Some concerns about starting P99

[Wired Aces]

I played Everquest back when the game was new and played through the Planes of Power Expansion before moving on to other games. I have always remembered EQ fondly and recently I came across Project 99 and was pretty excited to dive in and see the old world that I remembered. I say "was excited" because there seem to be a few factors that might make starting undesirable. I was hoping the community could address them.

1. Because there is only one server that has been going for a while the game seems very top heavy and overcrowded. Of course, I only have one toon at level ten right now, but it looks to me as if lower levels almost don't exist and end game raiding is a cluster**** because there are so many people going after it. Raiding is obviously a big part of this game and I don't want to get to level 50+ only to find out that every raid has a Disney World sized waiting line just to get a shot at it.

2. Due to issue number one and most players are either already high level or are power leveling lower level toons, it looks like I will literally be soloing all the way to at least level 50. I don't want to solo my way through these levels and having to do so would kill any desire I have to play. But so far I have been unable to get a group playing around the Blackburrow area.

3. Inflation has gotten out of control and I don't know if I will ever be able to catch up financially. Because there are no real plat sinks everyone has tens of thousands of plat. I saw one player offering 12k for a rez, another offering 10k, one paying 300 for a port, etc... When I played live, 10k was more than enough to MQ the Ancient Cyclops quest much less get a rez. And if I got ten plat to port someone I considered myself lucky. I have no idea what that MQ goes for now. If platinum is really that worthless then I will never catch up to the rest of the game.

Any thoughts from the community are welcome.

[jijii]

Sounds like you're out of Qeynos which is not going to be ideal for meeting up with others your level -- it's just simply not that popular of an area. If you were around Freeport or on Faydwer I believe you'd find more groups.

That said, true, it's top heavy, but there are still plenty of new players around. Hell I'm not new but I play my necro untwinked because, well, it's a necro, and I've grouped with plenty of other non-twinks. And that's another thing -- just do yourself a favor and make your first class on p99 something that can adapt to your schedule and what's available -- something that can solo and group. Bonus points for being able to farm later (which helps address point 3).

And further on point 3, if you can eventually take good camps with relevant items you can start to catch up in plat relevancy. You don't have to catch up with static plat camps like seafuries.

The raid scene... That's just EQ man. It's classic :)

[Masakizt]

Option 1: Get in line at disneyland and wait for those pixels

Option 2: Consider red99 (Recommended)

[Eastwood]

Interesting post,

Pardon me, I've been playing a lot today, and drinking a bit.

First question, what is your proportion to reading message boards to playing games? Because that will effect you, and it seems to effect your perception a lot in your questions.

As far as playing as a casual, this server will be friendly to you. Right out of the gate in Greater Faydark, there are players offering fine steel weapons, and if you group enough around crushbone, you will eventually find yourself grouped with a generous alt. So far, I don't find the group to be devoid of lower level social characters. I've had a blast in the level 4-10 range so far, crushbone seems good until level 15.

I'm not sure about the mid levels, but with another character level 31, I've had lots of fun in Sol A.

I think the game is still pretty accessible to a newish player. It depends on what you qualify as success in EQ. Honestly, 5pp still means something to me without much. Top end items are expensive, average items which are great for getting into the game are inexpensive. I don't see problems in the economy.

I don't know what else to tell you, I started here in 2010 long before Kunark came out, and I'm here well after Velious came out, as a casual non maxed level player.

I played EQ live day 1-mid to late velious.

[Xaanka]

I played Everquest back when the game was new and played through the Planes of Power Expansion before moving on to other games. I have always remembered EQ fondly and recently I came across Project 99 and was pretty excited to dive in and see the old world that I remembered. I say "was excited" because there seem to be a few factors that might make starting undesirable. I was hoping the community could address them.

1. Because there is only one server that has been going for a while the game seems very top heavy and overcrowded. Of course, I only have one toon at level ten right now, but it looks to me as if lower levels almost don't exist and end game raiding is a cluster**** because there are so many people going after it. Raiding is obviously a big part of this game and I don't want to get to level 50+ only to find out that every raid has a Disney World sized waiting line just to get a shot at it.

Take 5 minutes and read the blue rants and flames forums. Raids, and many spawns do have Disney World sized waiting lines for them. The blue server is overcrowded and the end game raiding scene is more than a clusterfuck.

Consider playing on the red server, where there are no welfare lines for raid mobs and rare spawns. Even if you don't give a single shit about Everquest PVP, there's plenty of other people on red who share your mentality to play with.

2. Due to issue number one and most players are either already high level or are power leveling lower level toons, it looks like I will literally be soloing all the way to at least level 50. I don't want to solo my way through these levels and having to do so would kill any desire I have to play. But so far I have been unable to get a group playing around the Blackburrow area.

It's a lot easier to find leveling groups on the red server, because of the global ooc chat. There is also a very active leveling guild on the server with pretty constant groups going at most level ranges during most times.

3. Inflation has gotten out of control and I don't know if I will ever be able to catch up financially. Because there are no real plat sinks everyone has tens of thousands of plat. I saw one player offering 12k for a rez, another offering 10k, one paying 300 for a port, etc... When I played live, 10k was more than enough to MQ the Ancient Cyclops quest much less get a rez. And if I got ten plat to port someone I considered myself lucky. I have no idea what that MQ goes for now. If platinum is really that worthless then I will never catch up to the rest of the game.

Any thoughts from the community are welcome.

Yeah it's crazy, you'll never catch up if you haven't played for years. 10k is more than enough to get 3 Ancient Cyclops MQ's on the red server. Inflation is not nearly as bad, and while both servers are top heavy and 60 focused, it really isn't as bad. Sure once you're 56+ these people can kill you on red, but it's taken me less than 6mo to go from being in rags, to outgearing many players who've active on red since release. The gear gap and topheaviness is still pretty crazy on red, but it's nothing compared to blue. Especially with Velious, and Plane of Fear 2.0 recently released. Due to the way the red server raid rules work, and how the scene is with less guilds than blue, most new players see loot MUCH quicker than they do on blue because their guilds see more raid mobs every week + have less people to distribute gear between.

