How was the raid scene managed on EQMac

[eqravenprince]

How was the raid scene managed on EQMac? It's an example of an EQ server locked at the same expansion for years. Similar to what the situation is here. I assume they had hundreds of players most at max level all competing for the same high end content. Could anyone that raided there chime in?

[falkun]

They had a rotation, they also had Classic, Kunark, Velious, Luclin, and PoP. I'd venture a guess of something like 15-25x the raid content we have. Their rotation was pretty calm, they managed to keep Sleeper alive for 10 years.

[-Catherin-]

and who killed the sleeper? P99 lol

[Autotune]

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

They had a rotation, they also had Classic, Kunark, Velious, Luclin, and PoP. I'd venture a guess of something like 15-25x the raid content we have. Their rotation was pretty calm, they managed to keep Sleeper alive for 10 years.

I can't read that without laughing.

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

and who killed the sleeper? P99 lol

and that's why.

[fastboy21]

don't forget that end game pop in eqmac (potime) was instanced.

[radditsu]

Originally Posted by fastboy21 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

don't forget that end game pop in eqmac (potime) was instanced.

Lol they barely broke into time.

[Daldaen]

Originally Posted by fastboy21 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

don't forget that end game pop in eqmac (potime) was instanced.

Not classic.

But for real, the alpha PoTime we had on Mac was NOT instanced. Not that it mattered since only one guild ever reached time.

There were two rotations on the server. Seru and VT. Rotations that were more or less undisturbed for 9 years. Then a few hackers, 12 boxers, and guilds that popped up from RMT decided to start killing Seru randomly. And a guild of P99ers took a month or so in VT before they imploded after they allowed their backbone of healers and DPS to be two 6-boxers who were known hackers and one got half his accounts banned.

The PoP flagging targets were generally left up excluding Vallon Zek who you could 3-4 box. Emperor Ssra was too annoying to farm regularly so it was often up for a at rekeying. AoW, KT, and Dozekar were regularly killed by all guilds for Alts or to sell stuff.

But most of all, how it worked there, someone would post in the raid forum asking "we are looking to progress into NToV, would you please leave Aaryonar up for us so we can start it legit?". At which point a representative from most guilds would say "sure, good luck!". And 6 days later the mob would still be up for them to raid at their designated raid time. That is what separated the Mac server from all others, the mutual respect that guilds (read guilds, not people... There were still asshats there and feuds among people) had.

That really isn't feasible here however due to the lack of raid targets and the sell ability of most loot. Maybe in Velious it will change, but I'm sure some neck beards will be doing Kunark dragons with 6 toons and selling the loot for 500k.

[eqravenprince]

"That's Not Classic" argument is one of the reasons I posted this. On live, EQ+Kunark was only out for 1 year and 7 months before Velious was released. On P99, EQ+Kunark has been out for 4 years and 3 months and counting. There is no definition for classic raid scene for where the P99 is. We are in uncharted territory and cannot 100% reinvent history. If the devs truly wanted to reinvent history, they would release original EQ on March 16th, 2014. Then Kunark on April 24th, 2015. And Velious on December 5th, 2015. And the first level 50's would be a Rogue and Cleric exploiting some mechanic in the game.

[fastboy21]

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

"That's Not Classic" argument is one of the reasons I posted this. On live, EQ+Kunark was only out for 1 year and 7 months before Velious was released. On P99, EQ+Kunark has been out for 4 years and 3 months and counting. There is no definition for classic raid scene for where the P99 is. We are in uncharted territory and cannot 100% reinvent history. If the devs truly wanted to reinvent history, they would release original EQ on March 16th, 2014. Then Kunark on April 24th, 2015. And Velious on December 5th, 2015. And the first level 50's would be a Rogue and Cleric exploiting some mechanic in the game.

yes, but even then...you still get to the end of velious and then what? its a static server...forever.

sooner or later, if you want to play classic EQ you have to fall into one of three camps:

1. You are chronically unhappy with the effects of so much time changing the "classic experience." ---many folks on p99 fall here atm.
2. You decide that you can enjoy a static server. ---EQMac is the closest thing we've seen on live (But compared to classic has many times more content and character development i.e. AAs). P99 is mostly static (waiting for Winter) and will be completely static thereafter.
3. You want a classic server that hits the reset button every so often, allowing you to enjoy the "classic experience" for a few years at a time. ---Rounds of progression servers, for me, gave this type of experience.

Personally, I fall into #3. I wouldn't mind hitting the reset button on p99 every 3-4 years (following the classic timeline for content release). I chose to play here because #3 isn't an option, and this is the best classic EQ in the whole world...nonetheless, I drift slowly to option #1.

This, by the way, is ultimately the reason why every dev I've spoken to at SOE over the last 10 years has always said they could never really support a classic server. Even if they could get it to work, they don't think the game could sustain itself in a static state forever.

[fastboy21]

something else to consider is that on live EQ after PoP era, waking sleeper didn't ruin the zone in the same way that it did pre-pop...

some of the items and quests in post-sleeper ST are actually very good.