|
 Shards of Dalaya (SoD) has just announced it's first ever seasonal event! First post will detail the event, summarize changes over the last two years for veterans of the server and address frequently mentioned subjects in the thread. The second post will be a more general overview of SoD. Season 1 Announcement Season 1 will begin on Friday, December 18th at 4:00pm EST and last 3 months. At that time everyone will be able to hail "The Registrar" in The Dream at level 1 to flag as a Seasonal Event character. Seasonal Event characters will share a server with standard play, but cannot interact directly with characters outside of the event (Hardcoded). Chat is still shared. Seasonal Event characters will merge into standard play at the end of the season. What are the restrictions for season 1? -Adepts are disabled. -Ikisith content is not accessible. -Requiem of Hate and Requiem of Fear are not accessible. -"Special" AAs (tomes, see below) may not be purchased. -Cheaters will be disqualified; ie. finding and abusing ways to interact with non-seasonal characters. (There should be none) What are the rewards? Players will earn Seasonal Event alternate currency by leveling, gaining AAs, tradeskilling and killing 6, 12, and 18 man encounters for the first time. Additional one-time rewards will be earned for the players with most kills, highest combined tradeskills, most first kill bonuses and most quests. Rewards can be spent to buy experience potions, fame (limited to 50 per character), and weapon model tokens to change the graphics of weapons and shields. Rewards can be used by the character earning them, as well as any other character on the account (you can send them to your main if you make the season character on your main's account). The staff will also manually move characters to new accounts when the event is done if you wish to keep using them but want to box with your main.         Why would I want to play? For old or new players to SoD who wish to level up new characters, this will be the best opportunity to do so with others in years. The server is top heavy, with most of the population deep into the raiding game. This event will have many leveling up with no twinking, and looking to do so with others. Recent Changes Leveling: Spell lines have been reworked to allow for a smoother leveling experience. Provenance - new AA available at 0 cost lets you gate to your home city once every 20 minutes. Gear from adepts, treasure maps, tradeskills and dungeons have all been rebalanced to be of the same power level (about 80-90% as good as the previously best adept loot). No more waiting for adepts for the best gear when leveling. Archaic Spells: Archaic fragments are now per archetype instead of per class. Archaic spells should be much easier to complete. Tomes: Tomes are gone. All tome abilities were moved to AAs, most under the new 'Special' tab. There was some minor balancing involved with this. Spell crit and healing crit were removed from some classes (no more maxing int on new warriors, monks and rogues to have max spell crit eventually). Also 'hidden strength' tomes were removed and replaced with AAs which increase stat caps to 335, as well as AAs that provide the benefit of those tomes (such as increased mitigation, accuracy, etc.). Overall this is a great change and removes a huge obstacle and cost to newer players. Note: for returning players, due to some tomes having errors in the amount of exp they required, you may have to earn some exp to buy back all of your abilities. Buffs: Almost all buffs castable on others have had their duration reduced to 10 minutes. If grouped in the same zone with the class which casts the buff, the timer ticks up to 10 minutes. A hugely controversal change; while everyone complained about the archaic buff system and the dependence on buff botts, this was not the change many players wanted. Charm credits: non-tradeable tokens worth 1-5k plat are global drops from most exp mobs at 65. Turn these in to Lidia the Charm Trader the same as you would your charm when you want to upgrade. Content: Silent halls (tier 14-15) along with it's flagging zone Forest of the Fallen, Sundered Caverns (tier 11-12), Lake of Ill Omen (open exp/quest zone with 6-man area, a couple open world high tier 18-man encounters and one high tier 6-man encounters have been released. Requiem of Hate and Requiem of Fear have been released as a place for new 65 to gain high quality gear. Both zones have a cap on the level of gear allowed in to prevent over-tiered characters from entering (though they can take the gear off and enter). Hate is a 6 man zone intended for fresh 65s that rewards gear up to tier 4-5. Fear is a 12 man zone which rewards gear up to tier 6-7. New content kill videos: Silent Halls kill video thread  Thazeran four tower (boss is a few years old, but hard mode wasn't tuned or killed until last year)  Alter of Bones  FAQ I heard this game is grindy? SoD has a huge amount of custom content, and depending on your view point, that content can translate into a huge grind. Once you hit 65 (which can be done casually with a good duo in a month or two), there are 15 tiers (disclaimer - tiers are judged and listed by players, not developers) of raid content. Each class has 5500+ AAs. One gear slot (charm) is a platinum sink, costing 1.2 million platinum for the best version. Most people take years to max out characters and see all available content. Personally, I was lucky to join with a bunch of new and returning goons, and progress from new 65 to tier 11 over the course of 6 months. During that time I was able to get about 1,000 AAs and farm a 225k charm. Experienced in that fashion, it did not feel grindy; it felt like a ton of cool new zones and fights. However, with most active players in the high tier category, the trickle of new players have a huge time investment to be on par with the player base. When viewed from that perspective, the content becomes a grind. If Season 1 is seen as succussful, Discord chat has mentioned possible further seasons to follow. Hopefully this will provide periodic cohorts for new and returning players to level and progress with. Edit 12/11/20: remembered more content released in the last 2 years. Started FAQ. Added thumbnails for videos. Stonewalljack fucked around with this message at 07:38 on Dec 12, 2020 |
#
?