[Xaanka]

really, you should play both servers and make up your mind (exp is quick on red, so it doesn't take a huge time commitment!) but i hope i gave you some valid reasons why the red server should be considered. from the sounds of your post, it really sounds like you'll be the kind of person who hits 60 on blue and wonders why they even bothered in the first place. do it right the first time, come to the dark side.

[jcr4990]

Welcome to Project 1999! You'll soon realize who all the Red promotion spammer posters are and ignore pretty much everything they say like the rest of us. They post DAILY about how good Red server is and if people would just try it they'd love it. Apparently they aren't aware that most of the server HAS tried it and realized its a cesspool of a server with a nearly dead population and gave up on it. But by all means if u enjoy getting permacamped in Crushbone/Unrest/MM (the only places you'll ever see other players at low lvls) by Fungi/CoF twinks all day long then feel free to "Try Red" maybe someday you'll get to max lvl and join TMO and you can pay the Cuck Tax to Empire for your chance at Halls of Testing raid loot!

In all seriousness though welcome! To answer your questions it is indeed true that the server is topheavy but I wouldn't let that discourage you. I got a pretty late start myself and have managed to catch up decently. I don't have 1+ million plat in the bank like some of the earlier players but I've got respectable gear and enough plat to get by without farming too hard. As others have mentioned Qeynos is generally a dead area hardly anyone goes there. It's super far out of the way of dru/wiz ports and generally doesn't have very much appeal to most players. I'd recommend trying to re-locate to Freeport/EC or Gfay area. Groups or at least people to duo/trio with will be MUCH easier to find in Crushbone/Unrest than Blackburrow. As far as plat NOBODY is paying 10k for a rez. At least not that I've ever heard of. I tip most clerics a couple hundred plat for a rez if they're nearby. Maybe more if they have to travel to rez you. You can buy Jboots MQ for somewhere around 7k I think? Really not THAT bad.

On the topic of raiding. Don't let the forumquesters scare you. You will by no means be waiting in endless "lines" to get loot. I'm a member of <Bregan D'Aerth> only joined up at the start of Velious a couple months ago and I've already gotten a bunch of loot. I don't know what people expect when they're raiding dragons that drop 2-3 pieces of loot on avg with 50+ players on the raid. You might not get a new item every single week. That doesn't mean it's a "Disney World waiting line" bunch of casual WoW players imo :P

Hit me up in game if you need advice or some help getting started. Would be glad to assist. Names in the signature.

[Aeaolena]

I played Everquest back when the game was new and played through the Planes of Power Expansion before moving on to other games. I have always remembered EQ fondly and recently I came across Project 99 and was pretty excited to dive in and see the old world that I remembered. I say "was excited" because there seem to be a few factors that might make starting undesirable. I was hoping the community could address them.

1. Because there is only one server that has been going for a while the game seems very top heavy and overcrowded. Of course, I only have one toon at level ten right now, but it looks to me as if lower levels almost don't exist and end game raiding is a cluster**** because there are so many people going after it. Raiding is obviously a big part of this game and I don't want to get to level 50+ only to find out that every raid has a Disney World sized waiting line just to get a shot at it.

2. Due to issue number one and most players are either already high level or are power leveling lower level toons, it looks like I will literally be soloing all the way to at least level 50. I don't want to solo my way through these levels and having to do so would kill any desire I have to play. But so far I have been unable to get a group playing around the Blackburrow area.

3. Inflation has gotten out of control and I don't know if I will ever be able to catch up financially. Because there are no real plat sinks everyone has tens of thousands of plat. I saw one player offering 12k for a rez, another offering 10k, one paying 300 for a port, etc... When I played live, 10k was more than enough to MQ the Ancient Cyclops quest much less get a rez. And if I got ten plat to port someone I considered myself lucky. I have no idea what that MQ goes for now. If platinum is really that worthless then I will never catch up to the rest of the game.

Any thoughts from the community are welcome.

I agree with Jijii, it sounds like two things - 1) You started in Qeynos, and 2) You read the RnF forums which is filled with trolls from the Red Server spouting lies/nonsense trying to get people to play on their own server since the PoP is so low. (If you do not believe me, just look at your own thread :))

So Qeynos -
In classic Everquest, and on P1999, the Qeynos area is one of the most isolated in the game because it is much farther away from the Druid/Wizard port-in hubs. It's a ghost town. I feel like P1999 always has an influx of new people, but they quickly figure this out and move to popular leveling zones.

12k for a rez is the highest I have ever seen. I wonder if that person was joking?

Normal donation is 100pp I think? Full Jboots MQ is 20k? Making a level 1 character in Freeport and running to East Commonlands will give you a better idea of the "market" on P1999. That is the hub of all auction-spam trading.

I recently leveled an alt to 31. Here are zones I always found populated:

1-15 - Freeport Area (East Commonlands/West Commonlands in Orc Groups)
1-15 - Greater Faydark Area (lv 4-7 Orc Hill, 7-15 Crushbone)
15-25 - Unrest
20-30 - Mistmoore
20-30 - South Karana
25-35 - High Hold Keep Goblins
30-40 - The Overthere Skyfire Ramp Group
30-40 - City of Mist Group
35+ish - Lower Guk, Sol B
50+ - Karnors Castle, Sebilis


Again, there are many other places to level and places people make groups on P1999, but these are what I have observed to be the very popular zones. East Commonlands for example is always bustling with people willing to buff newbies at the tunnel.

