Recruitment Drive BnR

[Arkhural]

Hi there, Just wanted to get out here and plug our server for a second and see if maybe we can snag a player or two, if not thats cool too!

BloodandRank as been around for awhile, but its had a few hiccups. I'v been with the server since dec of '15 so i'v watched it for awhile its a nice little server it doesn't really have the mass appeal of say p99 or any of the bigger servers, but it does have its own little charm. It's what i would say is in its final stage, 90% of the kinks have been worked out, staff has been up and down but leveled out and it think its where it can be presented to the EQ public now.

Thats it just come by and check us out! or post here if interested and ill follow up with you, help you out with gear and such...

Mention my name for prefered seating!

The "Nez"

p.s there will be a follow up post for alot of the server specifics, i just don't want to ramble....i have that tendancy.

[Arkhural]

Ok this is for anyone at work who wants something to read about our server, please no TLDR replies you have been warned. <takes deep breath>

Here goes, this is all current info everything in this post is about the state of the server as of now. We are a "classic" style server in that were about the classic style of play, no bots, no MQ active or passive. We are in velious era since Jan 15th and the staff has done a great job of getting rid of all the OOE items and quests. This is old school EQ no hand holding (actully thats not true but ill get to that later) we have corpse runs, annoying seb deaths and long runs over to hard to reach places, this is a server where when you kill something you can actully feel a sense of accomplishment.

Now things that make us different from other servers there are 4 major ones.

First is Leo the gold, I like him, some hate him, but he's a server staple, all mobs have a small chance, to drop a leo coin or GM coin. You turn these into "Leo the gold" and he will give you a random item, and i mean random! you can get anything from Ivy etched gloves up to manastone,fungi tunics,and all sorts of good stuff. He can be a real bastard sometimes tho, and i'v watched people turn in 100s of coins only to get stuff they vendor or give away. I'v also seen new players turn in 5 coins and get a fungi tunic and blade of the black dragon.

Second Quorra the violet she is our great equilizer you can love or hate leo, but everyone wants Quorra by your side. She is our server buffer for a set amount of plat (free to 50plat based on level) she provides a set of max level buffs that would make a schoolgirl blush. Hp/ac, haste,hp mana regen,run speed, levi the works, I main a 60 shaman on most of our raids and i load three buffs for all raids, Focus of spirit (shaman hp) Riotous health (Stamina) and Avatar (100 to all stats+atk) Quorra handles pretty much everything else. She makes it so anyone can solo, and for 6 players to kill a dragon that would take 10ish.

Third GMs, now we are classic, but our server style is based of the "legends" servers EQ used to do back in the day. Our GMs will give buffs, ports, rez's, summon corpses, and run events. We have 10 GMs/Guides over at BnR so while dieing is way harder then on live eq, its not the end of the world. Our GMs also run custom events, and work up there own quests and npcs that they will announce or hide into the world. Anything from one-off Lava dragons to persistant hub quest areas and hidden zones! For myself as a long time classic eq player its nice to have something that we have to figure out together as a server and not just punch up on a wiki, or alakazam and look up..."well it says he spawns at bla,bla" The custom stuff is a nice touch.

Speaking of custom i come to our last major difference in the server, our Tomes. We have seven i can think of but more may be added...Tome of Creation,Transfer,Apostate,Conflux,Skill, Exp and Titles.

Transfer allows the transfer of "almost" any item from one to another, doesn't matter if it is no drop or not, very usefull.

Conflux allows for the creation or change of any race from one to another, class limitation do not matter, ogre rangers, halfing monks, iksar bards all are possible with a conflux tome. Now gear and skills/spell are up to the player to get without any special gm intervention, So if you make a troll pally, expect to do quiet abit of faction grinding!

Apostate our newest tome, allows for the change of ones diety, usefull with a tome of conflux to make that new troll pally not quiet so hated, also nice for those of us with a small roleplay fetish. You can now have your dark elf shadowknight worship Veeshan.

Skill allows 50 points to be added to any skill that your class currently has access to, and normal caps do apply. Not insanely usefull but its nice for tradeskills or something you put off.

Exp allows the automatic and instant gaining of one level, useless to some, very nice to those in the late 50s, quick note all tomes require a GM to use, except this one you can turn it in to Leo the gold and he will give you the level as well as announce it to the server.

