Should I roll a custom PvP server and what kind should it be?

[azxten]

I'm thinking about making a custom PvP server of some kind. My initial thought is a "duels" type server where there is some kind of outfitting and leveling mechanic built in and a leaderboard.

Just fast one on one duels where you both agree to a certain level and choose a race/class. For example you choose level 40 duel, both people are leveled to 40 and can choose gear from a vendor with level range appropriate stuff, possibly puts players into an instanced zone for the fight.

If this is successful and popular I could see it expanding from there to group v group duels, raid mob recreations, etc. Goal of the server is to just rip out all of the tedium and let people fight. You should be able to fight again within 10 seconds of ending a duel. No waiting on hp/mana or running back to your corpse.

To provide a lasting result from winning duels beyond the score board I was thinking players could be forced to have certain appearances based on their score. So even if you're wearing full plate you look like a naked newb if your PvP score is low, on the other hand if your PvP score is high you can have full golden plate or whatever even as a caster. Purely an aesthetic thing where your score effects your appearance.

Aside from that idea I was also thinking of some kind of level capped PvP server. Up to maybe level 20 or so. Limited zones with custom interconnects something like blackburrow/gfay/crushbone as the total map size. Wipe characters weekly or something. Could do random level/zone assignment last man standing kind of PvP too. Every hour the server resets and everyone is assigned the same random level with a different random location. Ten players, they're all made level 30, and enter a random non-hostile spot in the world. Goal is to live as long as possible. Mobs drop random level appropriate loot and also get harder over time. Let's say they're level 25 initially, then after 10 minutes all the mobs change to level 30, another 10 minutes and they're 35, etc. This is done in a way to force players to a central zone, the old battle royale type forcefield wall where you have to stay in bounds but instead its done with increasingly harder mobs filling up zones. Death from a mob or player and you're out until the next game starts. Full item loot so there is strategy involved choosing between fighting mobs for loot, fighting players to take their loot, and just hiding to pass the time.

Open to ideas like this for sort of "mini/fast" PvP server concepts that would be viable with low populations. I kind of like the idea of combining both of these concepts. Having a duel function and general hang out zone and also being able to sign up for this kind of hourly battle royale game. The duel/hang out zone is the hub for various types of PvP mini games. Almost like a PvP server that is a framework for EQ PvP and your character exists ephemerally and persistently in some way and is then modified in terms of level, gear, etc to standardize across players allowing for short term variable PvP scenarios.

Your character is "Azxten" but it has no class. Your class is chosen in any given scenario/duel. Your appearance persists and improves over time. Gear doesn't exist outside scenarios/duels.

[Jibartik]

Can you try, I've always wanted to try this:

make it so DPS to mobs is like 1000% so you can just slaughter them.

make it so EXP is like 1000% so it takes like a day of slaughtering to get to 60

make death by PVP 100% exp loss back to level 1

full item loot nothing is no drop

[azxten]

Whats the level range for PvP though? +/-.. 10?

[azxten]

I wonder if people would be open to an attempt at scaling damage across levels so there is no PvP level range. A level 1 with their starter weapon hits for 5dmg scales to 50dmg to a level 60 player. A level 60 nuking a level 1 for 1500dmg scales to 150dmg. In this simplified scenario the level 1 is still going to get fucked in one spell cast but if they had a HP buff or if there were 10 level 1 characters there starts to be a potential upset.

We can narrow the power band for players while leaving PvE untouched. A guild of level 30s could cause a lot of problems for a group of level 60s kind of scenario.Trying to eliminate that hard level wall where people will find you and send you back to level 1 with a more risky and questionable power dynamic that is always there no matter what level people are. That level 20 you're talking shit to might sneak you when you're low on HP and fighting a mob whereas the current dynamic is they would have almost zero chance of even landing an attack.

