The Bleeding Edge
 

Well, since I do not get alot of time lately I decided to just go ahead and open my server for the public. Dont expect much yet. It runs the latest EQEmu binaries compiled from CVS and Angelox's ax_peq16 database.
Since the Server is housed in an Datacenter and has an 100 Mbit/s uplink to the internet it should be capable of supporting quite some players. Hardware is a dual P3 1.266 GHz with 2GB of RAM.

Note: I can not test if everyting is working correctly right now. I'll come back to this after work and explain a bit what I have in mind for this server.

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Welcome to the.
<<not a lot of time club>>. :)

At first I had the illusion I could test all sorts of scenarios and have all scripts ready bevore I go public. Unfortunately it is the ususal 'This project has to be finished at the end of the year, no matter what' time. So I decided going public anyway and learn as I blunder along.
What I have in mind for this server is to be some sort of testbed for scaling EQ down to an population well under 100 players without sacrificing the feeling of accomplishement that goes with playing EQLive.

Things that imho needs a change:

1. Extremely rare mobs/drops. We are talking 10+ hour camps here.
On EQLive these mobs where camped 24/7. The only way the influx of items could be managed was to make them extremely rare. So unless someone can earn good exp and/or get other good items while he waits the drop/spawn rate should be adjusted.

2. Auctions and Bazaar sales
I guess the Encounters in EQLive are not only scaled against player level but also typical equipment. On Live a lower level player could buy items that are well over his ability to obtain even with a full group.
I am still pondering what can be done, maybe it would be feasible to add lower tier tradeskill items to merchants for halfway affordable prices.

3. Making older zones more interesting
There is alot of old world content most players dont visit because the loot and exp isnt good enough. I wouldnt like to change the stats on items but something should be done. Maybe some Quests that require old world items to complete.

4. Risk = Fun
Most people on Live and EMu servers dont want to risk much. They are content with a steady flow of items and exp. Something like: 'Boring is good, I can have fun when I reach Level 70' This is a tough nut to crack if you dont want to trivialize death.

I'm working on merging the rest of cavedudes populated zones with what they have - I hope to have all the zones connected (no need for #zone or #peqzone), and a few small things at first, like aggro, some grids, loots etc. ax_peq17.rar has some of this , but when I post ax_peq18.rar, it will all be there.

Yikes! I didn't think it was that bad - I played normal a while back in my favorite LoY zones. and stuff was dropping - i still got drops named and even nice drops. I know the drop rates look drastic if you look at their numbers in the database , but for some reason, they seem to fit in better, and you don't end up with too much. It seemed to me they still spawned more often than live. But anyways, I've been asking for feedback - most everything I have done, is off the top of my head, and my experience with live.
The plat drop rate does need work - now, intead of starting out with 14K drops, you get the normal under 1K amount. but higher levels do deserve higher amounts, I need to fix that. At least this way, plat has some value.

look for the ax_peq18.rar , it will save everyone some work - might take me a while, as I am doing them "my way/technique", one at a time.

Also, It seems like my @!&$###@!!!! router ( I just bought), is screwed up again - I'm going to have to go back and get it replaced. I guess at this point I can safely say that "Lynksys routers are garbage"?

Well, maybe I was a bit to general with rare drops. My favorite old world examples are Raster of Guk and Mitty. Both had driven enough poor Monks or Druids into tears. Maybe also the Ancient Cyclops.

I had serious issues with my WRT54G till i patched the firmware. Check that angle out, might help.

eq4me and Angelox, something I had noticed while going through some Epic quests, some of the epic drops were "balanced" with the rest of the loot on mobs (Ixiblat comes to mind). The staff for the cleric epic should be a 100% drop, I believe. I was going to go through that sort of "should always be there no matter what" loot and make adjustments, but I just don't have the free time atm... If you're already in there, maybe this is something to consider?

I shoudn't have judged LinkSys so harshly - I've had their routers for years with no problems, My old routers are NR041s, and now I have a newer WRT54G. I did try to flash it, but it kept failing the update- do you know of any reason why or any tricks on how?

Anyways, I just realized that when I reset my whole connection , the problem would go away for a long time ( i was just resetting the router). So it could also be the Modem, My ISP, or some internet "clown" buzzing my connection and crashing it.

It probaly is, as i tried to omit special drops in my "drop-reduction raid" , but some might have slipped by.
I think there's some peeps I can trust here, so I am planning on opening up a browser interface to my database and give some of you the password. There's waayy too many aspects to all of this for me to tackle alone, and the more zones I open up, the futher away it gets from me.
I'll do this when ever I finish moving the rest of the Cavedude data, which I am working on (hopefully, soon).

I'm sorry, let me clarify, I am seeing this in raw PEQ database, not yours. I haven't tested the epic quest data in your DB yet. My apologies.

Well, I updated the server to the latest EQEmu release and Angelox's ax_peq18 release. I do my best to try to stay current. The server is set to 2X EXP and 1.5x Mana/Health/Endurance Regeneration.
Apart from changes in the EQEmu Source I decided to not customize the Servers database for now. This is due to my lack of time but also to honor Angelox's effort and give him a greater chance for some feedback.

If any of the active contributors on this board want to test Angelox's additions I am willing to raise one of their chars level and summon some good equipment. I dont want to let normal players level to fast but it would be a bit harsh to go to an LoY or OoW zone at level 10 :)