My suggestion can fix the blue raid scene. Permanently.

[Thugnuts]

OK.. so as it stands right now, we have a bunch of raid targets who spawn in specific zones, usually in precise locations, in precise windows, plus some hours of variation. The end result is that you're tracking, coth ducking, training, lawyering, flame warring, inducing Sirken's headaches, and generally doing a lot of silly things to yourselves and each other.

But you're not really tracking at all, are you? You're sitting around like lab rats, waiting to push the little lever in your cage that either rewards you with tasty food pellets, or administers an electric shock that knocks you flat on your ass. It's no fun getting shocked, but you keep pushing that lever because that's the overwhelming power of elf-sim pixel addiction.

My solution to that is elegant, yet simple: we take the highest profile mobs in the game and randomize their spawn location to include anywhere in Norrath.

It's time for Cazic to spawn, you've got your pixel brigade all ready to go... but where is he???

OOPS, he's not in Fear because he spawned randomly in... North Karana.

Or Butcherblock Mountains.

Or Great Divide.

How about Hoshkar? Oh shit, he's in Emerald Jungle!

Innoruuk has fled the Plane of Hate, last spotted roaming the Lesser Faydark.

BREAKING NEWS: Phara Dar invasion of Steamfont. Newbie Gnomes mount brave resistance.

This would be straight up fun as hell, never knowing where some end game mob is going to spawn. The only limitation would be size and scale. You can't have dragons spawning in Runnyeye, for example, but there's enough Norrath to provide workable random spawn locations for all of the cool stuff.

End result of this?

1. Guilds have to literally track, and have incentive to interface with the community instead of clocking in and out of their 16 hour variance coth-ducking shifts in some isolated end game zone.

2. Norrath becomes a less static game world.

3. More adventure and excitement is breathed into the game. You never know what you're going to see, or where, or when.

4. The end game becomes a dynamic, evolving experience.

5. Better/more competition. You've just received word that Lodizal has been spotted on a shoreline in Erud's Crossing. Which guild can get there first for the FTE??

6. Not classic. Harder to get pixels since you can't permafarm something because you know every precise detail of what is going to happen, when, where, and how.

7. FUN.

[gildor]

#notclassic

[Cecily]

Too bad our neckbeards would apply the scientific method to this problem and have pellet dispensers installed in every zone within a month.
My sadistic side wants this to happen very badly.

[iruinedyourday]

custom server is custom

[Crawdad]

Too many lawyers play on p99.

Player enforced rotations were the norm on most servers after people got tired of First to Engage/First in force. Serious raiders will hate it but I assume everyone is ready to relive classic.

I've always been a fan of First in Force with harsher punishments to uncooperative guilds. First to 20 (or X clerics/warriors) in zone gets the mob. No camping in zone or adjacent zone. Guilds can't agree who was FIF/accuse each other of being camped out, GM mandates a /random 100 and winner gets first attempt within a time limit. Any bickering gets the difficult guild/both guilds suspended from that zone for a week.

Too lax on rules lawyers. Wasting potentially hundreds of man hours on simelf shouldn't be tolerated.

[xexbis0]

So poopsocking port groups in WC is what you want?

FTR, sounds fun and a way to explore all the zones I've never seen, but that's what would happen.

[maskedmelon]

How about just whoever kills it gets it?

[Legday]

Vyemm in the middle of Timorous Deep.

[Pokesan]

I suggest we buy the staff baseball bats to 'deal' with raid disputes

[Malbolshia]

No thanks,

Doesnt sound like a whole lot of fun to be leveling my newbie toons only to have a raid AE hit me and gib me out.

[Thugnuts]

custom server is custom

Yeah, you'd probably have to call it a custom server at that point.

What if it was an occasional "event" like we had from time to time on live servers? Those changed up the game in various ways for periods of time, and could be considered classic.

No broadcasted message or anything, just a random raid mob spawns in a random zone instead of its usual static location, proceeds to roaming around, and nobody knows about it until word spreads organically... and then the server can mobilize to deal with the situation.

[khanable]

This idea is stupid

[Ravager]

Velious will fix the raid scene, remember?

[Thugnuts]

This idea is stupid

I disagree.

No idea or suggestion is stupid when people from seven different guilds park pets at a cartoon turtle's spawn point and spam /pet attack for hours hoping to get FTE.

[iruinedyourday]

I think its a good idea, but there is a better one that is classic too. Play Red.

[snead]

I disagree.

No idea or suggestion is stupid when people from seven different guilds park pets at a cartoon turtle's spawn point and spam /pet attack for hours hoping to get FTE.

not sure what kind of EQ experience you had on live. But even on live you'd camp mobs for endless days trying to get said loot from mob, killing for faction, or leveling your toon. Not much has changed here.

after all, it's not called endquest.

[trite]

Nothing is broken, project 1999 is more popular than ever IMO...

This game is basically 4 games:

1) the grind from 1-50
2) the grind from 50-60
3) Non-contested raid content and getting your resist gear + clickies
4) Contested Raid Content with BiS rewards <---- where the neck beards live

After you've reached level 3 report to the nearest mirror, the abscesnce of neck hair indicates that you've beaten Everquest, congratulations go live life....

