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Old 04-27-2018, 10:22 PM
GM Ash
Fire Beetle
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 8
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LW was awesome! My 2cp tho-

There's nothing on par with Irreverent's server running right now; he ran a very high quality, almost professional server for years. He had very little help in the kitchen, and was very good about tracking and fixing bugs, all while tuning raid encounters to true level-appropriate soloing. It was not all "faceroll easy" though, players had to know the mechanics and nuances of their class(es) and use potions, etc, to heal themselves, and his one custom "server challenge" zone (old PoHate 1.0) was tuned for cooperative duo and group play.

No one server "has it all" and even on Irrev's "legit" server, players complained about NOT having NPC buffers, custom clickies, etc, while still requiring backflagging/legit zone access, et cetera.

Most Solo-oriented servers running right now are highly customized, and strike me as being either too hard or too easy. It all comes down to your expectations as a player; I honestly have well-loved toons which I played a lot on Mort's revamped Raid Addicts server, also I liked Poru's Casual Dreams for a long time; he works very hard at raid encounter balance and pleasing his fans.

There are cross-over servers, but most require bots, and I'm no fan of bots really- BUT-- it is theoretically possible to run a good solo server with bots, and players simply not use them; OR with just enough bots to run LDoN missions or create a raid instance.

It takes a great deal of effort to take EQ into a truly soloable and fun and playable game; so much of the original game was based on interactivity and timesinks until TSS was released, but SOE/Daybork was already going downhill with their excuses about the obtuse difficulty of Gates of Discord and just couldn't compete with the newer, funner games back in 2003-4 like WoW and Guild Wars.

I run a Wrath-era private server on our home LAN just for my family, and tuned it fairly well for solo play with just the server config file settings, up to ICC, BUT it still isn't all truly "soloable"- and EQ is an even MORE robust and Complex game. It takes dedication and skill to go through the database and scripts to remove things like "death touch" and CC spells; banishment, fear, charm, dispel, and other nuisances and game breakers to most solo players of various classes.

I'm honestly looking for the same thing y'all are, but have been fairly happy as a player (particularly of casters) with what Osiris offers at 'Envy of the Irish'- it is a legit server (keys and flags, with some shortcuts), but one with a couple of nice server-specific charms, unique free newbie gear so you don't have to grind through the tutorialb or Drakkin newbie zone, and a unique lootable server alternative currency, which you convert to fun illusion items, mounts, and even giant bags of plat. Level limit is 65 and 99% of PoP and 90% of GoD are working, with top/max AA's being in the 600-ish range for each class. There are buffer-NPCs-galore in PoK and even Field of Bone at the newbie ramp, a 3+ tiered teleporter, and even a custom pet toys vendor. PoK is the hub zone on Envy, and NPCs guide you through the 'mandatory' quest to unlock the various buffing/porting NPCs in PoK. He has a 3-box limit by default, and there is a server message board, and, as far as GMs go in Emu communities, Osiris is quite helpful and responsive to player needs without "mongering" and being online 24/7/365.

Didn't mean for this post to be so long, or so critical, so sorry if my opinions run counter to popular thinking here! I've been a fan of solo servers for a long time; since Djeryv and Irreverent anyway.

Thanks for reading



"If ignorance is bliss, shouldn't stupider people be happier?"
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