The amount of changes to EQ2 since launch vs. that of EQ1 when P99 came out is drastically different. Dedicated team? They have a skeleton crew, they can barely manage the projects they have now, let alone adding a reboot of the original game.
Again you choose to ignore part of what I say. I quote "I realize it's not a simple task", if by technical reasons you mean financial limitations than yes. But that said I'm not going to argue with you over fundamentals of how a server works. If you feel like shinning some light on exactly why this can't be done feel free. So far your only reasons have been lack of manpower, and a subjective "this isn't feasible", and they can't ship a old client due to databases and bug fixes. Give me an objective reason that is good for why this is unrealistic and infeasible instead of passive aggressively insulting me.
lack of manpower financial limitations These are both objective reasons. If you have paid any attention over the last several years, the Dev team has clearly told us time and time again they can not do X or Y do too the above reasons. When X or Y are much simpler tasks than creating what you are asking for.
I too would love to cast Breeze every 3 minutes, have zone wide group reactives, taunt by using group buffes, stack 400agi for unlimited avoidance, stunlock epic names and have unlimited procs on Rampage. Actually that does sound much more fun than Kaladim, well apart from the Breeze part.
P99 was backed (not financially) by SOE and was the person that is running the server(s) was probably given the source code by SOE. So this person did not say "hey, I have my EQ discs, I think I will reverse engineer this and make a live server running the source code that can be played by anybody and everybody that is the original game not tweaked in any way".
It was a suggestion, it's not impossible. That said I doubt Sony gave them the source code for the server. Not to mention the p99 was released 2009 10 years after so I also doubt the source code was unchanged so it's hard to believe that they got to a game state with minuscule changes when Daybreak can't seem to do the same after several TLE attempts. I could be wrong, maybe they did have the unaltered source code. What was likely the case though was that Sony said "you can use the assets as long as you don't profit off using them", similar to what Microsoft and 343 industries is doing with Halo and Installment 01. They have financial limitations I get that, but they also seem to be able to pump out expansion after expansion for not only eq2 but eq1 as well. These 2 new expansions mark the 9th and 10th expansions released by Daybreak for both games collectively. Plus an entire failed attempt at a new game that "just wasn't fun". They should divert some resources to getting a near barebones eq2 off the ground and change up the game world to make it new again and set current eq2 in full maintenance instead of this half arsed release expansion each year for a income boost. I mean when the game was in it's prime before all the poor decisions Sony made what was the population, wasn't it near 400k without major advertising? I remember seeing the population drop after the stat changes. That was just one change. Mercenaries removed any real need to group. Grab a heal bot and sit him on standby and you could solo basically any zone in the game. I don't even want to get started on the death of Nagafen as a server. All in all, it's not going to happen. Not without backing from the entire community saying "we want eq2 back again" the game that we very clearly all fell in love with, enough to talk about 11 years later while it sits as a husk of it's former self. Maybe if near everyone got on board and said we'd fine without new expansions and we will play TLE for the time being, and that instead they should work on getting the game back to what it was at least pre-EoF or better pre-DoF and then relaunch it for us and hopefully many more to enjoy again. Maybe then they would consider doing it.
Alright, I respect your right to an opinion, as we all have the right to an opinion and the right to express that opinion in a respectful and polite manner. But I do not know what you are classing as an expansion. DBG did not acquire EQ/EQ2 until 2015 so they have not released 9 and 10 expansions for EQ and EQ2. You need to separate what was released by SOE and what was released by DBG. SOE had a much larger team and a much larger budget and SOE is the one that employed the person/people that turned the game in the direction it is going now. *coughs* Smokejumper *coughs* Good Luck and Good Journeys. May you find something that makes you happy whether it be here or elsewhere.
I appreciate the respect but with that said I will outline the expansions released since DBG acquired the EQ ip in Feburary 2015. EQ1: 1. Broken Mirror - Nov 18th, 2015 2. Empires of Kunark - Nov 16th, 2016 3. Ring of Scales - Dec 17th, 2017 4. The Burning Lands - Dec 11th, 2018 5. Torment of Velious - Dec TBD, 2019 EQ2: 1. Terrors of Thalumbra - Nov 17th, 2015 2. Kunark Ascending - Nov 15th, 2016 3. Planes of Prophecy - Nov 28th, 2017 4. Chaos Descending - Nov 13th, 2018 5. Blood of Luclin - Dec TBD, 2019 So theses are what I consider "expansions" as they are labeled as them. And unless I can't count that's marks the 2 expansions this year as the 9th and 10th expansion published and distributed by DBG for both games collectively. The key word is collectively as in adding all expansions for both games together. Them releasing expansions isn't my opinion. The game was a husk even before they acquired the ip to be fair, sure SOE was the one who brought it in that direction, but DBG did nothing to try to bring it back. Aside from a few failed attempts at TLEs because they were done half arsed. I mean look at the stats... TLE with a bunch of blue stats then onto primary attribute and stamina... Come on... I rest my case. I wish it could be here from the bottom of my heart but likewise, may Tunare's blessings be with you Cyrrena.
