A different flavor of EQemu

[Ivory]

A tiny server with a close knit group of adventurers? Actually sounds fun [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Blastorz]

I saw this I just had to say something because i'm tired of seeing these "Its so awesome on Blood and rank, non genuine posts they are flooding everywhere because they are as sketchy as the sever itself is.

First of all, this post is not only on the p1999 boards, I have seen them in several places including several EQ forum boards like these, because they are bribing anyone that that is willing to post these "Blood and Rank is awesome" spam messages with in game loot.... they literally have a breakdown on how many "coins" you get for what type of post you make and have links to places like forums, twitter , Reddit etc where they suggest you make these "spontainious proclamations of love for there server"
I just read there forums and they even go as far as to say stuff like "When you post on game forums, make sure you try your best to sound like like you like the server so much you just wanted to let others know about it, and try not to sound like you are trying to poach players from them, they will get upset and probably take the post down"

To summarize this post, as its a long one...(for some reason, seeing these same disgenuine posts on Reddit and twitter really irked me, lol)
.
..My HONEST opinion (I am not being pressured coached or paid to post this) is that you should NOT attempt to play on this server, as it is not worth the risk you take by downloading this "Private Patcher", and as far as the community goes, it seems to just be a bunch of friends that started a server to play together and for some reason, have decided that they are now going to try to come across as a legitimate server like p1999,..and finally, after reading the owners posts, I would not want to play on that guys server anyway.

My personal experience with this server, and what I have been told by players;

I decided to try this new server a few months ago, not long after the server itself was started, and at that time it seemed like just another custom server that a bunch of friends started to play together on, you know, drop yourself some crazy loot and add crazy bonus regen and exp, level up fast and raid the zones you couldnt do on live type thing.
I watched as they had "GM events" that dropped loot each of these gms and thier alts just happened to specifically need/want. They also made them drop these "coins" this guy is talking about (and ironically, is being paid for to make these post) which these guys tuned in to what they called a "Coin Vender" for even more insane loot for themselves.



There were only two or three other people playing other then this group of freinds back then, and I wasn't in there little circle, so I didn't level anywhere near as fast as them and it sure seemed that loot I could use never dropped when I was at a "GM event" so I just stopped playing there.

I decided recently to give it another chance, when I saw that there were over 20 people online, and its just gotten even more sketchy in my opinion, and completely quit when they suddenly demanded you download there
"Patcher", or there server won't work for you.
This is supposed to be an underfoot client server, there is no reason that they can't run an underfoot server without having to make people download there" Private Patcher."

the reason this is so alarming to me is that, I was burned badly by a server that added a private patcher, and unfortunately i was way to trusting that nothing would go wrong. I had my account and characters looted and stripped after they got my passwords after downloading a private patcher for a small server that just disappeared less then a year after it opened.
Im not saying that this server isnt legit, and this will happen to you, but considering they are clearly attempting to aggresively expand thier player base, and the fact that in my opinion they are not exactly using the most ethical tactics, I think that it is important that you are aware of the following

Blood and rank is a small Private Server, run by a group of people who do nt answer to anyone, and like all private servers, you have no control over your characters if they decide to shut down, or just decide one day they dont like the color of your bracers, they can just ban you for no reason at all. There is no accountability and nothing you can do about it.
They really haven't been around long, and do not have a very large player base at all righ now, (the server averaging 16 people in the last month)
and a lot of those are the GMS or thier alts, so it is hard to tell if they are a decent server or not because they haven't built any type of reputation or feedback.. I would also find it concerning that they seem to feel the need to pay people to get them to speak positively about there server to others.

In all fairness, as I did not want to base my opinion or this post solely on the limited time I spent on there server, because I have not played since they demanded you download this Patcher a week or two ago,
I decided I would read there boards as sometimes reading there posts is a good way to get a feel for the players and people who run the server, and I have to tell you, the person who owns the server comes across as just another one of those vindictive power trippers,
You know the type, using "his" server and "his" forums as some kind of fiefe-dom, at times defensive, at other times openly snapping at anyone who disagrees with him on his forums, whether he's right or wrong, I stopped counting at post number 5 where this guy tells others they are "free to play somewhere else" if they dared to correct him when he was wrong and in a few, for reasons he does not make clear, other then what anyone who reads them, can clearly see... as just blatant personal dislike of a player.

