New Pre Kunark Server

[mintmaster]

If I recall correctly it has been about 2 and a half years since the big event in North Ro to roll out Velious. There was discussion at that time about a Discord server and at some point when all of the Velious patches are in place to creating a new Pre Kunark Server. I have been checking the forums from time to time and have seen no mention of a Pre Kunark server. Unfortunately I discovered both EQ Live and p99 too late to ever play a true Pre Kunark EQ. I even tried Ragfire for about 3 weeks and was very disappointed with both the mix of old and new content and the 6 boxer and 8 boxer cloned characters.

I love p99 and have enjoyed the past 3 years immensely. Are there any plans for a future roll out of a new Pre Kunark server? Even better it would have all the bugs ironed out that plagued early EQ Live and p99.
Always a fan, Mintmaster

[dussle27]

A new pre Kunark server will be an absolute disgusting mess. Think Agnarr at launch times 50 with no instanced zones. 500 people in Crush on opening night. Within 48 hours 2000 people in Lguk competing for Manastone.

[mintmaster]

A new pre Kunark server will be an absolute disgusting mess. Think Agnarr at launch times 50 with no instanced zones. 500 people in Crush on opening night. Within 48 hours 2000 people in Lguk competing for Manastone.

Funny I didn't see any HUGE CRUSH when Velious came out. EQ Live didn't depopulate when p99 came out and I doubt Blue server will depopulate if a new server comes out. In fact it will allow players another option. I for 1 wouldn't be anywhere near Lguk.

[Jimjam]

A new pre Kunark server will be an absolute disgusting mess. Think Agnarr at launch times 50 with no instanced zones. 500 people in Crush on opening night. Within 48 hours 2000 people in Lguk competing for Manastone.

Sounds fun to me. Can't wait to start lawyer questing those ice goblin scout camps!

[Yasi]

Within 48 hours 2000 people in Lguk competing for Manastone.

This

[1203jjt]

I'd play it and actively recruit peasants to join me in Runnyeye.

[Jimjam]

Within 48 hours 2000 people in Lguk competing for Manastone.

Initially I preferred the idea of just releasing a prekunark server without the mana stone, but on reflection it does act as a shit sump for the 'Exceptional' players.

Keep it in so they don't shit up the next most op item (dwarven ringmail tunic).

[daxchunjae1912]

Funny I didn't see any HUGE CRUSH when Velious came out. EQ Live didn't depopulate when p99 came out and I doubt Blue server will depopulate if a new server comes out. In fact it will allow players another option. I for 1 wouldn't be anywhere near Lguk.

Oh it was horrible. Not even a couple weeks into Velious there were tremendous cluster F*cks for scout Charisa's turn in, stormfeather's camp in Iceclad, and Gloradin Coldheart's marching orders. Back then it was a literal click-fest shootout, sniping kills for afk'ers, and line jumpers to the hills with complete lack of moral code/ethics.

All of this lasted for at least a good 10 months after, and when rules started to snap in place you'd still have extreme outliers with complete disregard. These days it's nothing compared to what it was back then but that's probably because those guys either quit or finally got it for their 27th alt which they barely play anyways...

[mintmaster]

Oh it was horrible. Not even a couple weeks into Velious there were tremendous cluster F*cks for scout Charisa's turn in, stormfeather's camp in Iceclad, and Gloradin Coldheart's marching orders. Back then it was a literal click-fest shootout, sniping kills for afk'ers, and line jumpers to the hills with complete lack of moral code/ethics.

All of this lasted for at least a good 10 months after, and when rules started to snap in place you'd still have extreme outliers with complete disregard. These days it's nothing compared to what it was back then but that's probably because those guys either quit or finally got it for their 27th alt which they barely play anyways...

There must be people who actually LIKE that kind of crush as if it is a magnet. Most zones that I have played in over the past 4 years are never busy, and if they are I move on. The camps that you mentioned I NEVER camped on p99 OR Live. There are just too many other places to go on EQ. There are players who like groups, duos, solo, camps, and raids. If all you want to do is CAMP, ehh more power to you...for me that's more boring than grinding out XP. Ultimately I still hold that having another server will open up MORE opportunities rather than fewer.

