Has anyone else noticed...
 

...that every server seems to be offering:

Hell, I think I just described every custom server on the list, and if I advertised something like this, it would be the next best thing, because people have this mentality that more is better.

Does anyone see a problem with this? More isn't always better, especially when servers are tuned to EverQuest as it is in live, yet, people end up with +5000 HP on items, and content progression is out of whack, which leads to stressed serverops frantically rushing content, making subpar encounters almost every time, with no thought process involved for the encounter itself. There is the rare case where you make enough subpar content that your server survives and has a population, and you can focus on advanced content that way.

The mentality of serverops is more is good, as well. Nothing beats epics at level 1, especially when we're coding around 36 delay 6 damage short swords. It seems to be every server on the list, and I am quite sick of it. Nothing offers a unique gameplay experience from another server other than content.

Does anyone have any feedback on this? I've been curious to see what the community thinks about it for a while. I have not seen a custom server done something other than the aforementioned above, minus Shards, which is not a part of our community presently.

It would be very intriguing if someone started a project that was unique, ya know? None of the things mentioned above. A server with the feel of classic without the content of classic.

I would do it, but I cannot do it alone. In addition, I am not motivated enough to do something such as this. If a team of people assembled I would be more motivated to make this. I do not want to end up doing anything or everything alone. Everything should be a team effort, not an arguement or bickering like I see so often in the communities here.

And that lack of team effort often leads to unbalancing content. Nothing gets documented, everything gets put in. And that leads to Dev A making content with, for example +5 str for a tier 1 content NPC and Dev B makes a tier 2 content with +2 str, and the items are identical in stats besides that.

I could go on and on without naming servers, but a majority of them I have seen and been involved in, have done this.

My question that I mentioned above... Would anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent this from happening in so many of our private communities? Obviously, you cannot force people to change their ways, however you can influence them to modify them.

I just want to see some higher quality stuff, instead of the 'more is better' mentality. This is in no way attacking anyone, I am simply questioning how we can improve our community, and I believe that a discussion is the best way to do this.

everything you have mentioned above, I plan on avoiding. I am adding my own views, custom content, and such. but I honestly don't want to degrade the game to the point of first one to level x wins eq. I have alot of ideas that I am applying to my server, (if you haven't read the posts i've made around here), but I still want to preserve the essence and story line behind EQ. many of my customs don't even really enhance game play thru your character stats wise. they are more of giving you the self feeling of accomplishment as you progress in the world. my server will be mainly classic-progression, with my touch added to it. I love the EQ story line, and the lore behind it, and there are things from other games that I like (i'll reference WoW) such as the achievements, that i'm applying to enhance that stuff. I hate the fact of everything you've pretty much pointed out, and my goal is to avoid those at all costs. I know my server won't be the best, as i'm not the best coder in the world, nor will it be the fastest leveling, or greatest cotent. but it will be my own version of it, and I want to tell the EQ story from my point of view. I plan on using the instancing to my advantage to do mid to large scale raids, in zones including any normal zone you would see just running around. this will be a long while, as it is just me working on it, but *shrug* again then I know it'll be my creation.

My dream server is legit classic progression with spell scriber (i'm a lil lazy when it comes to finding spells) maybe #peqzone command (15min teleport command) because running around was fun when i hadn't seen every zone 100+ times. Then wipe after velious or luclin and start over.Maybe some custom mobs inline with velious era mobs/gear.

But yeah badass gear at low levels then to have a challenge the devs make mobs hit so hard and fast only evasive warriors can tank. All due to gear being nuts and easily aquired. Sitting around with 4 warriors rotating tanking trash when evasive is up isnt a challenge its stupid and boring.

Raping content is boring
Sitting LFG cause you dont 6box is boring
Zerging/Evasive tanking is boring

EQ is a fun game in itself, custom servers should just add to it. Not try to make it a whole new game imo

To each his own.
I name one very decent custom server - Stormheaven comes up as a good example and a lot of thought and hard work put in to. Some of its parts- specially low end (1-50) feel a bit rushed, but its been worked on.