I would suggest taking the server owner's own advice he does not hesitate to give, and just play somewhere else.

in a couple threads, he asks for feedback on server issues/bugs etc. then he gets angry and defensive when anyone posts, saying things like
"Look, We are not perfect, and sometimes we miss things" and "I don't know what you want from me, I have answered your questions, maybe you would be happy somewhere else"

He even goes as far as publically just ripping into some poor kid for "annoying him by asking too many questions" in one post when the kid apparently had tried to log in and just wanted to know why his account was suddenly suspended or banned or something when he wasnt even on,...


Now as far as player base, and these "Gm events and Coins" they keep talking about;

I also was told by one of the few actual players and not just gm alts that I recognized from when they started the server other then this circle of friends, not many people stay past level 10 to 20after trying the server, and that the loot from these "GM Events" and "coins" is not even close to comparable to what they dropped for themselves when the people who run the server were gearing themselves up.

He told me he thinks they nerfed all the insane loot drops and no one new gets anything near what used to drop when they started the server because they are now trying to come across as a more authentic server for some reason,
(in the interest of honesty, at this point he started babbling about trying to get preferred server status and being able to get free code and free help, not sure what he was talking about considering its a private server/ shrug)
and that GM Events now usually just drop the odd item or two that one of these guys "just happens" to need for there hate group or whatever they are doing.
he also told me that since they have geared themselves up, he rarely gets anything his class can actually use from the coins anymore and that the coins just drop randomn stuff, usually level 50 plus spells that these guys just happen to need as well, and are not shy in asking the new people to give them to them if "they aren't going to use them"

Again in the interest of honesty, I asked him if he had any issues after downloading their patcher, and if he was worried about his account security,
he replied that
...he had already invested so much time into his character, and when they sprung the fact that you had to use the patcher all of a sudden or you could not play, he was left with
"no choice but to do what they said, other then to abandon his character, and that he so he did download the patcher, and that if he had known that they were going to be adding it to the server, that no he would not have played there to begin with"

he aslo did say that he has had no issues so far, however, they only started demanding that you install it a couple of weeks ago, so it was too early to tell
he just said that I guess if the server goes poof one day and his accounts get hacked/stripped.. at least he knew that this could happen, and it was his choice to take that risk.

In my opinion, i would stay away from this server after reading the boards alone, never mind the fact that I would not touch a private patcher with a 50 foot pole.

When you have so many other servers to chose from that offer pretty much the same era and experience, (p1999 is the best one of them all, with a long standing reputation and player base larger then the 5 to 20 I always see this server seems to have on)
..why would you want to risk an unnecessary sketchy Patcher that could be a key logger, or invest all your effort sweat and time into a character that some randomn guy who might decide to ban you for daring to disagree with his opinion?

Can you and the players you are paying, please stop spamming these posts everywhere and trying to poach people from established and long standing servers that actually have a legitimate reputation?

[Big_Japan]

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

I saw this I just had to say something because i'm tired of seeing these "Its so awesome on Blood and rank, non genuine posts they are flooding everywhere because they are as sketchy as the sever itself is.

First of all, this post is not only on the p1999 boards, I have seen them in several places including several EQ forum boards like these, because they are bribing anyone that that is willing to post these "Blood and Rank is awesome" spam messages with in game loot.... they literally have a breakdown on how many "coins" you get for what type of post you make and have links to places like forums, twitter , Reddit etc where they suggest you make these "spontainious proclamations of love for there server"
I just read there forums and they even go as far as to say stuff like "When you post on game forums, make sure you try your best to sound like like you like the server so much you just wanted to let others know about it, and try not to sound like you are trying to poach players from them, they will get upset and probably take the post down"

To summarize this post, as its a long one...(for some reason, seeing these same disgenuine posts on Reddit and twitter really irked me, lol)
.
..My HONEST opinion (I am not being pressured coached or paid to post this) is that you should NOT attempt to play on this server, as it is not worth the risk you take by downloading this "Private Patcher", and as far as the community goes, it seems to just be a bunch of friends that started a server to play together and for some reason, have decided that they are now going to try to come across as a legitimate server like p1999,..and finally, after reading the owners posts, I would not want to play on that guys server anyway.

