I'm coming !..... to a server near you : )

[Rezjunkie]

woo-hoo! 9 year vet on live blue server. just dropped out a few months ago (mid HoT exp) and was starting to get the jitters . I'm soooo glad I found Eqemulator !

I looked everywhere and finally found my copy of Eq titanium. Now I'm just waiting for a return on an RMA'ed power supply for the desktop.

This time around, I plan on getting the wife to play with me, and probably my son as well. He always wanted to play but was to young.

So, now that you know I'm a vet, and intend to play with a couple newbs, what server would you recommend?

I like the concepts behind many of the custom servers, but I'm already leaning towards something more traditional in the hopes that I'll once again get that good time feeling I experienced as a true newb myself.

Thanks for any input, and I hope to see some of you soon!

p.s, I'll probably go with a tank (warrior) as that is the one class I never fleshed out on live. I will be looking for a raiding guild as well. I can't wait to do those raids again...weeeeeeee ! ! ! Mckenzie raids were lame :(

( I opened my can of whupass, but all I found was Loading....Please wait)

[helman]

If your looking for a server just like or close to eq live than I would recommend Project 1999 and PEQ The Grand Creation. Now if you want to try something new, I would recommend Storm Haven. But if you want it a little easier than its the EZ server, Or Akka's Funhouse. Also you might want The EQEMU launcher http://moestaverne.com/

Have fun out there.

[trevius]

Welcome to the community! I think you will like it

To find the right server for you, your first stop should be to check the server list page here:

http://www.eqemulator.org/index.php?pageid=serverlist

You can click the View link next to any of those servers and find a bit of information about them. Most have website links in there, so you can get further details about the servers that sound interesting to you.

There are quite a range of server types, and you will probably want to try a few of them to see if they are something you will like.

The most populated server is P99, which is based on EQ as it was back in 1999 and recently released Kunark as well. If that is your thing, then you might want to give it a go. Keep in mind that they have an IP limit of 1 on that server, so for your family to play you will need to get IP exceptions. They can take at least a couple of weeks to go through (if not more) from what I have heard, so keep that in mind.

As far as a Live-Like experience goes that is beyond classic/kunark, I would recommend PEQ the Grand Creation. It has a good population and a top notch dev team. The PEQ Database is what nearly all servers are based off of to start with, so that speaks to their reputation. I think they are currently working on the GoD and Omens expansions, but all of the expansions previous to that should be completed or near completed.

If you want a real newbie feel, you might also try some of the custom servers. Nearly all of them have fairly accelerated experience rates, so you could get a good idea of how much you might enjoy a particular custom server within a day or 2 of playing on it.

Custom servers vary quite a bit, but most of them with a population of about 20 or more (at any given time) are worth checking out. Though the populations may seem very low compared to Live servers, you have to keep in mind that custom servers are modified to be easier than Live, so you don't need a 72 man raid to complete end-game content (in most cases all content can be done with 1 to 3 groups). Also, since custom content takes a lot of work to create, the number of custom zones is very limited compared to the 500+ zones that are available on EQLive. Most custom servers have around 50 or less custom zones, so a lower population seems larger since there are less zones to spread players out across.

The most popular custom servers are fairly easy to tell based on the player numbers you see on the server list. All of the Legendary servers have been around for years, and most of the preferred servers have as well, so there is little need to be concerned that the server might disappear without a trace. With the white servers, some of the more popular ones have been around for a while as well, but some of them haven't. You may still want to check some of them out, but just be warned that if they haven't been around long, the server may or may not last. Many only make it a couple months before the owner/admin gives up and shuts it down.

Of the preferred servers, the only 2 I would not recommend for you to bother trying are Dragon Soul (because it is a Chinese server), and Scars of Amerous (because the admin has basically stopped maintaining it a long time ago).

I run Storm Haven, so obviously, I would recommend for you to check it out if it sounds like something you might like. We have an IP limit, but the limit is 4 accounts which should be fine for you and the wife/kid. The limit is part of why our player numbers are lower than some of the bigger ones. Servers like PEQ and EZ don't have IP limits. so some of their players box 18+ accounts. I don't think THF has a boxing limit either, but they also have Bots enabled, which are kinda like the EQEmu version of Mercenaries, so I don't think they have as many "big boxers" as PEQ and EZ do.

The custom servers I would recommend to you would be Storm Haven, EZ, THF, and Akka's Funhouse. Each of those servers give different custom experiences. The Irreverent server may be good as well, but I have never personally played on it, and it is designed more for solo play.

[Rezjunkie]

Awesome welcome sir ! Thank you.....

I will take your advice and server hop till I get a feel for what each has to offer. It could be that I will have the family and I play together on one and I raid on another..?...

Your attitude towards the population count on live servers is somewhat, uh, generous me thinks...lol

Anyway, thanks for an awesome welcome, and look for a level one beggar hiding in the bushes of Gfay ! .... or Ec tunnel.. where ever the rich, cool kids hang out nowadays

[wolfwalkereci]

Would recommend Storm Haven or THF or PEQ.
Long run these 3 will be fun and be a good place for you and your family to relax and game.

