I was initially offset when I learned about the donator items too, but if you think about it, the way the GM/dev team have developed THF is a mile ahead of the other custom EQ servers (IMHO) and in the real world, developing custom content and maintaining a quality server (fiber internet bandwidth, "real server" hardware, electric bill, upgrades, etc.) cost $$$. You can't really expect the GM/dev/operating team to shoulder the cost of running everything from their own pockets, especially a server with THF's quality and support. If you want a rock solid & custom server, plus a loyal & mature community, THF is the place to be.

Other EMU servers are running on old server hardware (or even laptops, or regular PCs, etc.). Being in the IT field, I shudder at the idea of leveling several toons to 65/70, building AAs, investing a lot of TIME/effort, then suddenly the server crashes and all character information/database is lost... what happens now if there are no backups and the server got completely hosed?

The point of the donator items is to motivate some of the players to share the cost of developing and operating THF. A well run server depends on the community's support. In return for your support (which is entirely voluntary), you are given powerful items, but these items doesn't make you more uber and play in god mode. At best, they are just very slightly superior to the best items obtained in the game itself. I welcome this idea now, and understand why the donation system was put in place. You can just keep your money, play for free, enjoy the custom content, and ignore the donator items (like what Chaos pointed out above).

I'm having a blast on this server, and don't mind handing out a small contribution to the effort. I box 5 accounts and would have paid $75 on live servers per month for traditional content and far less enjoyable experience.

Oh did I mention about the GM service and response time is second to none? I lost a couple of items (was auging a ring) when my computer froze, just sent a quick PM in the THF forums and bam, the items got restored sooner than I expected. I never got this kind of support from Live! :-)

Bugs and reasonable requests are also acted upon quickly. GMs implement changes on a regular basis. The direction of the server's development is also heavily influenced by the community via polls, members are asked about their opinion/ideas, etc. That in my book is how an emu server should be 8)

Lillu and the rest of the GM team really do a good job on this server. It's probably one of the most enjoyable places to play on and they do take community feedback. While not all ideas are accepted they are at least considered, and for that I give them props.

We would like to introduce a popular and fun WoW feature - the Vanity Pets, using Familiar type pets as a base.
This is a new and we belive unique eqemu feature once again, so we hope you guys will enjoy it.

Credist goes to ChaosSlayer for all his amazing work on this project! :)

as always, details at our portal: www.thehiddenforest.org

Enjoy your stay!

http://www.thehiddenforest.org/images/familiar.jpg

The Hidden Forest presents a new feature - a whole new line of Druid pets!

http://herbhealernet.web.siteprotect.../thf-cat-2.jpg

come get your killer cat :cool:

Still a great server, wish I had more play time then I currently do.
RE: Donator weapons/items. Yes they are nice, Yes they have cool effects, No they are not required to "beat" the game. It really only helps on the low side.
Now there are some people out there that have gone overboard but we can thank them for paying the server bill for half a year (Yes I am talking about the guy that has something like 25 pieces of donator gear on a single character. Thanks for supporting the server!)

So what does this mean, LOL? How do you go about Summoning a BOT? Are you able buy custom items that are placed on the NPC's Merchant List? I'm kind of wondering how this all works.

there is an extensive guide on how to control the bots on our site.
The custom items are not vendor sold. There is some starting gear on the vendors you can get, but good things have to be earned.

Also, since I can't update the first post made here, make sure to check out the up to date server features: here or our official portal: here. We have 8 months of (daily) customization since the original post made here. :)

I updated your topic with the latest information on the server on the first post.

If there's any formatting you want let me know.

I appreciate the responses. I'm looking forward to checking the server out.

Can you help explain solo content? Meaning you have an end game content that is on a tier level... Solo (Tier 1), Group (Tier 2), Raid (Tier 3)?

Thanks in advance

Thanks a lot Secrets, you rock! :)

Wzang, you can solo on THF (with a bot) pretty much up to lvl 70, then you have the option to obtain raid level gear via ldon adventures. If you want to find out more, you are welcome to check out our forums. Lots of guides are available there along with a friendly community to answer all your questions.

Hey there ! Greetings from the newest GM/Developer on THF :) As an update, I just wanted to add in there that we now have the following content added to the server:

Old school bosses brought back to life ! Fippy Darkpaw has risen in power and now sports some powerful loot, as do his buddies all across Norrath and the plains. Multiple tiers of difficulty on these new world bosses offers extended difficulties of content, as well as adding onto the current difficulties.

