For me there would ideally always be 3 P99 servers up.

[Wakanda]

1 that is in Classic. 1 that is in Kunark. 1 that is in Velious. Constantly rotating every few years, with Velious hard-resetting into Classic at the end of it's life-cycle etc.

https://i.ibb.co/N2dCP3H8/rearez.png

IDK if the player-base could sustain this many P99 servers or game-modes, but I frequently find myself craving the feeling of true classic EQ or true classic Kunark, even fresh Velious. I still enjoy P99 as it is, but I feel like some of you know what I mean? P99 on either server doesn't really have that classic feel to it anymore. In many ways it's actually more casual than WoW because of how twinked players are, how cheap gear is, how most of the best solo spots are open 24/7, all the high level players giving out PoTG and Clarity 2 etc and who cares if we wipe, someone's epic Cleric is camped near by (not that I'm complaining).

I just miss when I was in Mistmoore and got excited that we got a Dwarf Warrior with full bronze armor and two gnoll hide lariats to join our group after several days of using an untwinked human monks as our tank. Struggling to kill all of the mobs in Fireplace with a full group before they respawned. Getting invited to groups in Permafrost. Sitting on the edge of your seat everytime a Frenzied Ghoul spawns.

I miss fresh Kunark - where players actually group in places other than Karnor's Castle. Maybe actually getting to loot Torpor or a Fungus Tunic rather than grinding gold for it.

I miss Velious - where getting an armor upgrade is exciting and rare - not just a cheap MQ you buy out of the EC tunnel.

I feel like some of yall relate to this. It feels like there's no where I can go to currently experience any of the classic EQ stuff. TLP's don't help really.

[Smoofers]

k.

[Reiwa]

I would think Classic and Kunark would end after all the bosses were killed once but if you could multibox a character on each of the three servers I could absolutely see p99 people doing that.

[Wakanda]

I would think Classic and Kunark would end after all the bosses were killed once but if you could multibox a character on each of the three servers I could absolutely see p99 people doing that.

maybe having a healthy mix between classic/kunark and then velious rather than the 3 distinct servers would help, but i think there are a lot of people who would choose classic over kunark or velious, so it's hard to say. in the old days... old content didnt instantly become irrelevant, i think things are different now. poorly typed out response :p im in the lobby for a rated BG so I had to blurt this out lol

[kjs86z2]

or just 1 server that keeps resetting at the end of velious

[sammoHung]

or just 1 server that keeps resetting at the end of velious

yah but how long after the end? sweatlords are still here 4 years after its ended on green trying to get their BiS gear

[kjs86z2]

yah but how long after the end? sweatlords are still here 4 years after its ended on green trying to get their BiS gear

i meant keep blue and keep green recycling into blue and starting fresh

my b

[sammoHung]

i meant keep blue and keep green recycling into blue and starting fresh

my b

Ahhh haha like dump all the lingerers onto blue where they can continue the eternal quest for best in slot

[kjs86z2]

Ahhh haha like dump all the lingerers onto blue where they can continue the eternal quest for best in slot

exactly

[WarpathEQ]

i meant keep blue and keep green recycling into blue and starting fresh

my b

^This. One server that resets at the end of the normal progression timeline (i.e. on the release date of the next expansion after velious). All the characters are then immortalized onto the other server which just stays stuck in velious forever and then the reset happens on server 1. Really only need 2 servers at that point so even solves for keeping red (a)live for whatever misguided reasons (aka so people can still post P99 red on the forum since that's all the red community does anymore).

[kjs86z2]

^This. One server that resets at the end of the normal progression timeline (i.e. on the release date of the next expansion after velious). All the characters are then immortalized onto the other server which just stays stuck in velious forever and then the reset happens on server 1. Really only need 2 servers at that point so even solves for keeping red (a)live for whatever misguided reasons (aka so people can still post P99 red on the forum since that's all the red community does anymore).

Say like....3-6 months after Vulak dead / Sleeper wakes. Nobody needs to farm Velious for more than 6 months. Ship 'em all to Blue and start green fresh day 1 classic.

[cd288]

k.

This made me lol since it's the first thought that goes through my head every time RecondoJoe (aka Wakanda ban evasion account) posts on of these threads that no one asked for.

paisley really messed him up

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

Just set a character transfer system and we have a winner. Eat the delevel if you want to go back to the classic server.

[cd288]

Or just consistently merge and open a new server. Problem solved entirely.

[Yumyums Inmahtumtums]

naw

NAW

[CrazyPro]

1 server at a time please
community isn't big enough

[wuanahto]

sounds good on paper but you would just gravitate to the highest pop and stay there so why give you options at all?
think you do but dont

[Wakanda]

sounds good on paper but you would just gravitate to the highest pop and stay there so why give you options at all?
think you do but dont

I would actually probably choose the server that is stuck in classic or kunark :D I'm one of those weird people who started on Green when the server was relatively new and left for blue because I wanted to see Kunark really bad... since it had a lot of nostalgia for me and it was years away etc.