Personally I am currently working on my own ULTRA custom server (have been for 2 years now). Yeah its gonna be custom alright, but its hardly going to be an generic ride =P

As far as Shards of D go - yeah they did some very nice customization, but still have 2 major flaws: their client software is heavily obsolete and they unable to upgrade it (they only have access to GoD as latest expansion, and once they run out of zones - they are done for). Some features we have long coded on EMU - they can't even dream to have. And, whats important, despite all their custom content and custom server coding - all their classes do not really feel any different that they were on live (of course I am comparing to my own preferences, and to what I have in stores for my server =P)


"A server with the feel of classic without the content of classic." - coming up.. SOON =) No ETAs yet however (well maybe by new year) =P

few of my General Highlights:

-Alternative World Lore and layout
-Alternative/Redesigned zone content
-Alternative/Redesigned Classes, spells, pets, disciplines, and Class/Race combos
-Significant deity impact on most classes and gameplay
-Redesigned itemization
-Redesigned Crafting
-RP-encouraged gameplay
-Tier based progression
-Dozens of Story line based quests
-No Boxings/Bots allowed
-Solo and group/raid content

PS. Secrets, I may need some good guides when the time comes =P

A server with the feel of classic without the content of classic. That does sound pretty fun. Alot of work, but fun. Same zones different mobs new storyline different zone level progression. Changing EQ without changing what made EQ fun. Like a change of scenery or something.

I like to call it EQ-Alternative or EQ 3 =)

Perhaps you like to see my zone album I started to put together. Its far from been complete, but its been worked on

You can see it here

It really depends on what your goal is with a custom server. custom servers overall are LOTS of work. you can't really imagine till you have your own. :P
You just want to share your vision of eq with outhers? you want to create a popular server? you want to be unique? you want something for a long term or just for some quick fame?

if you want a popular custom server with high population, you have to offer easy progression, else you'll be stuck with low population (regardless if you make quality and unique content).

don't get me wrong tho, I refuse to offer easy progression, it takes away the fun :) sharing your vision of eq with others and creating something unique and quality is more fun than anything else, so I think I see were you are coming from Secrets. but anyone starting a custom server should be aware that it's not only about quality and original ideas.. sadly.

Custom Classes bases on diety seems pretty cool Warlocks and Savages and whatnot

Well, at least for me, PEQ and many 1x servers are kind of a turn off because if I wanted to play legit EQ, I'd go play legit EQ. There are many things incomplete with the source (I play a bard typically, do I need to say more?) so investing a lot of time seems meaningless. I think PEQ is a great project because it creates an awesome foundation for those who want to make a branch off the original-based design, and for those who want to try to experience EQ for non-monthly fees can do so.

but if you ask me, original EQ wasn't that greatly designed. It was expansive, interesting, and big.. But it was never greatly designed. If I found a server where someone took the reigns and recreated a new realm of Everquest, taking the original 'old' feel and melding a new storyline and progression with their own rendition of it, not just making it easier for players, or trying to recreate something we all already know where everything spawns and exact progression for ideal leveling etc etc, but instead making it unique, a new design, I would have fun. Sadly I can't find a server that does this without them thinking of making mudflation all over. Bigger, better stats != more powerful if you beef up mobs too. All you do is give a false sense of improvement, and screw up balance even more than it already is. :/

But if they did things to challenge players, not by boring them to death with a grind fest, but having complex and interesting puzzles to solve, bosses that you will guarentee wipe to not because it hits ridiculously hard, but has a complex order of coordination in order to pull it off, stuff like that.. is what I enjoy. A crafting system that's hidden away for people to unveil, new quests that aren't just task based but actually will be left unsolved for a while...

I love to explore, discover, and learn about new things. New spells, new visions are welcomed to me, because like I said, if I wanted to play typical yet another EQ, I'd jump on live or PEQ. :/

Hell, I'm still waiting for someone to make the begging skill worth something. Or recreation of tradeskills. The best I can do is make play around servers and see what I can expand in the source just for fun. :/

@ the teleports and such, after Planes of Power this became common place with PoK, so to me servers that have teleporters or buffbots I just think they're doing what PoP was trying to do anyways, hold people's hands. I absolutely hate PoK and frankly I think EQ ended around Velious, the vision becoming some oddity of mudflation and "how can we make people's life easier? How about a guild hall you hand gems to and set where it portals to?"