As for Disney Land waiting lines - It may just be the guild I am in but ever since Velious was released I really don't see it. Sure, there is some competition for mobs here and there but there are no giant rotations like before.

Even as a casual player with very limited play time, I have found it fun and rewarding to play end game content on P1999. I've been level 60 for at least 2 years. There are many guilds on the server that have great communities to offer. Rampage is uncontested right now in NToV. And Divinity is the only guild on the server who purposely went Giant Faction and is farming that armor that I know of. BDA is the best fit for me because they are very casual-friendly and still accomplish alot. Many people here with kids, families, etc. I find myself laughing in guildchat and having a great time because there are some real personalities here. (Quick note: BDA also doesn't muzzle their members from posting in Rants-n-Flames, which unfortunately makes them a prime target for bored Trolls. Trolls that love to make up shit and throw it out as bait. Many guilds here on P1999 have a "No posting in RNF. Period." rule, but our leader Chest kinda feels that treats grown-ups like children.) Anyway, the point is - take everything you read on RnF with a grain of salt. And take all posts that say "come to red" with a grain of salt too.



I shouldn't check the forums when I wake up at 3am. Going back to bed now.

Enjoy your wall of Text, and welcome to P1999!




PS - If you need a lift out of the Qeynos area. Do /who all dial to find the guild <Dial a Port>. Their guild is great about hooking people up. And if they can't, and I am on, /t Aeaolena.

[elwing]

honestly, I've been able to raise blacksmith as a new player to 175 without loosing my shirt by selling banded armor... I wasn't able to do that on live, too much competition and no one would buy that. inflation is definitely not crazy here, you can get good mid level stuff for hundreds of pp. as for players, well the server tops in the 1k player, that's less than live server years ago, but that's far from empty. Finding group in CB, unrest, deep in MM, sol A+B, HHK or such dungeons is usually pretty easy. also if you're in qeynos, you might want to travel to the warrens, not many people here but that's a fun place for low levels, or if you really wants to group move to FP or faydwer...

[Xaanka]

Welcome to Project 1999! You'll soon realize who all the Red promotion spammer posters are and ignore pretty much everything they say like the rest of us. They post DAILY about how good Red server is and if people would just try it they'd love it. Apparently they aren't aware that most of the server HAS tried it and realized its a cesspool of a server with a nearly dead population and gave up on it. But by all means if u enjoy getting permacamped in Crushbone/Unrest/MM (the only places you'll ever see other players at low lvls) by Fungi/CoF twinks all day long then feel free to "Try Red" maybe someday you'll get to max lvl and join TMO and you can pay the Cuck Tax to Empire for your chance at Halls of Testing raid loot!

In all seriousness though welcome! To answer your questions it is indeed true that the server is topheavy but I wouldn't let that discourage you. I got a pretty late start myself and have managed to catch up decently. I don't have 1+ million plat in the bank like some of the earlier players but I've got respectable gear and enough plat to get by without farming too hard. As others have mentioned Qeynos is generally a dead area hardly anyone goes there. It's super far out of the way of dru/wiz ports and generally doesn't have very much appeal to most players. I'd recommend trying to re-locate to Freeport/EC or Gfay area. Groups or at least people to duo/trio with will be MUCH easier to find in Crushbone/Unrest than Blackburrow. As far as plat NOBODY is paying 10k for a rez. At least not that I've ever heard of. I tip most clerics a couple hundred plat for a rez if they're nearby. Maybe more if they have to travel to rez you. You can buy Jboots MQ for somewhere around 7k I think? Really not THAT bad.

On the topic of raiding. Don't let the forumquesters scare you. You will by no means be waiting in endless "lines" to get loot. I'm a member of <Bregan D'Aerth> only joined up at the start of Velious a couple months ago and I've already gotten a bunch of loot. I don't know what people expect when they're raiding dragons that drop 2-3 pieces of loot on avg with 50+ players on the raid. You might not get a new item every single week. That doesn't mean it's a "Disney World waiting line" bunch of casual WoW players imo :P

Hit me up in game if you need advice or some help getting started. Would be glad to assist. Names in the signature.

this guy's in a guild that makes you give back your tradeable items when you leave to join a better guild. just think about that for a second, that's the guy promising you there's no pixel lines on blue.

[Swish]

Lots of text walls in this thread, but good to see people are addressing his concerns.

Inflation isn't as nuts on red server. If for example you were to cash grind on Highkeep guards to get the items you wanted, you'd spend less time to achieve the same goal there.

That's one of the great things about red generally. You level quicker even if solo, and there's no waiting in line for camps or having to engage in a war of words if you're camping something and some other guy decides to "lawyer up" to try and take it away from you - one of the blue community's worst things as well as big zerg guilds that will have you waiting months for your first raid pixels.

Sure there's going to be some pvp sometimes but depending on the class you pick, sometimes situationally you'll be in good shape. Just remember you need to work on your resist gear as well as your stat stuff :) There's guilds like Thunderdome which have new starters, they'd be happy to help.

Best of luck whatever you decide to do - the game is fun either way :)

[Aeaolena]

this guy's in a guild that makes you give back your tradeable items when you leave to join a better guild. just think about that for a second, that's the guy promising you there's no pixel lines on blue.
I'm a chick. And I did leave BDA at one point. I was never asked for my droppables. (/gasp! Wut Vowels? But the Trolls said..)

But these facts are distracting from my interest in joining Red. Can you tell me more about how great Red is? I feel like you are full of truth and honesty, and I am very interested in what you have to say. :)

[Aeaolena]

In all seriousness though, Red might be for you. It wasn't to my taste. I prefer Blue's way of things.

If you do try Red, though.. do it for the PVP. Not because of misleading information about Blue.