Dec 6, 2020 05:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 13:17 |
|
|
Stolen from the last OP authored by Roman Rambo. I edited lightly to remove irrelevant information, and clean up links. I also included brief comments on strengths and weaknesses of classes from the perspective of endgame raiding in italics. Shards of Dalaya - Join Us!  Shards of Dalaya - A Day in the Life of Slaariel  Shards of Dalaya (SoD) is a *Goon Created and Goon Run* emulated Everquest server which focuses on creating an experience similar to Everquest Live while providing new experiences and adventures. We have taken the best parts of Everquest and integrated them with entirely new lore and content. We have hand made thousands of quests, NPCs, books, zones and pretty much every other part of our game. Shards of Dalaya is absolutely free, and is run entirely by a passionate volunteer staff. The server is still in active development, with new content being released on a regular patch schedule. Please view our recent patch history on the main page, https://shardsofdalaya.com/ If you have any questions after reading the thread, or just want to hang out, be sure to join us in SoD Discord. Want to skip my pitch? Steam Install Guide SoD also runs beautifully via WINE and Crossover. We have quite a few people who play daily using Linux or OSX. How much does it cost to play? SoD is absolutely free. We take donations to keep the server running, but strongly believe that no amount of money should allow you to gain power over those who do not have money to spend. We offer some toys for monthly donators, but nothing that substantially effects in game power. Tell me more! Shards is the one of the most successful EQ1 emulated server to date, having been run for 16 years, and sporting a playerbase of several thousand active accounts. We've taken EverQuest, spun it around, and created something of a hybrid between the classic game and something new of our own. We've done our best to eliminate the real hassles and boredom of the original game, without taking away the danger and challenge. We have large epic raids, but we've slimmed them down to 18 players to make everyone absolutely vital to the raid instead of just another cog in a machine. Dungeons are there, full with nice loot and frogloks. We have ~160 zones with some 12000+ NPCs and 15000+ items, all created by our own developers. Nothing has been directly copied from the original game, it's essentially an entirely new game in the EQ client.  Stuff for the hardcore Shards appeals to casual and dedicated players alike, just to highlight some of the things that keeps even the most hardcore players playing: This video pretty much exemplifies raiding in SoD: Shards of Dalaya - Prime Enchanter Sil`rel`din. Tough, but satisfying and exciting when you get it right. An established high level population and raiding game. Plenty of content to enjoy on your way to the top! Huge amounts of raiding content that gets progressively harder. See how fast you can take your guild from the bottom to the cutting edge! Dozens of zones and hundreds of mobs of varying tiers, from your average giant gorilla to your stereotypical giant elemental gods and dragons. Hundreds of hours worth of AAs to grind, heavily customized to be more useful for classes that got a bad draw in the original game. A stable and well-balanced game that will not take sudden gigantic leaps in content power to make people buy the latest expansion. Stuff for the casual Many additions have been made to Shards to give even the chillest of players a place to play: Unique Adventuring Bands that allow you to keep gaining experience at the same rate as your friends, regardless of the difference in amount of hours you can play. Treasure hunting, powerful tradeskills, high end dungeons and other casual content as an actual rival to raiding, allowing you to progress even if dragon killing with seventeen buddies isn't your thing. Experience debt puts a limit on how much time bad luck can cost you. Starting cities that are still the centers of player activity, rather than being deserted as in the original game post-Velious. Other cool things An ongoing, dynamic storyline that you are able to participate in and affect. The game world is in the midst of a war, and zones can be gained and lost. Hundreds of quests, including a massive main quest that spans from level 1 to 65, introduces you to the lore of the world, and gives you a number of irreplaceable rewards. A dedicated developer staff that do regular patches and additions of new content. These guys seriously own. A browser based, fully automated character profile system to keep track of your achievements. A relatively comprehensive wikiA relatively comprehensive wiki to help you with questing, finding loot, and doing tradeskills. An online and in game vendor system letting you barter and sell your wares. A server status page. Treasure Hunting and Raids   Shards of Dalaya - Prime Enchanter Sil`rel`din  Master of the