[azxten]

Every level difference between fighters is a 2% change in power. A level 20 nuking for 100dmg does 80% extra (180) against a level 60. A level 60 nuking for 1500dmg does 80% less (300) against a level 20. Something like this that allows players to engage in PvP across a wide level range and tries to find a medium between full PvP no level range masacre and the rigid "you're slightly out of level range so I have to stalk you waiting to send you back to level 1" gamesmanship. In this scenario the level 60 can still kill the level 20 with 1-2 nukes and the level 20 would need 10+ nukes. You're still maintaining this power disparity just not making it so absolute and as a result allowing more mixing together of players across level ranges in PvP instead of the traditional rigid ranged based combat or free for all masacres. At level 50-60 the bonus is still there. A level 50 Wizard gets +20% to ice comet for 1200dmg and the level 60 wizard gets -20% power to whatever 1500dmg spell for 1200dmg. They're roughly equivalent but the level 60 presumably has better gear, the innate stat differences, etc. But the intent is preserved. At level 50+ everyone is viable and your higher level opponents only have marginal benefits that continue to fade away as you catch up in level. Melee and spell damage modified and resistances due to level differences is eliminated.

Anyway I'm serious about putting something together that attempts to get rid of all the bullshit and griefing. Just good times PvP. I'll check back for others ideas don't let me down bros.

[Gustoo]

Yeah do the duels server I will play

Prefer one where I can jump on and freevendor everything I need to go mess with people in pvp. Just to mess around

[magnetaress]

U can totally normalize stats/dmg in pvp butt hp is hard.

Anyway. The issue is mudflation. Velious gear and high end kunark gear ruines pvp.

The other issue is loosing exp/corpse --

in pvp death u keep ur items and respawn and u don't lose any exp for dying on a pvp server no matter how u die. Normal exp rates. Makes the server more enjoyable to level on.

Also make everyone bind at cities only. Or pvp deaths you go to your city bind and normal deaths from pvp to ur normal bind, everyone can bind at both city and outside city, u cant bind in dungeons. Or 1 zone away from all cities.. Slightly not classic butt much better for pvp. Or add specific graveyards for non-pvp deaths and pvp deaths all go to home temple. (Innoruuk DE to 3rd gate, human errollissi to NFP etc) for pvp. re-itemize good city dungeons and levels for 40-50 item loot. Kunark is open but level cap is 50. Kunark is itemized 1-50 --- if you die in a zone u where pvpd in ur locked out of that zone for 30 minutes unless it's a home city zone and newbie zone. (pvp deaths only, if u run into mobs and the mobs get u u dont suffer this penalty).

And also. Nerf newbie guards back to pre2000 levels so they can be killed by all classes. And nerf guild masters so that it's risky to chase players into city/mobs but u can fight them and its not totally safe.

Also cap faction for evil/good against opposing faction... at best threatening for good players vs evil and vice versa. I would keep FFA butt give ppl bonus for grouping with their fellow team mates. So that ppl still grouped up along RP lines. Butt they could kill their own team if neccissary.

I would also give warriors, rogues, and monks scaling hit point regen based on (WORN stamina only, not base). and give smoll warrior, paladin, SK slam/bash. Warriors would get the most scaling, rogues, next, and monks least bonus hit point regen. Remove fungi tunic and give only rubi bp. TRL and IKS would still have their base racial HP regen on top of this bonus regen.

In pvp instead of coin/items ppl drop pvp tokens so that the victors can buy smol regen/clarity 1 pots, minor thorns, minor haste, a minor low lvl dd etc, (not the highest skills tho). cap pot spells at like lvl 30 version, stack to 20 a piece. Pots are instant click.

Remove gate pots, but keep in stuff like nullify wands.

There is absolutely no PnP. Training is allowed. (training wouldnt be a big deal with PvE graveyard solution) because the penalty for pvE death wouldnt be that big.

magical and loot Items are 1000x more rare and randomized like bristelbane on a per-dungeon basis). So guk items are randomized throughought guk, but u wont see guk items in solba/a etc.

sorry this insn't super concice i dont feel super well enough to write gud

max resists would be extremly hard and impossible u would have to chose between having high MR or high CR etc...

I would limit pvp root/mez/stun duration totally to like 5 seconds / 1 second stuns but not in pvE, i would up the resist on pvp stuns to like 50/50 so u would need like 12 ppl to keep someone rooted/stun locked, butt if ur fighting 12 ppl u are either bad or got in trouble. Fear charm would follow the above rules in pvp.


