TAKP TLP - The 10th Anniversary Celebration

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Elroz, Jul 22, 2024.

  1. Elroz

    Elroz Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    2,485
    With the 10th anniversary of TAKP closing in fast and with new tools available, we've decided to try something new this year. We're proud to announce that we're launching our own TAKP TLP server on January 1st, 2025. We have been working tirelessly on this for a while now, and we think it's in a good enough state that it's ready to launch, however, we want to work out the details more. This includes input from the TAKP community. Here's where the server is at, so far:

    1) This server's players will merge into the main TAKP server sometime after Quarm has been defeated, similar to a seasonal server. We're hoping that this will have 2 positive side effects. First being that people who wanted to play on TAKP but felt like they were too far behind, can experience the server fresh and then join in on TAKP live server with their character. The second being that it allows a change of pace, switching to a more classic feel of the game until it's caught up with the TAKP/AK (POP) era.

    2) This is still being tuned, but we're happy with where it's at. It doesn't have 10+ years of fine tuning for *gated* content. Since this is based on TAKP, anything that isn't gated content has been tuned and tested thoroughly. Also, since this is based on TAKP, Velious through PoP zones are already accurate to the eras and require very little gating.

    3) We have recreated the original Infected Paw, Runnyeye, Chardok, and Cazic Thule zones. We also have the original Innoruuk and Cazic Thule with their original loot tables, and many others. We have also imported some major classic changes that Torven created for PQ, including a trilogy-era PC resist system, along with tuning several other aspects of the game to those eras.

    4) We have added legacy drops like Lustrous Russet, Cryosilk, Box of Abu-kar, Rubicite, etc. - but did not include items that would effect the balance of TAKP live server, such as Manastone, Pre-Nerf fungi staff, Staff of Forbidden Rites, Red/White Dragon Teeth, Guise of the Deceiver, or Circlet of Shadow etc. The legacy items that do drop, will drop at their original drop rates, and for their limited timespans.

    5) This server will be like TAKP. We're aiming for accuracy (as much as we can) first and foremost. Also relying on the community to make it inviting and fun. This server is a supplement to TAKP, not a replacement. There's nothing that'll be on this server that is worth stressing over. If you're worried you'll miss out on items for your TAKP main, it's all cosmetic or twink items by the time PoP is out, nothing game-changing. The idea is for this to be fun, and a celebration of TAKP.

    6) We're sticking with the TAKP precedent, no instances and no QoL additions. It's the base TAKP/AK client that was used when PoP launched. The EXP bonuses from AK/TAKP won't be enabled until PoP era. The Zeal Mouse-wheel zoom will be allowed (the one altered specifically for TAKP), but the other Zeal additions will not be allowed.

    7) Raid rotations will be enforced by GM's. The details haven't been hashed out yet, but the TAKP raid rotations have worked really well for 8+ years so we think the guilds can figure out what works well.

    The Box Limit and Server progression were voted on by the community and they have landed on 2-box Limit with 6 month expansion releases.

    We hope everyone is as excited as we are! Thanks for a great 10 years, and here's to hoping for 10 more! /cheers
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2024
    Ashoal, Phaeton, Ransom and 12 others like this.
  2. Domni

    Domni Active Member

    Messages:
    70
    Sounds like a brilliant idea - keep the server fresh - draw in new players and reinvigorate the old, then merge to the original. Win win!

    This may be just the breath of fresh air the server has needed since releasing the source code and the advent of PQ.
     
    Pithy likes this.
  3. Tuluvien

    Tuluvien I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    1,186
    Sounds fun. Personally I hate the idea of it merging with TAKP after Quarm and would very likely stop playing EQ entirely if it did. This is my home and an influx of strangely geared "others" would detract from that a lot.

    In fact, if you guys are set on merging after, I will need to reassess my time commitment here in order to mitigate this awful disappointment.
     
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2024
  4. Mokli

    Mokli I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    2,536
    Sounds like fun. How would characters of the same name be treated when merged into TAKP? Would there be an option to pick items to transfer and keep your original TAKP toon? Or perhaps an option to rename before the move?
     
    Pithy likes this.
  5. Darchon

    Darchon I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    3,745
    Regarding #4 is there any sort of system to prevent permacamping certain drops? Time limited drops always make people go crazy.

    Will PoK, Nexus, Bazaar, Iksars, Vah Shir and Beastlords be available day 1 like it was on TAKP? Technically bazaar wasn’t day 1 but it was early on.

    Will the TAKP TL reset biweekly like TAKP?

    The raid rotations have worked quite well but the reason they worked well was because the population was relatively low especially in the first 2-3 expansions. The only time we had 6 active guilds was when we were in PoP and had a bunch of content to rotate. Trying to split say classic or Kunark 6 ways would be extremely thin rotations. Not a deal breaker but I can see it being demotivating for active players if all they have for 2 weeks is Faydedar.