Which brings me back to the original reason for my thread. My question was directed toward our wonderful development team and whether there will ever be a new Pre Kunark Server in the future. I for one would love to play one. I guess people can always find a reason NOT to have one "Oh it will be overcrowded" or "Oh no one will want to play that". I would just like to know if there are any plans for one in the future.

If anyone from or illustrious development team reads my humble post please let me know if there is any hope or plans for one.

[NegaStoat]

A new pre Kunark server will be an absolute disgusting mess. Think Agnarr at launch times 50 with no instanced zones. 500 people in Crush on opening night. Within 48 hours 2000 people in Lguk competing for Manastone.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again. There cannot possibly be a single member of P1999's volunteer GM / Guide staff that would be willing to play referee under those circumstances. Like, ever. Ever Ever. People might not like it, or they might absolutely hate the idea, but non classic changes to loot location (perhaps even rotating out to random zones to mobs of similar level) might happen. Or, players could just buckle up and demand non classic changes in exchange for hair trigger account bans for being involved in anything slightly annoying. Or maybe, just maybe, groups of players could resolve not to do 24 hour, 7 days a week character rotation of a prime camp like manastone or Najena's Jboots or Guise to maintain an early monopoly and... Nah, who am I kidding?

[loramin]

There must be people who actually LIKE that kind of crush as if it is a magnet. Most zones that I have played in over the past 4 years are never busy, and if they are I move on. The camps that you mentioned I NEVER camped on p99 OR Live. There are just too many other places to go on EQ. There are players who like groups, duos, solo, camps, and raids. If all you want to do is CAMP, ehh more power to you...for me that's more boring than grinding out XP. Ultimately I still hold that having another server will open up MORE opportunities rather than fewer.

Which brings me back to the original reason for my thread. My question was directed toward our wonderful development team and whether there will ever be a new Pre Kunark Server in the future. I for one would love to play one. I guess people can always find a reason NOT to have one "Oh it will be overcrowded" or "Oh no one will want to play that". I would just like to know if there are any plans for one in the future.

If anyone from or illustrious development team reads my humble post please let me know if there is any hope or plans for one.

There will be a new pre-kunark (and then Kunark, and then Velious) server: it's the entire point of the project. To recap, Project 1999 exists to re-create "classic" EverQuest as faithfully as possible. But no one wants to wait a decade for the staff to get everything perfect, and even if they did the staff still wouldn't get everything right, because they'd have no beta testers.

Thus, the Blue (beta) server was created. In a sense Blue is where the devs test all that classic EQ code they've been working on. But because Blue serves that purpose, it can never be a true re-creation of classic EQ. Just one glaring example: the Kunark expansion lasted seven years on Blue, but less than one on live.

Therefore, the goal of the project isn't Blue, its "Green" (player name for the server, not the staff's name). Green is understood to be a server which will start out the way EQ did on day one in 1999, and it will then progress along the classic timeline. When it hits the end after 2-3 years it will "reset" somehow, but no one knows the details (eg. all the characters on it might get moved to Blue, or they might not).

But Green won't be launched until all of the classic code is ready, and the devs haven't even completed the Chardok 2.0 patch yet. Once they do they'll have to fix bugs found in it, they'll have to code the remaining (smaller) patches that came after Chardok 2.0 but before Luclin, and (my theory is that this will be the biggest amount of work) they'll have to go back through all the things they put off fixing over the years, and fix them.

Once all of that is done (and just based on previous progress you can expect that to take years, plural) we will all get our "New Pre-Kunark Server" ... just don't hold your breath waiting for it.

[Daallee]

Lol @Loramin. How many times have you had to answer the OP asking whether/when green will be hosted? You’ve saintly patience

[loramin]

Lol @Loramin. How many times have you had to answer the OP asking whether/when green will be hosted? You’ve saintly patience

Many, many times. But I'm not sure that it's saintly patience so much as an unhealthy desire to procrastinate on doing real work by posting yet another explanation of Green to the forum :)

[bigjeff100]

Lol @Loramin. How many times have you had to answer the OP asking whether/when green will be hosted? You’ve saintly patience

[Topgunben]

If I recall correctly it has been about 2 and a half years since the big event in North Ro to roll out Velious. There was discussion at that time about a Discord server and at some point when all of the Velious patches are in place to creating a new Pre Kunark Server. I have been checking the forums from time to time and have seen no mention of a Pre Kunark server. Unfortunately I discovered both EQ Live and p99 too late to ever play a true Pre Kunark EQ. I even tried Ragfire for about 3 weeks and was very disappointed with both the mix of old and new content and the 6 boxer and 8 boxer cloned characters.

