kiyowo
05-21-2020, 10:00 AM
I recently restarted Project 1999, but this time I chose the Red server. Formerly I played on Blue (the Velious server). I would like to discuss the reasons why I chose Red this time.
First of all, I must stress that it is possible to play on all three servers. If you have three loginserver accounts (that's legal to do) you can play on all three servers simultaneously. Trying Red may take time away from other servers, but you can keep playing on them too.
Now on to my points and reasons...
1. Because I had to solo on Blue anyway
Most of the time, even though there were people around, I ended up soloing on Blue. There wasn't always enough people on at my level, or they were too far away and I didn't want to spend X amount of time to go join a group that might disband by the time I got there. As a melee class it was even worse because of the lack of self-bind.
2. Red is still P99
In my personal experience and subjective opinion, the Project 1999 team have provided a consistently great experience across all the servers they manage. I'm sure many people will have complaints about this or that, but for my part I have felt very little difference between Project 1999 and what I remember of Velious era EQ. I played on both the production servers and the test server of live EQ, having started in 1999 and quitting a while after Planes of Power was released.
3. PVP rules
PVP is no loot and no exp loss. PVP is level range restricted. PVP really only happens at high levels. There are some rules against camping corpses and such.
4. PVP balance/imbalance
I believe the idea that, "EQ PVP is broken, so nobody should play Red," is mistaken.
My argument is this: Other MMO's and games have imbalanced PVP. You can get ganked in other MMO's. You can get caught by surprise. In 1:1 you can have a bad matchup (your class is not a good counter to your opponents class). Sometimes 2v1 is the only option for having a chance against someone who has a better class than yours in PVP, better gear, or demonstrably higher skill or level. All those things happen often in other MMO's.
I have played many PVP MMO's and other games. I spent many many hours playing WOW, Warhammer Online, Archeage, and Dark Souls 3. I have experienced a lot of "unfair" situations and mechanics. I still enjoyed those games. EQ is no different, except that corpse recovery is a pain.
Corpse recovery does have an upside however. It means that people cannot simply respawn over and over, fully geared. It means that dying has a definitive impact on the battle.
And call me crazy but contesting raid content through group PVP seems fun to me, especially when it is an otherwise friendly rivalry.
5. Population
The population is low. That's a problem. But the bigger problem for me is overcrowding. The bigger problem for me is no-lifers 24/7 camping rares with no way of dislodging/contesting them.
This works both for and against you. You can dislodge a camper and also be dislodged. A challenging PVP encounter would be more interesting and fun to me than no-life camping a spawn. Such an encounter would be very rare.
6. Community
So far, the low population has meant that the people I meet tend to be helpful, and appreciate the fact that new people are trying the server. They seem to want to recruit me into their fold, not only because they respect me for playing on Red and for being a decent person, but also to prevent me from joining their rivals.
But not everyone will appreciate you. It's true that Red does attract some people who lack courtesy, manners and good sportsmanship. But I don't think they are representative of the entire community. Also if you go in with a negative, whinging attitude then don't expect to be liked by anyone.
There seems to be these these people on Red, A) soloists (at least when playing certain characters they have), B) chill, social people who don't mind PVP if it happens, C) sweaty tryhards, who may or may not have good sportsmanship, D) toxic sweaty tryhards. D are really in the minority from what I gather so far.
If you show some effort and have a positive attitude towards Red, then it is likely you will be given gear, plat and be powerleveled without asking for it (and you're free to decline it of course). Not guaranteed but I'd say it's more likely than on Blue and Green.
7. Grouping
Because it is harder to find groups, for the best experience it is probably a good idea to choose a class that is good at soloing for your first character. A druid, necro, enchanter, or bard are good choices in my opinion. Basically a caster or bard should be fine.
As for other classes, clerics are very desired! Chances are people will help you out if you want to level a cleric for endgame things. Also, rogues are desired for their PVP ability and their DPS in groups and raids.
I personally like the difficulty of non-ideal, non-cookie-cutter groups making it work. That is fun and requires some thought and trial and error. I think that is more interesting.
8. Possible improvements
Whilst I don't mind the server as is, I believe that it would likely be better if PVP were team based. I think that one of WOW's strengths, and the reason it drew me away from other games originally, was the Horde vs. Alliance dynamic.
At the same time, the free for all also means that you are not restricted from grouping with people playing any race or affiliation. So a team based server is not necessarily a good thing when the population is low.
9. Final thoughts
I don't care if more people join Red or not. But just thought I'd share these thoughts, since a lot of people will have considered it but hadn't thought as much about it. I had only played on Blue for the entire time I had played P99. What provoked a rethink of Red was the horrible overpopulation and overcamped nature of Green currently (which is likely to continue for some time).
Saying it's a server for "real men," is not a good argument in my opinion. It is likely that most of the people who play P99 have played other games in which they engaged in PVP, be it another MMO or an FPS or something. It's just that they have this notion that somehow EQ PVP is gonna somehow be worse (which I used to think and I've tried to address above). It's just a server for EQ nerds who don't mind the idea of PVP in EQ.
