Hi,

I'd like to spread the news concerning Al'Kabor server closure (sorry for my English).

Here:

Updated EverQuest for Mac Poll

you can find a poll that ask Mac customers "Would you play an updated Everquest for Mac version?".

And here:

Everquest for the Mac sunsetting

you can discuss Smed's offer.

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Dear EQ Mac fans,

I'm truly sorry we're having to sunset this. I realize the players on the Al'Kabor server are extremely passionate. You should also know I'm personally a Mac (and Apple) fanatic, so it breaks my heart to have to do this. I've seen your emails and I sincerely appreciate you sending them to me. I've read them all. I'm posting here to reply because I don't want you to go unanswered.

I wanted to give you a little more information as to why we had to make this decision. So here are the reasons.

1) It uses a very old codebase that only one of our programmers knows. The simple truth is that's not something we can allow. We can't have a single point of failure and in this case we have one.

2) The user population is very small and it makes justifying adding additional coding resources hard.

3) The mac port is not particulary something we're proud of. The stuff we've done on Free Realms with Transgaming is far superior. Everquest was never designed to be a Mac game, and years ago we tried this and it never took off. Back when we did the port, Mac wasn't the hotness that it is now.

4) Why don't we give the players the source code and let you do it? Simply put - it's got too many proprietary things to make that feasible. We just can't do it.

What I will commit to is the following -

We will do a poll asking the question if people would consider using a Mac version of the CURRENT game (there is no way we would consider leaving the codebase as it is now.. it's impossible to maintain the way it is). If the response is large enough we will consider doing a proper mac port. I don't want this to be viewed as anything other than a commitment to running the poll. This isn't to placate you. I respect you too much for that. It's simply to look for a business case for doing this. We'll let you know our decision after running that poll.

Thank you for your years of playing the Mac version.

Smed

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PS3.

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Did you ever think that maybe the problems they had were the reason they decided on this.

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Yes ... and this may have been the main reason. But I feel I can't get hangry with them ... they have failed on the develpement front but I think that an exerienced publisher could have saved the project.

These days I miss the Eighties and the 8 bit era ...you know, the legendary bedroom coders like Matthew Smith and Jeff Minter, games that were coded in a few weeks ... but I understand that developing, selling and supporting an MMO nowaday can be a real Inferno. And the publishers do the final choices (today as in the early Eighties).

Sure, oversimplifying the facts about TCoS story has not been a good approach by my side, you're right but ... please, relax.

The devs may have done some errors and maybe the lack of leadership did hurt the project but, in the end, the strategical choices have been made by the publishers ... TCoS would have deserved an experienced publisher. Creative talent, good ideas and coding skills are not enough in this business, you know.

Acclaim and Frogster approach to MMO publishing may work for 2 Moons and Runes of Magic but is incompatible with a game like TCoS.

Anyway, I had some fun with TCoS and liked the community. All the players that I've met in-game and in the BBS have been warm, mature and helpful. I'm pretty old and I think that joining a beta for a game like this (or Ryzom) is better than nothing. A big hug (and sorry for my terrible English)

They have sent the same press-release to the media so they are formally sharing the same position but ... I'm still convinced that Acclaim should have never been involved in TCoS ... but maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway ... sad news. R.I.P. TCoS.

Very sad news ... go to hell, Acclaim (sorry for the bad words but I'm pretty tired this night).

 You're right ... it seems that NCSoft West relies on Lineage core players so much that they haven't felt the need for a proper trial version of the game :(

But maybe this time there's some hope: the reorganizaton of the Austin studio, the new website&BBS, the launch of the new expansion (three episodes) ... they will release  a new client (for both PC and Mac) and it's also possible to ask for a CD if you're on a dial-up connection ...

Too bad this game is so hardcore (it takes years to reach the max level) ... I love its seminal mechanics and the hand-drawed graphics.

 I'm not a Lineage player (only an observer) but I know that if you activate a payment plan the first 7 days are free of charge ... so, I guess you have to subscribe via PlayNC and then cancel your plan ... but I hope things will change because I find this approach discouraging for new players.

Episode U ... should be a new episode that NCSoft Korea launched after Episode 6. NCSoft West is so late that the two expansions are coming together in the US servers ... but maybe some regular players may answer your questions better than me :)

 Wait a few days:

Episodes 6 and U Arrive Wednesday 10/22!

http://img360.imageshack.us/my.php?image=immagine1sh7.png

http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=immagine2id1.png

I think they are more than happy with these numbers ... and the game is patched regularly.

http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?image=immagine3fx1.png

(Damn ... it's very difficult posting here using Firefox or Safari)

Originally posted by Gilgameesh

.... to be continued.... next week, prime time.

 

brought to you by Couach Yachts 

I love LinkedIN ;)

A couple of advices: turn off UAC and run the installer as admin.

 Yes, you can use the old client but you have to patch it with a file called ryzom_fixer ... this patcher is available only to the players that has been invited by Spiderweb. 

Anyway, the wait is almost over ... be patient :)

I was on Silan when the servers were closed down and I'm a casual gamer (because I'm getting old and because of time constraints).

But I have to say that the presence of old vets on the server you've chosen is really a nice thing ... SoR is a game that may be played in several ways but the learning curve may be discouraging. The community has always been so warm and helpful ... you're going to need the old players.

I hope they will start at least two servers ... one with the old DB and one completely fresh.

Anyway, time to watch the old community trailer: click

You're right, UO has evolved a lot during its long life. BMC's control scheme is a bit stiff - to be honest -  but the environment exploration is so on-rails that all these movement restrictions don't hurt me a lot.

This game has some really  old-fashioned gameplay mechanics and relies on pretty obsolete technologies but I found that he story and the artistic direction are intriguing (I'm also reading the graphic novel) and that's why I've decided to follow its development (I'm not playing it at the moment).

It is likely that their decision to go P2P will meet a failure ... I hope they will switch this payment method to something more tollerable like, say, buy--to-play ...

Anyway, I'd prefer playing this old and stylish UO clone rather than most of the crappy F2P asian MMOs that are springing up everywhere  ... but maybe I'm just getting old.

It seems that last week a lot of stability issues has been fixed (server-side) by the devs and this morning I've also discovered that the nasty graphical glitches that plagued the old BMC's engine (when run with current GPUs) has been fixed as well. Now it's a good time to enter the beta :)

The artistic direction is out of this world ... everything you see in-game has been hand-drawed ... I will post some screenies ASAP.

I've downloaded the game and created an account but haven't played yet (only a few minutes to check if it runs).

As I've written on the official BBS, I met someg graphic glitches but other than that the game seems to work under Vista (I'm using a MBP with Boot Camp).

I can't make any comment about the gameplay mechanics yet but I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of informations on the website. Also, the fact that the players need a web browser to log-on and play isn't that bad but ... why only MSIE? :(

Anyway, the art directions seems fantastic and the devs are very warm and helpful.  Interesting project ...