I love p99 and have enjoyed the past 3 years immensely. Are there any plans for a future roll out of a new Pre Kunark server? Even better it would have all the bugs ironed out that plagued early EQ Live and p99.
Always a fan, Mintmaster

its never going to happen unfortunately. Ive been questing these forums for several years now, and seems about once a week (if not more), someone posts that they would like to see a new server. There is definitely enough interest in a new server, whether that be Red Reborn, Green, or something like what you mentioned.

I think the reason that we wont get a new server is that Daybreak has put the kibash on it. I can only guess that DB is allowing P99 blue and Red to exist, but any new servers will call for legal action.

All that said, if there is another server, the only change i would like to see is instead of different character names for each toon, just one name for all characters on an account.

[loramin]

I think the reason that we wont get a new server is that Daybreak has put the kibash on it. I can only guess that DB is allowing P99 blue and Red to exist, but any new servers will call for legal action.

That's an interesting theory you have. Except ...



Is it a rumor or can it be confirmed that Daybreak gave permission to let P99 continue but only if they agreed 100% to never produce a new server or "Wipe" and restart their server because of the money cow progression servers have turned out to be.
Sounds like a rumor to me

[Topgunben]

That's an interesting theory you have. Except ...

I don't think it's something the devs would want to publicize, even openly admit. The thought of no additional server could be damaging for the future of p99.

I still think I am right, even if it is conjecture.

I'd prefer to be wrong though

[Jauna]

Because Rise of Zek was so healthy when it split the population.

I would like to thank PvPers to finally be useful for something, even if it was as a warning to everyone else.

[Jauna]

Wait, this isnt RnF. God damnit im ganna get banned now.

[Jazzy]

There appears to be two newish classic era servers at the moment, one being eqreborn

They are blue though

[apprentice04]

I think right now is a very good time for the staff to consider a new F R E S H server. Pantheon is starting to gain momentum in the youtuber world and this is getting people interested again in some of the design elements and tenants that classic era Everquest is built around.

I've seen a lot of comments from people who are interested in Pantheon but never played Everquest expressing interests in trying it out. They either want to disprove or prove certain aspects or features of the game like medding in combat or not having a map.

I dont think a Pre Kunark server would do any good for the above mentioned issues; mostly due to zone congestion in a classic only era server but I do think this is the right time to consider a new server launch.

As with all mmo's when there is a new launch, it attracts people to start over, or start for the first time. It always has a surge in population which is when Everquest is at its best.

Whatever you may feel about Pantheon, its momentum could be capitalized to draw in more players to Project 1999 with a new server.

[Yasi]

I think right now is a very good time for the staff to consider a new F R E S H server. Pantheon is starting to gain momentum in the youtuber world and this is getting people interested again in some of the design elements and tenants that classic era Everquest is built around.

I've seen a lot of comments from people who are interested in Pantheon but never played Everquest expressing interests in trying it out. They either want to disprove or prove certain aspects or features of the game like medding in combat or not having a map.

I dont think a Pre Kunark server would do any good for the above mentioned issues; mostly due to zone congestion in a classic only era server but I do think this is the right time to consider a new server launch.

As with all mmo's when there is a new launch, it attracts people to start over, or start for the first time. It always has a surge in population which is when Everquest is at its best.

Whatever you may feel about Pantheon, its momentum could be capitalized to draw in more players to Project 1999 with a new server.

Over the last ~ 4 months, several classic-like private EQ servers have started (e.g. Legacy of Norrath or EQ Reborn). Both servers are not even close to the population of p1999. Now the p99 community will claim that it is because they are not purist-classic as they have several quality of life additions. This is prolly bullshit as daybreak's TLP servers attract a lot of people and end up with a larger player base than p1999 - and they are even further away from classic than the other private ones.

Begs the question why people prefer to play there.

