Well, I definitely remember some although I won't list them. Are you saying 'yeah, obviously they did it on purpose, b/c it was a common feature in 2002?'. If so, that's true enough, but they could also just not have gotten around to it yet. It could have taken some significant work at some point to refit that...although maybe it's just moving the camera around and so fairly easy.
Most (or more conservatively 'many') mice didn't have scroll wheel in the years leading up to 1999 - which is when they worked on EQ - and so it was just not a standard practice in computer games to control the camera with scroll wheel. Third person cameras were definately a thing though, so they at least included those. How do I know this? Well I don't, but it makes a helluva lot of logic and sense to me.
I like to slowly get to know people. I'm not anti social, but there's something about the idea of having to communicate with other people that bothers me. So I'm a big supporter of boxes, and additionally some cylinders or perhaps even spherical objects. Can you imagine trying to play without these essential three dimensional objects? *r2d2 head spin* WOOOOOOOOOOOOooo
The problem is on a server with a small player base is that you can't always find other players in your level range to group with and some classes are harder to solo with than others. That was why Sony added shortcuts to the game to help players level up faster so they could get into a raiding guild and play in the latest content instead of having the playerbase fractured and spread out across many eras. Each new expansion only aggravated the problem because the lower level players still progressing through older content weren't able to keep up with those at the high end so they would get frustrated and quit. That's why defiant gear drops off practically every mob on the live servers. It gives players the boost they need to overcome low level content quickly. In the absence of new game mechanics giving players insane advantages over mobs and ridiculous gear drops from level 1 snakes, boxing is a necessity or else players will quit playing here just like they did on the live servers because eventually they will hit a wall where they can't progress any further without help because the mobs are too strong for them to solo.
Remember, this server is still being developed. When luclin hits, population will increase. When PoP arrives, it will increase again. I personally really like the semi-emptiness and the boxing. For one, you can get camps almost anytime you want them. Also, I do not play EQ to socialize. If that's what I want there are a million ways to do that, including going and meeting actually face-to-face with other humans. I hate being LFG, my time is usually short anyways and having the option to box really helps. I do enjoy getting to know people and hunting with them, but I prefer it to be at my pace and my choosing. I don't know why everybody gets all upset about boxing, the single box purists seem to think its some kind of desecration, even though it was an obvious fact of life on Live. I think TAKP has the exact correct allowance for boxing at 3. It is not enough to let you hold really uber camps on your own unless you are very good, and even then it's hard and takes a lot of concentration, but it is enough to have your own grind group when you need it. I'd be ok with a limit of 2 as well, but I prefer 3. If TAKP didn't have boxing I wouldn't be here.
Hee, more boxing discussion! I guess it's not surprising that this keeps coming up; along with accurate mechanics, carefully researched mob stats, friendly kickass devs, and a raid scene that's actually fun, the three-box limit is one of the hallmarks of TAKP. My current feeling is that a limit of one or two boxes would've made raiding more fun and challenging, but three is a nice number for offnight play. I agree that it's awesome to be able to explore almost any part of any zone. A variety of self-contained trios can do that, but not many duos can dive into the deepest darkest dungeons on their own.
The idea of single boxing is a P99 phenomenon. So many people have been exposed to Everquest through P99, that to them P99 is Everquest. When it's like totally not really how Classic Everquest was. The majority of the people that I knew in classic, were boxers. AK, everybody boxed. The only EQ, that I am familiar with, where boxing is shunned is P99. The difference in emulation is it's free. Boxing is healthy when there are stopgaps in place. In classic and on AK, for most of it's life, was the paywall. So TAKP artificially creates the paywall with the box limit. How I see it anyway.
P99 is clearly different. Who would think stuck in velious forever, would also remain popular? I think p99 is closer to what the original EQ devs intended. And that is why it remains unique.
I don't mind boxing as long as it doesn't get out of hand. I definitely wouldn't want to see Sam Deathwalker boxing a guild raid on this server. 3 boxes should be enough for anybody.
There was some discussion of the first person view earlier in this thread and I want to add that I really enjoy the first person view and also the inconvenience of it. It makes it hard to see your surroundings, that's true, but it makes larger boss mobs actually look imposing and scary. If the scroll out view was available, I would use it, along with a target ring or built in map, but I enjoy playing with this additional challenge and it feels more personal when you have to actually look up at things to see their heads.
I agree to an extent that essentially being forced to use first person adds a certain charming/immersive element, but I would still take mouse wheel zoom out any day. I love being able to do that, and then hold left click to rotate the camera around my character.. Oh how I miss that. Also, how does this thread keep coming back to life?
There's always a tension between what we 'like' to do and what is good for us to do. I like scroll wheel too. I like lots of things that would make my character more powerful and easier to play. Spell sets, melody, etc. But when I get to use enough of them I find I lose interest in the game. Each one is an incremental lessening of the thing that keeps me playing. Really, the heart of a game is about what you CAN'T do, not about what you can.
I wish I could get comfortable with using the old school 3rd person. The camera flying around just gets me so messed up...just never been able to get a hang of it.
Every time I come back to the first person camera it makes me a little nauseous on a melee character; casters don't bother me, but the motion of the camera from the melee swings take some getting used to.
First you approach an event horizon of epic mages and pass through the singularity and then bam 3rd person makes sense and first person is the devil from wolfenstein 3d.
None but if you have the tolerance for an epic mage you have the tolerance to use 3rd person here until it feels good - instead of janky.