Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Indecisive
May 6, 2007


Willias posted:

Just curious about the difference here between TLP EQ servers and P99.

In TLP, obviously pets are nerfed in terms of raid content, forcing you to use actual tanks rather than pets. But I'm more curious about the raid bosses that death touch. Do pets tank those just fine, or is there a need for a few tanks there?

Also, it's a shame that PLD and SK are looked upon so poorly because of their EXP penalty. It's not like there's anything to do once you hit level 50, and both classes contribute quite a bit more to a group than a warrior.

I play on TLP and generally you want to have multiple tanks yes. it is possible but risky to use one main tank and one 'DT' person who has taunt and rez them each time they eat the DT (assuming you time it well enough) but ideally you have enough tanks + DPS that the mob dies faster than you run out of people

re: pet agro, i don't main a pet class but apparently the way pets work for raid bosses is that the raid boss will just not directly attack a pet at all and their agro is applied directly to the pet's owner.

Indecisive fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Dec 31, 2019

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Zodium
Jun 19, 2004

Goodchild posted:

It's ironic that the people who say not to play certain classes are the reason said classes aren't fun to play during those eras. Being shunned by groups isn't fun. It especially sucks because even the worst of the classes can easily hit the level cap and see all the content worth seeing.
Not talking about raids, but that stuff is poison.

It's not ironic. I like to play with goons and goons that roll bad classes invariably quit or stall at level 20 because, get this, bad classes are bad and not fun. sorry but you can't mind over matter this, the game is what it is.

Xerophyte
Mar 17, 2008

This space intentionally left blank
Just having my first encounter with /list today and man this is kinda stupid. I get automating the popular and time-limited camps because the admins don't want to spend all their time on arbitrating dumb disputes or punishing dumb jerks, but the way that automation has been done is super restrictive. You can't just clear the camp, set a timer for the respawn and go make a coffee because at any time some jerk message might pop up telling you to type in /list afk 666 immediately or lose looting rights for a week. One person on my list just lost his spot because he had to go answer the door at the wrong time.

Normally I've found camping random junk on teal while watching TV or doing chores relaxing but this is promoting some really dumb, unhealthy and anti-social behavior. More dumb, unhealthy and anti-social than usual for classic EQ, even.

aparmenideanmonad
Jan 28, 2004
Balls to you and your way of mortal opinions - you don't exist anyway!
Fun Shoe
If you are asking for advice on what class to play, then it's assumed you don't know enough about the classes or the mechanics of P99's version of classic EQ to make this decision for yourself. EQ is not like a modern MMO where things are balanced so that all classes are basically the same or at least the same as others in their archetype, and it also takes a lot more time to develop a character to the point where it plays with its full set of class abilities.

I played a wizard and rogue to 50 in vanilla on live and on blue. There are plenty of other people who started on bad classes as well. You can absolutely start with and enjoy playing any of the bad classes if you are doing it for nostalgia or because you like the way they play enough to face the grind while playing an objectively less-useful class. But it really is a disservice to new people to tell them that these classes are good choices to start with. They will quickly become aware of how much better and more useful other classes are in most situations. This is not ruining the culture of the server - it's just giving people a chance to learn the differences inherent to this version of EQ without forcing them to be any less powerful than any PC already is in a game like this.

The wise advice is to wait for Kunark if you want to play non-bard melee and to play a wizard only as a solo alt while multitasking. If you want something to play now that will help subsidize other classes later, enchanter is the obvious answer, with necro and druid being solid choices as well.

Xerophyte posted:

Just having my first encounter with /list today and man this is kinda stupid. I get automating the popular and time-limited camps because the admins don't want to spend all their time on arbitrating dumb disputes or punishing dumb jerks, but the way that automation has been done is super restrictive. You can't just clear the camp, set a timer for the respawn and go make a coffee because at any time some jerk message might pop up telling you to type in /list afk 666 immediately or lose looting rights for a week. One person on my list just lost his spot because he had to go answer the door at the wrong time.

Normally I've found camping random junk on teal while watching TV or doing chores relaxing but this is promoting some really dumb, unhealthy and anti-social behavior. More dumb, unhealthy and anti-social than usual for classic EQ, even.

