Everquest TLP - Aradune and Rizlona Servers (Now with real customer service)

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Mrniceguy

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WorryPlaysGames said:
Can someone explain why Atabishi is making this seem like the worst change ever? He has to be trolling on the aradune discord, right? Or is this just another change that helps the lower guilds, so he's against it as more people will be in OW planes sooner?
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I remember him trying to Kronolord them on Phinny. Maybe he was counting on it for this months rent?

If the drop rate is decent off the trash like even 2% you can just spawn an AoC instance with a group and get them without needing to even step into open world.

Will be interesting what it does to the Server first race. Effectively now whoever gets the first Time Vial wins with these changes. Pretty crazy how one spy can literally fuck over an entire guild with a vial steal now. As someone that doesn't play on Aradune ATM i'm hoping this happens, just wanna see the drama thread if it does.
 
Kharzette

Kharzette

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I don't remember any of this stuff. For me it was just kill boss, hail the mage pet thing that pops up, go to next zone.
 
Bobbybick

Bobbybick

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Race planning was a lot of fun on Phinny, the rivalry between AoS/WT and OGC was real nice and it's crazy how close some of them were. No offense to current servers but when only 1 guild is really trying I just couldn't get as invested, the pseudo PvP aspect was the most entertaining part to me.
 
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DickTrickle

DickTrickle

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Sterling said:
I always enjoyed the Storms shitshow. This change should be permanent though and not for just the first little while. Might even be better if it started a couple of days after PoP launch instead of immediately so people could have a shitshow for the race, then it just opens up very shortly after. Also, TLP isn't live from 200 years ago there's a lot less people xping in BoT. Even casuals end up xping in the Elemental planes.
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Yeah, like a month or two or three later they do. Casuals will be XPing in bot the first week now.
 
Sterling

Sterling

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Bobbybick said:
Race planning was a lot of fun on Phinny, the rivalry between AoS/WT and OGC was real nice and it's crazy how close some of them were. No offense to current servers but when only 1 guild is really trying I just couldn't get as invested, the pseudo PvP aspect was the most entertaining part to me.
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Phinny was awesome. Selo launch was also awesome but that server was just too relentless with the half lockouts. I don't mind grinding but even I just lost the drive after awhile.
 
GuardianX

GuardianX

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Bobbybick said:
but when only 1 guild is really trying
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Add on to that, is it even really a good race when the 1 guild uses exploits that most of us know about?

"GM presence" on aradune? Thats a joke. If there was a GM presence on aradude TEB (and a bunch of other guilds) would have been banned since Kunark or even earlier.

Then outside of the obvious exploits you have the casual exploits where you send a pet in with taunt and sit the master somewhere else, typically out of LoS to build monumental threat so no one gets summoned mid fight.
 
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Atabishi

Lord Nagafen Raider
320
101
Bobbybick said:
Race planning was a lot of fun on Phinny, the rivalry between AoS/WT and OGC was real nice and it's crazy how close some of them were. No offense to current servers but when only 1 guild is really trying I just couldn't get as invested, the pseudo PvP aspect was the most entertaining part to me.
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Yeah I enjoyed the AoS/OGC rivalry each launch. Even though I've played most TLP's I tend to compare a lot of things to Phinny server since I played there the longest. The reality is though that there are more guilds that try on Aradune than what we saw on Phinny. Going really fast is kind of a double edged sword. It's nice to get the expansion finished asap but going so fast gives the illusion of no competition. If we went as slow as AoS/OGC did on phinny, depending on the expansion we would have been behind some DZ guilds on Aradune or dead even with them. There's several DZ guilds that compete for 2nd but once one of them finishes, the others just wait and finish their progression on the day of the week they want the DZ to be on. On phinny pretty much the entire server left OGC/AoS alone to do their race and didn't interfere. On Aradune, it seems like there are some guilds that their sole purpose on launches is to just try and slow us down as much as possible. I've actually never seen as many guilds go ham on VP keys in kunark starting from hour 1 as Aradune had, and never saw as many guilds trying to do VT/emp key at same time as on Aradune. Velious launch we literally had 3 simultaneous DPS races against 3 dif guilds in 3 dif zones at the same time on launch.