Pack Event  Shards of Dalaya Guardian Mephit  Classes Melee Classes Warrior - A lot of custom work has gone into making warriors fun to play. Gone are the days of turning on auto-attack and mashing taunt. Warriors now gain endurance by hitting things and getting hit, and in turn spend stamina to do damage, aggro, and damage mitigation. These guys own. Do you want to own? Play a warrior. - Highest mitigation tank, moderate self sustain, but poorest threat generation. Monk - They punch, and kick, and club stuff really well. They can take hits well, and they're also the best pullers in the game. - Strong dps over time, but low burst. High threat, but great threat management. Rogue - What they lack in utility they make up for in damage, these guys can seriously dish it out. They also can steal from NPCs, burglarize houses and disarm the myriad of traps that exist throughout Dalaya. - Strong dps over time, great burst. Moderate threat, but fewer tools to reduce threat. Hybrid Classes Bard - These guys sing songs. Songs that make orcs weep blood. Songs that can make their groupmates into little demi-gods. They're best described as 60% of every class. They really can do it all, making them a great addition to every party and raid. - Amazing utility, strong personal dps at higher tiers. High threat with difficult threat management. Beastlord - Beastlords are an excellent support class that also can tank and dish damage with their animal companions. - Strong dps over time, but dot dependent and requires wind up. Can put out amazing burst with later game pet buff clickies. Ability to split damage with pet great in many situations. Good utility buffs and pads group with heals. Unfortunately one of the more busy and annoying rotations. Paladin - Paladins excel as tanks of the group or raid, they are particularly strong in controlling aggro on multiple mobs with their area effect spells. Their group heals are also extremely potent and useful in both groups and raids. - Worst mitigation tank but highest threat. Worst self sustain of the tanks while trying to maintain threat. Good utility and great group hots. Ranger - Do you like shooting things with arrows and casting spells? Do you larp as Aragon? Play a ranger. - Decent sustained damage that falls off at the highest tier, amazing burst. Somehow the most fragile dps. Low threat while bowing, but little ability to manage threat. Shadowknight - Excellent tanks with unrivaled aggro generating ability. A Shadowknight are so corrupt that they can damage things simply by touching them. - Moderate mitigation, great self sustain. Great threat generation, though actually less then a paladin going full out. Has unique ability to steal threat generation of a group. Priest Classes Cleric - The strongest healers in the game, somewhat lacking in other utility when compared to druids and shamans. They are always needed in groups and guilds. If you want to be perpetually loved and needed, be a cleric! - Best quick heal, best group heal, best big heal. Can put out some thoughtless dps autoattacking with yaulp line. Druid - A well rounded healer, their heal over time spells are the best out of the priest classes, plus they have damage shields and teleports. - Best raid debuff in game. Decent big and group heals. Best Hots, but hots fall off in efficacy as the game progresses. Amazing AoE damage later in tiers. Shaman - As much of a support class as they are a healer. They buff, slow, heal and poison enemies. They're fun to play and great to have around in any situation. - Worst big heal, no group heal. Near infinite mana, can pad heal a tank for days. Decent debuffs. Can put out surprising dps if doesn't have to heal Pure Casters Enchanter - Extremely powerful if matched with a competent group. Their ability to charm mobs makes them potentially the most powerful dps class in the game. Can channel their groupmates power through themselves, mimicking spells or melee damage for short periods of time. - Top dps in most scenarios; enables other classes burst damage. Great even required utility for some fights; utility ignored on others. No threat management. Magician - Strong pets and area nukes to match. - Strong dps, moderate burst. Dps requires wind up time. Lower dps if can't cast rains. Necromancer - They have the most powerful damage over time spells in the game and good dps overall. - Strong dps that falls off at the highest tier. Low burst dps. Decent utility. Wizard - Versatile damage dealers able to react to situations quickly with an unrivalled selection of single target and area of affect damage. - Stronger dps the shorter the fight, but lose to many others in long single target fights. Only behind rangers and rogues in burst potential. Handles fight mechanics so well they are often required. Races For a quick rundown of the differences between races, see link for handy comparison chart. While races of this game have been pretty well balanced, they are unique enough to make choosing one more than just a