Now...I don't want you to panic, but if you saw hair, welcome to the project 1999 raid scene! It's gonna be fun and unless you're some guru of self-discipline, your friends and family are going to start worrying about you....

[JayDee]

OP fixed the raid scene all is well in the land on norrath

[maskedmelon]

I think its a good idea, but there is a better one that is classic too. Play Red.

This is the solution.

[NarcolepticLTD]

Wuoshi should spawn randomly at any rings/spires/circle in the game. 24 hour respawn. KoS to all, no faction.

OT hammers port you to that particular ring/spire/circle that day, regardless of her being dead or alive.

[Gimp]

Would be funny to fight a giant human Vulak in TD or something since their models don't work in many zones

[Swish]

Summon 3 melee classes of each guild involved in a dispute (say a monk, a rogue and a warrior) and have a death match...last man standing wins for his guild whatever the argument was over.

Randomize the 3 classes perhaps to stop refined strategies emerging.

It's simple, and easy.

[Spyder73]

In fairness to OP - the barriers to entry for nToV are substantial. Awakened and Aftermath are both going pretty hard in the paint still... guilds like Clue, Fires of Heaven, and Bregen D'Aerth would have a rough time trying to move up right now. Train ups, TL boxes, CoTHs, pulling Boss Mobs with all the trash up...There is a lot going on and the guys who run Awakened and Aftermath have it down to a science that is hard to compete with.

The windows getting bigger helps no one

[arsenalpow]

In fairness to OP - the barriers to entry for nToV are substantial. Awakened and Aftermath are both going pretty hard in the paint still... guilds like Clue, Fires of Heaven, and Bregen D'Aerth would have a rough time trying to move up right now. Train ups, TL boxes, CoTHs, pulling Boss Mobs with all the trash up...There is a lot going on and the guys who run Awakened and Aftermath have it down to a science that is hard to compete with.

The windows getting bigger helps no one

big difference between "can't" and "won't" warmbody

[Evia]

I actually like this idea. It is still in the spirit of classic eq. While not classic and probably won't happen it would make the game exciting on both high end game and the leveling process. It would make norrath pretty exciting for sure.

[Zekayy]

I actually like this idea. It is still in the spirit of classic eq. While not classic and probably won't happen it would make the game exciting on both high end game and the leveling process. It would make norrath pretty exciting for sure.

[pharmakos]

inb4 vulak gets lost on kerra island.

[Pokesan]

How many zones are there? That many trackers x number of guilds tracking.

Maybe a good idea for the red server, make it feel like less of a ghost town?

[Daldaen]

There also is the whole problem where the environment of the mob makes it challenging, not the mob itself.

If you isolate Cazic Thule to North Karana, he can't do his zone wide summon of level 50 creatures. The entire zone is what wipes people most of the time, not CT himself.

Killing Lord Koi Doken in Lavastorm, isn't particularly challenging. Though clearing back to him or pulling him out is a bit more (remove bind points and this point carries a lot more weight). Etc.

If you isolate every single raid mob into a random level 30 zone and it's just sitting there, the fights aren't anywhere close to what they are supposed to be...

Now are they supposed to be pulled across a zone, of course not. At least... Not all of them. But there are things the GMs could do to prevent this.

Like removing bind points, like removing non-classic flurry drakes, like banning CotH FTEs, like instituting a class system again, like sim repopping with way higher frequency (3-5 times a month, like releasing Luclin or PoP, like linking spawns (IF Zlexak spawns THEN Cekenar and Sevalak spawn), like dropping variance down to an hour so that after repops all windows are overlapping and most spawns happen on top of each other, etc, etc

[fiveeauxfour]

id for sure train khobolds on noobies to guarantee a pd fte

[Daldaen]

Also... If Zlexak or Hraashna or Ventani ever spawned in an outdoor zone where you couldn't dodge the AE they would be unkillable.

We have a lot of AE effects which have an incorrect -150 resist check on their AE making a 255 resist individual still eat the AE 70%+ of the time. Most of these AEs are also multi-component AEs. Like the Zlexak/Hoshkar one which is a 1250 DD + Slow or the Nexona/Hraashna one which is 500 DD + 500/tick + Snare. These DD + Debuff AEs are all or nothing, they cannot be partial resisted.

Fix the general Spell DB issue with non-classic resist checks and revamp resist code to be more scaled to the recent 255 resist cap we have, then maybe this becomes less of an issue.

[beyondinfin]

Nothing is broken, project 1999 is more popular than ever IMO...

This game is basically 4 games:

1) the grind from 1-50
2) the grind from 50-60
3) Non-contested raid content and getting your resist gear + clickies
4) Contested Raid Content with BiS rewards <---- where the neck beards live

After you've reached level 3 report to the nearest mirror, the abscesnce of neck hair indicates that you've beaten Everquest, congratulations go live life....

Now...I don't want you to panic, but if you saw hair, welcome to the project 1999 raid scene! It's gonna be fun and unless you're some guru of self-discipline, your friends and family are going to start worrying about you....


ROFL post of the year, nailed it!

