Just wanted to give an update:
Server is out!
Server's pretty damn fun so far. Biggest praises have been the scaling system and ability to group with your friends regardless of level. Some people have been plowing ahead on levels and then catching their friends up by grouping with them. Additionally, the augmentation system has been a big hit. When you get an upgrade, you actually 'feel' the upgrade in your numbers as opposed to traditional EQ where everything feels like a sidegrade.
In terms of numbers, the highest stat augment that has randomly rolled ingame is 301 dexterity off of a level 50 NPC.
In terms of population... The single-box system has limited the population, but that's okay, as I've never really seen this level of engagement between players in any other custom server. There's already two guilds and a healthy crafting-based economy due to crafted gear having aug slots in addition to quest gear having them.
But, player retention has been fairly high... 125 player accounts have logged into the server and made it past the hub zone. The concurrent amount of players ranges from 20 - 40 daily. There's approximately unique 42 players who have stuck around since the start of the server and continue to log in at least once per day.
We've also detected at least 15 people out of the 125 for using ShowEQ for advanced spawn tracking, or MacroQuest2 (for warp). They all have stopped upon being given a warning, it turns out of you treat people like humans instead of animals, you tend to curb that type of stuff.
Lastly, we've made some tweaks to raid content, and fixed a ton of exploits. We also improved dungeon exp thanks to player feedback and are doing balance passes on spells. Huge thanks to our playerbase for reporting bugs and feedback. You guys rock.
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