A petition

[Zeriff]

I know the majority of you are completely done with Everquest and that nothing will change your mind. Fuck smedley. I agree with you. However, I thought I'd post this anyway, as I know some of your accounts are still active, and maybe you'd like this idea. I dunno. Run it through, and if it sounds shitty, Rickshaw it.

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This is a petition for the creation of a server based solely on the original Everquest content, along with the Everquest: The Ruins of Kunark, and Everquest: Scars of Velious expansions.

There is an increasing number of players who are extremely dissatisfied in the manner Everquest has been evolving. Complaints range from the simplistic and unchallenging environment newer players are experiencing (creation of maps, pok books, spells prememmed and skills pretrained, items bound to PC until lvl 10, etc) to the complete revamps of classic zones (Veeshan's Peak, Plane of Mischief, Cazic Thule), and previous "classic" content becoming increasingly obsolete. Many feel that the current expansions such as Plane of Power, Ykesha, Lost Dungeons of Norrath, and Gates of Discord have been released with little or no creative effort in storyline or content, and have readily changed Everquest into a mere "Hack and Slash" gaming experience. The number of players (or "Power Twinks") with overly powerful gear at low levels is also a popular concern. As the petition was thought up and created by the players of Vallon Zek, the general consensus is that the new server exist as a Player versus Player server, created and maintained under slightly modified VZ pvp rules. The following are the Vallon Zek pvp rules, as outlined by the Everquest official website:

"Team PvP servers consist of four teams. A member of a given team may freely attack any member of another team, but not their own. Note that this does not rule out the possibility of traitors or alliances between teams. The names of the servers are Tallon Zek and Vallon Zek.

The four teams are:


Dark Races - Comprised of Iksar, Dark Elves, Ogres, and Trolls
Short Races - Comprised of Dwarves, Halflings, and Gnomes.
Elven Races - Comprised of Half Elves, Wood Elves, and High Elves.
Human Races - Comprised of Humans, Erudites, Barbarians, and Vah Shir".

*edit: SoE failed to recognize the froglok race, which is currently apart of the "Human" pvp team.

PvP Team servers are subject to all regular server rules and restrictions.

The goal of this petition, in itself, is quite simple. The players represented feel that it is appropriate to create a server in which the expansions and in-game modifications following the release of The Scars of Velious are completely unrecognized. This includes removing the revamps of original zones and changes influenced by more recent expansions(Pok books, Nexus Scions, LDoN zone entrances). The players represented also feel that cross server transfers should not be accepted to this server. Here is a list of Frequently Asked Questions regarding the petition:

Would I have to transfer my character to this server?

No. We are requesting that no server tranfers be accepted, much less for you to transfer your main character.

If you feel that you would TRY or have somewhat of an interest in the server idea, we strongly encourage you to sign the petition (see below)

I like the idea of an old-content server, but hate the idea of it being PvP. Should I still sign?

If you feel that you would play on it. Otherwise, start another petition. This petition is for a server with PvP rules.

You are crazy! Sony won't create another server because it doesnt profit them!

SoE has suffered a very significant loss of customers in the past month, and it will only get worse until the release of EQ2 / World of Warcraft. The best guilds in Everquest have disbanded. Any sign of interest means less players cancelling their accounts.

The petition currently has over 270 digital signatures(some of which say they will cancel their accounts if the petition is not accepted) on the Vallon server, and the petition is (upon posting this) a mere 4 days old. I will be creating a character on Tallon Zek soon to recruit more people. We are trying to reach a target of 600 active players on both of the PvP Team servers. Any additional people we can find from SZ, RZ or blue servers would be great.

I have a good suggestion for balance or rule changes on a PvP server. What should I do?

Contact me at jaygoggin@earthlink.net, or in-game on my character Tibbs(Vallon server). Before I submit the petition to SoE, I will be sending a tell or email around to signees informing them of common suggestions for rules and/or restriction changes and collecting a "Yes" or "No" answer from them. I will then count the votes, and post the results. Players may remove their signatures before I submit it if they do not find suggested rule implementations satisfactory.

A third party server of this nature already exists, why do you want Sony to host one?

Simple. Third party servers have a very small player base. If Sony hosts one, there will be more people.

How do I sign the petition?

Contact me at jaygoggin@earthlink.net, in-game on my character Tibbs(Vallon server), or simply repond to this post with your main characters name, along with your server.


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Common requests:

Many players have expressed that they would like to see the new server Hard-coded (if you aren't familiar with that term, it simply means that there is no cross teaming allowed). This would make advancing in ToV and other places more of a challenge as all teams are lacking certain classes.

Another popular request is changing most items to no drop. This would hinder (but certainly not eliminate) the production of "Super Twinks" at lower levels, and make low level PvP more fun and challenging for everyone. Important: No one is saying ALL items, just many of the common twinking items (i.e. Fungi tunic). There will still be an economy, for those of you who are worried

The last popular request is the looting of a medallion for a Player kill (such as on sullon zek)


Thank you very much for your time and safe travels!


Tibbs

[Camo]

This same sort of thing has been requested several times in the past, which doesn't make it a bad idea; don't get me wrong. The problem is you have a declining playerbase, a game being run by a company that, over the years, cares more and more about all the $$$ they can squeeze out of you, and opening another server costs alot of money. So, declining revenue + mucho out of pocket costs = no new server; especially when you consider the amount of money that is made from new expansions. You'd be asking SOE to open a server where they'll make absolutely no additional revenue.

