RebuildEQ - Everquest Rebuilt

[Shin Noir]

RebuildEQ is a project started in January, that has been in a closed invitation-only format. Link To Website: http://rebuildeq.com/

It is a project with many planned features.

What RebuildEQ is looking for
Let's face it, running a server is a full time job, and requires a team. While many volunteers have assisted in RebuildEQ's progression, there is much to do and many roles to be filled for those with the time and dedication to help make a professional release in due time. These include:
* Administration Assistants (GMs)
* Community Managers (Guides)
* Developers
* Web Designers
* Project Managers
* Quality Assurance (Beta testers)
If you feel you could be of assistance and wish to learn more,PM me. You can also join my discord channel, here to stay updated on the events and general chatter during progression.

Storyline - Progress: 10%
RebuildEQ is.. well, take classic EQ, up to Velious, and imagine the storyline arcing to a new one. It's obviously custom, however I want to use custom lightly, and try to keep the theme in the spirit of classic EQ lore. The general sense is, when kerafyrm awakens, a new storyline arcs based on user interaction. Luclin will be skipped in the classic sense, instead only being introduced with zones here or there connected to original content. No Nexus. PoP eventually will make an appearance, however PoK will not exist, players instead go to Plane of Tranquility once a player is 45+ and access a book. I plan to have World Events, similar to what people experience when Kerafyrm was awoken, the decision ultimately changing the entire game from that point onward based on what users vote. Users can have permanent impact to the world.

Builds - Progress: 10%
It has builds, in game, accessed in a technique that is quite unique:

A link to the builds so far are here: http://rebuildeq.com/builds
These builds work similar to Borderlands, where each level a player gains a build point that can be spent freely, and accumulate points to reach higher tiers. The progression is similar to borderlands as well. There is testing happening with in game browser as well.

Encounters - Progress: 50%
Encounters in RebuildEQ happen randomly across the world, in the form of an emote, where when activated a custom encounter spawns for a player, and if they succeed in beating, are given an encounter reward point (accessed in game via #encounter). These give rewards of essentially random items in game via a custom loot table distribution system.


Rested Experience - Progress: 60%
When a player rests in certain areas of the game, like the east commonlands tunnel, they will notice a rested emote and buff appears. The longer a player resides in these areas, the more EXP they pool for their next adventures. This includes if they log off in a rested area. This replaces the classic Lessons of the Devoted, and has perks beyond it.



Cards - Progress: 30%
All augments are removed from the game. They're replaced with a simpler system, where augments are exclusively cards. Cards are limited, there can only be chest 1 card per slot, making management a lot easier. There is currently only one chest slot (defensive). 2 ring slots (click effects), 1 weapon slot (proc on primary weapon), and 1 leg slot (offensive).


Spells - Progress: 40%
No spells can be purchased from vendors, nor tomes. Instead, on level up, players automatically learn the spells their class needs. Other spells are given out with builds, typically improved if this is the case. This means they never have to go searching for spells, it's just there, the moment they level.


Teleporting - Progress: 40%
Since hubs will never be introduced in the game, I'm looking for creative ways to make getting around difficult, yet not impossible. My current implementation is that everyone gains Origin the moment they enter the game. Certain key locations, like the EC tunnel, allow players to set their origin at these points. Every 10 minutes, they can "return to origin" to sell and do general tasks. I plan to allow binding to many locations that are outdoor zones, making 2-point teleporting (Town Portal) a viable option. While traveling is still difficult, and druids/wizards are needed to easily go across the world (no nexus, no pok book), traveling is a little less tedious than original EQ, especially selling or trading.

There is much to do, and I am not in a rush to launch, as this is a project that takes a great amount of time to ensure a quality experience. If you like the idea and direction, or dislike it, feel free to give criticism. They will be listened to, but may not be acted upon.

Thanks,
-Shin

[EQEMU2010]

Interesting keep at it...

[Thorpa]

Wow, this seems amazing. I really like the idea of no hub/pok. The spells thing resonates to my inner being. (Searching vendors pffft).

That builds thing looks awesome too. So long as the options to take skill X over Y actually impact the development of your chars and all "good" skills can't possibly be obtained.

[Drajor]

Excited! /10char

[Shin Noir]

Originally Posted by Thorpa

Wow, this seems amazing. I really like the idea of no hub/pok. The spells thing resonates to my inner being. (Searching vendors pffft).

Thanks for the positive response! I am trying hard to make something that not only I find awesome, but others may agree it to be awesome too. Yep, I never want a central hub teleport system. I am however adding convienence features such as:

#return: When a player dies, they can type #return and pay money to return to the safe point of a zone they most recently died at. (This feature is limited to one use per death, and will have a list of zones it does not work at, and other caveats).

origin: Origin was re-written where there are Origin binders in key rested exp locations that attract players, with a 10 minute re-use currently. This means that translocate to bind, gate, etc causes a dual-bind point functionality similar to a town scroll in diablo. This means that while traveling is still difficult to new locations, you aren't stuck somewhere endlessly hunting.

