Hey what's up guys. I wanted to do a write up for the p99 community in what I've experienced thus far playing AK. Please feel free to chime in on anything inaccurate or for whatever. Here's a link to the post in server chat but I'll quote it below https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=252613
Where did you post it? They love any of those sorts of posts to off topic pretty quick. It seems it's still in off topic. This post already existed too: https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176427&page=96
You won't get a warm welcome at p99 advertising. Will mostly get trolled by p2002 people spreading false info and lies.
Honestly, I dont want people from p99 here. Look at your responses already ranging from ITS NOT Classic to WTF no mouse wheel to third person. This server is a pretty friendly environment so far. Asking the p99 forums is just asking for poison. P99 is a special little bubble of contradictory nonsense. And who cares about p2002. If they dont really code, and only steal code, well thats only a path that leads to a rope. P2002 wont last based on how its operating.
I think it's more important to let people who played on the original AK know how far this project has come. Those are the people we enjoyed playing this game with and who made the community what it was, and they're most likely the same people who would enjoy playing here the most. I mean no disrespect towards P99 or the people who already made the switch. But I imagine most of those people are already well aware of TAKP and just prefer P99 for whatever reason.
For sure. I expected some hard trolling but I had some time so decided to do a bit of a write up for some people that were in my situation. Not everyone on p99 is bad. If the post catches the eyes of a few good peeps then it's worth it.
There are some really good people over at p99. They would love it here. They don't understand all the improvements we have made to the client or stability. They get baited to try the other server, because they perceive no difference. There is no comparison in the quality and stability of playing here. I had to use the titanium client this weekend. And holy cow man, we have come a long way. I saw almost no benefit of titanium over pc client. At least for how I play. My latest client mods are so smooth to game play. Its amazing how far we have come this year. I think there is still room for improvement too. Can't wait for Velious. H
Seems to the me that the main selling points of TAKP over other emulators are (1) the raid scene is actually fun, (2) the mechanics are incredibly accurate, and (3) the devs are smart, open and active. #2-3 are basically nerdy arcana that only fringe EQ geeks will appreciate. #1 is likely the real draw for your typical player; there's a lot to be said for a server where even casual folks can experience all the raid content the game has to offer. Here's hoping that #1 remains true on TAKP. If the raid scene here turns into a P99-style race to the bottom of an overflowing poopsock, I don't see TAKP having much draw for most folks.
There is something to be said about being forced to scramble together a CH rotation, Tank list and manage to pull King Tormax from his spawn to zoneline without getting an enormous train on you within a matter of minutes. It's puts challenge into fights that are rather trivial by being forced to work quick On the other hand, the time investments required to get those chances are absolutely absurd. But the raid scene is only the way it is on here because there is one large guild and one smaller guild. If there were 5 large guilds on TAK there would need to be some sort of rotation enforced and only being able to kill CT every 3 weeks can be pretty lame.
I only existed on Brell (-> Cazic -> Fenin), and I didn't start raiding till Luclin (really). It was always really fun to think about getting our guild' screw to SSRA before another guild did, but at the same time what a pain it was to fight for spawns. Same way in Elemental. This was always a constant back and forth for me. On one hand I appreciate instances like Time, and on the other hand I really appreciate the Eddie Murphy "I have some ice cream and you ain't got none!" Dance. I never played on P99, but I do understand that there were (are?) like 10x more guilds than there should be given the content. That sounds miserable. I would love it if TAKP had a higher pop, but as with any maximization problem, it's nice to hit that inflection point rather than heading over the hill. lower population or sweet spot population over "we need to thin the herd" population any day, especially given the boxing available here.
This ^^^ This is the balancing act. On AK (and even way back on Anotnius Bayle and Povar), there was this point that it got to where it was too much. I have fond memories of logging into the server list screen and seeing 1500-2000 players on each server at peak times, it was no issue getting groups and the level of activity was amazing. EC had 300-400 people in there at times, auctions were nuts. But I also remember that it was too much at times. I also recall when AK was still Mac only and there were occasional people complaining about a waning population (although, not much); then when it was opened to both F2P and PC's, the population sure picked up... but that was the "beginning of the end", in a sense. AK was never the same again. As they say, gotta be careful what you ask for, you just might get it. We are just shy of what I'd consider a "comfortable" population right now... a few more would be good, but too many could spoil it. Would be different if we knew all players would fit in and be the perfect temperment, but with the good always comes the bad. Tough call.