The other item we now offer that Ive brought with me to the team are GM events of literally *massive* proportions. The following picture was snuck by some insane photographer. I hope he made it out alive !

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...ost/Event1.png

Well over one *hundred* players participated in this event, and they can't wait for the next one :)

Well, thats it for now ! More to come soon as development picks up speed :)

THF likes to offer some new UBER looking pets for mages and necros! :grin:


NEW Mage Epic pets:


Epic 1.5
http://www.thehiddenforest.org/images/magepet01.jpg

Epic 2.0
http://www.thehiddenforest.org/images/magepet02.jpg

Im happy to be able to announce that the Hidden Forest Server now officially supports the SoD client.

Come and check out how its done HERE at our Portal.

Since we update almost daily its too much to post what changed since the last time we updated our post here.
So i encourage you to check out our portal and see for yourself ;)

I feel sad for not playing on this when it first came out now. Think I will have to make up a character to see what it is all about. If Zhak says it is good, it has to be. He may have an ego, but the guy knows his PvE! :)

Only choice to make now: mage or paladin to start... :cool:

Make a Mage and a Paladin as Bot ;)

You can gear up both, the Mage has a nice DS on his 1.0 on our server. (never liked the idea of having a lev50 pet eat up noob zones). Also much better pets (to match custom melee weapons). 1.5 and 2.0 even have new custom visuals (scroll up ;))

buffer its a great server man, you friendly monk had fun there but doesnt have time atm to play on it.

Today we are excited to celebrate our 1st anniversary.

Alot has happened during the last year. We invite you to celebrate this with us and offer a week of double XP (and AXP). Level 70's or people who gain this level during the week get some extra gift in our Hubzone. 3 Special Mobs Vlad, Vlar and Vlan (well known to the senior players of THF ;)) are around this week to offer some extra challenge for the seasoned raiders.

Come check the full details and an interesting read of statistics at our forum, found at www.thehiddenforest.org

I want to give a shout out to the dev's of this server, who have done an amazing job keeping things fun and engaging, while also providing a great amount of player/server interaction.

Anyways the purpose of this post is two-fold. One to bring more attention to this amazing server, i have to say after 8 years of playing and working on Emu's this is the best one I have found yet (lol i cant believe my join date for this forum is 2002 ><). The server offers a great custom Raid progression that is both challenging as well as fun. They are constantly creating new content for the server, and are currently developing two new raid zones, Veeshan's peak (customized of course!) and Dreadspire (with custom scripts that look amazing so far) Both of which are due out very soon! And will provide new Tier 6, 7 and 8 content for the server.

That said the second part of this post is a recruitment post for my guild. Many guilds on this server rely on multi-boxing to get anything done, partially because they feel they HAVE too, and also because some find it fun. <Mofish> is setting a new standard, we have decided that we are sick of boxing - weather it was 6 boxing on this server, boxing in live or boxing in any other game. We don't allow boxing on raids, we have progressed so far through the first 2 tiers of Raid content (Ssraezzah and ToV) with nothing but mains and are currently plowing our way through Sleepers tomb (Tier 3) having keyed up the majority of our guild now. We are currently looking to recruit people who want to have a blast with a real social guild. when you do /who all Mofish, we are all there, no boxes.

**We do allow boxing for people who wish to level alts or just have fun when not raiding. but we ask to keep it to 1 box at most, and raiding will always remain offlimits to boxing (we keep an updated set of rules in our sub-forums so either join and check it out, or ask one of the officers to clarify if your unsure what we mean)***

Currently we are looking to recruit anyone and everyone who wants to come to play this amazing server! If you are sick of boxing and want an amazing social atmosphere send me an PM here or jump over to: http://thehiddenforrest.org and PM me there (Brontu). Our current play times are all over the map (this is good) we are truly an international guild, with players from the USA West coast all the way to Taiwan and all over in between. Please consider playing this amazing server! There are also many other amazing guilds and people on this server, so if we dont fit the bill for what you are looking for, im sure theres a perfect fit for you!

We do raid primarily during European peak hours (early-mid afternoons US East) -but we do have a very active US roster who gets things done.

The server is not a no - boxing server btw, so even if u dont want to join us in Mofish, there are ample boxing opportunities and guilds on the server for any play style and play time.

Please contact the following in game/through the forums of you are interested!

Bront - Officer - (Brontu on THF forums) Contact me during USA play times (i also work graveyard so im on all night)
Jyonn - Officer - (Kuldiin on THF forums) Contact Jyonn for European play times - hes on when I'm sleeping sometimes

Thanks for your consideration, and please we definately want/need more people to come play this amazing server!