Even a couple of years go blue's population is higher than what greens is now, and I found it was more enjoyable because people were less hostile, and camps were a little less contested, but there was still lots of people to group with etc. Never had any desire to go back to Green where it felt like people were constantly trying to snipe my camp or steal my group's mobs etc. On Blue people were a lot nicer to me and a lot of times would actually give me a camp if they saw I was interested in it etc.

But nah, I think I would prob get pretty hype for a fresh start classic or kunark. velious not as much because i feel like people would still just be leveling in kunark zones and the raid scene is kind of stale for me personally (altho obvsly a lot of people love it).

[Wakanda]

1 server at a time please
community isn't big enough

That's actually respectable, but without periodic hard resets you just end up in a situation like Blue or Green - which doesn't feel classic at all.

[wuanahto]

That's actually respectable, but without periodic hard resets you just end up in a situation like Blue or Green - which doesn't feel classic at all.

thats even worse
endless cycling and losing characters over time is not a good feeling
joining like 2 weeks before a reset? why even
not the first character to do something? why even after
statistically a realistic chance of never seeing an earth staff or white scale in a server life window? why bother
lets say you get everything you wanted and you are a server first idol but this is reset number 86? not an achievement in hindsight
pull an all nighter with some folks and accidentally sleep cycle yourself but you gained a few levels? probably wont do that again

star wars galaxies emu with each major patch wiped the server and every reincarnation had less and less players. i personally maxed out weapon and armor smithing alt... once. i was not doing the 6-8 hours of strait clicking again

[Wakanda]

thats even worse
endless cycling and losing characters over time is not a good feeling
joining like 2 weeks before a reset? why even
not the first character to do something? why even after
statistically a realistic chance of never seeing an earth staff or white scale in a server life window? why bother
lets say you get everything you wanted and you are a server first idol but this is reset number 86? not an achievement in hindsight
pull an all nighter with some folks and accidentally sleep cycle yourself but you gained a few levels? probably wont do that again

star wars galaxies emu with each major patch wiped the server and every reincarnation had less and less players. i personally maxed out weapon and armor smithing alt... once. i was not doing the 6-8 hours of strait clicking again
Those are valid points, but we both know a ton of people would return to P99 if a new server launches. The fact that people have been anticipating a new server for years actually ties in to what you said about people not wanting to join 2 weeks before a reset. A lot of people are convinced that they should just wait for a new server at this point.

And while you may enjoy playing on a server that has been hyper-inflated, over-farmed, and trivialized, the mass majority of P99 players crave a fresh launch. The launch of P99 supports this claim, but also the population decline of all three servers, coupled with people frequently asking for when a new server will launch etc. are also solid evidence of that.

Also I would actually argue that while it may be super fun for the well established players to have a monopoly on everything, it actually discourages a lot of new or returning players because they realize it's going to take them years to catch up when in a true classic version of the game, players would never have a 15 year head-start over newer or returning players.

There's also a lot I could write about how it's kind of discouraging to be a fresh player surrounded by twinks with $200K+ worth of gear winning /random on items you actually need, but ironically in a way this is starting to finally reverse due to the lack of economy. Things like Torpor and Cloak of Flames are suddenly dramatically cheaper than they were in the past, so in that sense a fresh start is probably easier than it's ever been if you don't mind solo'ing 1-60. A couple of years ago it was pretty daunting trying to start a new character though because all your friends already had everything, and you were years behind on the grind etc.

And also the declining economy makes winning the /random on an item much less rewarding. I don't even try to /auction stuff anymore because 99% of the time there's no market for it. Just not a fun experience IMHO.

[Wakanda]

The launch of P99 supports this claim

I meant to say P99 Green here. Been drinking a little bit ;)

But yeah. I totally understand why people don't want to leave Blue and start over, which is why I proposed having 3 servers. You countered that there should only be 1 server because people don't want to start over. I'm making the argument that the success of P99 Green shows that there is a significant amount of people out there that prefer a fresh launch over a static, stagnant version of the game. (Could prob use the success of the Quarm launch as an example of how much players love this as well).

I totally understand dividing the player-base can be bad, and has been bad, but at the same time, it's impossible to get a classic EverQuest experience from playing on the current iterations of the emulators we have. I actually had a real-life friend play P99 a few months ago because he loves classic WoW and how hardcore it feels. He wanted to challenge himself by playing P99 since it's supposed to be even more hardcore.

Within a few days he was making fun of how easy the game was after some random person gave him two wu sticks and a haste item, and 99% of the time he played the game he had Druid buffs. He convinced himself that EQ was actually a super easy game and that we're all just boomers who have never played a challenging game like World of Warcraft etc.

And I had to tell him that his experience on P99 is not even close to a classic experience and that he would have to wait until a fresh launch happened to even remotely understand how challenging the game can be when no one has any gear, and you can't even find a group or tank half the time, and have no clue how to get anywhere, or where your body is after you died etc.

