Semi-Classic

[Beor]

Didn't mean anything by it, I'm just curious where we are at with exp and how far off it is from classic.

This server is great and i'm happy where it's at, I'm legitimately just curious

Beor

[FatMagic]

I'm very happy with the experience since I don't have much time to play, and I would love to get close to level cap someday... which at this pace probably won't happen - haha! But honestly, it's more about the journey instead of the goal with PEQ99.

[MutualofOmaha]

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

Just curious:

How far off is the EXP? Meaning how much faster are people able to level?

I understand that since many of us have gone through this before and we know the in's and out's of the game it makes it easier. But I still love the grind. I just wanted to make sure that this leveling wasn't like the Progression Server that SOE came out with, that was WAY to easy.

...looking for reassurance more than anything else.

-Eric

Experience gain is quite rapid, much more rapid than it ever was in Vanilla, and especially so for pet classes. Speaking just for myself, I have been playing since October, about 5 days after the server launched, and I currently have a magician, necromancer and cleric at level 50. My druid is level 42 as of yesterday.

Obviously I play mostly pet/solo classes, as I prefer to solo whenever I can. The overpowered nature of pets makes leveling on the server a real breeze, particularly if you kill guard npc's. However, leveling up the cleric demonstrated the overloaded group and dungeon bonuses, as well.

Even knowing how to play and where to go, and what to kill, I could never level so quickly on a more classic server, and I certainly could never have obtained the quest items and drops I have gotten in such a short period of time.

[Murferoo]

I'm not so sure about that Omaha. I'm not sure your giving enough weight to other variables that influence the speed of leveling. It's not just that you know how to play better than when you started, other people do as well.

A big time sink in classic was how much time was spent just trying to figure out where to go, how to get there, was it safe, looking things up on forums, etc..

The speed seems right to me, or very close anyway, within a 10 percent margin of error anyway.

By the way, I didn't take your post badly at all. I thought it was constructive, informative and helpful. I really wish people would stop lynching anyone who has questions about how things are. It's not necessary. And I think the devs. need to avoid the cynicism that grows/breeds despite your best efforts when dealing with a player base.

Sometimes things really should just be taken at face value without assuming or thinking there is some deeper meaning or subtle jab.

[JaVeDK]

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

By the way, I didn't take your post badly at all. I thought it was constructive, informative and helpful. I really wish people would stop lynching anyone who has questions about how things are. It's not necessary. And I think the devs. need to avoid the cynicism that grows/breeds despite your best efforts when dealing with a player base.

Sometimes things really should just be taken at face value without assuming or thinking there is some deeper meaning or subtle jab.

I am in complete agreement with the above statement. I am generally disappointed at how rude a lot of people are on these boards (and in /ooc). It is definitely not what I was expecting from what one must assume is a more mature crowd than in other mmorpgs.

OP: Valid questions and observations. As has been said, try to enjoy all the things that are classic and have fun.

Aeolwind: Good answers and amazing work on this project. I know a lot of people will hate me for suggesting this, but if you feel yourself growing frustrated and bitter I'd take a break man.

[Zithax]

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

Experience gain is quite rapid, much more rapid than it ever was in Vanilla, and especially so for pet classes. Speaking just for myself, I have been playing since October, about 5 days after the server launched, and I currently have a magician, necromancer and cleric at level 50. My druid is level 42 as of yesterday.

Obviously I play mostly pet/solo classes, as I prefer to solo whenever I can. The overpowered nature of pets makes leveling on the server a real breeze, particularly if you kill guard npc's. However, leveling up the cleric demonstrated the overloaded group and dungeon bonuses, as well.

Even knowing how to play and where to go, and what to kill, I could never level so quickly on a more classic server, and I certainly could never have obtained the quest items and drops I have gotten in such a short period of time.

No it's actually slower; also classic did have a group exp bonus which went something along the lines of:

(# of people) - (% of exp bonus)
2 - 2%
3 - 4%
4 - 6%
5 - 8%
6 - 10%

[nilbog]

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

Will this server strive to become more and more classic, as it continues to move forward? Will some, or all, of the above-mentioned aberrations be changed to classic, over time?

Lots of your questions would have been answered by simply knowing more about what you're playing. It is fairly well-known that spellbooks, boats, and other things are simply client limitations. I have NO idea how you didn't know this by playing on an emu server for 5 months. We will fix things as soon as we have fixes for them.

