Classic (Not Progression) Server Rule Set; For the Fans!

you just won't let up. i guess, if you want to get nit-picky, the server is "shut down" in the sense that no one can actually "log in" and "play everquest," but it is still going strong and will be for a long time.

I guess you didn't play on EQMac...

Nothing is going to last forever. The idea is to to get people excited enough to subscribe again for a while.

It's good to know it will go on for a long time. Anyone who is a fan of a more classic era of eq is a friend of mine. And they have my sincere best wishes.

Apparently you didn't read the part in my post on how I specifically addressed EQMac and why it lasted as long as it did.

But I will repeat it for you.

EQMac lasted as long as it did almost entirely because the content on EQMac was never beat till the very end. EQMac was desolate with very few people on the entire server (They didn't even have enough to field an entire 72 man raid for Rathe until right near its end) until Sony let it go F2P and the PC people congregated over there to it. Up until that point EQ Mac never had 1 guild that was able to down Rathe Council and so those people stayed because they truly had never beaten the content that was available to them.

Unfortunately it has been told to us time and again that it is impossible for Sony to change base coding on progression servers without changing live servers. That means that we will be vastly more powerful than EQMac characters ever were. This means that the PC crowd will destroy ALL content in no time flat. At that point most of the hardcores will dwindle off over a few months and the "Casuals" who stay will have no one left to group with. The Hardcores who do stay will farm all previous content and the "casuals" who think they are going to "relive" some grand experience will never get to when a group of 6 people are downing Seru, AoW, and all Kunark with no problem.

As I have said time and again. A Locked server is just not feasible - it will be dominated by a very small elite population who can farm whatever End-Game zone is available and always be ahead of everyone else and thusly able to "screw" over everyone else.

Do you not remember how EQ works? The object of raiding is to make sure you raid and everyone else doesn't...

As far as "That other server" goes, well we all know the cesspool that has become that server with the few elite and then all the other peons - is that really what you want to emulate?

^ Added (Why wont edit work?)

What makes the progression server different is that it always gives the "elite" something to strive for. Knowing that down the road new content is coming keeps people in the game and playing (Until their arbitrary "best" expansion is over then they leave).

Burnout was a big problem on the TLP servers for 2 main reasons...either A) Content wasn't released quick enough and people quit or B) Content was released too quickly and people fell behind and quit.

A) Can never be solved without another Combine/Sleeper (which might be feasible as long as there is OTHER options to that).

B) Can be solved by adding LONGER lockouts, though to the detriment of A. Overall though I think most people who played on the TLP's can agree that most people tended to quit because content was released too fast and not too slow (Only a select few elite leave when content is too slow, but droves of casuals quit when it moves too fast).

My Suggestions is actually to release 2 servers. A Combine Timeline server for those who want to go really fast and a Slower TLP server for those who wants to take it slower. Will there be overlap between the servers? Sure, but if the content is released fast enough on the Fast server then it may keep most of the "hardcore" rushers busy.

I would even support 2 servers and they are MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE. Meaning you either play on the Fast server or the Slow server but not both.

I think much of the lure of starting new is the enjoyment of building a new character in a fresh environment.

Look at league of legends - here you have a simple game that has the leveling mechanic as it's core. Each game progresses differently and that "ding" feeling is happening all the time. The same is true here in EQ - the drops from mobs are random, and who knows if you'll be that lucky guy this time. There is certainly a gambling aspect to it.

That being said, I will draw upon another classic from our past - The Legend of Zelda, to posit another concept: when you finished the original quest you had the option of doing it again, but with everything slightly different in placement. This forced you to discover much of the game over again as nothing was set in stone.

Obviously impossible, but how much fun would it be if the old world items/mobs were all retouched in many ways so that gear had different stats and loot tables were all changed? I think much of the lure of a classic server is lost because there really is no mystery any more. Want to work on a quest? Great, someone else has already given you everything you need to know on an easily searchable website.

