Server:
The Vengeful Soloist
TeamSpeak: vengefulsoloist.ts3.nfoservers.com
There are older threads regarding this server, but it's now hosted on a dedicated VM with new management (Furniture, the other developer, is still around. Just not as much as previously.)
The Vengeful Soloist server - under new management. I am helping Furniture (OSO) with his original server. We are a solo friendly - though not easy mode server with a classic-live emulation mindset. We're not trying to re-create a Project1999, but we're EverQuest with a classic as possible database (work in progress) that has solo aspects that promote community, grouping and difficulty.
Here you're five times more powerful based on a lot of changes to the mechanics of the core game without editing individual classes. This means that all items that have statistics are x5 more powerful. For example an earring with 5AC and 10HP will show those respective values, but if you type #mystats, you'll find that you're actually gaining 25AC and 50HP from that one earring.
Server Features:
We try to replicate the classic environment without some time sink factors. Here's some examples:
- Sitting out of combat regeneration heals you and your mana to 100%. Don't take this as easy mode, you'll still die plenty. This is to get rid of down time.
- Gear stays on corpses after death, we tried to get the community to let us change that but there's just no way.
- No boxing - everyone will be a unique person.
- Leveling is slightly higher than Project 1999 (Classic) and slightly below EQ Live.
- Spells are more powerful based on your class specific statistics.
- Maps are enabled with non-p99 installs.
- Underfoot client provides client-side benefits.
- We operate on FV rules for no-drop items.
- Melody and Autofire are operational.
Where we're heading:
-Vanilla EverQuest
-Kunark
-Velious
-Luclin (With Luclin AAs)
-PoP (With Luclin AAs)
-Custom Expansion (With Luclin AAs)
-Custom Expansion (With Luclin AAs)
The Kunark expansion is pretty well done with fixes, pathing and zone creation. Velious needs a little bit of work here and there and PoP is to be determined. We're working to make each expansion as complete as possible, while maintaining the monster database and leaving it unaltered from our research and findings. I want the life of this server to be a long one, but I don't want to sacrifice time between expansions for the sake of making the server last a longer amount of time if it means that players grow bored in the process.
What I mean is that setting a time lock to the release of each expansion is just a way to expand the lifetime of the server artificially, and because people can power through content very quickly (because their stats and gear as they level up enable them to do much of the content with just a few people; raid wise and other content-wise) I think that a faster (though not weekly - I stress this because i have seen what happens when content is released weekly) release of content is needed to keep things fresh. So a timelocked expansion release formula is thrown out of the window.
I want to release the expansions as the players start to get to a good level and have a chance to get to most of that particular expansions content, and I'm talking about the regulars, we've about 15-20 regulars right now at various levels (numbers will rise) and I am keeping a close eye on all of their progressions so that i can find the right time to release the next expansion. (In this case as I am writing this it's Kunark - which should be nearly 100% completed).
So - it leaves me with this following formula. I will release the expansions as server population grows coupled with how fast and how many people are reaching that particular era of expansions ending. It's a fine line to walk and to determine the best times, but I've learned a lot about the release of content and trust my own judgement.
As you can see in our future lies custom content. This custom content will not be cookie cutter content wherein you find monster A and kill him to advance to monster B, nor will it be the (sometimes) typical random loot drops of varying degrees of uberness.
Our custom content will be lore and quest driven with the use of zones that are seen after the Planes of Power expansion. There will not be any 'mega' item that advances with you as you re-level, grind or any timesinkish gameplay.
I despise time sinks. I love lore and questing. The custom content this server will see is going to be fully fleshed out. That being said, getting to the custom content will require some custom quests and content to be created in all prior expansions because I want there to be a key to open it up, something people work to grab that will be rare and difficult to obtain. This will likely be implemented near the mid-point of the Planes of Power progression.
It could be seen that creating a less than easy key quest with combines and lore quests is a timesink tactic, but I'm hoping to create it in such a way as to be exciting and (somewhat) rewarding - that being said sometimes a 'timesink' is an unavoidable byproduct of wanting something to be difficult to obtain.
If you're a fan of Furniture and enjoy his technical skill and how he had his server set up then be happy - we're working closely together to bring his desires to the server.