server population

[Dannermax]

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

The game was called Everquest. Think about it:

EVER. QUEST.

The point of the game was supposed to be that you are experiencing an alternate World which continuously has something new for you to discover, overcome, or be engaged by; always an adventure to go on. When there is no more adventure left, there is no more Everquest. Sitting around camping for drops or level grind and doing the exact same fights over and over and over is not what the game was supposed to be about.

Everquest has an amazing World. The landscapes and zones and creatures and lots of other little touches are eminently more enthralling for whatever reason than that of any other audiovisual MMORPG to date. Again, though, all of those wonderful qualities cease to have much value when the game itself stops immersing you into that World.

What Everquest needs to have, for the game to adhere to the original vision of what it was supposed to be and for it to continue being the amazing game that people got drawn into during the beginning, is constantly changing content. Players should never know exactly how an area is going to spawn or exactly where many of the items/rewards in the game are going to drop. Obviously some drops need to be static to give each area of the game its own unique draw, but the content itself that you have to fight in order to get those drops should be ever-changing. Players need to have reason to constantly explore the entire game World and they need to be constantly challenged by the encounters.

Without that element, no MMORPG these days will ever be "the classic Everquest experience" or be the game that Everquest should have been. The sad thing is that the people in charge of the companies creating these games are not allowing such a thing to exist. They only want to get in on the WoW model because they believe it to be the easiest/best way to make cash. They are wrong. I'm not sure how many of you followed HORIZONS from early development, but that very well could have been the game which picked up where Everquest failed and allowed "the classic Everquest experience" to be revived and evolve into the next level of dynamic gaming. Unfortunately, the creator behind the game got overthrown by the ignorant producers and thus they ruined the game and we never got to see what it was intended to be.

Guild Wars 2 looks to be another MMORPG that finally tries to bring back what Everquest should be, however I disapprove of the design and mechanics of that game. It just doesn't have the same level of personality, originality, and immersion as Everquest.

So that brings us to p1999. A game with capable developers who have succeeded in corralling the largest population ever for an Everquest emulator. This is not Everquest, though. It can't be, because you've missed out on the SOUL of what Everquest actually was. I wish you guys would realize what made Everquest the game it was and start trying to bring THAT back. You need to have dynamic content or it doesn't work. p1999 could be a relatively huge game with a constant 10k+ population (more servers would need to open obviously) if you stopped with this futile attempt of simply cloning the shell of EQ as it was over a decade ago. Use the Everquest World as it was intended to be used and create a real living, breathing, ever-changing gaming environment. It would be a smash and people who want to relive "the classic Everquest experience", or experience it for the first time, would get far more out of it and continue playing for far longer than what we are currently seeing.

Nice post Zuranthium. I agree with most of what you are saying. But i do feel that i am back in 2001, and to mee it has got a classic feel to it. I know that there arent any GM events, or you feel makes EQ dynamic. To me, im having as much fun, as i did back then. I'd just wish that there were more people online..!

[Dannermax]

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

Server population is declining for a few reasons, summer (it always get's lower until the end of summer), new games (everyone always comes back), stale content (wait till velious), and lack of competition OR server promotion.

Any of you /R/ fags could go and post Rogeans ten ton hammer interview and a link to p99 on Reddit anytime and get us more people.

Regardless, these new games will burn out, summer will end, Velious will one day be released and the server population will go back up.

A good idea about promoting the P1999 server. I had been wanting to do this for a long time.. but didnt know where to start?

I'll check out that interview you are referring to.

[batkiller]

It's always good to promote stuff on the big mainstream gaming sites which have forums. And also Fires of Heaven. I would do it myself but I'm not sure of the legality of this server yet.

[Atmas]

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

You clearly don't know wtf you're talking about. Furthermore, anyone who wakes up at 4:00am via batphone, employed or not, is retarded.

Why stop there? Why not make derogatory comments about anyone who plays this game several hours a day? Or anyone who has ever played this game at all?

[Dannermax]

The legality:

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/83055/page/4

If Sony could approve of this server, the population would be through the roof!!

[Massive Marc]

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

Why stop there? Why not make derogatory comments about anyone who plays this game several hours a day? Or anyone who has ever played this game at all?

Did I hit a sore spot ? Did you spend one too many nights with brown socks ? Give me a break. Waking up in the middle of the night to compete for mobs in a 12 year old game on a emulated server is retarded. Derogatory or not.

[Striiker]

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

You need to have dynamic content or it doesn't work. p1999 could be a relatively huge game with a constant 10k+ population (more servers would need to open obviously) if you stopped with this futile attempt of simply cloning the shell of EQ as it was over a decade ago. Use the Everquest World as it was intended to be used and create a real living, breathing, ever-changing gaming environment. It would be a smash and people who want to relive "the classic Everquest experience", or experience it for the first time, would get far more out of it and continue playing for far longer than what we are currently seeing.