Titles allows for the creation of a custom title, can be either pre or post and is really up to the users imagination

Last but not least is what most of us consider the granddaddy of all tomes and pretty much one of the biggest defining things on our little slice of server. "The Tome of Creation" These things drop maybe about one every two weeks, so they are not common but they are attainable.
Allows for the creation of a custom item we have a whole list of rules and such for there making but they allow an unparalleled amount of creativity.
We have enchanters with feign death,necros with compleate heal, druids with slow, This item can allow rangers to dps with bows without having to add 5 expansions.

In closing we have a tight knit group over here at Blood and Rank, but with velious we are really eyeing some of these Ntov dragons and saying...can we do this with 12-18 players? So were looking for some new blood, no pun intended. We tend to have 10-15 on all the time, prime time can see 20-30 people on, I have a few 60s and I would love for some of you guys to come buy and check us out. I have no problem with doing some powerlevling and helping gear new faces. If this sounds even remotely interesting i encourage you to stop by, you don't have to stop playing on your server, but were fun and you might enjoy our little slice of EQ we'v made over here, at least come raid with us a few hours 2-3 nights a week!!

Nez

[houdeano]

Very informative post, Nez!

This is also a shout out to the European players at a loose end! Come join BloodandRank, GM's go out of their way to make us feel welcomed, and valued in a US timezone dominant world.

i cant remember the amount of times Lead GM Velzira has specifically logged in just so he can start up an event for those in offpeak play times.

Currently we have three active European players with two more tending to RL at the moment, I'd absolutely love the European contingent to grow further!

Three does not sound many, but Kael arena armor farming is more than possible with these numbers.

Come join the fun, there are endless possibilities here, the community is absolutely fantastic and will endeavor to get you started on the right track!

Hopefully we shall meet soon!

Cyanide
60 Rogue.
Dain's Reavers
Blood and Rank EQemulator Server
www.bloodandrank.com

[sunbeam]

Originally Posted by Arkhural

Last but not least is what most of us consider the granddaddy of all tomes and pretty much one of the biggest defining things on our little slice of server. "The Tome of Creation" These things drop maybe about one every two weeks, so they are not common but they are attainable.
Allows for the creation of a custom item we have a whole list of rules and such for there making but they allow an unparalleled amount of creativity.
We have enchanters with feign death,necros with compleate heal, druids with slow, This item can allow rangers to dps with bows without having to add 5 expansions.

That's really the only hook your server has. The possibility of being clever and coming up with some item that allows you to exist and have an interesting play experience on a server where on the end you are going to be soloing for the most part.

But apparently that is already being nerfed:

"Blacklisted Effects
Feign Death
Resurrection effects
Harm Touch
Lay on Hands

Greylisted Effects
Mage or Necro Pets
Bard songs
Charm spells
Cannibalize effects (if you want one, go get a mana stone)
Twitch effects


Additionally, some classes will be itemized slightly differently for different things. This is also not an inclusive list that will be updated over time.

Paladins and shadowknights will have a increased damage/delay ratio on 1h weapons. Additionally, they will have access to some procs others may not. Stronger lifetap procs for shadowknights and heals for paladins.

Rangers can get better summonable arrows.

Bards will receive better stats on weapons outside of damage/delay"

So what's the attraction? What's the angle? There were a ton of freaky ratio weapons in Velious for the Knight classes. Didn't change a thing in Luclin for even the very few that could get them.

Give me some examples of how I can take a halflling warrior and level him up. Not minding groups, but for most of his life that won't be in the cards. Tell me what item I can make that will make a big difference if I am lucky enough to get this tome.

[sunbeam]

I had left your server boards open while I walked my dogs. I took another look at that ToC guideline page before I closed it.

I didn't paste the very last part of the whole thing, but I decided to add the very last part.

"2h weapons will be at an increased ratio (to match monk weapons) across the board. This is to make them more viable alternatives for dps. Warriors will not be able to put an effect proc (such as a proc that includes a stun or slow) on these weapons."

Not sure if this is only applicable for 2h weapons, or the lack of stun/slow procs applies to 1h weapons too.

But yeah, great design there. That's totally up there with "We have enchanters with feign death,necros with compleate heal, druids with slow,"

I imagine these things are grandfathered. So early players get to have these kinds of things. Come later and you get... something I guess.

So no idea what the refresh time is on a necro CHeal item, but yeah, giving a warrior the equivalent of a TStaff or something ratio wise is totally equal to giving a necro Cheal.

I really don't want to dump on your server just to dump on it. But do you really think what you guys are doing has legs for the long run? I looked at your forums as I said. You've done the Kunark 32k mobs, and gone to air. Also killed Inny and Cazic (though that didn't look like a normal Cazic event). Both the 15k or so versions I'm sure.