[Swish]

Like removing bind points, like removing non-classic flurry drakes, like banning CotH FTEs, like instituting a class system again, like sim repopping with way higher frequency (3-5 times a month, like releasing Luclin or PoP, like linking spawns (IF Zlexak spawns THEN Cekenar and Sevalak spawn), like dropping variance down to an hour so that after repops all windows are overlapping and most spawns happen on top of each other, etc, etc

Sounds like more work for the staff, more rules in place, not classic solutions to not classic problems, and overall more entitlement from the player base.

[T7g]

OK.. so as it stands right now, we have a bunch of raid targets who spawn in specific zones, usually in precise locations, in precise windows, plus some hours of variation. The end result is that you're tracking, coth ducking, training, lawyering, flame warring, inducing Sirken's headaches, and generally doing a lot of silly things to yourselves and each other.

But you're not really tracking at all, are you? You're sitting around like lab rats, waiting to push the little lever in your cage that either rewards you with tasty food pellets, or administers an electric shock that knocks you flat on your ass. It's no fun getting shocked, but you keep pushing that lever because that's the overwhelming power of elf-sim pixel addiction.

My solution to that is elegant, yet simple: we take the highest profile mobs in the game and randomize their spawn location to include anywhere in Norrath.

It's time for Cazic to spawn, you've got your pixel brigade all ready to go... but where is he???

OOPS, he's not in Fear because he spawned randomly in... North Karana.

Or Butcherblock Mountains.

Or Great Divide.

How about Hoshkar? Oh shit, he's in Emerald Jungle!

Innoruuk has fled the Plane of Hate, last spotted roaming the Lesser Faydark.

BREAKING NEWS: Phara Dar invasion of Steamfont. Newbie Gnomes mount brave resistance.

This would be straight up fun as hell, never knowing where some end game mob is going to spawn. The only limitation would be size and scale. You can't have dragons spawning in Runnyeye, for example, but there's enough Norrath to provide workable random spawn locations for all of the cool stuff.

End result of this?

1. Guilds have to literally track, and have incentive to interface with the community instead of clocking in and out of their 16 hour variance coth-ducking shifts in some isolated end game zone.

2. Norrath becomes a less static game world.

3. More adventure and excitement is breathed into the game. You never know what you're going to see, or where, or when.

4. The end game becomes a dynamic, evolving experience.

5. Better/more competition. You've just received word that Lodizal has been spotted on a shoreline in Erud's Crossing. Which guild can get there first for the FTE??

6. Not classic. Harder to get pixels since you can't permafarm something because you know every precise detail of what is going to happen, when, where, and how.

7. FUN.

Won't work because not all models are global, /thread. (Models are loaded based upon where you zoned in to.)

[azeth]

Reduce the variance from +/- 8 to +/- 2 and root the vp/velious raid mobs

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

leash all dargons and have fd no longer work on dargons.

[Sodors Finest Poster]

Blue server is far too top heavy. Too many elfs, chasing too many pixels and not enough dragons to go around.

My solution is simple. It occurred to me while riding Gordons express train to my office in Knapford. Take the database of characters who are level 60 - and delete them.

This solution should go a long way in reducing the number of raiders and give the top-end raiding scene some breathing room.

[Spyder73]

Reduce the variance from +/- 8 to +/- 2 and root the vp/velious raid mobs

This is great if things would stay how they are, but they wouldn't....You would have 600-700 people in nToV crashing and desyncing the zone. Variance is the only thing keeping the bad guilds (BDA) out of the picture in nToV.

Rooting the mobs is not a bad idea, but if you think this would solve anything and there wouldn't be a work around within 1 spawn cycle you're naive.

We should all be happy there are multiple guild options instead of just 1 for top end content, and there are probably 10 guild options if you are not interested in nToV. And if you are into self inflicted genitalia mutilation, BDA is always an option - Tell em Uncle Tek sent ya.

[Sodors Finest Poster]

BDA stole my ice cream cone - true story.

[Bummey]

One weird trick to fix the end game raid scene!

Poopsockers hate this!!

[snead]

There also is the whole problem where the environment of the mob makes it challenging, not the mob itself.

If you isolate Cazic Thule to North Karana, he can't do his zone wide summon of level 50 creatures. The entire zone is what wipes people most of the time, not CT himself.

Killing Lord Koi Doken in Lavastorm, isn't particularly challenging. Though clearing back to him or pulling him out is a bit more (remove bind points and this point carries a lot more weight). Etc.

If you isolate every single raid mob into a random level 30 zone and it's just sitting there, the fights aren't anywhere close to what they are supposed to be...

Now are they supposed to be pulled across a zone, of course not. At least... Not all of them. But there are things the GMs could do to prevent this.

Like removing bind points, like removing non-classic flurry drakes, like banning CotH FTEs, like instituting a class system again, like sim repopping with way higher frequency (3-5 times a month, like releasing Luclin or PoP, like linking spawns (IF Zlexak spawns THEN Cekenar and Sevalak spawn), like dropping variance down to an hour so that after repops all windows are overlapping and most spawns happen on top of each other, etc, etc

imo, all 'raid' targets pop at the same time and it happens every week.