Would not recommend EZ / KMRA type servers

[Rezjunkie]

thanks for the advice, but what exactly is an EZ / KMRA server ?

So what's the scoop on P1999, PEQ and EQTitan ? From what I have gathered from the little reading I have done, those 3 seem to be what I'm looking for...( true to live exp ) ...kudos to the custom server designers, but if I'm going to play with the wife I had probably better stick to what I know, and that's "live" eq.... I do however, hope to play some custom eq on my own.
Thanks guys

[trevius]

As I mentioned in my first post, P99 is for Kunark and Classic EQ only. If you want a really oldschool experience then it is for you. PEQ is the best option for playing a live-like server. I wouldn't recommend EQTitan as they are almost an exact copy of PEQ, but have only been around a fraction of the time PEQ has and is also made up mostly of 18 boxers from what I have heard.

KMRA is a custom server that is currently out of commission due to technical difficulties. EZ is another custom server not too unlike some of the other custom servers. It has the biggest population of the custom servers. It has been a while since I last played there, but it wasn't the most family friendly. Depending on the age of your kid, you might want to consider disabling OOC for them.

[Soulcold]

KMRA - Fairly old EQEmu server with quite a bit of custom content. Some of it has of course gotten broken and buggy over the years. It's not the most solo-friendly server, and classes aren't exactly balanced right now. Also VERY grindy, as in it takes a week to get anything significant done at the high end. Not that it matters since it's out of commission atm as Trev said.

EZ - Don't let the name fool you from what I've heard. It starts out fairly easy, but I've heard becomes quite a challenge at the later tiers.

Stormhaven - One of the better servers out there, I started playing on it when it first came out (Haven't really messed around on it in a year or so). Has plenty of custom content, and a seperate set for those who are on (SoF?)+. Titanium clients also work very well on there, of course.

Hidden Forest - Decent server with quite a bit of custom content. Fairly challenging at times when soloing, although bots help with that a bit. I tried their alternate progression path and didn't exactly like it, I found it a bit... grindy to be honest.

Hope that helped you out a little bit ^_^

[LostInTheWoods]

Just play around each server and see what you like, its all free so test as many servers as you want and pick what type of custom (or non-custom) play you like. I've been around the emulator for a few years (contrary to what my join date says) and the best way is to find out yourself how you like the server. Though its not a bad idea to listen to some reviews of the other posters

Also having different clients (i.e Titanium vs. SoF+) can affect your choice because while some servers have content in post titanium zones, others only use titanium zones for their server.

P.S. EZ from what I hear stands for Enhanced Zones and does not mean easy.

[Karayrem]

EQTitan is not too bad. I went on there for a bit and yes, it is based off of PEQ but they did made several improvements through lot of older zone most noticeably Plane of Knowledge. PEQ has a lot of good players and has a good community.

Just need to go check out different server to see which you fits you the most. Good luck and have fun.

[bowmaster]

theres also EQ ressucution
Which is Similar to EZ server , but different zones , same content easier, and the stuff arnt as much of a grind to get ,

[Folkar_Cazic]

Lots of great suggestions for servers to play on. Project 1999 is a fun server, and feels true to the original experience. You do have to submit a request on their forums to have an exception to their IP policy, which limits you initially to on account only. Their policy against multi-boxing is pretty strict.

That being said, I am also looking for a server and plan to try out a few of them that have been listed. I'm mostly looking for a server similar to P1999, but that allows multi-boxing and/or GM commands. Mostly I just want to run around the world once in a while remembering better times of gaming and record some in-game footage.

[trevius]

Originally Posted by LostInTheWoods

P.S. EZ from what I hear stands for Enhanced Zones and does not mean easy.

LOL, I have seen that mentioned on EZ forums as well. I think a random person made that up and now it's spreading. Haven't ever seen anything from Hunter confirming that, and I am positive that EZ server stood for "easy server" when he created the server. It would be 1 thing if Hunter actually said that it stood for Enhanced Zones now, but I find it funny how people believe anything they read from random people on forums :P

[bowmaster]

if u have played on EZ , hunter hasnt made it easy , at some point , quite early on , you need do a do a quest , with 16 items , and each item can take upto 20hours etc ,. plus most content isnt do able unless thers like a full group atealst

[trevius]

Yeah, I know it isn't easy, but the difficulty of the server isn't what I was debating. I was just saying that the EZ in the name represents "easy", or at least it did at one point as far as I have known. Though I guess only Hunter could say for sure.

I haven't really played on the current EZ server, but my characters were some of the top ones on the original EZ server before the wipe almost 4 years ago when everything was lost. The hardest quest I did there was the LDoN quests where you turn in 4 of neck/ring/earring/belt and it upgrades it to the next level. Then, you turn in 4 of the next level to go up to the next level. I think it did that something like 10 or 12 times, so you basically had to turn in around 12000 items even when farming the highest possible ones which were level 6 IIRC. They weren't stackable either and you had to zone to another zone to do the turn-ins, so it was pretty rough lol. It was an insane quest and I completed it just before the wipe happened. It turned out OK though, because that is what convinced me to go full time with developing Storm Haven