You apparently also did PoSky (more 32k type mobs). I guess they turned off the deathtouches or something.

But starting in Velious you start to hit the half a million and up mobs. Don't think you are ever going to do much with those unless the encounters are adjusted or you get more people, particularly healers, playing than I think most EMU's ever will have.

[Maze_EQ]

Make sure you invest 2000 hours into the server to become #1.

Then they'll tell you I'm DDOS'n them, and that's why they need to bring the server down and wipe it.

It'll be my fault.

But when they come back up new and improved (just means they got someone who knew more than how to reboot) it'll just happen again.

Cause I'm the bane of BNR.

[mjbcb0717]

Dammit Steve

[Kingly_Krab]

I see that both sides of the coin are shown here, refrain from leaning more towards server bashing/flaming. Other than that, carry on.

[Veltira]

Originally Posted by Maze_EQ

Make sure you invest 2000 hours into the server to become #1.

Then they'll tell you I'm DDOS'n them, and that's why they need to bring the server down and wipe it.

It'll be my fault.

But when they come back up new and improved (just means they got someone who knew more than how to reboot) it'll just happen again.

Cause I'm the bane of BNR.

Buddy I have specifically told you that noone thinks these things about you, at all. If we did why would your name be int he BNR Guidebook as a revered past developer and why would we have an NPC of you with your backstory and all about how you helped us early on. What happened between youa nd I was a YEAR AND A HALF AGO and I certainly am not harboring any ill-will toward you or anyone else for that matter. I'm sorry you think that we bash you Maze but that's just not the case, and if I found someone saying bad things about you I would handle it. I'll point out that I have not made a single post about you, nor have I ever replied to your hate-ridden posts int he past. If it's an apology you want then here it is publicly: I am sorry that you and I had differences on things early on when I was becoming a server developer, and I am thankful for the help you have provided me and our server.

Other than that man it's been a year and a half, you've bashed me multiple times on this forum, on reddit, on facebook and twitter.. You have raised a smear compaign against me and all I ever really did was remove you from GM status because you gave some of our players epics and things they never earned and spells from 5 expansions ahead of us. And through it all I still sing your praises... honestly what is it going to take for you to let this go?

[The_Beast]

I wasn't around for this rivalry, but since you're doing dirty laundry in public, I will try to catch the rinse cycle here.
Don't know either of you two, but this is what myself (and maybe others) might see, "looking in from the outside",
1. Experienced dev helps someone with the work in developing a server.
2. Same dev helps with the GM work and decides to be extra nice to players. (maybe to help provide a friendly enviroment?)
3. Server owner shows his gratitude by saying "See ya, thanks for all your help, hope you're not disappointed"
4. Dev walks away feeling used and server owner is confused while he waits a year and a half to apologize.

But we can only go by what we just read. So far, seems like normal human behavior to me. Waiting for the spin cycle .....

[Veltira]

Originally Posted by The_Beast

I wasn't around for this rivalry, but since you're doing dirty laundry in public, I will try to catch the rinse cycle here.
Don't know either of you two, but this is what myself (and maybe others) might see, "looking in from the outside",
1. Experienced dev helps someone with the work in developing a server.
2. Same dev helps with the GM work and decides to be extra nice to players. (maybe to help provide a friendly enviroment?)
3. Server owner shows his gratitude by saying "See ya, thanks for all your help, hope you're not disappointed"
4. Dev walks away feeling used and server owner is confused while he waits a year and a half to apologize.

But we can only go by what we just read. So far, seems like normal human behavior to me. Waiting for the spin cycle .....

Unfortunately this just isn't what happened. I was a new server dev, and he was absolutely amazing in helping me get to where I am now; however he will be the first to admit he left "ticking time bombs" of malicious code all over our server, in fact in his other post addressed to me on these forums he flat out admits that he hacked files and left "time bombs" to intentionally ruin our progress. In reality what happened is that he gave certain players hidden ways to grow stronger, he hid a command in the skeleton in the firepots room that if said granted the player 80 buffs, mostly out of era. He gave some players nice loot including epics but wouldn't help others with actual problems. Almost 100% of the work he did on our server was removed after our then developer Ghanja tracked down and removed each in turn. I was too new to know what he meant by "Maze left hackish bullshittery around your server" but i certainly understand now. Also so that you know I didn't remove his powers immediately, he had a meltdown in front of our staff and quit because "noone here is nice to me for all the f'ing work i do". He left of his own accord and then i removed his access and when he came back he was shocked.