*** Edit ***

THF also offers a great - unique, and fully customized solo progression line. Alternate Progression is a great way to solo progress through specially designed content - with great custom rewards and drops. new zones are in the work with Alt-P as well, Adding Stonebrunt Mountains to the mix.

For new content in the leveling area as well, unrest is currently in the works for those Undead slayers out there, in the 1-30 level range.

Check it out! Daily updates and fixes insures that things are always running smoothly!

Just to update on the Mofish Recruitment - figured id post a Link to our recruitment thread:

Mofish Recruitment Thread

Also we have cleared the 3rd tier of raid content and are working on 4 and flags for 5!

New zones available within the next two weeks as well it seems, both unrest 1-30 and a new raid Zone: Veeshan's Peak.

Thanks!

Alot has happened over at THF.

• 2 new Raid zones have been released
• long awaited Alt-Progression update was finally released
• One new newbie zone has been released
• new Tier7 Raidzone is about to be released starting next week

The 2 new Raidzones are tier 2 (ToV Level) and Tier 6 (PoFear Level). The Tier 2 zone is a complete revamp of StillmoonA. Complete set of new Items can be gained here, fun fights and lots of old and new faces to see here.

Veeshan's Peak is the new Tier 6 Raid zone with a complete new Zone design, interesting scripts and a Keyquest that everyone loves to hate ;) (It's not that bad as on Live!) Custom quests and the best Armor in Game can be gotten here. Come and proof your skill in this zone only for the bravest adventurer.

Chaosslayer did it and finally released 2 new zones for the Alt-Progression, finally raising the bar again in this long awaited continuation of this unique style of play. It's completely new and offers custom and well designed quests, monsters and missions. It's so well designed and balanced, it took him more than half a year to finish. A must see!

Unrest is the new newbie zone, adding up to a total of 3 newbie zones now on THF. Unrest is a new approach, keeping the player up to lev30 busy with quests and tasks inside Unrest, introducing new Enemies and friends.

Finally, Dreadspire is about to be released this coming week. The new Tier 7 Raid zone will provide challenges for the absolute hardcore raiders and should keep you busy for weeks if not months to come. A complete set of new scripts and events will have to be beaten. Even the Trash mobs will require a new set of skills and a different technique to overcome than your usual gank and spank. New and unique Items and Jewelry and an upgrade to the already available Custom Spells (rank 1-3) are available here making each class even more powerful and balanced than they already are. This one looks so promising that im tempted to roll a char myself and sneak into one of our HighEnd guilds to play and overcome the challenges which were created here.

On a final note i want to send a invitation to all EQEmu players to check out The Hidden Forest Server. We have so much to offer for everyone, solo, group, raider, tradeskiller, quester... you name it.

Feedback is always welcome at our forums available at www.thehiddenforest.org

Forgot ;)

• Web based Guild progression chart

A new web based feature will be added (in addition to the LDoN Leaderboard, Achievements, Magelo, Allaclone) - Guild Progression Chart. Now you can compare who killed what mob first and when. Who will be the first to conquer the new Tier?!

Also, please check out our map of custom zones here

this (thanks Omlee!) (click for hi-res) :)
http://www.thehiddenforest.org/images/thfmaps.png

We have daily updates on THF so we usually only post here if something big happens. I'm glad to announce that Dreadspire is now officially live on THF. This is a custom tier based progression raid zone with 99 unique scripts and 15 quests. It took 4 months for Vaion (the most talented developer I know) to build this zone from the ground.. I've seen quite a lot of Everquest, but this custom zone is simply amazing. Thank you Vaion! ;)

Details: here.

http://www.thehiddenforest.org/images/teaser/ds01.png

Thanks for your attention,

As always, we are striving to do our best over at THF and add new content and features to make everyone's time here well spent.
With that being said, I am proud to introduce our brand new feature: Player Aura's! They even stay with you as you zone and explore!

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1323/eq000009.pnghttp://img641.imageshack.us/img641/3365/eq000002.pnghttp://img185.imageshack.us/img185/6685/eq000004.pnghttp://img8.imageshack.us/img8/4241/eq000006.png

After getting some positive feedback from my initial post about this server, i thought i would make an update, and another pitch 8D.

I have now formed a new raiding guild called <Shattered> we are a group of American players who are progressing quickly through content. At this point we are looking for some fresh blood. And would love to see some new players eager to jump into amazing custom raid content.