That sucks. It's definitely not a good solution. On the other hand, that same guy would have likely never gotten a shot at that camp the last time around considering how many of them were locked down by guild groups 24/7. I imagine it's cut down on the amount of intentional training in LGuk as well, though I would guess there's still plenty of trains.

aparmenideanmonad fucked around with this message at 14:07 on Dec 31, 2019

Groovelord Neato
Dec 6, 2014


I find all the dumb quirks and gently caress ups and imbalances so interesting because a lot of that poo poo was unknown when I played. Of course people knew poo poo like soloing as a druid or necro was good but there wasn't much knowledge that you were totally handicapping yourself playing certain classes (me with paladin) or that you were in for good times by rolling others (my brother with enchanter).

Hic Sunt Dracones
Apr 3, 2004
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
I've done two /list camps to completion on Teal: Guise and Rubicite Breastplate. Guise wasn't too bad, in that rear end/sup is a solid XP and loot camp, so you stay busy and have chances at some nice extra loot while you wait, making it just like most other dungeon camps but with occasional AFK checks and a fun cosmetic trinket at the end. It was boring when our group shrank to the point that it was too small to safely pull from outside the room, but during those times I just set the AFK warning window to bright red for visibility and stuck it to the side of the browser and VLC windows in which I could watch/read stuff while I 'played.' I guess it was worth it (as much as anything one does in a silly, ancient timesink MMO can be?), because it scratched whatever lingering psychological itch I felt from having barely missed out on a Guise back in '99.

The Rubi BP /list was loving terrible. It took almost three times as long as the Guise, and the Avatar of Fear is a painfully boring camp even if you chain pull because it's just a bunch of alligators and healers for bad loot and middling XP. I can't fully explain why I tolerated it given that it was such a deeply unpleasant slog, and I don't like what it says about my innate addictive tendencies that I did it. I would absolutely not repeat the experience, and it successfully dissuaded me from even considering the Manastone or JBoots camps (not that a shaman needs either item). I don't see myself doing any of the future Kunark or Velious/lists, either, with the possible exception of a pre-nerf Circlet of Shadow for an Iksar necro alt.

nwin
Feb 25, 2002

make's u think

What level are you?

cmdrk
Jun 10, 2013

aparmenideanmonad posted:

If you are asking for advice on what class to play, then it's assumed you don't know enough about the classes or the mechanics of P99's version of classic EQ to make this decision for yourself.

i think this pretty much covers it.

I've got a .. what, 55? Wizard on Blue. it's fun being a gimpy man with a huge forehead. I spent a great deal of time quadding while semi-AFK doing other things. It's a decidedly solo experience and not something I would recommend to a friend.

Just to clear the air, Wizards do get lures in Kunark and some limited mana regen spells: Harvest at 34, Manaskin at 51. It's not enough to cope.

switched over to TAKP and I'm playing.... a Wizard again (and boxing a Warrior with it). Luclin helped QoL for Wiz quite a bit. Familiars help a bit more on the regent front. Lesser Evacuate at 19 is a godsend and makes Wiz objectively fun with a tight-rolled group on voice chat. Let me tell you how this typically goes: "Let's check out a Luclin dungeon!" "ok!" *20min later* "AHHHHHH! EVAC!!" *zip*

All that said- do not play a wizard as your first class unless you hate yourself, esp. in Vanilla on green/teal.

Xerophyte
Mar 17, 2008

This space intentionally left blank

Hic Sunt Dracones posted:

... during those times I just set the AFK warning window to bright red for visibility and stuck it to the side of the browser and VLC windows in which I could watch/read stuff while I 'played.'

Thanks for that tip, making the window less subtle than the semitransparent default helped a lot with my fear of missing it. If anyone wants to prep this for a /list camp, the AFK confirmation window is in fact same window as the destroy confirmation, so if you want to change the color beforehand you can use that. I also finally read the fine print and learned that the timeout for the AFK warning is from it pops up and all the way until the next AFK warning fires, which is about 10 minutes. Knowing that made me feel a lot less apprehensive about doing useful things for a bit after clicking away a warning, since I'd have about 20 minutes before it actually boots me.

Anyhow, after 20 years or 9 hours -- depending on how you count -- I finally have an actual pair of jboots, so that's one white whale down.

smiling giraffe
Nov 12, 2015
i rolled a wizard on blue launch, and a ranger on red launch so either i'm dumb or you goons need to grow some balls.

