Varlos
11-20-2004, 12:55 PM
First of all, these are just some ideas that I'd like to see someone try(if they haven't been already). I am in no way creating this server as it isn't feasible with my inexperience in coding and lack of a server that would handle a high player-base. These are just some ideas to ponder over.
http://www.eqemulator.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=107838#107838 is a post I made on what I think help to make a good server.....I will go by those characteristics of a good server to list why I like this idea for a PvP server.
1.) Stability and bugs - A large problem for many server ops is taking on a too large project. Cut out all of the expansions. Here we have a classic server. Less zones for the server to handle, less zones for you to worry about populating and fixing bugs in, and you can customize them as you wish. Before you move on and start getting more staff, go ahead and fix the little bugs that come with getting a server up. Don't let anyone else on until you fix the problems you can go ahead and get rid of. Go ahead and do as much as you can already. If you can't do this part on your own, you shouldn't be running a server!
2.) Staff - Don't recruit from the forums. Period. Well, don't make a post about it anyways. Make friends. Find out if your friends are good at coding, whether it be quests, or find out how experienced they are with EQ. Make sure they are trustworthy, otherwise your server will fall(edit: Wiz made a superb post outlining what type of staff you need, read his post. Not only for the staff subject, but it should be required reading for starting a server in general!). They could even make good quest idea creators, or item creators, etc. The little tasks need to be done as well, but don't have such a large staff that there is room for corrupt GM's to not catch your eye. You are in charge, you run the server, don't forget that. Make it well known that you won't tolerate GM favoritism, stupidity, and other things that are bad qualities in staff members. Previously known friends make the best staff members as you already know their personalities and their attitudes. You can always teach someone their job if they work hard, are dedicated, and somewhat intelligent. Sometimes you may want to PM people from the forums to get to know them better if you think they might be good staff members and such, but most of the time it's not recommended :wink: Edit: Wiz stated that GM's must be literate, and I can't agree with him more. If you have a GM that says "hey there im GM joe wuts ur prob" to players, they obviously aren't going to be taken very seriously...also remember, GM's can be replaced, not so much as Server Admins/Managers(see Wiz's post).
3.) Alright, so you've got the basics down. Classic EQ with major bugs taken care of and a competent staff diligently working(or so you hope). You should specify to your staff what type of server you're going for before you send them off to work. Legit is the most popular server, no special commands and such. Custom-legit is effective because it's very hard to go strictly with legit classic live. Well technically, it's impossible, but...you know what I mean.
4.) Next, decide the 2nd aspect of your server. It's content. Will it be PvE? Will it be PvP? I say go with PvP. Many people are looking for a nice balanced PvP servers these days. Let's take a look at the things you'll need to do to your classic world to make it good for PvP: condensation. Condense the player base into a smaller area for PvP. I suggest taking out Odus and Faydwer. Make it just Antonica(no I'm not going for EQ2 feel here, and my name isn't from EQ2's captain varlos.....this was my first name in EQ, just an fyi). However much further you want to condense(as in can condense to one city, etc.....Qeynos would be a good city for this) is up to you. Also, make plenty of PvE content, and add a huge bonus for grouping, so people will be more apt to group and people who just start wont be left out.
5.(skipping expansion content as we already covered it) - The last problem I stated was beginners not being able to jump right in the action. This is where my ideas come into player largely. What we have now is a classic condensed legit PvP server. To make this different from all the other ones that have been tried are the following ideas:
a.) Remember the discord server on eqlive from a couple of years ago? This idea is based a little from that. Whenever someone dies, they revert to level 1(unless they do the feature in idea C, just read on.) Make the PvP starting level be 6 or so. Just so newbs can't be ganked right off the bat. Or right when they die. Also disable anon and roleplay, so people can hunt others down. Do not have any expansions or quick way to travel!!! This could ruin the server.
b.) Definitely make one city the starting city for all others. This way not only are there plenty of people to kill, but everyone has to hunt near each other. As well as there are plenty of oppurtunities to group(this is where the group bonus comes in, everyone will want to group). Give melees a little bonus since most of the pvp will be low level, since if you die you revert to level 1.
