I find it interesting that after the wipe of 2000 that Sony is now asking players to come back to test. I was an original test player in 1999 and lost a year of character play time because of that wipe. That said, I had a very good time playing on test and was saddened to leave after the wipe. Now they are saying that they won't wipe the server again. I could only imagine what the population would be like if they hadn't wiped their original testers.

Is there any way to cut down on the patch times between the live server and test? Any info would be great

Buffs are the pits, u cant do without em but a complete pain in the ***** now come the tricky part ( over to u guys at EQ )

Adjust everyones stats to represent there potential with max permissable buffs

What do u get ?

No down time buffing
Cleric can heal
Shammys can slow
Warriors can just tank
Monks can just fight and pull
Ranjurs can shoot the tanks in the back
Bards can sing all the normal stuff ( rumour has it they can pull also )
Beastys can spend more time picking fleas out of there pets ( ohh and dps )
Paly's have more time for polishing there armour and looking gay
etc etc

Yes there would be a lot of balencing involved, i mean **** loads, but imagine a game where u could just get on and play without buffing ))))

DO u realy want to spend half your like asking for buffs or do you want to kill Dragons ?

All Veteran's Rewards activated regardless of subscription time sounds nice but defeats the entire purpose of it being a "veteran" reward doesnt it?

One thing that I would like to see on test if nowhere else, would be the ability to solo in an LDoN, since there's so seldom anyone to group with. Part of the reason that I spend most of my time there soloing, is because of the weird hours I have available for game time, (RL takes precedence), and when I DO get a chance to get in game, the LAST thing I want to do is spend what little time I have trying to find someone to group with.

If you want to make the population on test server bigger, just make it so you dont have to pay the montly fee. (youd still have to buy the game and expansions). but that would bring a whole bunch of new players or players from others MMORPG. It would be a reward for testing that neverending game. just my 2 cp

hummm....
i played on venril satir alot, and u dont know ghost town till u'v seen venril. well now it's merged, u wont be able to see. but when i say everyone knew everyone i mean it. i liked it alot... i'd ask someone, hey do u know so-and-so and they'd say yep. i liked that alot.

Hi. If I log into Test, will the settings and Test Only patches mess up my regular EQ account?


Reewyn

A few things you should keep in mind about test server.

1. Population is ultra low on test, from what Ive seen on live servers ( Drinal mainly ) there are more people in trader mode then there is normally on test playing.

2. Dont plan on farming plat and buying your BoC in our Bazaar, the same 10-17 vendors are always on selling the same low-mid level gear.

3. Test is an old server, that is high levels seem to be in 1 of the 2 big Guilds on test, Primal Brood ( old old guild ) and Friends Rebellion if you plan on doing any, and I mean any raiding you will need to be either in one of those 2 Guilds or in a small guild that they ALLOW to raid with them, I think they both use the DKP system so plan on a few raids before you get any good swag.

4. Plan on Proddie ( live server players slang ) swarms when Live servers go down for maintaince, That is alot of level 25 test buffed players who will play for 2 hours on test and will be begging endlessly for gear/buffs/plat.

5. Begging is normally really frowned upon on test, as is using /shout /ooc excessively and there will be those who will become annoyed by it and let you know. and dont even try to sell stuff via /ooc /gen /shout

6. with the double exp on test, plan on seeing alot of level 50 players who have no idea how to play the class they are, as they have more than not spent all the levels between 25 to 50 in Echo, It is not uncommon anymore to see a level 60 who still has the testbuff gear they started with.

7. If you are into Trade skills plan on either mastering all the trades to make a given piece or spending some time /ooc looking for a person to do the one pottery or whatever combine you may need, you will have more luck on a weekends as the pop goes up alittle, but normally that means the person wants to level/raid and may not have the time to do your combines.

8. Plat has little or no value on test other than for TS, and because of the low trader pop in the Bazaar

9. Once you are on Test, you will be stuck on Test. Plan on 1 grouping or soloing during the week and Possibly Raiding on the weekends.

10. Downtime is alot more common ( though better than in was ) Much more than on a Live server and sometimes with no notice.

These are just some of the things to be aware of before you just come over to test because of the double exp lure, My post is called I love Test, However.... what I love are the peeps I play with. Test Server atm is a Ghost town.

Safe Hunts and Rare drops to you!

Getting onto the test server is easy, go into your EQ folder, generally C:\Program Files\Sony\Everquest or C:\Program Files\Sony\Everquest Trilogy, and locate the EQ shield icon labeled TestEverQuest. Double click it, it will patch like normal, and then you log in using you account info, and you're on the test server.