.

Wish I had stuck with that warrior past CB, I could have maybe tried to get into a light guild! :O

[Nirgon]

There was definitely "realm pride" on SZ, esp for neutral/good. I played there until 52 as a wizard and 59 as a cleric, I did enjoy it in that respect. On the other hand, I always missed the freedom to even just hit a fellow raider that was sitting down or horse around on breaks.

Really, having played on both, I can't say any of the guild wars and social aspects involved in them were anywhere close on SZ as they were on RZ. You knew to "stay out" of certain fights, lest you become KOS or bring shame to your guild and subsequently be removed. This of course is in b4 don't be a bluebie. The politics, backstabbings and wars that just started over single events that made news by word of mouth made the server feel alive. Hell, when wars came to the point that two "can't lose" factions started coming out with empty pockets one week or the next, it created mergers. Guilds even renamed and combined (Swarm of Fear comes to mind). Decisions like who would be an officer after a merger, who was getting picked up or dropped as kos by their new combined guild had to be discussed. All of a sudden the little guys became big or were brought along by a giant to fight side by side and get into the raid loot game. Some adjusted better than others to being brought into it. The draw to this game is the sand box elements and they were fully encompassed on a FFA PvP server. If you can handle losing your raw hide tunic or *gasp* even an FBR a friend gave you to a mage at level 8, this kind of stuff is well worth it in the end.

There's so much more to the history of RZ than a hypothetical label is going to put on it. I know a pretty good chunk of it and I'm sure would be surprised how much someone could remind me of it. I did play on and was involved in enough on both SZ/RZ, and most of the crazy moments and rushes came from Rallos. Further, as Velious drew to a close, it became obvious that maybe the truest definition of a guild war was in full swing and factions with real people were definitely in play. I asked Ozuri (king pin GM) why he came to the server and why he started making the rules he did. Shocked, I got a response, he told me something along the lines of the petition queues were full every day and it had to stop, and the server was under his martial law. Shit just wasn't fair to everyone, hence the queue explosions and why the mass market "can't have nice things". It was so brutal even (true) test of tactics kings could be blown up and lose a fungi.

Imagine Rogean coming to this PvP server and saying "no more PvP in raid zones, if it happens, I shut down the zone", the players continue fighting anyway, being sent back to their bind and then a brawl erupting everywhere players were bound. Things like that and how extremely competitive the server became, made me feel like I was a part of a real, multifaceted war. Granted, whether or not he was shutting down zones, it would have felt that way. The brawls and politics were legendary. I list the above point the illustrate how serious the guild vs guild conflict became.

Not to mention, do you really want to be stuck on a hard-coded team with some of the people here by luck of the draw? Or do you just want safer newbie zones :P?

[Palemoon]

Teams would not work here because the population would be too small. As much as I loved the lore aspect of diety teams, FFA is the only real option here. Pluse Rogean would HAVE to put a stop to unlimmited number of accounts per player for diety teams to work.

Really there is only one hope that this sever comes close to those RZ days, and that is the huge xp grind. When certain players discover that player to player relationships mean something, and to burn one bridge too many means leveling solo on light blues in the middle of no where.

For a pvp server to "work", the focus and goal MUST be "PvE". A p99 style xp grind and no boxing may make this happen.

Another key element that will help is to restrict accounts to one per player. No throw away griefer accounts, no accounts to test all your hacks on, no accounts that all your ninja looters and trainers are kept on, etc.

[mitic]

team exp with zone control was the best pvp exp i ever had

[Muaar]

Guild wars in EQ are something that I truly think will never be created again. It was the strangest thing I have ever played - a mix of an MMO, a message board and a true war. The names of the guilds my guild was at war with still stick with me and cause a "!" when I see them to this day. Lucid-Vision I'm speaking of you!

I hope something like this happens on Red99. I think Live will have enough players to sustain it.

[mourning]

No teams is best. Making your own friends and enemies is much better than any assigned teams in a world pvp game. Teams work on a game like DAOC with just the frontier, and their PVP server was a FFA ruleset too. It's just the best way to do it. And the most fun.

Making friends rage quit off EQ = Priceless.

[Beastro]

The only fault with RZ is the fundamental mechanics of the game and how raiding becomes the end all to get gear to compete.

Yes I know PKs still fought the good fight against the odds but they were being choked to death and eventually died in form old RZers once knew. A pack of LV isn't the same as a large percentage of the population being cutthroats the other portion have to band together to keep under control out of RP desires or just loving to enjoy PvP from the aspect of killing your typical PK personality (As in raging egotists. Yes, you are, admit it and know that you fill your own niche).

The problem is finding ways to circumvent that gear cock block results in points systems and buying gear with dies a quick death with every server I've ever seen it implemented on.