Vacant Zones

[Dolalin]

On Fennin Ro, with 3k-4k players active at any given time in September 1999, individual tents were camped at the Orc Hill.

You could run a level 1 straight through Lower Guk all the way to the Lord, it was squeaky clean. Almost never needed IVU.

Groups camped individual rooms in Unrest. Fireplace was 2-3 camps plus hags was its own camp.

In Sol B, trios would camp cubbies of 2-3 spawn kobolds. Groups would camp the pool, the window room, noble. King/priest/champ were 3 separate camps with 3 different groups.

Cazic Thule had a group at every conceivable named mob, plus alligators, and a lowbie group at the zoneline trying to pull the courtyard mobs and getting owned by trains every 5 minutes.

Basically it was hell. This is what Green will be like for the first 2-3 months I guarantee it.

[AegnorP99]

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

Yeah it will likely be unplayable or extremely slow for the masses until after a month or two imo. I would suspect 2-4K players on launch weekend, personally.

I tend to agree! I don't really play Blue any more and frankly have no interest to, but I am extremely excited to try out Green. That's just an anecdote, but I think a lot of people probably feel this way. A fresh classic server is a very rare opportunity and people won't want to miss out.

That said, I do think the population will settle down after a month or so and be closer to the 1k range. Not that I know anything haha. Time will tell.

[loramin]

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

btw. what are the ZEMs for classic? Same as blue/velious?

Odds are yeah, but I'm still holding out hope otherwise.

ZEMs have been a bit of anomaly here since the early days. When it comes to pretty much EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE ENTIRE PROJECT, with virtually every other decision they make, the devs weigh in on "make it work like it did in '99, regardless of player knowledge".

ZEMs are virtually the only thing where the devs depart from their normal standards and instead decide "let's make this one aspect unclassic!" So I'm hoping against hope that they use Green as a chance to revert that and go with actual classic ZEMs ... but I'm not holding my breath [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Legidias]

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

On Fennin Ro, with 3k-4k players active at any given time in September 1999, individual tents were camped at the Orc Hill.

You could run a level 1 straight through Lower Guk all the way to the Lord, it was squeaky clean. Almost never needed IVU.

Groups camped individual rooms in Unrest. Fireplace was 2-3 camps plus hags was its own camp.

In Sol B, trios would camp cubbies of 2-3 spawn kobolds. Groups would camp the pool, the window room, noble. King/priest/champ were 3 separate camps with 3 different groups.

Cazic Thule had a group at every conceivable named mob, plus alligators, and a lowbie group at the zoneline trying to pull the courtyard mobs and getting owned by trains every 5 minutes.

Basically it was hell. This is what Green will be like for the first 2-3 months I guarantee it.

And a reminder that HHK gobs will be 4 camps as well

[Budder]

I can only imagine unrest. Prob one of my favorite zones and I get irritated when mr, fp and basement is full, and that’s just 3 groups. I can totally see each room camped ugh. Will be great for the fast few levelers but as the rest of us start to straggle in with our rusty swords and bronze armor it’ll start to suck. Still I’m in screw it!

[AegnorP99]

Speaking of Unrest, aren't a lot of things there immune to non-magical weapons? Haha that should be interesting for a while....

[Jibartik]

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

I can only imagine unrest. Prob one of my favorite zones and I get irritated when mr, fp and basement is full, and that’s just 3 groups. I can totally see each room camped ugh. Will be great for the fast few levelers but as the rest of us start to straggle in with our rusty swords and bronze armor it’ll start to suck. Still I’m in screw it!

Best bet is to have a pint, hang out at the fools gold and wait for this to all blow over.

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Verityn]

One of my favorite things on a new server is seeing all the single race groups in the newbie zones. A 6-man all barbarian group pulling mammoth calfs is fun to see. Or groups of Ogres and Trolls camping the lizards.

[Jibartik]

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

One of my favorite things on a new server is seeing all the single race groups in the newbie zones. A 6-man all barbarian group pulling mammoth calfs is fun to see. Or groups of Ogres and Trolls camping the lizards.

Everfrost being full of barbarians is an image I have tried to not forget since 1999 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Its like the coolest.

Mortal men and woman.

Dressed in fur and bone.

Felling Giant beasts!

The frozen tundras.

Incredible.

[zaneosak]

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

There are a few problems with this, from the perspective of a solo or duo player:
1. Travel time to check a new spot. Any spot could be camped on the server, and if you waste time running to an out-of-the-way spot that's camped then suddenly that 2 hours looks a lot more reasonable.
2. In a busy zone you always have the option to "/camp" and try again later, and you can be confident a group will be there waiting for you.
2. Eating one death due to trying an area you're not familiar with sets you back a ridiculous amount of time.

Once you weigh in those risks, it actually makes more sense to sit and wait for a group spot in one of the safe, reliable leveling spots.

I guess I dont see the risk at all. These arent new spots you need to "check" or "Feel out" everybody knows at this point what zones are what. /who all <zone> will easily get you checking population without running there.

If Unrest is full, you can go to Dagnor's Cauldron with a buddy in the mid teens and kill Undertows and Goblins (just avoid tidal lord) if you dont want to run.

As far as running, yes its a committment but there are some zones like South Karana with normal ZEM bonus that have infinite mobs 15-25 , you could bring a group of 3 from unrest lfg queue and slaughter anything you want, aviak camp for example would hold up good in that range.

But if you think of the vast number of zones on all continents that are empty even at 100% normal no bonus XP it could be equivalent to fighting over fireplace mobs in unrest.

Maybe I am wrong -- but hopefully people branch out. I am assuming at least we will see more people in Guk besides Scryer and Zoneline to LGUK, there is tons of camps in there and the XP is actually higher than unrest.

Najena is also highly underrated, people get scared because of all the casters but if you can crawl to the goblin caves and set up camp near the front, it's not bad. ZEM is nice there too.