[manguard]

There also is the whole problem where the environment of the mob makes it challenging, not the mob itself.

If you isolate Cazic Thule to North Karana, he can't do his zone wide summon of level 50 creatures. The entire zone is what wipes people most of the time, not CT himself.

Killing Lord Koi Doken in Lavastorm, isn't particularly challenging. Though clearing back to him or pulling him out is a bit more (remove bind points and this point carries a lot more weight). Etc.

If you isolate every single raid mob into a random level 30 zone and it's just sitting there, the fights aren't anywhere close to what they are supposed to be...

Now are they supposed to be pulled across a zone, of course not. At least... Not all of them. But there are things the GMs could do to prevent this.

Like removing bind points, like removing non-classic flurry drakes, like banning CotH FTEs, like instituting a class system again, like sim repopping with way higher frequency (3-5 times a month, like releasing Luclin or PoP, like linking spawns (IF Zlexak spawns THEN Cekenar and Sevalak spawn), like dropping variance down to an hour so that after repops all windows are overlapping and most spawns happen on top of each other, etc, etc

Bolded the portions of your post for emphasis - pulling to zonein away from intended encounter mobs by using CotH/TL/RezBox is similar to just spawning the dragons in Steamfont.

Banning CotH/TL/RezBox FTE would be such a drastic step in the right direction, you probably wouldnt need to flood the economy with pixels by doing non-classic respawns constantly.

Can guild leaders get together and agree to not do this toxic shit and cut the staff a break?

[Fryhole]

Good job!

[kasghost]

Can guild leaders get together and agree to not do this toxic shit and cut the staff a break?

Hmm, doubtful

http://http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233102&page=2

[ArumTP]

Bolded the portions of your post for emphasis - pulling to zonein away from intended encounter mobs by using CotH/TL/RezBox is similar to just spawning the dragons in Steamfont.

Banning CotH/TL/RezBox FTE would be such a drastic step in the right direction, you probably wouldnt need to flood the economy with pixels by doing non-classic respawns constantly.

Can guild leaders get together and agree to not do this toxic shit and cut the staff a break?

What does that have to do with staff intervention? Only people that call it toxic are the ones that aren't even in ntov. We have a certain level of functionality of it. Disagreements come up with who trained who and was that a stall?

It tactically evolved out of whom ever clears the trash mob looses the intended target. You would be clearing some of the trash in the way, and the opposing force would simply pull out the main target while you would still be engaged in say flurry drakes. Nobody liked loosing shit, so it became train all that shit away, pull out the raid target.

[snead]

What does that have to do with staff intervention? Only people that call it toxic are the ones that aren't even in ntov. We have a certain level of functionality of it. Disagreements come up with who trained who and was that a stall?

It tactically evolved out of whom ever clears the trash mob looses the intended target. You would be clearing some of the trash in the way, and the opposing force would simply pull out the main target while you would still be engaged in say flurry drakes. Nobody liked loosing shit, so it became train all that shit away, pull out the raid target.

and that isn't limited to ntov.

https://vid.me/J1ns

[Ravager]

What does that have to do with staff intervention? Only people that call it toxic are the ones that aren't even in ntov. We have a certain level of functionality of it. Disagreements come up with who trained who and was that a stall?

It tactically evolved out of whom ever clears the trash mob looses the intended target. You would be clearing some of the trash in the way, and the opposing force would simply pull out the main target while you would still be engaged in say flurry drakes. Nobody liked loosing shit, so it became train all that shit away, pull out the raid target.

Leapfrogging has always been the M.O. on this server, sadly.

[Cecily]

Maybe they should make trains illegal...

[Ravager]

Anyway, it's apparent 7 years after P99 launched and 17 years after EQ launched why MMO's are instanced now.

[Whiteberry]

Just make ToV and VP NonCSR zones again. What ever happens happens. Oh you want it easy? Then man up... I guarantee things will be a lot easier. Oh and DPS races. No more yellow text or nothing. Just whoever can out dps the rest.

[Ravager]

Just make ToV and VP NonCSR zones again. What ever happens happens. Oh you want it easy? Then man up... I guarantee things will be a lot easier. Oh and DPS races. No more yellow text or nothing. Just whoever can out dps the rest.

It'd be more fun if mobs summoned at 100% than getting trained everywhere without consequence to the trainer, imo.

[Swish]

This is great if things would stay how they are, but they wouldn't....You would have 600-700 people in nToV crashing and desyncing the zone. Variance is the only thing keeping the bad guilds (BDA) out of the picture in nToV.

BDA still running a tight timer on Corflunk and Zarchoomi. They did the double getting FTE against Veloci Shift the other day, was impressive - check their website for screenshots and pats on the back all round <3

Well done lads.

[Colgate]

i think you people just don't actually like everquest

i don't blame you - it's an awful game from a design perspective, for the most part

the only reason it worked in 1999 was because hardly anyone knew what they were doing

[manguard]

What does that have to do with staff intervention? Only people that call it toxic are the ones that aren't even in ntov. We have a certain level of functionality of it. Disagreements come up with who trained who and was that a stall?

