What are you looking for in a server?

[NostalgiaEQ]

I'm thinking that a classic minimal raid server would allow for soloing. From what I've heard soloing really only becomes impossible after lvl 50 so if the max level is 50 then? I'm going to start playing a rogue so I can understand the issues better. Never played a pure melee before but I can't comprehend how it could be impossible, just kill blues/light blues and bind wounds right?

[ChaosSlayerZ]

Originally Posted by NostalgiaEQ

I'm thinking that a classic minimal raid server would allow for soloing. From what I've heard soloing really only becomes impossible after lvl 50 so if the max level is 50 then? I'm going to start playing a rogue so I can understand the issues better. Never played a pure melee before but I can't comprehend how it could be impossible, just kill blues/light blues and bind wounds right?

There are 2 inherited problems with this in original EQ:

1) When Kunark was released, to stop high level players from progressing new content too quickly, the hit points and dps of all 50+ mobs was made MUCH HIGHER than what natural progression should have been. Basically, if we assume that every level from 40 to 50, mobs power increased by say 2% per level, then from 50 to 60, it started rising by like 5% per level. This trend was continued with each next expansion, and specially noticeable in Luclin, PoP and GoD.

So, To make any sort of SMOOTH progression from 1 to whatever your max level is, you need to formulate a new formula for mobs hp and dps.


2) Another inherited problem with base EQ is - "pure melee" classes. These classes suffer from the fact that they have NO REAL ABILITIES, from just activating auto-attack and hitting KICK once in a while. (Warriors are the worst, and Monks slightly better in this regard) The entire core structure from pure melees needs to be re-made from scratch, so player gets some other buttons to push, other than a kick and taunt.

For example in my server plans is to scrap Warrior template completely, and use Paladin/SK as a template base for a new "warrior".
Or, for example, see how EQ2 made their rogues/brigands.


These of course only my own views on the issue

[Maze_EQ]

Why would you scrap warrior when endurance can be used the same as mana?

Make the abilities discs.

You can make a disc cast a buff that doesn't get used by a timer.

There's absolutely no reason to remove any melee classes because "mana" is a problem.

[ChaosSlayerZ]

Originally Posted by Maze_EQ

Why would you scrap warrior when endurance can be used the same as mana?

Make the abilities discs.

You can make a disc cast a buff that doesn't get used by a timer.

There's absolutely no reason to remove any melee classes because "mana" is a problem.

Yes, I know - you can use endurance instead of mana as source of energy.
I agree.
There are however some limitation related to Discs - unlike spells, they are more limited number of "empty slots" for discs (I believe its like 100?), and you can't delete them. Which means you can't give them an increasing progression as with spells (firebolt 1,2,3,4 etc), which leads to - you most likely will have to design them in such way that there are few of them and they improve with level by themselves.

You could probably make an npc or a custom command to reset/delete Discs but this could be another hassle for players.
On other hand, perhaps a warrior/monk/rogue/zerker doesn't really need as many abilities as say - Enchanter. So yeah this could be worked around.

I guess my most significant grief with pure melees is over a Monk - an amazing class in every way, that suffers from WASTED abilities. You get these cool monk skills every 5 levels (round kick, eagle strike, etc), but once you get a new one, previous one gets obsolete, people auto-switch and never go back. I believe they tried to give earlier abilities more value with AAs, but they didn't really worked out.

What would be better if each of these fancy strikes would not just do damage but have a unique perk to it (stun, interrupt, debuff etc) so you wouldn't just press the one that does more damage.

[NostalgiaEQ]

Good insight guys. Thats interesting to know they screwed with the xp system past 50 which was probably the single thing that killed EQ the most, that and constantly adding more zones as the game population was falling. I can see how this made them have to add overpowered mercs to make it possible to progress and whatnot.

I love the idea of stamina bieng melee mana bar. Do abilities like kick and stuff use stamina already? If so it should be easy enough to just add in a few extra abilities and call it a day. I don't see the need to totally revamp it, they just need a basic boost.

[sunbeam]

Originally Posted by NostalgiaEQ

Good insight guys. Thats interesting to know they screwed with the xp system past 50 which was probably the single thing that killed EQ the most, that and constantly adding more zones as the game population was falling. I can see how this made them have to add overpowered mercs to make it possible to progress and whatnot.

I love the idea of stamina bieng melee mana bar. Do abilities like kick and stuff use stamina already? If so it should be easy enough to just add in a few extra abilities and call it a day. I don't see the need to totally revamp it, they just need a basic boost.

There are already some disciplines in addition to the usual stuff like Mighty Strike that are in the EMU codebase. Verant/Sony tried doing some of this a long time ago (stuff like a "Headbutt" for warriors, and monks got some different toys like lulls).

It is operational on some servers, and not on others. No idea what happened on live with it. They did use the stamina bar though, and I think they were on the same timers as other disciplines.