Try not to let your emotions guide your reasoning as to what is "proof"
Some dates for you to be concerned about you deciding on what is "Classic and what is not"
Velious Releae Date --- December 5th, 2000
~Patches between these times where searched for Temple of Veeshan, and Bind keywords
Luclin Release Date -- December 4th, 2001
~Patches after this release date and changes within them are not classic to Velious
Thus if you are honestly motivated on policing what is "classic" and do not have alternative motives for trying to sway the staff in deciding to make "P99" rules exemptions or exceptions which keep in mind do already exist for major game mechanics then we are looking at patch notes between these times. As luck would have it, Fox has already done this for you, but it gets even better I compared patch notes outside of this timeline in order to look an outlying red flag of information. Here is a few on the subject of binding locations in Vel in regards to the actual classic timeline
Quote:
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November 7, 2001
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** Zone Specific Changes **
- Kael now has specific bind locations, located only at the entryways.
This means that binding will only be possible in those areas.
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Thus logically from this information we will infer that prior to the Nov, 7 patch before Luclin, Kael should allow binding anywhere in the zone, and after the Nov 7 patch (in this timeline) should be at that time restricted to the entryway's by your reasoning of "classic" however if you want to make P99 exceptions again that is another discussion entirely. Keep in mind this is the final patch prior to Luclin that changed any game mechanics not counting server side patches
Lets keep going...
Quote:
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December 18, 2001 3:00 am
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** Note about upcoming changes to the Temple of Veeshan **
In the next patch, we are making a few changes to the monster
population in Temple of Veeshan. Places that were previously safe to
camp, may not be any longer. Please be sure to not camp deep within the
Temple of Veeshan on Wednesday night, or you may be unpleasantly
surprised following the patch.
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Note this change refers to your safe halls flurry drakes, but the key important thing to consider here is the DATE, this patch was put in after Luclin release of Dec 4th, so the removal of the safe spot in NToV that happend in this patch if going questing for true classic should be removed and restored to how it was prior to the Dec 18th safe spot removal. Oh theres more for further clarification and proof of what this change actually did...
Quote:
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December 28, 2001
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- Some spots in ToV no longer safe to camp out due to New Drakes and
Wurm spawns being added.
- A bug allowing multiple pets to be summoned has been fixed.
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Prior to Vel release there is no mention either in Vanilla or Kunark patch notes anywhere that remotely mentions restrictions on Caster Binds, nor is there any mention of restriction of Caster binds between Velious release and Luclin release with the exception of the Kael Entryway restriction mentioned above
As for melee binds the restriction of bind being cast on another player and not self are well known to be limited to specific outdoor zones in certain areas flagged for it (Like the Overthere outpost) and City zones these restrictions have little to do with Caster-Self Binding
As for bind restrictions being already put in place to zones for Caster self only to not be mentioned in patch notes. Yes that is a distinct possibility I never played a caster during that era nor did I ever have a Locket so I cannot say with certainty "Yup I bound there" However quoting old forums saying that everyone to be mound at ToV zone in pillar's is not even close to definitive proof
People raided very differently back then, guilds did full clears of zones that took all night and even multiple "Raid nights" and sorry to say but they where chicken shit and did not want to bind In a zone that could cause death chain's or that where very far or out of the way simply because those raid mobs had a
GUARANTEED SPAWN TIME or a much smaller spawn window there was little to no reason for a raiding guild back in the day to do the binding that happens on P99 cause they knew when their raid night was, and they
ALL IN FORCE showed up on those nights to clear everything in the zone to get to their raid targets. So there was little reason to Bind inside the zone and instead bind outside for a few purposes 1- Sont, 2) Zlandicar/Klandicar , yup dual purpose, gate to ToV and from there run over to DN for Zland. 3) Complete wipe *aka corpse retrieval mode* castes zone back in to entrance which is a completely safe spot and begin summoning corpses - yea it sounds outdated compared to tactics used on P99 but like I said raiding was a bit more primitive back then
So there you have it, no hard text from game dev's mentioning that ToV had Binds taken away at any point, and no hard proof that it was disabled from the get go. However the Safe spots nerf in deep NToV where most certainly post Luclin changes and should not be concerned with the P99 timeline unless we are also making another specific P99 exception. You have a lot of forum posts from the dark ages of raiding where everybody beat sticks and rocks together trying to make fire, fast forward to P99 where everybody pouring gasoline and jet fuel (Gate potions and Lockets) to light the same fire -- suffice to say the fire CAN get lit either way, a bunch of sticks and rocks can make a fire but its going to take a lot more work than the gasoline and jet fuel. But i don't really find "Raid Guides" from the dark ages as definitive proof that ToV restricted binding simply due to their chosen bind location simply because the bind they choose was a good safe bind and it got the job done back in those days when raids would full clear zones and "Work there way into NToV". Also raid binds where something that where typically set ON RAID DAY as casters usually wanted to have their binds elsewhere *their home city or next to a dungeon zone* and melee....well didn't have many options to begin with anyway if they died they sat it town naked waiting for a rez. Binding back then as I remember it was a "We are going to kill in this zone so ill reset my bind before we move in" sort of deal it was not a "Raid mob X is in window, so we are required to bind at Y location and be ready to login and spam the gate button"
I personally was not one of the super omega god-tier raid guilds back in the day I was on povar which was
DECIMATED by Triton, my guild had to wait until LATE Luclin era before we began raiding NToV and my guild used the dark ages rub two sticks together method, we didn't think outside the box....but we had a lot of fun and cleared NToV on our raid nights "granted we had Luclin spells and AA points to help us"
I cannot answer from personal experience as to specific zone lockouts for Bind because I was a well prepared monk back in the day, If i got left behind id just Flop to safety, If i died I had coffins in my bank, If I was feeling Lazy id just Thurg Gate Cause I love getting high on Velium Vapors