The Divine Reapers (custom/LEGIT) 99% uptime / 5 server network

[Breea]

From the admin:

Hello all, we are happy to announce the public launch of the Divine Reapers Emulated EverQuest server. Our primary focus is meticulous attention to detail to all Mobs, Spawns, and Quests to make them as live like as possible, including the environment and dynamic quests. We intend to keep the server open to the public on EQEMU's login server (look for DIVINE REAPERS). We hope to be a benefit to the EQEMU community and eventually become a perfered server down the road. Our community is at your service =).

Right now we are maintaining a 99% network uptime (world server, and zone servers) with a maximum of 20 users ever online so far. Our database is custom but credit is given to PEQ for their starter .sql, everything from Luclin and later is custom and meticulously copied from Live and Allakhazam by myself and my wife.

Right now we are finishing up on LoY with near perfect LoY spell quests. We will be offering open house on these zones spuraticaly to allow players to come in (zones being non-combat atm) and allow them to pick out any errors we may have over-looked.

Also as we are kicking off our server we have a TON of GM events lined up. YOU ARE NOT TOO LATE! We have only completed 3 of 20 GM events so far to introduce our server and allow player/GM interactions.

So far we have had:
1. Overking's Return to Power in Tutoriab
2. The Test of Might in arena
3. Open house and Dev intros in Gunthak

The rest will be announced as it progresses!

Our server is VERY community oriented and you can read more, and get involved at http://emu.norrath.info

The Game Master System
Currently we have a staff of 8 GM's; 5 of which are very close friends of each other, and have played together for years on Live some even family members of each other. As our server population grows, so will our need for service type and developer type GM's however we promote from the inside of our server, meaning we will promote a level 40 before a brand new level 10.

GM Requirements
You must have completed our GM training (2 week course).
You must have been a guide for at least 60 days.
You must have gained the 30th level before applying for Guide.
You must have TeamSpeak and a Microphone (its free www.goteamspeak.com) our server teamspeak.divinereapers.org

The Network (each server)
100 Mbit dedicated connections (each server).
Intel Quad Core CPUs
3 GB Ram
350 GB SCUSII Raid Mirror
LINUX OS
(Custom EQEMU compiles)

So far and via estimations we are able to handle most likely more than the community can throw at us but it is there if ever needed.

[Breea]

Just an update the 4th Event has just been completed. There are now 16 more =).

[Vastlee]

This sounds great, but I can't seem to find you in the server list. Maybe that 99% is dropping?

[Breea]

Its there been there, look for DIVINE REAPERS with some junk before and after it. (I think it says !!![LEGIT]!!! DIVINE REAPERS yada yada yada.

[John Adams]

Its there been there, look for DIVINE REAPERS with some junk before and after it. (I think it says !!![LEGIT]!!! DIVINE REAPERS yada yada yada.
I wouldn't play just for this reason alone. No need to be at the top of the list of you are a good server.

But I sincerely wish you the best. Sounds like a real professional operation otherwise.

[Elysius]

Yeah the obnoxious server name turned me off too.

[soulshot]

Hey don't listen to that garbage =) Build it and they will come! GL to you and I'll be keeping my eyes out for updates.

-Mard

[boogerific]

Its there been there, look for DIVINE REAPERS with some junk before and after it. (I think it says !!![LEGIT]!!! DIVINE REAPERS yada yada yada.

http://www.eqemulator.net/forums/showthread.php?t=23517

All server ops should read that ^^^

[Breea]

I asked for the name to be changed, he did, but also said if we notice a drop in players or a lack of new players he would change it back. =S

[John Adams]

Good show. It is the server itself that draws players, not where it sits in the list of other <locked> servers with 0 players. Provide great content, fair admins and GMs, fun events, and endless encounters that make players feel they are accomplishing something, and your server could be called "Zzzzzz!" and players will still play on it. :)

Good luck, again.

[techguy84]

Its amazing to see people take this much intrest in thier servers. Most people just slap up something stock using a guide like mine and say "Cool Server Now Open" and its gone in a day cause that person ran it from thier home computer and they shut it down at night to save power. There is no comunication between players and Server OP's, as thier are no websites, and even if thier is a site, its just phpbb2 with 40 boards and 0 threads.

