Hey, I have been trying to find information if the new time lock servers will use the old crafting system. Anyone have any information on this? I have tried to look through the many posts but have not found one on how the crafting will be integrated. Also, can I assume stats will mean something again? That warriors can have intelligence, druids can be strong....
If you are referring to going back to crafting subcomponents, with tempers etc - I don't think there is any chance at all. (I still have a selection of inks used for experts in my shared back lol) Same for multi stats I think, although would love it to go back to that. Can't say the crafting side attracts me though
It sounds much less than a Time Lock server than just turning off of all the expansions!?! Daybreak Games is doing no work on their end to recreate a server as it was. Other than limiting players to just the newbie zones what are they doing to recreate the original game? I also learned all classes and races will be available, again another slap to a true progression server. If multistats do not return, then most of the gear is worthless since they have stats for things that all classes have no use for. I am very disappointed in their version of a Time Locked server -- because its not. Its just a server with no expansions, which is very different than playing a game that is true to its origins.
It was mentioned many many times that they lost the original game build long time ago. These servers aren't classic but definately better than regular servers witth a bunch of crappy expansions.
To paraphrase Kander: some things just aren't as cool as you remember. Besides, you can't just revert to those old systems and expect everything to get along happily. That's just not how it works. There's no magic switch or configuration setting that turns all that stuff back on - not only does the code not physically exist in the modern codebase, even if they did checkout an old revision, it just isn't worth the time for them to back-port fixes and features that have been added in the last 10 years, to make them all work together. The EQ2 codebase comprises several complex interdependent systems; you revert one thing, and all of a sudden two or three other things break because they were depending on that first thing behaving a certain way, then those things get changed and two or three other things break...and so on. And they're not going to maintain two separate, vastly different versions of EQ2 - it's just not viable, both financially and from a time standpoint. That said, we should probably wait until the beta servers are up and running before passing judgement. We really don't know what they've done so far, and I'm sure it'll undergo many changes and tweaks during the beta period - so long as people provide actual constructive feedback instead of complaining.
That pretty much is what the servers are. They are a fresh start. Meaning a new economy, friends, and kills. The code for the original game is lost. Rewritin over time and time again. Think of it like this. You write a story. You have a rough draft, following the draft you feel is the correct story. A few chapters down the road you feel you gotta do a rewrite. The original story is "lost" but what is left you are stuck with unless you do more rewrites. Thus changing more of the original.
Oh I remember quite well. I left EQ II for the very reasons I stated above. I didn't know they lost the original code, but if they can backward engineer EQ such as they are doing with EQ1999 (or even for that matter what they are doing in the Vanguard player servers) I would think Daybreak could do the same for the original. It would be worth their investment to recreate the original code, if nothing more than posterity -- but also to truly recreate the world of Norrath as it was. As it stands now, I am unsure of the draw from not just playing for free on the normal servers. Its not the original game, so just pick a new server and start over at level one. Just my thoughts on this. I am disappointed as I had real hopes.
Well, at least with code, you can have version control - and DBG does use that, but what has possibly happened is that over the years, they've migrated VCS, and rather than import each individual check-in from the past, they probably set a point in time to import. Thus, anything from before then is essentially "lost". Where I work we've migrated VCS a couple times over the years, and each time it was a pain in the backside.
Is the beta servers going to wipe when they go live, or is this just a soft start to their idea of a time lock server?
I believe there will be a complete wipe. I would imagine there has to be, since if they tweak XP, coin gain, and other stuff, it could potentially give people an unfair advantage.
Okay, thanks for this information. I will reserve final judgement until the real server launches. You have been very helpful.
The problem is not really getting the old code back. I have complete faith that they have the old code base in a version control system somewhere. Maybe not the original but pretty far back. As most companies keep all code in version control as they develop it. The true problem lies in the fact that the Database is far far far far far far far from its original state and has probably become much more complex in nature with a lot more dependency on certain tables etc. In order to go through and get any old code working would take a tremendous amount of effort and resources that they I feel from a business stand point they would not be willing to do, seeing the return on their investment could not be guaranteed. What they can do, and I would be shocked if they didn't is clone their Database from live,hook it up to the TLE servers and then tweak stats on old world items/crafted items. They can run stored procedures in order to not remove the blue items but to set those blue item stats to 0. This would ensure that dependencies are still met by not deleting the columns and also set these stats back in check with the old world content. And then for crafted they could reduce the stats by a "arbitrary" amount in order to bring them back into a non op state for the content.
While I understand the desire for variety, one positive result of the change to a primary stat + stamina is that an item designed for one archetype won't have green stats that a different archetype is likely to need for the toon they are playing (and vice versa), so there is much less possible justification for being a loot wh-...er...a 'treasure strumpet'. On topic: While I kind of understand the mindset that supports the WORTs crafting - as a harder crafting system would slow the power creep somewhat (if only because it would take much longer to create an item) - I'm not convinced that reverting the system to that, even if it were possible, would be a wise decision.