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

If this is to be an eventuality, I would be willing to devote effort and time to run down each and every bug or inconsistency and report them individually on the bugs forum. I don't generally waste my time on forums as I generally see them as worthless trolling logs, but if hard work and reporting really will lead to the creation of a classic server by the developers, that would alter things.

Again, I do enjoy playing on the server, that's why I am here. I can enjoy the current Semi-Classic server, but I would love a Classic server more.

As I feel most of the other questions have already been answered, I'll chime in on this part. Report the bugs you find. I also find forums to be "not worth my time" sometimes, but hey, I have more posts than anyone else. It's not like I woke up one day as was like.. I'm gonna project manage an Everquest server, let me get to work! It's all volunteer-based and I put in more hours than I should. If your questions yield cynicism, I hope you see why. It's like showing up to the Salvation Army and asking.. are you guys *really* gonna solve world poverty? I'll donate some food maybe, but only if its worth my time.

You should try reporting things, *then* see if they get fixed. Or looking through resolved issues? I don't know why you asked if reporting issues would yield a classic server. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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

Speaking just for myself, I have been playing since October, about 5 days after the server launched, and I currently have a magician, necromancer and cleric at level 50.

Now why wouldn't you have mentioned experience being too fast .. prior to your leveling of 3 lvl 50s? :P

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

But I would ask Aeolwind, or other developers actually doing things to move the server forward: can you answer my question? Once the myriad bugs and non-classic elements are eventually removed/mitigated/worked around/whatever, is there the possibility of some kind of relaunch for those of us interested in a functionally more classic server, or more preferably the possibility of a second server?

I'm not sure if this was just worded poorly, but it has a tone of unappreciation. All developers "actually" have done things to move the server forward. There are hardware limitations with servers. These are uncharted waters though; I don't think there has ever been enough people on a single eqemu server to test its potential. If this is prekunark and we have ~600 people playing, I assume if the server was more popular, or continues to grow at its current rate, that we would be forced to open another server.

I look forward to your submissions!

[Excision Rottun]

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

I'm not so sure about that Omaha. I'm not sure your giving enough weight to other variables that influence the speed of leveling. It's not just that you know how to play better than when you started, other people do as well.

A big time sink in classic was how much time was spent just trying to figure out where to go, how to get there, was it safe, looking things up on forums, etc..

Another factor is that people know how to maximize their respective classes more in each individual setting, as well as knowing what gear to wear and where to get it.

I know I have been in various "non-classic" groups using pets to tank, all caster kiting groups etc

From my experience these were less common in classic originally as people just weren't aware of the different possibilities other than the "holy trinity" groups.

[Secrets]

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

After having played on the server since its first week back in October, I have some observations, and more importantly, a question for the GM's regarding the server's future.

As others have recently observed on these forums, our server has a number of aspects that are not classic, at all, the most immediately noticeable of these being the global ooc and auction channels.

However, there are many, many other non-classic elements, including:

1. Experience gain - group bonuses and dungeon bonuses have been in effect on the server since day 1, these were not classic; also, pets do not leech experience as they did in classic; also, experience penalties are not shared among group members, as they were in classic. This has made leveling up much, much faster than it should be on a classic server.

The pets thing is being worked on, the others cannot be proved.

2. Pets - pets are super-pets, and particularly the magician pets; pets do not draw multiple aggro or generate faction hits the way they did in classic.

DB limitation right now with the way aggro is set up, related to guards further down. You're welcome to tell us which NPCs are not on appropriate factions.

3. Spells - spell resists for npc's are definitely much lower than they ever were in classic, resulting in fewer npc resists and partial resists; spell resists for pc's are much less effective than they were in classic.

Emu-wide issue, requires a revamp of spell resist formulas. Wanna get me them so I can fix it?

4. Meditating - meditation does not require the caster to see only the spell-book while meditating, this is non-classic.

Wanna hack the client to include the needed functions, opcodes, and other things from EQC to make it work, then redistribute the client legally?

5. Factions - starting factions are incorrect for a wide variety of race/class combinations, and they are off on a global scale; merchants are on the wrong factions/no faction, instead of how they were in classic (this is of particular importance for merchants near key dungeons); bankers are on the wrong faction/no faction; faction required to get quests is wrong, making it easier to get certain quests than it should be; faction required to complete quests is wrong.

