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.
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