Could be reliability: although p99 has been solid and standing strong for (i think) close to a decade now, there are also private servers in other games that suddenly took nose dives or were shut down (see WoW private servers) with thousands of people being pissed about losing their progress.

Could also be Krono: offering a chance to get the items they are looking for without investing much play time.

Could also be that the "improved classic" provided by TLP is prefered over real classic.

And finally it could also be that as fun as classic was: classic also had a smaller community back in the days. If I recall correctly, the EQ servers saw the most ppl during far beyond luclin (Peak Population around 2003). So for many former EQ Players, "classic" is not kunark/velious, but whatever Expansion there was when they joined the fun in 2002 or 2003.

So in short: I don't think that a green server would attract a lot of new players. A green server might attract a few former blue players coming back, but overall, the total classic-purist potential is limited.

[Dillusional]

If I recall correctly it has been about 2 and a half years since the big event in North Ro to roll out Velious.

Velious was released august 2015, it has been well over three years......

[apprentice04]

In my experience people want to play on the newest server available. It doesn't really matter on the content, the rule set or anything else about a server. If it's fresh people will play it.

[Jauna]

And in the servers experience people love the same ole same ole.

And in my personal experience many people give up and never come back when all their shit is gone the next day. SWGEmu used to be so full of people and 2boxers were left in town. Then when the patch/server wipe to introduce player towns hit not many returned, more people 2boxed in combat. towns and cities decaying, houses rotting, cantina and airports filled with spambots by people who probably died a few days ago and their last spark of life will remain in digital macro form until the next server shutdown.

People like you romanticise the idea of beginning a new but you will get bored of it in a few hours and miss your old life soon enough.

If the urge and want was big enough, people would be making their own servers and oh wait they do they are all over the login screen that you probably click past without a second thought every day.

[apprentice04]

I romanticise the idea of beginning new because its the best time to play an mmo. The amount of enjoyment I have had out of mmo's peak with new server launches.

Populations on servers always dwindle regardless. Let me ask, what was the peak for p99 blue? Is it right now? Will it be tomorrow? Its definitely in the past. Population decline isnt a symptom of people getting bored and moving on because their stuff has a chance of disappearing a few years down the line. Technically that risk exists for every private server and to a lesser degree official servers too.

I also want to mention, I wasn't proposing a wipe of blue/red. My proposal was adding a third yellow/green/chartreuse server to compliment the other two.

I can tell my opinion isn't a popular one though, so I will just drop it. I apologize for the suggestion and will keep my ideas to myself.

[loramin]

I romanticise the idea of beginning new because its the best time to play an mmo. The amount of enjoyment I have had out of mmo's peak with new server launches.

Populations on servers always dwindle regardless. Let me ask, what was the peak for p99 blue?

I'd guess the time around the Velious release (which supports the idea that everyone wants to try something new, but not everyone sticks around).

My proposal was adding a third yellow/green/chartreuse server to compliment the other two.

I can tell my opinion isn't a popular one though, so I will just drop it. I apologize for the suggestion and will keep my ideas to myself.

To help you understand why your opinion is unpopular ...

Starting and running a server is a lot of work. Not the spinning up a new instance of EQ Emulator part: that's easy. It's the human part, having staff to support it, both with development and with customer service, which is hard.

So what you're really proposing (and I know this wasn't what you meant, but it is what you are proposing) is "hey can you people who have already put thousands of hours into supporting two servers spend hundreds more to create a fresh server, because it would be more fun for me?"

And obviously when I phrase it like that it becomes apparent why your proposal will fail. The people that are willing to volunteer their time to make classic EQ servers happen do so because they have an agenda, and that agenda is classic EverQuest. Adding some new server before the classic code is done and Green is ready is asking them to waste hundreds of hours of their time just to give you what you want.

Instead you'll have to wait until your agenda and their agenda come into alignment, ie. when Green comes out. Or you have to start your own server.

[Erati]

thank goodness we have accurate information about the Green server avail at a moments notice from our community.

whew

glad we could steer the OP correctly!

[loramin]

thank goodness we have accurate information about the Green server avail at a moments notice from our community.

whew

glad we could steer the OP correctly!