From a gameplay standpoint, sure it sounds grand now. Wait til the same people are farming the same thing for a year. They're going to want to move on. Wait til the same people have failed over and over again on the same content. They're going to want that little extra that will push them over the hump. Mudflation, as bad as it got over time, has helped many a guild advance and keep playing the game.

[Zeriff]

Camo

Its a genuine pleasure to talk with someone who obviously knows the game pretty damn well.

From SoE's standpoint (as I outlined in my previous post) the addition of a new server doesn't attract any new revenue. Youre right. There's nothing to sell, no one to fuck over with shitty ass downloadable bullshit expansions. What it DOES do however is help keep whatever playerbase they have occupied for sometime until EQ2 is released. Stablize it if you will.

Honest question, not being a smartass, but you dont think they will listen to 500 EQ players asking for an additional server? They've never had that demand before, to my knowledge.

About content and guilds, people joining this server most likely know what theyre getting into. The purpose of it is to make a PvP server in a different atmosphere. No safe zones. No PoK books. No shit. Really all it is is just a big massive fuckin timewarp, and I think a lot of EQ players will see it as a retirement home away from SoE's money sinks and bugged games.

Keep the feedback coming though... It helps

[Tuco]

One big problem with this is by either using an old version of EQ's release, and having to patch all the bugs, exploits, releases of new hardware/software(DirectX/GeForce etc), or by simply removing all post-velious content from the game(Luclin Spire wizards etc), they would have to do a lot of work.

[Zeriff]

They did it with Discord server, which flopped.

Basically all Im saying is they just have to build offve discords errors (which were obvious... get your character to lvl 30, die, start over. Who the fuck thinks up these fucking retarded ideas in the first place?)

[Zinke]

It's a good idea, but it'll never happen because it's likely to cause more problems then it solves. It'll be more of a gimmick then anything. Have you considered the balancing that has gone on since SoV? Would they revert all spells/class skills back to SoV versions? If so, then you'd have a ton of people whining about it, because as fun as things were back in Vanilla EQ/Kunark/SoV their was some serious class imbalances going on between each expansion.
SOE won't balance the classes relative to the server, because that would take alot of manpower away from their dev team just for one server.

You'd probably need to show an overwhelming demand, like an excess of 2000 active players who are ready to quit if they don't make the server, for them to even consider it worth their time.

[Ham n Cheese]

I'm too lazy to e-mail you

[Zeriff]

Heh you can just reply with your char name and server name along with anything youd like to see happen...


email is just one of the ways to contact =D

[Jimmee]

Didn't you post this of the Flowers of Happiness board months and months ago? Either that or somebody with an identical agenda to your own

[Camo]

It would be nice if they would listen yes. Truthfully speaking, though, it's been like a month or two now since the EQ Summit or whatever the thing was called. How many of the player concerns have been addressed since then? I few I'm sure, but many more haven't.

Basically they'd have to hire a new team to undertake the project so they'd actually lose money on the server. That, or they could allocate the resources they do have to work on this project which would lead to a mess. All those people from the summit would be like, oh instead of fixing these bugs and balancing things your working on this other project. If they got people working on that project why would a player think they don't have other people working on expansions that they said they'd hold off on until the game was right again?

I mean, sure, if they didn't already have the hardware they used with discord being used on something else (doubtfull) it would be alot less difficult. Otherwise it's a mess. The best hope for something like this happening is when they start combining servers due to lack of playerbase. Then, maybe, as a gimmick they'd use some of the older hardware to run such a server. Who knows, but I think that's the best bet.

[Arbuste]

Not very original but good idea. I won't play, though.

What surprises me is:

SoE has suffered a very significant loss of customers in the past month,

I read it a lot. I do not doubt it. But: how do you know that? You heard a rumor?

[Szlia]

The Discord server did not flop. It was meant to last for a limited time only afair. But it was very frustrating considering the quantity of noob ganking, faction exploits and the rampant macro questing.

To adress the original topic, I think this new server idea suffers from a huge flaw that someone allready pointed out: it will last 6 months and then be over. And with 6th months I am being generous I think. The knowledge we have today of the game allow a guild of organized people to go 10 time faster in the progression, even in a mud-deflated environement. I guess the PvP aspect can slow it a little, but people we go through all the content very fast and will never ever have new content, so they will get bored and leave.

Considering how complex it is to create such a server, I have no doubt it will never be implemented.

But I would not be surprised if some short duration concept servers, such as the Discord server, pop occasionaly. I am sure there are many easy way to create servers with fun rule sets and/or entertaining competitions. An original way to keep the players interested in the game if you ask me.

[Zeriff]

In all probability, you may be right...

As I said earlier, I'm NOT looking for this server to last for several years and be highly populated. In fact, all it has to do is last 6 months or so before WoW or EQ2 is released. Think of it as a retirement home for older players, as I said earlier, because Im sure thats what it will likely be comprised of.

Secondly, it takes you literally two seconds to write down your name and server, and it really helps the people like me who are working very hard to make it go through. Whereas I respect your opinion (and am fairly certain myself) that this wont work, I just have too many people on the list to back out now. So if ya like the idea and just wanna give it a shot, put down your name and server :-)

thanks for the feedback though

[Suineg]

stfu and get an original idea.

SOE has heard this a thousand times if they decide to great but that is the absolute least of the problems in the EQ world.

[Presarc]

Presarc

Bristlebane

count me in I'd love it