    As for the timeline and the box rules, lots of different ways to go for this. One concern I think is that the Quarm server currently occupies the single box space (plus all its custom mods). I’m not sure there’s be enough of a population to support single box. As I already did TAKP I’m not sure 3-box is all that exciting either. 2 box could be fun but I fear it would narrow the class selection too much.

    Just speaking personally, I’d definitely favor accelerated EXP on the server. Many may disagree but I’d prefer this TLP to be fairly low time intensive to catch up to current max levels or stay up to date with your friends. Encourage people to reroll new alts etc.
     
    Culkasi, Audiva, jbry2 and 2 others like this.
  6. Pithy

    Pithy I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    2,718
    Marv! Devs! You guys! This is such a great idea. I'm super excited about it.

    I love the idea of merging toons from the spinoff server back into TAKP when the spinoff server reaches a natural conclusion. I think it'll both help keep TAKP's population healthy, and give current TAKP players a reason to play on the spinoff server with no regrets. Time invested over there will eventually pay off back here.

    This spinoff server needs a name! TAKP10? Seems a bit long. TAKP <insert color here>? I donno. Maybe our resident enwordulators can workshop some ideas.

    As for timing, I'm partial to a roughly one-year lifetime for the spinoff server (with the option to maybe spin off another one in 2026). Maybe something like Classic for 3 months, Kunark for 3 months, Velious for 3 months, Luclin for 3 months, then bumrush PoP and merge into TAKP when Rallos or the Rathe dies? That said, I don't have much TLP experience so would love to hear what others think.

    For the box limit, I'd like something lower than three, just for a change of pace. It's true that the one-box space is crowded, but people also really like it. No harm doing something that's broadly popular. I'd also enjoy a two-box limit. TAKP's charm ruleset would funnel a lot of people into ENC/CLR or ENC/DRU, but that's okay. There'd be lots of other solid duos: SHM/melee, BL/CLR, BL/DRU, BRD/DRU, BRD/WIZ, BRD/MAG, NEC/caster, etc. I feel like most TAKP veterans - many of whom have played ENC to death - would gravitate toward other combinations.

    Anyway, I think this'll be a super fun project regardless of where the devs land on these details. Thanks for working on this - I'm sure it's taken (and will continue to take) a lot of effort.
     
    Yinn Yang, Quirk, Audiva and 2 others like this.
  7. Devour_Souls

    Devour_Souls People Like Me

    Messages:
    626
    I ain't starting over Everanything. But it is cool that I'll be able to perhaps one day play with people on toons that did decide to play on this new project.
     
  8. Frosst

    Frosst Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    118
    I hear you, but population is pretty low on TAKP at the moment. It'd be good to have an influx of new players. Hang in there!
     
    Yinn Yang, DubRemix88 and RichardCox like this.
  9. Elroz

    Elroz Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    2,485
    Lots of good questions and concerns! We don't expect this to blow up like say, Project Quarm did. I think most long-term TAKP players have seen the hundreds of posts about "unplayable, no mouse wheel zoom" etc. The client itself is one of the main reasons this server feels so close to classic EQ, but it's also the #1 thing that keeps people away. So the TLP itself I could see a big influx of players early on, trying it out. I'm not expecting it to be packed by the time it reaches PoP end game. The hope is that it draws in people who want to play on TAKP and gives them a fun/challenging route to get there. It'll be more polished than when we all played through TAKP as expansions unlocked, but also tougher earlier on as well, with original era mechanics in play (which are gated similar to content, the mechanics will change as the server progresses, until it reaches the AK/TAKP era and is on the same mechanics).

    As far as strangely geared characters coming in, the legacy drops are basically all in vanilla/kunark and useless to equip by the time PoP is out. There may be some that are fun on twink/alt low level characters, but nothing that disrupts TAKP's balance. If the expansions unlock at a fast rate, some zones like VP might not even be raided by the time their legacy drops are removed. This was one of the interesting things we found when adding/gating some of this stuff, about 90% of the original VP loot wasn't even discovered. It got upgraded and changed to what we all know on TAKP, but only 3 or 4 dragon kills happened before the first loot iteration was removed/updated (and the original stuff was mostly bad, but had a couple cool items like robe of the spring and a different [slightly worse] version of the wizard's rend robe).

    The time-limited drops frenzy hopefully won't be too bad. It depends on a few factors I think. Currently the idea is to have it at original era exp rates and switch to TAKP/AK rates when it reaches that point (PoP). So if exp is slower and there's a 1 or 2 box limit, I'd imagine the guise camp will be less stressful than say, fast exp and 3 box limit. Also, things depend on the timing of expansion unlocks, if the expansions unlock at a fast rate, then legacy items won't be in the game very long at all. I think guise is usually the item everyone is looking at, so I'm using it as the primary example. It will continue to be used as a reward in the yearly TAKP anniversary event as well.