I'll be honest. I'm pretty disappointed in the near complete lack of concern for accurate NPC stats and combat mechanics from users. When servers who just make numbers up for raid boss stats have similar or greater populations, it makes me wonder if I've wasted my time. (and believe me, it was a lot of time) Personally it would be my first concern playing an emu. It would ruin the enjoyment for me knowing that our raid boss kill was some gimped version. At least when The Avatar of War steps on your corpses here, you'll know it would also have happened on AK.
It was your posts regarding accurate mechanics that made me choose this server. There are a lot of servers out there, and when I was sorting through them all a few months ago, it was reading through one of your detailed mechanic writeups that made the choice simple for me. It showed that you (and the other devs here) are dedicated to an actual, accurate recreation - not just getting flashy features out as quickly as possible to pad numbers. Your commitment is readily apparent, which helped boost my faith that this server was more than someones hobby that could end any weekend. Thank you for all the effort, it is definitely not wasted.
I got a big surprise when I played EQ for the first time on an Emu. My entire EQ experience was AK, I never played on any PC servers. Cultural differences aside, every other Emu I played on was far too easy. EQ in Easy Mode is a quick path to ultra boredom. Plus the WINE client for Mac is utterly FUBAR. TAKP has saved me from the torture of the other EZ mode servers and their awful client.
Rereading my post, Torven, it sounds a little shitty! I didn't mean to devalue your work; I am absolutely one of those fringe EQ geeks who appreciates TAKP's incredible accuracy! Points #1-2 I mentioned above are two big reasons I play here (friends from AK are another). I find it super fun dissecting mechanics, reading and rereading your EQLive research, and doing internet archaeology to try to figure out how mechanics or content likely worked on AK. I enjoy being a part of reverse engineering EQ in early PoP, and of recreating a corner of the internet that I knew and loved for years. All I was trying to say in that post is that I think I'm probably way out in the tails of the bell curve when it comes to how much I value accurate mechanics and open devs.
The dedication to accurate mechanics and mob stats is one of the main reasons I stand by this server, and keep coming back. People want the real AK and this server is the one doing it.
Lol!! wow, look at how screwed up that post has gone. I like every 6 months to a year putting it out there that this server exists just because of how popular p99 is but we definitely don't need none of that bullshit over here. Anyways cheers for the good intentions. I'm with Haynar, Special people will find their way here.
It took me a long time to find this server, and I was confused between the whole p2002/takp being different servers. I was actually doing research on the PEQ server to see if it was still active and I came across this mentioned in a third party forum.
Former P99 player here, and been taking a ~2ish month break from TAKP. I was in Inglorious Basterds / Rampage / Awakened, one of the top 2 raiding guilds. In the 3ish years I played there, I don't think I had ever heard of TAKP. I had only heard about it early this year when a couple friends decided to roll here (and then promptly left for Uthgaard). P99 has some nice benefits, mainly a high population making low-level grouping easy, but in general I would say the friendliness (very friendly) of the player base is pretty similar here. Now and again I hear people talk about how toxic P99 is, or how P99 players wouldn't be welcome here and it surprises me a bit. Obviously, I take it a bit personally as well. That being said... Posting on the P99 forums is like Russian roulette. Many of the people there are fourm-questers and don't even play the game anymore. The population of P99 red is very vocal on the forums, and mostly negative. Think about it like watching Fox News vs. visiting the Fox News fan forums. Hell, go through the Rants & Flames area and wonder how most of these people are adults with kids. Anyhow, I like it here. Please don't uninvite me because I'm from P99. -Syphie/Year/Jessies
Nobody is uninviting you lol. We just don't want all the bullshit (from the forums to the raid scene) over here. You honestly don't think the p99 raid scene is toxic? Anyways.. You can say that people on p99 are just as friendly as people here, In my experiences its not even a competition, not only are people on TAKP friendlier you also just don't have the general trolls and jerks trying to grief people. I could go on but i think you get it, and to be fair a lot of that just comes with having a massive player population. So please don't take it personal if you are one of the good ones, because yeah there are good people from p99. People just want AK here so certain personality traits from p99 will just never be accepted.
TAKP has really only been around for a year. Before that was alpha and the population was very small. It has taken time for it to grow and for word to get out. That is why you hadn't heard of it. Yes, don't take it personally, people just don't want toxicity here and work hard to prevent it.
Takp has come a long way in the last year. It is not the server it was a year ago. It has really become something else. The community is far from any other eqemu, from what I have seen.
