Is Project 1999 harder than Live during the same period...?

[Axlrose]

To me, it seems Project 1999 is much more difficult to succeed than during the same expansion period during Live. Perhaps since the players have past knowledge and are prone to twink their characters, combat has been modified to be much more difficult. While I remember white conned mobs and even the occasional yellow being defeated solo, here I have had blue cons wipe the floor with me.

One time I was taking on a blue conned mob that poisoned me. I defeated the mob and was about dead myself. As I attempted to bandage my wounds, I fell unconscious. When I snapped awake, the poison counter was reapplied as if it was new. Thus the initial damage killed me outright, even though the process of bandaging apparently never applied any healing on either side of near death.

Another time I had a mob nearly dead. Apparently a mob considered a "warrior" must have a subtle berserk mode without the critical hits. Being killed by a maximum hit, a maximum bash, and two more maximum hits in a row while I went from victory to defeat had me grumble "WTF?" in real life. This was a blue conned mob to me around level ten.

My Iksar monk at level ten has now died three times in a row. I have been given enough advice that I should leave Field of Bone - especially since the wandering mobs seem to be a simple train signal: green, green, red. While dying is part of the game, to loose eight percent, eight percent, and now nine percent seems more than I remember. Perhaps the memory is hazy, but an eight percent loss happened in my late 40s to 50s while early teen losses were nearly negligible.

I do not want this to seem to be a bitch rant. I am attempting to play the game as it is given without resorting to getting twink gear to survive. Again, my memory might be glistening with rose colored glasses. But Project 1999 appears harder than Live during the same time period.

Anyone agree or disagree?

[jolanar]

You definitely could not solo whites and yellows as melee on live. As melee you need to make sure you are soloing blue cons on the low end of the blue spectrum ie mobs that are just barely blue and in 1 more level will be green.

If you have some Wu's weapons and a set of Cured Silk you should be able to successfully solo as a monk but you just have to be very selective of your targets. If you don't have that yet I would focus all your efforts on getting that first.

[khanable]

I solo'd my iksar warrior on live up to level 50 during Kunark - when I started here I attempted the same path

long story short, kobold shamans in solb can go fuck themselves and are entirely way too difficult (or they were 2-3 years ago, I do think some changes happened since regarding mob level and what spells they use :p)

[Spyder73]

Difficulty wise P99 seems about the same to me as I remember live

[Erati]

ive noticed many max hits when a mob is low health too

sucks in close fights

[maskedmelon]

Some things are easier, some are more difficult, but overall I would say p99 is significantly easier. For example, Chanter pets are much more powerful here than they were on live, but damn near everything in Sebilis casts ice comet ^^

[Tankdan]

A group of level 30s on p99 will have better gear than a group of level 59s on live.. It's much easier here.

My level 24 warrior has better gear than 95% of level 60 warriors had in Velious era.

[RedXIII]

muuuuchhh easier here... i remember when i created dark elf i couldnt see shit at nights in Nektulos forest, in p99 the nightsight isnt classic, even a human can walk around in nek without much issues.

#MakeITclassic! :p

[Alanus]

Overall, it's much easier here.

Reasons P99 is easier:
1. Mudflation. Good gear (not elite, but good) is far easier/cheaper to get here.
2. People know the game much better now, so people can do more. I.e. very few people charm soloed on live during velious. Broodmother used to be a multi-group event, due to worse gear and not knowing about charm soloing. Now days, enchanters solo that camp.

Reasons P99 is harder:
1. Mobs have far better AI. Cancel magic used to be rarely cast by mobs, but on here, every mob casts it.
2. Resists seem different. I am level 60 and level 25 mobs sometimes land spells on me. That never happened on live.
3. Druid track is still nerfed :(

[xKoopa]

muuuuchhh easier here... i remember when i created dark elf i couldnt see shit at nights in Nektulos forest, in p99 the nightsight isnt classic, even a human can walk around in nek without much issues.

#MakeITclassic! :p

They did nerf vision a while back. I remember when i logged in on my monk and was blind af :/

[fadetree]

Everybody is way overgeared, it's tons easier than it was on live in general, but I do think the exp loss seems like it's more than I remember. Plus caster mobs are bitches.