I would make charm not dispellable. Mage pets, animations, would bash real good and have player resists. But take a lot more dmg from players. Charm would nerf mob dmg output by 50%

necro pets wouldn't bash good but they would lifetap good and be much more annoying/tanky low dps tho

pve/pvp corpses wouldnt poof if mobs kill eachother.

warrior shiled bash dmg would make shileds competative in pvE and do gooder dmg based on skill/shield ac i would try to adjust them like 2-5% behind 2h and 2hs -- and also generate a lot more agro

a succesful taunt on a player would make the player spin to face and target the warrior but only for an instant.

more see invis items/potions/ or worn see invis items and potions, rogue invis isn't seen by see invis. no insta click invis, but more invis items./potions with like a 2 sec cast

all items with invis/see invis are 1 charge only

[Jibartik]

Whats the level range for PvP though? +/-.. 10?

Thats fine with me, Im used to the usual 5 but w/e Im sure it'd be so broken to just have no level limits but I wonder what it'd be like after all too on a discord server.

[magnetaress]

honestly pppl being OOR isn't that big a deal


another solution would be everyone starts naked lvl 60 and it's just a pvp/rp server

[Tradesonred]

The best content on rallos was duking it out with other players for camps or special event mobs although during the halloween event of 2001 players were uncharacteristically helpful and non-hostile. It was best because no one (staff) had to lift a finger to make it happen and it was just the funnest part of the whole thing, what we now call emerging content. I would literally play 12h straight in crushbone, smoke weed and mix pve and pvp. Go to sleep and when i logged back in the next day, at any hour of the day, the "event" was still going on, everyone was still fighting and making groups for protection, getting to know people.

Crushbone, the entrance of paw, Highpass, Guk, all these places were "counterstrike maps" to chuckle a bit at rogean and how he let the ball drop on that one. Basically if i had the technical know-how to run a server, thats the way i would go. Just make the halloween event permanent (special mobs spawning in different zones dropping no-drop loot) or recurring, and use that as blueprint to make other special kinds of mobs spawn in zones that the players organically fight over.

[Tradesonred]

I wonder if people would be open to an attempt at scaling damage across levels so there is no PvP level range. A level 1 with their starter weapon hits for 5dmg scales to 50dmg to a level 60 player. A level 60 nuking a level 1 for 1500dmg scales to 150dmg. In this simplified scenario the level 1 is still going to get fucked in one spell cast but if they had a HP buff or if there were 10 level 1 characters there starts to be a potential upset.

We can narrow the power band for players while leaving PvE untouched. A guild of level 30s could cause a lot of problems for a group of level 60s kind of scenario.Trying to eliminate that hard level wall where people will find you and send you back to level 1 with a more risky and questionable power dynamic that is always there no matter what level people are. That level 20 you're talking shit to might sneak you when you're low on HP and fighting a mob whereas the current dynamic is they would have almost zero chance of even landing an attack.

Thats the most archaic part of EQ IMO. WoW when i first played it made EQ pvp feel immediately dated because you could take down a level 50 with my 27 priest and 2 other lower level players, something that would never happen in EQ.

[azxten]

Put in a bit of work. I have a Rallos NPC in Arena now that you can talk to and he sends you to an instance of Arena. I think he needs the ability to create a duel challenge and for someone else to accept it.

So you would say, "I want a level 20 duel" and he responds "Your duel is ready, it is called 001" and another play says "I accept duel 001" and it levels both players to 20, gears them, and sends them to Arena with PvP flag on. As soon as one player dies or leaves the other player is ejected back to Arena (non-instance) and PvP stats are updated.

That will be the basic initial functionality. I'll also need a way to allow modifying gear instead of just a standard set of gear. Possibly a separate duel type like, "I want a level 20 duel using vendors" and then it just keeps the gear you have on your character. The vendor is in the non-instanced zone so you prep ahead of time.

It should also be trivial to allow other zones, mobs or no mobs, etc. So you could say "I want a level 60 duel in Sebilis with mobs using vendors" and it puts two players in Sebilis in a random location and kills any mobs within X units of them so you're not immediately dropped into combat. Stuff like that.