cosmetic choice. Deities and Alignment In Shards of Dalaya, you can pledge yourself to one of a number of deities. Doing so grants you a couple of benefits. First off, you'll get a medallion that grants you teleportation from anywhere to your deities plane. Secondly, pledging to a deity grants you access to a quest line that yields an augment for your gear. Lastly, by choosing a deity and making decisions in game that are consistent with that deities own alignment, your character will gain a small bonus to their specializations (such as spell casting, meleeing, and tanking. See '/cmd specialization help' in game for more info.). In short, SoD has an alignment system closely resembling D&D, where you can choose to be Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic, as well as Good, Neutral, or Evil. There are many quests in the game that will affect these alignments, based on how you approach them. Factions There is an over-arching quest line in the game that will eventually have you choosing between one of three rival factions. Which faction you choose will have an impact on the rest of your characters progression. In short, the three factions are: Silvercrown Trading Company: These guys love making money and expanding their influence. A good choice for lawful and good characters. Council of Innovation: Gnomes gone political, they love knowledge. Also a good choice for chaotic, neutral and good characters. Blackscale: Marauders and scoundrels. A good choice for chaotic and evil characters. Stonewalljack fucked around with this message at 07:32 on Dec 12, 2020 |
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2020 05:42
|
|
|
Looks like this server has been running for a while. Are there lots of no-longer-dropping items like Manastone and such that I've missed out on and can't ever get now for joining late (without buying for impossibly inflated prices)?
Sachant fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Dec 6, 2020 |
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2020 06:21
|
|
|
Sachant posted:Looks like this server has been running for a while. Are there lots of no-longer-dropping items like Manastone and such that I've missed out on and can't ever get now for joining late (without buying for impossibly inflated prices)? For the most part no. The ones I can think off the top of my head are: -Animation Blades which are overpowered pet weapons. As they are pet weapons they will slowly be mulched by pet deaths. -Tightly Braided Hair the old halloween quest reward. A smallish lifetap clicky on a decently long cooldown. Casting time makes it a dps loss, would likely use it so infrequently you would forget about it when it might help. -Flame Touched Band decent atk buff clicky for burn phases on a melee character. I sort of wish I had this, but I have enough clickies and procs going during burns I sometimes hit the buff limit and overwrite something important. For the most part items stay in game but get nerfed. Sometimes they can stay in for years before they get nerfed, so you do lose out on using them during their heyday.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2020 06:49
|
|
|
What’re the boxing rules, is it fully allowed or can you only two box, or..? I tried SoD in the past, it was fun.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2020 14:26
|
|
|
please knock Mom! posted:What’re the boxing rules, is it fully allowed or can you only two box, or..? I tried SoD in the past, it was fun. Two box only (and make them on separate accounts or you will just disconnect yourself when you try and log on a second character from the same account).
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2020 15:39
|
|
|
Stonewalljack posted:Two box only (and make them on separate accounts or you will just disconnect yourself when you try and log on a second character from the same account). That's really nice. I enjoy no-boxing, but everything else in p99 is garbage including the community. I'm up for this, honestly. It's been close to a decade since I last played SoD however, so I'm going in blind, naked, and afraid. E: If anyone is game for grouping up, please Orange DeviI fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Dec 6, 2020 |
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2020 15:45
|
|
|
I've tried to get into this a few times but it always felt even grindier/more difficult than P99 which is just lol. Seems really cool though.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2020 18:50
|
|
|
Carmant posted:I've tried to get into this a few times but it always felt even grindier/more difficult than P99 which is just lol. Seems really cool though. How? I just booted it up and I was baffled at how my level 1 warrior lizard dude was able to just take on 4 even cons at the same time at level 1. Back on p99 you probably lost a manfight against a single even con that early. No corpse runs are really nice as well, and you get actual gear right off the bat. Does it get worse later?