    I know there's concerns about a wave of potentially new TAKP players arriving in a year or two and after what happened on AK, I can't blame them. I can just say that we'll hold the players on the TLP to the same standard we hold them to on TAKP. I think a lot of the players will just be playing through the TLP for the fun of the progression and once it reaches the end of its' life, will likely move on. But they'll have the option to stay and play with the rest of the TAKP base and it won't be much different than a new player starting on the server (with less backflagging). This is the 2 primary reasons we're excited about this.

    We'll discuss and answer questions that are being raised as soon as we can - we still have about 5 months to iron things out.
     
    Cadsuane, Quirk, Audiva and 5 others like this.
  10. Ripwind

    Ripwind People Like Me

    Messages:
    343
    Love the idea! And I think it's great that it will eventually wrap into TAKP as well. As far as expansions are concerned, will stuff like PoK be available from Day 1? Or all books/zones out-of-era disabled? What about races (Iksar, Vah'Shir) and Beastlords?

    Most TLPs I've played on have been ~6 months between expansions. That being said, I think Slouch's 3 months between could be really interesting.
     
    Audiva and Pithy like this.
  11. Elroz

    Elroz Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    2,485
    It won't have POK/Nexus/Bazaar unlocked from the start. We're following the original timeline as close as we can. No iksars until kunark, no halfling rangers/paladins or vah shir til luclin etc. We don't have it down to a patch-by-patch timeline like p99 does. We have vanilla divided into 3 eras basically, pre-planar, plane of fear launch, and plane of hate/sky launch. We decided to not break kunark into different eras either, so epic quests and the large tradeskill update will be available with kunark launch, instead of 3/4 of the way through kunark.

    I'm anxious to see where the votes end up too!
     
    Linkamus, Ripwind and Pithy like this.
  12. Droop

    Droop Member

    Messages:
    14
    I would love to see the server following an original time span for expansion unlocks, single box limit, and a certain amount of time in PoP before it's merged with TakP. Not just right after Quarm is defeated. Let the guilds marinate in PoP a little before it's merged into TakP. Specially if it's popular you'll have several guilds that will want to be merged into current rotations. I like the idea of launching Kunark in a 'final' state and not trying to follow specific unlocks for things like epics. That strict adherence to patches seems like just too much work for nothing other that trying to recreate the past. Which can't really happen unless we can reset all of our memories of EQ.

    Once it's merged with TakP, then 3 box limit opens up. Really the only reason to allow boxes on the TLP version would be if population is just too low. If so, open up 2 box, and 3 box if it's a ghost town. We've seen from other servers though that single-box is what most people enjoy. For those who want to 3 box we already have a solution, right? It's called TakP and it's amazing.

    Really excited for this. I think it'd be a good time to start some fresh toons and have some fun grouping with people. I love TakP but low level grouping isn't its strong suit by any means.
     
  13. Darchon

    Darchon I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    3,745
    Again the server probably isn't geared towards a player like myself, but having done single box on P99 and live, 2-box on TLPs and 3-box here, I sort of want to try out a 6-box type server. Would be fun to see what a full group could get up to through the eras.
     
    gitgud, Gamer1047 and Frosst like this.
  14. Ravenwing

    Ravenwing I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    3,206
    I love this idea! I'll definitely roll up a character and poke around some old world dungeons.

    I think limiting the legacy items to just the historical curios (many of which have already been made available on TAKP through GM events) and not the big-ticket items was a very wise decision.
     
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2024
    Yinn Yang, Quirk, Pithy and 1 other person like this.
  15. tomgggg

    tomgggg Member

    Messages:
    49
    Never gonna happen but that would be my wish too.
     
    gitgud likes this.
  16. Frosst

    Frosst Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    118
    Thanks for all your hard work on this. Will the main TAKP server still have normal anniversary type things like the Coldain Reports, and Gala Bags, etc., for people that want to just continue trucking along here?
     
    gitgud and Manstache like this.
  17. Tuluvien

    Tuluvien I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    1,186
    I've been waiting years for this party to quiet down, it's just getting good!
     
  18. Elroz

    Elroz Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    2,485
    Yep! The regular anniversary events will still be active
     
  19. Pithy

    Pithy I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    2,718
    If the box limit decision is mainly between one toon or two, it might be worth pondering what sort of raid scene we envision for the spinoff server.

    A one-box limit would be super restrictive for raiding compared to TAKP. Think about how many people would have to play cleric alts instead of their favorite toon to raid something like AoW in Velious, Emp in Luclin, or Time in PoP.