I have tried for over a year to fix this dumb rift and at this point I just dont really care who thinks what, we know what happened. For the record I attemtped to apologize to him months ago when he came into our reddit recruitment post and posted nonstop vitriol. I have no ill will toward him or any other developer, but I'm not going to sit here and let you guys presume that he wasn't given fair treatment. He was given unmitigated access to our server and broke every rule Ghanja and I had laid down about GM powers, then had a screaming fit on his way out in skype. After that, and another year of him constantly seekign out our internet presence to tell others how bad we are it's just sort of become a running joke; he thnks we are plotting against him but noone on BNR, save for me, even remembers Maze because it was a year and a half ago.

[The_Beast]

Its all confusing to me. This statement made it sound like you guys were good friends.

Originally Posted by Veltira

I'm sorry you think that we bash you Maze but that's just not the case, and if I found someone saying bad things about you I would handle it.

But then a couple paragraphs clarified that may not be the case and there seems to be more than two sides to the story with a third party. I assume you trusted his word.

Originally Posted by Veltira

Ghanja tracked down and removed each in turn. I was too new to know what he meant by "Maze left hackish bullshittery around your server" but i certainly understand now.

That whole "time bomb" thing could of simply been said out of anger. I know, sometimes people say things when they are angry, been there, done that myself. It can be hard to get rid of it,sometimes years.
I would of rather just sat down with a one on one (back before it all went down) without any third parties and hashed it all out. To each their own.

[houdeano]

Maze, why can't you give it a rest?

I'm 100% sure this is not the first and only server you have been banned from over the years. You state you are "the bane of BNR" but you are a bane to the EQemu community as a whole. You gain developers trust, players trust, and royally f**k them over for personal advantages.

I've witnessed your antics on countless servers under many different alias, every single time it has been a bad experience.

Flame Blood and Rank and its developers all you want, but people around here, and many other servers and many other developers are wizened to your idiocy. I assure you, when you were removed from BnR, it was like a cloud had been lifted and the toxicity had been banished.

So, prospected new players, look beyond the posts of a one man tirade trying his utmost to destroy a servers reputation. Make your own opinion of the server, rather than reading the muck from a keyboard warrior and you'll soon see for yourself it has been portrayed in the wrong way.

[sunbeam]

I'm just a person who has played EMU servers to a good extent, well not much lately.

Very sorry to hear about any drama you guys may have gone through. But like most people I know absolutely nothing about it.

What does interest me are some of the features you have. No boxing. Potentially enough of a playerbase to mount small raids and not perennially be the only player logged on. Personally I think you should go to Luclin (that was a big expansion), since I've seen classic/kunark/velious umpteen zillion times. But I can understand if as devs you don't want to tackle that one.

But give prospective players more info.

To me as a prospective player your big hook is the ToC. Exactly what are you allowing with this?

I put up excerpts from your board. If I make an enchanter on your server, and actually get a ToC, can I make an item with FD on it? Or is that only for people who already have one, since you have changed the rules for balance?

And to go to my thing about the Fighter, if you look at any of the old threads here and there on the internet about Fighter soloing, you always saw the same gear listed.

Truncheon of Doom, some kind of snare weapon, Bloodpoints or the like hopefully, Band Aid knife.

So can I use the ToC to make a slow weapon without camping the Armsmaster in Seb for umpteen hours? Duplicate a Ranger or Beastlords slowing weapon from the epic set?

Cause something like a Woodsman's Staff or TStaff (without proc), doesn't really seem like it will do much for me levelling up Bilbo, Fighter from Rivervale.

Sorry to hear about any recent drama, but give me info that will make me want to try playing on your server.

And actually I'd like to see a list of example ToC items you guys are now allowing. I realize you are more than that one thing, but my take is I will be playing solo for the most part, with an occasional group, and occasional raid. EMU pops are just not high enough for anything else, most of them anyway.

[houdeano]

Great post sun,

I'll start by explaining my TOC items I have had made for me, only two, yet beneficial.

I play a rogue, I was very eager to explore poisons, I reached 300 skill and can make some quite explosive scenes ! The problem is aggro, evadingis not always reliable,

I had a weapon made with the ranger spell Jolt to proc to reduce my aggro

I also had an item made which summons my favorite poison so I did not have to farm materials , and I could have them readily available,

Nothing game breaking on my part, I'm not a fan of imbalance , I just like some quality of life additions TOC items bring to the fold

If you have any more burning questions feel free to PM me or give Cyanide a tell in game, I'd be very happy to answer the best I can