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2020 22:25
|
|
|
please knock Mom! posted:How? I just booted it up and I was baffled at how my level 1 warrior lizard dude was able to just take on 4 even cons at the same time at level 1. Back on p99 you probably lost a manfight against a single even con that early. No corpse runs are really nice as well, and you get actual gear right off the bat. Does it get worse later? Iksars and troll regen are quite strong until level 20 or so. Leveling does not involve much grind; and hopefully with the recent buff to most droppable leveling gear it’s even smoother. The grindy part of SoD is the gulf in experience and money (for charms) between new 65s and most of the player base. Hopefully if you are able to ride the wave of new characters and do lower tier raiding to gear up, you will be able to progress more naturally. The money/charm grind should be easier, both because of charm credit drops and because you no longer have to buy tomes. Like any EQ game, a large part of the game is killing monsters for loot and experience. Some players prefer to group for this, and some prefer just to duo and watch streams. If you enjoy the grouping part, hopefully there will be more available in the next few months.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2020 00:15
|
|
|
I started an iksar warrior, and I'm considering an iksar shaman or froglok cleric as a box buddy for him. Dunno which one of the two yet.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2020 04:16
|
|
|
please knock Mom! posted:I started an iksar warrior, and I'm considering an iksar shaman or froglok cleric as a box buddy for him. Dunno which one of the two yet. Shaman is decent for overall convenience, and a desired class (1, maybe 2 in raids are great). Your warrior will be more effective with haste. Shaman have nice mana sustain with canni that is strong early game, but loses some benefit as healer mana pools and proc healing increases. Slows in this game lose power as level increase (Slow Mitigation). Shamans can add some nice dps to a duo, but typically healing is more mana efficient when plowing through mobs. Clerics are the power option, you will heal harder, faster and more efficient but have no utility (edit: you actually have some strong but limited utility in clearing disables with Divine Unbinding and Purify Soul). Clerics tend be more sought after in raids (2-3), but tons of people have a cleric alt. Personally I would prefer a cleric over a shaman as a box; I have used all three healing classes as boxes and find the throughput of a cleric lets me do more. If you value convenience in a box, I urge you to think about druid as well. Personally I don't prefer them over clerics, but their heals are closer in power to clerics. They also have efficient hots, though they eventually fall off in raid value, they are good for duoing/grouping. The ports and tracking are especially empowering as a player less familiar with the server. Their damage shields can add a significant portion of damage, especially on a warrior where you tend to pull more for efficiency. Stonewalljack fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Dec 7, 2020 |
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2020 06:36
|
|
|
Druid could be really nice, yeah. Which race would you suggest on SoD? I was thinking froglok for cleric. Might still go cleric, but I’m fully aware that not having ports probably sucks even with the portal haus closeby. Might go shaman as well, honestly. The race choices for druid are uncharacteristically boring for EQ.
Orange DeviI fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Dec 7, 2020 |
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2020 12:57
|
|
|
please knock Mom! posted:Druid could be really nice, yeah. Which race would you suggest on SoD? I was thinking froglok for cleric. Might still go cleric, but I’m fully aware that not having ports probably sucks even with the portal haus closeby. Might go shaman as well, honestly. The race choices for druid are uncharacteristically boring for EQ. Cleric - no matter what race you pick, you will be able to heal all content in the game. The negative aspect to froglok is they are forced to worship Malath who still doesn't have a fully implemented diety augment quest. The stat gains from the augment are not really significant in the end, so if you enjoy their look don't let it stop you. Dark elf is a popular choice for ultravision (which priests aren't guaranteed to always have on their gear) and their size; they are small enough to be comfortable in any indoor zone but not to small to get stuck on stairs. Their are several racials which can benefit cleric healing and damage output, such a mana regen from high elf, spell crit from erudite (for weapon procs and the zealot line), and proc chance from gnomes. Gnomes probably have the most scaleable racial as clerics turn into proc machines later on (heal procs from bracers, damage/heal procs from weapons, damage proc from divine rage, bash procs, and haste + more damage procs from the final yaulp). Also gnomes get the most useful 'provenance' gate in the late game. Overgrowth is a nice 65 raid and exp zone off of underhill, for which the gate neck is a low chance rng reward from a repeatable quest, and quite a pain to get. If you go gnome make sure to pick a headmaster's visage before you level to 30 from the cesspits, you can pop it in whenever you need a height boost. Cesspits is a nice dungeon duoable around 15 or so, but level locked to characters 30 and higher. Shaman - for race you can pick something synergistic with canni such as ogre (take less damage from self harm) or troll/iksar (regen). If you go a large race I would recommend headmaster's visage like with gnome, as it can be annoying to have a spell slot taken by shrink constantly. The other racial consideration is charisma, as that helps your debuffs land. Druid - as you said boring, stand out synergy is probably human or half elf for the increased chance for debuff's to land. Druid's have on of the strongest raid debuffs in the game with their archaic, as it lowers boss ac and increase spell damage taken.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2020 16:12