Our Recruitment thread is located Here

I no longer hold the boxing restrictions that i had in Mofish, but there is also NO requirement to box. We are made up of a group of people who Box an extra toon or two to help us, but we have a large group who dont box at all. Shattered isnt about 3 people boxing content to death, we limit 2 boxes MAX per 1 main toon, again optional boxes, But we retain the social atmosphere that we would have if noone boxed.

We are a very tight knit group of American players, who raid only 3 nights a week progression, we are laid back but get sh*t done when we need too. Currently we are desperately searching for an extra Main Healer or two, and some DPS to help us progression through the 5th and 6th (and eventually the 7th) tiers of raid content. If your intersted Check out my link above for our recruitment post - and check out the link in my sig for the THF's main site.

It is an amazing server with a great development team, who are very close with the community, and are CONSTANTLY listening to player feedback. If you have any questions about the server, the community or <Shattered> please dont hesitate to drop me a PM here, on Brontu on the THF forums, or log in, try it out and shoot me a tell in game on: Bront, Betwo, or Taelen.


Would love to see this server grow like it deserves, and they just bought an amazing set of new hardware for the server.

Thanks for reading!

Good Luck and Good Hunting whatever server you play on 8).

Is the website for the Hidden Forest down for a while? Just getting back into playing and i would like to get the custom files, but for a while all it says is it is down.

its being relocated, but you can still access files
http://www.thehiddenforest.org/

Server down for a bit or being moved to new host? Hasn't been showing up on the eqemu login server

the server is fully active- 95 online ;)
http://www.thehiddenforest.org/clone/online.php

Chaos you goober you do realize your response was 10hours after the other guys post.
Server did indeed crash last night / early this morning and most of us crazies went to sleep.

Finally you got some sleep :p

Long story short, I would like to take the opportunity to appologize for the lack of communication and for our web services being temporary down for the last few days. More details about how unlucky we were at our portal. Btw the downtime had nothing to do with the game server.

Just wanted to stop by the emulator forums and give another plug for the server that I've enjoyed playing on over the past 12 months ( kind've crazy I've stuck with one emu server for this long ).

The guild and I have been working on the current end zone in the raid scene for the past two months working with Vaion ( the creator of the zone ) and have been progressing through it enjoying the difficulty of the events and the creativity and strategy required. I raided on live through GoD and I've played on emulator servers for over 5 years, this zone is the best raid experience I've had on emulator, and had me reliving the 'sitting on the edge of my seat' moments that I used to have on live when we thought we were going to beat an encounter for the first time ( rathe event anyone? lol ).

The current high end zone on THF is one that any EQ raiding veteran would enjoy working through with a small raid ( we had 4 real life people each 3-4 boxing, think we were sitting with 16 characters with bots ). We beat two events tonight, but the par for tier 2 of this zone is a 15-20 minute encounter with main mobs, adds, ae's, item clicks at certain spots in the encounter, tank swapping, using warriors on some mobs, knights on other etc. The encounters are extremely interactive, and just enjoyable. I don't think Vaion will ever get the recognition he deserves with the great quality of a raid zone that he produced, but hopefully this is a small step in that direction.

Ended up taking us 7 attempts over a few different nights to finally learn and beat the hatchet event.

-Harney

Double exp for the Holidays
 

THF released lots of quality custom content since our latest update here. Please check out our portal for details. (click my sig)

I would like to share with you how nice our hub zones look like. Credits goes to Vaion <3

Also, we have double exp during the Holidays and a Xmas event going on! Merry Xmas everyone! :)

http://www.thehiddenforest.org/images/news/xmashub.jpg

http://www.thehiddenforest.org/images/news/xmashub2.jpg

<3 Emu !!!

I just wanted to let you know how much fun I am having on The Hidden Forest server. This server is the benchmark of how Emulated servers should run. It has great content, active GMs, and most of all a website that is not just a standard bulletin board, but the full blown website; a place to look at zones, items, and achievements. The dedication and attention to detail by the admins far surpass any of the other servers that I have played on, and I have played on them all.

-Barath

and the rest of the gang:
Houlk, Heiwa, Hitower, and Woodzie

They also profit, not many of us do.

Four or Five of the servers listed as Legends Servers/Preferred Servers have a system in place for donations. Numerous Standard Servers have donation systems in place.
Some are bigger about it then others.

Thank you Barath <3

Vaion worked a lot to revamp and extend our new achievement system, I think it's really nice and fun.
http://www.thehiddenforest.org/clone/achieve.php
http://www.thehiddenforest.org/images/news/spec_ach.png