Black Meadow Rising - BETA

[JimB_1958]

Looking for BETA testers.

Probably Requires Secrets of Faydwer to play (That's what I use)

Black Meadow Rising is a non legit but not completely customized altered world. The setting is another diminsion of the old Norrath we all know. This is somewhat explained in the introduction zone.

Almost every zone or a zone nearby has been invaded or infiltrated or is being scouted by the Black Meadow army. This is a war-monger, hate EVERYONE race who wants to take over the world. And, as you will find out at the beginning, is the reason you are here.

You will recognize a lot of NPCs, but some of what they do and say has been altered to fit this world. This is another diminsion of Norrath in a sort of parralel unniverse.

The world is set as an earn-your-way type adventure. You start in Tox, earn your way to Faydwer, then earn your way to Antonica, and eventually to the planes and other exotic zones. It is a little tough at the beginning but smoothes out after you learn the ropes. This will likely be a little harder set up for evil types, but testing and tweaking for them is still in progress.

Drakkin and Beserkers have been disabled in this world (Except for bots). This is mostly because both were introduced after I quit live game and I personally know very little about them. Maybe they will be introduced later... Maybe.

The focus is solo and group play. Bots are active, but must be earned with levels and cash. LDONs play a big part later on and have been expanded somewhat and will be expanded more in the future. There are already higher tiers of loot available and you can earn LDON points outside of the LDON adventures themselves. They even play a big part in earning Epic items along with other quests.

Epics (all of them) are available through long quests. No real raiding required, but to earn your last epic you will have to be pretty uber and pretty patient and stubborn.

Every class can own a pet. These are not awesomely powerful pets, but a pet none the less. Several types can be owned like wolf, goblin, bear, tiger, Fairy and many more.

This world is a one-man operation. I have played this game or a shard of it since opening day in 1999. Working on this these past few months has been as much fun than any time I have ever played it anywhere. I would like to thank all of you here for your input and hard work to provide this. Even if nobody ever plays Black Meadow Rising, it has still been a thrill for me and will continue to be. I am making the world one that I would want to play in... kind of my own personal sandbox. But, I will always be open to suggestions.

[Drajor]

Awesome server name and the concept sounds fun. GL!

[lupisnoctum]

Really enjoying the server so far, only one major issue at this point.

For some reason my combat recovery takes 5 minutes to wear off. As you can imagine, this makes life as a caster rather tedious. I've tried three different clients, no change. It seems to be affecting my bot as well.

AFAIK, there's nothing on my end that can be causing this. If there is, please suggest a fix. A five minute wait for more mana isn't exactly fun!

[JimB_1958]

Hmmm...

Someone correct me if Im wrong but this looks to be a setting in the server rules called Character:RestRegenTimeToActivate, which is set at 300. That would be 5 minutes.

I will change it for now to 30 and restart the server late tonite when nobody is on. Try again after 10pm CST or so and see if its better. This may have to be tweaked a little.

Thanks for playing... did the Black Meadow army get ya yet?

.... UPDATE ... Seems to be fixed now.

[lupisnoctum]

Yep, working perfectly now. Thanks for the quick fix!

And yeah, the Black Meadow Mafia has tagged me a few times now, lol. Going to get a few more levels now and engage Operation: Scorched Earth on the buggers...

[JimB_1958]

Beta Phase 2...

Thanks everyone who tested in phase 1

Updates and New Additions as of Nov 7, 2013....

The main quest (war with the Black Meadow) has been extended by several steps. It should be complete and allow characters to take the fight to the Black Meadow homeland by the end of 2013, or at least by sometime in January.

LDON points are awarded for other completed quests and tasks outside of LDON dungeons. The Wayfarer Brotherhood acknowledges and supports the war effort against the Black Meadow.

Higher LDON armor and item tiers available from additional vendors. New LDON merchants with hundreds of new items avaiable.

The highest LDON armor tier can be upgraded through more questing.

Horses can now be purchased. Other mounts to come at a later date. Maybe.

Spell Scribers available up to level 65 spells. Higher level spells available through drops and questing.

Buyable charms from a Charm Vendor. These are good charms. You get what you pay for though.

All Epics available through intense questing. These quests have been tweaked. The final epic quest also offers other unique items.

Bots are still available, but the avaiability has been tweaked somewhat.

Dragons all over the world have been tweaked to be more inline with solo/bot play.


Several new zones opened up including:
Fear Plane
Hate Plane
Fire Plane
Dranik hollows (not instanced)
Dranik catacombs (not instanced),
Goru`kar Mesa
Blackfeather Roost
The Steppes
Ssraeshza Temple
Zhisza, the Shissar Sanctuary
Skyfire, Land of Dragons

[Aquaojo]

Been playing on this server for a few days and just wanted to say awesome work!! It's smooth, well thought out, interesting, and very balanced so far!! Thanks for all the hard work!

[JimB_1958]

After a two-month break due to illness... I am resuming work on this server again.


Synopsys: Black Meadow Rising is becoming more of a custom build than I had at first believed it would be. I am using most of the NPCs and mobs and even the items in various zones, but tweaking the levels and power and loot. Also, almost every quest in every zone has been altered or changed completely as well as many many other quests added. The server actually has an end-game goal besides just collecting the best gear possible and gain all the levels and AAs. The goal is to find the homeland of the Black Meadow and strike back and eventually slay their leaders. Of course you will more than likely have to collect the best gear possible and gain all the levels and AAs to do this but...

I have sort of broken up the server in Level Tiers, and equipement Tiers coincide with these Level Tiers pretty close as well. I hope.

1st Tier - Tox Forest area. Up to about level 30 or so there will be things to kill and quests to do. This is where you get first introduced to the Black Meadow Army but will not yet learn too much about them... except that they want to kill you. A lot.

2nd Tier - Faydwer area. This area is designed for level 25-50ish. The zones have been tweaked and adjusted to suit the level. There are equipment upgrades available that are for the most part class-specific. You can also start doing LDON adventures here but are limited to just
the Mistmoore's Catacombs.

3rd Tier - Antonica. Seek out Captain Higtower in commonlands and Commander Miranda in North Ro to start a long series of quests to defeat the Black Meadow Army. These quests will require you to continue earning LDON points and eventually lead to questing for Epics and 4th Tier equipment. I consider this line of quests the "Main Quest" line.

4th Tier - After a certain point in your Main Quest, you will earn an opportunity to visit other NPCs around the world who will give you quests that will open other zones to you like Dranik Hollows and Ssraeshza Temple and some of the planes. All with tweaked mobs and equipment. This all leads to more advancement in the main quest.

5th Tier - The journey to The Black Meadow. Eventually you will learn the way, and be powerful enough to journey to the Black Meadow and attack them in their homeland.

6th Tier - The Black Meadow and surrounding areas. Kill and defeat the enemy... Win the game?

Current status of the server is in the 4th tier with some work done in Tier 5. Even up to this point there is several months of playtime. I have the entire trek to the Black Meadow laid out and the zones chosen, just doing work on the content.

Please give Black meadow Rising a try and as always comments, suggestions, and bug reports are welcome.