open beta testing for classic legit pve

[Traul]

Originally Posted by Dibalamin

This is the target. A lot of what EQ was was the community. We have quite a bit of RL friends that are going to be on the server, probably in the neighborhood of 20+. POK and to a very small extent, Nexus is what siren'd the swansong of EQ for me. It removed the inter-reliance of players on each other: MGB Buffs, instant travel, etc. EQ classes were balanced on the needs & detriments of other classes. Once those were removed EQ became much less interactive and more like something else entirely.

I just don't understand why you would run the high chance of turning off everybody except the 'absolute hardcore classic players' over what could be a small compromise. We're not talking about enabling PoK, but just putting pay-to-use teleporters at each spire. Then hey, if the population becomes large enough, they can always be removed.

You guys are aiming for classic, but classic didn't have server populations of <100. Classic wasn't designed for such low populations. You've got to make minor adjustments to compensate for this or else gameplay will suffer greatly.

[Traul]

Also, having the spire-travel system Conifer suggested isn't going to damage class interaction if there isn't a druid within 8 zones to interact with in the first place.

[Conifer]

Wow, quite a bit of posts on this matter of teleports and such. Just wanted to clarify my position so no one bans me from the server before I get to even play on it.

I would definitely launch with no system but a true classic, player based teleport system. The real goal of the project, from how I understand it, is to be as original of an EQ experience as possible. You can't do that by starting off with a bunch of compromises. The only way to start off with a true classic server is to have all the things in place; both the good and bad. Good, bad, it is all personal opinion anyway. What one person loves, someone out there is sure to hate with a passion.

As a player, some of the original things EQ was famous for around launch time maybe a little tough to adjust back too; at first. But I seem to remember the harshness of the game forced a lot of grouping and because of that, I know that I made lots of good friends. I always thought of old school EQ as a chat-room with a fun game built around it. I know there were times were I might have only killed 2 or 3 mobs, if any, in an hour of play because I was just happily chatting away. Hanging around with and meeting new people was what was fun. The game wasn't bad either.

From a developer's standpoint, I would think that the main goal is to get to as classic as possible. Period. If you can get to the point of being as close to original as possible, any compromises that might have to be made because of class issues or population can then be made. But if the original goal was Vanilla EQ, stick to your guns, take no prisoners, and try to deliver the best damn Classic experience possible.

The teleport system I talked about was a compromise that has no place in original EQ and as such I don't think it should be available as a launch option. I just see it as one of those compromises, that if had to be made, would be a lot better than some easier methods. Nothing more, nothing less. It is not a request; just a silly idea--the lesser of the evils as I saw them in my mind.

The only thing I would hope is that the goal would be more orient towards a few months after the original release of EQ. I shudder to think of some of the things at launch that were broken or not even in the game yet at that time. Most of those types of true "Bugs" I think could be left out with little to no complaints from most people.

When you are new to a community, it is sometimes hard to judge how people will react to certain ideas. Sorry if I seem to be repeating myself (and for my overly long posts).

Conifer

[nilbog]

Sorry guys.. I had to leave town to visit a friend in the hospital. I didn't arrive back until today.. took a while to catch up on all this :P

Here's the deal. My original intent was to create a server as close to the original experience as I could.. and this objective never changed. In the future, I might make a different server, with different goals, and customizations. I tried my best to recreate content based on my mission goal (legit pve classic). In this particular progression, items will be nerfed and unnerfed as they originally were, zones will be locked and unlocked as per the timeline. The timeline was created based on patch dates and research.

If I were to pick and choose customizations based purely on a "time saving" features, it completely changes the game. I sympathize with the soulbinder arguments.. some people say, remove them because they aren't classic. Other people say keep them because if you're somewhere remote, finding a bind might be impossible. In this instance, I can see a compromise because of population differences. That bind might never show up, whereas not having a port.. that's just a convenience factor.

I interpreted some of the posts to mean that having to run everywhere is non-classic. I remember running all the time.. to my destination, while shouting for ports.. which usually didn't happen. This is in a prekunark setting.. so I'm not seeing the problem here.

Traditionally, locating a port was difficult..or damn near impossible. People went to the lengths of leveling up alternate characters just to use for ports. Later, transporation was widely common and a source of income for said porters. If everyone was moving around at their leisure.. certain zones become useless.. and those random chance encounters you might have.. simply won't exist.

I want to reiterate that I appreciate all the feedback given on all the issues. Thats the only way I know how people feel about them :P Ideas mentioned here sound great.. and if needed, those will surely be on the poll options. Almost all decisions have been made by the feedback of beta testers.

But if the original goal was Vanilla EQ, stick to your guns, take no prisoners, and try to deliver the best damn Classic experience possible.

yes. And also I would be doing an injustice to the people on my forums that don't read or post here.. by changing my mission statement to classic eq : convenience edition. The most hardcore classic purists are located there.. and if polled, would greatly outnumber the amount of posted differences here.

Of course, if it works, you're more likely to have close-knit groups and guilds.

Adventurers banding together against common foes in the quest for loot and glory in a fantasy setting? Sure :p

In closing.. I want to say I am not immune to compromise. If the majority of players deem something in need of change.. there's a high probability that we will change it.

Feel free to post any questions or concerns at the forums
http://classicbetatest.guildlaunch.com