ip exemptions no longer exist

[Lagaidh]

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

I'll never understand why two-boxing scum comes to this server.
Every other server allows and even encourages two-boxing.

Why ply their scummy trade here where it is not allowed?

Because if they can pull it off while on this server, they have a distinct advantage over non-boxers. If they box on another server, they're just staying even with the pack.

Of course, boxers normally are rooted out- so it's only a temporary thrill.

[gloine36]

My wife and I play together using our IP exemption. So they're still working. They responded to our request fairly quickly, but that was last year. I'm glad they work to combat the boxers. I hated it on live and I hated it in every game I played. When I played EQ2 the boxers ran multiple accounts and macroed them for tradeskill purposes getting all the ground spawns in an area. It got to the point where training those groups was a necessity in order to play the game.

[batkiller]

You guys would be better playing one of the other emu servers to be honest. There are others to choose from. It's a shame because as far as I know, P99 is the only one which limits it to kunark/velious era and keeps everything legit. The others have other expansions (which I don't like) and/or have too loose rules. But if you are desperate to play together, I can recommend those.

Hopefully some day they will do whatever they need to do to get petitions here answered faster.

[envino]

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

You guys would be better playing one of the other emu servers to be honest. There are others to choose from. It's a shame because as far as I know, P99 is the only one which limits it to kunark/velious era and keeps everything legit. The others have other expansions (which I don't like) and/or have too loose rules. But if you are desperate to play together, I can recommend those.

Hopefully some day they will do whatever they need to do to get petitions here answered faster.

I've thought about playing on another emu but to be honest its not worth the trouble to me...setting up a whole 'nother version of eq and so forth. Just keeping p99 running on my tower and my mac is a job in itself sometimes. So, in the meantime we've just been playing a bit o' the swtor.

To be honest I'm with the original poster, I think that the length of time that has gone by since the last IP exemptions were granted points more towards the admins not wishing to grant exemptions rather than any other reason. I can see why, with all the boxing problems. It's just a shame it has to be that way.

[batkiller]

Yup shame, probably another case of the few spoiling something for the many.

[Weekapaug]

My gf and I got our exemption two years ago in fairly short order....about a week I think. We did not really play until we got it.

Last summer I reactivated my 4 daoc accounts and she started her own under the 2 week trial deal. She took to rvr like a fish to water, didn't mind boxing for pve (levelling in that game is mind numbing and is just something you do for rvr...and it goes much better if you box main, alts, and bots together I have found) , which was a first for her. When the two weeks were up, we were happily ready to subscribe all 5 accounts, except mythic, with the 300 player pop that game has at peak, had put a block on that only lets one account to be subscribed to per day from the same IP, ostensibly to fix a problem they had with credit card fraud they'd had or something. We had multiple toons set up to level together, free level timers to deal with, and this was all in the 40s when those things mattered. It was going to take a week to get back on track. Brilliant fix. We found something else to play and have never touched daoc since, much less ever subscribed.

I spent a decade in the post production side of the motion picture and tv industries, and honestly, this is really why techhie people aren't left in charge of major design decisions and things that directly affect the consumer. They have a tendency to fix broken arms by cutting the arm off...whatever is easiest for them rather than what works best for regular people. Not giving exemptions at all, or the net effect of that if people are waiting months, is arguably not the best fix for people boxing.

The devs and staff here have done a wonderful job and do the best they can with what they have to work with, and I'm sure they do it out of pure love of the project. And I'm sure there are good reasons for the delays. None of this is a slam on them. But it's silly to suggest that not giving exemptions in timely fashion doesn't affect weather or not people play. I can tell you first hand that it does.

If right now was 2 years ago, I have zero doubt that we would have headed to eqmac to play probably the 2nd day we were waiting for our exemption. When you have time to play together, you want to play. Not "make due." People play games for fun, not because they have to....Throw up roadblocks to the fun then don't be surprised when people find other options rather quickly.

[azxten]

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

whatever is easiest for them rather than what works best for regular people

I have mentioned this many times to the devs. That customer support is absolutely horrible here and is the primary reason that the population suffers. The response is always, "We don't have to do this. We do this on our free time. Be grateful, etc." However, this still ignores that it is a problem that could be solved by expanding the staff to include specific positions that don't need to be trusted with a whole lot.

There could be 2 people brought onto staff who do NOTHING but IP exemptions following a specific script created by Rogean/Nilbog with auditing procedures.