It doesn't seem like that much more to work out a command system to create a group duel, people say "I accept duel 001 on team A" and you can see the teams, etc.

https://i.imgur.com/w9UMwq0.png

[azxten]

https://imgur.com/nsp7Ong.png

Something like this.. and now we have our duel creator as a qglobal variable and the accepter as a qglobal variable grouped under a unique battle ID. Next both PCs are ported to an instance with the same unique identifier to fight. I'll add some collision logic now and prevent other people from accepting a duel after it has already started. Then the tricky part of changing levels, gear, PvP flags, and reverting it all outside the instance. Recording win/loss stats should be easy. Also a forcing mechanism so people only zone to Arena (non-instanced) no matter what they do. Create a character, die, teleport, zone, etc it all leads back to Arena. Only instances could be zones that aren't Arena, I also like the idea of allowing leaving the Arena and playing a persistent character with a modified PvP ruleset but that would be later.

I also thought it would be hilarious to create an invisble observer character in instances that makes a video recording of the fight and posts it up on YouTube or something so all fights can be shared.

[Jibartik]

I like this duel idea damn i hope one day we can replace /gems with it, while you med.

[Gustoo]

10/10 full support you have my axe

[azxten]

Registered new domain and bought a dedicated server.

Instanced dueling is fully functional now. PvP kill broadcast is in. Have to set player skills to the appropriate level, populate their spellbook, and implement a gear system. Version 1 is almost live, hopefully next weekend.

[Notfame]

Can you try, I've always wanted to try this:

make it so DPS to mobs is like 1000% so you can just slaughter them.

make it so EXP is like 1000% so it takes like a day of slaughtering to get to 60

make death by PVP 100% exp loss back to level 1

full item loot nothing is no drop

Played on a wow server like this and can attest to the satisfaction that comes from sending someone back to the starting line being supreme to the highest degree.

[Smedy]

duels are trash, the fun part about everquest is the open world pvp, not signing up for a duel ... the more dirty the pvp gets the better it is, the more angry people become the more fun the game is, you cannot simulate this in a quick way but people need to have a massive amount of time invested into the server for it to happen organically, that is the elfsimulator we love.

where is rogean, has he left us? nilberg wru? we have been abandoned bros, bless brad for he would not abandon us, may he snort the finest colombian white in heaven

[Chortles Snortles]

star wars time remix

[magnetaress]

Praying 4u and ur new box while I'm disabled in bed

[azxten]

duels are trash, the fun part about everquest is the open world pvp, not signing up for a duel ... the more dirty the pvp gets the better it is, the more angry people become the more fun the game is, you cannot simulate this in a quick way but people need to have a massive amount of time invested into the server for it to happen organically, that is the elfsimulator we love.

where is rogean, has he left us? nilberg wru? we have been abandoned bros, bless brad for he would not abandon us, may he snort the finest colombian white in heaven

I agree but I see dueling as a means to raise enough interest in this server that I care enough to do more. Talking to my own crew I'm leaning towards the scaled damage idea and no level range pvp with permadeath (back to level 1) and fast exp/mob damage.

What I want out of a server is something I can play on while having a life. Progression based PvP requires dedication and time a lot of people don't have. Enter dueling, scaled damage, and fast exp. If you can send someone back to level 1 and full loot them that should appeal even if it only takes them 1-2 days to get back to 50+ instead of weeks. On the flip side if you get sent back to level 1 it sucks but you know you're not out so much effort that you just quit playing. Same with if you don't want to play for awhile, take that 3 month break, you can come back and be relevant in PvP again in 1-2 days not outgeared and hopelessly behind likely forever until the server becomes stale and dead and you finally catch up.

My ideal goal at the moment is to be able to zone into Arena and the server backs up your persistent character save. You can participate in duels there as described. If you leave the Arena to a non-instanced zone it reloads your persistent save and you can play the permadeath open world ruleset.

Duels is also a mechanism to increase interest among the wider EQEmu community. A lot of blue players would try PvP but not with the time commitments involved to learn. Imagine you're a fresh PvP player and you get beat up and do a corpse run 10 times. You're probably pretty much done at that point. You have no opportunity to learn stacking buffs, jousting, and all the rest of the basic EQ PvP skills you NEED to learn to have a chance. If blue players can come duel during idle time without all the bullshit and have a chance to learn they're more likely to participate in PvP in the future.