But at the same time, the servers like Project 1999 that are recreating the original feel don't really attract me. It's a recreation of an idea that is ~10 years old, it will be full of content everyone already knows, so there is nothing to really gain except to take a ride down memory lane. Would much rather experience something new. :/

The Hidden Forest I enjoyed because the admins weren't afraid to aggressively try to change things. They took what has been established and twisted and turned it into something else. There's areas I don't neccessarilly agree with on their philosophies, but at least they're doing something different.

Stormhaven I haven't played much, but I have enjoyed the bit I've played it. It's because they are taking EQ to a new route. For good or worse, at least it's new.

EZ 4x server I haven't played too seriously, it was a bit too comical for me in the progression and general gearing.

Though of those 3 servers, my biggest concern is how will end game content shape up? It's one thing to make something new, it's another to keep it interesting at end game (where you end up and spend most of your time).. :)

Instead of having a staff of web designers, programmers, and in game help, I'd love to see more staff dedicated to creating a balanced server system. A server that parses each class and does balancing based on test results, formulas, and curves things in a custom fashion according to their findings. Would love that.

The idea of what is unique or custom varies from person to person. If you have a grand vision of a unique server then implement the idea so we all can see it. Creating custom content is a ton of work and it is not as simple as it may seem as myself and many others have discovered the hard way.
Yes, there are similarities among a lot of servers but maybe some of the things you described as being common place are there for a reason. Spellscribers are not needed on some servers due to their high population but on lower population servers finding any specific spell would be a considerable task if not near impossible, malo and mala are good examples of this problem. No drop and lore flagging are situational and SOE used those very badly. I don’t see anything wrong with people finding a piece of gear and then deciding they want to give it to one of their other toons. Yes it can be unbalancing but it can also be fun.
Buffbots are a good and bad thing at the same time. The way they are implemented in most cases where they cast one set of buffs for all level ranges is a very bad idea but if the script is adjusted to be tier based for say 1-5, 6-10 and so forth then the biggest negative surrounding the buffbot would be severely diminished. The same idea needs to be applied to exp mods which is why several people had made requests for tier based exp mods. A positive exp mod is not needed at low levels but levels 50-59 is a much different story.
I don’t like the idea of free gear or excessively common gear drops either but others may disagree. Epic 1.0’s are subpar for most of the EQ game world, enough said. The same thing can be said about Epic 1.5’s. Epic 2.0’s only good for a while and not worth the time or effort it took to get them on live. If they are upgraded then yes they should be hard to get but otherwise I will stick with my original statement.
Solo, group and raid content must have a balance and it cannot be all one way. Using the live version of Crystallos as an example, the common everyday folks would have considered the key quest as raid content but at the same time it was group content to others. This type of thing has a lot to do with the experience level of the players and not so much to do with the number of players.
SoF disregards the balance for most of EQ but does that mean it was a bad idea to make? Content must get harder or more challenging and items but get better otherwise progression merges with bland all is lost. More is not always better but less is not either. Replacing more content with creative content is probably ideal but not always practical or possible.

On THF we try to balance things out.

Sure, our server has Epic wielding Orcs but imo 1.0 Epics are absolute borderline in quality. People want the big stats on their toys.

Then again our 1.5 quest is a totally different story. You will have to get your stuff sorted or you will not get it. The 2.0 quest actually earns the name epic as it is rather long (unlike some servers were you kill 1 mob and loot it ;))

We want to make it easy and get rid of tedious tasks like spells, but on the other hand our Spellscriber only scribes up to lev69. Lev70 spells and beyond are drops from exp mobs. Lev70 Ancient Spells which are much stronger than the Live versions drop off of Raid mobs. The list goes on.

I am also trying to balance classes out - on our Server also Druids and Shaman can heal on raids. Sure no CH, but they have much better patch heals than on Live(Cle also got a better heal). SK and PAL get rare items with long recast Defense Disc. They are not worthless on raids. Each caster has a much stronger pet compared to Live to make up for the power that melee gain with weapons. The benefits of a custom server. Everyone can feel usefull without the restraints which original EQ dictates.

