New to 99 - lots of questions

[Sularus Oth Mithas]

Hey folks, new to 99 but not to EQ; I did play back in 99 on Rallos Zek and later on Brell Serilis until 02 or 03.

I've been watching some vids recently posted, it seems like there is still a healthy lower level population of people leveling, or at least in the Freeport/Neriak > EC/WC zones - is this true all over or are there better places to start to party with people?

Is the Wiki up to date an accurate as far as xp penalty for races and class goes? If so does anyone know if those will change when they release Velious?

I will be playing on a blue server, honestly that first year on Rallos turned me off of pvp pretty much my whole MMO career [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] - my question here is about RP - is there any going on? If so I would imagine there are some guilds that are RP based then - who are they?

How is the economy? Am I going to be having a hard time making money and purchasing items because I am coming into an inflated economy that puts new folks at a disadvantage? I'm not looking to twink myself out but I would like to be able to buy some basic stuff like cracked staffs if I make a monk etc.

I'm sure I will have more questions but that is it for now - sorry if I am posting something that gets asked a lot but I did a search for "new to project1999" and last thread relevant I saw was from October and it didn't answer any of these things.

Thanks, I'll be in game in a few weeks, looking forward to it again!