It's worth a try.
First of all, I must stress that it is possible to play on all three servers. If you have three loginserver accounts (that's legal to do) you can play on all three servers simultaneously. Trying Red may take time away from other servers, but you can keep playing on them too.
Now on to my points and reasons...
1. Because I had to solo on Blue anyway
Most of the time, even though there were people around, I ended up soloing on Blue. There wasn't always enough people on at my level, or they were too far away and I didn't want to spend X amount of time to go join a group that might disband by the time I got there. As a melee class it was even worse because of the lack of self-bind.
2. Red is still P99
In my personal experience and subjective opinion, the Project 1999 team have provided a consistently great experience across all the servers they manage. I'm sure many people will have complaints about this or that, but for my part I have felt very little difference between Project 1999 and what I remember of Velious era EQ. I played on both the production servers and the test server of live EQ, having started in 1999 and quitting a while after Planes of Power was released.
3. PVP rules
PVP is no loot and no exp loss. PVP is level range restricted. PVP really only happens at high levels. There are some rules against camping corpses and such.
4. PVP balance/imbalance
I believe the idea that, "EQ PVP is broken, so nobody should play Red," is mistaken.
My argument is this: Other MMO's and games have imbalanced PVP. You can get ganked in other MMO's. You can get caught by surprise. In 1:1 you can have a bad matchup (your class is not a good counter to your opponents class). Sometimes 2v1 is the only option for having a chance against someone who has a better class than yours in PVP, better gear, or demonstrably higher skill or level. All those things happen often in other MMO's.
I have played many PVP MMO's and other games. I spent many many hours playing WOW, Warhammer Online, Archeage, and Dark Souls 3. I have experienced a lot of "unfair" situations and mechanics. I still enjoyed those games. EQ is no different, except that corpse recovery is a pain.
Corpse recovery does have an upside however. It means that people cannot simply respawn over and over, fully geared. It means that dying has a definitive impact on the battle.
And call me crazy but contesting raid content through group PVP seems fun to me, especially when it is an otherwise friendly rivalry.
5. Population
The population is low. That's a problem. But the bigger problem for me is overcrowding. The bigger problem for me is no-lifers 24/7 camping rares with no way of dislodging/contesting them.
This works both for and against you. You can dislodge a camper and also be dislodged. A challenging PVP encounter would be more interesting and fun to me than no-life camping a spawn. Such an encounter would be very rare.
6. Community
So far, the low population has meant that the people I meet tend to be helpful, and appreciate the fact that new people are trying the server. They seem to want to recruit me into their fold, not only because they respect me for playing on Red and for being a decent person, but also to prevent me from joining their rivals.
But not everyone will appreciate you. It's true that Red does attract some people who lack courtesy, manners and good sportsmanship. But I don't think they are representative of the entire community. Also if you go in with a negative, whinging attitude then don't expect to be liked by anyone.
There seems to be these these people on Red, A) soloists (at least when playing certain characters they have), B) chill, social people who don't mind PVP if it happens, C) sweaty tryhards, who may or may not have good sportsmanship, D) toxic sweaty tryhards. D are really in the minority from what I gather so far.
If you show some effort and have a positive attitude towards Red, then it is likely you will be given gear, plat and be powerleveled without asking for it (and you're free to decline it of course). Not guaranteed but I'd say it's more likely than on Blue and Green.
7. Grouping
Because it is harder to find groups, for the best experience it is probably a good idea to choose a class that is good at soloing for your first character. A druid, necro, enchanter, or bard are good choices in my opinion. Basically a caster or bard should be fine.
As for other classes, clerics are very desired! Chances are people will help you out if you want to level a cleric for endgame things. Also, rogues are desired for their PVP ability and their DPS in groups and raids.
I personally like the difficulty of non-ideal, non-cookie-cutter groups making it work. That is fun and requires some thought and trial and error. I think that is more interesting.
8. Possible improvements
Whilst I don't mind the server as is, I believe that it would likely be better if PVP were team based. I think that one of WOW's strengths, and the reason it drew me away from other games originally, was the Horde vs. Alliance dynamic.
At the same time, the free for all also means that you are not restricted from grouping with people playing any race or affiliation. So a team based server is not necessarily a good thing when the population is low.
9. Final thoughts
I don't care if more people join Red or not. But just thought I'd share these thoughts, since a lot of people will have considered it but hadn't thought as much about it. I had only played on Blue for the entire time I had played P99. What provoked a rethink of Red was the horrible overpopulation and overcamped nature of Green currently (which is likely to continue for some time).
Saying it's a server for "real men," is not a good argument in my opinion. It is likely that most of the people who play P99 have played other games in which they engaged in PVP, be it another MMO or an FPS or something. It's just that they have this notion that somehow EQ PVP is gonna somehow be worse (which I used to think and I've tried to address above). It's just a server for EQ nerds who don't mind the idea of PVP in EQ.
It's worth a try.