From what I remember, Altar of Malice expac (Nov. 2013), which came before Terrors of Thalumbra, was also already released under the banner of Daybreak Games. Tears of Veeshan before it was the last expac still officially done by SoE. Anyway while I find merit to that idea, I think you're overestimating Daybreak's (or whoever is actually pulling their strings / making investments) ability to make well-thought out decisions. You've just got to look at their history - throwing themselves into the "next big thing which is currently moving everyone" in hopes of making a quick easy win. Some time ago it was H1Z1, because everyone was into zombies and survival. Some bit of searching on the net for info about that game and it's split-off into two games should say enough. Received tons of criticism as well for the mindless, boring grind which Daybreak is so famous for. How many people are playing those now? Recently it was Planetside 2 Arena, because everyone and his brother are into Battle Royale type of games. They even plan on bringing out Planetside 3 now, which I'd bet is where almost all of their resources are being channeled into. But are those games doing well? My impression is they're rather on the lower moderate level than doing any great. Wouldn't be surprised if they burn out on that game series as well. I think they would be able to actually re-make Everquest II from scratch, if they wanted to. They just don't care to, they lost so much of the playerbase on the game already while it had still everything going for it, by making one bad decision after another. Right now, it's just too late. Unlike Jagex, who managed to start to listen to the playerbase and went from hopeless to mildly successful again, with OldSchool Runescape, Daybreak Games doesn't listen nor respond to it's players and their wishes.
You vastly overestimate what these CDs hold. The CDs will contain textures, models, sounds, and zones. They WILL NOT, however, contain any of the quests, quest text, dialogue, item text or item stats, item names, etc... Practically everything outside of textures and sounds is handled server side and cannot be taken from the discs. What you are asking is for DBG to completely rebuild EQ2 using some art assets held on a disc. This is an undertaking that they will never have the means to do.
would this server have all the original memory leaks? at least 1 or 2 for nostalgia's sake? EQ2 at launch leaked so badly I had to reboot every like 3 zones
Yea if you installed the original CD it would contain all the code required to run the original game client... terrible cpu shadows,mem leaks, and all. But hey... at least your old Prima strategy guide would be accurate again.
I dunno if it's really that EQ2 has a memory leak, or that Windows is so bad at returning handles after use. Whichever, after I've zoned several times, I generally have to restart to get rid of lag/slow zoning.
I m not sure about what vanilla version i would prefer ;-) Some people dislike that stat consolidation but as priest it was a relief, before i had to carry a set with strength to solo. The cure unification was another simplification, in vanilla druid had elemental group cure, shaman poison/disease and cleric arcana. The game started to derail with mercenaries, reforging and armor ranking i quitted after a few monthes within Altar of Malice, I was doing fine i disliked the general direction and the ascension disaster and mega grind that followed proved me to be right. For the current and forthcoming TLE i think they simple need to do a few things : - rewrite the gear generator and add some special effects, RoK gear had so many extra effects : manawell, blood lust etc .. Also item are not balanced since Tanks get 5-6 blue and casters only 3-4, this happen in part because crit bonus which is hidden is taken into account in the item value. - make instances worth doing with slightly better items (but avoid massive inflation) .. - Tune instances for 4+ players, not for 2 players. - Add cooperative strike to all heroic zone, so mob get +20% for each extra encounter. (feel free to make it +40%) - Add heirloom items to bypass prisma 2, claymore, prismal 4 quest lines till the raid encounters. - Make hunter coins heirloom. - Make hunter items refundable. - Tune raid so that it can be cleared by a decent raiding group, it is quite the case now in KoS, at least for Wyem Lab and Deathtoll. One may consider adding a hard mode for hard core raiders (just give mob + X% hp, dps etc ...) and pick your X. Hard mode will mostly be for fame only (achievement) but it will have large master drop rate and a few upgrades. - Make plate/mail life easier, the devs should have rolled and mystic and a conjurer during T5 on Kaladim, on orc island (group of 3) conjurer send pet and look + green aoe -> all dead in 10 seconds. Shaman kill slowly the orcs 1 by 1 with 3 orcs beating and slowing her spells + 1 tons of detriments ... - Consider opening BB on day 1, this is a 18-28 zone, and Kaladim is a lvl 30 zone , i m not sure if GF should be opened or not. - Make level X0 spells use tier X-1 ressoruces, so tier 1 would be 1-10, tier 2 11-20 and so on. This impact many recipes but it is actually super easy to do. One need a bit more progression solo->heroic-> raid but it must kept under control, i don t want a top gear dps to do 2-3 times what a casual player does, of course gear should matter but the difference between top and crap should be at most 50%.
Wow, this is an uninformed thread. Net/Net - The game exists on their servers, only the graphical client is on the CDs. They can't revert the code to the baseline as it existed at launch, it simply isn't possible. I don't believe they had the source control to do it, but even if they did, it was developed to run on a database platform they no longer own at a version level that is no longer available to run. Even if it was possible, you really wouldn't like it, cause people like me would be able to log in and use every exploit, dupe, etc that has been fixed over the years that would now magically be available again. As much as we want to go back to that exact magical moment and repeat the same experience, much like going back to an old girlfriend, it's never really the same experience.
I m quite sure they have back up and can revert to whatever period or era. But if they do so it is a full rollback Incremental storage is not that expensive.
They have stated before, that this was not kept since launch. But as I stated, the code at launch worked on a database platform they no longer license and frankly is no longer available. So even if magically you could resurrect it, it wouldn't run without further modification.
Actually, they do not have complete back ups. Somebody found a partial backup somewhere that allowed them to re-do the starter islands a while back, but it wasn't complete. After some point in time, the game had changed enough that I guess they saw no value in saving the most ancient code. The lack of these very old iterations was discussed at the time.