You make it too hard and people will not play on your server. You make it too easy and people will play but also leave again shortly because they already reached everything first try. It's not easy to find the right balance between challenge and spoon feeding.

We only have about 40-50 people playing during prime time but since it's almost always the same players shows that we are taking the right approach.

I think if all custom servers had a decent sized team and had a year or so to create the server before opening it to the public, you might see more of what you are wanting to see, Secrets.

You have to keep in mind that creating content 1 or 2 zones at a time is no easy task to create perfect balance for. To do it right, stuff like loot would have to be fully planned out from starting a new character to the end-game content before any actual loot tables were made for the custom zones. It would probably be a good idea to get at least a rough plan done all of the way up before starting it anyway, but many people starting a server don't think about that before-hand.

I am sure that servers are not much fun to develop for until the are open to players. Also, developing a full server worth of content before opening it up is sure to have very unbalanced content loaded with tons of bugs and issues that will need to be resolved later, if they are ever resolved/found at all. So, many people like to get their server open as soon as possible. That is what I did with Storm Haven. Doing that means content has to be done quickly, so you are likely to see freebies where there should be quest for such items, and you are likely to see content that is very similar to the standard PEQ DB other than maybe a few changed factors (mostly loot tables).

I didn't know anything about running a server when I first created Storm Haven. If I had it all to do over again, I am sure I would have it planned out much better before hand and do quite a few things differently. The good thing is that now that we have enough content to keep people busy for quite a while before they run out of things to do, now we can start going back and filling in the stuff that should have been there from the start. I have even considered doing some major adjustments like cutting item stats data-base-wide by certain percentages. Even though some balance issues like loot being too good or mobs hitting too hard are things that can be tough to adjust after the fact, it is all still a possibility if the change is worth it.

As for your list of what all custom servers have goes, I think you are generalizing way too much. That list may be a compilation of what you have seen on all custom servers, but Storm Haven for example only fits a few of the things on that list. Heck, I think every EQEmu server there is has increased Exp Rates, even PEQ. Also, until their population got so high and lag was reduced, they even had a buffbot I believe.

If EQEmu servers had as many players as EQLive, many of the common things you see on custom servers wouldn't be required, but since player numbers are low in comparison, certain things have to be compensated for. I am sure there are plenty of other things that I could add to your list, and many of those things originated from the custom server named Zebuxoruk as far as I know. I played there and I noted the things that I really liked from the server and incorporated some of them into mine. I am sure others had played there or on one of the other servers that have similar features and used what they liked best as well. If you play somewhere and find something custom that you really like and is a good idea that makes sense and adds to fun, I don't see why not to use it on your own server :P I know some servers have had ideas inspired from playing on Storm Haven as well (clicky banker summon, de-leveling, etc). I think part of creating a custom server is just figuring out the features you have seen and would like to use on your server, and then coming up with your own unique ideas to add to that and make it your own.

It would be really cool if all of the custom server owners could start a project together and have a decent size team to create tons of great content the right way. Unfortunately, I highly doubt anything like that would ever happen. Even if it did happen, it would be an absolute nightmare to manage it. All of the owners wanting to do things their way and not agreeing with each other and different levels of quality work and so on. The only way it could possible work at all would be having some seriously well-thought-out plans before anything at all was created. Even then, I would just imagine constant conflict in a project like that.

Secrets, what happened to the "The Divide" server project that you were working on with some guys? Hopefully you can find something to do that you enjoy soon so you aren't moping around trolling the custom server owners by generalizing them with a negative overtone :P Looks like you got quite a few custom server devs to pop in this thread to defend themselves and their projects. Honestly, I take a bit of offense to your post and I wouldn't be surprised if other custom server owners do as well.