It's really the same reason most small businesses fail. The owner/creator refuses to relinquish control over some aspects of the business so that they can make time for growth. They can't stop working IN the business instead of ON the business and that is what has happened with P99.

I wish P99 had a streamlined method for working on the code base but this won't happen because the source code is so closely guarded. When asking about assisting with the code the response is usually to download EQemu code and then fork it to include your changes. However, there is no official outline on how to submit code changes, bug lists, etc.

I wish P99 allowed more guides who handled IP exemptions, community interaction, etc. People who have very little abusable powers but significantly lighten the load on higher tier staff members so they can focus on more important issues. It is always incredibly disheartening to hear "I WOULD be making Velious if I didn't have to deal with all the crying from raid guild disputes!" or whatever. Developers shouldn't be dealing with raid disputes in the first place so it's a moot point.

Basically, it sucks that there are literally hundreds of applicants in the guide section on these forums and still only a grand total of like 4-5 people on staff here while it takes months to get something as simple as an IP exemption.

As always, I'm grateful for the project but in my opinion it would benefit significantly from allowing more community participation on the management side of things. Currently I view P99 as very much in a dying state rather than thriving. The economy has crashed, playerbase is shrinking, and it now takes longer to get basic services like IP exemptions than it did years ago.

[Slave]

There are two amazingly insightful posts above mine; everyone do yourselves a big favor and peruse them carefully. Then ask yourselves, can we not do better? This is an amazing game, easily one of the best ever made. It should be overflowing with players right now, but somehow isn't, largely for the reasons outlined above.

[Atmas]

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

There are two amazingly insightful posts above mine; everyone do yourselves a big favor and peruse them carefully. Then ask yourselves, can we not do better? This is an amazing game, easily one of the best ever made. It should be overflowing with players right now, but somehow isn't, largely for the reasons outlined above.

The unfortunate thing about those posts is that they compare P99 to a business, which it is not. They actually use the words "business" and "customer support" as well as make comparisons to exisitng businesses. People acknowledge that this server is produced by people with other real world obligations, but they don't really.

First off, though I have no doubt it contributes, I really don't think the IP exemption issue is the major factor in server population decline. I think that can more likely be attributed to the large amount of time between expansion releases. People know more now and were able to level faster but have been given less content over the span of time they have been playing as compared to live. There are also many new games out there and it seems odd that everyone would expect a 13 year old game to be played indefinitely.

Secondly, it doesn't take much to f up the server. IP exemeptions are probably not even in the top 5 issues for server population. I think we have lost more accounts do to MQing and RMT bans and penalties. Which in a round about way that may only make sense to my own non-linear mind is why you really have to be careful to avoid allowing rule breaking to happen. While I think cheaters should be punished I can't help but lament how the server population gets diminshed. I think many of them would still be playing if they were never able to cheat in the first place.

[azxten]

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

The unfortunate thing about those posts is that they compare P99 to a business, which it is not. They actually use the words "business" and "customer support" as well as make comparisons to exisitng businesses. People acknowledge that this server is produced by people with other real world obligations, but they don't really.

It is a project that relies heavily upon a community being interested in the project and the same rules apply to this that apply to a business. The whole "real world obligations" thing falls flat when you remember that you have hundreds of volunteers for a community with thousands of members that has a current staff size of 4. It's purely a lack of focusing on allowing those volunteers to contribute instead.

There could easily be a 10 person development team, 20 guides, multiple server technicians to resolve login server down, etc. I'm so sick of hearing about "they have real world obligations so they're too busy to take advantage of all the volunteers offering to reduce that load."

You then go on to claim IP exemptions don't matter, it's the lack of expansion, etc. Well, how much farther would that be along if Rogean/Nilbog/Amelinda never had to do an IP exemption? Lack of focus on the small things, the details, will always kill projects.

There is a reason why this server never grows beyond 1,000 players. It's because there is only so many players a team of 4, with really 2 of them having any power, can support.

Every time the population surges guild disputes explode over raid content, developers stop producing content and start policing the server, the petition queue explodes. Everything reaches critical mass until enough people get sick of it and quit and then finally the population shrinks back to a manageable size for the size of management.

You can use the whole "not a business line" all you want but this is still a project, with users, that requires management and that management refuses to grow with the user base and so the user base will never grow.