If we are going to go the route of judging competition based just solely on multiple guilds pacing close on an expansion launch regardless of how fast or slow they are going, then Mangler would be the most competitive TLP ever. They have like 4+ guilds that race on there since Kunark. I mean, they all finish expansions slow as fuck, but there are at least multiple guilds on there trying and going slow as fuck together. Mangler is also the only true box TLP where 5 different guilds have won an expansion. Again, they all go slow as fuck but I mean if that doesn't matter, then Mangler has phinny beat by a long shot.
 
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Rajaah

Rajaah

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Secrets said:
Actually they do. Without going into too much detail, they send a 'loaded module' list to the server on GM request. On Aradune, this is still enabled as automatic - and I can reliably see the message appear after being logged in for 5 minutes. If I set the 'detected' flag to true after receiving a specific response from the server, it will crash. By editing the processes' running memory to set that flag to true, the game will crash. You won't see it in packet collects, as it is xor'd to prevent reading the plaintext data.

The same packet includes information about if your client is detected running in a VM, a crc32mem of the text in question (crc32mem has been used for years in the EQ client for other anti-cheat purposes, like making sure you're using a eqgame.exe/spells_us.txt that matches the server), and crc32mem of a few hardware components - the Launchpad.exe program also records this data for analytics purposes. The three together make a 'fingerprint' for the client.

The modules that get loaded outside of the game additionally show up. For example, if you have a Discord overlay enabled, that will be seen by them on the server side.

If you remember a few years back, they had the list embedded into the client of stuff they check for. Now it's checked on the serverside instead of also being exposed on the client... and it's now XOR'd.

This does NOT account for external programs like MySEQ which only read memory and exist in a different process space. But MQ2 is stupidly easy to detect and makes no attempt to hide itself.

This crc32mem function existed in clients dating back to 2003; it's quite old, but reliable.

View attachment 346325

In the 2008 testeqgame.map, we can see a clear view of where that function is used:

View attachment 346326

Even back in 2008, they had tried to prevent some MQ2 functionality. You all might remember that 'stop cheating' warning they put out around that time for ghostkill, that was ominous and said, "We know who you are."

Well, this is how they knew: they hashed the memory versus the value stored in WinMain. MQ2 would sometimes not inject itself until the game was fully loaded, and this would work most of the time to detect memory hooks:

View attachment 346327

View attachment 346328

The above is still in the client. I'm surprised they haven't utilized it. Or maybe they do. Who knows.
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You:
1619027371809.png


Me:
1619027425330.png
 
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DickTrickle

DickTrickle

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Atabishi said:
Yeah I enjoyed the AoS/OGC rivalry each launch. Even though I've played most TLP's I tend to compare a lot of things to Phinny server since I played there the longest. The reality is though that there are more guilds that try on Aradune than what we saw on Phinny. Going really fast is kind of a double edged sword. It's nice to get the expansion finished asap but going so fast gives the illusion of no competition. If we went as slow as AoS/OGC did on phinny, depending on the expansion we would have been behind some DZ guilds on Aradune or dead even with them. There's several DZ guilds that compete for 2nd but once one of them finishes, the others just wait and finish their progression on the day of the week they want the DZ to be on. On phinny pretty much the entire server left OGC/AoS alone to do their race and didn't interfere. On Aradune, it seems like there are some guilds that their sole purpose on launches is to just try and slow us down as much as possible. I've actually never seen as many guilds go ham on VP keys in kunark starting from hour 1 as Aradune had, and never saw as many guilds trying to do VT/emp key at same time as on Aradune. Velious launch we literally had 3 simultaneous DPS races against 3 dif guilds in 3 dif zones at the same time on launch.

If we are going to go the route of judging competition based just solely on multiple guilds pacing close on an expansion launch regardless of how fast or slow they are going, then Mangler would be the most competitive TLP ever. They have like 4+ guilds that race on there since Kunark. I mean, they all finish expansions slow as fuck, but there are at least multiple guilds on there trying and going slow as fuck together. Mangler is also th mye only true box TLP where 5 different guilds have won an expansion. Again, they all go slow as fuck but I mean if that doesn't matter, then Mangler has phinny beat by a long shot.
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Nobody was trying to slow you down who wasn't working on something for their own progress or krono. It's not spite. You're so self important.

