not to shoot you down, but you have to deal with the databases in a strange manner whilst connecting the "mega" server. My ideas for it would be to have one computer host the db, have the others connect to that computer to send the data back and forth, and there will be data... believe me...
From there... i honestly wouldnt connect many many computers together, i would find maybe four people with great connections, and have have one host velius, kunark, faydwer, and antonica. Antonica and kunark will obviously need the higher powered servers. I would kind of pull off a guildwar theme as well, to try to isolate the people to a shorter area, this way there is actually some interaction between PC's... (player characters). I honestly would host a special server, that wasnt like normal eq. Pull off something to change around zone points, but make it so you have to type in... /zone to actually zone (something the WintersRoar server made effective) This way you have more freedom to do what you wish with the server. You could host just antonica, yet set up the zone lines to have all of the PoP connected up so you can zone in.
Also keep in mind that the three top servers have pretty dedicated people. Guildwars, Krushers, and Forever Hacking. I only manage to check this thing once every few months to see how things are going with some old buddies. And i turn it on to see that GuildWars has hit 100 people on the server, unless you plan to be able to that, or come up with a better storyline... im just not sure as to how many dedicated players you will have.
./sigh...
Why did i quit everquest?......... because i wanted my life back..... and i tell you all, life is very good indeed. You would be suprised how many more friends you get... when you dont spend all of your time talking with the only 4 people you know who play eq... and when you are doing things.. thinking about eq...
I beat eq... i gave up my crack addiction, and now i laugh about it when i go into eb and talk to the workers... its a good laugh... i beat their 13$ a month system.... those bastids...
Daniel D~
DannMann99@aol.com
DannMann05 @ AIM
Vash-The-Nuku-Nuku @ IRC