Zone Experience Bonus

[Otto]

I went to EQ atlas to look for named info in Runnyeye today, and i noticed it shows the ZEM on the website.

Went straight to sol a to see what the exp modifier there was...

http://www.eqatlas.com/solusekseye.html
13% bonus

From what I've heard, that leads me to believe sol a zem is a little to high right now...

Reiker is right though. Purely on the rate you could kill the gnomes on sol a, it was the best exp in classic.

[guineapig]

I found this from January 14, 2001 :

Droga increased by 12%
Nurga increased by 12%
Solusek's Eye (SolA) increased by 13%
Najena increased by 13%
Befallen increased by 13%
Paw increased by 13%
Permafrost increased by 13%
Kaesora increased by 18%
Qeynos Catacombs increased by 20%
Runnyeye increased by 20%
Kerra Ridge increased by 20%
The Hole increased by 25%

It's a start, I'll keep looking for announcements from 1999.

[Blink]

This is from the patch that first increased exp % in unpopular zones. EQAtlas is posting this same info but it is not the XP Modifier. ZEM is going to be a number generally 75 or higher.

When ShowEQ first came out on live they could detect a zones ZEM and they compiled a list. I am unable to find the original list. The only list I can find is the one Galahad posted that was compiled sometime around 2002.

I think the closest you are going to be able to get is to use the list and reduce the ZEM by what ever % they upped it by in that patch.

[jendor]

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

This is from the patch that first increased exp % in unpopular zones. EQAtlas is posting this same info but it is not the XP Modifier. ZEM is going to be a number generally 75 or higher.

When ShowEQ first came out on live they could detect a zones ZEM and they compiled a list. I am unable to find the original list. The only list I can find is the one Galahad posted that was compiled sometime around 2002.

I think the closest you are going to be able to get is to use the list and reduce the ZEM by what ever % they upped it by in that patch.

This is the list I've been looking for too. I made a post about it a LONG time ago on the castersrealm boards, but it looks like those are gone... I thought it was at hackersquest.gomp.ch but can't find it anywhere in the archives.

Anyone else remember the ZEM for kedge being like 140 or 150? Everything says 100. That doesn't jive with my memory.

[Galahad]

Kedge never had a high ZEM. If you compare it to lower level zones then yes it seems like a pretty bad risk vs. reward, but you have to compare it to other high level zones. In classic the other high level dungeons (guk and solb) had a of ZEM 75%. Kedge's ZEM of 100% makes it a 33% bonus compared to those dungeons, so relatively speaking it's amazing experience.

No high level dungeon after Kedge even through to Velious has that high of a ZEM.

[jendor]

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

Kedge never had a high ZEM. If you compare it to lower level zones then yes it seems like a pretty bad risk vs. reward, but you have to compare it to other high level zones. In classic the other high level dungeons (guk and solb) had a of ZEM 75%. Kedge's ZEM of 100% makes it a 33% bonus compared to those dungeons, so relatively speaking it's amazing experience.

No high level dungeon after Kedge even through to Velious has that high of a ZEM.

Ah, yeah. My drug-addled brain might be getting the actual ZEM mixed up with the percent bonus. 33% sounds familiar.

[Bubbles]

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

I found this from January 14, 2001 :

Droga increased by 12%
Nurga increased by 12%
Solusek's Eye (SolA) increased by 13%
Najena increased by 13%
Befallen increased by 13%
Paw increased by 13%
Permafrost increased by 13%
Kaesora increased by 18%
Qeynos Catacombs increased by 20%
Runnyeye increased by 20%
Kerra Ridge increased by 20%
The Hole increased by 25%

There's the patch. Honestly think maybe 5% of the server actually played launch 1999 on live. From March to November 1999 on Veeshan if it was peak you could count the number of people "adventuring" in SolA on one hand, tops. Look at the zones listed above.. These zones were *not* given some silly artificial ZEM boost because they were PACKED WITH PLAYERS RECEIVING THE BEST XP IN NORRATH PER KILL.

They were artificially boosted in later patches to get people the heck out of Guk, Cazic, and SolB and into the other *underutilized* zones. You'll notice no boost for Cazic, Solb, Guk, Seb, Karnors, Chardok, or (lol) Dreadlands... Because that's where people *actually* were. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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

It's a start, I'll keep looking for announcements from 1999.

best of luck, and make sure to grab one of these:

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[stormlord]

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

There's the patch. Honestly think maybe 5% of the server actually played launch 1999 on live. From March to November 1999 on Veeshan if it was peak you could count the number of people "adventuring" in SolA on one hand, tops. Look at the zones listed above.. These zones were *not* given some silly artificial ZEM boost because they were PACKED WITH PLAYERS RECEIVING THE BEST XP IN NORRATH PER KILL.

They were artificially boosted in later patches to get people the heck out of Guk, Cazic, and SolB and into the other *underutilized* zones. You'll notice no boost for Cazic, Solb, Guk, Seb, Karnors, Chardok, or (lol) Dreadlands... Because that's where people *actually* were. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]




best of luck, and make sure to grab one of these:

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Good point. If solA was so ubba then they probably wouldn't have upped the ZEM. It was probably empty most of the time.

[Kayd]

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

There's the patch. Honestly think maybe 5% of the server actually played launch 1999 on live. From March to November 1999 on Veeshan if it was peak you could count the number of people "adventuring" in SolA on one hand, tops. Look at the zones listed above.. These zones were *not* given some silly artificial ZEM boost because they were PACKED WITH PLAYERS RECEIVING THE BEST XP IN NORRATH PER KILL.

They were artificially boosted in later patches to get people the heck out of Guk, Cazic, and SolB and into the other *underutilized* zones. You'll notice no boost for Cazic, Solb, Guk, Seb, Karnors, Chardok, or (lol) Dreadlands... Because that's where people *actually* were. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I would like to add that overcrowding was a massive issue at the time. It was common during prime to time have over 130 people in a lot of zones, while others were virtually bare. The tweak wasn't just to get people into underutilized zones it was to ease a general overcrowding issue, and without the overcrowding issue the need for the experience tweak is questionable.

[guineapig]

Sorry, I haven't really found much. About a week ago I found the old Allakhazam pages that listed zone bonuses but I can't remember which year this was. They must have discontinued it pretty quickly because I damn sure can't find a single example of it.

Keep looking in the archives is all I can say.