(serious).. Xaanka did you ever have a character on Blue? Maybe you should try it out. Sure, the adrenaline rush may be less - but we have a great community here as a whole. I'd hate to think you actually believe the jokes in RnF to the point you are missing out.

[nevilshute]

I played Everquest back when the game was new and played through the Planes of Power Expansion before moving on to other games. I have always remembered EQ fondly and recently I came across Project 99 and was pretty excited to dive in and see the old world that I remembered. I say "was excited" because there seem to be a few factors that might make starting undesirable. I was hoping the community could address them.

1. Because there is only one server that has been going for a while the game seems very top heavy and overcrowded. Of course, I only have one toon at level ten right now, but it looks to me as if lower levels almost don't exist and end game raiding is a cluster**** because there are so many people going after it. Raiding is obviously a big part of this game and I don't want to get to level 50+ only to find out that every raid has a Disney World sized waiting line just to get a shot at it.

2. Due to issue number one and most players are either already high level or are power leveling lower level toons, it looks like I will literally be soloing all the way to at least level 50. I don't want to solo my way through these levels and having to do so would kill any desire I have to play. But so far I have been unable to get a group playing around the Blackburrow area.

3. Inflation has gotten out of control and I don't know if I will ever be able to catch up financially. Because there are no real plat sinks everyone has tens of thousands of plat. I saw one player offering 12k for a rez, another offering 10k, one paying 300 for a port, etc... When I played live, 10k was more than enough to MQ the Ancient Cyclops quest much less get a rez. And if I got ten plat to port someone I considered myself lucky. I have no idea what that MQ goes for now. If platinum is really that worthless then I will never catch up to the rest of the game.

Any thoughts from the community are welcome.

1: Now I've only recently made lvl 60 and I will never become a hard core raider so take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm in casual raiding guild (Europa), we have raids scheduled several times a week and we scan for pops and then, when something like a Kunark Dragon or Cazic Thule or whatever pops, we try and get there first. It is very much true that the server is dense with high lvl players that all compete for the same mobs. It's not a very big deal for me as I'm not that concerned about raiding for the most part. I know that my guild does get there first from time to time. And we're just talking about the world/plane bosses. There are plenty of other raid zones that seem to be available for us. I won't speak about the highest tiers of raiding cause I don't have experience with that.

2: I started one year ago and have played one char to 60 (necro) and another to 40 (shammy) and I've found there to be plenty of life and grouping from lvl 1-20 and beyond, honestly. Sure you will probbably be grouping with more players that already have another, higher lvl character than with other fresh new players like yourself, but that shoudn't be a detractor in and of itself.

3: I don't think it's that big a deal with inflation tbh. People are plenty generous and will help you out during the first few lvls in my experience. Sure, you will struggle at lvl 1-40 to get above 5k from looting Spider Silk and Bone Chips (even then, there are leveling guides about getting a bit of coin while getting leveled). But then again, would you expect to be able to twink your new lvl 1 char with 5k items? Once you get higher lvls you will begin to loot vendor stuff that sells for a decent amount and if you get lucky you will loot a money item at one stage or another.

As a solo class Seafury Island is decent for grinding a 500pp-1k pr hour once you're 50+ (if you are a solo class), but at that lvl you can also join exp groups in places like KC and HS where money items drop.

Point is, I don't think it's very detrimental to the gaming experience that there are hundreds of items being sold in EC for hundreds of thousands of plat on a daily basis. Nor that porters are getting 30-40pp for a port... many, many porters will gladly port you for way less if you are new and have little funds.

Also, someone paying 10k for a rez is exceptional if you ask me... so not something to measure things by. Usually I see people offering upwards of 500pp for a rez if it's in a really shitty place like OOT or somewhere like that.

[arsenalpow]

Qeynos is awesome. You can do blackburrow and the gnoll fang quest up to level 20. It's my preferred starting area even if it is a barren wasteland.

[Champion_Standing]

I think 10k is still more than enough to MQ your ancient cyclops quest bud

[Monty405]

I'll add my experiences.


Leveling:
I joined P99 this winter so I have been here for ten months so far. My main is a rogue which is the worst solo class there is. Despite having to group to even tie my own shoelaces I have managed to make it all the way to level 58 where I am currently. This is with a full time job and family to attend to.

My advice to help find groups on blue is to recognize where the popular leveling brackets are. A previous post has this laid out except for an error with City of Mist which is really level 40 to 50.

Also join a 'Leveling Guild'. There are a few guilds with pre-raiding level characters who hang out and using the global /gu chat can help you not only find groups but form long term partnerships with other players.

Consider looking for static groups. These are groups of players that normally group together at a certain time of the day on a regular schedule.

Economy:
The 12k for a rez is certainly an outlier which was posted on these forums (and mocked heavily). The general rule of thumb for tipping for ports is 1pp per level (CR's for free). Sure, there are some porters who are in it for greed but most enjoy the game within a game of offering porting services and are happy to help (please do tip though!). For rezzes I general tip about the same, provided the cleric dosnt have to travel. I have had clerics reject my trade offer out of kindness several times. Jboots can sell for 6-7k pp on average.

A lot of low to mid-range items are dirt cheap. If you are newbie zone level be sure to collect stacks of bonechips as they sell fluidly at 10pp per stack (necros and the like are always buying in bulk). That should help with spell money ect.

Raiding
Of all concerns, raiding is the most valid. It is to be expected due to how long this server has been up. It is better since velious came out but is still a gong show.

Overall, this is the best server to play on for classic EQ. Loading into Kelethin the very first time I logged in and saw 30-40 some people made me feel like I traveled back in time to 2000 (when I joined EQ).

[Wired Aces]

Wow, tons of information in this thread and that is awesome. I read some of it, but I need to get ready and get to work before I can read the rest. But the first thing I would say is thanks to everyone (even the Red promoters :P) for all of the incredibly useful information. I didn't remember that Qeynos was so far out of the way of ports, which explains the lack of grouping around there.