Now this one on the other hand is taking a stong business approach, which is a must if you want a great server. Look at PEQ for example. Great site, great crew, great player base. The only thing that cause this type of server to go down is lack of funding for dedicated boxes and lack of people to help run and maintain the game. So long as your team can afford to keep it going on your own for awhile, you should be fine. Dont go for donations just yet cause it will be more of a pain in the ass then anything else, plus you got to have players trust you and be grateful for what you have put together for them before they will donate.

Looks like a great set up though, but like everyone else says. Its not the <--====Name Here===--> that helps bring in people, its the quality of what is behind the name. Keep your name Normal but advertise and entice people to come to your server. Build a population and you could have "Crap Server" and people will still play on it.

[Breea]

We are hoping to actually bring something to the community not just sit day by day waiting for a fix or leach code =P We are here to help the best way we can, all of our GM's and Developers.

[drakelord]

Interesting server you have here. Couple of small questions though.

A. What's the XP rate set at?
B. What build of the Emu are you running?

[Lalolyen]

We are running the latest build atm. Every time there is a new build we will compile it test it, and if it is working and not many people on, we will stop the server and start the updated/new one.

The exp rate is as close to live as we can get it. We do have level appropriate hot zones also set at the same exp rate as live.

[boogerific]

I wonder how many people here actually know the reason for the slower-than-molasses exp rate on Live? Evidently not too many. For some odd reason, "Live exp" seems to be some sort of standard that should be matched, otherwise gameplay would suffer? Nope. The *only* reason that Live sets their exp rate so low is to make money. You know, the Corporate Mentality thing. Keep the exp grind as slow as tolerable, call it a "gaming experience" and players are willingly duped into thinking that the exp grind is good, making them spend their money by the millions (collectively speaking) just to keep on top of it.

People can have just as rewarding of a gaming experience without having to spend ridiculous amounts of time leveling at Live exp rates.

Ever wonder why Live set AA exp at level 51 equivalency? It's what the market would bear. If they set it their normal rate people would be a lot more reluctant to bother with AA. Less time played, possibility of less people playing, dollars go down.

Tradeskills? Call the goal Accomplishment and a company can make something go as painfully slow as they want. Those people who played on Live before SOE decided to throw the players a bone in the form of the handy-dandy window that calls up recipes and does inventory know how that goes. Picking up each component, putting it in the container and hitting Combine took forever. I can just hear the meeting where they decided to change that. "What? Some players quit tradeskilling over that? Make it easier so we don't lose anymore revenue!!"

And so it goes... lol.

[Lalolyen]

I wonder how many people here actually know the reason for the slower-than-molasses exp rate on Live? Evidently not too many. For some odd reason, "Live exp" seems to be some sort of standard that should be matched, otherwise gameplay would suffer? Nope. The *only* reason that Live sets their exp rate so low is to make money. You know, the Corporate Mentality thing. Keep the exp grind as slow as tolerable, call it a "gaming experience" and players are willingly duped into thinking that the exp grind is good, making them spend their money by the millions (collectively speaking) just to keep on top of it.

The same could be said for just giving people all the available GM commands too ;).

Actually there is a reason for Live exp, and though its in the ball park you explained, its no where close to your meaning.

Live experience levels is to keep the game progressing at a steady pace while developers are able to keep the end of the treadmill (the end game) developing without heavy demand.

If you wish to question that you can feel free to view my real life resume working in LA as a security annalist of Sony Online Entertainment in the EverQuest development division.

So what does Live EXP really mean? It means unlike you said, you get a little bit of pleasure over a longer period vs one big burst all at once, then get bored off your fourth point of contact when you are "end game", max aa's, max exp and the developers cannot keep up.

So honestly it is my opinion that to keep a server interesting, to keep the population there, equalize the experience rates with the the game's development speed. Again strictly opinion, but in empires such as Verant, SoE, EA Games, etc, they have proven this 5 billion times over with each dollar they have profited as that "time" weight.