My personal experience with this server, and what I have been told by players;

I decided to try this new server a few months ago, not long after the server itself was started, and at that time it seemed like just another custom server that a bunch of friends started to play together on, you know, drop yourself some crazy loot and add crazy bonus regen and exp, level up fast and raid the zones you couldnt do on live type thing.
I watched as they had "GM events" that dropped loot each of these gms and thier alts just happened to specifically need/want. They also made them drop these "coins" this guy is talking about (and ironically, is being paid for to make these post) which these guys tuned in to what they called a "Coin Vender" for even more insane loot for themselves.



There were only two or three other people playing other then this group of freinds back then, and I wasn't in there little circle, so I didn't level anywhere near as fast as them and it sure seemed that loot I could use never dropped when I was at a "GM event" so I just stopped playing there.

I decided recently to give it another chance, when I saw that there were over 20 people online, and its just gotten even more sketchy in my opinion, and completely quit when they suddenly demanded you download there
"Patcher", or there server won't work for you.
This is supposed to be an underfoot client server, there is no reason that they can't run an underfoot server without having to make people download there" Private Patcher."

the reason this is so alarming to me is that, I was burned badly by a server that added a private patcher, and unfortunately i was way to trusting that nothing would go wrong. I had my account and characters looted and stripped after they got my passwords after downloading a private patcher for a small server that just disappeared less then a year after it opened.
Im not saying that this server isnt legit, and this will happen to you, but considering they are clearly attempting to aggresively expand thier player base, and the fact that in my opinion they are not exactly using the most ethical tactics, I think that it is important that you are aware of the following

Blood and rank is a small Private Server, run by a group of people who do nt answer to anyone, and like all private servers, you have no control over your characters if they decide to shut down, or just decide one day they dont like the color of your bracers, they can just ban you for no reason at all. There is no accountability and nothing you can do about it.
They really haven't been around long, and do not have a very large player base at all righ now, (the server averaging 16 people in the last month)
and a lot of those are the GMS or thier alts, so it is hard to tell if they are a decent server or not because they haven't built any type of reputation or feedback.. I would also find it concerning that they seem to feel the need to pay people to get them to speak positively about there server to others.

In all fairness, as I did not want to base my opinion or this post solely on the limited time I spent on there server, because I have not played since they demanded you download this Patcher a week or two ago,
I decided I would read there boards as sometimes reading there posts is a good way to get a feel for the players and people who run the server, and I have to tell you, the person who owns the server comes across as just another one of those vindictive power trippers,
You know the type, using "his" server and "his" forums as some kind of fiefe-dom, at times defensive, at other times openly snapping at anyone who disagrees with him on his forums, whether he's right or wrong, I stopped counting at post number 5 where this guy tells others they are "free to play somewhere else" if they dared to correct him when he was wrong and in a few, for reasons he does not make clear, other then what anyone who reads them, can clearly see... as just blatant personal dislike of a player.

I would suggest taking the server owner's own advice he does not hesitate to give, and just play somewhere else.

in a couple threads, he asks for feedback on server issues/bugs etc. then he gets angry and defensive when anyone posts, saying things like
"Look, We are not perfect, and sometimes we miss things" and "I don't know what you want from me, I have answered your questions, maybe you would be happy somewhere else"

He even goes as far as publically just ripping into some poor kid for "annoying him by asking too many questions" in one post when the kid apparently had tried to log in and just wanted to know why his account was suddenly suspended or banned or something when he wasnt even on,...


Now as far as player base, and these "Gm events and Coins" they keep talking about;

I also was told by one of the few actual players and not just gm alts that I recognized from when they started the server other then this circle of friends, not many people stay past level 10 to 20after trying the server, and that the loot from these "GM Events" and "coins" is not even close to comparable to what they dropped for themselves when the people who run the server were gearing themselves up.