It tactically evolved out of whom ever clears the trash mob looses the intended target. You would be clearing some of the trash in the way, and the opposing force would simply pull out the main target while you would still be engaged in say flurry drakes. Nobody liked loosing shit, so it became train all that shit away, pull out the raid target.

Uh, players agreeing on something without GMs having to enforce anything special is the definition of no staff intervention.
Massive trains running through zones so you can get pixels is most certainly toxic.
Do you really have no concept of playing well with others? You realize this is a carebear server right?

[snead]

Uh, players agreeing on something without GMs having to enforce anything special is the definition of no staff intervention.
Massive trains running through zones so you can get pixels is most certainly toxic.
Do you really have no concept of playing well with others? You realize this is a carebear server right?

well if you saw sirken's new implementation he's going to murder the whole zone after fte. guess nobody can do arena or plate cycle or be in kael at all for that matter. have fun.

"An agreement has been made between Europa, Aftermath and Awakened (which is enough for me to enforce it as rule for now) that King Tormax will be a Foot Race from the Wakenening Lands zone line, at the beginning of the snow. Once King Tormax spawns, whoever wins the footrace (gets the FTE message) their guild earns 1 attempt at him.
This means when the FTE message goes out, everyone will die and King Tormax will reset. The guild that won then can clear all trash up to him and kill the guards linked to him before engaging. This will eliminate any training away of trash mobs.
Same should apply for statue as he'll be in window on thursday."

[Alanus]

I am more surprised that so many people are willing to be on call 24/7 for pixels in an emulated game.

[zanderklocke]

"Once Velious is released, all of the problems in the raid scene will be fixed because you can't just mow down mobs with more than 32K HP." :rolleyes:

[Raev]

I am more surprised that so many people are willing to be on call 24/7 for pixels in an emulated game.

I think very people are actually on call 24/7. My phone goes into silent mode overnight, and if a batphone would be inconvenient for my RL activities (such as they are) I ignore it.

And yeah, I knew that Velious wasn't going to solve shit in terms of raid 'competition', but I think the staff is just tired of dealing with the raid mess (conveniently forgetting that they created it) and was hoping for a pony.

[RDawg816]

I am more surprised that so many people are willing to be on call 24/7 for pixels in an emulated game.
Unfortunately that's how most of the raiding is done. I certainly don't share that mindset. If I'm online and the mob is up, cool. If I'm not, oh well.

I have had friends message me on FB or text to get me to log in though. It's usually to help with a transfer, rez/port someone, etc. Stuff I can do while eating, watching TV, etc. and not be a liability.

I enjoy the game, but for me it's more about the journey and the social aspect. I would rather brag/talk with my friends about how I soloed a named, kept the group alive with my awesomeness, etc. than camp in TT for 12 hours waiting on a dragon that's "in window." YMMV

[Vallanor]

"Once Velious is released, all of the problems in the raid scene will be fixed because you can't just mow down mobs with more than 32K HP." :rolleyes:

I'd argue Velious did fix a lot of problems from the casual-for-p99-but-not-really-casual raider's perspective. Sure the highest-end Velious mobs are a shit show, but guilds like CSG and Anonymous and Paradigm Shift are actually seeing content without an enforced class system. It still requires a lot of neckbeard even on the lower end, but I think it's hard to say Velious hasn't made things objectively better.

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

Wuoshi should spawn randomly at any rings/spires/circle in the game. 24 hour respawn. KoS to all, no faction.

OT hammers port you to that particular ring/spire/circle that day, regardless of her being dead or alive.

Hmmm.... OT hammers..... hmmm

How about create a new hammer that ports you into raid zones, and you can't port in until mob spawns.

So dragon X spawns. Entire raid then starts a-hammerin on each other. Greatly increase the variance on when a raid hammer procs. FTE becomes a function of the "luck o' the hammer."

Would make for some sweet screenshots.

[zanderklocke]

And yeah, I knew that Velious wasn't going to solve shit in terms of raid 'competition', but I think the staff is just tired of dealing with the raid mess (conveniently forgetting that they created it)...

Oh come on, Loraen. You really can't believe that the staff "created" the raid mess. The players created the mess.

Remember when Veeshan's Peak was not CSR and tons and tons of players argued that they wanted rules in there, especially Forceful Entry when they were losing to The Mystical Order. When the staff finally listened, the players still weren't happy and wanted more and more chartered rules or things to turn back to how they were before.

The players have always been the center of every problem on this server.

[Raev]

Of course they did. The server has perhaps 1/5 of the content needed to keep everyone happy (it was 1/10 in Kunark). The staff could have made any number of changes: reducing the spawn time of raid mobs or giving tokens to do spawn them (sure, it's not classic, but neither is variance), improving the method of competition (simultaneous repops, maybe temporarily making zones PVP, /guildwar, etc), forcing a rotation, or even doing nothing. Most Classic mobs have no variance, so the players eventually would have worked out a rotation after the 50th Trakanon desynch with 500 players in the zone.

