Challenge and the Reward
 

Have you ever wondered why SOE Everquest has lasted so many years?
Here's some reasons why I think it has:
- Great challenge with excellent reward (at all levels).
- No cheating permited: this is true depending on how you would classify "cheating" in EQ.

Makes me wonder why EQEMU, a free form of Everquest, would have such a hard time getting off the ground. One would think that players would "flock" to come here.

My opinion? Too many "cheat" servers where anything goes. It's in the human nature: "given the opportunity to cheat, I will cheat", only to quickly become bored and tired, finally quit the scene.
I really think we have only attracted the few who could "cheat forever" , and the rest came and left.

Hard time getting off the ground? EQEMU has been running almost as long as EQ itself , here is a testament to how well it has gotten off the ground "Members: 76,413" that is the number of members on the forums here. Not all the people that have lasted here are "cheaters" I play several characters on my own server and have as a matter of fact gotten the uber SBS (Shiny Brass Shield) for my ranger today and am pretty ecstatic about it. I play strictly legit on my own server and for harder mobs that I cant handle alone I make a pet to help me out that is of the same level as me and has a weapon of the same caliber. So yes there may be cheaters and people that just do this to see end game things they never would otherwise but to say everyone here is a cheater is taking a mighty big chunk of the I stuck my foot in my mouth pie. And to you I say Good day :)

yah, basically i run a server for me and about 7 buddies/family. its legit. its a tad custom. but its ours. we dont have to wait hours for a camp to open up. we dont have to have raid calendars for uber spawns. we log in and just play to our hearts content.

it pwnz.

== sfisque

It's nice to see some of us still try to play an honest game - I sort of figured the ones who download/play their own server probably look for a legit game.
I was speaking in general (or that's what I meant), didn't mean to impose all of you.

You really missed EQemu's hayday, Guildwars used to have close to 200 players online at any given time. Id say thats well off the ground, but since the current "team" (if you could call it that) alienated other developers away the project has grown rather stagnant and well the result is what you see today. Also EQ1's popularity has dwindled and so therefore has eqemu's.

Doesn't help that EQEMu has a patch freeze so most come here, cant find/don't want to buy the client that is supported by the servers.

I run four different servers/databases for my own strange devices.

The first two are a 'by the book' ax_classic and PEQ_Luclin server to keep a virtual milestone on the progress being done for the Emu. From these clean room installs, I can be a ghost and run through the zones trying different things like checking the differences between them and seeing how far each has gotten.

-The next one is a slightly modded ax_classic. The person I have the pleasure of playing with wants some changes they can go in on this one. We allow places like the PoK and such as well as some 'bah I got to log for now - send me home' features. But for the most part we like to play it as it comes and try out all the quests and explore a lot. The only rules we have here is you use what you can find or tradeskill. So it gets fun when we run out to Dulak or CoM for gem drops for her Jewelcrafting or find places to mass farm weapons to crunch for my blacksmithing. I call it our MacGyver Rules server, so tradeskilling is very important. This is the server I spend 70% of my time.

-The last server is a twisted world run by a madman. The drops are five to six times as much, the number of items is three times. All tradeskills ar no-fail, the regen is fast, and the whole server plays more like WoW than EQ. This is the server for me and my bro' (guess why) we relax and have fun instead of playing his Xbox. We make custom classes by allowing some extra spells to be cast 'out of character' He likes his anime inspired healing ranger and I have a pally with a nasty temper (aoe lightning and /ooc 'shouting', when we get in trouble), but we play for our own twisted version of weird fun and laughs. This is a server where I am working on putting in Aug vendors, buffing NPCs and such.

(I onces scared the crap out of him by sneaking ahead and super-sizing a lowbie rat around a corner in freeport....good times. WoW makes you impulsively scared of big things for some reason. /shrug)

But see, this is why I like EQEmu, I can have all these versions. Tweak them, play serious, play wild, play like a dev, or play whatever. Default though all I want is a nice clean, 'by the book' slate for my madness, I'll do the rest, but I do love servers where the admin's took the time to make their server special. But I do cheer anyone on who helps get the baseline x-pacs and stuff supported - more room for fun.

In the future I hope this or any of the Emu projects inspires someone to make a clean room developed MMO for people to enjoy for sure. This is what I hope the future is, an Open Source MMO world not bound by the limitations of a proprietary client. It's getting there for sure though. In the mean time, I try to contribute what I can back to the project, maybe it'll inspire someone to do the same.

Online though, I like playing on PEQ's server, Angelox's server, and my old fav' with tons of Jibba's custom content, Zebuxoruk.

I cannot really agree 100% Angelox. - one reason I quit eq, was I was tired of getting killed with an XP hit at level 70. I took some risks, but many times it was the AI and that frog war that made it so hard. I gave up.

Eqemu, and I was here for a few years before 03 when I lurked here, and finally found this site the real deal. You may not have been here (chasing live was life then) then, but as devn00b hit it on the point - we're stuck at a specific patch freeze - and that hurts us bigtime.

I run a modified server for my own use, and have been thinking of going public with the D2 (Diablo II) modded database scaled for appropriate levels.
So not a RL server, but it's mine with my own rules/mods and your database - makes quite an experience.

GeorgeS

A D2 mod? Holy cow, I spent a ton of time playing that game, please do. I love seeing other peoples creativity for sure. :)

GeorgeS:
I really think this is a great Idea - to a point where I think you should carry your own forum here or make your own forums.
But I think you really need to narrow down these drops and sort them out. I played on one of the D2 Eq servers and noticed things dropping that shouldn't really drop tell you get a higher level. For example, a drop that a min level of 10 and a max level of 40 (requirement), should drop when you're closer to 40 and not at all at 10 (because the stats at low levels are useless anyway, and de-values the drop) . I got more ideas - I still think drops in Everquest play an important role in the game and need to be treated so. If you make it all too easy, then people will get bored too soon.
If you make/have a server for us to play on, please specify