:p

[Coridan]

I'm thinking it launches March 26, 2019. Exactly 20 years after EQ live launched, then it can follow the timeline exactly except +20 years.

Do they want Chardok 2.0 done before then? Probably, but even if they can't, they'd still have plenty of time to get it up before it was due on a Green server and it isn't quite the massive project that Kunark or Velious is.

[Swish2]

I'm thinking it launches March 26, 2019. Exactly 20 years after EQ live launched, then it can follow the timeline exactly except +20 years.

Do they want Chardok 2.0 done before then? Probably, but even if they can't, they'd still have plenty of time to get it up before it was due on a Green server and it isn't quite the massive project that Kunark or Velious is.

That's an awesome idea honestly.

[apprentice04]

Adding some new server before the classic code is done and Green is ready is asking them to waste hundreds of hours of their time just to give you what you want.

I don't really understand what you mean by this bit here. Didn't they start with development of classic before moving to kunark? Shouldn't that bit already be done?

I'm also not sure I quite agree with you saying it would take hundreds of man hours of support and development to prepare an additional server. This isn't quite a "from the ground up deployment" as they have already done that.

[sherylin]

what will happen to the blue server when green launches?

[d3r14k]

what will happen to the blue server when green launches?

Some staff have said in the past they aren't fans of deleting characters or wiping servers. So with that in mind, at least it looks like we may get to keep our mudflated economy server. But the truth is, no one really knows.

My guess is that blue will be used for custom content after a green release.

[mintmaster]

Wow how time does fly. Thanks Dillusional for the correction it has been THREE and a half years since Velious launch. I also want to apologize to Loramin and Daallee if I am running over old ground asking about a new server. If there have been numerous posts asking questions about a green server I have not been able to find them. But that probably has more to do with my love/hate relationship with technology and my early alzheimers. Considering the number of visitors to this thread there must be others out there with the same questions

Thank you Loramin for your responses. Yes you are a saint and we have erected a new statue in the Temple of Fireona Vie dedicated to you. There will be daily boat pilgrimages starting at $39.95.

I started this thread to hopefully get updates about a new server. Even asked my daughter who plays and she had not heard anything in 2 1/2 years. Once all the patches and fixes are in on Blue I would love to play a Green Pre Kunark Server. I am patient and can wait. Just hope I live that long(my RL lvl is already well beyond 60).

I agree that fixing bugs first is a priority and that a "Classic" p99 Green would be a disaster without the fixes. I still remember playing on dial up with daily Charter Cable crashes and bugs that made characters millionaires over night. Still I recently rolled a character on Blue and strictly played him in Pre Kunark Zones, with Pre Kunark weapons, armor, and spells. It was a LOT of fun. I got comments from other players which ranged from "that's so cool", to "wow you really have patience", to "why are you torturing yourself". Played him to 45 so far and have banked all the Kunark/Velious armor and weapons handed to me.

For all of you who have posted positively on this thread...thank you. For those of you who post negatively... please feel free to not play on Green when it rolls out.

Last of all thanks to all the faithful volunteers and Devs out there, I really appreciate all you have done and continue to do. I support you($) and urge others to support with donations($) as well.

[DromalPhrenia]

I feel like the same problems with starting a new server now apply to the idea of starting "Green" once Chardok 2.0 and the smaller following patches are completed. The few GM's and guides have too much to do as it is, and presumably deal with enough player dispute bullshit as it is. I'm sure that much of the traffic to Green would be formerly-Blue players, so there may be less petitions on Blue when it happens, but oh man I would not want to deal with the bullshit surrounding camps for pre-nerf items and people trying to get server first kills and all of that.

They would need more staff, and unfortunately I think anyone saying "Oh I didn't want to work on p99 on blue but I SURE DO NOW" would look very suspect and require lots of oversight. A reliable, trustworthy, unbiased, dedicated worker with no expectation of pay? On a new server where people will psychotically compete for rare or time-limited pixels, many of which want to sell on the untouched and not-inflated market? The current GM's would be dealing with just as many complaints about new GM corruption as they would about camps, trains and exploits.

[Rick Sanchez]

there would need to be two servers.

[loramin]

The current GM's would be dealing with just as many complaints about new GM corruption as they would about camps, trains and exploits.