But besides all of that, our server is trying to preserve the look, feel, and atmosphere of Live EverQuest without the $'s hanging over their heads and with a little more opportunities available to them.

[boogerific]

My meaning is right on the money (pun intended ;) ), not just in the ballpark. Just take a look at corporate history.

Giving people GM commands is on Live would be foolhardy for SOE, as it would speed up gameplay and players would have too little to do to stay interested. People would get to the high-end too fast, vastly reducing the length of time that players would pay monthlies. Profits would bottom out and the stockholders would be out for corporate blood. Giving everyone on Live GM commands is nowhere near the same as what I said.

The cold, hard fact is that corporations like SOE exist for profit. There's no better way for them to keep their stockholders at bay than to keep the gameplay slow. The slower it is, the longer people pay the monthlies, period. And monthlies are the name of the game, not the comparable pittance they make from one-time client sales.

While the development team at SOE might be more concerned that SOE corporate about keeping the game interesting, they are not (and never have been since SOE took over) in control of the big picture. The real death of EQ will come when there aren't enough players out there to sustain the corporate appetite. At that point the developers will be put on other projects or leave.

Remember when they did the big server merges? That was not done to make the game more interesting, balanced, or more social. The sole reason was to maximize profit. They were intent on upping the ratio of players to servers. Profit is the reason for SOE's existence. Take away the profit and see how long Sony (the parent corporation) lets SOE keep EQ around. There are no noble causes there.

[Lalolyen]

My meaning is right on the money (pun intended ;) ), not just in the ballpark. Just take a look at corporate history.

Giving people GM commands is on Live would be foolhardy for SOE, as it would speed up gameplay and players would have too little to do to stay interested. People would get to the high-end too fast, vastly reducing the length of time that players would pay monthlies. Profits would bottom out and the stockholders would be out for corporate blood. Giving everyone on Live GM commands is nowhere near the same as what I said.

The cold, hard fact is that corporations like SOE exist for profit. There's no better way for them to keep their stockholders at bay than to keep the gameplay slow. The slower it is, the longer people pay the monthlies, period. And monthlies are the name of the game, not the comparable pittance they make from one-time client sales.

While the development team at SOE might be more concerned that SOE corporate about keeping the game interesting, they are not (and never have been since SOE took over) in control of the big picture. The real death of EQ will come when there aren't enough players out there to sustain the corporate appetite. At that point the developers will be put on other projects or leave.

Remember when they did the big server merges? That was not done to make the game more interesting, balanced, or more social. The sole reason was to maximize profit. They were intent on upping the ratio of players to servers. Profit is the reason for SOE's existence. Take away the profit and see how long Sony (the parent corporation) lets SOE keep EQ around. There are no noble causes there.

I didn't say give everyone GM commands on live, I was referring to EMU. Also remember that SoE, OWNS PlayStation, SWG, EQ2, PlanetSide, etc.. You really think they care about the pennies they make on EQ?

Exactly, which doesn't necessarily mean that SoE would loose money, they have over 50 thousand idiots buying electronic cards that took a dev 5 minutes to make at 10 bucks a pop for their new card game, I mean Legends of Norrath.

The point is, and what you were close to, is people leave. That means the game dies, as it looses its value when there aren't "masses" playing. Then you have several hundred people thats left wanting reimbursements, free server moves, etc, which will eventually make SoE LOOSE money. At about now, I'm not even sure that EQ is making SoE money at all for several reasons but the primary one is, well there is about as much players on one SoE EQ server as there is one of our most populated servers. That is pretty sad actually. You have to remember that it takes someone boxing toons and PLing about 1 month or less to get a toon from 1 to 75 now in Live. It takes even less to get him 1K aa's. Again the EXP rate is not so low to keep you there, its to control the development of the game, believe it or not.

