Hey guys! I’m a long time P99 player thinking of making a move to TAKP. I’m curious what the state of the server is. Are many people playing? Are most zones ghost towns? I wouldn’t be boxing.. would that considerably lessen my experience? Please let me know your thoughts and feelings!
All good questions. If the replies have relevance, you won’t like it. If you want populated zones, go back to p99. If you are counting the number of players online? Go back to p99. That said. My recommendation? Get on and play. The server is unlike any other experience, as it captures all the good things you remember in EQ.
Be prepared to do a lot of /who's in your level range and advertising in the server-wide chat channel, but you can find people to group with. That said, most people are max level and more likely to be able to help with buffs / gear than with company. I'd recommend picking a class that can find something to do if you can't find a group, or prepare yourself to cautiously dip your toes into the waters of boxing. All of that said, you only need to find a couple PL sessions to hit 40 and then you're off the races, grouping with 60s and never looking back. Plenty of people have made it work playing unsolo-able classes and not boxing.
About 200-300 characters on at peak times, assume about 100ish people. can refer to this page for eqemu server population tracking https://unixgeek.com/eqemu.html common exping zones have players in them, such as high keep, ssra, some luclin shard zones, tradeskill hunting zones, and the like some players don't box and play a single char, and have leveled up and raid just fine and have lots of fun doing so
Overall, TAKP is the best place to play if you're looking for an accurate recreation of 2002 EQ. The server is very healthy, but extremely top heavy. Because of that, there is a crowded raid scene. However, we all cordially, and voluntarily rotate raid targets between guilds, so there's no stress as far as that's concerned. With that said, you can still find exp groups from 1-60, and boxing is certainly not required. I would highly suggest hopping on and giving at a try, at least.
Thanks for all the replies! I’m going to set up this weekend and give it a go. The idea of being a Beastlord is so exciting!
I think in any given week you’re not likely to find multiple nights where you’re getting a group specifically in the level 1-50 range. In those levels you very well may find some occasional groups or someone Powerleveling who will invite you. But it is not like P99 where you will be able to log on every evening and find a group. For some this is a negative, for some it’s a positive. It just depends on what you like to do. If you’re going to prefer soloing anyways, it’s probably a non-issue. Personally I favor lower population servers since there’s always a valuable camp for EXP or money available and any quests that have long Respawns (epics for example) are almost always up with very minimal exceptions. If you’re vehemently against boxing and it will bother you to see other people boxing, you may have a tough time on this server. Most people box here. If you actually get into this server I think you’ll find that the negative assumptions about boxing, like players refusing to invite others or hogging the most valuable camps, tend to not be the reality here. But you will find most people here will just happily do their own thing and not seek to invite others, however will happily invite them if asked. Something to keep in mind is that we have a 3-box limit on this server and the group EXP bonus for having 4 players in group is large enough such that it is a benefit to anyone concerned with EXP to invite a 4th player. 1 member - 100% / 1 = 100% 2 members - 120% / 2 = 60% 3 members - 140% / 3 = 46.7% 4 members - 220% / 4 = 55% 5 members - 260% / 5 = 52% 6 members - 260% / 6 = 43.3% So the EXP split for 3 in group is 46.7% but for 4 in group is 55%. So never hesitate to ask a 3-boxer if you can join them. Your joining them is a benefit to both you and them. So never feel like they’re doing you a favor or you’re not pulling your weight. Almost everyone on the server is happy to add a 4th, in fact some people will search for an AFK player to join group and bump the exp split while they grind. I’d suggest considering a 2nd box probably a healer of some variant, to just autofollow your character and open up much more easy killing opportunities for the nights where you can’t find a group and are in a zone or gear points where soloing is difficult. If you’re not in favor of this I’d suggest trying to catch MGB announcements in PoK and get long duration Aego/KEI buffs to help you solo more safely. For classic-PoP content there’s not a better server than TAKP in my opinion. It just happens to not be everyone’s cup of tea due to the client used and the boxing rules here. Definitely give it a try and keep an open mind for the first few weeks and see how it goes.
Wow that’s some great information! I’m not against boxing, it’s more that my cpu probably isn’t up to the task. I’ll look into it tho!
I can run three on a 2010 MacBook (not pro) with integrated graphics. It does well on crappy machines .
