EQ2002: The Better Planes of Power [ROF2]
 

Hey folks,

It's been a while since I had an EverQuest itch, let alone any sort of itch for EverQuest :)

I'd like to share with you all what I have been working on, and would appreciate some feedback regarding the concept.

What is EQ2002/BetterEQ?

EverQuest 2002: The Better Planes of Power is a new server similar to The Al'Kabor Project or Project2002 - but instead of recreating the era as it was in to a tee, I am allowing modern conveniences that are seen in servers such as Phinigel to exist.
Consider it a server that is aiming to recreate the feeling of 2002 EverQuest, but with modern conveniences that do not compromise the experience such as instancing, IP limits, mercenaries (at 10% effectiveness), the extended target window, and aggro meters.
One thing that will be removed, however, is the resting feature from modern EQ. This is the only feature I feel that is too extreme to keep in. The lack of resting would only

Why do we need this? What separates the server from Phinigel and what separates the server from TAKP/P2002?
Phinigel does not recreate the era and mechanics close enough that you would find the experience enjoyable or challenging, but TAKP/P2002's clients, 3-boxing limit, and contested environments leave out the casual player that just wants to play EverQuest through rose-tinted glasses using a single character.
To come to these conclusions, I ask myself, "is this a game I would like to play?" and make changes based on that. In a traditional Dungeons and Dragons sense, it is up to your game master to create the world and for you to embrace the experience within.

Policies, Rules and Regulations

• Experience gain will be close, or similar, to the P99 rate of experience. The reason for this is the modern benefits of being able to progress all the time.
  
  
• MacroQuest/Cheating/Automation is high treason. You will be executed for using exploits of any kind if found out. By executed, I mean de-leveled to 1 with all your gear nuked. There won't be punishments for guild drama as every raid zone will eventually be instanced. As such, there will be little rule enforcement outside of this.
  
  
• Corpse runs will be disabled, however, res effects will be applied for full duration upon death above level 30 or higher, or rez - additionally, your mana pool and endurance pool will be set to 0 if level 30 or higher. I realize you all have lives, and some of you wives. Medding for 5 minutes won't kill you.
  
  
• You choose when to have an experience bonus via the once-per-day 30 minute experience buff, located under your AAs. When this is depleted, you have to gain experience the old way for 24 hours.
  
  
• The Vet AA that returns you to guild lobby functions once per day, and takes you to PoK; One of the most frustrating functions of classic EverQuest is that you will end up getting left behind on a raid or group as a melee, with no port out. This is also a great way of getting a level 1 to PoK to get a mercenary.
  
  
• Mercenaries are enabled, however, they have 10% of the stats they normally do on live. This is in order to re-balance mercenaries and provide a method for soloing on melee classes. Or maybe you just need to fill a spot in your group; I am not your dad, I don't tell you what to do. There is a single mercenary vendor in PoK near the Main Bank. If you prefer a chick to follow you around, there's one at the Dark Bank, because girls are edgy.
  
  
• High ZEM (zone experience modifier) zones, such as any zone that has a ZEM over 110, are now set to 110. This is to allow for variety in dungeon crawls and to prevent the situation where Highkeep is the only zone to play in.
  
  
• IP limit of 1 character. This is to ensure you don't get carpal tunnel or frustration from boxing multiple characters. Unless you play a bard on P99, then you have other issues. Strictly speaking, this is one of the defining features of the server.
  
  
• Instancing. We're all adults now, I don't think there is/was a person who used to play EverQuest that is still in highschool/college unless they saw their dad playing it at one point. Camping/socking NPCs is something I would like to keep in the past.
  
  
• IP exemptions will not be handed out until the server is more established. I don't care that your mother/father/gentleman/wife/dog wants to play EverQuest, they can play it later.
  
  
• All zones have been returned to their classic variants except for the Bazaar and Arena. This is just, in general, a good idea and adds to the experience. This includes highkeep.
  