Besides that, I'm a very old-school EQ player. I remember the days where boats were your primary means of travel, I remember the days you would get the message in your client that had about 1/10th of the screen viewable "Saving character data." like every 30 seconds. I believe in getting into a game like EQ, taking your time, doing the quests, learning your race/class, and using the game for what it was intended; to QUEST. Now a days, its like the entire damn community, here and on live has gone exp whores. If there is no EXP its not an interesting server. That is not true. For those of us that likes sitting back and having a bit of fun progressing in a game, find that kind of experience rates rather intriguing. I also appreciate it as I have more time to prepare underdeveloped zones =).

[Lalolyen]

And remember, they don't make the game play slow to keep their investors (stock holders), its done so you won't leave while they finish their development of their new expansion (which is where they DO make the money). Keep in mind, to keep a server running smooth you don't want more than about 50 people per zone server. SoE's servers are about the same, their maintenance of those servers are high, and they don't want you playing as much as you think, they just want you to come back tomorrow =). The more you play, the longer you play, the higher their costs the more servers they have to put up to keep load down. SoE wants players that play 1-2 hours per day, every day, not those of you that exp grinds 50% of the day.

[John Adams]

Lalolyen, I'm sure you know the EMu community is filled with bitter, jaded, SOE-hating burn-outs who do not care to "grind" exp on an emulator. From what I've learned, players on EMu just want to come to a server, get top level, top gear, and solo top mobs with little or no effort.

Which, in my opinion, means the game is over and we can just quit again.

But I am with you... the game(s) should be more about content, socialization, exploration and a feeling of accomplishment. Some admins have pretty creative thinking, and it gets spoiled by those who look at it like "oh you're just being as difficult as live" without giving it a chance. You don't want those players, anyway. There's 100 other servers to log into and #si/#level yourself to uberdom.

[Lalolyen]

Lalolyen, I'm sure you know the EMu community is filled with bitter, jaded, SOE-hating burn-outs who do not care to "grind" exp on an emulator. From what I've learned, players on EMu just want to come to a server, get top level, top gear, and solo top mobs with little or no effort.

You don't want those players, anyway.
DING! Exactly, if that is their attitude, they need to just rate this topic down and keep browsing, no need for a comment or to log into the server to "make sure" we are live exp by harassing one of our admins about it.

[Lalolyen]

Well this is why I have a wife. Remember that if you don't like what I'm about to say on the EXP issue, gripe at Breea too =P

Addressing the nature of fast exp being more fun. Not true. The harder something is to accomplish (ie the longer it takes to do it) the more sense of accomplishment you gain. Thus and in turn giving yourself a sense of pride about your greater accomplishments, such as reaching level 10 on a server thats 0.0001% exp. Does SoE make more money? Yes they do, but not because they are time syncing you, remember you could stop paying SoE at any time and go play the exp game that is easy, within a few days you reach max gear, max level: WoW, but you don't, they have you hooked on that "pride" part and nothing more.

If money is the reason for the slow experience, how come the free games such as runescape and other open source MMOs out there (yes there is actually quite a few of them and the old MUDs still exist btw) that offers exp rates that crawl compared to EQ Live?

The fact it doesn't. If SOE just wanted you to keep playing on that treadmill, they would keep doing what they do, raising the level cap and making you work another 5 levels for that piece of meat they keep dangling over your head for more pride.

So in short ladies and gentlemen, if you want a server that matches Live Exp, Live Feel, Live Look, then look no further, if you want a server that does 50x exp, start development on a WoW emu so you can still say its "legit and like live".

Just some humble opinions, again mainly some insight my wife gave me =).

[Lalolyen]

Admins please combine this post with my previous one... It took a wee bit too long to edit it =P

Lets talk universal language here right quick to make it easier. Parents of financally privlaged children usually do not just hand over thier trust funds to their children when they are born, or even after, they usually make the child work for it, like making business transactions for the parents at age 17 and eventually then getting the trust fund. SMART parents place that sense of "EARNING" (key word) on the subject to ensure that it is respected, and.... APPRECIATED.

To keep it simple, give one man 500 dollars, make another man earn his 500 dollars and see which one spends their 500 dollars more responsibly.

