New Progressive Server?Follow

Sure looks like they're considering it. With new owners you never know for sure what their ultimate goal is. Will depend on how the voting went, also.

I voted for locking it after a certain expansion. However, my actual choice will depend on what expansion that will be. I think I would prefer either LDoN or OoW, but at the very least PoP. I think locking it at Velious like some want would take the fun out of it after a bit. Also if I wanted to just stop there I could just play P99 as Velious is close to release there. Conversely, going to far then at a certain point I may as well be playing on my main server. Those are just my opinions anyhow. I would be ok with a slower unlock, I just don't want the inevitable race to the end to unlock each expansion to shorten the time I can really enjoy the best expansions with a decent community and population in those eras.

...if only I had got a "come try our new progression server" email from Daybreak (terrible name, but whatever) instead of multiples of the same cryptic "keep being a customer" (nearly a year since I unsubbed...) messages.

Anyways, I think the numbers (especially at launch) of the last round of Progression should give them the confidence to do the following:

1) Launch a new progression server (Prog #5 if my count is accurate) with 6 months on Original, 6 months on Kunark, 6 months on Velious (ack it's been so long I'm spelling stuff wrong) and then lock it. The Velious lock having a timeframe has a purpose... one of which is giving the "classic only" crowd the opportunity to prove it can maintain a viable population.

2) Once Prog #5 is locked you mirror it (other games have done this) and create Progression server #6. This hedges the bet, as #6 will do 6 months of Luclin, then 6 months of PoP [here it gets murky... LoY & LDoN together really equal the missing group non-raider content of PoP... pretty sure last progression they all unlocked at once]. And repeat the mirror process to create Prog #7.

-They could continue to lock and mirror (mirroring means your characters are copied over at that time. You don't like the move up you stay. You don't like new server you lost nothing going back).
-They could also allow one-way transfers UP the progression ladder for free (since you pay for prog this makes sense). So from Prog #5 to #6.
-If any locked server became unviable it would be merged up. As long as the # of paying subs makes keeping the server rolling worth it why should anyone not playing there care how big it is? With all dev work put into the last round of progression this is getting repaid for work you've already done. 2-3 progression servers (with only one moving up) arguably pays for the further development of the live game vs. the costs of running them. Al'Kabor lasted a long time on fumes... there is precedent.

I'm not alone in having no interest in paying for new EQ content, however I'd be a sucker for a progression server that didn't get raced past the eras I like playing in (I lose interest after Ldon... could maybe tolerate OoW/GoD lock but would rather not.).

Usually progression servers don't allow mercs until they "progress" to whatever xpac introduced mercs.

Which is Seeds of Destruction, btw...

I was on Vulak... once the speed racer guild unlocked Kunark we lost tons of players. One of the problems there was the voting criteria (level 30 wasn't it?) basically eliminated 90% of the casuals that were playing... I was on a lot and barely into the 40s when that first vote went down* After that vote the casual guild I was in went from 30-50+ on in primetime to ghostville. Most of them decided "well that was fun but it's going too fast to still enjoy". There was definitely anger/sadness towards the vote.


I'd have no issues with a racing to unlock progression server being offered in addition to a time-set one. I'd be okay with PVP (either for the racing --settle your raid camps the old-fashioned Zek server way --or just on it's own). EQ pvp works great in the era with droppable loot (no mercs) and ruleset that lets you loot stuff from your kills.

You also can't have the world too big for PVP... so probably a Luclin lock for a PVP server would give enough range of stuff to do, some faster travel, but lots of risk and in-world contact. They could even do something funny like buff the stats on the Twilight sea quest armor to make it desirable for PVP in that locked era.

There were still tons of people on both servers after the hack and after Kunark came out. There was a considerable drop, IMO, when Gates failed to pass the first time (throwing some question into argument that people want a server locked at PoP.) But even then, the population was healthy until sometime in Secrets, when my guild on Vulak fell apart, and we had to merge with the guild remaining, and several of us decided to re-roll on Fippy as well and I've been there for almost 2 years now, and there are still 2 guilds that are able to beat the current raid content.

Can you imagine playing with the original UI? It was hideous and outdated even by 1999 standards.

On second thought, I'm not even sure I'd come back and play - no matter the circumstance. I have the time, but feel guilty for wasting it by playing Everquest - when I could be wasting time reading some trashy novel or movie or washing my hair ( yeah, it's filthy!) or whatever.

Edited, Mar 20th 2015 12:48pm by Trappin

I ran from Erud to Firona Vie once, taking all the connecting boat rides, going to meet a friend in LoIO only to get killed by drachnids by the zone line. It was so much fun I still remember it to this day

I have a ton of fond memories of those days but I wouldn't want to stare at a spellbook until level 20 again or beg for a bind in town. And SOE (and presumably the new management) has previously shown themselves incapable of decoupling the modern game from its new spells, tradeskills, zone updates, etc. Think we'll ever see original Splitpaw again? No, not the level 12-25ish zone but the original level 1-10 zone?

Edited, Mar 20th 2015 6:16pm by Jophiel

One more story LOL.