People know where the roadblocks are and even if your guild isn't going to finish VP one day from launch you still want to get your shit done soon. Almost every casual guild still has a clique of hardcore people.

Also, when is last time Mangler has finished an expansion anything close to slowly? PoP? Especially the super over dramatic "slow as fuck"? Maybe not setting universal records but one or two days doesn't seem slow as fuck.
 
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Rajaah

Rajaah

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Arbitrary said:
View attachment 348069
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That seems like such a no-brainer that I'm shocked it took them 21 years to do it.

So much for re-upping to mess around with chanter some more.

Korzax Stonehammer said:
I like it because there is no one there, the krono are dirt cheap to buy, and everyone and his kid is selling all the best loot. So if you 're an autist that likes farming HG's for days at a time, welcome aboard.
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I love farming HGs with nobody around. But...40k per krono? That's a loooooooooot of HGs. When you first said cheap I thought like, 8k.

Metalhead said:
Krono is up to 100k on Rizlona.

Feels bad man
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That's almost what it is on Phinny at level 115, relatively speaking. I think it hit an all time high of about 550k a while back. I figured it would keep going into the millions like live servers, but it didn't. Turns out Phinny is headed for a heat death of plat shortage. Nobody has plat. People are in bread lines, farming VOA raids for 40k from the chest. Kronos were down to like 250k last time I was on there.
 
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Atabishi

Lord Nagafen Raider
320
101
DickTrickle said:
Nobody was trying to slow you down who wasn't working on something for their own progress or krono. It's not spite. You're so self important.

People know where the roadblocks are and even if your guild isn't going to finish VP one day from launch you still want to get your shit done soon. Almost every casual guild still has a clique of hardcore people.

Also, when is last time Mangler has finished an expansion anything close to slowly? PoP? Especially the super over dramatic "slow as fuck"? Maybe not setting universal records but one or two days doesn't seem slow as fuck.
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I mean, I've literally had guild leaders and officers tell me they are trying to slow us down....lol. Sure, they are getting stuff slowly for themselves in the process, but they are intentionally being inefficient with their time.

The slow as fuck thing for mangler just comes from their expansion clear times are slow relative to other TLP's that had try hard guilds. Why you getting so offended? I literally said that if we are going based on that metric of similar paced guilds = competition regardless of anything else, that mangler would be the most competitive server ever.
 
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Rajaah

Rajaah

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Bobbybick said:
Race planning was a lot of fun on Phinny, the rivalry between AoS/WT and OGC was real nice and it's crazy how close some of them were. No offense to current servers but when only 1 guild is really trying I just couldn't get as invested, the pseudo PvP aspect was the most entertaining part to me.
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I think Dima misses you guys too.
 
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DickTrickle

DickTrickle

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Atabishi said:
I mean, I've literally had guild leaders and officers tell me they are trying to slow us down....lol. Sure, they are getting stuff slowly for themselves in the process, but they are intentionally being inefficient with their time.

The slow as fuck thing for mangler just comes from their expansion clear times are slow relative to other TLP's that had try hard guilds. Why you getting so offended? I literally said that if we are going based on that metric of similar paced guilds = competition regardless of anything else, that mangler would be the most competitive server ever.
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Yeah, but you didn't really answer my question. What's the slow as fuck time post PoP that Mangler has? Or is it slow as fuck if it's not a universal record? Legitimately curious since most of those were two days or less.
 
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Atabishi

Lord Nagafen Raider
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DickTrickle said:
Yeah, but you didn't really answer my question. What's the slow as fuck time post PoP that Mangler has? Or is it slow as fuck if it's not a universal record?
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Well classic was obviously slow, but that expansion no one was racing. Kunark took 5 days (i'm allowed to call that slow as fuck since i was the one who lead that, granted i did it with like 30 people). Velious took 3 days for first guild to get in to sleepers, pretty slow relatively speaking. Luclin took 5 days (pretty slow for the first guild considering a DZ only guild on aradune did it in 3 days without the ability to pull emp down). PoP was nearly a week, super slow. GoD+ starts the era's of when even 1 day slower is a lot. GoD took 2 days, twice as long several guilds on prior TLP's. Omens took 2 full days when its like a 12 hour or less expansion. DoDH 3 days when its a 1 and half - 2 day expansion. PoR 3 days (can be done in less than 1 but more understandable since there were so many guilds competing).