I'm not really sure how anyone could contest any of that or even refute it, but there it is =P Sure fast exp is your thing, and thats cool, but its not mine, it won't happen on our server and there is absolutely no need in trying to convince me otherwise =P

[boogerific]

Addressing the nature of fast exp being more fun. Not true. The harder something is to accomplish (ie the longer it takes to do it) the more sense of accomplishment you gain. Thus and in turn giving yourself a sense of pride about your greater accomplishments, such as reaching level 10 on a server thats 0.0001% exp. Does SoE make more money? Yes they do, but not because they are time syncing you, remember you could stop paying SoE at any time and go play the exp game that is easy, within a few days you reach max gear, max level: WoW, but you don't, they have you hooked on that "pride" part and nothing more.

WoW isn't EQ. Exp doen't need to be *fast* (as in level 60 in two hours), although fastER than Live is good. I don't call people wasting 16 hours a day of their lives in a game accomplishment. If that sense of accomplishment is what you need and want, go out and do something with your life that's real and tangible. Gaming serves no purpose other than diversion. (I know. I'm a jerk for saying that. lol)


If SOE just wanted you to keep playing on that treadmill, they would keep doing what they do, raising the level cap and making you work another 5 levels for that piece of meat they keep dangling over your head for more pride.

Hello? This is *exactly* what Sony has been doing for years, is still doing, and will continue to do until such time as EQ is no longer profitable, or the profits no longer meet their expectations. Expansions, anyone?

It is naive to think that Sony (or any other large for-profit corporation, for that matter) does *anything* without having profit as their goal. Duping customers into thinking that a painfully slow game is some sort of "accomplishment" is merely one means of meeting that goal. Anyone who thinks otherwise really needs to spend time in the upper echelons of corporate life (which I did for decades before I got smart). Hence why I can speak authoritatively about this subject. Live it for as long as I did near the C-level and you'll gain so much understanding that you'll want to projectile puke. Of course, I never complained about the compensation. ;)

Anyway, I said what I had to say so I'm done except for apologizing to Lalolyen, et al, for not making this a new thread. I didn't mean to sound like I was specifically criticizing your server, especially since I haven't played or even logged on to it. I really hope you do well with it. :)

[EliseusKayne]

tbh, custom servers ftw, then you dont see the same thing over and over again

[Lalolyen]

lol I never said SoE was non-profit =P However I think the only reason they are keeping their servers alive is for legal reasons. I mean you don't buy a piece of software and cannot use it because they don't provide the service any more =), EULA or no EULA they can be held responsible for that.

Remember that SoE has hotzones and 2x EXP vet aa's/potions. So in a hotzone you get 4x the exp, thats about on target with most of the servers in EMU. Come again now?

Fact is, SoE makes those exp vet aas last for 30 minuites for a reason, not to keep your game play slow but to keep your online time minimal. They don't make hotzones so that if you go to another zone you level slower, they make those hotzones more desireable so they don't have to have to have every zone booted for 200 players that decides to level one to a zone causing nearly every zone to be booted.

Fact is, SoE is minimizing thier costs via these ways. They make the leveling process harder not to keep you playing, (as using those hotzones, potions/vet aas to skip over the tedious leveling) for months on end, but to have the player (YOU) form a sence of pride and accomplishment from those levels and quests you complete so you won't ditch the game even when you have made it to end-game. Again, I could max a character out on live by myself and without pling them in a months time. You pay SoE by the month, you cannot convience me that SoE counts on their slow exp system to keep you playing and paying them money. No way. The endless quests, sense of pride you build yourself, and the relationships you build within the game keeps you paying them, not their slow exp system.

To recap, SoE makes their money by keeping you out of the game, or confining you to certain zones to minimize their expenses while you pay them every month for a fictional character you have a close attachment to =) period.

[drakelord]

Nevertheless, I would never be able to take the time to grind out to level 50, 60, 65, etc again. It took me a year just to hit 60. I don't want it to take that long again. I think that might go for most EQ vets who have already gotten to that level, and are just playing to relive the experience.

To sum it up, 60 in 2 days is a no no. But IMO it shouldn't take the full amount of time either.

[Lalolyen]

Nevertheless, I would never be able to take the time to grind out to level 50, 60, 65, etc again. It took me a year just to hit 60. I don't want it to take that long again. I think that might go for most EQ vets who have already gotten to that level, and are just playing to relive the experience.