My very first toon was a dorf warrior and when he got "old" enough he liked to adventure in Unrest, because of the great loot, solid XP, easy grouping, etc. Problem was that for a tank class the closest bind spot was Kaladim, which was 3 zones away. Then also once you acquired enough loot to start becoming encumbering, you had to run to a vendor to sell. Your options were the poison merchant on the island in the middle of Dagnor's Cauldron, or making the long hazardous run back to Butcherblock Mountains. The poison merchant was "smart" enough to know that he had a buyer's market monopoly in that zone so he paid a lot less than BB merchants. Plus getting to that island was a challenge all to itself having to swim there and avoid the wandering goblins and skeletons. So usually I would suck it up and make the run to BB.

Anyone who leveled up in Faydwer in those days will recall the creepiness of trying to run up west side of the lake, along the rocky shoreline, trying to avoid falling damage as well as the skells, gobs, snakes and rats that regularly wandered in and out of the water. Remember most likely this was accomplished without benefit of sow or lev or invis, and in those days, with the HPs of a level 16-20 toon, a couple of long falls could do enough damage to kill you. Plus you're trying to orient yourself so you can spot that one lonely half-dead tree that marks the beginning of the tunnel to BB. To top it off, the loot that's encumbering you is slowing you down lol.

I never forget that on one run I picked up agro from a skeleton who started whacking me from behind, giggling that insane laugh of his, and my HPs are plummeting as I try desperately to get to the zone, or at least to the "Fantastic Four"'s camp. Well, I'm down 50% and know I'll never make it so I turn and fight. The mob was a blue con so I had a shot but the real danger here was adds. Luckily for me I kill it but now I'm down to like 15 HPs which means one hit from another mob or a fall down a cliff side means I'm dead. I wasn't even sure where I was so a corpse run would be a nightmare. I decided the smartest thing would be to allow myself to regen and the only safe way to do that is to make my way to the zone wall, along which no mobs wander. Of course, the zone wall is very high and the paths to it are torn with sharp gullies and cliffs. I barely make it without taking more damage and then I sit down to allow the very slow regen process to bring my HPs to a respectable level. Some readers are thinking why didn't you click an invis potion, or log out and "Return Home" or use some other CURRENT game technique. Or just let yourself die and then summon your corpse in the GL? Yeah, right, none of that was even dreamt of in those days. (Who could even afford an invis pot? Probably would have cost as much as the loot I was carrrying to sell was worth!) Dying would have been a MASSIVE pain. I'd be very lucky to even find my corpse in that zone (no maps, of course) and trying to locate it naked meant I'd probably just die a second time to wandering mobs. My only hope would have been to find a high-level necro kind enough to "comp" me a corpse summon since no way I had the funds to buy that service.

Not to mention un-rezzed death was a major XP loss, in an era when XP earned was slow and precious. I didn't even KNOW a cleric high enough level to cast an XP-returning rez. The first rez of that sort I ever got was from a player in an Unrest pickup group who camped out his toon and logged in his raiding cleric to rez our whole group who had wiped. It was the first time I even knew that was possible!

Ultimately, I made it safely to BB and sold my loot, instantly feeling "rich" from the probably 5 or 6 platinum pieces I netted from the run. Then off to Kaladim to bank the money since money carried would be lost if you ever died and couldn't find your corpse. Then back to Unrest!

Such a game we shall never see again!



Edited, Mar 21st 2015 8:08am by Sippin

I'm with Trappin on this one -- I don't think I could do it again. I don't have the time, and if I did, I've already done 1-60 during Combine days, and it's agonizingly slow. I frankly gave up on the emu server after a week, it's just such a slog it feels like self punishment. I also realized it's very difficult to capture and hold onto the sense of nostalgia I have for old EQ. Sure, your first day back into it, it's amazing and incredible, but after a week, and you're only level 6, and you start planning for 200 blacksmithing and you kind of "come to" one night while playing and you realize you've been dragging items into a box and hitting combine for the last 30 minutes, only to get 4 measly skill points -- that's when I gave up. It's like, I could be doing much better things with my time right now, heck, I'd rather have spent that 30 minutes making my bathtub sparkly clean...

Racing to max level is the surest way to burn out and lose interest on a progression server with any kind of simulation of the original XP pace. XP in the old days was slow and leveling was slow, except for maybe classes that can solo quad-kite like druids and wizards. If you don't stop to smell the roses (i.e. enjoy the lower levels) you will definitely get burned out quick on that kind of server. Tradeskills... nobody HAS to do them and it truly took a special sort of OCD person to max any of those out "in the old days." Except for jewelcraft on my enchanter (because player-made jewelry was very valuable for stat enhancement in those days) I never worked on ANY tradeskill until they dumb-downed the process a few years ago. I agree it's no fun to just keep clicking and to have to pharm mats from grey cons for hours.

And it's a given that the real fun of XPing at lower levels comes from being in a group with real people. P99 recognizes this and that's why they ban boxing so strenuously. They're wise that way...

Edited, Mar 26th 2015 8:11am by Sippin