Most of the stuff you mention is pretty common place in nearly all forms of private servers.
Look at RO, L2, WoW even.. you'll see the private servers full of buff bots, fast warpers, etc etc. You can usually tell when a server is "for the people" or not by how easy it is to get started. :P

you can complain all you want; but just like the marketplace, it's the players that determine if your server concept is successful and they decide by choosing to log in to your server or not; im happy with my tiny handful of regular players. my server is mostly for me to learn more about sql , and over the last 2 years i've been creating my own private changes to the game which I merge with every peq release.

I don't get paid for my work, and the only thing I get out of it is more learning, so even if there are 5 people on my server on average over the course of a week, I am still happy.

Anyways all that aside; I'd love to work with other people to develop my server into something .. more; however I am an island in this as my RL Friends and family don't even know what EQ is and I have been mostly a lurker in the eqemu community.

I have kind of a rule whereby if a server's first zone is crushbone and the 1.0 epic weapons drop there then it's probably a good idea to find another server.

I started thinking about this when 90% of the "custom" servers were built around crushbone, and it seemed more like a custom-legit tutorial zone that spanned across all servers than actual custom content. Once you finished that zone and had your epic you could get started on the actual server.

"lol epics in crushbone, bye!"

I can certainly understand were people come from on this...

As EQ progressed from launch to today (or until you last played) the game radically changed. Heck I didnt start playing until just before the server merges, and the is radically different from then.

Everyone has their own ideas of what should be, and as Trevius pointed out sometimes you may like how it was done on another private server and use a form of that feature.

I know I have some things I want to do on the server I'm working on. It'll be slow as I have not coded in a long time, and have not used PERL before. Fortunately I'll have all expense paid vacation to a nice sunny, warm, secluded part of the world for 12-15 months to work it all out.

Honestly though... instead of trolling a board and rebuking an entire community about what you think they shouldn't do. Why dont you put a server together and show us how it's done.

I actually regret posting something like this now. The main idea is polished content is better than non-polished content. I agree, some of these concepts work for a smaller playerbase. I, in no way, meant to troll custom server owners. I just think that a lot of what people do could be more polished. Maybe that's a perception thing, I don't know.

I am sorry if I offended anyone; that was not my intent. I actually had a few people contact me about helping with their servers after this.

The Divide fell apart because I felt that it was not going to happen. I ended up slowly leaving that realm because of flaky people (not naming specifics.)

I have my visions, and people have theirs. I'm not telling people how to run their servers. I probably came off a little bad in that regard, however, I feel like some servers rush things way too often, because they are pressured by a demanding playerbase.

I'm just starting to see fundamental flaws in creations here, and I wish there was a way I could help out without joining people's dev teams. That is why I made this post, not to attack someone's hard work, but instead inspire creativity. That seems to be not the case of what I did.

And just for the record, I have no hatred for anyone's visions of games. I have my own, and they have theirs. I am more than often able to adapt to their visions, and offer my talent & ideas. I suppose I was acting forceful to this community.

I am sorry for posting this as I re-read it and it does seem very harsh, you are right. Hopefully this will clear things up a bit.

I'd be more than willing to do that, if it wasn't by myself. I have my own visions, but not enough time to implement them.

I am in no way trolling, or intentionally trying to do that. I only want to see people excel in their creations, and I suppose forceful or manipulative isn't the best way.

I suppose this is also true. I've seen the weirdest concepts work wonderfully lately, and it's not about the population, it's more about loving what you do.

I love what I do, except I kind of love what I do to a point where it becomes protective.

I know I would not know a fraction of what I do know now because of the community here, and how kind they were to teach me things.

I am a traditional EQer, so I do not always see things differently. Maybe they can work, maybe they cannot. I'm very black and white in my thinking, which means I often say yes or not to a concept, and never compromise on two concepts. A lot of what servers do today is compromising between two concepts to balance them.

Another thing is unheard of ideas. I personally like these unheard of ideas that servers implement (stuff like voice tells for NPCs, bots, etc), but I suppose it's the feeling of seeing everything with them which makes it 'bad', but then again, if everyone has it, it may be a good concept.

Maybe I should just stop talking now. I'm rambling ideas as they come up. :(

sorry for triple posting, feel free to merge these.

I can definitely relate to the any sort of "open mouth, insert foot" moments.

I think everyone in this community will agree that EQ is a great game, and that some point has become wayward.