To sum it up, 60 in 2 days is a no no. But IMO it shouldn't take the full amount of time either.

We already have a player that plays 2 hours approx per day that has hit level 35 on our server using the hotzones we are providing. The hotzones btw are again live like offering 2x exp. When you start on a new server thats setup to be live like, there is a progression sense that you play with, its not about really reliving EQ, but actually reliving the progression, waking the sleeper etc - Progression.

[boogerific]

OMG! I was trying to end it but.. Lal, I can't believe that *anyone* actually believes that "stuff". I never insinuated that you think Sony is non-profit. No idea where you got that. You didn't read clearly a word I wrote.

Playing in hot zones is both limiting and boring. You'd never see the rest of the game.

Accomplishment. Right. Anyone who needs a feeling of accomplishment needs to do it real life, not in front of a monitor in a game where nothing exists except ones and zeroes.

Sony doesn't give a rat's behind if a player plays or not as long as they get those monthlies, right. But if they *do* play, keep it slow and painstaking so that people will let themselves be convinced as you have.

Idealism is great, but if you don't temper it with some realism, you're setting yourself up for some rude awakenings.

[Lalolyen]

So I'm guessing your mom and dad didn't make you do chores to earn your allowances? They just gave it to you? No, I doubt it, most parents go through this ritual to seed the respect for that money in the child's head, to teach them it its not easy to get, and must be respected as such. Most of us has prob often heard this as "learning the value of a dollar".

Exp should be the same, period.

[boogerific]

Exactly, you're guessing. You have no idea about my life. Making assumptions about such things regarding anyone will expose your own limited insight.

In my day, parents didn't bribe kids into doing their chores. You did them and it was your *responsibility* to get them done. It was called building character and learning to be responsible, and it worked. You learned the value of a dollar from a *job* (mowing lawns in the neighborhood, paper route, etc). You did a good job and you got a sense of accomplishment from that, not from taking twice or three times longer than it should to get it done. If you got an allowance at all, it was just that; an allowance, not payment for services rendered.

Really, let's leave it alone now.

[Lalolyen]

No; money = time period. Thats the point parents teach their kids either by making them get a JOB™ (ie chores, independant work etc) to learn the value of the dollar. Upon learning that value, you realize that money=time, no two ways about it.

Therein and thereby doing so you "program" this in your head by valuing that money you earn. The harder it is to earn, the more you respect it.

I'm 47 years old. I know what it was like growing up on a farm, working for your dad for free/underpaid (like in tobbacco for 25 cents per hour) until he finally decides hes old enough to just give you the farm (no I didn't want the stinking farm =P).

I can drop it there if you wish.

[boogerific]

So what do you get out of lying? You're either lying here or on your profile, stating you're 26 there. No doubt the egg on your face is dripping while you rush to rationalize and change your profile. Or will you just try to save face by claiming it's someone else's account? lol I won't presume to speak for anyone else, but to me you just sent you're believability down the tubes. Shame on you.

Looks like a great place to drop it to me. lol

oh, and from your profile:

Date of Birth:
April 7, 1981
Age:
26

[Revilor]

I went on teamspeak a few times and it seems like no one is there.

[Lalolyen]

So what do you get out of lying? You're either lying here or on your profile, stating you're 26 there. No doubt the egg on your face is dripping while you rush to rationalize and change your profile. Or will you just try to save face by claiming it's someone else's account? lol I won't presume to speak for anyone else, but to me you just sent you're believability down the tubes. Shame on you.

Looks like a great place to drop it to me. lol

oh, and from your profile:

Date of Birth:
April 7, 1981
Age:
26

a) Typo b) Something my wife did ....

*sweeting and wiping the "egg"*

Oh you mean how come my wife created my account and put my year of buth as 1981? You should ask her that =) She is here, Breea =)

Hmm... As for my real age, its on every other website that I'm on, about 30ish of them if you wish to take a look.
www.DivineReapers.org, emu.norrath.info, norrath.info, olympus-mods.divinereapers.org, Linux.net/forums, phpbb.com/community, gesh and I don't feel like taking much more time to fill out all of these sites... How about you just take my word for it =).