    A two-box limit, on the other hand, would allow most folks to focus on one toon and just drag along a random alt of whatever class is needed to flesh out the raid.

    So if this spinoff server is envisioned more as a place to group - somewhere to hang out with folks from other guild who we may not interact much with on TAKP, or to bring new folks into the broader TAKP community - then maybe a one-box limit makes more sense.

    If the vision focuses more on making the spinoff server somewhere to raid - kinda like today's TAKP players focus largely on raiding - then perhaps a two-box limit is the way to go. Compared to a one-box limit, allowing two-boxing would significantly lower the barrier to entry for folks who want to raid endgame stuff with comparatively small guilds, or small contingents of existing TAKP guilds.

    Not really sure where I come down on this issue yet, just seems worth pondering.
     
  20. marauder

    marauder Member

    Messages:
    13
    here are my thoughts on this.. while i really want this to work i don't think this will have the draw people think it will... the reason quarm is so popular is because of single boxing, over abundance of legacy items and QOL updates ( like being able to /who a zone ffs )... whenever you talk to people who don't play takp the lack of QOL upgrades is the first reason people don't choose this server ( i know this is by design but its stupid )

    i really don't think a new server is going to change any of this unless you stop trying to be AKKurate and give new players the things that make EQ fun.. if you want it successful make it a stand alone server with all the things that AK is missing and it will explode in popularity ( just like quarm did )
     
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2024
    slamurai, pivoo, Mewse and 4 others like this.
  21. Elroz

    Elroz Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    2,485
    Rob said we can use the name filter table that TAKP uses, so that the same name can't be used on both servers, to prevent duplicate character names.
     
    gitgud, Quirk, Break and 3 others like this.
  22. scombden

    scombden Member

    Messages:
    12
    This will just take players from current takp. Leave less active players on takp to keep people logging in. Bad gut feeling about the outcome of this.
    My 2c
     
  23. showstring

    showstring I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    3,461
    Seems a bit wasteful to spend all these years making in-era accurate content, only to rush through it so quickly?
    For non-instanced content, and keeping in line with original mob difficulty and player power, I would find it surprising if most players even got to see the end zones with that kind of agressive timeline. You expect to farm enough Emp and VT keys within 3 months in non-instanced zones?
     
    slamurai, Culkasi, pivoo and 3 others like this.
  24. Darchon

    Darchon I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    3,745
    I guess a few more questions.

    Would we be able to flag a trader account regardless of the box limitations on the server?

    Would any of the server tools be applicable to this server? Things like the Game Account character switcher/inventory search tool, spell guide, magelo etc.? These are pretty huge QOL things outside of the game itself that I have leaned on heavily over the last 9 years.

    Thoughts on guild accounts?
     
    Neealana and Tuluvien like this.
  25. surron

    surron People Like Me

    Messages:
    610
    rolling a new server into takp at the end of the timeline is cool.

    first thought is it's a little too soon to launch something like this, PQ just got in kunark, TLP bout to go to velious.

    my other thought was hoping for a 6+ box server soon since that's the only gap missing
     
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2024
    gitgud likes this.
  26. Pithy

    Pithy I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    2,718
    It depends on the vision for the server, I suppose. Is the idea to progress through all the raid content and farm it in era? If so, then that timeline is too fast, yep. If the idea is to group with people we don't normally group with, bring some new folks into the community, explore some dungeons with in-era gear and mechanics, do some fun open raids, and end up with a new alt or two on TAKP that have keys, flags, and a few novelty baubles... different story.

    Both fine visions, I think. Just worth mulling over.
     
    Break and Tuluvien like this.
  27. gardnerjens

    gardnerjens People Like Me

    Messages:
    716
    No box limit, please make a server with no box limit :), and also allow QoL. A Takp with MacroQuest would be the best!!!
     
  28. Neealana

    Neealana People Like Me

    Messages:
    1,303
    This sounds like fun. Thanks for working on this !
    Now to think of a class I have not played at all )
     
    Yinn Yang likes this.
  29. ingwit

    ingwit Member

    Messages:
    74
    Would it be possible to free up some of the names parked on inactive level 1 characters also?
     
  30. Barnd0g

    Barnd0g People Like Me

    Messages:
    233
    Doesn’t opening up legacy items like guise over there completely change things to how it was here? I don’t ever remember a guise dropping here outside anniversary so why do they get a custom version there?

    On PQ literally every man and his dog has one so it’s lost all uniqueness, which makes the anniversary quest here very lame if hundreds of people are so easily able to obtain it over there as they will eventually end up over here. Does this mean we should have a legacy stage added here then so that the whole server can get one? Seems like a pretty big slap in the face to anyone that worked hard to get one here currently.