This aspect of the game can never be re-played. World first epic? That feeling will never happen again.

I think there are many of use that are attracted to the idea of going back to classic and reliving the eq experience, that was certainly true when Fippy was released. Due to the amount of interest I was unable to role a character on that server and had to wait for Vulak. It was an absolute mess and I wasted 1yr on that server.
Many of the people I met left the game for good, a few rerolled on Fippy, a few came to Vox but their interest fizzled, the problem wasn't the mountain of AA's that are now autogranted, it was lack of interest in a vanilla server.
As a casual player that thought it would be fun to play the game I had played 10yrs earlier on Vazaelle. I was disappointed when they put the newbie armor quests in, that removed alot of content from the game, the old days of collecting ts mats, making your own gear and then upgrading was gone, my +6wis bracer x2 were good enough to get me to level 50.
People complained about how hard it was to get to level 50, I had no problem getting there, although when I did get there it was obvious that there wasn't enough content. RaF bonus created a mass of box crews fighting over the juicy camps, level 1 tracking bots in every raid zone, Eula and PnP didn't exist and not to mention the naked platfarmer working 23hrs a day on Hill Giants in Rathe mountains. Scripted bots were holding down named.
I returned to the game a short time before the Trakanon server was released and I heard complaints of third party programs being used but being stuck in end game content on Vulak I received my education on these programs as did many others. 1 guild tried to maintain a hold on the server and for the most part did a good job of it. They struck a deal that when we voted to unlock Velious they would move out of classic but the box crews still held down anything of value.
This was nothing like my original encounter with eq and I wondered if we would of been better off with much slower xp gain, I think many of us would of been happier fooling around in lower level zones rather than being thrust into the hostility of end game content.
I can't blame the 1 guild, for one it was obvious that they weren't the only ones using the available tools to try and stay ahead and secondly (and more importantly) everybody using these tools were allowed to do so. Blatant violations got people 3 day suspensions, not really a deterrent to stop violating Eula although I must admit I don't know what the guys from EoE got for the warping incident. Looking back on that it seems kind of funny now, but it was less funny at the time as it highlighted what the game had now become.
Tie that in with all the other nonsense and it truly highlighted the dismal situation concerning customer support and their inability to enforce their own rules designed to protect the integrity of the game.

So people left due to the hostility and the more competitive players said good riddance. They lost alot of their bazaar market there, those that were unable to farm elite items and therefore had to buy the elite items from more knowledgeable, better organized players. Then when instancing was introduce the players that enjoyed the competition began to leave. Trigger mobs were locked down for a while but it wasn't the same. Some people were asking for a merge or server transfers as far back as PoP as they could see the situation that Vulak was in and it was obvious what was coming next.

Here's my point, if they released a new server with the same (or similar) ruleset the same thing would happen again. It would be too much of a draw on resources for in game support to enforce their own rules.
If they released a classic or pre PoP server then it would be a server of pure competition. If this server was released as a PVE server then customer support would be inundated with a mass of /petitions as to the nature of said competition and would imo be unable to please the casual community.
I think the best that you can hope for is a no holds barred/ no gm inteference / no Eula/PnP server or just make it PvP. Casual players need to understand that it won't be a rainbows and unicorns experience.

A very thought out post, OP. here is my opinion.

There are a few reasons why I do not play on Progression servers.

1. It is a total race for the raiders. Sorry, but it is true. They do NOT care about others and their playing. All they know is they want their name to be in lights for getting that named dead or that barrier down to throw out the next expansion. Heck, even an article talks about content being beat in 72 hours after being put in.

72 HOURS

How is this even remotely fun? Seriously?

2. Voting. Ugh. Just ... no. Not only can certain level people do it, but we all know people pay others to vote YES to unlock the next this or that. It's all about 'me me me' and not how others enjoy the game.

3. The server isn't 'classical'. I checked out Fippy, and they have Drakkin ... uhm. I thought they were on EoF now? So they just made a normal server but stopped the content?