I went on teamspeak a few times and it seems like no one is there.

got ya in I think.

[Lalolyen]

From emu.norrath.info
We are wrapping up development of our LoY expansion. Currently all quests are ready in LoY zones including Epics! We are also pinning down PoK at the moment and getting Omens, Depths, and Gates zones ready! At the moment we are working on zone points, then we will be placing mobs in the zones, and will be working on the zones in order from lowest zones downward.

So the zones that are next in line is Drannik's Scar, Noble's Causway, Lavaspinner's Lair, the Broodlands, and the new Lavastorm!

[Lalolyen]

We were down today for about 4 hours so everyone knows. Supposivdly our noc had a big outage where an a/c unit went bad on them and blew a breaker. Anyways we are back up... there is our 0.01% for the month =)

Right now it seems that our network is a bit laggy, I'm currently getting 371 ms pings to our servers in NC (servers are in CA) where I usually get about 82ms ping.

If that keeps up I'll be calling the NoC again.

[Exudos]

I would be the character he speaks of.
I'm level 43 now, and the server is honestly a lot of fun.
Extremely active GMs, GM events, it's just fun, haha.
And yeah, I don't play all that much, as I do have a life.
The server is all that he has said, and the exp rate is fine, it's really not that hard to get to 75 on EQ live in a few months.
In any case, the EXP is fine, the server is great, no lag at all, and the GM staff is extremely helpful.

My only complaint is this: You guys need to come play, I'm lonely ;_;

[iceman88869]

If SOE makes most of their money from expansions, why did they change two expansions coming out per year to one expansion per year? Is this the begining of the end? I would say their developers will not be able to stay ahead of the top end guilds with one expansion per year. Unless they practically put two expansions in one, which would make you think they would be losing money doing that.

[Lalolyen]

no lol, this is why that made a stupid ass card game LOL.

Here is the laugh...

During beta of Legends of Norrath (playable in any SoE EverQuest related game), they sold over $900,000.00 worth of merchandise... JUST DURING THE TWO WEEKS OF CLOSED BETA.

[Lalolyen]

We are very excited to bring the community up to speed on our newest developments.

So far we are about to release and open up the LoY expansions upon our server, and PoP will be next.

PoK, thanks to Breea and Suzuka is nearly complete!

We have also enhanced our players game-play by allowing GM's to play with the populations of the server on non-flagged accounts. Thats right every GM! We do not need GM's online on our server to fix things! =)

With the past release of our software our server is almost 80% run from a browser! Everything from Petitions, to account management, Quest writing, database NPC edits (PEQ Admin), and character management.

We have released our petition system to the community under the GNU/GPL license.

We have also developed a ranking system on our server where, you can see the overall progression of our server: http://emu.norrath.info/browser/ranks.php

Also we are also building one of the largest and community based wiki's known to the EQEMU community at http://emu.norrath.info/wiki . This is in light of the wiki here being totally destroyed by spammers every week.

We have created a wiki that is very secure and requires email verification (SO CHECK YOUR EMAIL!!! =) ).

So far our hotzones have remained the same since we have started, however for some of the old timers on our server, this will be upsetting some balences that it has created! On Wendesday we will be changing our hotzones completely around, making the leveling process VERY rigerous and challenging!

We will also be opening the first ever EQEMU TeamSpeak server! This is for ALL servers to utilize for support, general chat, or anything else they might need.

To recap...

1. LoY is on the brink of release.
2. PoP is very near.
3. Our Server is 80% webrun.
4. Secure Wiki created for all at http://emu.norrath.info/wiki
5. New TeamSpeak server for the community.

We hope to contenue to be able to bennifit this community and bring the absoluete cutting edge EverQuest Emulation!

[drakelord]

I like what you did with the hot zones. 2x exp but 2x exp loss upon death. Is the information on the current hot zones in the wiki?