There are other convenience commands I'm experimenting with, as well. All of this is going to be based on user feedback and general reception. (If they're abused or too convenient, I can always put a cost associated to deter excessive usage)

Originally Posted by Thorpa

That builds thing looks awesome too. So long as the options to take skill X over Y actually impact the development of your chars and all "good" skills can't possibly be obtained.

Builds are being designed currently with 24 different builds options per class, with 5 ranks each, so 120 points to start. You get 1 point per level, and max level is 60. So, you can only fill half the build (60 pts earned, 120 total options). After I finish adding 24 different builds options for each class, I'll work on a second round adding even more build options, making even more diversity and choices.

[PlumbGame]

How will the server work with Boxing etc? I'm someone for example who doesn't like to box massive armies. Will I be screwed on this server? Will it be designed around boxing where players will shut me out and I basically won't have a choice but to box? Will there be grinds that exist to make your character more powerful so if you choose so you can do these grinds and take your time if you don't want to box a massive army?

When it comes to teleporting, I like to travel, so I hope you don't make getting everywhere super easy if you want people to be more immersed into traveling, yet I don't want to be constantly running everywhere. Realistically I feel like traveling will change depending on how many players you can get to play. For example, it would be nice to keep the classic feel of traveling with ports and things, yet may be unrealistic with a low pop? Maybe create some sort of grind for traveling? I don't know what, just thinking. Back to the boxing stuff, would hate to have to box a Wizard just for porting reasons, unless this stuff is your intention.

I look forward to trying this server and the work you have done looks great!

[Shin Noir]

First, thank you for all the great questions, and I'll try my best to answer each one!

Originally Posted by PlumbGame

How will the server work with Boxing etc? I'm someone for example who doesn't like to box massive armies. Will I be screwed on this server? Will it be designed around boxing where players will shut me out and I basically won't have a choice but to box?

No boxing allowed. At all. The hard part is people who use the same ISP to play in the same room, how do you identify and track them? I plan to make this a process, an interview, and it'll be noted for the community to retain transparency. I really want people to feel a community, and identify people by their characters, and create a group of close friends, many of my mechanics is about finding others to play Everquest with, not "Own the server by myself". When world events happen, you'll be voting with your actions, and I want to ensure each vote is based on the person behind it, not who can 24 box. (Heavy WIP)

Originally Posted by PlumbGame

Will there be grinds that exist to make your character more powerful so if you choose so you can do these grinds and take your time if you don't want to box a massive army?

Yes.. there will be grinds, sort of. I say sort of, since they are not required, just really nice additions. They aren't all REQUIRED FOR LIFE. I'm trying really hard to get people into a casual mindset, nobody has the time initially for a hardcore experience, I want to start casual, smooth, with lots of great memories and experiences you can share with friends, then later, optionally, you can grind. I'm also trying to make it worthwhile to reroll and relive lower levels with newcomers, with the encounter and card system. I'll answer this question more at the end, when I talk about my goal of end game and some examples of grinding. (Community on bottom)

Originally Posted by PlumbGame

When it comes to teleporting, I like to travel, so I hope you don't make getting everywhere super easy if you want people to be more immersed into traveling, yet I don't want to be constantly running everywhere.

I have a #teleport command in game, which is limited to: ecommons, gfaydark, fieldofbone, commons, dreadlands, northkarana, sro, tox currently. It costs money to use. I may remove it all together, with the introduction to #return. It's primarily there during testing, and to give users the ability to talk about how they feel about it. While I have commands that replace key roles of certain classes, as those classes become available on the server, I plan to up the price of said convenience commands, I never want to replace a class. I want player interaction as high as possible, but also want to ensure small community is survivable.

Traveling is still a burden. Norrath is big, and it's a walk to many places, especially while wizards and druids aren't around. #return is a lifesaver for corpse runs right now. #rez is insanely awesome, as it summons your corpse and gives 96% rez currently. (combo #return #rez and it's jaw dropping). These will become more and more costly as the community grows and feedback happens. Perhaps even disabled. Traveling is still a pain, overall, since the list of locations is so limited, and I may limit or increase it, based on community feedback. (These commands are all 100% custom and controllable by me).

Originally Posted by PlumbGame

I look forward to trying this server and the work you have done looks great!

I'm making a server I would love to play on. I hope others will join and love the experience as well!


COMMUNITY
My goal to help build a community, and in general make this server a great experience, is catering to this mindset: Yes, you can solo. Soloing is boring, the builds help spice things up and other niceties, but you'll quickly find that with builds and the little changes everywhere, you'll want to play with others. Hopefully you find other players online the same time as you, within the same level as you. If not, bring a friend! (I plan to add a referral system to help entice this activity). Your friends will then play, and group with those on the server, and perhaps bring even more friends, and eventually.. the community grows, and it thrives.