[WarpathEQ]

All this is solved with my concept, 1 server that is always open for new character creation and is in active progression. When the server reaches the end of timeline all of those characters are automatically ported to the other closed server which remains time locked. The open server then resets and starts back on a day 1 release completely wiped and only available to newly created characters

Players would be incentivized to actually interact with both servers using one to actively level characters and the other to push the end game raid meta/competitive scene.

It would also create this really interesting dynamic where twinking would work way differently, essentially twinking becomes raid twinking because you won't have access to overinflated economy and endless gear until the open server timeline ends and your character migrates to the time locked server where everything is available in abundance.

It literally gives everyone the best of all worlds, automates the process of progression/resets. Keeps the game fresh for new and returning P99 folks, gives a home to the velious isn't classic enough crowd, re-ignites exp grouping and that new server feel, and still maintains the most competitive high end raiding environment that's ever existed in velious locked EQ.

To me the only real big things that would need to be worked out are:

1. Do we continue to allow 1 active character per server at the same time as this would now create an environment where you're effectively 2 boxing by both leveling a character and raiding on another character at the same time

2. Is there a minimum (level) requirement for characters to migrate to the time locked server when the open server reaches its end/reset. In the vain of how twinking would work (mentioned above) it would likely make sense to put a gaurd in place to prevent someone from just making a bunch of lvl 1 toons that transfer over to the closed server where they can twink them and level them. Would also likely depend on how point #1 is addressed as there would be a disincentive already if you can play 1 character on each server versus if you have to choose between leveling or raiding because all your toons are on the closed server.

[gokubutstronger]

I had a bad idea that would help out with the dying tunnel situation, but probably not possible to do.

Would be interesting to have EC be a shared zone between both blue and green, so people could buy/sell between both servers at the same time(when they both reach the same timeline). This would allow people to legally box their traders too, if you play on green you would just make a trader on blue to sell your stuff. Might need some advanced coding to stop players from opposite servers from buffing/healing each other though.

[WarpathEQ]

I had a bad idea that would help out with the dying tunnel situation, but probably not possible to do.

Would be interesting to have EC be a shared zone between both blue and green, so people could buy/sell between both servers at the same time(when they both reach the same timeline). This would allow people to legally box their traders too, if you play on green you would just make a trader on blue to sell your stuff. Might need some advanced coding to stop players from opposite servers from buffing/healing each other though.

Biggest problem is the economies of the 2 servers are way different. Blue is a much older server and was impacted by a plat duping bug meaning inflation is way worse over there, most items sell for roughly 33% less than on Green.

[cd288]

I had a bad idea that would help out with the dying tunnel situation, but probably not possible to do.

Would be interesting to have EC be a shared zone between both blue and green, so people could buy/sell between both servers at the same time(when they both reach the same timeline). This would allow people to legally box their traders too, if you play on green you would just make a trader on blue to sell your stuff. Might need some advanced coding to stop players from opposite servers from buffing/healing each other though.

Or they could just merge the servers now like they intend to do.

I feel like they are waiting to merge until they are fully ready to roll out Green 2.0, but it's like just merge them at this stage and let everyone have fun on one server until Green 2.0 is ready.

[tycohunden]

What’s more important? Easy access to mobs or easy access to groups?
I gotta say, a high population is way more important. Ghost town mmo’s are a dime a dozen. The population of an mmo is lightning in a bottle. EQ entropy isn’t caused by stagnation but of cycles. Only a very few likes new beginnings and those who do tend to leave. Not only was green a mistake. P99 should sueD DB for creating their own progression servers (all dead btw). Merge shit and force people to trade in north freeport.

[Ekco]

1 server at a time please
community isn't big enough

[Videri]

thats even worse
endless cycling and losing characters over time is not a good feeling
joining like 2 weeks before a reset? why even
not the first character to do something? why even after
statistically a realistic chance of never seeing an earth staff or white scale in a server life window? why bother
lets say you get everything you wanted and you are a server first idol but this is reset number 86? not an achievement in hindsight
pull an all nighter with some folks and accidentally sleep cycle yourself but you gained a few levels? probably wont do that again

star wars galaxies emu with each major patch wiped the server and every reincarnation had less and less players. i personally maxed out weapon and armor smithing alt... once. i was not doing the 6-8 hours of strait clicking again

It has never been about achievements. It has been about experiencing the game world with other players.

If you were only farming ItemX just to be the first to farm it, it wasn't really important to you anyway. You should farm it because you want to use it or sell it. etc.

[Videri]

^This. One server that resets at the end of the normal progression timeline (i.e. on the release date of the next expansion after velious). All the characters are then immortalized onto the other server which just stays stuck in velious forever and then the reset happens on server 1. Really only need 2 servers at that point so even solves for keeping red (a)live for whatever misguided reasons (aka so people can still post P99 red on the forum since that's all the red community does anymore).

Yup. Reminds me of what the Great Prophet said in this post: https://project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=333743