[Lalolyen]

Only in the forums... The wiki is more for the players, we are trying to keep the GMs out of there... So yeah, wiki = Players Forums = GMs/Players =)

[joedan]

Server looks nice and all but the amount of players kind of lacks...


I miss being able to do the big raids I guess:(

[Lalolyen]

There is not much we can do about that. Right now there are just GM events to encourage participation on the server, but not great enough for those few playing to severely off-set the server for when we do get population on the server.

The only thing we can do is encourage people to play and have fun, the more they do, the more people that will participate and the more fun you will have in return.

[Lalolyen]

As this is being severely overlooked I would like to announce this here as well as our own forums so it doesn't get too out of hand.

Our server forces the start zone of tutoriala (yes its working) and you quest in that zone to go to tutorialb.

However, there are a lot of people with the basic Titanium config, in which being we are leaping foward into the DoN zones, you'll need to change your eqclient.ini file slightly so you aren't seeing shadow figures and "grey-screens".

This is because when Titanium was released, it was released a little too early and they hadn't anticipated some of these shaders modern day video cards are able to process. So the problem is a cross between your install of the client, and your video card.

The simple fix is on our website but I'll post it here.

Under [DEFAULTS]

add the following line:
HardwareTNL=FALSE

if you have a pure hardware based video card that does all of the shaders, you should not have a problem (I didn't), but some people with intergrated, new pci-express, and other either extremely high-end or extremely low-end video cards will see this problem.

[Vastlee]

What happened to this server? I don't see it in the list and the last post on their forums was like 2 months ago. Is it gone?

[Vastlee]

Hrmm... I just noticed the 2 contributers Lalolyen & Breea both had Banned under their name? Is that why the server doesn't show up anymore?

[miotch]

wasn't that good anyways.

[AiliaMorisato]

also worth noting, that change to the ini isnt nescesary, just fix the zone headers in the zones table and everything works.....

[Vastlee]

wasn't that good anyways.

I never really got a chance to play on this server, but from the look of their website and hardware backing these posts say it appeared to be awesome. I mean it certainly is typical for emu's to go up and be down within a few months but this one seemed to vanish. Even reading their forums there was no indication of it stopping or even "where are you guys" type posts. Then I notice that banned thing. Just odd.

So why wasn't it good?

[miotch]

they wanted to be like classic. Same thing you can get from Angelox (sp?)
i tend to look for the customizations, even if the server is still legit.
Alot of GMs do not understand how a very small (compared to live) player base makes EQ playlife very different and much more challenging at low level and even harder thru higher levels.
To be an int class searching for spells that must be researched without a bazaar or hundreds of other players to /auction out to for pages needed, or to be a melee class soloing alone (NO i do not "box") without the helping hand of a kind hearted priest class granting those first buffs.
It makes for a gaming experience more like work than fun.. Not that great.

[Drozuid]

Vast

Yeah the server appears to have fallen off the to do list of the owner's for some reason, not sure if it's just a lack of interest, player base, or they have some stuff happening in RL that's conflicting or what. I have 5 - 60+ characters on there and I thought it was quite a good server personally.....certainly it needed work but don't all the server's need some work :P
Lag was virtually non-existent, possibly due to the low player base, but I'm guessing the server's were actually pretty darn decent so it's a shame it seems to have fallen to the way side.
The player base was extremely small but then the server hadn't been around that long either, I'm not sure what people expect with a new server but if your thinking your going to open up a new server and have over 100+ player base inside of a week I think you may be leaning alittle on the unrealistic side.....heh
As far as the buff bot aspect, yeah they didn't setup any buff bots but most of us that were playing were pretty good about buffing each other an so forth...anytime I went to PoK I advertised I was heading there and buffs were available, and to be honest I kinda liked the lack of the buff bots, but then I was generally 5 or 6 boxin :P
Anyways, just alittle heads up, hope that answers your question on what happened to the server :)
the server was kind of up an down for a bit, like a east hastings prostitu ...erm you get the picture...heh, I'm not exactly sure why that was...there were periods where the server was gone for a few days and would return, but it's been awhile since it's been back up so I can only assume it's down for the count now :(
too bad.... imho it had great potential

Droz