And I'll just say it I don't even like progression. I don't know what era or how exactly but I'd rather there be no progression. My own preference is something like permanent Kunark era from the start and custom PvP focused itemization on increasingly difficult raids mobs. Some people like Velious, some like PoP, whatever.

That's another part of the dueling concept. What would actually work for EQ PvP? What needs to be adjusted? People have mentioned bind rushing and other common bullshit. Dueling allows quick testing of resists, damage scaling, and other aspects of PvP to arrive at a some kind of ideal that could possibly sustain a population. Take "bowquest" as an example, things like that should be exposed and the meta shifting enough through dueling to see where changes should be made. It's an easier way to get data than a distributed open world PvP situation and the server owners personal preferences of how much bullshit is appropriate to suit their own taste.

[Gustoo]

I’ll spend time dueling

[magnetaress]

What I want out of a server is something I can play on while having a life. Progression based PvP requires dedication and time a lot of people don't have. Enter dueling, scaled damage, and fast exp. If you can send someone back to level 1 and full loot them that should appeal even if it only takes them 1-2 days to get back to 50+ instead of weeks. On the flip side if you get sent back to level 1 it sucks but you know you're not out so much effort that you just quit playing. Same with if you don't want to play for awhile, take that 3 month break, you can come back and be relevant in PvP again in 1-2 days not outgeared and hopelessly behind likely forever until the server becomes stale and dead and you finally catch up.


this sounds real fun :D

i like the idea of big loots from pvp , maybe let players do a quest that makes one item a heirloom so it stays with them no matter what/spawns with them, like soulbound, respawns with them, only 1 item tho at a time and u can switch it if u want, make it cost a ruby or few rubies or something neat where u do a short quest to get items and pvp would center around those camps too

[Jibartik]

I love the dueling idea you have azxt.

Id love to log in and just que up for a duel!

fuck you haters im casual scum af

[Jibartik]

That's another part of the dueling concept. What would actually work for EQ PvP? What needs to be adjusted?

I have a feeling quite a bit.

[Raclen]

Dueling server would be a waste of time. There have been servers like this and they last a few days. Very quickly people lose interest and there is no one to duel.

There is a community of people that play new servers about every year. They usually last 3-9 months before it is time for a reset. If you make a new server there would be people to play around on it but if there is no pve progression it won't last but a week or two.

[magnetaress]

I'll be honest I'm one of those scummie bluebies for which pvp is sorta the side game for me. I did enjoy it. It's boring as my main focus tho.

Hence I'm not much of a duelist.

[Gustoo]

I agree that dueling isn't going to keep people on for multiple hours back to back to back, it isn't EQ there isn't the progression and all the other things that make the game interesting.

But it would be fun to go fight and play around. So do it and ill come on.

[Jibartik]

Dueling server would be a waste of time. There have been servers like this and they last a few days. Very quickly people lose interest and there is no one to duel.

There is a community of people that play new servers about every year. They usually last 3-9 months before it is time for a reset. If you make a new server there would be people to play around on it but if there is no pve progression it won't last but a week or two.

if done well what if it replaced /gems on p99 :o

[Gustoo]

Ya could just jump in the duel queue while medding good stinkin

[azxten]

Things are going well infrastructure is worked out to support easy maintenance and deployments. I've had the server listed on the eqemulator login server but just to work out deployments.

I'm starting to think about a world wide randomized classic experience. Identifying like items and swapping them between like mobs. Same for quests and other things. Could I effectively create a randomization of drops, quests, and mobs to where everything is still "classic" but all existing world knowledge isn't helpful? It doesn't have to be much just enough so players don't know where to go to get certain drops or which quests to abuse but all the same drops and quests exist somewhere. Legacy drops become quest items from novel quests. Raid mob difficulty adjusted to be roughly the same but novel in some way so existing strats don't work.

[azxten]

Uh oh bros... it looks like EQEmu only has support for FFA PvP. The VZ/TZ, Sullon, Discord rulesets supported do nothing except enable client side display of team names. I might need to fix all this and submit a PR to EQEmu.