I definitely will be at least trying Red in the near future, if for no other reason than it being OK to multi-box with the regular server. I also play Eve Online where multi-boxing is big and if I'm only running one client of a game I don't feel full. Though honestly I'm a bit skeptical of the horror stories I've read of people getting plowed over by twinks getting healed by out of range toons while trying to level. But I will at least see for myself.

Long story short, you guys have shown me that me earlier excitement to get back into EQ was justified and my concerns have pretty much been taken care of. Again, thanks for the amazing response.

[Kekephee]

Take 5 minutes and read the blue rants and flames forums. Raids, and many spawns do have Disney World sized waiting lines for them. The blue server is overcrowded and the end game raiding scene is more than a clusterfuck.



Rants and Flames is a lie. Don't ever read any of it thinking it's real. It's all a big game where we all pretend to hate each other and to be monsters and Red players come in and lie about how overcrowded our raid scene is and our guilds are because RnF is a game and so they can get people to switch servers.

Consider playing on the red server, where there are no welfare lines for raid mobs and rare spawns. Even if you don't give a single shit about Everquest PVP, there's plenty of other people on red who share your mentality to play with.


Red is an option. The population is significantly lower- we like to joke that it's impossibly low and you'll be playing EQ single-player, but that's an exaggeration. However, it IS lower, and since you did explicitly say that you're concerned about finding people to group with, well, that is worth mentioning.

You won't be soloing to 50, though, on either server. There's always plenty of groups in most of the zones on Blue, and people on Red are voracious group-seekers because of the exp bonus.

[maskedmelon]

If you do try Red, though.. do it for the PVP.

There are plenty of other reasons to roll red too ^^ I did it a few months ago against my better judgement because I had read that gameplay was more classic and I was very pleasantly surprised to find mountains of truth to that ^^ For example, on red there is no item recharging. That is not a classic mechanic, but makes for much more classic gameplay. Item recharging was very uncommon on live in classic, but on blue it is common practice, to the point that gameplay is radically altered. The activated effect on Soul Fire is also restricted to paladins on red. On blue, you have level 60 be romances and every other class walking around with one in their bag for free ch clicks.

The economy on red is also less mature and less polarized. On blue, you can get some really high end items for very cheap, but the price gap to the next step up is ridiculous. On red, there is a much more even spread with items being generally less expensive, so it is easier to farm enough coin to gear yourself out. The economy on red is less liquid though and it can take more time to find what you want to buy, or to sell your stuff ^^

Even though red has a great xp bonus (which didn't really appeal to me until I realized it allowed me to experience more of the game ^^), gameplay itself is generally much more relaxed/slower since new characters are not geared to the teeth ^^ There is almost always someone in your party who can use any item that drops during hour leveling career.

Red is a pvp server though, so approaching it with an open mind is a must and if you refuse to view pvp as anything but overt aggression, you probably will not have a good time. I never had much interest in pvp and only ever played one game pvp before coming to red. I had a poor opinion of pvp and allowed it to dissuade me from trying red for years. It's all about perspective though. Sure there are people who want to ruin your day, but they are very few and far between (and equally if not more present on blue). Most people are just ought for some good ol' competition and expect to be attacked as much as they attack ^^ You don't lose anything (except coin which is avoided by banking regularly or buying gems) and can generally learn something from it. Groups/Guilds/relationships are generally tighter knit too because of their importance in pvp. On blue if some jerk steals your camp, or trains, or scams or something else all you can do is petition and wait and hope you receive a favorable ruling. On red, you can rally your guild or group or whomever to avenge the injustice ^^ the important thing though is to view it all a good ol' competition and don't get offended if you are killed. It will happen, so don't sweat it ^^ strike up a convo with them, ask for pointers, ask if they mind of you to about your business or if they are looking for more of a fight ^^ and remain polite. Don't be an ass, or you will end up with the wildly negative view of red than some of the posters here have.

Last, you can play on red and blue at the same time, so if you are lfg on blue, maybe log in to red and check things out. Give both a try ^^

If you do roll red, /who all Thunderdome and get an invite ^^ They'll help you get started.

[kined]

Long story short, you guys have shown me that me earlier excitement to get back into EQ was justified and my concerns have pretty much been taken care of. Again, thanks for the amazing response.

glad this thread was full of supporting people rather than continuing the circle jerk that youve apparently seen before. people complain alot around here about how stacked people are at the top but its pretty much irrelevant if you just wanna play the game. i started as a warrior and had plenty of groups all the way to my 50's, theres always people leveling and lfg just not in every zone. prices are pretty fair for things tbh, i dont think inflation is much of an issue. you can make alot of plat just by leveling, especially if you make a solo character. people are very helpful and you'll never see 12k rezzes. if you want to experience raid content you absolutely can you just have to select the right guild, although how long it will take to get geared may vary. i got invited to a raid guild a couple days just waiting for a port at level 57. you can definitely enjoy this game if you dont take this forumquesting seriously here!

[Crawdad]

I played Everquest back when the game was new and played through the Planes of Power Expansion before moving on to other games. I have always remembered EQ fondly and recently I came across Project 99 and was pretty excited to dive in and see the old world that I remembered. I say "was excited" because there seem to be a few factors that might make starting undesirable. I was hoping the community could address them.

1. Because there is only one server that has been going for a while the game seems very top heavy and overcrowded. Of course, I only have one toon at level ten right now, but it looks to me as if lower levels almost don't exist and end game raiding is a cluster**** because there are so many people going after it. Raiding is obviously a big part of this game and I don't want to get to level 50+ only to find out that every raid has a Disney World sized waiting line just to get a shot at it.