Thanks again all, a quick tech question, I assume trying to have both P99 and TAKP installed is going to be an issue right? Probably best to just have one set up at a time? Or are the differences in client enough that my cpu wouldn’t get confused?
I’ve run 4-5 TAKP (3 Live, 1 Trader, or just 5~ Dev testing) clients across live and dev servers, 2 P99 (Green/Blue) and 1 Live EQ instanced simultaneously. You can just put each different server in its own folder and you shouldn’t run into issues. If you’re coming from P99 you aren’t likely to run into any issues. But any refuges from Live servers should be aware that a lot of boxing software won’t work here (like isboxer) or are against our rules and you’re gonna have a bad time (ShowEQ, MQ2, etc.). The only boxing software you can use is Hotkey net which is simply a program that logs keystrokes and allows you to map certain keystrokes that will automatically move a certain EQ instance to the foreground. For example I set mine to CTRL+1/2/3. So hitting CTRL+1 moves the first TAKP client to the foreground. Saving me from having to fumble with alt tabbing between the clients. GamParse and GINA are also acceptable as they only read log files. Most triggers from P99 should also be applicable here. Any buff timer GINA triggers may be inaccurate due to buff extension focuses and AAs however. Boxing 3 clients is not a very big issue for most modern (last 10-15 years) computers. If you’re firing up with Windows 2003 though, you may run into struggles boxing 3.
Yeah I’ll just add that I run 3, a trader and Spotify from a clunky 2007 Mac- your machine can do it. And as was shared earlier, by all means play one toon exclusively and enjoy the challenge and fun - many of us do that on occasion - but consider the long term ease of mind you give yourself if you can buff, rez or summon a corpse in some dungeon you were crawling. Folks here are nice and really helpful, but asking for a rez all the way in Sebilis on a nightly basis is at least a little draining on all parties. Make a supporting second to go with the BL and you’ll be thankful later.
Darchon said it all. Just to reiterate, having a fourth in a group of three for the experience bonus is reason enough to invite someone solo'ing. You picked a great class, as beastlords have some stackable mana/regen, can provide additional DPS and slows to an already moving trio. You may be asked to pull (pulling when three boxing isn't the greatest) but you'll be a welcome edition. Outside of grouping, beastlords with a few cheap weapons from the bazaar do fine. 44-49 can be a bit of a rough stretch until you get that 49 pet, but it'll go quick. Give it a shot. This is simply the best recreation of the POP era.
Another benefit to being a beastlord when you're just starting out: spells are surprisingly cheap compared to most other classes. Having a pet makes early levels when you're likely undergeared much easier, too.
I’ve only run all those maybe once or twice to see how it would go. But yea I need to fix my GINA tell reminder. I got to level 40 or so on Green and then remembered why I didn’t like P99 much anymore. All the camps are overcrowded and people drone on and on about the rules and rights to mobs. On this server I’m not sure I’ve ever had an ingame conversation with someone about rules over the past 5 years. The number of times it’s come up on the forums can be counted probably in one hand and almost all of those cases circled around Drusella Sathir, the crafty necromancer.
Last emperor I was at your cures were landing the second you were getting hit. I just happened to miss one cycle and you still live through it! I call malarkey.
Troll BL here have the alligator pet. Live the life of a true BL and roll troll! (this message sponsored by Bokbok Chikn, Troll BL)
Okay guys, after a few levels in the newbie area of Field of Bone, I have some questions and comments. I write this as I sit and admire the landscape of the Field of Bone. My home. My lovely Lizard life. *sips gatorade* Not being able to mouse scroll to 3rd person is weird, but I don't mind it. Mob density in this zone feels sparse compared to Blue 99, pathing feels weird too as I saw many mobs on the same track. As I usually would I went after the Curscale armor quest. The turn in gave me 50% HALF A LEVEL at 3. 1.5 yellow at 4. Crazy! This made me even more sad after I accidentally didn't combine one set of skins in the bag and the Haggle Baron ate my curscale skins and returned my bag empty. This guy is a dick on ANY server. Can I not turn off combat music without turning off all music? I see no option for it. Thanks to those who reached out and PM'd me with advice! Edit: I forgot to ask what kind of tradeskill materials are worth collecting while I level up? Also aggro range in general seems to be bigger than on P99.
Spiderling Silks and Spider Silks both sell well. I will happily pay 100pp/stack of Spiderling Silk if you do the cave in Cabilis!