Sullon Zek: Lessons from a true PvP server

[Humerox]

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

I also don't recall level restrictions on who you could kill. You wouldn't gain any honor or kill points or whatever they were if they were x levels below you (i.e. grey?).

I think you could get sigs...and range for sigs was +/- 5 levels iirc. I think you got kill points too...but you didn't gain any if the toon was -20...negative points came into play too, but I don't remember them from up...I think these things were patched in as time went on.

[Galanteer]

oops, gaped there on the instancing, must have been thinking of extra keyed zones or something....

kill points came much later, after my time. Sony did publish kills daily on some website though.

early on sigs could be traded for corpse summoning potions (a good trade existed of people taking those to stormhammer iir and filtering them into the main servers) If you were in level range you would get a sig and make the other person lose exp. I think coin loot was also in level range iir.

I noticed the cheating (on my team as well) since I lead an early good team raiding guild. Had to deal with a lot of drama :/

edit in: not every one cheated. I never did. I kicked anyone out of my guild who did, and didn't group with anyone who did (I am sure some people hid it from me though)

[Abacaab]

Sullon Zek aka virgin's paradise

The server was forged when several kids were banned from battle.net for using dupe exploits on their 96th level hammerdin. Banned from their favorite game they lusted for more griefing near town gates, with options low and a blatant refusal to leave the house even for school (an old saying was "D- is passing get off my ass!" usually spoken to an infuriated parent) they managed to scam their grandmother out of her SSI bank card...

thus began... an age of darkness

[Pudge]

lol i remember when Bonequisha (an evil sk) got de-leveled overnight after falling asleep at the keyboard... she went from level 60 or 65 (this was pop era)...... down to 32.

the thing is, to de-level someone that far, you have to call in for help from lower-level toons, in order to stay in range for exp loss upon death. so this was a real team effort.

[greatdane]

My only problem with SZ was that the actual game was nearly unplayable for anyone not in the one guild (Hate) that ruled everything. And it's not so much that they had won the right to rule everything as it was just a consequence of the fact that 70% of the players chose the evil team, presumably because evil is more l33t and because evil had the best PvP classes, so the evil team's top guild pretty much couldn't avoid finding an automatic, unchallenged throne at the top. There was some conflict early on in the server's history between Hate and Ruin (both on team evil, for the record), and I think that was the only instance of real competitive PvP ever found on a large scale on SZ. Once that was over and Hate had established themselves as the winners, they were guaranteed to win the server simply because the rest of the evil team would rather join them than compete with their own side, and the neutral and good teams were too small to have a realistic chance. As a consequence of all this, due to the absence of rules on the server, the game became almost unplayable for anyone outside of that privileged group. The non-Hate evils couldn't raid anything worthwhile because it was claimed by Hate, and the other teams couldn't because Hate would effortlessly thwart any attempt. If the teams had started out each with 33% of the playerbase and access to the same classes, the result of SZ could perhaps be considered an achievement. Since team evil always had two thirds of the players and monopoly on the two strongest PvP classes (necro and SK), it was kind of determined from the start. And thus, anyone but members of Hate were severely limited in what content was available to them, and could not hope to compete with Hate on a meaningful level because of the vast difference in gear and numbers. Lack of instancing was what made Everquest's PvE so unique and dynamic, but it was also what made a no-rules PvP server a nightmare for anyone who sought actual competitive PvP. On SZ, you were either the helpless underdog who knew you could never put a dent in the opposition, or you were the ruler who knew you could never lose because of the server's design and starting population. The only interesting PvP (if one regards PvP as a somewhat equal contest where both parties have a chance of winning) was the random occasion when someone from Shadows and Pain ran into someone from Black Prophecy in the middle of nowhere and duked it out. Anything else was a one-sided flexing exercise.

[Harrison]

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

My only problem with SZ was that the actual game was nearly unplayable for anyone not in the one guild (Hate) that ruled everything. And it's not so much that they had won the right to rule everything as it was just a consequence of the fact that 70% of the players chose the evil team, presumably because evil is more l33t and because evil had the best PvP classes, so the evil team's top guild pretty much couldn't avoid finding an automatic, unchallenged throne at the top. There was some conflict early on in the server's history between Hate and Ruin (both on team evil, for the record), and I think that was the only instance of real competitive PvP ever found on a large scale on SZ. Once that was over and Hate had established themselves as the winners, they were guaranteed to win the server simply because the rest of the evil team would rather join them than compete with their own side, and the neutral and good teams were too small to have a realistic chance. As a consequence of all this, due to the absence of rules on the server, the game became almost unplayable for anyone outside of that privileged group. The non-Hate evils couldn't raid anything worthwhile because it was claimed by Hate, and the other teams couldn't because Hate would effortlessly thwart any attempt. If the teams had started out each with 33% of the playerbase and access to the same classes, the result of SZ could perhaps be considered an achievement. Since team evil always had two thirds of the players and monopoly on the two strongest PvP classes (necro and SK), it was kind of determined from the start. And thus, anyone but members of Hate were severely limited in what content was available to them, and could not hope to compete with Hate on a meaningful level because of the vast difference in gear and numbers. Lack of instancing was what made Everquest's PvE so unique and dynamic, but it was also what made a no-rules PvP server a nightmare for anyone who sought actual competitive PvP. On SZ, you were either the helpless underdog who knew you could never put a dent in the opposition, or you were the ruler who knew you could never lose because of the server's design and starting population. The only interesting PvP (if one regards PvP as a somewhat equal contest where both parties have a chance of winning) was the random occasion when someone from Shadows and Pain ran into someone from Black Prophecy in the middle of nowhere and duked it out. Anything else was a one-sided flexing exercise.

This guy gets it.

[Aenor]

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

This guy gets it.

I don't get it.

"There was some conflict early on in the server's history between Hate and Ruin (both on team evil, for the record), and I think that was the only instance of real competitive PvP."

How did they PvP if both guilds were on evil team?

[arsenalpow]

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

lol i remember when Bonequisha (an evil sk) got de-leveled overnight after falling asleep at the keyboard... she went from level 60 or 65 (this was pop era)...... down to 32.

the thing is, to de-level someone that far, you have to call in for help from lower-level toons, in order to stay in range for exp loss upon death. so this was a real team effort.

I helped delevel her for a large portion of that. She was bound in FoB in front of kaesora. SZ was the best. Also you couldn't trade sigs for anything early on, that shit was implemented maybe a year later. I had no room in the bank.

[Kanz]

There wasn't really a battle between Ruin and Hate. Tenaj and a majority of Ruin left for some new server. The remains of Ruin merged with Hate. The battle was between Vindictive and Hate. And that was done through training, calling in Tides of Wrath (neutral guild), or at one point we had guildwar. Granted eventually, we ended up merging together. A lot of time was wasted killing bosses just to cockblock neutrals from gearing up even though we were like 2 tiers higher on raid content.

[Harrison]

Tenaj! Now that's a fucking household name from The Nameless lol

Most of Ruin left because SZ got stale, and went to the next newest server. (KB? I forget.)