Instead they implemented variance, which gives raid targets to whoever is willing to sit there staring at the screen the longest and form massive multinational zergs to kill raid targets 24/7. The huge artificial timesinks of variance and dubious petitionquest directly poisoned the raid scene until everyone hates everyone else over that one time they kited/trained/otherwise broke some rule, probably intentionally because they figured people wouldn't be frapsing (plus it drives out the 'normal' people who just want to play the game).

This mess is 100% the staff's fault. The players are simply reacting to the situation they have created. If I had control over the situation I could clean things up within a month, easily.

[Swish]

If I had control over the situation I could clean things up within a month, easily.

That's so easy to type, isn't it?

[Raev]

Code up respawning 1/3 of the world at once with anti-campout code. Increase spawn times a bit, remove variance, and enforce as GM a rotation. Enforce PNP. It's really not rocket science. Which is why I say the raid scene is this way because the staff as a whole want it to be this way.

I know the staff put a huge amount of unpaid time into this server, and I'm very appreciative. I still like playing here. I'm a tracking/FTE scrub, so I just show up and occasionally (very occasionally!) loot things. And as stated earlier I don't get up for batphones. That leaves me free to putz around in Sirens Grotto or POM or wherever most of the time.

[Swish]

How many staff would this require? 10? 20? Players all required to install fraps?

When do people get to have fun? Better make some rules about it.

[Cecily]

Great question, Swish! Fun will be allowed 6pm to 10pm EST Mon-Fri, 9am to 12am Sat, and there will be no fun on Sunday.

[Raev]

I don't know how to respond to this. Your post has no logical connection to mine.

<shrug>

[Swish]

I don't know how to respond to this. Your post has no logical connection to mine.

<shrug>

Sure it does. You're demanding a highly policed server requiring so many volunteer hours it's borderline ridiculous.

It's a game.... (say that a few times and think about it for a moment)

[Lune]

Sure it does. You're demanding a highly policed server requiring so many volunteer hours it's borderline ridiculous.

It's a game.... (say that a few times and think about it for a moment)

So is American Football, and that shit is a multi-billion dollar industry that makes or breaks people's lives.

EQ emulators are no different; in basements across the world, literally dozens of elf enthusiasts feel powerful emotions over their dear pixels, spawning riveting tales of deceit, betrayal, companionship, and virginity that make for one of the best forum experiences in all the internet. Or at least it used to be when RNF was a thing.

Games are just symbolic conflict, and I'd say nearly 90% of human activity in the modern world is fueled by symbolic conflict. It's not just a game, it's the human condition n' shit

[Swish]

Lune...that was deep...

[Thugnuts]

#dragonsinsteamfont2016

[Pokesan]

this just in, eq is exactly identical to professional football

lol

[JackFlash]

I really thought/wish the body of the OP said "pull the plug"

[Lune]

^ the irony was lost on dear pokesan

[Pokesan]

what the hell is irony

[Pokesan]

is it a bad unfunny post?

I CROWN U KING OF IRONY

[Raev]

Sure it does. You're demanding a highly policed server requiring so many volunteer hours it's borderline ridiculous.

Not at all. Coding up a repop system is just that: coding. Once it's done, it works forever. The rotation could be coded up, requiring 0 hours per week once finished, or I could just make the players manage it (nearly zero overhead, as it's trivial to prove with logs if someone is breaking the rotation). In fact, this would require far less GM time than the current system where the top guilds petition each other 5x per week with FRAPs requiring a microscope to see who is training who.

Enforcing the PNP doesn't mean 5000 guides all over Norrath spying 'OH GOD I SAW THAT TRAIN YOU FUCK'. It means helping the new amicable raid scene percolate down into the zones and just telling people to relax periodically. Changing the culture on the server will take time, of course.

[sambal]

While I think this is amazing, there's probably a simpler not classic solution- attacking a raid target makes you PVP

[Daldaen]

PvP is horribly unbalanced in EQ. It would be so dumb to PvP over raid mobs.

The only real solutions to the scene here are sim repops weekly where everything spawns together or release of Luclin/PoP to expand the top tier.

[renordw]

PvP is horribly unbalanced in EQ. It would be so dumb to PvP over raid mobs.

The only real solutions to the scene here are sim repops weekly where everything spawns together or release of Luclin/PoP to expand the top tier.

Of course it's unbalanced, that's what makes EQ. But wouldn't two raid groups theoretically have similar compositions?

[Swish]

It would be so dumb to PvP over raid mobs.

sounds like Dalpal is bad at pvp

[azeth]

No eq is bad at PvP. Go play battlefield or LoL

[Laugher]

I suggest we buy the staff baseball bats to 'deal' with raid disputes

http://i.imgur.com/L3wHbFe.gif

[Swish]

No eq is bad at PvP. Go play battlefield or LoL

Or allow EQ and pvp enthusiasts to play EQ pvp?

[Spyder73]

EQ pvp

This is not a real thing

[azeth]

Or allow EQ and pvp enthusiasts to play EQ pvp?

yea except those enthusiasts seem to want to tell everyone else to play their way

[Brontus]

Great idea!

The "it's not classic" it not a valid argument because P1999 is not true classic EQ. GM events were happening all the time in EQ. GM and Guide events were dynamic. Deties, dragons and other bosses were spawned everywhere and at anytime with unique loot tables. Now *that* is classic.