This may sound selfish, but I would like a server with:

a. Classical races/combos. In order. Drakkin not until they are supposed to come out. No zerkers until they are supposed to come out.

b. No voting. Things come out in certain time frames. Raiders can do what they do. But classical/progression (I feel) are for those looking for the old 1999 - 2001 experience.

I am not sure I would want a server only up to so and so expansion (like Al'Kabor). I want to see alot of things and experience them, but putting a block up just doesn't sound right.


If anyone is on Vox who is interested in doing old world stuff, or questing, give me a PM here.

Feel like were losing steam................the anniversary events are a beautiful woman distracting a driving man's eye towards her, rather than on the road to Classic Ville, where it should be..........hehehehehe

Ive been reading a lot of Time locked POP. This could mean 2 things. One, you progress up to POP then lock it, or two its released at POP and locked. I think the second would be the biggest mistake, because then you lose the chance to let people enjoy the first 4 expansions to the fullest. People would skip a lot of content (ie mage epic for level 61 air pet), etc. It may spread out the population (in terms of space, people per zone, etc) a bit too much early on.

Initial release of Original + Kunark is where its at, followed by a slow timed release (regardless of barriers) of Velious.

And I have thought more about servers winding down for one reason or another (unlocking past POP, stopping at POP for years), and realized there may not be one perfect solution. Nothing is forever. Even if there were not a way to keep a classic feel after 3 years of high popularity, it would not be the end of all things, it would have been a great journey. That is of course assuming the absolute worst, and it would still (in all likelihood) have been a successful journey for the fans and the company.

However, there are still many ideas we have yet to hear. Lets do this guys.
I would encourage the Sony Team to hold a Vote on the forums or in the servers as to if players would play on a classical type rule set, and how they want it implemented. (Don't forget the many people who don't even play EQ live who would return for this).

For example

Would you play on a new classical rule set serve?

What expasions should be released initiatially ? Original, Up To Kunark, Up To velious

How should future releases work? Time Set Unlock, Voting Unlock, Etc

What kind of additional ideas or rules would you like to see on a classic rule set?

this is how its always been on progression servers. beastlords are tied to luclin, zerkers to GoD and drakkin to TSS. not sure why you think otherwise.

id actually like the next progression server to allow bsts and zerkers from the start as somethin slightly different. itd be kinda neat to see bsts and zerkers in "classic" content.

It's sad that a thread that has generated this much discussion and has such a wonderful idea has been completely ignored by the devs.

The only red name post in this thread is a mod merging .

Because I made a new character on Fippy and Drakkin were a race I could choose to play. And they are up to EoF ... (if that came out after TSS and GoD then I apologize. I stopped at GoD)

Drakin came out in TSS. We are in SoF, two expansions past TSS. So, they are in era now. They were not available prior to TSS.

Okay thanks for the clarification.

I really thought around the anniversary they would announce plans for a new server (even if it wasn't a classic or a progression). Hmmmmmmm.

Its been over 3 years. The volume of requests. Also thought since they had most of the code from Flippy, it wouldn't take as much planning and programming (could be wrong).

Very surprised that no new server (whatever type) has been announced.

I really think the main issue is that people do not want a progression server. They want a locked server that stays at POP or at Luclin and never unlocks further. They want to relive the old days. To do this they would have to do major changes including reverting back to original exp system and bringing back heck levels. They also need to remove armor quests and try hard to bring back original zone layouts.

If there was a classic server with just the three expansions, I could guarantee 3 years of sub time for myself. Having the option to use original graphics and not Velious models would be an almost must for me though.

would love a special rules verson of clasic. bring back on death your body still has your loot and you have to find a way to retive it.

There were times when I truly cursed corpse retrieval. However I met some truly awesome people because of it as well. Used to macro pull multiple corpses to zones for people as a monk back in the day as well. These are what built community.