Can someone explain why a 64-bit system is a big deal?

Not for anyone who understands plain English. I've said the exact opposite several times now. I'll repeat something t I said several posts ago: please at least attempt to follow along:

"It took me five years to clean my garage, but only a weekend once I started on it."

After that, I explicitly stated there is a difference between taking a certain period of time and actively working on a project. So I'll be blunt with you. You either don't understand English or you're actively, intentionally lying. Either way, please stop.

So why did you lie and claim I did?

But not on projects which would benefit from 64-bit code. This isn't the case from EQ. Surely you see the difference?

Please, please explain to me how it can be possible for something to take 15 years if you are not working on it? That is what you said after all.

I think the biggest "deal" about this is that it appears that the game is finally back in the hands of a company that actually cares about improving the game, it's been a while.

Indeed, it is an uplifting confirmation that the devs do indeed believe everquest has a long lasting future. This is the opposite of "maintenance mode".
I think we will see many ambitious improvements in the coming years.

There has been signs of this over the last year, taking on more staff etc. Heres to hoping this is a another change in a long line of changes to improve the game for players.

1. Top of the list - RAM

Client RAM but probably even more importantly Server RAM.

32 bit can only address a maximum of 4 Gigabytes of RAM
64 bit can adress a theoretical maximum of 16 Exabytes

A Gigabyte is a billion bytes
A Terabyte is a trillion bytes
A Petabyte is 1000 Terabytes
An Exabyte is 1000 Petabytes

So 64 bit can address an absolutely huge amount of RAM in theory - though an Operating system that can use that astronomical number is not in use right now, because most systems are not being built with such massive amounts of RAM....yet.

2. A system being able to hold much more data in RAM means much less of the data the software needs has to be accessed from Storage mediums like SSD/HDD which should result in much faster operation and higher data throughputs.

3. 64 bit allows for a wider data path - the system can simply manage a larger amount of data and process it more effectively. It's like if a 32 bit system was a corridoor and data was a large number of soldiers running along that corridoor, 64 bit adds on a large number of extra corridoors for the soldiers to run along meaning you could get far more of them from point A to point B in the same time as before - a lot more.

64 bit systems are especially advantageous to large data arrays, things like databases which are especially prevalent in MMORPG games are much more easily managed by systems with 64 bit processing and software owing to the much larger amount of data that can be held in RAM and processed faster by being able to access that data quickly.

For a couple of non-game examples:

Porting the service 'Oracle on Demand' by the Oracle company from the 32-bit platform to the 64-bit one, allowed reduction of the server response time (350 users working simultaneously) from 13.60 seconds to 2.35 seconds.

When FASTCOM integrated the 64-bit platform based on Itanium 2 into their IT-infrastructure, they managed to eliminate issues caused by increased load on billing systems, and get a two-fold performance gain.

If you limit your playing to TLPs, it will probably not do anything good for you at all, unless they can improve how well the game runs. What will happen for many people is that resources required will go up. How far up? Nobody knows yet. However, they bumped minimum specs and now 4gb of ram is minimum.

Personally, I just hope it goes better than the Luclin launch and upgrade. I also hope they don't go around and Freeportize the entire game.

This. Just because they can do something doesn't mean they should.

The only problem I have with freeport, highpass, and the nek forest (the one they nuked) revamps were the random rolling hills every freaking where. No reason for that. Mob positioning, buildings, nothing wrong with the revamp really, but making the entire zones ready for motocross competitions is dumb.

Question about this:

Will the 64 bit servers be *new* servers opening up? Or will it be the existing servers are converted to 64 bit?

The existing servers will be converted.

Thank you

A good list, but it would irresponsible to not also point out the downsides of 64-bit conversion, in part:

- Larger executable sizes.
- Higher memory consumption.
- Code may run slightly slower, esp. if the app fails to take advantage of 64-bit features.
- Exposure of latent bugs, which can be subtle and delayed in surfacing.

Given DBG's statements that the conversion merely "puts them on the path" to additional client functionality, I think most people are going to be underwhelmed by the first few iterations of it.

Larger executable sizes and higher memory consumption are not downsides considering they recommend 3G/4G of ram for EQ after the conversion.

They are when you're running 6+ clients.

Maybe we can get more accounts in an instance of the app or something.

I'll be honest, as someone who came over from P99, I hate the new Freeport, but I actually like the new Toxxulia Forest, Steamfont Mountains, Nektulos Forest and Commonlands... I can't really say for the new Oasis area since I never really experienced it and only briefly saw bits and pieces of it while rushing to Lower Guk.

While the "same layout" redos are much preferred to a total bastardization, I even-more-prefer when they do original-graphic revamps like Splitpaw and the Hardcore Heritage seasonal stuff.

Didn't realize Splitpaw is different on TLP? Now I'm curious... was kind of sad that no one seemed to do that zone when the server launched (or Cazic Thule for that matter).

But one of the things I really liked was the Kerra Isle in Toxxulia Forest -- my first character was an Erudite, so I naturally was able to hunt there, and with the random loot system, I was able to actually get some very respectable items very early on. It felt nice, because the Kerra Isle I remember was basically a dead zone that I think a lot of players never even knew existed??

And Nektulos just felt nice because it felt more like a legitimate exp zone with actual orc camps versus just a whole bunch of nothingness. I think the original Nektulos had a more creepy/unique feel to it though. Reminded me of a darker version of Lesser Fay.

I also should take back what I said about the Commonlands, I did actually prefer the old tunnel in the original EC, but I do like the fact that it's just one gigantic zone and you don't have to load now. Although I might feel differently if the game was still at it's original difficulty. One of the reasons that Orc Camp felt safe in EC was if you got into trouble the zone-line was near by.. on TLP I feel like if you got into trouble you would just die... but game feels much easier now, and dying doesn't feel as impactful I guess :-\

I hate when they change the map. Also, original graphics had character. There is a reason I prefer the original PC models. Because it was such a low poly game, they had to paint faces on people. Each face was unique and had both expressions and character. When they "upgraded" in Luclin, they went with more of a Mr. Potatohead approach. Eyes and such became a shader adjustment, etc.

Also, I miss oasis being a zone. I think I could have been fine with EQ as one giant zone, but because the zone mechanic became so integral, that ship sailed at launch.

They also seem to have contracted deep space aliens to animate the human skeleton. At least for most of the male characters.