Relayer
Sep 18, 2002
They should just combine all classes' skills and spells into one generic class and everyone can play that

DeathSandwich
Apr 24, 2008

I fucking hate puzzles.

smiling giraffe posted:

i rolled a wizard on blue launch, and a ranger on red launch so either i'm dumb or you goons need to grow some balls.

Yes and also yes.

Don't get me wrong, I don't regret being a Wizard back in the day either. There's something terribly satisfying about dropping hot sunstrike crits for 3000 damage and there were endgame / raid mobs that, even raid debuffed were still more or less impervious to spell damage that, post Kunark, Wizards were still consistently able to do respectable damage to with their lures (if not WOAHHUGE like your mainline nukes) and when given the fact that lures were basically unresistable made it still fare better than Mage/Druid nukes in terms of mana efficiency across the entirety of a fight. On more even footing, with raid buffs/debuffs if a Wizard was able to go full ham it's not even close in terms of mana efficiency (4 damage per mana on Ice Spears vs 3.1 on Mage's Seeking Flame vs 3.2 on Druid Wildfire) Raw damage per cast (Ice Spear being 1200 damage & Sunstrike 1600, Wildfire and Seeking flame were both 1024) Damage per second (Ice Spear was 4 second cast vs Wildfire's 5.8 second and Seeking Flame's whopping 7 second cast), and resistability (Ice spear and sunstrike both had a built in -10 resist mod built in with the other two being +0, even that can make a huge difference).

Wizards would drain their mana tank faster yes, but it was a factor of their spells being significantly faster casting vs the other nukers, and they would be sitting regaining mana sooner than the other nukers, getting ready for round 2.

The problem is that all of the above is at the literal endgame and Wizards wind up dealing with a lot more bullshit than mages/druids before they get to that point.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't play it, just be aware of the caveats of the class before you start because it is 100% not a WoW mage or what have you.

Groovelord Neato
Dec 6, 2014


Since my only pvp experience was accidentally rolling on such a server not knowing what it was when I first bought the game - what were the classes to play there? Was it similar to normal or what?

Summit
Mar 6, 2004

David wanted you to have this.
The advice of playing mage over wizard is extremely sound. You’ll do almost everything a wizard does with the addition of some sustained dps from the pet. Not having ports is the biggest loss but you’ll be in so much more demand it’s a worthy trade.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

Relayer posted:

They should just combine all classes' skills and spells into one generic class and everyone can play that

That's WoW

Groovelord Neato posted:

Since my only pvp experience was accidentally rolling on such a server not knowing what it was when I first bought the game - what were the classes to play there? Was it similar to normal or what?

A lot of the same, mages aren't as good in pvp but like necros and bards are pretty crazy good. But I'm no pro pvper.

Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 09:17 on Jan 1, 2020

DeathSandwich
Apr 24, 2008

I fucking hate puzzles.
Pretty much all the strong soloers (necro, druid, bard, enchanter) ruin everyone in pvp because all the solo tools they have work almost exactly as well against players and they didn't really balance around pvp, so they never really did stuff like Diminishing returns on crowd controls. Melee was also a nightmare to wrangle in pvp (outside of rangers and to a lesser extent Shadowknights) because they weren't sticky in the way most pvp-balanced melee classes are in more modern MMOs. No charges, no snares (again, ranger and SK not withstanding), no way to break out of crowd control or consistent interrupt.

Who would win among the soloers was typically determined by who got the drop on who and what dirty tricks they had in store ("I'm going to charm you and throw you at the biggest nastiest mob in eyeshot"). Bards weren't as killy, but if they could break away nobody could catch them and they could just show up whenever the gently caress they felt like it.

DeathSandwich fucked around with this message at 09:53 on Jan 1, 2020

Zodium
Jun 19, 2004

Groovelord Neato posted:

I find all the dumb quirks and gently caress ups and imbalances so interesting because a lot of that poo poo was unknown when I played. Of course people knew poo poo like soloing as a druid or necro was good but there wasn't much knowledge that you were totally handicapping yourself playing certain classes (me with paladin) or that you were in for good times by rolling others (my brother with enchanter).

tbf there are lots of non classic things about p99 still so it's sometimes hard to say if this is what it was really like. some are dramatic, and hard to fix. shamans and necros, including NPCs, should have Charm for a while. shaman dots should be slow and crappy. charm is orders of magnitude more powerful on modern, stable connections. but it's as good as it gets and it's real good.