2. Due to issue number one and most players are either already high level or are power leveling lower level toons, it looks like I will literally be soloing all the way to at least level 50. I don't want to solo my way through these levels and having to do so would kill any desire I have to play. But so far I have been unable to get a group playing around the Blackburrow area.

3. Inflation has gotten out of control and I don't know if I will ever be able to catch up financially. Because there are no real plat sinks everyone has tens of thousands of plat. I saw one player offering 12k for a rez, another offering 10k, one paying 300 for a port, etc... When I played live, 10k was more than enough to MQ the Ancient Cyclops quest much less get a rez. And if I got ten plat to port someone I considered myself lucky. I have no idea what that MQ goes for now. If platinum is really that worthless then I will never catch up to the rest of the game.

Any thoughts from the community are welcome.

1) There are always groups to find 1-60 on Blue, as long as you know what's popular. As others have said, the Qeynos area tend to be sparsely populated as it's isolated in Classic EQ. Elsewhere though, you wont have to look very hard to find someone else.

2) The only reason to solo 1-50 is because you want to. There are plenty of people all leveling, all over the place. What time zone are you in? The majority of Blue seems to be EST, and you'll see the population shoot up to ~1300 normally at around 7pm EST. I would say, if you're concerned about population, Blue99 hits ~1400 max, Red99 ~300 max.

3) I don't think this is an accurate reflection of in-game. You're citing posts you've seen on the forums, but in-game its much more sane. Rez's are normally 100-200p or free. Most people pay ~25p for a regular port. A full jboot MQ is 7.5k. If anything, prices for non-"Best in Slot" items are incredibly cheap, making it very easy to gear up.

These forums are potentially a place to go to for help/questions/bugs/good info, but also have a lot of rabble to them. A major selling point (to me) about p99 and EQ in general is that every step of the journey is fun. Don't focus too much about what people gripe about on the forums, just enjoy the process of getting there in-game :D

[Krule]

If you do try Red, though.. do it for the PVP. Not because of misleading information about Blue.


I really hope the OP reads this comment. This is the right answer.

Do not play Red just to avoid all the issues that Blue suffers from. Red is the PvP server. There WILL be PvP. You will get PvP'ed in all forms. Naked on a CR, half health after a large pull or even full health in group @ a camp-spot.

If you don't like PvP then do not roll Red. You will not have fun and many of us will make sure of that. It's not because we hate new players - it's because we love PvP.

So, do you like to PvP?

I think anyone should roll Red as long as the answer to question above is: "Yes." or "I'm not sure yet." If they answer is "No.", then turn back around and play Blue. Either way you will learn whether or not you like to PvP.

Frankly, PvP is an entire aspect of MMO's you're missing out on if you don't give it a chance. I know many disagree with this, but it's true.

[Krule]

If you do roll red, /who all Thunderdome and get an invite ^^ They'll help you get started.

This. ^ We 'Domers are good lot.

However, everything you said is true I still think PvP should the focus of people moving to Red. Be prepared to fight someone @ lower levels.

[Swish]

...and don't be shy about starting a fight. I think too many avoid pvp at all costs, get no experience of it and when a fight happens they panic, gate, die, or quit.

Practice practice practice.

[slappytwotoes]

As far as grouping.. Imma come at you from the opposite approach. I LOVE to solo lowbies, specially twinked to the gills. Its a break from the very social grouping and raiding I do most of the time. (Blue)

Every play session I turn down grouping offers left and right. Most people 5-60 are all about grouping. If you visit any of the popular zones mentioned earlier, its full of groups. Go where the good XP is and you'll never lack for leveling partners.

[Wired Aces]

I really hope the OP reads this comment. This is the right answer.

Do not play Red just to avoid all the issues that Blue suffers from. Red is the PvP server. There WILL be PvP. You will get PvP'ed in all forms. Naked on a CR, half health after a large pull or even full health in group @ a camp-spot.

If you don't like PvP then do not roll Red. You will not have fun and many of us will make sure of that. It's not because we hate new players - it's because we love PvP.

So, do you like to PvP?

I think anyone should roll Red as long as the answer to question above is: "Yes." or "I'm not sure yet." If they answer is "No.", then turn back around and play Blue. Either way you will learn whether or not you like to PvP.

Frankly, PvP is an entire aspect of MMO's you're missing out on if you don't give it a chance. I know many disagree with this, but it's true.

Oh, I definitely love PvP. I played on a normal server and two PvP servers on EQ Live and PvP was always a ton of fun. I do look forward to making a toon on Red and doing a bit of boxing on both servers. I would prefer the "get one item" method when you kill someone, as opposed to just getting their coin, but it's still fun.

[nilbog]

I would prefer the "get one item" method when you kill someone

http://media.giphy.com/media/gFwZfXIqD0eNW/giphy.gif

[Colgate]

make it happen

[Swish]

Rumored to be coming with PvP teams (item loot).

[Wired Aces]

Just to be sure - On live you didn't lose XP when you got killed in PvP. Is that the case on Red? Also, what's the level difference that you can engage? Is it 4?

[Pipip]

I would say, just try it (either server). It's not like you have to pay a subscription. If you don't like it, you didn't lose anything

[Swish]

Just to be sure - On live you didn't lose XP when you got killed in PvP. Is that the case on Red? Also, what's the level difference that you can engage? Is it 4?

Yes correct on both counts. No XP loss on pvp death and a 4 level range (used to be 8).

[thufir]

I played Everquest back when the game was new and played through the Planes of Power Expansion before moving on to other games. I have always remembered EQ fondly and recently I came across Project 99 and was pretty excited to dive in and see the old world that I remembered. I say "was excited" because there seem to be a few factors that might make starting undesirable. I was hoping the community could address them.

