This is not something that will be ready anytime soon, but I am definately making progress. Little by little, one day at a time. I thought maybe I could throw this up for discussion and maybe get a sneak preview myself of constructive feedback from players.
I don't know how many people out there liked, or hated the Luclin expansion when it came out, but it was my own preference for an era that I enjoyed the most. I am not someone who would dwell on chasing down that 'classic' feeling that doesn't exist anymore, but I liked Luclin because of what it had to offer when it was released, especially the mounts. I imagine many of you, like me, have your own little pet peeves about Sony did,(or didn't do) to the game. Some think Luclin was the end of a good game, others, like myself, think PoP added too much damage to the enjoyment. Each one of us just want to play the game we love, no matter what era that might be. I have no interest in trying to clone the era 110 percent, or for that matter, re-invent the wheel. But I am putting a lot of effort into 'emulating' the game I played.
Aside from much of the common, general game mechanics that I've dealt with, all doors and zone points port to their intended era related destinations, including the removal of all pok books. With a few exceptions, many of the older versions of classic zones are actively used where possible, but some are not, for practical reasons. Most of the boating is garbage, so it seemed more logical to work with the gnomes. I'm undecided, but thinking of putting them on a short, pop/depop timer. All druid and wizard port spells,(and any other kind of era related porting) have been adjusted for older zone use.
Starting with character creations,(got rid of frogs, drakkins and berserkers), adjusted the start zones and starting items. I didn't include the discord tome, (like project 99 does with new toons), but the priest gives a player one anyways, if desired. I also created a custom charm item, which will be given to new toons (for a limited time). One for casters and one for melee. Hybrids will be given the melee charm by default, with an option to swap it out once.
Moving on to the dreaded removal of unwanted content is still an ongoing process, but I've tackled a bunch of the easier junk, so far. The entire aug system has been disabled, including the removal of all aug baths and augmentation tags on items. Other item tags,(such as placeable, ornamentation, etc.) have been taken off as well. Everything to do with LDoN is gone(along with the magus's). Shadowrest and the task system have been disabled with all npc's removed. All tribute toons have been ejected from the game. The list of what's done so far could go on, but there is still much to do in it's alpha stage. I'm on the longest stretch right now with mobs, loottables and items. Sifting through some of the classic mobs, I was suprised to find nothing out of it's era, in the loottable.
But as I said, it's not intended to be 110% era accurate. There will be a few light sprinkles of a customized touch to it, without climbing on to that 'QoL train' which commonly gets thrown off track. The server will not go any further than the Luclin expansion, regardless of it's acceptance, (or lack of). It is being built to welcome the RoF2 client, but if Titanium is anyone's flavour, it will work too. Eventually, I'll be setting up a website, with forums and discord channel. I've also been looking at promising options for dedicated hosting in a data center.
EQ LUCLIN (Alpha)
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