The end content will be scaled and catered to a more casual group-oriented experience. Right now I'm thinking no more than 12, maybe 18 people for the hardest content. But really, majority of content is group-at-most (This is heavily subject to community size and involvement/vote). As we all know, original EQ legit style was a 54 man raid style (if not more!), and that's just crazy with eqemu populations. I plan to add some really fun ways to keep a competitive nature on large noted mobs, while also prevent deadlock. (I've never seen it handled the way I'm imagining before).

As far as grinding, when you reach level 60, you are level capped, yes.. However the game takes a twist. Why? There's no Alternative Advancement EXP. Instead, once you max level 60, your experience goes into a pool buffer. This buffer fills and fills, and is quite large. If you die while level 60 with maximum exp, the experience loss is first taken from the pool buffer prior to your actual level experience.

If you type #exp in game, you can see how much your experience buffer is, measured by the size of a potion. What is a potion? Certain NPCs in the game will allow you to trade an Empty Experience Vial and currency to them, in exchange they will take a potion's worth of experience from your buffer and fill the vial with your excess pool and hand you the result. This Filled Experience Vial is a tradable item, used in quests to unlock AAs. This means as you welcome friends to the server, or make a second character to explore a new build, you can "twink" by giving them your extra EXP Bottles so they can complete AA quests at earlier levels. No more level 52-req mindset. Unfortunately, your friends and twinks cannot drink the EXP potion, but if the community wants it bad enough, who knows?

Another grinding aspect is that velious-end tier gear has a system in the works that makes the ancient and unadorned upgradable beyond velious end-tier gear, by combining two together with a chance of the yielded upgrade failing. it will help prevent rott while you keep running these end-game zones for new end-tier players, it will also keep hardcore players VERY busy as you need many pieces if they want the absolute best gear. (It also isn't a requirement for everyone to grind, if you're casual, don't sweat the hardcore stuff. You just won't be the very best geared, just nearly best.)

The card system is also spread across Norrath, and their rarities are very significant, and very noteworthy to collect. As you casually play Norrath you may find something that is very valuable and rare and be contacted by fellow players in eager anticipation for purchase, or if you're hardcore, you'll be finding yourself killing in certain areas for the hope of a certain card to drop.

And I still haven't even talked about encounters.. *breathes*.

There's many many more, hopefully I wasn't too wordy.

[CodeLord]

Great job on the description and question answering.

It was even entertaining for me to read all of it.

[PlumbGame]

Really appreciate the responses! The boxing stuff is good to know! Sorry about some of the teleporting questions. You definitely cleared up a lot of my confusion.

[satora54]

Looks amazing, honestly.
Love the idea of NO BOXING, now maybe we can actually get groups going.

How is loot going to work for the ecounters? Is it custom? or classic loot we already know of?

[CodeLord]

The loot rewards from encounters are standard items. Higher end items are of course less common, and it is still a work in progress.

Feedback is highly valued and does tend to drive the direction of the project.

[Maze_EQ]

I'll be playing here. No bots/boxing is a godsend.

[EQEMU2010]

Do you have an ETA on when BETA Testing will begin? this year even? Seems like a big project.

[Shin Noir]

Originally Posted by EQEMU2010

Do you have an ETA on when BETA Testing will begin? this year even? Seems like a big project.

Players can play it and test it right now, actually! I'm not sure I'm going to do an alpha-beta progression, instead right now I'm working on ensuring the most critical parts are in and once I'm happy and the community is happy, I'll be launching officially. So, if anything, it's in beta right now.

Note that it is heavily in development still, and there is only a couple GMs, so crashes, incomplete classes/systems, bad content (from peq) are a thing and will happen. (The experience is not best) And yes, it will be wiped before any official launches. Will likely create a reward for players paticipating in the testing however. I also do try to ensure that the current "live" server is as stable as possible, and so far it seems to be decent in that regard.

> Join us at Discord <.

Come chat in discord, and let me know if you're interested in joining. I'll repeat the above disclaimers, let you join in and flag your character to gain access from now on while it's locked. Even if you don't plan to test or join until launch, feel free to hop on discord, I try to discuss any matters I'm not so sure what direction to go, and love to hear input.

I try to keep this log file up to date as well: https://github.com/rebuildeq/rebuildeq/wiki


A side note, as players test, we created a new command called #issue. If a player hold something on your cursor, target an NPC or player, and type e.g. "#issue This thing is broken, help!" it creates a github issue for me to look into. If you type "#issue" by itself, it will list any previously created issues you made and a status of the progress of it being fixed or not. This way, you can track and report things without me having to be there. (I released the concept here - http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40449)
It gives details like this:

[jpyou127]

Cool stuff here Shin!!