[myriverse]

Some things are easier, some are more difficult, but overall I would say p99 is significantly easier. For example, Chanter pets are much more powerful here than they were on live, but damn near everything in Sebilis casts ice comet ^^
Pretty much this.

[phacemeltar]

muuuuchhh easier here... i remember when i created dark elf i couldnt see shit at nights in Nektulos forest, in p99 the nightsight isnt classic, even a human can walk around in nek without much issues.

#MakeITclassic! :p

turn your gamma down to 10% or lower

[Kutsumo]

OP, you've got some serious rose colored glasses. I remember days when I couldn't get a group on my Warrior, XP greens were the only thing I could solo and still be in BW range. This was in the 40s... closer to 60 I had to be careful even with the greens.

[Ele]

P99 is much easier not just due to length of time between each expansion (resulting in massive gear advantages leading into next expansion), but overall player knowledge, trickle down items to lower level players, and a much smaller server population.

Back in 1999-2000, you were lucky to get 6 mobs per round of spawns for full group in LGuk or SolB. You could walk through the zone and find nothing spawned, as there were 100-120 people during prime time keeping everything on lock down.

The goblins in highkeep were 4-5 separate camps, not a single camp like on P99.

Karnor's on P99 is at capacity with 5 groups killing stuff, on live it was camped by 10+ groups.

Seb held 100+ players nightly. Entrance hallway was a full group spot, upper zone out was a full group camp, disco was 2 distinct camps, hallway to disco was a camp, crypt and emperor were distinct camps, juggs and reets were an actual camp, shrooms were a camp, king was his own camp IN THE ROOM.

[Atmas]

In the pure mechanics sense, things are harder on P99. Mobs hit on their max end way more consistently it feels like than on live. Resists seem to be much worse for the player, both in regards to casting spells and resisting them.

The counter to this is that with everyone's advanced knowledge and the wide spread of good gear makes leveling feels a lot easier. As mentioned already single groups clear what used to be multiple camps.

Unfortunately, the end game feels way out of balance. Mobs with fear and AoE are way more powerful than they should be. Zlandicar takes a much bigger kill force than it should. A lot of times people have to rely on consumables that were sparingly if ever used on live. Defensive warriors end up getting used for almost everything because mobs do too much damage without it.

[radda]

Some things are easier, some are more difficult, but overall I would say p99 is significantly easier. For example, Chanter pets are much more powerful here than they were on live, but damn near everything in Sebilis casts ice comet ^^

I was an enchanter and their pets were just as they were here untill god

[fugazi]

P99 is harder, because mobs consistently hit harder, cast a broad variety of max lvl spells and resists are borked. Oh, and they run fastee. This is somewhat countered by the fact we know more way more about the game and good gear is dirt cheap.

I never ran into overcrowded zones on live, but I do play during Euro times. P99 is definitely more crowded than my live server was. Not a bad thing per se.

Also, melees are fucked by mob level being way too big a factor on their avoidance, mitigation and to hit rates. Maybe its the skill ratios (offense/defense/weaponskill and so on), maybe its just some inherent level thing, but on my twinked out erudite paladin I go from barely taking any dmg on a blue to being mauled by a yellow.

[Amyas]

If you are trying to get your epic yes so much farm lock down

[Brut]

Resist system is alot more mean than on live. I solo'd tesch mas gnolls on my shm consistently at mid 20s on live. Here that ain't happening as easy, since anything that isn't blue con (preferably risky blue), is going to resist ALOT.

[astuce999]

rose-colored glasses indeed.

P99 is much easier than live was, for all the reasons many people mentioned.

Also, can anyone find that gucomics with the warrior so proud that he finally was able to solo a green mob?

That should put things in perspective.

Astuce

[Brut]

Or the ones about broken necro pets soloing everything.

[heartbrand]

P99 is much easier not just due to length of time between each expansion (resulting in massive gear advantages leading into next expansion), but overall player knowledge, trickle down items to lower level players, and a much smaller server population.

Back in 1999-2000, you were lucky to get 6 mobs per round of spawns for full group in LGuk or SolB. You could walk through the zone and find nothing spawned, as there were 100-120 people during prime time keeping everything on lock down.