I disagree: there won't be "just as many" complaints, there will be far, far more ;) As far as we know "Green" will include all of the items like mana orbs and guises that will make players act batshit insane, and even if it doesn't I'd still expect some of the players who are overly excited about the new server to act worse than they do normally on Blue.

But even so I'm not worried about this personally:

They would need more staff, and unfortunately I think anyone saying "Oh I didn't want to work on p99 on blue but I SURE DO NOW" would look very suspect and require lots of oversight. A reliable, trustworthy, unbiased, dedicated worker with no expectation of pay? On a new server where people will psychotically compete for rare or time-limited pixels, many of which want to sell on the untouched and not-inflated market?

Despite a few memorable failures over the course of a decade (which were all but unavoidable for a team of 100% unpaid volunteers) Rogean has demonstrated that he can recruit quality people well enough to "keep the lights on" and make the project a success. I have little doubt he'll continue to do so, and recruit more staff if necessary for Green.

[Iksar_with_a_plan]

Daybreak is introducing two new Progression servers to come out sometime this year. Go over there. It aint gonna happen here for some time. One of the latest dev posts I saw regarding this subject explained that they are nowhere near close to setting up Green Server, which is to say, the next and probably only next server to be released by the P99 team.

Also there are atleast two private servers that have opened up recently that are pre kunark and have a relative and relevant population. Also daybreak as I mentioned earlier is something you can attempt to be patient for. If you don't like these choices, then you're out of luck.

[rekreant]

I've said it once, and I'll say it again. There cannot possibly be a single member of P1999's volunteer GM / Guide staff that would be willing to play referee under those circumstances. Like, ever. Ever Ever. People might not like it, or they might absolutely hate the idea, but non classic changes to loot location (perhaps even rotating out to random zones to mobs of similar level) might happen. Or, players could just buckle up and demand non classic changes in exchange for hair trigger account bans for being involved in anything slightly annoying. Or maybe, just maybe, groups of players could resolve not to do 24 hour, 7 days a week character rotation of a prime camp like manastone or Najena's Jboots or Guise to maintain an early monopoly and... Nah, who am I kidding?

Tell us more about your Utopian society that exterminates the "unclean"...

[rekreant]

Well, since my audience demands it ...





(and no, I don't copy/paste; somehow finding my old posts, copying them, and then tweaking them for each new post seems like more work than just re-writing a paragraph or two ... but then I was a Literature major so writing doesn't bother me as much ...)

The Green Server (AKA the "Recycle" Server ... and BTW both those names come from the players; the staff has never picked an official name) is the goal of Project 1999. You might think Blue is, but Blue is actually Project 1999's beta server. Where we all play is actually the testing ground where the devs try out and QA all of their beautiful classic EQ code in anticipation of Green.

Someday, when all that code is 100% complete and tested (most likely years from now) the devs want to create their endgame: a server that is as close to a reproduction of Classic (through Velious) as they can possibly make, and that server would be Green. Unlike Blue, which had seven years of Kunark, Green would have less than a year of Kunark, just like live did. Once it reaches the end of its 2-3 year run, it would start over ("recycle").

As I said, Green (perhaps by another name) is the goal of this project, but that does not mean it's coming anytime soon. The devs still need to release AND test the Chardok 2.0 patch, release and test the smaller patches that come after (but before Luclin), and then (and this is the big one) they have to complete everything on their bucket list that they've put off doing. Again, Velious took seven years to code, so that should give you an idea of just how far off Green is.

[Donkey Hotay]

I don't really understand what you mean by this bit here. Didn't they start with development of classic before moving to kunark? Shouldn't that bit already be done?

This isn't quite a "from the ground up deployment" as they have already done that.

I've been playing toons in old world dungeons (the xpacs suck, /thumbsup mintmaster) and I can tell you the pathing in Najena, Splitpaw, and Upper Guk all have mobs walking through walls on patrols. Maybe that's classic and is intentional or maybe it's "we just spawned in mobs from a database and quickly sketched some routes" but there's work that could be done.

I have also been watching Tecmos Deception's enchanter videos and he mentions that pathing in Lower Guk was different (better) earlier in p99 history than when he was doing those videos and captured heinous examples of broken pathing there.