ftfy

Didn't say 'just don't use the books or it doesn't really matter get over it'.

You're also conflating the issue of fast travel. I'm not saying put in books on classic content (no PoP). I'm saying the books arose out of necessity in PoP because of the expansion of the world. It's simply a matter of scale.

Also your 'failure to understand' is somewhat mindboggling considering you said you'd play here if it had fast travel, you'd just be annoyed. If it existed, with a large population, I'd play a PoP server in a heartbeat. I think there are way more things to do (AAs, tradeskills being worth something, keying for raids) at 60 than there are here. That being said, this server has a huge population and exists in an era that I also enjoyed playing in. That doesn't mean I also don't like PoP (or rather, some aspects of luclin/PoP).

I thought racial penalties remained in the game for velious, while class exp penalties were removed?

Yes, and I hate them, and am playing here. So are you. I think the reduction of travel requirements is bad for the game. A game, ANY game, is about what you CAN'T do easily, not what you can.

And no, before anyone brings this up, I don't think making a game arbitrarily hard in unreasonable ways would be the best game of all.

This is true. Additionally xp split in a group gets changed to give out the xp based on your lvl compared to the rest of the group, instead of your XP total. This means a level 20 Ogre SK will earn the same amount of xp per kill as a level 20 Halfing Warrior. The Halfling Warrior will just hit level 21 faster than the SK.

And again, I'm playing on a kunark/velious/classic server, without travel, as it should be. If Luclin/PoP were introduced, we'd need to have a conversation.

YEAH. So...wait weren't we arguing? Did you take evasive maneuvers?

No, what happened was that I made a post about liking PoP and that the excuse for not liking PoP based on books was lousy. Then selective quoting, reading, and general pitchfork-inducing behavior occurred.

Exactly.

I don't know why people insist on mistaking an appreciation for later eras of the game for a desire to have it here. Nobody has remotely suggested that we should have Luclin or PoP here. Removing the hybrid exp penalties, the most retarded design decision in the history of this game in light of the other compounding hybrid penalties, as acknowledged and removed from the game by Brad McQuade himself during velious, has exactly NOTHING to do with clicky books, portals or any of the later era changes that these people claim made the sky fell and "ended" the game. It's absurd.

Like anything, the classic era has its positives and negatives. As did later eras. But EQ didn't suddenly "die" or become stupid easy once clicky books went in as a lot of these people suggest. It just changed, is all. The challenges shifted. That's it. But in many ways to more interesting things. Have you had to grind AA here to be able to do your job? Dealt with any rampaging or flurrying mobs lately? Have you had to have a curse cured off of you here, the spell scroll only available from end game raid mobs? No? Oh, I forget, you have bigger fish to fry...riding boats and buying ports. Its ridiculous.

The game has always been great, arguably the best mmo across all eras compared to any other game. And that's what constantly astounds and amuses me when these conversations come up here. Statistically, most of these people left EQ for the AOL of mmos, WoW, probably bitching about how hard EQ was at the time, it took them years to realize what complete shyte it was, and they came back to find that the game had changed and passed them by or, worse, went to EQ2. They discover p99 a decade later and now, suddenly, everything post velious completely sucks.

Seriously, I ask anyone who played live classic and hated everything after, what were YOU playing instead that was better? Because there are a lot of us who loved classic EQ but also lover the later eras because we realized in the first weeks and months of the alternatives that EQ was still the best game available. What were YOU playing that was better?

Sue us for happening to have enjoyed it. Get over yourselves.

As the world grew and grew in EQ, you really just needed faster travel options. I don't think the spires/books "ruined" anything but was really just necessary.
The thing I missed the most with PoP was chilling in cities and seeing people. Everyone just hung out in PoK and the fantasy rpg feel was gone. Factions became meaningless etc.
The 2 things that got me hooked on p1999 was people in the cities again like the old days and no boxing. Boxing is what ruined MMOs.