That unfortunately throws a wrench in an idea I had for dynamically changing PvP racial teams in order to balance things.

https://imgur.com/UXhEns2.png

[azxten]

VZTZ ruleset works now but says attacks are from "pain and suffering".. needs more work

So for different color names to be dynamic for races would require a client side change but could probably be done. Alternatively everyone is PvP red name flagged and just implement racial limits. Another option is blue/red names represent two teams which could be hacked together.

https://imgur.com/QIEU1J7.png

[azxten]

Here is an attempt at a rule set…

Classic progression
10x experience
Slightly adjusted raid mobs to make encounters more unique/require new strategies
Two teams, everyone (blue name) vs evil (red name, gnome, dark elf, ogre, troll, iksar)
Akanon/Gnome factions are adjusted to fit with the evil races, this provides a city base on Faydwer
Paineel/Warrens/Stonebrunt/Hole open at server start to serve as evil city base on Odus
Capitol cities Freeport, Erudin, Felwithe and Neriak, Paineel, Akanon
Capitol cities are safe zones for their team, other team may be attacked
Language barriers between teams and can't be learned (common/dark speech)
Teams can't trade, group, guild, or cast beneficial spells with each other
World wide chat channel for your team
Turning in a Tome of Order/Discord lets you switch teams regardless of your race but with no faction help in cities, some kind of limitations on this but will help with balance
Everyone get items to teleport them to any of their 3 capitol cities (Antonica, Odus, Faydwer)
Weekly rotating ZEMs where players know which zones are the hot zones
Top PvP players each week are “commanders” for the next week, get some kind of bonus
Top PvP players may be asked by GMs to switch teams for balance in exchange for legacy/artifact items (the evil team would like to bribe you to join them, they offer you a Manastone)
Everyone return to a capitol city on PvP death, PvE death/binding works as normal
No gating for 5 minutes after PvP death (no bind rushing from capitol back to zone)
Instanced dueling within/cross team from NPCs in capitols
PvP scoreboard with something to spend points on both open world and dueling, PvP kill broadcast
Possibly raid kills result in no loot. Instead whatever would have dropped becomes buyable with PvP points for your team. Reduced raid loot drop rate to account for this. Some kind of function like this to make teams cohesive not competitive with each other for raid mobs.
All player corpses are fully lootable by the other team at any time
If you /consent your own team members they can loot your corpse
If you zone you can’t zone again via zoneline for 20 seconds, pulling plug while zoning you pop out LD on other side
Nothing is no drop except epics
Bagged items are safe
Full level range PvP with damage scaling bonus/penalty based on level difference
Lose a certain amount of experience on PvP death equivalent to several levels, not static level because losing "10 levels" is a lot different 60-50 vs 20-10 even at 10x experience

I think this achieves a lot of stuff that I determined is necessary to attract more people to a PvP server. If necessary I would add buying instanced raids with PvP points and/or more safe zones possibly dynamic control based on PvP where there is a "frontline" and behind that the teams are safe. This allows more casual interest and PvE player interest as they can actually level entirely in safety without ever having to PvP and still being able to be a "defender" who can attack enemies in their safe zones who can't fight them back. Dumb PvE player camps in safe zones just trying to catch enemy team players so they can one sided gank them and take all their items.

I'm thinking maybe something to increase itemization as well. Losing all your items on death shouldn't feel like a horrifying penalty because items should be plentiful. Either through increased drop rates or some other mechanic. Probably PvP points which you get win or lose and can easily get you a basic set of gear for your level.

[Gustoo]

You're way past dueling server now

[versacesmurf69]

In b4 dead on arrival.

[azxten]

Dueling is phase 1 leading to an open world PvP server of some kind. The above ruleset is basically stealing a lot from WoW. As the only game to successfully bring RPG PvP to the masses I think we should learn from it.

[Tradesonred]

Pretty interesting read, wish EQ was more popular and there was the pop for these kinds of servers to hold a 500 player population.

[Knuckle]

I always thought it would be cool to have a Neriak only PVP server,(3 city zones), and try to make it like menzoberranzan from the forgotten realm novels. You pick a house faction, and kill enemy house faction guards for level appropriate loot. Dark Elf Only.

