EQ2 Emulator?

Skarrde · #1 07-01-2007, 06:25 PM

wow. first post here, but this sounds great

i used to play eq2 and loved it, but eventualy paying the money each week got annoying. cant wait till this is up and runnin

Skarrde · #2 07-01-2007, 10:48 PM

oops. meant every month. every week and i never woulda picked up the box >.<

CrabClaw · #3 07-02-2007, 01:57 AM

I loved EQ2, it they had managed to keep some of the charm of the original and it felt epic to play. The Freepost vs. Qeynos setup was awesome.

The only problem I had is when they kept changing the rules (also limiting it to a measly 6 characters per account :P) and simplified things that made the game what it was. I don't mind they added AAs, made tradeskilling a bit easier and such, but it felt like every fourth patch or so they would re-balance the whole world and change up the difficulty of the monsters and class abilities. It drove you nuts after a while.

I think the worst thing they did was release the Splitpaw pay-per add-on - it literally sucked all the players away from grouping form level 20-45 to soloing in some instance somewhere. I thought it was funny even the dev's admitted their own guild members would be unavailable for doing content and such because they were off grinding great loot, money, and XPs all alone.

(The nerf bat swang heavy a couple patches later. But the damage was done.)

I do feel the x-pacs began to spread the players out too much as well, and invalidated the tiered-raids and tradeskilled gear. I feel the Vanilla Coke EQ2 was the 'good times' of the game.

Skarrde · #4 07-02-2007, 01:10 PM

i could live with most of their patches cuz i had a nice band of people that i would always play with. the patch that got me was when they screwd up the class selection. like you go on the isle of refuge already as a warlock, berserker. it was terrible NO MORE did you really get to learn your class and character. it made adventuring too easy. before i always had trouble finding a scout for the named mobs, but after that their everywhere. thats why i sorta hope that when this project gets finished they wont put in every patch. cuz like crabclaw said, every few patches the whole world was changed. oh well. makes me excited for when the emulator is done

John Adams · #5 07-04-2007, 06:44 PM

I have long hated SOE's expand-a-thons every 6 mos for exactly what you mention, Crabclaw. Spreading the dwindling player bases out even thinner than they were. Forcing people to spend $30 every 6 mos on top of their ever-rising monthly fees has put SOE at the top of my hate list. I am playing Vanguard now, and I am unhappy that I still have to maintain a now $30/mo station pass fee. When I started playing EQ in 2000, i was paying $9.95/mo. Now, I pay around $100/mo for all my accounts across various games.

This is the single motivation I have for progressing Emulators. I'm tired of shelling out cash monthly just to sit in a huge-ass MMO alone.

ZexisStryfe · #6 07-05-2007, 02:36 PM

Both Everquest and EQ2 have moved to a 1 expansion a year model and EQ2 has gotten rid of the "Adventure Packs." EQ2 has made some great strides since Echoes of Faydwer was released last year, and the game is more fun now than it ever was (in my opinion). With the November release of Rise of Kunark, EQ2 is also moving to a "Macro-zone" format, with massive multi-area zones.
I think getting the emulator to work from live is by far the best bet, because that way those who want the classic servers can have those, while those who enjoy the new content (like the new Neriak) and have those servers.
Optimally, I think it would be great if we could get Rise of Kunark also included in this emulator from the start, giving the Devs a year of development time before any other huge changes unfold (not counting the monthly updates, which have become larger and larger as of late).

saweb · #7 07-07-2007, 04:42 PM

I must say, I am so glad to see that this project is moving forward again!
It pleases me to see people work on this, because I have simply had enough WoW emu play.

If there is anything I can do for you (MYsql AdvAT) please let me know.

**LethalEncounter** · #8 07-22-2007, 06:48 AM

Been away for a few weeks taking care of stuff, but I'm back now. Now that we can packet collect from live once again, the question becomes whether we want to wait until the next expansion comes out and do the same thing that eqemu did with Titanium. This is scheduled to be on November 13th. I could start working on updating the server, but because of the number of patches between now and then it will most likely be a closed beta. I might allow a few people to help test if they want to. This will allow me to concentrate on getting the server running.

image · #9 07-22-2007, 07:00 AM

I wouldn't expect vast changes if any at all to the login server or world server. Should just get a packet collector out that works now and start collecting packets so you have a good head start. Once the expansion comes around then you will only have minor changes to make, not to mention I believe the Rise of Kunark expansion does not come out till late November.

**LethalEncounter** · #10 07-22-2007, 07:16 AM

Yah, that is what I am thinking, but if I make it an open beta then I will get hounded with people saying: "Which version do I need to have?", "Why can't I login?", "How do I know which version I have?", etc. Making it a closed beta until the expansion is released will allow me to focus more time on coding and less time answering questions. Once the expansion is released we freeze the client and do like eqemu did with Titanium. The problem with releasing the packet logger right now is that if SOE finds out the method it is using to grab the key, they might shut it down for good. We might release it to the public around October, but any sooner will risk breaking the project again.