1. Because there is only one server that has been going for a while the game seems very top heavy and overcrowded. Of course, I only have one toon at level ten right now, but it looks to me as if lower levels almost don't exist and end game raiding is a cluster**** because there are so many people going after it. Raiding is obviously a big part of this game and I don't want to get to level 50+ only to find out that every raid has a Disney World sized waiting line just to get a shot at it.

2. Due to issue number one and most players are either already high level or are power leveling lower level toons, it looks like I will literally be soloing all the way to at least level 50. I don't want to solo my way through these levels and having to do so would kill any desire I have to play. But so far I have been unable to get a group playing around the Blackburrow area.

3. Inflation has gotten out of control and I don't know if I will ever be able to catch up financially. Because there are no real plat sinks everyone has tens of thousands of plat. I saw one player offering 12k for a rez, another offering 10k, one paying 300 for a port, etc... When I played live, 10k was more than enough to MQ the Ancient Cyclops quest much less get a rez. And if I got ten plat to port someone I considered myself lucky. I have no idea what that MQ goes for now. If platinum is really that worthless then I will never catch up to the rest of the game.

Any thoughts from the community are welcome.

"Nah" is my response to most of this.

I have been a low level player on this server (p99 blue) for years, super casual. My highest level character is 52. I started here 2-3 years ago.

The sub-50 scene is very active. The population tends to funnel into a few zones because people are always there - tautological I know, but it's a self-reinforcing cycle. Blackburrow isn't on this path. If you started a character in gfay and went to Crushbone, your view of the low level game would be quickly altered.

Other zones of high popularity for the sub-50 crowd include Unrest, Mistmoore, and City of Mist. Those zones are almost always packed with people and the problem is finding a spot in a group, not finding a group per se', since those zones are generally overcamped. Guk (both upper and lower) gets an honorable mention here, has a fair population but not too crowded, and is one of my personal favorite zones since you can be killing frogs basically from high single digits to 50+. Outdoors there's East Commons, Oasis of Marr, Highpass, and the Overthere; usually Warsliks has people fighting there as well.

You can still find people in other zones, depending on time of day and sheer randomness. My cleric actually found randoms to pug with in Kerra Isle on Saturday...

Inflation isn't that bad, either. Low level items have been farmed to death so you can get decent weapons for cheap, if not great ones. Generally, you don't have to pay 12k for a rez; 50p-100p is more normal. Ports ~30p, depending.

Raiding is pretty crowded sure, but the other side effect of that is that it's easy to get into a raiding guild and hit *some* targets.

That jboots MQ (ring of ancients) goes for about 7k on blue, btw. (You can just camp it yourself, too. I did! Frequently nobody bothers with the sro one because it's FTE.)

So yeah, don't worry so much about what you laid out in your original post. =)

[ridiculousmoose]

^^This guy gets it. People min/max the shit out of everything on here, especially exp, so they all go to the same high exp bonus zones.

[slappytwotoes]

High ZEM is used to make up for lots of things, most notably mob scarcity with long respawn timers. Full groups would probably gain more xp in outdoor zones like DL with constant pulls than, say, CoM stables with very limited spawns on a 20-something minute timer. Plus less downtime is more fun.

[Swish]

^^This guy gets it. People min/max the shit out of everything on here, especially exp, so they all go to the same high exp bonus zones.

Treading on everyone they can to get there in the process (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0El1SMvyoQ)

http://i.imgur.com/gvgGsWr.jpg

[maestrom]

Treading on everyone they can to get there in the process (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0El1SMvyoQ)

http://i.imgur.com/gvgGsWr.jpg

On red, you could have PVP'd that PLee and taken his pixels.

Try red.

[Swish]

So then I logged on my bard the next day in Unrest... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTkDxE2IZlE)

There really is no hope. Perhaps blue needs a group XP bonus to get around all the powerleveling and reliance on Chardok AOE for levels?


..and yes, long story short. I considered full-time red.

[maestrom]

You know if people take more than 4 mobs they call it a zone disturbance and you are free to take from their pulls.

Coulda just popped AE a tick or two and PL'd yourself there.

[Swish]

You know if people take more than 4 mobs they call it a zone disturbance and you are free to take from their pulls.

Coulda just popped AE a tick or two and PL'd yourself there.

If you play Euro hours you were lucky to find assistance before they clear off. I think Llandewen (GM) is Euro though so maybe there's hope now for blue players in that situation.

[maestrom]

You don't have to ask a GM to pull from their trains.

I don't get it. You red recruiters all talk about how you can get any camp you want at any time. You couldn't do that if there were more than 10 people playing on Red at any given time. So when you try to pull people to the server you're actively working against the only thing that Red has going for it--the lower population.

[Swish]

Right before I quit for red...
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ-0iezmwMo)

^^ That one I petitioned because it was pulls from across the zone and orcs were training other people.

Everyone goes nuts about FTE here. Try getting in amongst a powerleveler's mobs and see what happens.

Better off on red, at least you have a chance to claim it rather than having to look through an encyclopedia rulebook of camp, mob and zone specific guidelines on what can and can't be done kek

[maestrom]

Everyone goes nuts about FTE here. Try getting in amongst a powerleveler's mobs and see what happens.


They'll petition. You'll keep on keepin' on. The GM will show up (or won't) and they'll be told what the rule is and you'll keep doing whatever you're doing. If you're lucky, Sirken will DT them for fun and for wasting his time.

but you're right. Better to try to PvP someone who has a thorns, regen, sln, and a 60 druid standing right behind them healing them.

Try red. Not only will you never run into anyone, but when you do they'll kill you.

[thufir]

So then I logged on my bard the next day in Unrest...There really is no hope.

Maskedmelon said it best really. It's about the attitude.

You don't want to have fun on blue p99, Swish. It's OK. Don't try.