The goblins in highkeep were 4-5 separate camps, not a single camp like on P99.

Karnor's on P99 is at capacity with 5 groups killing stuff, on live it was camped by 10+ groups.

Seb held 100+ players nightly. Entrance hallway was a full group spot, upper zone out was a full group camp, disco was 2 distinct camps, hallway to disco was a camp, crypt and emperor were distinct camps, juggs and reets were an actual camp, shrooms were a camp, king was his own camp IN THE ROOM.

Very true. I remember in Guk an average group held somewhere around 5-7 mobs every half hour. Leveling was brutal.

[Alanus]

P99 is much easier not just due to length of time between each expansion (resulting in massive gear advantages leading into next expansion), but overall player knowledge, trickle down items to lower level players, and a much smaller server population.

Back in 1999-2000, you were lucky to get 6 mobs per round of spawns for full group in LGuk or SolB. You could walk through the zone and find nothing spawned, as there were 100-120 people during prime time keeping everything on lock down.

The goblins in highkeep were 4-5 separate camps, not a single camp like on P99.

Karnor's on P99 is at capacity with 5 groups killing stuff, on live it was camped by 10+ groups.

Seb held 100+ players nightly. Entrance hallway was a full group spot, upper zone out was a full group camp, disco was 2 distinct camps, hallway to disco was a camp, crypt and emperor were distinct camps, juggs and reets were an actual camp, shrooms were a camp, king was his own camp IN THE ROOM.

It was even worse during Luclin, when people would camp AAs in seb/velks/KC/etc

You would spend more time looking for a mob than you would killing it.

[Baler]

Yes P99 is more difficult.

The staff make it priority to implement bug fixes and other things that make the game more difficult rather then things that make it easier.

This is nothing new. If you follow along the patch notes and some of the battles in the bug section to get something fixed/added. The devs seem more open to things that make the game harder.

like spell specializations. I made the thread that finally got that properly implemented on the server. It was not working since the start of the server. It took a barrage of people posting era accurate information to finally convince the devs it wasn't working right. Meanwhile there was other threads where people coughed about something being to easy and you'd see it in the next patch notes making it harder.

P99 is more difficult NOW, when the server first started there was crazy bugs and exploits that people took advantage of. Some of which still have the items and thousands of plat from years ago.

[EQBallzz]

The availability and low price of a lot of items is swept away by the inherent mechanics issues that we seem to have accepted and tolerated.

1. Yes mobs cast dispell far too often and too many different types of mobs cast it. I am half surprised that we didn't have melee (warrior) mobs casting it. That dreaded purple spell animation...
2. Resists and avoidance is busted. When you have level 25 mobs casting and punching you at 60...
3. Hit boxes on the mobs is whacked and it makes fear kiting and similar methods really not enjoyable..which leads to ...
4. The zig zag 'can't decide which way to run' when mobs are low/fleeing.
5. Caster mobs being able to move/run and cast or cast the same PC spells at exceptionally faster speeds and rates.
6. Melee and caster mob types going into some type of precision strikes/minirage/max hit mode when they are low health




1 makes soloing (in particular) and grouping (pulling or tanking yuck) to be more risky than it should be.

3 and 4 aggravate me as they tie in together. You fear something and it won't stay in one direction. I remember fearing mobs in WC that would practically run away from one end of the zone to the next. Here, they constantly change directions.

5 is crap when pulling and or running through a zone. Trakanon's Teeth anyone. Green frogs social training. Their dog pets outrun you, and somehow stun you with melee meanwhile the Frogloks cast virtually while running at full speed - and their spells land. So number 2 becomes an even greater issue.

6... well toe to toe epic battles happened back in the day for certain, but not every mob was going into hero mode and making Rocky comebacks.

And added note - someone mentioned earlier, are things like Sebilis Frogs casting Ice Comet like it was just some normal everyday spell.

That's just a handful of things that when accumulated, really ruin the gaming experience. No amount of twinked character or cheap economy is going to fix that and I would MORE than happily see a server with way less items in circulation, a fresher more natural market place and less twinks, meanwhile having mechanics that don't suck the fun out of the game.

Yeah, I have to agree with all of that. The mob dispelling is out of control. That and #5 is what really ticks me off.

