Change ZEMs for a MORE Classic experience!

[TripSin]

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

Enchanters never charmed in live classic/kunark because the spell was so broken.

Didn't read the rest of that wall of text, but feel compelled to chime in on this bit of ignorance. I charmed in classic. I'm fairly sure it's not just because the spell is somehow less broken than it used to be or something like that that people didn't charm as much back then. It's because it's now 2021 and not 1999. It's because we're no longer on 56k modems with huge delay latency. Charming requires fast reactions to charm breaks. Trying to do this on dial up and slower connection speeds made it incredibly more risky and harder to do. It's because we have GINA and timers. It's because everyone playing P99 is much more knowledgeable about how EverQuest works - for example, probably the vast majority of people playing in P99 know about using clickies to decrease cooldowns. It's because in 2021 we have a different mindset and there is a different meta attitude. These all make a world of difference. All of this contributes to why charming is more prevalent now than it was in classic not just because "herr dEy MaKe cHaRm SpElL sO eAsY nOw". And even with all this charming in P99 is still extremely dangerous and takes skill to pull off.

As much as people go on about this and that being "not classic", things will never be classic because we the players, our hardware, our knowledge, etc. etc. are not classic. We the players are the least classic thing about P99 and the players are the largest component of EverQuest.

[Fammaden]

Broadband and hardware probably does play the biggest part, charming this way was a death sentence when most people were prone to lag or completely lock up for tens of seconds on end or straight up disconnect at any time. But another interesting contention is that channeling is too good on P99. Strictly anecdotally it does seem far far easier to channel through hits and complete a spell here than it was back then.

[TripSin]

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

Broadband and hardware probably does play the biggest part, charming this way was a death sentence when most people were prone to lag or completely lock up for tens of seconds on end or straight up disconnect at any time. But another interesting contention is that channeling is too good on P99. Strictly anecdotally it does seem far far easier to channel through hits and complete a spell here than it was back then.

I would say there is no "probably" about it. You die in literally seconds from a charm break if you don't react fast enough. GINA will give you an audio alert basically right as the charm breaks and our fast connection speeds give us a better chance now to react before being ground into a corpse. In classic, not only did you have to deal with way longer network latency, but you probably weren't doing things like stacking your CHA up as crazily, abusing clickies, or checking the wiki for the most suitable charmed pets like is now commonplace.

I've seen this night and day difference too when playing Warcraft 3 and WC3 came out years after EverQuest so more people were starting to get into broadband (which was still WAY slower than the speeds we have today). There's this custom game in WC3 where you play as ice skating demon hunters and it was very challenging back in the day. You play it now and it's just SO much easier because you don't have the delay like you did back in the day and your unit responds faster.

[lonig]

Latency of our connections was nothing back then. Dialup itself has generally low latency. Even more so by the time EQ came out. The game was never packet heavy either, so increased bandwidth itself meant very little to EQ gameplay. Our better computers help more than broadband does.

Better understanding of CHA is more likely a culprit. In 99 I had no idea CHA would help. Why would I raise CHA on a chanter? Another issue was level range. I'd charm the highest I could. While now, we generally know to go a bit lower to try and get a bit longer before a break.

Another thought is the coding for p99. I imagine it is different than live was, but I don't think the increase in charming is solely due to that. I think it is more like most changes to behavior in p99 vs live, and that is knowledge and 22 years of trying out different stuff.

[TripSin]

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

Latency of our connections was nothing back then. Dialup itself has generally low latency. Even more so by the time EQ came out. The game was never packet heavy either, so increased bandwidth itself meant very little to EQ gameplay. Our better computers help more than broadband does.

Yeah, you're right. Our 100Mbps+++ connections really aren't all that much different than the ones we had with 56k modems [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

When literally just 1 or 2 seconds can mean the difference between life and death on a charm break, why would connection speed matter? [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[lonig]

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

Yeah, you're right. Our 100Mbps+++ connections really aren't all that much different than the ones we had with 56k modems [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

When literally just 1 or 2 seconds can mean the difference between life and death on a charm break, why would connection speed matter? [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I mean, the speed has jackshit to do with latency. So... I can't help if you don't understand how the internet works.

[Izmael]

Speed has everything to do with latency, when you're talking about gaming netcode.

[Fammaden]

I recall packet loss being a huge issue back then.

[Izmael]

On topic though - people didn't charm back then because we all sucked at the game badly back then + terrible hardware we were playing on.

Spell was all right. Players weren't.

To be more classic, P99 would need players from 1999 more than anything.

[Fammaden]

On topic is actually the Hole ZEM.