Well, this is a good idea for a server where the intention is to make a classic style EQ server with enhancements according to "the vision" of whomever is building and maintaining the server. You (and others) frequently forget the very clearly stated goal of this sever which is to recreate the EQ environment as close as possible to the original (warts and all). The other goal states that the server goes to Vellious and ends there. Any discussion outside of this fails to accept these stated goals. Nilbog does not want to improve the graphics, the quests, the balancing issues, or change things to match what he "feels" it should have been. He wants to clone what once was and for most of us, that's fine.
I have had my disagreements with some decisions since the changes seemed needless and introduced problems which were later admitted to by Verant/SOE on live and fixed (racial / class XP penalties for example). In the end though, I do realize that these changes are in line with the clearly stated vision for the server and grudgingly accept that the change is here to stay.

Perhaps someone will make a classic style EQ server with the fixes and enhancements and changes to fit his or her vision of how EQ classic should have been but it's not going to be on P1999.

[finalgrunt]

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

I prefer the system as it is currently then having 150 people on spawn point knowing exactly when it will pop trying to engage the mob first...

And rotation eliminates the FTE & tracking issues. Therefore, a system where part of the targets are forcefully set on rotation by the staff (which means ... the rest is open to competition *hint hint*) can only give the following results:

- new guilds will appear > more competition. Isn't it what TMo wants?
- casual / semi-casual players who enjoyed a classic server which had rotations will relive their memeories.

What's bad with that really? Oh yeah: "you want it without no effort". Well as I stated few times already, the current commitment some players are willing to enforce on the server is by no way classic form any of us, and the decision isn't theirs in the end.

Nilbog does not want to improve the graphics, the quests, the balancing issues, or change things to match what he "feels" it should have been.

I guess this is why we have:
- recharge prices much higher than it was on live.
- respawn variation
- new restrictions on FD/invis pulls.

You're wrong if you believe that not tuning the mechanics will allow for a classic experience. Fact is, with full knowledge of game items / mechanics, you can totally trivialize content. Most powerful items will be available to a degree that is totally imbalanced. Sony removed/nerfed some of them as they became an issue. If you allow the server to farm such items 100 times more than they were back on live, you'll end up with a totally different game experience.

It's definitly possible to tune things a bit to reflect how it was on live. Item recharge price is a very good example. It was unknown / super rare back then, it is still the same on this server, and it's fine. Otherwise any boss would be killed by enough people clicking their hoops as fast as possible ... so classic yeah.

[Atmas]

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

Did I hit a sore spot ? Did you spend one too many nights with brown socks ? Give me a break. Waking up in the middle of the night to compete for mobs in a 12 year old game on a emulated server is retarded. Derogatory or not.

It's funny I played on a PvP server on live so like many other PvPers here I didn't even know what that term meant until playing on P99. So if you played PvE and have ever waited for a mob to spawn you have done more poop socking than me. But the irony doesn't stop there, you are on a forum for an emulated server complaing about people playing a MMORPG the way they want to. Bravo sir, bravo, there is truely nothing more pathetic than a nerd trying to sit on the high horse.

[ElanoraBryght]

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

I get the impression this is all going to change come velious (in the year 2018) when their is going to be simply to much raid content. that's what i've been told anyway.

Kunark content may open up. But anyone that thinks Velious adds so much raid content that there won't be poopsocks on every bit of it is fooling themselves. Every one of the nameds on the Velious boss list (except maybe AoW) will be handled easily by the top two guilds if they can keep their numbers in the 40+ range; it'll be the same old FTE race in a new zone.

The easier dragons in HoT and NToV will die the first week too, the tougher ones may live for a cycle or two while gear is farmed from the easier ones. But within a month it'll all have been killed, leaving "Who's going to be the asshole that wakes the Sleeper" the only new flavor of drama. ST keys are a whole lot easier to get than VP keys. It will be good times having two or more guilds in there fighting over pixels because they aren't mature enough to hold talks about sharing their toys.

King Tormax, level 70, <24 hr spawn, 7 day respawn, Kael Drakkel
Derakor the Vindicator, level 70, instant, 8 hour respawn, Kael Drakkel
Statue of Rallos Zek, level 59, <24 hr spawn, 5 day respawn, Kael Drakkel
Idol of Rallos Zek, level 65, instant spawn/respawn on Statue death, Kael Drakkel
The Avatar of War, level 70, instant spawn/respawn upon Idol death, Kael Drakkel
Dain Frostreaver IV, level 70, 1-3 day spawn, 7 day respawn, Icewall Keep
Velketor, level 66, instant, 3 day respawn, Velketor's Labyrinth
Lord Doljonijiarnimorinar, level 65, instant, 3 day respawn, Velketor's Labyrinth
Zlandicar, level 65, 1-3 day spawn, 3-6 day respawn, Dragon Necropolis
Klandicar, level 70, 1-3 day spawn, 3-6 day respawn, Western Wastes
Sontalak, level 70, 1-3 day spawn, 2 day respawn, Western Wastes
Kelorek Dar, level 65, 1-3 day spawn, 7 day respawn, Cobalt Scar
Wuoshi, level 64, 1-3 day spawn, 7 day respawn, Wakening Lands