The Divine Reapers (custom/LEGIT) 99% uptime / 5 server network

[Breea]

We are hoping to actually bring something to the community not just sit day by day waiting for a fix or leach code =P We are here to help the best way we can, all of our GM's and Developers.

[drakelord]

Interesting server you have here. Couple of small questions though.

A. What's the XP rate set at?
B. What build of the Emu are you running?

[Lalolyen]

We are running the latest build atm. Every time there is a new build we will compile it test it, and if it is working and not many people on, we will stop the server and start the updated/new one.

The exp rate is as close to live as we can get it. We do have level appropriate hot zones also set at the same exp rate as live.

[boogerific]

I wonder how many people here actually know the reason for the slower-than-molasses exp rate on Live? Evidently not too many. For some odd reason, "Live exp" seems to be some sort of standard that should be matched, otherwise gameplay would suffer? Nope. The *only* reason that Live sets their exp rate so low is to make money. You know, the Corporate Mentality thing. Keep the exp grind as slow as tolerable, call it a "gaming experience" and players are willingly duped into thinking that the exp grind is good, making them spend their money by the millions (collectively speaking) just to keep on top of it.

People can have just as rewarding of a gaming experience without having to spend ridiculous amounts of time leveling at Live exp rates.

Ever wonder why Live set AA exp at level 51 equivalency? It's what the market would bear. If they set it their normal rate people would be a lot more reluctant to bother with AA. Less time played, possibility of less people playing, dollars go down.

Tradeskills? Call the goal Accomplishment and a company can make something go as painfully slow as they want. Those people who played on Live before SOE decided to throw the players a bone in the form of the handy-dandy window that calls up recipes and does inventory know how that goes. Picking up each component, putting it in the container and hitting Combine took forever. I can just hear the meeting where they decided to change that. "What? Some players quit tradeskilling over that? Make it easier so we don't lose anymore revenue!!"

And so it goes... lol.

[Lalolyen]

Originally Posted by boogerific

I wonder how many people here actually know the reason for the slower-than-molasses exp rate on Live? Evidently not too many. For some odd reason, "Live exp" seems to be some sort of standard that should be matched, otherwise gameplay would suffer? Nope. The *only* reason that Live sets their exp rate so low is to make money. You know, the Corporate Mentality thing. Keep the exp grind as slow as tolerable, call it a "gaming experience" and players are willingly duped into thinking that the exp grind is good, making them spend their money by the millions (collectively speaking) just to keep on top of it.

The same could be said for just giving people all the available GM commands too .

Actually there is a reason for Live exp, and though its in the ball park you explained, its no where close to your meaning.

Live experience levels is to keep the game progressing at a steady pace while developers are able to keep the end of the treadmill (the end game) developing without heavy demand.

If you wish to question that you can feel free to view my real life resume working in LA as a security annalist of Sony Online Entertainment in the EverQuest development division.

So what does Live EXP really mean? It means unlike you said, you get a little bit of pleasure over a longer period vs one big burst all at once, then get bored off your fourth point of contact when you are "end game", max aa's, max exp and the developers cannot keep up.

So honestly it is my opinion that to keep a server interesting, to keep the population there, equalize the experience rates with the the game's development speed. Again strictly opinion, but in empires such as Verant, SoE, EA Games, etc, they have proven this 5 billion times over with each dollar they have profited as that "time" weight.

But besides all of that, our server is trying to preserve the look, feel, and atmosphere of Live EverQuest without the $'s hanging over their heads and with a little more opportunities available to them.

[boogerific]

My meaning is right on the money (pun intended ), not just in the ballpark. Just take a look at corporate history.

Giving people GM commands is on Live would be foolhardy for SOE, as it would speed up gameplay and players would have too little to do to stay interested. People would get to the high-end too fast, vastly reducing the length of time that players would pay monthlies. Profits would bottom out and the stockholders would be out for corporate blood. Giving everyone on Live GM commands is nowhere near the same as what I said.

