EQ Survivor is up for beta

[Dhrystone]

The Survivor server is up for some testing. We're still developing ideas and suggestions are welcome. Several great ones have been received already.

The Survivor is a standard PEQ emulator server with one big twist: the option to become mortal so that if you die you're teleported to a purgatory zone from which there's no exit.

So far we've had about a dozen people drop in and create characters but so far no one's taken the leap to become Mortal. Except me :). I'm still alive. It's kinda scary though.

What's the point? It's an experiment. It changes the goal of the game and the way you play it -- maybe in unforeseen ways. Instead of zooming up to the level cap and gearing up, your goal is just to stay alive while getting as high a level as you can. Level 20 has a whole new meaning now. To get to the cap (65 on this server) would be amazing.

We're working on implementing a leader board to be displayed in-game where the 10 highest mortal player characters are listed.

It just may be the ultimate EQ challenge. Drop by and try it. We're on the list.

Particularly interested in someone willing to become mortal, die, and then try to figure a way out of purgatory.

Dhry


A few answers to common questions:

Do I have to be "mortal" to play on this server? Of course not. You turn on the option by speaking to an NPC named the Avatar of Mortality, easy to find in Plane of Knowledge. If you don't do this you're just playing like a normal EQEMU server with the standard, up-to-date PEQ database.

If I choose to become mortal and change my mind can I get out if it? Yes, the Avatar can restore you to immortal status once.

Is "mortality" per account or per character? Per character. You can have some mortal and some immortal.

What exactly is "death"? Just like standard EQ if you die you lose a little xp and are sent to your bind point naked (if above level 10) -- except if you're mortal instead of your bind point you're sent to a purgatory zone.

Any special restrictions I should know about? Yes. Currently you can only connect two clients per IP. You need to be level 10 or under to become Mortal. This is so any folks competing for the top of the leaderboard know that everyone had the same starting point. You can two-box but not orgy-box.

What if I die to a bug? You can be released from purgatory by a GM if the logs back you up.

What about my gear? We're working on that. Your corpse will still be in the world with your gear on it. We'd like to be able for you to "will" it to another character.

How do I contact you for suggestions/bug reports? My email and character names are in the MOTD for the server. The /petition window is also enabled. Also responding to forum posts and PMs should work.

Dhry

[phorest]

will a res bring someone out of purgatory?

[Maze_EQ]

Set the zone to GM only...res no work here!

[Dhrystone]

A res wouldn't bring someone out, or, it would but they'd be intercepted and put right back in.

But I like the idea of GM-only. I'll try that out!

Dhry

Edit: Tried it. Rez escape is blocked. As is COTH and Throne of Heroes.

[phorest]

what about AA ability Origin?

[liquest]

Once thing im curious about are there any perks to becoming mortal? I understand why people would enjoy the "hardmode" But is there any actual perks to it?

Edit: Also would you be able to implement a way to judge who is/isnt a mortal like a suffix title of The mortal or a PVP red tag but dont allow pvp on server?

[Dhrystone]

Having a title is an excellent idea.

As for perks, I was thinking of an AA ability to help you stay alive that would temporarily increase HP, max resistances and AC, and up run speed for a short burst of say 30 seconds. Call it "Adrenaline." Long cooldown so it couldn't be used except in emergencies.

[sorvani]

Permanent death is a cool server concept. I would personally tweak it to use the hover window after death and allow Rez to work like normal until the timer runs out and then the toon zones to purgatory.

[Dhrystone]

So far we have 31 players on 25 accounts with 5 being mortal and no deaths, the highest is Merizia, a level 8 Mage.

Trying to get an in-game leaderboard ready ASAP.