Zodium fucked around with this message at 13:08 on Jan 1, 2020

dromal phrenia
Feb 22, 2004

Xerophyte posted:

Just having my first encounter with /list today and man this is kinda stupid. I get automating the popular and time-limited camps because the admins don't want to spend all their time on arbitrating dumb disputes or punishing dumb jerks, but the way that automation has been done is super restrictive. You can't just clear the camp, set a timer for the respawn and go make a coffee because at any time some jerk message might pop up telling you to type in /list afk 666 immediately or lose looting rights for a week. One person on my list just lost his spot because he had to go answer the door at the wrong time.

Normally I've found camping random junk on teal while watching TV or doing chores relaxing but this is promoting some really dumb, unhealthy and anti-social behavior. More dumb, unhealthy and anti-social than usual for classic EQ, even.

I agree that not being able to afk for the long-rear end spawn timers is pretty annoying, although I just watch TV and such while I'm camped. I've also made some friends because of chatting with my cellmates, but not everyone loves to chat in EQ.

I want to point out though, that the time frame to respond to an AFK check is not nearly as restrictive as you're saying. Basically, when an AFK check pops up, you have until the next AFK check to respond to it. The example of answering the door at the wrong time is really unlikely, as is being unable to make coffee.

There's really not an easy solution to the problem that maintains the idea of the items being rare and still dropping from the same mob. There's lots of proposed solutions that sounded better to me, but they were "not classic", I guess to a greater degree than the /list system is. The alternative is having a handful of people camp manastones around the clock.

That's not to disagree that the AFK check lists lead to antisocial or unhealthy behavior, because they absolutely do. Considering that lists are 5+ people long for 50+ hours at a time, I imagine the list would be even worse if the afk checks were more relaxed.

Xerophyte
Mar 17, 2008

This space intentionally left blank
Yeah, I realized all that later, see the next post :)

Anyhow:

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=347912 posted:

The Teal Server has been closed. All characters have been moved to Green.
Characters on /list have been merged based on the date and time they joined the /list.

Code
  • Haynar: Added several z axis fixes.
  • Haynar: Fixed an issue with spell push adding to z value incorrectly.
  • Haynar: NPC pets will follow their masters better in pathing nodes.
  • Haynar: Mobs moving between waypoints, should go through walls less when in pathing node areas.
Content
  • Nilbog: Karg Icebear's quests are multiquestable.
  • Nilbog: Greenblood zombies, Vilnius the small will not spawn until appropriate era.
  • Nilbog: Byzar Bloodforge's quests are multiquestable. 'Trumpy Irontoe' quest requires amiable or better faction.
  • Nilbog: Added a lot of missing dialogue to Kaladim npcs.
  • Telin: Corrected Cordelia Minster's level range and loot.
  • Telin: Many more quest items and mobs will no longer drop or spawn until the appropriate era.
  • Telin: Prior to Kunark, the Robe of the Lost Circle will have its original classic stats.
  • Telin: Pre-Kunark Insight and Brilliance should now stack with charisma buffs.

RIP Teal, here I thought you were already overcrowded compared to what I vaguely remember of live. At least my mage pet will hopefully kill me less now.

Hic Sunt Dracones
Apr 3, 2004
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

Xerophyte posted:

Yeah, I realized all that later, see the next post :)

Anyhow:


RIP Teal, here I thought you were already overcrowded compared to what I vaguely remember of live. At least my mage pet will hopefully kill me less now.

This feels premature to me. I was hoping they'd wait, if not all the way till Kunark (my preference), at least another month to see how the Plane of Fear's release would affect each server's population, because I'm pretty sure at least some of the recent population dip came from people taking a break after hitting 50 but before Fear. Oh well. I'm hopeful this should make lower-level grouping more flexible and varied for my alt, but I'm very glad I got most of the item farming I'd planned to do (e.g., Rubicite) out of the way before the population suddenly doubled without notice.

gepgepgep
May 22, 2006
Shameless Plug - Green/Teal Merger Special Edition

I've been playing here for months now and felt a plug was due again in light of the people considering alternatives to P99 due to burnout/merger/etc.

