Quote:
Originally Posted by Raev
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Since there have almost always been 5-10 guilds on the server capable of clearing the content, the actual world provides relatively little challenge and the primary issue is 'competing' against other players, which the staff prefer to establishing a GM rotation as they all come from PVP/hardcore backgrounds. The server has a long and sordid history of retarded methods by which Project 1999 addicts have 'competed': - 14 players on a spawn point would let you claim a dragon; Nagafen and Vox were poopsocked for literally days and people would constantly 'AFK check' to try and get fewer than 14 responses
- In response to this the staff implemented 96 hour variance in Kunark; players would spend hundreds of hours per week hitting track trying to see when the dragons would spawn, and then batphone 24/7 to kill them
- Eventually the players promised not to poopsock as long as the staff would reduce variance to 16 hours. This lasted about one cycle and then we entered the jav spamming era, where players would sit on the spawn point of mobs hammering multiple keys in an attempt to get an FTE message and then run back to the zone
- The next iteration was limiting trackers to two players and making tracker FTEs illegal. So everyone parked magicians with Call of the Hero on these spawn points and the first to cast COTH usually won as long as their poopsocker didn't die
- Taken (now Awakened) took this to the next level by 'coh ducking', their mages would cast COTH and duck before it landed to summon their player first.
- Eventually IB/TMO got tired of this and implemented footraces from the zone in which lasted a while until everyone went back to jav spamming with gate potions in NTOV
- The most recent incarnation requires foot races and guilds who get FTE messages get 1 hour to mobilize and kill a target. In order to get that 1 second lead, players either bind sight or screen share the empty spawn point of a target.
Players that are willing to stare at a wall for 0-16 hours waiting for a raid target to spawn are of course highly immersed, and thus there is a huge amount of rule lawyering in gray areas, like 'If a guild wipes, when can the next FTE be established and by who' and 'Oh god, you got off the line first'. In addition, the server does not log encounters where an NPC does not die. So you can wild west style train other guilds and the GMs have no means to verify who started the train unless Sirken is online and can DT a mob (understandably rare). Fingerz of Awakened for example dropped half the zone on CSG/Rustle when we were preparing to engage Vulak and they have received no punishment whatsoever.
There are really only about 30-40 players who engage in all of this; the rest of the guild is warm bodies who log in when a batphone is sent out. Since everything is pulled to the zone in exploiting non-classic mechanics, this only requires maybe 20 minutes per batphone, so not a huge investment of time per week. However, it does require you to be available most days of the week and since the racer/poopsocker types get huge DKP incentives you'll progress very slowly.
TLDR: the raid scene on this server is pure aids. If you want to raid, go play on Phinigel where they have instances. Which is sad, because Project 1999 is an amazing recreation of classic EQ in so many ways. |
And strangely all this could be avoided by having GM enforced rotations - almost no staff involvement necessary. You put your name on the list, it gets posted on forums. If a guild is not up for the mob / zone and they take it they can't really argue it was a mistake...
So why is this not happening? Rotations and lists were classic... makes you wonder what's going on.