Dhry

[uzi88]

Cool so far, but either im missing a spell file or my install is messed up, spirit of wolf says level 255 and i cant mem on my sham, what client should I use?

edit: at lvl 10 i went to pok to become mortal, then when i went back to field of bone it sent me to purgatory without dieing.. now im stuck there

[Dhrystone]

Cool so far, but either im missing a spell file or my install is messed up, spirit of wolf says level 255 and i cant mem on my sham, what client should I use?

edit: at lvl 10 i went to pok to become mortal, then when i went back to field of bone it sent me to purgatory without dieing.. now im stuck there

I've tested it with Titanium and Underfoot. It's the standard 0.8.0 release with the latest PEQ database installed. My Druid uses SoW and I didn't have a problem with the spell, but I did see a cleric Invigor that had those stats. Don't know what's causing that but I'll track it down.

You were thought dead because you had corpses in the world when you became mortal, so it put you into purgatory. I hadn't thought of that, and you were the one who found the bug. Sorry about that. Now, the Avatar will tell you if you still have lingering corpses and won't grant mortality until you clean them up. Shadowrest works well for that.

I'll get your characters released. That is Chris and Marina right? I'll need to see you both in-game to remove the silence spell. Which now is not needed so I'll remove it being cast on people. Do a /shout to see if I or another GM is online.

[phorest]

make everyone mortal, add random loot.. make it pvp .. go!

[Zia]

So far we have 31 players on 25 accounts with 5 being mortal and no deaths, the highest is Merizia, a level 8 Mage.

Trying to get an in-game leaderboard ready ASAP.

Dhry

Merizia died from two skeletons. They rooted her and beat her up, mere steps from a guard. She was level 13. Casters will probably wreck havoc with anyone at these low levels.

A new monk is born to mantle her legacy!

Though, maybe a slight (or more than slight!) adjustment of exp gain would be in order. It is very slow and with no one around to help you level up in a few more deaths this will get quite boring, I am afraid.

[Zia]

My second mage died at level 12 to another caster, so yeah, this will have to change quite a lot before I play again.

Starting from level one with no money, no gear; basically nothing is not fun. Considering the amount of times you die in this game, a perma death server is not a good idea unless heavily customised. Let us start at level 25 or 50 or whatever with defiant gear and at least some spells/skills already known. I am not sure that is the best way to go, but I just can not stand levelling up yet another toon right now.

[Dhrystone]

I have tried and I die too no matter how careful I am.

Experience is teaching us things. I don't think this has even been tried before. For one thing the basic EQ was designed with the expectation that you die every once in a while. This makes it impossible to stay alive very long with a permadeath option no matter how careful you are. So...

- I'm thinking of adding an NPC in the tutorial zone that will let you jump straight to level 10 with all your 1-10 spells, some plat, and skills set to 65 in PoK. This means you won't have to run through the tedious tutorial every time you need to start with a new toon.

- Adding a 'flee' or 'adrenaline' free AA capability that will temporarily (30 secs? 1 min?) grant immunity from control effects plus increase AC and run speed to allow escape from deadly situations. Maybe a 1 hour cooldown.

- Add a vendor that will sell defiant gear at reasonable prices to compensate for the fact we don't have high level players selling drops in the bazaar.

We'll see if those changes make death both less likely and less harsh.

But it does need more balancing I agree.

Dhry

[sorvani]

As a follow up to my post about the death hover. I think that is a good fit without breaking the permadeath concept because honestly, this is a world of magic and dragons and gods. People die, but in a magical world there should be a chance to recover even from death if it can happen before the "spirit leaves the body" kind of thing. This would make death out by yourself a very bad thing, but if you are in a group with a priest with the power of his god, why couldn't you heal (rez) the person before the body completely ceases to function.

I like the ideas of what you have going on here so far. I would agree that skipping levels 1-10 probably is not a bad idea. Additionally, it would be good to log on to the live servers and see what the updated tutorial zone rewards are (they were changed with ROF I believe). Add that gear as the starting gear in addition to level 10 would really balance out the horrible imbalance that the stock EQ newb levels are.

[bufferofnewbies]

Given the possibility of perma death:

Would it be an acceptable idea to guild all players (unless they are guilded already) into a community guild with the banker flag? New characters could be flagged automatically when they are created. This way we can store gear we cannot use/ outgrow for folks later on to use.