That answer your question? lol
 
DickTrickle

DickTrickle

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Atabishi said:
Well classic was obviously slow, but that expansion no one was racing. Kunark took 5 days (i'm allowed to call that slow as fuck since i was the one who lead that, granted i did it with like 30 people). Velious took 3 days for first guild to get in to sleepers, pretty slow relatively speaking. Luclin took 5 days (pretty slow for the first guild considering a DZ only guild on aradune did it in 3 days without the ability to pull emp down). PoP was nearly a week, super slow. GoD+ starts the era's of when even 1 day slower is a lot. GoD took 2 days, twice as long several guilds on prior TLP's. Omens took 2 full days when its like a 12 hour or less expansion. DoDH 3 days when its a 1 and half - 2 day expansion. PoR 3 days (can be done in less than 1 but more understandable since there were so many guilds competing).

That answer your question? lol
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Yep, thanks! I don't follow top times for other servers so those seemed fast to me. If you're doubling the fastest time of a previous TLP I guess it would be fair to call it slow.

I'm not sure all of your times are fully accurate, though. Like, God was released on 7/1 and M&M took them down on 7/2, but was it after midnight or the next day? Either way, it's 24 hours or less. But yeah, like OoW seems a legit two days. PoR had the issue with one bone only being dropped from one kill but not sure it held anyone back since guilds started DZs for other guilds.
 
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Atabishi

Lord Nagafen Raider
320
101
DickTrickle said:
Yep, thanks! I don't follow top times for other servers so those seemed fast to me. If you're doubling the fastest time of a previous TLP I guess it would be fair to call it slow.

I'm not sure all of your times are fully accurate, though. Like, God was released on 7/1 and M&M took them down on 7/2, but was it after midnight or the next day? Either way, it's 24 hours or less. But yeah, like OoW seems a legit two days. PoR had the issue with one bone only being dropped from one kill but not sure it held anyone back since guilds started DZs for other guilds.
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It was 2 days for GoD. M&M finished late night on the 2nd day. So i guess you could call it 1 and half days.
 
Xevy

Xevy

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I've always enjoyed doing stuff the fastest, not first.

That means I get the same loot and have to spend less time in EQ. The true winning formula.
 
Rajaah

Rajaah

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Xeris said:
Kronos are like 32-35k plat on Agnarr. Price has gone down lately because we've had an influx of new players. The server added a whole new raiding guild (not Mandalorian).

Plat Raid last weekend delivered about 3.5 kronos worth of plat per person, not bad for 3 hours work in EQ. I enjoy the locked nature of Agnarr. As a completionist, I'd never be able to really 'max' a character on a server that keeps progressing, plus it allows me to play as little as I want and I'll never fall behind. I played Mangler through Velious, took a break and it's way too daunting to catch up now. I don't like the feeling that I HAVE to keep playing just to keep up...
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32k is a little bit more reasonable in terms of number of HGs per krono, I suppose...

When do these open plat raids transpire? Same time every week? Sounds like a better alternative to farming thousands of HGs.

I know the feeling on being a completionist. There's a lot of appeal to not falling behind if I take a year off from playing. I just wish it went beyond PoP, but that'd defeat the point I suppose.

If they ever do another locked server, I think they should lock at OoW or TSS. They'd have a bit more to do than Agnarr does, to say the least. TSS is before the game really blew up with gear inflation. IMO the later expansions are the best ones, but I think locks at these particular expacs would serve a purpose.

TSS would also be a good expansion to start a progression server on. It's got tons of content from level 1 on up and yet has never been used as the starting point for a server. Same goes for Kunark, I suppose. TSS would be particularly interesting though, because historically in TLPs, very few people start from the beginning in TSS compared to the early all-levels expacs like Kunark and Luclin. You'll find TONS of level 1 Iksars running around in Kunark no matter when it launches on a TLP, while TSS has very, very few level 1's running through Blightfire Moors etc at launch. An entire server launching in TSS would be a brand-new experience. Course a ton of people would just leave TSS immediately and go back to the usual zones to level up, but still.
 
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