I'm curious to see how well a LITERAL, classic, EQ server would perform with today's standards.

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Sagarmatha, Aug 30, 2018.

  1. narksar Augur

    I think this is a phenomenal idea. Short of actual bugs (and not just hard stuff) that was the game. The wonderful thing about games is you (usually) can go back for that bit of nostalgia exactly to what it was. I can go play my Zelda 1 on my old NES or a newer console that has it and its identical to the original version as its a copy. However, with EverQuest, that's not so much the case since they keep changing stuff. Stuff (I might add) that didn't need to change.

    Yes, there are things we didn't like, but that's not necessarily the point. Its nostalgia as well as the challenge.

    1. Gear on you when you respawn? Yeah, that's part of the difficulty. Stop dying! "Death Sucks" shouldn't be suprising.
    2. Maps? Go print one up like the rest of us did. This is kind of a "DnD" game. Why is it surprising it resembles it as such?
    3. Find, not necessary. Too easy. It's like having someone there to hold your hand anytime you want. That's not the brutality of EverQuest.
    4. Meditate in your book? That was only until level 35. It showed progression of you and your char and even fits the idea that "younger" casters have to stare into their spellbooks because they're not that good yet. Yes it was challenging. Which fits the overall game.
    5. Click from bags. Meh, that's not that big of a deal, or at least not in the original game. A minor annoyance. We didn't have the 50 billion tradeskill items and the 20 clickies in our inventory back then, so I don't know if that's such a huge issue to worry about. I guess I'd accept it if they kept "Click from bags" in on a true Original Server.
    6. Target window is nice, but the original UI was cramped. We survived without that info that would be there, we can survive again. Just pay attention to when your dots and such wear off, or just notice how the mob runs faster and you'll know your snare wore off. Difficulty.
    7. /pick system? You want to separate people from each other in a game known for its community? No. That's why there were multiple servers and why people leveled up in different areas. Maybe advise people that certain areas are full before they login or something (like on the char select screen when theyr'e about to start a new char). But the pick system is too convenient overall and not part of the "difficulty" of the game.
    8.Bandolier? I'd say too convenient and not necessary, but not a huge deal if it were implemented in an Original Server.
    9. Shared bank slots. Since that simplifies, technically, "out of character" transfers and not as much gameplay, I guess I'd be okay with retaining that in an Original Server. Though finding people you can trust to transfer items does help with community and such. So idk.
    10. Coin weighs you down. So what? Who needs *that* much plat on them anyhow? And destroying your tons of silver/copper was too hard? You do realize its not worth that much, right? I recall a guy in South Karana who'd come by and act as a banker to people camping the Treants, and he'd exchange their gold, copper, and silver for platinum, then he'd gate back to a banker. It also forced all transactions to occur at a banker. Which makes me think you liked EC Tunnel for trade, though some servers used GFay where there is an actual banker.
    11. Pets vanishing when you zone, sure, sucked. I don't think I'd object to that being changed for an Original Server.
    12. Raid instances? Idk. Idk what the ideal solution would be but I don't like the idea of making the number of dragon items in the economy massive. Rarity is part of the lore of the game.

    I'll ad a few of my own (and others have said these too).
    13. Quest NPCs would eat your incorrect turn ins - A fix to that wouldn't be a bad idea, but still allowing MQing to occur would be nice
    14. Chasing down Hasten with 3500 gold? Deal with it. That's the challenge of the game.
    15. Twisting bards dropped their stuff and others would steal it. That was obviously NOT truly intended. I think melody is okay, it was ridculous to constantly have to press your keys the way it required. And one should be able to tag individual items not meant to be dropped. Difficulty is not about screwing people over for their UI errors.
    16. Accidentaly combining in a tradeskill bag and losing all items stored in that bag. Yes, one maybe shouldn't have been using such a container as a bag, but its still a UI mistake/error that shouldn't cost you your items.
    17. Items accidentaly sold to a merchant. The buyback tab seems fair. Its only meant to address unintentional UI errors.
    18. Hearing about Dragons raids etc, but being unable to partake. That's part of the game. Not everyone sees the end content or if they do they don't necessarily get to spend a lot of time there. I remember the first time I was in a Naggy raid. It was awesome. But it was only awesome the 1st time, even though we all died. The 2nd time, not so much. But that feeling was because of the rarity and the lore and the "inter-player" lore. Deal with it.
    19. Old UI. I loved the old UI in some ways. I only stopped using it around Velious. I kind of think players should be forced to use the Old UI until like level 10 or something (kind of like the spell book). It shows their progression.
    20. Old zones. There was no valid need to "update" many of the zones, like Freeport and I, frankly, don't care for them. I'm not saying they're bad, I just didn't see a need for it and prefer the old nostalgic zones. And the old zones worked. Why spend tons of man hours updating a zone that doesn't *really* need to be updated and then forcing everyone to use them?
    21. Chat channels? Sounds good. Maybe only let people use them when they reach level 5, perhaps too?
    22. Windows In-game Chat. Remember that? There was a program you could download to chat, with your account, in your guild and such on windows. It was disabled years ago, but turned EQ into more of a chat room so you could not play EQ while talking to people in EQ. No need for that not to exist.