I was in Lfay yesterday on my 35 druid and ran into one of those god forsaken brownie scouts (red to me). I immediately started running for the MM zone at SoW speed and somehow the brownie was able to melee me (double hit for 90x2) then stop and cast a 290 point DD spell (did it even stop?) and then also stop and cast drones of doom on me..all while I'm running away from him at SoW speed. I should have easily been OOR for *at least* the DOT if not the DOT and the DD spell but somehow it can do all this while chasing me. Somehow I survived but zoned into MM with 0% health. :O

[Pheer]

Just for reference, low level mobs landing occasional spells is working as intended I believe. Think all mobs have like a 5% chance to land any given spell on you through resists or something to that effect? I remember byrjun posting a screenshot of an orc in oasis rooting his 60 raid geared shaman.

[jtessin]

The thing that makes it more difficult here is population. The PVE player populations were higher on the average. More people means less mobs available so also less chance to be ganked. Other than that it feels as I remember though, to be fair, I am working on different classes than then. (Just my opinion)

[fan D]

I solo'd my iksar warrior on live up to level 50 during Kunark - when I started here I attempted the same path



explains things

[stormlord]

To me, it seems Project 1999 is much more difficult to succeed than during the same expansion period during Live. Perhaps since the players have past knowledge and are prone to twink their characters, combat has been modified to be much more difficult. While I remember white conned mobs and even the occasional yellow being defeated solo, here I have had blue cons wipe the floor with me.

One time I was taking on a blue conned mob that poisoned me. I defeated the mob and was about dead myself. As I attempted to bandage my wounds, I fell unconscious. When I snapped awake, the poison counter was reapplied as if it was new. Thus the initial damage killed me outright, even though the process of bandaging apparently never applied any healing on either side of near death.

Another time I had a mob nearly dead. Apparently a mob considered a "warrior" must have a subtle berserk mode without the critical hits. Being killed by a maximum hit, a maximum bash, and two more maximum hits in a row while I went from victory to defeat had me grumble "WTF?" in real life. This was a blue conned mob to me around level ten.

My Iksar monk at level ten has now died three times in a row. I have been given enough advice that I should leave Field of Bone - especially since the wandering mobs seem to be a simple train signal: green, green, red. While dying is part of the game, to loose eight percent, eight percent, and now nine percent seems more than I remember. Perhaps the memory is hazy, but an eight percent loss happened in my late 40s to 50s while early teen losses were nearly negligible.

I do not want this to seem to be a bitch rant. I am attempting to play the game as it is given without resorting to getting twink gear to survive. Again, my memory might be glistening with rose colored glasses. But Project 1999 appears harder than Live during the same time period.

Anyone agree or disagree?
I can't say for sure. I will tell you I had 13 days playtime on live for my ranger--in early to mid 1999--and he was only level 13 or 14 at most. And yet on this server I levelled to 13 or 14 in maybe ~4 days playtime--probably less. This is mainly because I know the game so well compared to when I first played. And also the availability of high level items for cheap prices helps too.

The mechanics might be harder, but I think knowledge and better availability of items makes it easier in terms of length of time required to level. This means single fights might be harder for the average noob, but for knowledgeable players it's about the same. Theer'e probably some exceptions. I'm only speaking on average. They can't possibly get all things right.

So in summary:
1) YOu're wasting far less time (dying less, less wandering, less researching, etc) because you're knowledgeable
2) Assuming you're knowledgeable, you're gearing up with cheaper high level items--making fights the same or easier

EDIt: Someone else mentioned the length of time between expansions here is longer than on live. This means cheap high levels items are more available. When you also take into account the campers are more knowledgeable, it's even moreso true.

Keep in mind I played on this server in early 2010, only months after it first started. Mudflation was much lower then. I recall enjoying it a great deal. I played off and on until 2012. I never levelled past 23. Loved playing with noobs on my alts. I moved on from EQ though. I just played Everquest far too long. I migrated to Wurm Online and have played that up until recently. I played on live a little bit in 2014. It was when they released the free level to 85 thing. I got free upgrades to 85 for 2 chars. Right now I"m playing a MUD (Icesus).

I played live up to 2010. Did some raiding. When I say I played EQ far too long, I mean it.