old EQer + questionsFollow

I am considering coming back to EQ after an extended absence.

1. Are the servers now dead in terms of population, guilds etc?
2. Is the newer server MR full of high lvl trasnfers?
3. What are the most important new features to be aware of?

Thanks a ton,

Xuk

From what I have seen around (on boards and in-game chat) none of the servers have really died off. Most are quite top-heavy now though as they have made the level grind a bit easier, and the cap has been unchanged for nearly 2 years now.

I've played a little on MR, and there definately was a bit of a newbie/lowbie population there. Of course, they could have quite well been alts of high level toons, but they didn't particularly seem so. This was also in the wee hours of the EST mornings, so that may have made a difference as well.

Like chak said, it depends on how long you've been away to know what features are new. Adding to the few he mentioned (maps and charms are from Legacy of Ykesha, AAxp is from Shadows of Luclin, Level 65 cap is from Planes of Power) there have been quite a few new items added.

The most important features in my mind are:
Required upgrade to Dx9. This hit us in March or April of '04. DirectX 9 is now required to play the game.

The new UI (well...newer than the old one...between SoL and PoP this came out) is great. Fully customizable and skinnable.

New (working) Tutorial came out. Quite nice looking and you get a decent charm out of it.

Newbie quests galore. Most classes/races now have newbie armor quests. Gone are the days of being proud of full banded at level 17 =( (/mourn Amerak...my first warrior).

Discipline change. Combat abilities are now hotkeyable and go off different timers. Endurance (new stat similar to mana) is used for these abilities. Replaces the old yellow stamina bar. (Also renders all the stamina regen spells, i.e. the "zings", useless).

Many older zones have been revamped as well. Acrylia Caverns, Plane of Hate, Grieg's End, Droga, Nurga, Charasis (Howling Stones) to name a few (Cazic-Thule too if it's been *that* extended a break ;).

As far as MR is concerned it is by no means "full" of high level transfers. There are some but they are so far removed from the newbies that it doesn't really matter. For all I know there may be massive arguments and ****-blocking in Ssra or Planar Progression but it doesn't come anywhere near me. I believe there are only 3 or 4 EP guilds anyway.

Obviously the server does start to fill up with the alts these people may make but there is still a large corpus (often corpse too ) of newbies both real and born-again.

It is underpopulated in most zones but this is true on many servers where zones like Paludal and HHK get everyone and the rest are left unmolested.