|
|
|
Cool! I think I'll go with a shaman for now. More utility than a cleric, and I don't think I'm cut out for raiding anyway (busy schedule so I have like one or max two nights a week). I got my warrior to level 10, and right now I'm just trying to find that giant leech for the blackscale greaves quest. So far it's pretty fun, your character doesn't feel as weak as in p99 and apparently warriors get a skill at level 15 which lets them kill things super effectively.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2020 16:40
|
|
|
Yeah, bloodlust is a great sustain ability, it heals you for atleast 20% (can be increased to about 27% with healing increment focus)of your melee damage. You can keep it up 6 out of every 10 seconds (eventually can be 6 out of 9.5 seconds with an AA unlocked from a book). I’ve been playing around with new characters to practice for seasons. With the recent buff changes, shaman should have additional strength while leveling as you can just maintain your large amount of static buffs without having to recast every 20 minutes.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2020 17:21
|
|
|
Stonewalljack posted:Yeah, bloodlust is a great sustain ability, it heals you for atleast 20% (can be increased to about 27% with healing increment focus)of your melee damage. You can keep it up 6 out of every 10 seconds (eventually can be 6 out of 9.5 seconds with an AA unlocked from a book). Yeah, I heard some complaints about this buff change, but it kind of owns if you're boxing. I don't really like boxing that much, though. Much prefer playing a single character while very occasionally pressing a button on the second one. Might just go cleric just because of that--it's a much more passive second box. Game's really low pop, though. It's doable, but... jarring change from P99. Orange DeviI fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Dec 7, 2020 |
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2020 17:44
|
|
|
Woah this is really neat and I might have to log in again.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2020 18:44
|
|
|
please knock Mom! posted:Yeah, I heard some complaints about this buff change, but it kind of owns if you're boxing. I don't really like boxing that much, though. Much prefer playing a single character while very occasionally pressing a button on the second one. Might just go cleric just because of that--it's a much more passive second box. Buffs changes - they definitely needed to be changed. As a new player the change is entirely beneficial, which I think was the intent (the administrator Jumbers does not ever communicate his overall vision for the server). As an established player, it is a nerf depending on class. Melee classes were hit disproportionately hard, as they rely on more buffs to reach their potential (easy to do in a raid, but requires a tailored group for exp, where casters basically just need mana regen). My warrior and monk lost 20% damage output in my duo from loss of atk, haste, and damage shield, while my cleric is virtually untouched (a little lower mana regen with the new potions but unnoticeable). Many of us argued if all this work was going to be done, that we preferred to eliminate buffs entirely and increase the active power of classes to make up for buff removal. My guess is (and this is entirely hypothetical) that a change that big was beyond the scope of dev resources for balancing and possibly would be too far a departure from the server's Everquest origins. Population - 10 years ago the population would reach 200-300 at peak times. A long break in new content, along with some unpopular decisions over the years by administrators (e.g. shifting to a new client in 2015 that took 3 or so years to eliminate major bugs, removing an end game raid zone in 2013 that took 5 or so years to replace), gutted the active player base for years. In the last 3 years there has been a lot of good content put out that has swung population up to 130s at peak time. However, it’s been 2 years since a large amount of new content was released (silent halls), so many much of the player base was burning out farming content for alt characters. When the buff change hit, it demotivated a lot of those players from logging in. Over the last several months there has been a good amount of work by the dev team (who are awesome by the way, they are individually communicative and pleasant to interact with, though are restricted in what they can reveal by administration) on the leveling experience. While I hope this will benefit the long term health of the server, it has allowed it to wane in the short term as people take a break to experience other mmo/game content releases. With the release of season 1, I expect the population to jump again, especially at the lower levels. Just in my guild, many who aren't currently playing have already posted interest in a seasonal guild (21 total so far, 15 who aren't playing at all right now). This was my main motivation for making a new something awful post; I was able to get in with a big group of goons going up through the tiers in 2014 and really enjoyed it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2020 20:19
|
|
|
Yeah, that makes sense. The discord is nice enough. I'm game for joining a seasonal guild, but I'm in a European time zone and not exactly cut out for long-term hardcore playing, so that's an issue I think.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2020 21:41
|
|
|
SoD is good, the grind can be (was?) a bit brutal. Did the goon rush like 6-7 years ago, ended up getting up to turruj and doing the firebird in PoFire (so like T14?) but we petered out and life happened. It's a ton of fun though, it's a ton of fun leveling with people and getting into raiding isn't too bad, up to like t9/10 it wasn't a horrible grind.
|
|
#
?