He told me he thinks they nerfed all the insane loot drops and no one new gets anything near what used to drop when they started the server because they are now trying to come across as a more authentic server for some reason,
(in the interest of honesty, at this point he started babbling about trying to get preferred server status and being able to get free code and free help, not sure what he was talking about considering its a private server/ shrug)
and that GM Events now usually just drop the odd item or two that one of these guys "just happens" to need for there hate group or whatever they are doing.
he also told me that since they have geared themselves up, he rarely gets anything his class can actually use from the coins anymore and that the coins just drop randomn stuff, usually level 50 plus spells that these guys just happen to need as well, and are not shy in asking the new people to give them to them if "they aren't going to use them"

Again in the interest of honesty, I asked him if he had any issues after downloading their patcher, and if he was worried about his account security,
he replied that
...he had already invested so much time into his character, and when they sprung the fact that you had to use the patcher all of a sudden or you could not play, he was left with
"no choice but to do what they said, other then to abandon his character, and that he so he did download the patcher, and that if he had known that they were going to be adding it to the server, that no he would not have played there to begin with"

he aslo did say that he has had no issues so far, however, they only started demanding that you install it a couple of weeks ago, so it was too early to tell
he just said that I guess if the server goes poof one day and his accounts get hacked/stripped.. at least he knew that this could happen, and it was his choice to take that risk.

In my opinion, i would stay away from this server after reading the boards alone, never mind the fact that I would not touch a private patcher with a 50 foot pole.

When you have so many other servers to chose from that offer pretty much the same era and experience, (p1999 is the best one of them all, with a long standing reputation and player base larger then the 5 to 20 I always see this server seems to have on)
..why would you want to risk an unnecessary sketchy Patcher that could be a key logger, or invest all your effort sweat and time into a character that some randomn guy who might decide to ban you for daring to disagree with his opinion?

Can you and the players you are paying, please stop spamming these posts everywhere and trying to poach people from established and long standing servers that actually have a legitimate reputation?

skimmed this a little and it looks like you actually wrote all this? that can't be right can it?

[Veltira]

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

I saw this I just had to say something because i'm tired of seeing these "Its so awesome on Blood and rank, non genuine posts they are flooding everywhere because they are as sketchy as the sever itself is.

First of all, this post is not only on the p1999 boards, I have seen them in several places including several EQ forum boards like these, because they are bribing anyone that that is willing to post these "Blood and Rank is awesome" spam messages with in game loot.... they literally have a breakdown on how many "coins" you get for what type of post you make and have links to places like forums, twitter , Reddit etc where they suggest you make these "spontainious proclamations of love for there server"
I just read there forums and they even go as far as to say stuff like "When you post on game forums, make sure you try your best to sound like like you like the server so much you just wanted to let others know about it, and try not to sound like you are trying to poach players from them, they will get upset and probably take the post down"

To summarize this post, as its a long one...(for some reason, seeing these same disgenuine posts on Reddit and twitter really irked me, lol)
.
..My HONEST opinion (I am not being pressured coached or paid to post this) is that you should NOT attempt to play on this server, as it is not worth the risk you take by downloading this "Private Patcher", and as far as the community goes, it seems to just be a bunch of friends that started a server to play together and for some reason, have decided that they are now going to try to come across as a legitimate server like p1999,..and finally, after reading the owners posts, I would not want to play on that guys server anyway.

My personal experience with this server, and what I have been told by players;

I decided to try this new server a few months ago, not long after the server itself was started, and at that time it seemed like just another custom server that a bunch of friends started to play together on, you know, drop yourself some crazy loot and add crazy bonus regen and exp, level up fast and raid the zones you couldnt do on live type thing.
I watched as they had "GM events" that dropped loot each of these gms and thier alts just happened to specifically need/want. They also made them drop these "coins" this guy is talking about (and ironically, is being paid for to make these post) which these guys tuned in to what they called a "Coin Vender" for even more insane loot for themselves.