Clumsy's World EQEmu Server is growing steadily and now sitting around 20-30+ active users in the peak evening playtime. It has a ton of QOL improvements and some custom gear/quests.

One of the biggest selling points to me (and likely other goons) is the expansion of the allowed race/class combos. For a game that many of us have played numerous times over, it's a surprising breath of fresh air. If any of you care to join, feel free to send a tell/message on Discord to Villainous/Bumping so I can set you up with a guild invite and some starting gear. Below are a few details relating to the server (put together by some of the staff).

WEBSITE | DISCORD

About the Server
CW is a semi-custom, 2-box, legit, Kunark-era server with newer QoL features, and custom modern amenities. CW is not a classic progression server. The server will progress to Velious naturally then move into completely custom content. CW aims to be a medium between being casual-friendly while still providing challenging end-game content.


So What Can You Expect?
  • Additional Race/Class Combinations (Halfling Bard, Troll Cleric, Half-Elf Shadowknight, High-Elf Ranger and more!)
  • Experience rates tailored to favor groups over solo play
  • Heavy server-wide tuning of difficulties and mechanics (most raids can be done with 2-4 groups)
  • Raid Instancing (no poopsocking)

  • Removal/Re-purposing of Out-of-Era items
  • Modified Loot Tables (e.g. Manastone, Guise, pre-nerf COS are all in!)
  • Scions/Boats replaced with Translocators
  • Content-locked at Classic-Velious (Kunark is open at the start)
  • Quality of life improvements like Extended Targeting and Click-from-bag
  • Player Mentoring (De-level to play with lower level friends

  • Custom Kunark Gear Sets for Int Casters & Monks (e.g. caster/monk equivalent to Cobalt or Singing Steel)
  • Various Custom NPCs/Quests/Items added to the existing world
  • Upgradeable Armor, Weapons, Accessories, and Charms
  • No Required/Recommended Levels & FV-style loot (almost all is droppable)
  • Hub Zone with Quest NPCs, Progression Trackers, Translocators, Soulbinder, Corpse Summoner, and more
  • Spellscriber: Complete quests to gain access to more powerful spells

  • Pets can tank and hold aggro

How to Join
Pop in Discord! Get the :filez: and login with your EQEmu longinserver accounts (same used for P99).

the last signal...
Apr 16, 2009
I played a rogue to 50 on blue99 classic and had a blast, never felt excluded from groups but maybe green99 has taken things to even more of a min/max insanity than blue

Xerophyte
Mar 17, 2008

This space intentionally left blank
I made a rogue alt and twinked myself to the gils, for green anyhow: gloomwater harpoon, serrated bone dirk and 198 strength at level 1 (woulda been 200+ but I failed to read the fine print and didn't realize wearing a minotaur ribcage was too civilized for barbarians).

As a result I ... outdps anything if I'm reasonably lucky which is good, but I am also nearly untankable when I am reasonably lucky which is probably bad. My utility is that I can sometimes scout rooms and provide a harmony target, and I can move your corpse from a bad place to a less bad place when you die.

Rogue does a fine job at stabbing things if you can spend some time, plat or favors on good starting gear and have friends. However they are gear dependent, want to a group with a high-aggro tank yet don't offer their groups much for their inflexibility. It's hard to recommend to a curious newbie, especially as a starter class and especially on green. That newbie could also roll a mage and quickly be 80% of a wizard with a pet that does more damage than their untwinked rogue on its own. Most -- but, sure, not all -- newbies would prefer starting with the mage.

dromal phrenia
Feb 22, 2004

A high level mage can also farm very well for a rogue twink, whereas a high level rogue can't really farm anything.

No Luck Needed
Mar 18, 2015

Ravel Crew
when you are on /list you have a bank of 900 seconds, or was it 999, about 15 minutes of AFK. If you move out of the area, that time ticks down, if the AFK box pops up, the time ticks down. When in the area that 900 second bank will refresh.

What is broken is that you are not off for a week once you get the item or fail AFK but forever. The server staff has not fixed this but this is good, one manastone per character. That makes a person level a 2nd character to 35 at least.

I heard they never stopped the /move function. It was suppose to be for a limited time for all of teal's life anyone could move over from green.