There is absolutely no reason why custom loot and custom mobs could not be created by the devs to keep the top tier raiders busy. There are a lot of game designers who play P1999 would would gladly volunteer to script these kinds of events and create appropriate loot tables.

When is the last time there was a GM event on P1999?

You have a better chance of spotting Elvis alive than you do of witnessing a GM event on P1999.

It goes without saying that we all love and respect the wonderful GMs and Guides that volunteer their precious time to P1999. But, honestly, why are are GM events so rare on P1999 when they were plentiful on EQ live back in the day?

[manguard]

Great idea!

The "it's not classic" it not a valid argument because P1999 is not true classic EQ. GM events were happening all the time in EQ. GM and Guide events were dynamic. Deties, dragons and other bosses were spawned everywhere and at anytime with unique loot tables. Now *that* is classic.

There is absolutely no reason why custom loot and custom mobs could not be created by the devs to keep the top tier raiders busy. There are a lot of game designers who play P1999 would would gladly volunteer to script these kinds of events and create appropriate loot tables.

When is the last time there was a GM event on P1999?

You have a better chance of spotting Elvis alive than you do of witnessing a GM event on P1999.

It goes without saying that we all love and respect the wonderful GMs and Guides that volunteer their precious time to P1999. But, honestly, why are are GM events so rare on P1999 when they were plentiful on EQ live back in the day?

Cuz you're comparing a personal project done for free to a paid position at a business.

[Ravager]

P99 is the GM event.

[Brontus]

Cuz you're comparing a personal project done for free to a paid position at a business.

Most of the actors in GM events were unpaid volunteer guides. They did it because they loved it and wanted to give something back to the EQ community. Seems to me that P1999 is a volunteer organization as well but with little to no emphasis on recreating the dynamic quests and events that were a significant part of EQ live. That is just an honest observation.

On EQ live they had a special guide organization called the Quest Troupe. These were highly skilled and dedicated guides who were experts at acting and role-playing. They helped to advance that notion that Norrath was a living and breathing virtual world. They played the roles of special characters including deities in the Norrath pantheon. This organization of guides went to each and every server doing live events and quests under the supervision of the EQ live lore team and a few GMs.

If you and others are going to make the case that P1999 in its present state is classic EQ then you need to look at the entire picture of what constitutes the classic EQ experience. Classic EQ is much more then emulating the original EQ up to Velious with all of its zones, mob populations and mechanics.

P1999 players are hungry for new content and dynamic content just as the players back on EQ live were back in the day. The OP made a worthwhile suggestion and I respectfully hope that the good people in charge of P1999 would start embracing some of these solutions.

We're all in this together, so let's work together as a community of passionate EQ loving gamers to make things better!

[iruinedyourday]

P99 is the GM event.

http://i.imgur.com/sMD3m1Y.gif

[Swish]

P99 is the GM event.

Reminds me of the class idiot trying hard to make a smart comment.

[Eugee]

On EQ live they had a special guide organization called the Quest Troupe. These were highly skilled and dedicated guides who were experts at acting and role-playing. They helped to advance that notion that Norrath was a living and breathing virtual world. They played the roles of special characters including deities in the Norrath pantheon. This organization of guides went to each and every server doing live events and quests under the supervision of the EQ live lore team and a few GMs.

I was a Guide on EQ from Kunark through Velious. The only thing I was highly skilled at was blasting through a never ending ticket queue while being threatened with a perma account ban if I ever used my guide power to enter half the zones in velious, as well as a few in kunark. We'd hammer away at the incoming petitions, earmarking the GM-only issues for the one or two times a day a GM would actually log into your assigned server.

And when that GM wanted to run an event? Well fuck me now those tickets are going to sit their even longer, because the GM wants to fuck around in Plane of Air (which I'll get banned for porting into) or turn the guides into giants so we can walk around WC till a power guild converges on us and kills us for the retardedly stupid loot we have. Then the GM vanishes again, having checked off the box next to our server event, and we sit around wondering when this growing pile of GM tickets will ever get looked at.

In exchange my EQ subscription was comped. Most guides were gone within three months, quickly realizing what a shit show it was.

That's your "highly skilled actors".

You had to work tickets for 6 hours a week to be a guide. For a $12 monthly sub. $0.50 an hour man.

[Ravager]

Reminds me of the class idiot trying hard to make a smart comment.

Reminds me of the community asshole being an asshole.

[Swish]

You're a one dimensional angry poster who'd love another BDA led rotation, getting mad that people are being reminded of what happened last time.

The truth is that if there was another "rotation" that BDA would exploit it and move the goalposts if put in charge of it, or be the first to throw their toys out of the pram if someone more responsible like Cloki/Omni was put in charge of it.

Do try to keep it on topic ^^

Also...

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

[snead]

considering the owners of the box state this as a classic server i find it interesting that they add "features" that the community doesn't want nor is classic Everquest. This being the 16 hour poop sock variance. A solution where nobody truly wins or enjoys. Additionally, the owners of the box admit and agree that even though everyone wants repops more frequent (more true to classic Everquest) and allow any "raiding guild" to just login and kill said mob instead of poopsocking it for 16 hours they won't put this up for discussion.

