Personally, I think your server sounds like the place I've been looking for. I will definitely head over to your site and sign-up.
I originally played EQ from the summer of '99 up until a few weeks into the launch of Luclin. I then took about a year off from playing. Eventually, I returned to the game a few weeks after Ykesha went line. I played pretty regularly until Gates of Discord went live. I really tried to like that expansion, but something about it just never felt right. By the time Omens of War launched, I felt very disassociated with EQ. I think I made it into a few weeks of Omens before I threw in the towel; haven't been back since (at least not to Live!).
I am one of
those people I guess that considers
Classic EQ to consist of Original, Kunark, and Velious. This, my Classic time line, is where I would prefer to be, but I will admit that I did find enjoyment with most expansions in some form or another through Ykesha. Hell, I even had some fun during Lost Dungeons, for a little while, but it got old pretty quick. But Classic, that is where my heart belongs.
So far, since discovering the whole eqemu scene I have yet to play on a public server. Though I do have a private one setup and I have been having fun on it using the PEQ database. Some zones are not very classic anymore which is slightly sad and I think I shed a tear when I ran out to kill Hill Giants in Rathe Mountains and instead found a mess of tadpoles with legs in my old stomping grounds. Also, some of the old world zones seemed to be sparsely populated or the mobs that used to move just stood there.
Note: When I downloaded the PEQ installer package I thought it originally had a 2009 release date but actually it was 2008 so some of those ghost-town like zones may have been populated by now. I plan on redoing my server with all newer eqemu and PEQ stuff, maybe even trying the AX Classic database.
I wish I had more skills with C++ or even Perl, but at the moment I am a newbie (was learning C++ before I found eqemu). I think if someone were given a choice between having me code something or having a chimp do it, the choice would be a tough one. So, from that standpoint, I am really not much service to you.
I wouldn't let the one guy earlier bother you too much. From the way it sounds, you guys have put a lot of work into this project. I can imagine some people who have tried to release previous
Classic servers, have just turned off a few zones, removed a few mobs, deleted some items, lowered the level cap, and called it
Classic. If you start with the database I have, just doing those things are not going to get that Classic feel. I think most people like me would only play on them for a few days before they realized they were playing a game of about Ykesha era without some zones. Definitely not
Classic.
Sorry for the long post. Wish you the best of luck!
Conifer