Some core issues with antonica in classic eq(why everyone goes to guk)

[Wwen42]

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

I believe the devs have explicitly said (although I think this happened ages ago and unfortunately I don't have a good quote for it) that the ZEMs on Blue (and presumably on Green) are NOT classic. This has been true for most if not all of the project's 10 year history.

As I understand it (and as with anything, this could well be wrong, but the devs don't like to talk to us about it to clarify), "everyone" knows the live ZEMs. By using a banned/cheat program called ShowEQ, you could essentially see exactly what they were back on live. So the devs changed them (how much? no one knows).

Perhaps because the decision was made so early on, it radically conflicts with the mantra of P99 ... or at least what used to be the mantra; Green has sort of changed it. It used to be: CLASSIC OR DIE! Nilbog used to say stuff about how he'd do whatever it took to make things work like they did in '99, and screw players, screw their knowledge, and screw their opinions. P99 was going to be classic even if that meant no one wanted to play on it.

But again, in perhaps a preview of what would come with Green, the staff made an "executive decision", and decided not to have classic ZEMs. Again, as I understand it, the rationale was player knowledge: "everyone knows the ZEMs now, and they didn't on live, so we'll change them here to restore mystery".

Was it the right decision? All I can say is I've never once, in the (quite possibly hundreds of) threads I've read discussion P99 ZEMs ...not ONCE ... ever heard anyone say "YAY, P99 ZEMs rock ... they have unclassic mystery!" [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] I've never heard anyone say anything positive about them at all really.

It seems to me that if they went with classic ZEMs they'd at least make the classicists happy. If they went with sane/logical ZEMs, that balanced the other aspects (loot, casters, etc.) of a dungeon, I think the vast vast majority of players would be happy, but classicists less so. If they made ZEMs dynamic, based on population or something, the classicists would have a heart attack ... and so would the players that want the "best" game possible, only their heart attack would be in joy.

But keeping the current ZEMs? Does that even make Nilbog happy?

As other have explained I think, ZEM alone isn't the draw. Some dungeons are just not worth the effort. So it's a combination of ZEM design and risk/reward of the zone. IMO, I don't come for "classic" I have nostalgia for the good stuff. If someone made slight changes to the bad stuff, that'd make it even better. Runnyeye being a place to actually go at-level would be cool even if we only went there in 1999 when everything was green.

I enjoy my time on p1999 and I'm thankful it's around. I just had to make peace with the grognard "classic" business of even keeping broken things. /shrug I'm way too lazy to make my own server and also lack the knowledge.