There were only two or three other people playing other then this group of freinds back then, and I wasn't in there little circle, so I didn't level anywhere near as fast as them and it sure seemed that loot I could use never dropped when I was at a "GM event" so I just stopped playing there.

I decided recently to give it another chance, when I saw that there were over 20 people online, and its just gotten even more sketchy in my opinion, and completely quit when they suddenly demanded you download there
"Patcher", or there server won't work for you.
This is supposed to be an underfoot client server, there is no reason that they can't run an underfoot server without having to make people download there" Private Patcher."

the reason this is so alarming to me is that, I was burned badly by a server that added a private patcher, and unfortunately i was way to trusting that nothing would go wrong. I had my account and characters looted and stripped after they got my passwords after downloading a private patcher for a small server that just disappeared less then a year after it opened.
Im not saying that this server isnt legit, and this will happen to you, but considering they are clearly attempting to aggresively expand thier player base, and the fact that in my opinion they are not exactly using the most ethical tactics, I think that it is important that you are aware of the following

Blood and rank is a small Private Server, run by a group of people who do nt answer to anyone, and like all private servers, you have no control over your characters if they decide to shut down, or just decide one day they dont like the color of your bracers, they can just ban you for no reason at all. There is no accountability and nothing you can do about it.
They really haven't been around long, and do not have a very large player base at all righ now, (the server averaging 16 people in the last month)
and a lot of those are the GMS or thier alts, so it is hard to tell if they are a decent server or not because they haven't built any type of reputation or feedback.. I would also find it concerning that they seem to feel the need to pay people to get them to speak positively about there server to others.

In all fairness, as I did not want to base my opinion or this post solely on the limited time I spent on there server, because I have not played since they demanded you download this Patcher a week or two ago,
I decided I would read there boards as sometimes reading there posts is a good way to get a feel for the players and people who run the server, and I have to tell you, the person who owns the server comes across as just another one of those vindictive power trippers,
You know the type, using "his" server and "his" forums as some kind of fiefe-dom, at times defensive, at other times openly snapping at anyone who disagrees with him on his forums, whether he's right or wrong, I stopped counting at post number 5 where this guy tells others they are "free to play somewhere else" if they dared to correct him when he was wrong and in a few, for reasons he does not make clear, other then what anyone who reads them, can clearly see... as just blatant personal dislike of a player.

I would suggest taking the server owner's own advice he does not hesitate to give, and just play somewhere else.

in a couple threads, he asks for feedback on server issues/bugs etc. then he gets angry and defensive when anyone posts, saying things like
"Look, We are not perfect, and sometimes we miss things" and "I don't know what you want from me, I have answered your questions, maybe you would be happy somewhere else"

He even goes as far as publically just ripping into some poor kid for "annoying him by asking too many questions" in one post when the kid apparently had tried to log in and just wanted to know why his account was suddenly suspended or banned or something when he wasnt even on,...


Now as far as player base, and these "Gm events and Coins" they keep talking about;

I also was told by one of the few actual players and not just gm alts that I recognized from when they started the server other then this circle of friends, not many people stay past level 10 to 20after trying the server, and that the loot from these "GM Events" and "coins" is not even close to comparable to what they dropped for themselves when the people who run the server were gearing themselves up.

He told me he thinks they nerfed all the insane loot drops and no one new gets anything near what used to drop when they started the server because they are now trying to come across as a more authentic server for some reason,
(in the interest of honesty, at this point he started babbling about trying to get preferred server status and being able to get free code and free help, not sure what he was talking about considering its a private server/ shrug)
and that GM Events now usually just drop the odd item or two that one of these guys "just happens" to need for there hate group or whatever they are doing.
he also told me that since they have geared themselves up, he rarely gets anything his class can actually use from the coins anymore and that the coins just drop randomn stuff, usually level 50 plus spells that these guys just happen to need as well, and are not shy in asking the new people to give them to them if "they aren't going to use them"

Again in the interest of honesty, I asked him if he had any issues after downloading their patcher, and if he was worried about his account security,
he replied that
...he had already invested so much time into his character, and when they sprung the fact that you had to use the patcher all of a sudden or you could not play, he was left with
"no choice but to do what they said, other then to abandon his character, and that he so he did download the patcher, and that if he had known that they were going to be adding it to the server, that no he would not have played there to begin with"

he aslo did say that he has had no issues so far, however, they only started demanding that you install it a couple of weeks ago, so it was too early to tell
he just said that I guess if the server goes poof one day and his accounts get hacked/stripped.. at least he knew that this could happen, and it was his choice to take that risk.