  
• The spells file used on this server is from the latest Rain of Fear client, in order to provide modern focus/worn support and general gameplay enhancements. In addition, spells from later eras, such as Salve and Discs are in. There are optional text file downloads that you may have to perform to play this server, more information in the MOTD when you log in.
  
  
• Tradeskills function like live. Not much to say here. Less carpal tunnel.
  
  
• Extended Target / Threat Meter is in.

Feedback
I would like to hear feedback, so please post in this topic with your experiences or if you have any suggestions. I am open to suggestions but very concrete on this plan for the game server.

Testing
There will be an open test this weekend based on what I have completed thus far. The server will be open from 12AM EST March 11th, 2017 until 12AM EST March 13th, 2017 and changes will be made based on your feedback.

Special thanks
Lastly, I would like to give thanks to the EQEmulator, PEQ and TAKP team and contributors for making this possible and for maintaining the codebase for all of these years. The emulator is in a shape it's never been before, and it's all thanks to you guys.

And how long before you get bored of this and abandon it? I cannot believe anyone would play on one of your servers. No one's characters are safe. How many is this for you now? Any player can go back years and years ago and see all the threads of the abandoned servers you created. You just start them up, play with them a while and then either get pissed or bored of it and abandon. This is going to be like watching a rerun of "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray.

You talk like these servers owe you something. They are not obligated to commit themselves to a lifetime of creating enjoyment for you, so enjoy them when they are around.
drama queens with no gratitude for anything.

No, they do not owe me anything. But reading the fallout for the 20th time is entertaining. I will just pull up a chair and eat some popcorn. Hell why not, should be entertaining again....

/chomp_popcorn

I am not forcing you or anyone else to play here. I am providing an option for you to play EverQuest.

If you don't like it, or myself - don't play here.

Not an issue, most will not. Also nice how you do not have to go through the normal server procedures to get a green server.

That's okay, I wasn't looking for your approval anyways.

The server is not green, that was an accident based on an old server I ran.

Nice accident. Been like that a few days now. Cannot get the accident fixed?

If I had control over the server listings, I would change it. Talk to Akkadius about it.

I will quit pooping on your thread, but I do not think I will be the last one with an opinion on this.

I don't expect you to be.

Thank you for being respectful.

By the looks of this whole Server Discussion section, it's just not worth it to post a discussion on here and expect an intelligent
conversation. This server hasn't even started yet. Definately an eye opener for me. I am a big fan of classic era servers, so I
hope it goes well with you Secrets.

Thank you; I hope it goes well too.
I look forward to anyone checking things out.

I have opened the server in a testing phase a bit early. Barring major exploits, I do not expect a wipe at this time, but be prepared in any case if something goes wrong.

The only thing that I have against Secrets is that he still hasn't seen Grandma's Boy after I've been telling him to see it for years.

I even bought the movie and haven't watched it yet.

Well, I'm on this server right now with an RoF2. (There's a link for files in motd when you log on 1st time), I can say the experience he
indicated in his post is bang on. Whether you like it or not, haha. Cranked up a warrior and I'm having a blast :)

U shall check it out cus why not ? I'm assuming it's not really tuned for soloing ?

Increase xp by 2x
Increase stats 2-3x
Increase pets 2x
Scale mobs for soloing w/ merc
I hate to be pessimistic but I highly doubt you see more than 10 people logged in at once.
It needs to be a solo server. GL!

There's a few servers that exists like this on the list. Nagafen's Lair and Visions of Grandeur.

My goal is not to target their playerbase or any other niche but to provide an experience that I feel is enjoyable. If it's not for you, it's not for you. Simple as that.

And yet, another player looking for his own selfish needs in a server. But hey, Kavanah, if you can convince a server
like P99 (with more than 10 players) to do a total revamp and put up one of those disneyland servers with a magic
carpet ride to the end game and drop a low level Quarm in your lap, then you will see more of those servers created.
But until then, you are going to see a lot more servers like these in the future. Even though EQEmu is not a
preservation of any EQ era, most people creating a server are doing it with their own visions, goals and preferences.
There is already plenty of what you are looking for on the list Kavanah and if none of them suits your needs, I
wish you luck in finding out exactly what you're not seeing there.