We all have different views of when that happened, but all have valid points regarding the issues.

When you get down to it... most of the community is standing on the shoulders of giants. The Dev team took on the enormous task of creating the emulator from little more than packets sniffed from the client. They've done a fantastic job. They have also improved the server imo, from what was originally created. One the reasons why SOE wont or very rarely changes classic content, is it's almost all hard coded and difficult to change. Where on the EMU a lot of this is now databased.

<tips pointy hat>

I don't think it is an issue, but instead an opinion that I let get out of control and tried to force on people. I'm sorry for that.

I have seen many servers come and go in the time I have been with EQEmu. That is the nature of the emu (any emu). They come and go, they start and stop to restart different later as something else.

As a server OP, if it ain't fun to make why do it? Most (not all as I won't generalize) that I have seen start their first server in such a way where they remove all the things they disliked on live. It is sheer obviousness that Sony designed the live server to have so many annoyances that people share. So in actuality it is a rather no brainer to see new startup servers with these things you point out.

In essence for the server OPs they are (at least for me it is/was) setting up the EQ they would have liked it to be when they were most annoyed, most stressed and/or most disgusted. This is human nature to remember the negative the best and negativity stays with us longer.

So, once the negativity is quenched by the server running long enough and the "newness" wears off. THEN they either leave it up and keep having "fun" or they get bored and take it down to never start another.....or they rethink their ideas on the basis of it being completely detached from SONY and make a more balanced or fun server in a different way.

Many that have their own servers that used to play on live loved the essence of EQ. Ranting about how you think they should have fun won't bring about any constructive collaborations. If anything, if rants or complaints in such a general form get out of hand and start to pollute the general mind set it could drive some to say hell with this and use a non-emu login server and cut you(us) out entirely.

Its like television. You don't watch every channel your set receives right? You don't always watch it or watch it when there isn't anything on you like on any channel, right?

So is with the server list. If they don't offer what you like, don't play on them. The advantage we have here is, you can play on live or make your own if you don't like whats on the menu.

I think the whole emu experience is an evolving experience for all involved. Seems your emu experience has evolved past your willingness or ability to accommodate it (read between the lines here this is not an insult. I mean you no longer or perhaps never found fun in an easy EQ experience. But not everyone has that in mind here for themselves.)

Now for players, I feel it mirrors server OPs. They have the same drive to want the stuff that was either too obnoxious or hard to obtain, even tedious and not wanting to repeat everything that has been done before. So they at first want an easy play experience. Heck some never have the desire to change this type of game play they desire. Some do and they look for a new server or turn into a server OP and make a different server than they see on the list. Of course some never want to be spoon fed, and there is nothing wrong with that.

But you will never get people to change the server they host in such a manner as this. You say you don't want to do it alone. Well then you are stuck with 4 options. Organize a group to get one going, suck it up and start one for yourself, play what is out there and deal with it, or not play at all. We all have those choices. We all pick our path. You will get no where trying to mold a path for others.




edit: btw I took a bit to write this and all posts after the first page were after my hitting the reply button. so my comments are in responce and relation to the first page only.

This post made me add my edit. But I stick to my theory of play/server OP experience evolution. The demanding playerbase I think is a major drive in the server types. Sadly I don't see that changing for a while. It seems ever since WoW came out, the general feel I got from the modern mmo players was "If it isn't spoon fed it's too boring to play".

We have a vastly different player base than once existed when EQ was young.

@Speedz "WoW came out, the general feel I got from the modern mmo players was "If it isn't spoon fed it's too boring to play".".

Yes. unfortunately. As I noted too, custom is usually preferred for some as it allows them to quickly immerse themselves in nostalgia without dedicating their time starting from scratch like you did in EQ. It's not easy to go from Cloth Armor to end game with no resources in EQ, it takes time... Some people don't have a lot of that. :)

Custom servers alleviate the transition, and keep the ADD folks like me alert and interested with the changes you wouldn't expect. <3

Yes I agree, I myself fall under the definition of "I don't want to keep redoing tedious crap I have already done over again."

