Shards of Dalaya

I really couldn't get over lizardclan crushbone. It's not really custom content, it's just the same zones with weird mobs.

I messed around with it a LONG time ago. I liked it but found that I preferred the actual game to their changes so ended up spending most of my time on p1999.

Alasliasolonik_sl said:

Used to play on this server for about 4 years. It's a lot of fun until you find out the staff is fucking terrible and they would rather put in a new "rule" instead of actually dealing with a situation properly. The very best staff member that did all the end game content pretty much quit so it will be screwed for many more years if not forever.

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Bingo. Marza was amazing. Woldaff felt his content did not fit in the "vision"

And yeah, Slaariel/Woldaff are both goons, and both are mentally challenged and in no way should be making decisions. But one of them pretty much pays for the server nowadays when donations are short, so it is what it is. If you come to the server to play casually there is a ton of content to enjoy and chances are you will never once be bothered by staff. If you plan on raiding high end, you'd be better off going elsewhere.

mkopec_sl said:

EQ now is just not the same as it was back then. EQ now basically starts at like Lv70+ all the other content before that is easy mode. This server captures that old feeling, just like EQ99 or EQSleeper.

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Aka - there's no PoK/GuildHall/Bazaar.

played this many years ago when it was called Winter's Roar
was quite fun !

I played this for a while, and I enjoyed it. I never played EQ in its heyday, so it kinda felt like what I thought EQ would feel like. There was competition for progression mobs, pick up raids, plenty of exp groups.

They have created tons of original content including completely rearranging zones, raids, and quests. They couldn't create new AA's, so they created Tomes which they could customize however they wanted. There is a healthy market for tradeskills, and leveling said tradeskills up isn't easy.

Overall, its a fun experience if you are casual. If you wanna poopsock to the top, then poop in some other sock.

mkopec_sl said:

EQ now basically starts at like Lv70+ all the other content before that is easy mode.

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Which is entertaining to me because the best of EQ is level 5 to 51 - It has always stalled for me past that point.

Sacel_sl said:

Which is entertaining to me because the best of EQ is level 5 to 51 - It has always stalled for me past that point.

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Up to 60 is fun. Sebillis and Howling Stones are very fun places to level.

mkopec_sl said:

So anyone try this?

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I have, i played for a while last year. got a necromancer to level cap and a bunch of the standard aa, some okay gear. just barely raided with him (i rarely have time to raid). I think it's an excelent eq-engine and game-style experience.

IT's not a copy of eq 'as it was' back in the day. they basically took the game engine, the zone files, and art assets, and made their own setting out of it. they're inconsistent about this though. they'll randomly keep some names and not others. The zones are in weird places some times. sebelis is under guk. velious's zones connect to the far side of everfrost. kunark has you enter near FV and cablis isn't a place you really go. shreazia(sp?) temple is off of lake rathtear (which has some other name i'm sure). we ended up calling guk "notguk" an awful lot.

the game play style reminded me more of 'olde eq' than modern eq, eq2. not sure how it compares to other emulators, I guess emulators that seek to duplicate the origional game accomplish that to a lesser or greater degree, but I didn't mind their re-invisioning. I spent time camping shit in guk. I did small group and big group dungeon grinds for drops or xp. I had fun playing my class, did some fear kiting. they stuck to the old style 'walk to your dungeon, wipe when you get there, and covet loot' formula and i think it works pretty well.

It seems to have loads of advancement possible (with the tomes...like super AA's). There's loads of quests to do (unlike classic eq, which had loads of broken quests. and some xp turn ins). there arn't really epic weapons, but i'm sure the models are used on some of the loot. t hey had a lot of really cool features.

Treasure maps (they spawn waves of monsters some where in the game world, and give you loot)
adventure band (equally share xp with up to X friends so you stay the same level).
gear that levels up (it gains xp when you do, gets better etc).

there seems to be an absurd amount of raid tiers (for a free to play emulated server). like...12 or 14. and they're pretty meaningful differences in power.

I haven't played in a while to be honest. mostly due to life being busy. i log in some times to putz around.

I wrote a long, detailed write up on fohguild, but I really don't feel like rewriting it here, so I'll summarize:

SoD is NOT EQ. It feels a lot like EQ, but it's a different game. If you go into SoD trying to play it like it's EQ (like I did for a long time), you will just get pissed off. When I finally decided to just accept the game as it was meant to be played, I actually really enjoyed it.

The guys who run the server can be Nazi jerks. Seriously. They have some very silly rules (i.e. their name regulations) and they enforce them TO THE LETTER. They will not be nice to you and they will not work with you. They are quick to remind you that this is their sandbox and if you want to play in it you have to have to play by their rules and like it (I'm not particularly opposed to this (because it's true), but they can tend to be jerks about how they approach the players). Despite this, if you stay off their radar, you won't have an issue.

The SoD guys may occasionally be jerks, but they are very, very good coders and designers. I am convinced that this team could make a better AAA mmo than 90% of the groups out their that are trying right now. The server is very clean/bug free, the quests all work, and I can think of at least a dozen things they have improved on from EQ. The AI is some of the best AI in a mmo I have ever seen and it blows original EQ away. Their "auction house" format seems like a pain in the ass at first, but when you realize how effective it is against macros and how strong the server economy is, you realize the genius behind it. Itemization is very well done with few gaps, there are new spells that add to each class without taking away from the old spells, they added new abilities that make melee classes much more fun/viable. You can start raiding at level 5 and there are raid mobs every 5 levels all the way up the levels.

I could go on for a while, but I'm supposed to be summarizing. In short I would DEFINITELY check out the server if you like old school EQ, but remember the exploits, shortcuts, and class tactics that worked so well in EQ probably won't all work here. If you approach the server with an open mind, however, you will find few pve mmos that can match SoD for pure pve fun up through the levels.

mkopec_sl said:

That being said, I gave up on this server this weekend when I found out they have asinine penalties for P-leveling. I got a shaman up to lv 9 then made a Ranger to box with. Well I was killing with the lv 3 Ranger and healing with the shaman, to catch him up and I was getting a 95% exp penalty.

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Yea, i think some friends and i made an adventure band to get around this. you do have to be within 5 levels or so. we made 4 guys at the same time and stayed the same level till we reached cap.

I used to play this. quit when they forced me to change my name. here's my char:http://shardsofdalaya.com/fomelo/fomelo.php?char=nigtor

Others have already summarized the game well. I played consistently for a month or two, leveled a monk into the 50s, then my buddy I had been playing with took a break for RL stuff and we never got back into it. If my gaming backlog wasn't massive and I had the time to commit to playing an MMO, I would definitely give it another go.

Arden_sl said:

good writeup

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+1 to this. Only thing I can't relate with is the devs/admins, as I haven't had any encounters with them. Most players don't need to worry about it.

I haven't played on here in a while, but I think this is a great server for people to try if they've never played classic EQ, but always wondered what it was like. I didn't experience raid content in EQ, but the leveling content definitely has the same feel of exploration and adventure; the zones are leveled differently, connected differently, with different monsters and drops, but they all have the same kind of charm as those of classic.

The one thing I do recommend is to box. (You are allowed to dualbox; no more.) Frankly most of the server does it, and it really helps with getting something done in the event you can't find/form a group, or during short playsessions. And its just more fun

I might actually start playing again a bit. Especially considering recent mmo... offerings.