    I would gladly pay more to play on an truly Original EQ Server (NOT p99). When I say original, I'm referring to a copy of 1999-2001 servers. Doesn't necessarily have to be March 1999. But without the original Zones, character models, music, UI, mobs/npcs, exp, we just, sadly, don't have that.
  2. Grouchy-Phini New Member

    thank you for bumping this thread that died 2 and a half years ago with your essay
  3. jeskola pheerie

    1,468 words 7,900 characters
  4. Tweakfour17 Augur

    More of a purist manifesto. Most of the stuff was changed because it was poor design, we just didn't know it at the time because eq was the only player in the game. If everquest came out now as it was then it'd be about as popular as p99 is. Maybe. And it's likely be dead in under a year, as in shutdown dead, not 3 guilds clearing content tlp "dead".
    TheChosenOne likes this.
  5. Machen New Member

    If we are wishing for the impossible, might pick something bigger than EQ. Ain't nobody that has the ability to completely recreate EQ as it was in 1999, too much data has been lost.
  6. Accipiter Old Timer


    Some of it, sure. But the vast majority did need to change in order to keep the game alive. Like the changes or not, but EQ is still alive so there is that.
  7. Raytheon Augur

    You wasted an essence emerald resurrecting this steaming pile of post.
    Tweakfour17 likes this.
  8. Bardy McFly Augur


    Now THAT'S classic! :D
  9. Bardy McFly Augur

    Dammit, I hath been tricked.
  10. Endacer Augur

    Opening a door in GoD after its initial release and the door punting you clear across the entire zone at warp speed, killing you. Lol
  11. HoodenShuklak Augur

    On any random TLP p99'er is used as a derogatory epithet.

    Not that they would pay to play anyways.
    Skuz likes this.
  12. Vizuni New Member

    p99 isnt classic at all, it has /list and a bunch of other non classic rules
  13. Brunlin Augur

    P99just started over a year ago on the green server. Green will reset about every 3 years any toon created on green will go to the older blue server on reset.
  14. Brunlin Augur

    Its the closest thing though and as Bobbybick likes to say.....true classic is out of reach, because no ones going back to dial up. I think anyone that wants a classic feel of Everquest should try P99 green, it is definitely the closest thing that we have in the modern age for Everquest.
  15. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    A True classic EQ is impossible, however there is plenty of potential in a *new Classic EverQuest* created for mobile.
    It would have to have a new code base of its own kept separate from the live game & its own servers & mostly due to the fact that the mobile devices could never handle a UI as bloated as the current game has, it would need a super simple ui to work well on that medium & keeping that "classic mobile" version UI simple would have to be one of the overriding criteria for success going forward.
    Would probably require its own dev team though, and was what I though the NantG deal was about.
  16. Elskidor Augur

    They should just make an authentic classic server here copy/paste P99. Original pre-revamp zones, respect camps and have real players as GMs enforcing rules and remove krono. A large number of TLP players are krono farmers or KSing trashy players and third party cheaters that get away with whatever. P99 has its issues but it offers a far better classic experience than official servers. After playing Green server I see little reason to return to the toxicity of a TLP. AoC is about the only thing I would keep as the raid scene is absurd on P99.
  17. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    The current live game's code is global and in order to recreate P99 they would have to maintain more than 1 code base, or do so many changes to the live game that it would be a stupid amount of work, something they have said on multiple occasions is not something they want to do or think they can afford to do.
    code-zero likes this.
  18. FranktheBank Augur


    Stop there. There is very few changes in EQ that they can just do. The codebase is older than dirt and most of the people the wrote it or understand it to any extent have left.
    Skuz likes this.
  19. Bewts Augur

    It would perform poorly.

    The QOL enhancements are so integrated into the current player’s experience it would be received poorly with constant complaints to give back the QOL.
    TheChosenOne likes this.
  20. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    No, you don't.

    You need to accept the universal laws of causality, time is undefeated and never stops, accept that & move on, living in the past is not healthy.

    The code for a "classic" EverQuest does not exist any more, the client might be around on some dusty old CD's but the back-end to support that has had so many changes it could not work with the old client & the original back end were it to be discovered on some old server from 1999 on eBay wouldn't even be able to run on today's server hardware.

    Your best hope is that the new owners plan & resource for an iOS/Android EQ Classic to be created that is a completely new game from the ground up that borrows heavily from the classic game, simple UI that stays simple & would be a standalone game in the Franchise in much the same way that EQ Online Adventures was.

    To "have classic" the team would basically have to re-write the game from the ground up and the company has no interest in doing that at this point, and they would be far better off putting any such investments of time & money towards either re-vamping the current game to feature a 64 bit client, use a modern Direct X (like 12), and then work on overhauling the game to expand it - all of that for it's future sustainability with additional UI overhaul, stats overhaul, AA consolidation & player character models update.
    Ideally the the revamped engine could handle original, Luclin & new player character models via client selection on the front-end - let those who love the old models still use them & give everyone else the option to use new & improved ones.
    code-zero likes this.