Always thought neriak had a ton of potential as a PVP hub if you shaped the faction areas appropriately, neriak commons for example, you have all those cool winding tunnels and secret areas. Wizards blasting from above, rogues sneaking around. The gear/item/spell balancing would be critical but its just a fun idea that will never exist.

[Gustoo]

Ya that would be awesome.

I love all the custom map ideas. Less so the wow rule set but I like em all

[magnetaress]

I was lookin at my old p99 client logins today

[azxten]

Ya that would be awesome.

I love all the custom map ideas. Less so the wow rule set but I like em all

lol I don't like wow rule sets either but I do like having a populated EQ PvP server

I'm actually going to steal that Faydwer only idea.

Faydwer zones only, Humans/Gnomes/Dwarves vs Elves teams. Classic rules. No level range. Full item loot. Fast exp. Back to level 1 if you die but keep skill level/spells. Instanced duels/arenas in other zones. Probably some customization of raid mobs. Add Mayong to the castle, buff Phinny and expand loot table, maybe some kind of boss in each player city.

Humans are added to give that team sk/bard/ranger/druid and dark elves are on the elves team either with custom faction letting them use elf cities or they use the DE camp in lfay with a few essential NPCs added to the camp trainer, vendor, and bank. This gives elf team necro/sk and teams should be balanced with no shaman allowed. Either that or all the races/classes are in and just spawn into Faydwer cities.

[azxten]

Innoruuk, God of Hate, created the dark elves by kidnapping the king and queen of the elves, who were created by Tunare, and twisting them to his own image. The result was a cruel subterranean dark-skinned race. The dark elves are the means through which Innoruuk plots to destroy the races of Tunare, Prexus, and Brell Serilis who made a pact to populate Norrath with the races they created. Innoruuk especially despises the elves and dwarves.

It is said that in the past, Innoruuk had a group of chosen Teir’Dal followers he employed to spread hate across the face of Norrath. These chosen were known as The Crimson Teir. Only the highest and most decorated followers of Innoruuk were chose to hold these positions. To each he entrusted a piece of armor that they were bound to, in life and in unlife. These relics allowed them to channel some of Innoruuk’s power, and with their aid they sowed suffering and hate across the world. Though this pleased the Prince of Hate, he had ulterior motives, for he was already planning the coming of his Child.

Alright we've got some solid roleplay PvP potential here involving the EQ lore and a prequel server.

The humans have just discovered Faydwer and have an uneasy alliance with the Dwarves and Gnomes. The Elves think the humans are trash. Inno has just introduced The Crimson Teir into Faydwer in the mines of Steamfont. Possibly they are allied with the other elves because Inno has promised if the Dwarves can be eliminated from Faydwer he will return their King and Queen.

[Tradesonred]

What I want out of a server is something I can play on while having a life. Progression based PvP requires dedication and time a lot of people don't have. Enter dueling, scaled damage, and fast exp. If you can send someone back to level 1 and full loot them that should appeal even if it only takes them 1-2 days to get back to 50+ instead of weeks. On the flip side if you get sent back to level 1 it sucks but you know you're not out so much effort that you just quit playing. Same with if you don't want to play for awhile, take that 3 month break, you can come back and be relevant in PvP again in 1-2 days not outgeared and hopelessly behind likely forever until the server becomes stale and dead and you finally catch up.


If i may be honest here, thats why red failed. Why was rallos fun? Rallos was fun cuz we played it like counterstrike. Bind behind a tree on the wall near crushbone and just look for guild tags for hours on end. People want to pvp, most of em anyway. Constant pvp with a cost, but not a big cost (medding and corpse run). 1-2 days to get back where you were is quite a bit.

This setup sounds very similar to early red 1.0 where everyone is trying to race to the top, dodging any pvp on the way up as the consequence to pvping is just too high. Practically nobody is going to risk their level 40 to try to white knight for some rando. Everything becomes too calculated, weighted.

Where in rallos it was just, oh these flower fucks are targeting the noobs again, put on the william wallace hat and charge in. To me a fun server is a server conducive to very regular pvp.