I'd love to have these pointed out to us. It's not like we're using SOE's source or database and know exactly what is supposed to be what and how it was done.

6. Item and coin drops - coin drops are substantially higher from npc's than they ever were in classic, more on a par with Kunark drops than vanilla drops; item drops are much more common than they were in classic, too, especially rare item drops (a case in point - I tested two well-known drops in Upper Guk, the squire fork drop and the spider armor drop - 23 squire kills yielded 7 forks and 16 collars, while 18 giant spider kills yielded 6 chitin armor and 12 chitin shields - rare drops like the fork were about 1 in 20 or 1 in 50 in classic, not 1 in 3 on a consistent basis).

We'd have to revamp a lot of the loot tables to get through this limitation. Again, this server is made on people's dreams of classic, and *not* the official verant/soe code/db, so of course there are going to be inaccuracies, especially when we started with a base like AX_Classic (which btw you could have helped out back in 2006-2007 with inaccuracies so we didn't have to deal with it)

7. Guards - guard factions and assists are horribly broken, and guards themselves are much less lethal than they were in classic

Get me the NPC hit, damage, hp, etc, exact numbers of guards and i'll fix them. Work is already started on correcting guards; we just dont know what ones to fix. Tell us and ye shall receive.

8. Travel - intercontinental travel was instantaneous from the very beginning of the server, eliminating the need for players to take time to congregate for buying, selling, forming groups, questing, etc.; even the current boat replacement system makes travel much faster than it should be in classic

Well, wanna hack Directx 9 to work with EQT again? [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] soe didn't do it for a few years, i'd love to see you try.

9. Tradeskills - items and recipes and combines are available from the beginning that were not available until the Gates of Discord era, allowing more rapid skilling up and nonclassic items to be made and used; vendors sell tradeskill items that they never had in classic, and in many locations in Norrath, tradeskill items are available near one another, whereas in real classic players would have had to travel through various zones even to get basic tradeskill goods.

Tell me what things. Blanket statements are bad.

10. Vendors - besides many vendors being available to hostile factions that would never have had access in classic, there are many vendors with incorrect inventories; some vendors even sell finished tradeskill goods that should never be on any vendor as a standard inventory item, and these finished goods tend to be vital stepping-stone type items for higher-level skillup recipes in tradeskills; some vendors sell items that were strictly foraged or dropped tradeskill items in classic.

See above

These are just a few observations of my own. I have no doubt that others could add many other items to this list. The result of most of these aberrations from classic is a greatly accelerated advancement and leveling curve on the server, making things move much, much more rapidly than they would have on a more classic server. Our server really is at best Semi-Classic, or perhaps Pseudo-Classic, at this time.

What is classic on our server, then? Class restrictions, race restrictions, starting cities, zone graphics are all classic; list of available zones is classic, although some zones have been made available to certain members of the server before they actually should have been, if the server was to have been truly classic.

exploiters have been dealt with

This server is still a lot of fun, that's why we're here playing together.

The question I would like to ask, however, is this:

Will this server strive to become more and more classic, as it continues to move forward? Will some, or all, of the above-mentioned aberrations be changed to classic, over time?

Yes, they will be fixed if they aren't limited by the client.

If so, can we expect a relaunch at some point with a truly classic server, or perhaps a second server to be launched as a truly classic server? I personally feel that a second server might be a better choice, so that those who strive to progress through the server as rapidly as possible can retain the distinctions and advantages for which they have played so hard on the current server, while those who enjoy a more truly classic game could start anew once a classic server is a reality. Perhaps such a second server would not track server-firsts and would not grant titles; in this way the pace-setter types might feel less slighted.

No.

My observations are my own, but I really would appreciate a response to my question from the GMs, so that we all can know what we might expect from Project 1999.

Here's my response.

Thank you GMs in advance for your response, and thank you also for our opportunity to play on this server.

no problem!

.

[Beor]

My main thing is that I feel like the xp is to fast. The only data I have to prove my theory is my previous experience with this game. I don't remember getting levels 14 and 15 in 3hrs, but I could be wrong.

Also, any comments or questions I've had were not an attack on this project or on the Devs. If you told me that exp is staying how it is and to fuck off, I'd say np. I'm grateful with what I have and where this game is, but you guys want info and feedback to improve this game and I was just asking/offering my two cents.

Seriously though, Thank you for giving us this server.

-Beor