No one get me wrong here, I do agree with the thread start in some cases. I would love new completely different content. But not annoying over tedious content. I also don't like to be spoon fed. So my balance is hard to achieve as it doesn't just stop at games. I have yet to even find that balance for myself.

Black and white thinking sucks when impatience is also there, this is where I suffer lol.

I think that between hard core (EQ1) and spoon fed (WoW), EQ2 was a good balance of difficulty and progression, but IMHO they screwed up their class system. They made freaken 24 classes, where they only needed 12, and the kind of choice that WoW gave classes with talent system, EQ2 designers made for the players before the game even starts. (did they really needed 2 druids, 2 warriors, 2 bards and 2 rogues? Nope, not really)

As a person who played all 3 games, I eventually arrived at conclusion, that if you want a game system done right - do it yourself =)

I never had problem with EQ1 been too hard, nor WoW been too easy, but in my mind the only way to set up class system - is the way I think it suppose to be =)

Thats how I arrived at EMU, and been working on my own server AND system ever since =)

Secrets,

Let me tell you I too am actually sick of it as well, and I don't care if it offends everyone. Unfortunately for me I've been trying to develop a server with some unique custom rulesets, and personally I am finding it difficult mainly because I cannot keep testers around long because I'm not offering 25x EXP, phat lewt, etc.

My original plan was to have a classic type server and offer unique PVP rules that would help balance EQ's PVP somewhat. I've decided to switch directions recently because I can't get/keep players on my server because not everyone wants the same old EQ grind they did 10 years ago. We've taken the direction of a hub zone and custom zones that hopefully when we roll them out will help attract players.

If you're a developer and need help testing your code its very difficult to do unless you get a good playerbase going, all the testing i've done with 1-2 man testing groups work fine and then others log into my server and find bugs that we never found without them.

When EQ was the only game in town, the grind was the only thing to do... but after grinding n characters to ## level, with #### AA's, grinding more faction for whatever the current expansion require to get to endgame, or keying, or flagging or all of the above.
So to sum up EQ:
Grind, grind, and grind...ooo and did I mention grinding?
XP multipliers are usually done to mitigate the monotony of these grinds.
could they be done better... probably... instead of a game wide multiplier... you could use the zone table and increase the XP in the lowbie zones... once the cons go green, the xp multiplier goes away. In the rule set... you can change the amount of XP needed to get an AA thus removing a multiplier.

I know a lot of people have this notion that the game starts at xx Level.
The servers that are founded on the notion that the game starts at xx level use the multiplier to accelerate the characters to that point. If the content is full filling I see no problem with this... giving out Tier1 and Epic 1.0 in CB... again if say SOE planned on those being level 45+ items, and the game starts at 60, what's the big deal... the content designers are helping to fast track players to see their real vision.

If you want a server with no XP multiplier to be successful... well I know what I would/will try. It will be a very time consuming build, especially with people that are doing this on the side. The challenge is, and always will be having lower end content that will keep people involved in the world you've created.
As Trevius said earlier... it will take a huge amount of planning to do this, and the average person unfortunately is not that patient.
Which brings me back to, instead of harping on how you think someone else did it wrong, either back it up with an alternative way, build your own server... or STFU

Such a good post to be ended with a +99999999 agro modifier :-P great points made tho.

it's the noobtard necro in me

The first thing I thought when I saw +99999999999 aggro points was, "What if it's an int16?"

...I need to stop posting late at night.

as trev was saying it'd take about a year just to build on a server to have it fully functional and customized to where it would work for others so what i did is i ran citadel of the seeker's as the lead dev i tested some new theories and found out what works good in certain situations and what would kill a server but finally after a year and a half of writting in notebook's everything that ill need to do i have a stack of 20 and that's just the start for what i can do on my server CotS is now down and im sure the leader will be back in a week or two to reopen but im now working on rebuilding my comp this week so that i can start my basic foundation and it all starts with hmmm what should chars start with and tbh i have no clue it's something i just have to go with and see how it works later on i may need to change it but it's all just a learning experience one person's likes wont match up to everyone else who play's emu but instead the goal is to find a way inwhich i can meet in the middle with everyone in the community

Holy necro post!

Locked.