Awesome idea here!

He asked for us to play it and give feedback. I did it very simply and voiced my concern and you're going to be an asshat and attack me? You give a stupid ass strawman argument with your a priori based on MY a posteriori. GTFO of here man. Worthless internet bully.

Also, your comparison of P99 to this server is the absolute most braindead thing I've ever seen.

I am sorry to butt into something that does not warrant a 3rd party, or another needle, but could you please tell me where he was bullying you? I am pretty concerned you think that is bullying as you were entirely rude back to him.

Please grow up.

I think the server idea is good, but a little too late. I love me some old school but i have done it quite a bit.

Server is now migrated to new hosting (thanks Akkadius for the swift turnaround on getting something set up!) and is now in an open testing phase. This phase will last indefinitely, and the server will remain up during this time. There are no plans for wipes at this time.

This server has a discord server which you can join by visiting this link or by adding it to your list of discord servers via this link: https://discord.gg/HDrfnaG

Information about the server is also provided on discord in the #info channel, and future patchnotes will be posted in the #changelist channel. There is also a bridge to global OOC, which is one-way by design (Ingame -> Discord).

He wasn't rude to him at all.

And ... Secrets is it?

Do this.

Using your intended rule set up, run a Vulak encounter. Find willing participants, zap them to 60, give them the usual gear short of NToV you see listed on the P1999 gearing lists.

Then see how many people it takes you to do it with the way you want to run the server. Same with Avatar, etc.

Dunno maybe things work different if 20 people show up with Cleric mercs, but I'm pretty sure 20 people at level 60 with that kind of gear aren't doing Vulak.

See this is the thing I'm not sure you guys (meaning everyone who sets up these kinds of servers) is getting, and it's pretty obvious.

Starting with Velious there was an order of magnitude ramp up in the hit points of these raid mobs. You can go a long way in Kunark, doing what I call 32k mobs.

But in Velious the hp's go through the roof, and you have to keep things going a lot longer. And that means a sheer number of people, particularly healers, than I think an EMU can reasonably expect to have a bout of nostalgia.

Now you might say players can't expect to do every mob in the game. Nope, sorry point is non-negotiable. I want my character to get the lovely Vulak loot I always dreamed of.

And it better be doable with the number of people that I could expect to be able to gather to try it.

And that goes for Ssra Temple, Emperor Seru, Vex Thal, and PoP up to and including Quarm.

No one wants it to be "easy." Just doable with the number of chars you can expect to be able to get involved.

And if that's not possible? Well take a look at the EMU server list. There are a number of servers that are extremely low pop, where people occasionally log on, that are locked in that Velious hold pattern. And will be for life frankly.

If you get to the 150 to 200 people the TAKP project (though they allow 3 boxing) has on, maybe you can get enough people to move in the same direction at the same time to make your vision work.

You get a fairly successful EMU server pop of 10 to 20 unique players at any one time, and it isn't going to do squat. And will see players go inactive once they hit the Velious wall.

Sorry, but if you've actually played on this server, you would of seen me on there. I've been on it since the box
was turned on and soloing a warrior with a tank merc, right from the get go. Bullying is not my game, but Anti-BS is.
Several of us like this server and have fun on it. But I'm not the type that would drive by a brand new restaurant,
whip my car over just to walk in and say "I'm not ever eating here". Some people do that on these forums.

You obviously didn't read it at all.

GRUMPY didn't deserve that blast, period.

So it's he said/he said is it?

Kavanah has exactly 2 posts on this thread.

This was his first:

"Increase xp by 2x
Increase stats 2-3x
Increase pets 2x
Scale mobs for soloing w/ merc
I hate to be pessimistic but I highly doubt you see more than 10 people logged in at once.
It needs to be a solo server. GL!"

Seems pretty reasonable to me.

Maybe you are the one who needs to go back and read that? Then Grumpy's response?

I'd actually say Grumpy is the one who should apologize to Kavanah, whose response was entirely accurate, based solely on this thread.