Dec 8, 2020 05:52
|
|
|
Woo, I got one or two friends new to EQ (lmao) to join me. They found P99 too punishing, and I completely expect them to flunk out in the first week or so, I wouldn't blame them either. My shaman/warrior test drive went pretty well, got them up to level 15 and they're plowing through Halls of Mielech. It's my 8th EQ warrior though, and my P99 main was an epic'd shaman, so I think I'll try something else. We're likely going all-iksar, with one of my friends single-boxing a monk. I think I'll go iksar shadowknight for a change, mostly since I don't want my new-to-EQ friend to be in charge of pulling entirely by himself. I might box us a healer, since SK/monk sounds like a garbage combo by itself, and a healer might let us achieve great things. Halls of Mielech is pretty neat. The loot was updated, and one of the early named mobs drops a 20 AC chestpiece with bane and stats as well as a 5/10 (!) ratio 1hb weapon. It's lore, but both SK and monk are going to love that thing. Where P99 is almost more of a survival game early on, SoD lets me chill a little while also allowing me to take a risk every now and then without the drawback of a mile-long corpse run and/or loss of levels. The XP debt is just enough to keep you on your toes without sucking the fun out of things. I'm pretty glad. The only downside is that so far, I've gotten the impression that the playerbase is mainly a hard core of... well, very hardcore players. I'm not sure that I'm a great match, but I'll get by. If my friends end up dropping out I'll just continue two-manning it with my SK and shaman.
|
|
#
?
Dec 8, 2020 22:47
|
|
|
I hope your friends enjoy it and they stick with you. Sk and monk would definitely benefit from a healer. I agree, the ability to duo stuff and make progress with paying half attention is what keeps me around. I enjoy just having something to do while watching streams after work. I’m also excited to see the new loot. I played around with a monk/cleric up to 10 just to test how it felt, and it was solid even with mostly random cloth gear. If you do stick with cleric, make sure not to miss zealots strike at 14, it’s a DD which heals the mobs target (whoever is tanking). It’s not as mana efficient as a straight heal, but is nice if you are not burning all your mana. A lot of the SoD player base has been around for over a decade. They will be polite and answer questions, but typically not invest time in playing with new players immediately. As with any game, there is quite a bit of turnover as people get the feel of the game over the first couple weeks or months. It sounds like you are approaching it right, trying out different classes to see when you will enjoy most. I tried out several class combos, taking some to 65 playing on and off over the course of years when I first started. SoD is an old game with a lot of content, there is no need to rush through it. When new content does come out, it is not typically a large increase in power. Part of the draw for me is I have taken breaks for years, but come back to characters which have not depreciated much.
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2020 01:42
|
|
|
wow SoD takes me back. Really happy to see the nice effort post. Two boxing is perfect for me . May have to fire this guy up! What do you mean by standard characters not being able to interact with seasonal chars? Can they not trade? If not can items just be dumped on the ground? Also does the client support old models?
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2020 08:29
|
|
|
cmdrk posted:Also does the client support old models? Yeah, use the graphics settings. Also, even if players would be able to interact through standard<->seasonal, it's explicitly not allowed, so... Stonewalljack posted:A lot of the SoD player base has been around for over a decade. They will be polite and answer questions, but typically not invest time in playing with new players immediately. As with any game, there is quite a bit of turnover as people get the feel of the game over the first couple weeks or months. I mean, I epic'd a shaman in P99, so I definitely have the brain damage required to stick with this. It's fun to do a custom EQ story, and I like the personal progression achieved through AAs. I'd be extremely surprised if my friends stick with it longer than a quick tour of this crazy old MMO. What's the approximate level at which the existing game community roughly considers you as someone who isn't going to quit in a week?
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2020 14:45
|
|
|
cmdrk posted:wow SoD takes me back. Really happy to see the nice effort post. Two boxing is perfect for me . May have to fire this guy up! Thanks! From devs talking in discord items are flagged as seasonal or not seasonal; so if a non-season character trades, drops an item on the ground or sells it to a vendor a season character shouldn’t be able to pick it up. You can talk with each other, and be affected by groups in the same dungeon in terms of killing each other’s mobs. According to one of the devs creating a season server just didn’t occur to them this time. Yes it supports old and luclin models.
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2020 15:45
|
|
|
please knock Mom! posted:I mean, I epic'd a shaman in P99, so I definitely have the brain damage required to stick with this. It's fun to do a custom EQ story, and I like the personal progression achieved through AAs. I'd be extremely surprised if my friends stick with it longer than a quick tour of this crazy old MMO. What's the approximate level at which the existing game community roughly considers you as someone who isn't going to quit in a week? It tends to be more of random chance over time thing; if you are doing something when someone else is bored or doing the same thing they’ll interact. At low levels typically it’s less rare to be doing something you both can have fun with. I’m happy to play with you when season starts, though my play time can vary by day. Not playing much right now other then testing stuff occasionally. I’m Daemong on the SoD discord.