In my opinion, i would stay away from this server after reading the boards alone, never mind the fact that I would not touch a private patcher with a 50 foot pole.

When you have so many other servers to chose from that offer pretty much the same era and experience, (p1999 is the best one of them all, with a long standing reputation and player base larger then the 5 to 20 I always see this server seems to have on)
..why would you want to risk an unnecessary sketchy Patcher that could be a key logger, or invest all your effort sweat and time into a character that some randomn guy who might decide to ban you for daring to disagree with his opinion?

Can you and the players you are paying, please stop spamming these posts everywhere and trying to poach people from established and long standing servers that actually have a legitimate reputation?

Let me shed some light here, since I'm the server OP of Blood and Rank. The individual who posted this very lengthy "review" was banned from our server a few weeks ago and has made it his mission to deter folks from trying our server on reddit, eqemu, and now here. He spent all of 2 days on our server before stirring up drama galore. I didn't even know that this thread existed until very recently and posting on the p99 forums is in clear violation of our specific rule not to poach people or give the appearance that our intentions are to poach people from other servers. I will be contacting P99 staff to have this thread removed, and I personally apologize for the inconvenience and appearance of this chain of events.

[snoopdog]

sketchy Patcher that could be a key logger

Just to be fair though, p1999 uses DLL injection and you really know what is in the DLL? There has been speculation and that is just it, speculation on what it can and cannot do. I do not know if anyone has actually dissected the DLL itself.

[snoopdog]

I am definitely not implying p1999 has anything wrong on their end. I am just saying if you are going to compare, compare fairly. p1999 does require the DLL to be running on your machine to be able to connect, the poster is saying p1999 does not have a patcher. They really do not have a patcher, but the file pack from them does have a DLL that as far as I know, we do not know the contents.

[Doingchecks]

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

I am definitely not implying p1999 has anything wrong on their end. I am just saying if you are going to compare, compare fairly. p1999 does require the DLL to be running on your machine to be able to connect, the poster is saying p1999 does not have a patcher. They really do not have a patcher, but the file pack from them does have a DLL that as far as I know, we do not know the contents.

p1999's DLL:
(Cant play without it, you'll get the boot)
https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/8...5940/analysis/


Blood and Rank's Patcher:
(Can log in and play just fine without a boot, though strings/spells and such are off if you dont use it and cannot access old Highpass)
https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/1...is/1453857601/

Ultimately, it comes down to choice. Though, those passively aggressively stating "it could be a keylogger", etc. or making otherwise open speculation are generating rumors based on ignorance.

I could take it a step further and load up IDA Pro to dissect the DLL (I understand and am well acquainted with ASM), and can use .NET Deflector to dissect and pretty much get the entire source code of the patcher.

There I made it easy on you. Now, I spent the $1200 for a registered version of IDA Pro (programming is what I do so its a tool often used), though I suspect there are -other- versions out there.

I could also sandbox test a "p99 client" and then a Blood and Rank "client" (neither offer the client themselves, rather, I'm using quotes to simply coin the installations), sniffing packets to see and be certain if there is any "call home" going on. I can tell you, in order for the p99 server to detect/boot people not using it, it would have to "call home" with at least a packet to their modified server source. How else would it know to boot someone not running the DLL. Seems common sense. And, no, I dont have a problem with that at all. You want to play on the owners server? You follow the rules... or dont.

p99 has the numbers, I suspect Blood and Rank does not. So aside from population, on the surface, what's the difference? Play or don't play, neither servers will lose sleep over it I suspect.