I heard they shut down teal to reduce the number of petitions over the /list camps and helping the GMs from having to shuffle back and forth from blue to green to teal. By removing teal they reduce petitions and allow the few GMs manager the server. Supposably there are several GMs but it seems to be llandris, menden, and galach but I have only ever seen Galach actually in game.

edt. I also heard a fun rumor that Nilbog lost the plane of fear data and is recreating loot tables thus the delay on plane of fear

I think green should of had a proper beta lol

khysanth
Jun 10, 2009

Still love you, Homar

Blue was supposed to be the beta, lmao at waiting years and years for this perfectly recreated classic release timeline

Snail Information
May 29, 2010

Snailmancy
Is it worth trying to get into this and learn it from zero knowledge of Everquest and a mild dislike of all modern MMOs?

retpocileh
Oct 15, 2003

Sneak Lemming posted:

Is it worth trying to get into this and learn it from zero knowledge of Everquest and a mild dislike of all modern MMOs?

I unironically think it's still the best MMO on the market, and it's unlike anything else out there. That said, starting out, especially without any idea of what you're getting into, can be rough.

Most of the classes don't start coming online until they get to their early 20s in levels, for example, and it can take dozens of hours to get there.

I would give it a shot, and try to get at least into the teens to see if you're finding it appealing. I'd definitely recommend a casting class, as melee classes need a lot of gear to be good (and IMO aren't anywhere near as fun). I'd recommend Necromancer, Enchanter, or Druid if you don't now what to pick.

nwin
Feb 25, 2002

make's u think

Sneak Lemming posted:

Is it worth trying to get into this and learn it from zero knowledge of Everquest and a mild dislike of all modern MMOs?

Do you value your free time and do you get addicted to games easily? If so, I would run far away from this thing.

If you dislike modern MMO’s because they are too easy, then maybe you’d like this one, but it’s a loving time sink.

I played back in ~2000 and only got to level 46 and it loving wrecked my first year of college. I’m still nostalgic of it and I’ve picked it back up a few times in the past but I can step away a lot easier now than before. Still wouldn’t bother with the game if I could go back.

Ehud
Sep 19, 2003

football.

Sneak Lemming posted:

Is it worth trying to get into this and learn it from zero knowledge of Everquest and a mild dislike of all modern MMOs?

EQ’s core gameplay is literally nothing but killing monsters for XP or items over and over and over and over.

If that sounds fun then knock yourself out.

Snail Information
May 29, 2010

Snailmancy
God I wish I could get addicted to a game so much that it would distract me from life stuff. I'm going to watch some videos to see if its the kinda thing I might like. Farming xp over and over doesn't sound like its going to hook itself into me though.

Frog Act
Feb 10, 2012



EQ classic, like FFXI classic, is at the top of my list of things to do if I ever lose my job, girlfriend, and use of my legs, because it's good enough you could just spend a year or two doing nothing else all day

Vargs
Mar 27, 2010

It's less "killing monsters over and over" and more "actually chatting with other human beings while also killing monsters over and over". Unless you're one of those crazy people who just solo in this game past level 10 or so. I tend to play classes that are great soloers and would gain exp much more quickly by going it alone, but it's very boring and the game wasn't designed for it. The best part of EQ is making friends, convincing them to visit some far-off dungeon that nobody is experienced with, and all dying horribly.

gepgepgep
May 22, 2006

Sneak Lemming posted:

Is it worth trying to get into this and learn it from zero knowledge of Everquest and a mild dislike of all modern MMOs?
My $0.02 would be that you should test the waters on a more casual friendly server than P99. P99 is very hardcore on multiple aspects (forced bad UI and camera, very slow XP rate, toxic raid environment) and other Emu servers will let you do this free and with an easier entry.

I'm biased towards Clumsy's World, the current server I've been on for approx. 5 months now. Feel free to PM or reply if you'd like a helping hand and more details. It's basically a Classic through Velious (kunark currently) plus some custom content and QoL improvements.

ChairmanMauzer
Dec 30, 2004

It wears a human face.

gepgepgep posted:

My $0.02 would be that you should test the waters on a more casual friendly server than P99. P99 is very hardcore on multiple aspects (forced bad UI and camera, very slow XP rate, toxic raid environment) and other Emu servers will let you do this free and with an easier entry.

I'm biased towards Clumsy's World, the current server I've been on for approx. 5 months now. Feel free to PM or reply if you'd like a helping hand and more details. It's basically a Classic through Velious (kunark currently) plus some custom content and QoL improvements.