The cold, hard fact is that corporations like SOE exist for profit. There's no better way for them to keep their stockholders at bay than to keep the gameplay slow. The slower it is, the longer people pay the monthlies, period. And monthlies are the name of the game, not the comparable pittance they make from one-time client sales.

While the development team at SOE might be more concerned that SOE corporate about keeping the game interesting, they are not (and never have been since SOE took over) in control of the big picture. The real death of EQ will come when there aren't enough players out there to sustain the corporate appetite. At that point the developers will be put on other projects or leave.

Remember when they did the big server merges? That was not done to make the game more interesting, balanced, or more social. The sole reason was to maximize profit. They were intent on upping the ratio of players to servers. Profit is the reason for SOE's existence. Take away the profit and see how long Sony (the parent corporation) lets SOE keep EQ around. There are no noble causes there.

[Lalolyen]

Originally Posted by boogerific

My meaning is right on the money (pun intended ), not just in the ballpark. Just take a look at corporate history.

Giving people GM commands is on Live would be foolhardy for SOE, as it would speed up gameplay and players would have too little to do to stay interested. People would get to the high-end too fast, vastly reducing the length of time that players would pay monthlies. Profits would bottom out and the stockholders would be out for corporate blood. Giving everyone on Live GM commands is nowhere near the same as what I said.

The cold, hard fact is that corporations like SOE exist for profit. There's no better way for them to keep their stockholders at bay than to keep the gameplay slow. The slower it is, the longer people pay the monthlies, period. And monthlies are the name of the game, not the comparable pittance they make from one-time client sales.

While the development team at SOE might be more concerned that SOE corporate about keeping the game interesting, they are not (and never have been since SOE took over) in control of the big picture. The real death of EQ will come when there aren't enough players out there to sustain the corporate appetite. At that point the developers will be put on other projects or leave.

Remember when they did the big server merges? That was not done to make the game more interesting, balanced, or more social. The sole reason was to maximize profit. They were intent on upping the ratio of players to servers. Profit is the reason for SOE's existence. Take away the profit and see how long Sony (the parent corporation) lets SOE keep EQ around. There are no noble causes there.

I didn't say give everyone GM commands on live, I was referring to EMU. Also remember that SoE, OWNS PlayStation, SWG, EQ2, PlanetSide, etc.. You really think they care about the pennies they make on EQ?

Exactly, which doesn't necessarily mean that SoE would loose money, they have over 50 thousand idiots buying electronic cards that took a dev 5 minutes to make at 10 bucks a pop for their new card game, I mean Legends of Norrath.

The point is, and what you were close to, is people leave. That means the game dies, as it looses its value when there aren't "masses" playing. Then you have several hundred people thats left wanting reimbursements, free server moves, etc, which will eventually make SoE LOOSE money. At about now, I'm not even sure that EQ is making SoE money at all for several reasons but the primary one is, well there is about as much players on one SoE EQ server as there is one of our most populated servers. That is pretty sad actually. You have to remember that it takes someone boxing toons and PLing about 1 month or less to get a toon from 1 to 75 now in Live. It takes even less to get him 1K aa's. Again the EXP rate is not so low to keep you there, its to control the development of the game, believe it or not.

Besides that, I'm a very old-school EQ player. I remember the days where boats were your primary means of travel, I remember the days you would get the message in your client that had about 1/10th of the screen viewable "Saving character data." like every 30 seconds. I believe in getting into a game like EQ, taking your time, doing the quests, learning your race/class, and using the game for what it was intended; to QUEST. Now a days, its like the entire damn community, here and on live has gone exp whores. If there is no EXP its not an interesting server. That is not true. For those of us that likes sitting back and having a bit of fun progressing in a game, find that kind of experience rates rather intriguing. I also appreciate it as I have more time to prepare underdeveloped zones =).