But since I'm rereading this thread, going back to the first page, jhiller wrote:

"And how long before you get bored of this and abandon it? I cannot believe anyone would play on one of your servers. No one's characters are safe. How many is this for you now? Any player can go back years and years ago and see all the threads of the abandoned servers you created. You just start them up, play with them a while and then either get pissed or bored of it and abandon. This is going to be like watching a rerun of "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray."

So what's the story here? I've actually encountered this in my own EMU experience. Is this the MO?

And if it is, don't you think this needs to be known by players before they invest time (and we are all EMU players and know what "time" means) in this server?

Who the hell wants to spend time camping some mob for a Circlet of Shadows or something, then find the next day that the server has gone away?

Actually I'm aware of you get what you pay for. If someone makes a server for the first time, people like it and play, but the dev finds he doesn't have the time it really takes, or his life has changed and he can't do it anymore...

No biggie. Happens. Hope things go well for you.

But if someone starts them up, over and over, and the same pattern plays out?

That's something I want to know up front.

If secrets is working here, I'm gonna make a bard.

Can we kite like ye olde days?

The cool thing about Secrets is that he is also one of the Devs on TAKP which means the content should be really accurate for what he developing. I am enjoying the server a lot!

Play there if you want to or do not play there, but I would suggest stop hijacking the thread as I, and I am sure others are getting tired of scrolling through the posts that have nothing whatsoever to do with the actual server itself.

Likewise swarm kite OP!

Also make a spell file with old school spell effects and you'll have me hooked.

If you're instancing zones, why have a limit of 1 login per IP?

Case and point: Project 1999. Players cannot be gentlemen about spawns, and it is more headache than it is typically worth to police players.

That, and I would like to do lockout style stuff with instances.

IE; a prompt for an entire guild appears after 15 or more players from the same guild are in a zone. The players enter an instance, and kill Lord Nagafen.
Each individual character who has access to the instance gets a lockout timer applied to the zone.
You must be in the guild to join the instance, and the lockout applies even if you are offline.

Upon defeating Nagafen (or the first boss in general), the players get a 'successful lockout' timer. This applies to all parties that are assigned to the instance, and they cannot join a new instance until their lockout timer expires.

I like this will all named always be up in said zones that are instances ?

Ah, so in this case instancing is for bosses? What about zones with too few players? Can they request an instance? Can a raid (of people not in the same guild) request an instance?

The lock appears upon killing the first boss? So is the idea that the limit (15 players in your example, but whatever the # ends up being for that zone) is the minimum required to kill any boss in a zone that would enable a lock?

Can they ignore the prompt? Will each zone have a different player count for instancing (I'd think so. NToV and Fear are a tad different)?

What if they kill a boss in a zone but don't have the required # to be given an instance (or they ignore the prompt to go to an instance)? If they kill a boss do they still get a lockout (that would affect getting an instance later on)? Does the lockout also affect the non-instanced zone? Kind of a, "You already killed me, so <*POOF* you're back a zone-in>" effect?

Still seems easier to just let groups (regardless of guild membership) request an instance of any zone. That eliminates the need to police IPs because, like, don't let those people in your instance.

It's pretty much identical to EQ2's instancing design with guild restrictions instead of group composition restrictions. That's one thing that EQ2 actually did right. Wish there was a writeup somewhere of that.

Zones with too few players and no raid targets will not be instanced.

Raids of players not in the same guild cannot request an instance. Pickup raids will not be able to do content unless they are in the same guild.

They can ignore the prompt and that's the only thing that will be contested. I feel as though possibly guilds are restrictive in a way, so maybe they won't be barred to just guilds.

The issue I want to avoid is selling loot rights to NPCs in instances, which guild affiliation will typically solve.

Only raid targets will be up. The other targets will be randomized.

Secrets, what if I de-guild and re-guild to bypass the guild restriction if I duped 100,000 plat to buy my cloak of flames?

This is easy to do, there are automatically old spell effects if you are using files pulled from the original eq disk.

It appears few if any servers that secrets has started are still around so don't go into this expecting your character will last long.