Shards of Dalaya

Scrooge · #1 10-01-2015, 01:49 PM

Does anyone here play on Shards of Dalaya, or quit some years back and want to check out what changed?

Apparently they fixed a lot of bugs and introduced new spells (and AAs and Tomes,) and 6-man encounters and zones, not to mention revamped the whole melee system. The server is currently in v2.0 and the next major upgrade to v2.5 will happen before this month is over.

In case some people here would be interested in a server like this but never played there before, check here: Differences between EQLive and SoD.

I personally haven't thought of playing there again since P99 just started, so I thought to login and see what changed, and so far I'm getting a kick out of playing my main again.

Quote:

For those of you coming to SoD from Live, you're probably carrying expectations based on the way things used to work on Live in whatever era you left. A better way of looking at SoD is that it truly is its own game and just happens to use graphics and zones from EQ. Faction, Zones, Quests, Mobs NPC are different. In broad strokes, here's what you should expect:

A very active GM and developer presence (hats off to the dedicated, hard-working, volunteer staff!)... this means rules are enforced (with both jailings and bannings), and it also means there are a lot of one-time and recurring events. More than most of us ever likely saw on Live.

A unique lore and content... that means unique NPCs and itemization. There's no Trakanon, or Centi Longswords on SoD. On the other hand, character and NPC models as well as zone layouts (but not necessarily zone connections!) are all based on Live models/layouts.

Progression, casual and raid... SoD has content that allows players to level from 1 to 65 plus AAs and tomes. There's rich, multi-tiered raid content/encounters with a heavy emphasis on tier-to-tier progression.

Quests... no epics, but main quest line, faction quests, and many other lines. Most yield good rewards and plenty of experience to augment your hunting.
Time matters... Daytime begins at 6am, and night falls at 8pm. Most shops in major cities close at night, the NPCs need sleep as well. Be wary being in a building when night falls, as you may find yourself trapped inside. Additionally, some quest NPCs may only be up during either day or night time.

If you'd ask which EQLive era this server represents, I'd say PoP heavy and LDoN Augment system, but not instances! Check out the link above to see a full list of Shard of Dalaya's features, cause there are way too many for me to list here.

As for the raid tier system, I'd just like to add that you don't need to be in a raiding guild to see good loot, the Treasure Map group tiers as well as the 6-man content have a lot of gear that is on part with high-tier raid loot, I kid you not!

My main over there is a 65 Enchanter, but I have several other chars also.

dafier · #2 10-01-2015, 01:52 PM

HA! Main reason I quit is because management ran everyone off. I remember logging in on it's hay-days having 300 to 500 on most the time. That was cool. But logging in and seeing 80 or 90 and really it's only 20 people who are actually logged in....

That's painful.

visage · #3 10-01-2015, 01:52 PM

Shards of Dalaya is a box server. You literally need to box to play it. Really ruined the gameplay for me. Not to mention the items really trivialized any of the old fun zones. Raiding and boxing with a small mass and barely any pvp. Boring as hell. May be fun for Blue99 tho

dafier · #4 10-01-2015, 01:54 PM

For a 'blue' player, ya I had fun with SoD and still have all my accounts info. But....naw.

It is easy, but the quests are spectacular. I had fun but I can't go back knowing the following is literally 20 people max.

Pokesan · #5 10-01-2015, 02:04 PM

No Wiz No Play

kennymack007 · #6 10-01-2015, 02:05 PM

I played on it for a few months back in 2012 or 2013. (Can't remember)

Overall they have a lot of changes that are really cool, But the boxing ruined it for me.

apio · #7 10-01-2015, 02:27 PM

The fact that maximum raid size (if it hasn't changed) is just 18 people, and even back when it was more active usually 90% of our raid were boxes, shows you the big problem that server has always had is it's low population.

But I think the even larger problem with SoD is, that it went through an evolution not unlike other MMOs, mudflation, the loss of the original content developers etc. And because of the boxing and the amount of expansions and content updates, it is really difficult to start there from 0, if you do not bring a couple of friends to do it together with you.

Don't get me wrong, if you can find a few like minded individuals and embark on the journey together, raid content is really interesting and unique, there is LOTS of it, and it will keep you busy for many months!

Scrooge · #8 10-02-2015, 05:20 PM

I personally haven't been active on SoD in over 6 years now, I just logged in several days ago to check my bags and bank, and to see if I'd bump into anyone I know. Within 20min of being logged on, I started a conversation with a Warrior who then invited me to a pickup Raid he was starting in Plane of Agony (Torment on live.) It was some good fun, although took me a while to get used to the interface and mechanics, as well as all the new spells they introduced or modified, I met several other players on that raid who extended and invitation to their actual raid guilds, after the pickup raid was over.

Yes, people have the option to box 1 other account, if you attempt to box 3+ accounts you'll get banned, its as simple as that. I don't think it's very fair to judge a server's current environment based on bad experiences of the past, we all had them, whether it was EQLive or P99 or Red99, or any of the other servers on EQEMU.

I personally do not box unless the situation calls for it, just because the option is there it doesn't mean every single player does it, and it's silly to think that way without actually playing there to see for yourself what it's all about.

The server has changed a lot over the years and it doesn't just cater to hard-core Raid guilds like it used to. There is a lot of new content in general available for single groups, many new Tomes (a unique progression system beyond AAs they've developed,) and I'm just looking for some people to explore all the new content together with, that's basically the point of this post.

dafier · #9 10-02-2015, 05:56 PM

GL and have fun.

Scrooge · #10 10-03-2015, 04:35 PM

Quote:

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

For a 'blue' player, ya I had fun with SoD and still have all my accounts info. But....naw.

It is easy, but the quests are spectacular. I had fun but I can't go back knowing the following is literally 20 people max.

There's over a 120 players on right now and it's not even peak time. Give it a chance man, just cause you play on P99 doesn't mean you have to choose either one or the other, aren't you even the least bit curious about all the new content they've developed over the years, especially content for single group action!?

Lets at least give it a shot for a session or two, see how it goes!

I've grouped with this Beastlord (boxed a bard) the other day, while on my main (65 Ench) boxing my friend's 61 Necro and got him a full level in just under 2 hours, and the 3x AA for me, while chain pulling non-stop in Elds Castle (mistmoore.) Nothing like a '6 mob inc' to get your forgotten skills up to speed again! For those of you who don't know, on SoD, Mistmoore is a lvl 60-65 XP zone!

SoD also has it's own 'magelo system' called Fomelo, if you want to see what pre-raid gear from Treasure Hunting looks like on my Necro friend: https://shardsofdalaya.com/fomelo/fomelo.php?char=Raath