Counterpoint: Most other emu servers have very low population numbers and most allow multi-account boxing which, IMO, completely kills the sense of community EQ was built around.

Lemming
Apr 21, 2008

Vargs posted:

It's less "killing monsters over and over" and more "actually chatting with other human beings while also killing monsters over and over". Unless you're one of those crazy people who just solo in this game past level 10 or so. I tend to play classes that are great soloers and would gain exp much more quickly by going it alone, but it's very boring and the game wasn't designed for it. The best part of EQ is making friends, convincing them to visit some far-off dungeon that nobody is experienced with, and all dying horribly.

I would say on top of this it's also an optimization problem. A lot of MMOs, at least the impression I have, is that lots of them are just time sinks where you roll your face on the keyboard and everything dies, but in EQ you can almost always squeeze out more efficiency in any given situation, although at the tradeoff of more risk. Yeah that doesn't apply if you're just poopsocking one mob that only spawns once every 12 hours, but if you're in a solid group or trying to solo something, you're constantly trying to figure out how you can pull stuff a little faster, or kill something a little quicker, or use more mana efficient spells while just barely killing the thing, tackling harder mobs without dying, etc. You can play super safe and it's slow or you can go balls out and get on a risky murder spree. I really like those aspects.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

Sneak Lemming posted:

God I wish I could get addicted to a game so much that it would distract me from life stuff. I'm going to watch some videos to see if its the kinda thing I might like. Farming xp over and over doesn't sound like its going to hook itself into me though.

Like Vargs said, the game is designed to be inherently repetitive and have downtime so that you have a reason to talk to other people and shoot the poo poo and be social.

It works, compared to WoW where you just solo everything.

Its a proper MMORPG in the proper sense of "massively multiplayer". If you don't want to play a multiplayer MMO then yeah, that's frustrating.

But the thing about EQ and 1999 is its not about the destination, its about the journey. The point isn't to grind your life away to hit 60; I've never hit 60. The point is to have fun hanging out in zones and dungeons meeting new people and talking to them about how you're gonna kill some goblins together.

That all said, rose-colored glasses and nostalgia does fuel the drive to play for lots of us, and you won't have that. Still, I think the game is charming in its own way.

IMO EQ comes the closest to any game of feeling like you're playing D&D online. Its not a video game, its a role playing game.

gepgepgep
May 22, 2006

ChairmanMauzer posted:

Counterpoint: Most other emu servers have very low population numbers and most allow multi-account boxing which, IMO, completely kills the sense of community EQ was built around.
There's trade-offs for each server, admittedly, but I would never recommend to someone that their first venture into EQ should be p1999. It's a niche server, albeit fairly populous, but not without its own issues.

I personally prefer servers that have instancing of end-game areas which mitigates a lot of the P99 absurdity that surfaces from raids, RMT, and GM corruption. You can still make friends on lower pop servers, and adventure into random areas. I've found myself in far more areas because there's 6-7 new hotzones on a weekly ZEM bonus rotation. When was the last time you saw an XP group on P99 hitting up Kaesora or Droga?

ChairmanMauzer
Dec 30, 2004

It wears a human face.

gepgepgep posted:

There's trade-offs for each server, admittedly, but I would never recommend to someone that their first venture into EQ should be p1999. It's a niche server, albeit fairly populous, but not without its own issues.

I personally prefer servers that have instancing of end-game areas which mitigates a lot of the P99 absurdity that surfaces from raids, RMT, and GM corruption. You can still make friends on lower pop servers, and adventure into random areas. I've found myself in far more areas because there's 6-7 new hotzones on a weekly ZEM bonus rotation. When was the last time you saw an XP group on P99 hitting up Kaesora or Droga?

Ya, I could fully get behind a lot of those QoL improvements. I really wish there was a server that went to PoP, was populated, didn't allow multiboxing, and balanced some common sense modern conveniences with the classic game.

ChairmanMauzer fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Feb 27, 2020

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Elephunk
Dec 6, 2007



ChairmanMauzer posted:

Ya, I could fully get behind a lot of those QoL improvements. I really wish there was a server that went to PoP, was populated, didn't allow multiboxing, and balanced some common sense modern conveniences with the classic game.

RIP Al'Kabor (EQMac was exactly as you described) :'(

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply