[Tiddlywinks]

Originally Posted by W8Gamer [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

As far as the current raid scene not being classic EQ, I don't disagree there. Of course it's not classic, but for me I will say it's pretty close. That's my personal experience though and everyone's will be different. For me, training and variance aren't classic, no. I don't remember any of that, but you know what else I don't remember? I don't remember seeing EVEN CLOSE to the amount of epics on my server during the kunark era as I do on p99. Nor I do remember seeing more than 1 guild sporting epics. First epic I ever saw was the necro epic and it was under a Recon guild tag. I didn't see my next epic for WEEKS and when I did, it was another recon guild tag.

I keep hearing everyone talk about how they remember these rotations on their server. Well, we had rotations on E`ci as well. I remember a guy named Fhaldark used to lead public Hate raids every Thursday night. And there was a website with a calender you could go to see what raids were when and who had what slots. I also remember, that this was late in the Velious era. There was no rotation in the Kunark era. Recon dominated the raid scene (for the US time zone at least). And all these rotations and hearing other guilds tackle these raid targets in the planes and kunark didn't start happening until post Velious, post Luclin, post PoP. That's how I remember it, but even so, someone else who was on the same server might not remember the same way I do, because it all boils down to personal experience. I think people forget that we are STILL in the Kunark era and when you compare to classic, you need to stay within that era, not the timeline. If you're comparing P99 to the live timeline, you are WAY off. As long as p99 has been running, I'm pretty sure we would be in PoP right now. So, we can at least agree on the fact that no, p99 raiding is not exactly the same as live raiding, but if that's what you were expecting when you joined this server (for it to be EXACTLY like live) you set yourself up to be let down a long time. As far as comparing what the raid scene was like during the Kunark era on live and on p99, for me it doesn't seem to far in the regards that one guild did dominate the content.

I had quite the post typed up, but apparently upon submitting it made me re-log and I lost everything I had written over the past half hour, so I'll attempt to keep this brief.

To address your first point, the way that epics and the raid scene on this server are handled highlights a glaring problem in the way that raids are dealt with. Raids have their own subset of rules and regulations that are put into place in order to keep things orderly and to create a more classic raid atmosphere.

You're correct in stating that raiding does feel close to how it was in live in regards to the fact that there is only one guild on top. However the reasons are very different. On live that was usually the case because the majority of players were not as skilled or knowledgeable as the players on this server are. Here the separation occurs because of rules, mechanics, and things being intentionally different.

The same does not hold true for epics. Epics were more rare on live, not only due to the shorter timeline for this Kunark period, but also due to the fact that there was not as much information out there about them, and people did not have the means to figure out the quests as fast and know what's needed to win fights and gather up all of the necessary pieces.

The difference is, with regards to epics, we have no rules, quest changes, or anything of the like to intentionally keep the number of epics deflated on the server so that it is more like it was during classic. So why are they there for raiding.

To your second point, no this isn't live, but it is supposed to be an accurate classic server, is it not? Or are we really so naive as to attempt to reshape and mold a classic experience for a non-classic playerbase? Because that is all that modifying items, rules, and mechanics is accomplishing.

To your point, it does create a raiding environment that is similar to a live raiding environment, but again not at all for the same reasons. I'm of the opinion, and I've heard Nilbog say this countless times, that the development of the server should be done necessarily because it's what the players want, but because it's what classic. He mentions things like adding back spell book for meditating pre-35, took away the compass and all sorts of things I'm sure the majority of players don't mind.

So why then do we have modifications that cater to raiding specifically? We have FTE shouts now, why do we need a variance? If 3 guilds want to show up at a known mobs spawn point and spam target and then empty all of their charges of Ivandyrs hoops in order to try to get loot for a mob, shouldn't that be exactly what raiding on a recreation of a classic EverQuest server looks like? Shouldn't that be the ideal beautiful goal that we're aiming for?

Beautiful not because it's fun, not because it's overly competitive, or not because it's even "fair", but beautiful because it's classic everquest?

The take away from all of this is that I don't think the server should have non-classic elements to appease any individual if it is to be an honest attempt at recreating a classic EverQuest server, and from my understanding people like Nilbog didn't think that either. Frankly I think it's a slippery slope and I don't understand how or why it stops.

Are the servers goals to imitate classic everquest, or are they to try to give it's players a chance to relive the experience?

Because if it's the later, anything short of a time machine is going to come short, no matter how close. The first seems so much more obtainable and logical to me, and really what a lot of people thought the project was all about. I guess that was wrong.