Semi-Classic

[MutualofOmaha]

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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).

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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