c.) Create a points system that you can't buy items with, but better yet, you could store your level and items equipped at the time you use commands that take these points. For example, you get 10 points for killing someone 5 levels from you(if you're in a group of 5 or 6, each person in the group should get for example 2 points, 4 in the group should get 3 points each, 3 in the group gets 4 each, and 2 in the group gets 5 each, to even it out and have less ganking for points), and if in a group it would be within 5 levels of lowest player in group. Then, you could use points you get to spend for example 150 on a #storelevel command that would revert you back to your last store level. The first store level being level 5, then 250 points for 10, and then 350 points for 15(can't give them too much of an advantage with the use of this, so don't go past level 15). This way the next time you die you only revert back that level with the newb items you spawn with(not all of your items). Then for 300 points you could #storeequip so when you die and are reverted back to level 1(or your store level if you've stored your level already), you have all of the gear you're using at the time of the command being used. I'm not quite sure if these features would be possible with coding as I'm not an experienced coder, but it sure would be nifty. Heck, you could even make them use #storebank to use shared bank slot so if they die they could access that to get their items. Reverting them to level 5, 10, 15, etc., wouldn't be that hard, though, I'm guessing.
d.) Have everyone start in Qeynos, and keep all Antonica zones in, but have it so they can't zone to Everfrost or West Karana until they're level 8 or so, so no one can sneak off and level in eastern Antonica while no one can get to them(make them actually be vulnerable for a few levels). Have all GM trainers and spell merchants in Qeynos for all classes(don't forget this, you don't want unhappy players).
d.) Add in server wipes every month, 2 months, or whenever, so if anyone actually got about level 40, they wouldn't be able to ruin everyone else's fun. You could even put in a PvP cap of 10 levels, as to stop too much high level ganking, and even prevent people from wanting to get too high in levels(what fun would that be?).
I'm sure I've not covered every aspect of a server like this, but I believe with everyone staying pretty low in level, it would be more fun and no one would "rule" this type of a PvP server, and just about anyone could jump right in and play. I have to admit, some people would get tired of this type of a server, but it would be fun for a lot of people, and a lot of people I know(including myself) would like this.
Hopefully some intelligent person will read this and at least think it's a nifty idea, because this took a pretty long while to type up. :P
http://www.eqemulator.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=107838#107838 is a post I made on what I think help to make a good server.....I will go by those characteristics of a good server to list why I like this idea for a PvP server.
1.) Stability and bugs - A large problem for many server ops is taking on a too large project. Cut out all of the expansions. Here we have a classic server. Less zones for the server to handle, less zones for you to worry about populating and fixing bugs in, and you can customize them as you wish. Before you move on and start getting more staff, go ahead and fix the little bugs that come with getting a server up. Don't let anyone else on until you fix the problems you can go ahead and get rid of. Go ahead and do as much as you can already. If you can't do this part on your own, you shouldn't be running a server!
2.) Staff - Don't recruit from the forums. Period. Well, don't make a post about it anyways. Make friends. Find out if your friends are good at coding, whether it be quests, or find out how experienced they are with EQ. Make sure they are trustworthy, otherwise your server will fall(edit: Wiz made a superb post outlining what type of staff you need, read his post. Not only for the staff subject, but it should be required reading for starting a server in general!). They could even make good quest idea creators, or item creators, etc. The little tasks need to be done as well, but don't have such a large staff that there is room for corrupt GM's to not catch your eye. You are in charge, you run the server, don't forget that. Make it well known that you won't tolerate GM favoritism, stupidity, and other things that are bad qualities in staff members. Previously known friends make the best staff members as you already know their personalities and their attitudes. You can always teach someone their job if they work hard, are dedicated, and somewhat intelligent. Sometimes you may want to PM people from the forums to get to know them better if you think they might be good staff members and such, but most of the time it's not recommended :wink: Edit: Wiz stated that GM's must be literate, and I can't agree with him more. If you have a GM that says "hey there im GM joe wuts ur prob" to players, they obviously aren't going to be taken very seriously...also remember, GM's can be replaced, not so much as Server Admins/Managers(see Wiz's post).