[Swish]

There's enough targets now that removing variance could be interesting if there were earthquakes. When was the last one?

[Ravager]

You're a one dimensional angry poster

Quoted for irony. Virtually all of my "angry" posts are replies to correct one of your lies or a response to one of your insults, because it's a flaw of mine that I can't stand letting lies or insults go unanswered.

As for keeping it on topic? You can't post in any thread without derailing it with unrelated "BDA killed rotation" rhetoric. I just reread this thread, yours is the first and only post to bring it up.

I don't know what your problem is, but maybe it's time you have another retirement.

[snead]

There's enough targets now that removing variance could be interesting if there were earthquakes. When was the last one?

according to my records december 27th was the last earthquake.

[Swish]

oh.

[NarcolepticLTD]

there was one on april 1st, but that was probably just the devs fuckin with you guys :)

[immaterial]

I was a Guide on EQ from Kunark through Velious. The only thing I was highly skilled at was blasting through a never ending ticket queue while being threatened with a perma account ban if I ever used my guide power to enter half the zones in velious, as well as a few in kunark. We'd hammer away at the incoming petitions, earmarking the GM-only issues for the one or two times a day a GM would actually log into your assigned server.

And when that GM wanted to run an event? Well fuck me now those tickets are going to sit their even longer, because the GM wants to fuck around in Plane of Air (which I'll get banned for porting into) or turn the guides into giants so we can walk around WC till a power guild converges on us and kills us for the retardedly stupid loot we have. Then the GM vanishes again, having checked off the box next to our server event, and we sit around wondering when this growing pile of GM tickets will ever get looked at.

In exchange my EQ subscription was comped. Most guides were gone within three months, quickly realizing what a shit show it was.

That's your "highly skilled actors".

You had to work tickets for 6 hours a week to be a guide. For a $12 monthly sub. $0.50 an hour man.

oh shit. brontus gettin called out for rose-tinted glasses.

[Daywolf]

Shats not classic, brah.
However, I wouldn't rule out GM events, if they weren't so busy judging disputes among lawyerquest players.

[Brontus]

I was a Guide on EQ from Kunark through Velious. The only thing I was highly skilled at was blasting through a never ending ticket queue while being threatened with a perma account ban if I ever used my guide power to enter half the zones in velious, as well as a few in kunark. We'd hammer away at the incoming petitions, earmarking the GM-only issues for the one or two times a day a GM would actually log into your assigned server.

And when that GM wanted to run an event? Well fuck me now those tickets are going to sit their even longer, because the GM wants to fuck around in Plane of Air (which I'll get banned for porting into) or turn the guides into giants so we can walk around WC till a power guild converges on us and kills us for the retardedly stupid loot we have. Then the GM vanishes again, having checked off the box next to our server event, and we sit around wondering when this growing pile of GM tickets will ever get looked at.

In exchange my EQ subscription was comped. Most guides were gone within three months, quickly realizing what a shit show it was.

That's your "highly skilled actors".

You had to work tickets for 6 hours a week to be a guide. For a $12 monthly sub. $0.50 an hour man.

Your account of the life of a guide is pretty accurate. The daily existance of a guide was pretty brutal but it was rewarding. It was very hard work. GMs could get away with murder and do as they pleased at least in the first 2 years before SOE started outsourcing them from a local San Diego temp agency and then I believe they brought them in from India if I'm not mistaken. There were good GMs and bad GMs. To add insult to injury, some bad GMs were promoted and are game designers in the industry to this very day.

I am sorry that you didn't have a great experience but nobody forced you to stay and it doesn't invalidate the the reality that SOE had a dedicated team of guide actors who were recruited and trained with specialized RP and acting skills to recreate major historical story-lines and narratives as EQ progressed.

Let me repeat: The Quest Troupe was an actual team that went to each server doing special live events over and above the quests and events that were done by the server guides. A guide had to apply and audition to be a member of the Quest Troupe. They were an elite team of guides and it was taken very seriously by SOE.

Along with the Quest Troupe, there was an sister team of guides and GMs that worked on creating quests and events as well. Again, this was classic EQ at it's finest in all its majesty and glory and all thanks to the unsung and unappreciated volunteers who invested thousands of hours behind the scenes to make Norrath come to life.

You have to remember back in 1999-2001, the concept of role-playing was still taken very seriously unlike today where role-playing has been drummed out of existence by dumbed down convenience driven achievement centric MMOs. There was a large pool of experienced role-players from all walks of life that were playing EQ at the time. Some of them naturally gravitated to the guide program where their talents could be used and appreciated.

Of course the average server guide would probably not be highly skilled at acting. You are comparing apples to oranges.

The whole point of this conversation is to find ways to create more content while still retaining the classic EQ philosophy. P1999 could easily create a Quest Troupe and other guide organizations that emulate exactly what SOE did and bring dynamic live events which creates more content and keeps the high end raiders happy as well as creating a virtual world that lives up to the mission statement of the original EverQuest and P1999.