I have played EQ since 1999, the Kunark release, and in the end was frustrated with EQ Live development. When the PC client hack was made public, I switched to Al'Kabor and thought I found a home there to play EQ as it was meant to be for many years, alas, it was shut down. Anyway, this project really raised my hopes to play classic EQ again, and for a long time, too. However, I expected this server to take off much faster then it has. Granted, I play at Euro times, but I seldom see more then 100 people online at the same time. Due to personal reasons I cannot play as much as I want, so it suits me fine that most camps are open, but still, more people would be nice. Should we try to promote this server a little bit more? Should people try to contact old guildmates from Al'Khabor? Perhaps better instructions how to install and connect to the server would help? P1999 has about 5k players, though most are probably inactive. I am just trying to initiate a discussion. It is strange, in Alliance most people are innate, it seems to me that the server community is still developing, and most people do their own thing, triple boxing. Your thoughts?
3-box doesn't help the grouping for sure (I 3 box myself, 1-box is just too slow in EQ for me), although it's a lower pop right now and it helps to open up content that would otherwise be impossible to do without a group. I think the main thing is that it's a beta and only Classic content is implemented right now. A lot of the people I tried to get into it had issues getting the client to work and would experience a lot of crashes/LD's, and wanted to wait for at least Kunark zones since that opens up so many leveling options. In my opinion It's just very early in the development process. Given time the population will grow. Once the client is more stable and more content is released I hope this server grows to be larger than P99. But until then just have to bear in mind that it's a beta being developed by volunteers. It will take time just like P99 did. At some point when the population is larger I'd like to see the box limit reduced to 2, but for now I think 3 is perfect.
I just found the server took me awhile to get / find everything to set up. Even with p99's slightly easier / more available information for setup people still have issues getting it all fixed up. So once a client is all set up and shown around more people will most definitely play. ALOT of people think PoP was the golden era of everquest.
When I first heard of this server I was really excited, but since Al'Kabor was shut down I had deleted all my old files. Based on what the website said I wasn't even sure if I could play here. It wasn't until I stumbled across the Rerolled forum posts that I realized it was possible. I am positive there are hundreds of people who are aware of the server but aren't aware of how easy it is to set up. Honestly it is easier than P99 but harder to find the instructions and files needed. I don't know why the developers aren't doing a better job at promoting how to get the game set up. Honestly a Copy / Paste of the Rerolled forum post here: http://www.rerolled.org/showthread.php? ... 28EQMac%29 in a sticky somewhere would be very helpful getting new players here.
Honestly what needs to be done is for somebody to make a clean client with all the unnecessary files removed (including any logs or config files), get all the config and UI files set to desirable settings and window positions (such as Velious armor on, chat channel defaulting to Alliance, etc), include Poweroftwo and perhaps a Velious or Vert UI, then create a public torrent that is seeded by a seedbox 24/7 and also upload to usenet. The client should be no larger than 2.1 gigs once all the crap is removed. If somebody does this, make sure you get all the ducks lined up and everything perfect before uploading, because multiple client links are just going to confuse people and any minor error in the setup is going to cause problems for potentially hundreds of people.
I did this for a few friends came out at 2.9gig but I might have missed some stuff but its only on my drobox atm
To the original poster... The game has only been in beta for 4 weeks at the time of your post. I don't know why you expected it to take off much faster then it has. There is no "advertising" per se, it is pretty much word of mouth. If you have friends that are interested then by all means let them know. I think the health of the server will be better on the long run by a slow steady stream of new players rather then a large influx of players in a rush, get to level 50 in a hurry, then grow bored because they feel there is not enough "content". Just one dark elf's 2 coppers.
Wow, when I saw 100+ online after we went to beta, I was pretty thrilled... that far exceeded my expectations. I've been having plenty of fun since we went to beta and have not had trouble finding a group. I would assume it's going to build over time, don't think 100+ is a bad place to start at all. I guess it's just a matter of patience also; I've seen people rocketing to max level and asking for new content already, and we are barely a month into this thing... not sure I understand the rush. I guess we are more into instant-gratification-gaming now than we were when EQ opened in 1999... it's a shame to see people blow thru this content so fast and not stop to enjoy the adventure itself.
P99 has also been around for almost 7 years. I remember back in the first couple of years where their PvE server had about the same population as their PvP server does now.
Population is fantastic for the server being brand new I think. I suspect when Kunark's release date gets announced you will see a big spike in population. Same thing goes for each expansion.
I think the most beneficial thing to the server health would be to promote a positive community and make the traditional trolls feel unwelcome and unfed. Take a look at half of the posts over on the P99 forums for example, it's a bunch of reds calling each other out in a continual circle jerk, rule lawyers trying to win major cases, guilds flaming one another over stupid shit non-stop. I can't imagine that would draw anybody helpful to the game. We need to have a positive community here to enable it to grow into something we genuinely enjoy and look forward to playing. Nothing worse than logging on and setting *THAT* guy up to the same old PITA shenanigans.
That is classic EQ. On this servers population, I think the slow and steady rate of growth is better suited for it anyways. Once P99 has velious drop I'm guessing TAK takes a hit for a bit, but once p99 get stagnant and is stuck in Velious a TON of people will probably look for an alternative. Which is where TAK should aim to grow. That's my take as someone who first got into EQ in p99, played until 2005, and started back up on p99 and now I'm here messing around and enjoying the journey since I can do that while boxing. Slow and steady means a stronger base, too much too fast = burnout = quit = stagnant.