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2020 15:49
|
|
|
Stonewalljack posted:It tends to be more of random chance over time thing; if you are doing something when someone else is bored or doing the same thing they’ll interact. At low levels typically it’s less rare to be doing something you both can have fun with. I’m happy to play with you when season starts, though my play time can vary by day. Not playing much right now other then testing stuff occasionally. I’m Daemong on the SoD discord. I'm catte#1312 on Discord. I'd be glad to meet up with you for sure. I don't think we'll 'keep up' with anyone else though, since I'm planning to get my friends a somewhat curated experience by doing their class quests and other random exploration/adventuring type things instead of efficiently exping. You're welcome to join, or help, or just hang out with us, we're pretty chill people. If my friends end up quitting I'll be game for just latching on to you and grinding exp as well.
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2020 16:17
|
|
|
I could probably give this game a try. Not sure which class I'd want to go to, though might be leaning towards either Beastlord, Enchanter, Druid, Necromancer, or Magician. Can beastlords tame other things as pets? Kinda want to have a bug of sorts as a pet, though I share very little experience with EQ stuff.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 00:48
|
|
|
LordOfTheNoobs posted:Can beastlords tame other things as pets? Kinda want to have a bug of sorts as a pet, though I share very little experience with EQ stuff. There's a list of possible pets per race here: https://wiki.shardsofdalaya.com/index.php/Beastlord You get your pet at level 9, and you can change it to another pet with an apparently (according to the wiki) difficult questline, so you can't just pick any model you want. My friends and I are pretty EU-based, by the way. All the classes you listed are traditionally EQ soloing powerhouses though, and they all work decently enough with a duo partner as well.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 00:59
|
|
|
please knock Mom! posted:There's a list of possible pets per race here: https://wiki.shardsofdalaya.com/index.php/Beastlord Thanks for the advice, though not sure which race to go for, since it doesn't seem to have any insect pets available.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 01:13
|
|
|
Slugs don't count?  I charm-killed bugs a lot as a Druid on other servers, but that's all I know.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 01:21
|
|
|
Slugs are cute too. Is there multiclassing? Wondering if I could be some druid/beastlord class? Also can I choose one of the other races' pets if I do that quest thing?
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 01:33
|
|
|
LordOfTheNoobs posted:Slugs are cute too. No multiclassing, but you are allowed to duo. I would strongly suggest duoing, but I know a lot of new players prefer to start with one character. I know I did, but eventually made a duo as there is a much more you can get done on your own. If nothing else having something you sit in a corner for buffs/ports/patch heals is nice. The game is slow and simple enough to typically get use out of a box. As stated already, any of those classes can solo though. Beastlords cannot charm new landscape pets, and I think even if doing the quest to pick a new one they have to stick with the original 3. I’m not sure of that though, feel free to jump in discord and ask.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 02:18
|
|
|
Stonewalljack posted:No multiclassing, but you are allowed to duo. I would strongly suggest duoing, but I know a lot of new players prefer to start with one character. I know I did, but eventually made a duo as there is a much more you can get done on your own. If nothing else having something you sit in a corner for buffs/ports/patch heals is nice. The game is slow and simple enough to typically get use out of a box. As stated already, any of those classes can solo though. I see. Boxing sounds fun. I'll probably hop into the discord some time and ask a couple questions there.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 03:00
|
|
|
It's a really good time to jump in and putter around a bit. I know I will be making a new set of characters for Season 1 and the interest seems decent. If you are a returning player the grind for season characters is lessoned as tomes/tome AAs will not be doable during this season.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 06:10
|
|
|
I just hope the existing playerbase will try pulling new blood into the fold instead of treating it like a straight up race, though the rewards might disincentivize that
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2020 19:28
|
|
|
There will be a bit of both. A lot of us who play have full time jobs and family responsibilities, and are able to get deep into SoD by virtue of it's slow content release. The exp rewarded and new buff system incentivize grouping while leveling. Killing a mob solo gives you a 100% of its exp. Killing it in a group of 2-6 gives everyone 50% of its exp, so adding new members cost nothing. With the new buffs, people will be looking to add buffing classes especially.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2020 03:24
|
|
|
what's this server like these days if I don't really enjoy raiding? edit: like, level cap content for people who just can't stand groups bigger than 6
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2020 03:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 13:17 |
|
|
The adventuring band system owns, honestly. The fact I can set up a leveling static without actually scheduling playing times during covid-bullshit is great.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2020 10:03
|
|