Can we talk about the future of P99?

[Harris]

A merge is overdue.

[shovelquest]

I remember rumors that daybreak and P99 had some sort of agreement.

Ive always thought that agreement was no future servers.

[cd288]

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

I remember rumors that daybreak and P99 had some sort of agreement.

Ive always thought that agreement was no future servers.

I don't think that's what the agreement says, which is clear from the fact that the agreement was in place well before Green existed.

I would imagine that the agreement states a couple things like 1. No server will expand past Velious into other expansion packs, 2. P99 owners will not use the servers to generate monetary profit for themselves (i.e., donations will always go toward server cost etc.), 3. No direct inducement of TLP players to play on P99 instead of TLP (i.e., not directly messaging them to disparage Daybreak/TLP and tell them to play P99 instead), and 4. Content moderation on the forums and in game. Stuff like that.

Given the staff's comments in the past on custom content I guess the agreement doesn't prohibit that, which is surprising to me.

[shovelquest]

My guess is they don't want to wipe anything, but it costs too much to launch a new server, and the contract with daybreak maybe explicitly says they can't ask for money or something. Therefor they can't do any pledge drives to start a new server.

I have no clue how much a server costs to run/maintain but chat GPT says 100-500 a month, thats like 1500 for blue, green & red??

Can't be that expensive but maybe it can I have no idea how money works.

[loramin]

If money was the issue, one would expect that the staff would ask for it. I think the Occam's Razor answer is that the staff simply doesn't want to make a new server right now.

It could be because they're just done with P99, or it could be that they have a timetable in their head, and are planning to release "Green 2.0" at some point in the future ... but they're just not telling us.

I'd like to think it's the latter, but as we all know they're not big on communication ... and without communication, we can only speculate baselessly.

[shovelquest]

My guess was that they contractually cannot ask for it or that would be piracy.

Im hoping its the surprise release but after as many years as it's been I'm skeptical.

[cd288]

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

My guess was that they contractually cannot ask for it or that would be piracy.

Im hoping its the surprise release but after as many years as it's been I'm skeptical.

It's not a money issue. Plus if you launched a new PVE server that would mean merging Green and Blue, so you'd still have the same total number of servers as you do today.

As Loramin noted, it's just a lack of energy/time/interest issue. Not sure if your forum join date is accurate to when you first started playing here, but if it is then you probably weren't around for the discussions about the first server post-Blue that bounced around for quite awhile (years before Green actually came out IIRC). A new server will happen eventually but it will likely be quite awhile before it does. We're about two years from the last patch on Green and about a year and a half from the absolute earliest point the staff said they would consider merging...so it really hasn't been THAT long since the latter if you think about it.

There are probably a bunch of classic changes that they want to implement for the new Green. Other things like the list system to sort out in terms of whether they want to do that or find ways to improve upon it. Just generally a bunch of things that require time and energy if they want to launch a new server, and they just don't have the personal capacity for it at this time. Eventually they will get interested in it again and we'll see a new server.

[shovelquest]

Theres no changes that need to be made, no reason to merge servers, there's no rules to follow to launch a fresh server, we're just supposed to believe that Rogan and nilbog just don't care at all if the project dies?

Not gonna buy that.

I'm sure that TLP being the only way daybreak makes money has some influence.

[loramin]

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

So you've read the daybreak agreement?

As CD noted:

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

the agreement was in place well before Green existed

As per https://wiki.project1999.com/Daybreak_Game_Company, the agreement came in 2015 ... long before Green's release in 2019. So it's highly unlikely the agreement is the issue here.

Also, that same page has some great quotes from staff/former staff, which make it pretty clear Daybreak's goal was never to stop P99.

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

I'm sure that TLP being the only way daybreak makes money has some influence.

It would not be unreasonable for P99 to agree to avoid certain server release dates, to avoid "cannibalizing" potential players from Daybreak. The fact that Green was released in October 2019, right in-between Aradune (March, 2019) and Mangler (May 2020) adds support to this theory ... but again, no one knows for sure, and even if it was true, it wouldn't stop a new server.

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

we're just supposed to believe that Rogan and nilbog just don't care at all if the project dies?

Both Green and Blue are still holding a health enough population. It may not be ideal, but Project 1999 is in no danger of dying anytime soon.

Look, it is very frustrating that the P99 staff doesn't communicate. It's also frustrating that nothing appears to be happening with a new server.

But don't let your frustration lead you to draw incorrect conclusions. The staff have always been secretive, and have always always moved at a slower pace than the player base wants ... but they've also always kept to their goal of trying to enable people to experience classic EQ.

[shovelquest]

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

Look, it is very frustrating that the P99 staff doesn't communicate. It's also frustrating that nothing appears to be happening with a new server.

But don't let your frustration lead you to draw incorrect conclusions. The staff have always been secretive, and have always always moved at a slower pace than the player base wants ... but they've also always kept to their goal of trying to enable people to experience classic EQ.

Im not frustrated, I assume there is a legal reason this pirated game is not able to release new servers while daybreak makes the lionshare of its rev from TLP servers (which it started right around 2015, and while activision was fighting to shut down nost for that very reason with wow).

from your wiki link:

that formally recognizes Project 1999 as a fan based, not-for-profit, classic EverQuest emulation project.

I said the reason likely is its expensive and they can't make proffit and dont want to wipe the other servers.