The bad thing also with early 1.0 and the hypothetical setup you are talking about is it is mostly a veteran affair. I played 1.5 years on live and id say maybe 3 solid years here? Im still bad at the game. Which was fine on rallos because i can just try, try until i get better. On early 1.0 you cant try, try. The vets have played 10 emu boxes already and they will kill you 80% of the times solo, even more so because they are well organised and you will get train stomped most of the times anyway. You will eat xp death and you will never, ever catch up with your skill level because you cant get enough practice to do so.

A similar dynamic would be in place in a permadeath server that takes 1-2 days to get to 60. Its not a place casuals or even semi-vets can enjoy. You have to know the ins and out of every class to even start to think about competing with people who are playing this one way or another for the last 10-15 years.

[Tradesonred]

To finish my novel, the main problem to me with early 1.0 and that kind of setup is its not casual/new friendly and doesnt lead to regular pvp. It limits the pop to vets and its already hard to get a pop going for a server. The more casual-friendly things you can think of, the better IMO. It doesnt necessarily mean big changes, little tweaks are enough.

To me thats part of what was so vexing with early 1.0. Oh, were a classic server! Nothing but classic! But well add yellow text though that helps griefers track casuals through world pvp log. Like the tweaks they made were conducive to thinning the population instead of making it grow. I dont think it was intentional but it was certainly not well thought out nor did they react quickly when they got told on the forums that this would predictably lead to a population decline.

[Infectious]

Classic. Everyone starts neutral. At level 10 you receive a book. Any priest of discord you can hand in and then will ask you if you want to join bad or good. If you never hand book you stay neutral.

All 3 classes can attack each other, but not talk or buff each other. Make 3 Ooc channels that are only available to them 3 teams. This way all teams can have bards and druids and so on

[magnetaress]

Dwarf shamans plz.

[Darksinga]

Good luck!

My only advice is the code relating to PvP is very limited on stock EQ Emu. If you don’t have a C++ background you may have a difficult time.

Here is some work that Xackery (Shin Noir,) and Gangsta did that could help you:

https://github.com/RoT-PvP/Server

[azxten]

Good luck!

My only advice is the code relating to PvP is very limited on stock EQ Emu. If you don’t have a C++ background you may have a difficult time.

Here is some work that Xackery (Shin Noir,) and Gangsta did that could help you:

https://github.com/RoT-PvP/Server

Thanks.

This is still happening I had to spend my free time this week trading the stock market.

Humans/Dwarves/Gnomes v Elves (including Dark Elf) Counter Strike style EQ PvP probably just two teams. Maybe Dwarf and Half Elf Shaman or something.

[Gustoo]

Two teams yes not three

Make a good zone connection map before you release the server have a cool nerd stylize it but make it in paint to start.

Make sure critical zones are decently spaced from home bases as they are resources.

Consider resources like vendors, and where they’re placed. Make sure one city isn’t custom
With everything easy to find and the other city shitty and impossible to find stuff just due to chance.

I like it a lot. Heck yeah

Please have a beta before launch so I can take my sweet time getting stuff set up.

[Jibartik]

This is totally not on topic but on the topic of pvp in EQ I've always wondered if like there were PVP hotzones instead of full on pvp everywhere.

To help make it be less intense for the non pvp players, even more so than teams. Teams is just as intense IMO as regular pvp because we basically create our own teams rather quickly.

[Gustoo]

Hot zones would have to be raining manastones and dragon loot so everyone buckles their breeches and goes for the win

[Wurlabit]

I played on a full loot permadeath pvp server. Leveling to max took about an hour, so dying sucked but it wasn't too bad. Loot was fully randomized with prefixes and suffixes like an arpg. It was really fun for about a week and then everyone quit.

EverQuest pvp is really boring when you boil it down to just the pvp. The only time it's ever interesting is when there are politics and stakes. Good luck and I wish you the best, maybe you can find the right sauce to make it interesting.

[Gustoo]

I feel much the same about the stakes I quit rallos not long after LDON (augments turned objects no drop)

But some people feel different about it.

[Jibartik]

Would be fun to do regular earthquakes where just one raid boss pops randomly and gets a server announce shout.