I have yet to play on the eqemu servers since I left the scene some 2 years ago (I used to run the Titanium Role-Play Server), but Shards of Dalaya (
http://www.shardsofdalaya.com) was the best emulated server out there. All custom NPCs, quests (hundreds), and custom items, etc.
The sad part is they long ago quit contributing back to the eqemu project so I can't recommend them.
I quit playing on there due to the catering of the GM's and staff to all the high level players. The killed off powerleveling which is annoying when you have played EQ for as long as I have and want to play a new character Who wants to kill rats and bugs again for the 100th time? They slowly drifted back into what made EQ annoying - being a timesink. It was better back when it was Winter's Roar.
Anyway, I'm getting off track, but judging from what I've seen as far as posts here and the websites I've visited...I admire the PEQ team the most for contributing back to the community.
Looking forward to playing on a few servers as soon as I get Titanium up and running on Linux...got it installed and can get to server select, but it's not letting me log into any servers...so gotta figure that part out now...
To all the server admins/devs out there - keep up the good work guys.