3.) Alright, so you've got the basics down. Classic EQ with major bugs taken care of and a competent staff diligently working(or so you hope). You should specify to your staff what type of server you're going for before you send them off to work. Legit is the most popular server, no special commands and such. Custom-legit is effective because it's very hard to go strictly with legit classic live. Well technically, it's impossible, but...you know what I mean.
4.) Next, decide the 2nd aspect of your server. It's content. Will it be PvE? Will it be PvP? I say go with PvP. Many people are looking for a nice balanced PvP servers these days. Let's take a look at the things you'll need to do to your classic world to make it good for PvP: condensation. Condense the player base into a smaller area for PvP. I suggest taking out Odus and Faydwer. Make it just Antonica(no I'm not going for EQ2 feel here, and my name isn't from EQ2's captain varlos.....this was my first name in EQ, just an fyi). However much further you want to condense(as in can condense to one city, etc.....Qeynos would be a good city for this) is up to you. Also, make plenty of PvE content, and add a huge bonus for grouping, so people will be more apt to group and people who just start wont be left out.
5.(skipping expansion content as we already covered it) - The last problem I stated was beginners not being able to jump right in the action. This is where my ideas come into player largely. What we have now is a classic condensed legit PvP server. To make this different from all the other ones that have been tried are the following ideas:
a.) Remember the discord server on eqlive from a couple of years ago? This idea is based a little from that. Whenever someone dies, they revert to level 1(unless they do the feature in idea C, just read on.) Make the PvP starting level be 6 or so. Just so newbs can't be ganked right off the bat. Or right when they die. Also disable anon and roleplay, so people can hunt others down. Do not have any expansions or quick way to travel!!! This could ruin the server.
b.) Definitely make one city the starting city for all others. This way not only are there plenty of people to kill, but everyone has to hunt near each other. As well as there are plenty of oppurtunities to group(this is where the group bonus comes in, everyone will want to group). Give melees a little bonus since most of the pvp will be low level, since if you die you revert to level 1.
c.) Create a points system that you can't buy items with, but better yet, you could store your level and items equipped at the time you use commands that take these points. For example, you get 10 points for killing someone 5 levels from you(if you're in a group of 5 or 6, each person in the group should get for example 2 points, 4 in the group should get 3 points each, 3 in the group gets 4 each, and 2 in the group gets 5 each, to even it out and have less ganking for points), and if in a group it would be within 5 levels of lowest player in group. Then, you could use points you get to spend for example 150 on a #storelevel command that would revert you back to your last store level. The first store level being level 5, then 250 points for 10, and then 350 points for 15(can't give them too much of an advantage with the use of this, so don't go past level 15). This way the next time you die you only revert back that level with the newb items you spawn with(not all of your items). Then for 300 points you could #storeequip so when you die and are reverted back to level 1(or your store level if you've stored your level already), you have all of the gear you're using at the time of the command being used. I'm not quite sure if these features would be possible with coding as I'm not an experienced coder, but it sure would be nifty. Heck, you could even make them use #storebank to use shared bank slot so if they die they could access that to get their items. Reverting them to level 5, 10, 15, etc., wouldn't be that hard, though, I'm guessing.
d.) Have everyone start in Qeynos, and keep all Antonica zones in, but have it so they can't zone to Everfrost or West Karana until they're level 8 or so, so no one can sneak off and level in eastern Antonica while no one can get to them(make them actually be vulnerable for a few levels). Have all GM trainers and spell merchants in Qeynos for all classes(don't forget this, you don't want unhappy players).
d.) Add in server wipes every month, 2 months, or whenever, so if anyone actually got about level 40, they wouldn't be able to ruin everyone else's fun. You could even put in a PvP cap of 10 levels, as to stop too much high level ganking, and even prevent people from wanting to get too high in levels(what fun would that be?).
I'm sure I've not covered every aspect of a server like this, but I believe with everyone staying pretty low in level, it would be more fun and no one would "rule" this type of a PvP server, and just about anyone could jump right in and play. I have to admit, some people would get tired of this type of a server, but it would be fun for a lot of people, and a lot of people I know(including myself) would like this.
Hopefully some intelligent person will read this and at least think it's a nifty idea, because this took a pretty long while to type up. :P