Some people love it; they can look past the fact that some people are PL'ing, and find groups and kill shit with others. You can't. So don't play there.

PL'ing was plenty classic, btw. Happened on Xegony during the Kunark era. It's easy to PL.

[jcr4990]

Spam recruit messages for the PvP server on the boards for the PvE server is not classic. There wasn't a group of people from Rallos/VZ/TZ that posted on other server boards trying to get them to "Try Rallos"

Can we ban this non-classic behavior pls?

[Tann]

Spam recruit messages for the PvP server on the boards for the PvE server is not classic. There wasn't a group of people from Rallos/VZ/TZ that posted on other server boards trying to get them to "Try Rallos"

Can we ban this non-classic behavior pls?

They don't really have another option, no one in their right mind would play on red after visiting the PVP "Community" section of the forums.

[Swish]

Spam recruit messages for the PvP server on the boards for the PvE server is not classic. There wasn't a group of people from Rallos/VZ/TZ that posted on other server boards trying to get them to "Try Rallos"

Can we ban this non-classic behavior pls?

Submit some proof that it never happened on the live forums and I'll consider it.

[Swish]

They don't really have another option, no one in their right mind would play on red after visiting the PVP "Community" section of the forums.

If blue server was judged by RNF I'd be surprised if anyone played.

Similarly don't judge red by the forums, roll a character and give it a go.

[jcr4990]

roll a character and give it a go.

Everyone has. They all left. It sucks.

[Swish]

Everyone has rolled on red? I think theres still some work to do.

Give red another try.

[maestrom]

If blue server was judged by RNF I'd be surprised if anyone played.

Similarly don't judge red by the forums, roll a character and give it a go.

You know you and your red recruiter friends are half of the posts on RNF right?

[Tann]

If blue server was judged by RNF I'd be surprised if anyone played.

Similarly don't judge red by the forums, roll a character and give it a go.

red server chat is on par with blue RNF, and even that is being super generous to the former.

I tried red briefly, a couple hours of reading global ooc was enough. If I wanted to read/hear 14yr old's call each other faygates and all manner or racial slurs I'd play CoD.

[Swish]

You know you and your red recruiter friends are half of the posts on RNF right?

I don't think its that high. Sadly blue RNF would barely have any quality posts without it, its why people enjoy reading it still.

[Swish]

red server chat is on par with blue RNF, and even that is being super generous to the former.

I tried red briefly, a couple hours of reading global ooc was enough. If I wanted to read/hear 14yr old's call each other faygates and all manner or racial slurs I'd play CoD.

You can filter ooc to a separate window if the bad men said rude words. Once you "get" some of the humor it becomes entertaining...until then its like watching a movie 45 minutes after it started.

[jcr4990]

Everyone has rolled on red? I think theres still some work to do.

Give red another try.

100% seriousmode nearly everyone I've talked to has tried Red at one point or another and basically all of them say its a shitty server.

[Swish]

What most people say that I've talked to is that they'd play if not for the low pop.

Well, here we are trying to help get the numbers up :)

[Frudrura]

Basically, I can log in my old characters and hook you up with some stuff if you want, send me a PM of what time you want to meet and I can log on and run out to you.

[maskedmelon]

You know you and your red recruiter friends are half of the posts on RNF right?

I think there are more BDA RNFers than red RNFers tbh.

[Vrez ZVyx]

Red is great. I never considered blue on P99 but played blue very briefly on live before being convinced to move to red. Once you get used to the player conflict you will wonder how you were ever entertained without it.

With that said... I started on red99 recently and as I said, never considered blue.
The population is very concentrated into specific areas, and peak play times. If you play off peak or don't travel to the popular spots, you will be soloing usually.

As for PvP engagements. Being undergeared as I am, I have only had a handful. Of that handful, a couple were twinked to the point that I couldn't have put up a fight.

I had one experience that annoyed me a little. I couldn't resist the guy's clinging darkness because my resists were so low, and he was landing hits for 130+ melee on my 600 health. I took my death, tried to go back and as soon as I looted my corpse he started after me again. I got away from him because he was honestly a horrible player despite his gear and just moved to another area.
Aside from that, I have fought some others who were closer fights. They were fun, but it is going to take some time to get used to this game again to the point where I feel adequate in pvp again. The other players have been universally decent people. Including providing a rez to compensate for an XP death, and buffs.
And some of the "trollish" pvp people have proven to be pretty decent. If you aren't in range they are actually good people who are willing to help you. If you are in range though they will fight you. Who would think... its a pvp server, right?

I think when you get over the idea that the pvp is just for fun and all the other characters are people having fun... you will have fun. Yeah, there are some real idiots, and honestly if you watch global /ooc you will get a negative perception to the server population, but they are a vocal minority.

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

I think there are more BDA RNFers than red RNFers tbh.

There are more BDA prowling forumquest than there are people not afk on red.

I say, open Red to the South American Prison population. Incarcerated Malva Salvatrucha 13 currently barred from red. Ask the devs what's up with that. I mean, they enjoy playing Kittens who say Meow, but they really want to do red.

[Niedar]

Who afks on red? I thought that only happened on blue where half the population sits in EC tunnel auctioning their pixels.

[Seltius]

There are more BDA prowling forumquest than there are people not afk on red.

I say, open Red to the South American Prison population. Incarcerated Malva Salvatrucha 13 currently barred from red. Ask the devs what's up with that. I mean, they enjoy playing Kittens who say Meow, but they really want to do red.

Should move BDA to red. I call Shenanigans on the above post.

[Swish]

Nobody with half a brain afks on red, and if they do they soon learn that it's not the best of ideas :p

Even if you're afk a few minutes, takes 30 seconds to camp to character select.

That was Lesson #1 in the series btw :p

http://i.imgur.com/hBI4Phb.gif