Server Comparison

This article details how The Al'Kabor Project's server compares against Daybreak's progression servers and other emulated servers.

In short: TAKP is the most era appropriate and combat accurate of any EverQuest server available to play.

Era

TAKP emulates the early Planes of Power era. More specifically it aims to emulate Sony's Macintosh EQ server, which forked off from the PC version very shortly after PoP's launch. This server, named Al'Kabor, never got content updates after its launch and was stuck in PoP for a decade.

Late in the server's life an unofficial hacked PC client was made publicly available which allowed Windows PC users to play on Al'Kabor. An improved version of this client is now used by the majority of players on TAKP along with the Mac users.

Differences From Velious

Aside from the obvious features like AAs, spell focii, the bazaar and the new UI, some notable mechanics differences between TAKP's era and the Velious era include:

• We have an AC softcap; It was hardcapped in Velious. Overcap returns at level 60 are small however.
• We have the updated resist system that went live shortly prior to PoP's launch.
• Lull spells work well here, as they were upgraded just prior to PoP's launch.
• DoTs casted from different players stack on the same target.
• Hell levels from 50-60 are 'smoothed'. Total experience needed to reach level cap remains the same, but levels 50-60 are more consistent.
• Exp from higher level NPCs is increased. Exp from lower level NPCs is decreased.
• Monk mitigation is nerfed.
• We have most of the newbie quests implemented around the time of PoP.
• Player pets do not proximity aggro NPCs here.

The resist and lull changes in particular allow this server to be highly accurate in regards to those two mechanics because Daybreak's Live servers still use the Luclin era resist and lull rules, allowing developers to use Live servers to collect data and recreate those mechanics with precision.

Prominent Bugs, Quirks and Out-Of-Era Features of Al'Kabor and TAKP

Because TAKP is emulating a very specific month of PoP, certain unfixed bugs that were fixed during PoP's span will remain active here. Sony's Al'Kabor server also had a handful of later PoP era additions that were implemented even though the code forked prior to their implementation on the PC servers. Some of the more egregious bugs were/will be fixed however.

The more noteworthy features and quirks enabled on TAKP include:

• Sony's Al'Kabor had a unqiue permanent 20% exp bonus, and so does TAKP.
• The late PoP era increased exp bonus for each additional group member was also implemented on Al'Kabor.
• On Al'Kabor it was possible to hit low level players with group versions of high level spells, allowing for Mass Group Buffs to hit players of any level. This enabled a popular activity of high level casters announcing MGBs to buff lower level players.
• On Al'Kabor is was possible to use a horse and gain the standing meditation ability even with old models on.

For those concerned with EQ's slow rate of advancement, consider that the exp bonuses combined with MGBs enable a rapid leveling up of new characters than would be the case on other classic servers. (MGBs will be available when Luclin launches)

Clients

Since TAKP is emulating the EQ Mac server, TAKP is unique in that it supports a native Mac client. This is a first-class native client with full support and not merely the PC client ran in a virtual machine or run via WINE. Not even Daybreak supports a Mac client anymore. The two clients are virtually identical in feature set, so from here on they shall be referred to in non-plural.

TAKP's client is from the December 2002 era. This is the actual client used in the era TAKP is emulating, and the oldest client in use for any emulated server. Other emulated servers use later era clients and may or may not remove some of the client's newer features to try and more closely mimic the classic experience. (classic in the sense of an older era of EQ, not merely pre-Kunark) TAKP is the only EverQuest server anywhere that is using an era-appropriate client.

TAKP's supported client however has several modifications that were done to improve the user experience:

• A built-in frame rate limiter was put in to cap the frame rate. (clients this old did not have one)
• The client's aggressive CPU use was reduced so it will not needlessly over-utilize an entire CPU core.
• An Alt-Enter fullscreen feature was implemented to enable full screen mode.
• Missing environmental sound effects added.
• The recently surfaced Luclin zone music was added.

With the TAKP client, you will not see anything that is not supposed to be there:

• No AAs from future eras
• No in-game maps
• Classic skies
• Classic reduced underwater vision
• No GoD era tradeskill UI
• No target rings
• No mousewheel zoom-out (this may disappoint some people. Try the top-down F9 view)

TAKP's client is so old that it requires EQW to run. (only true for the PC Windows client) This is not currently avoidable because the older clients take over the machine. Sony had disabled multitasking as a (ineffective) way to curb cheating. Unfortunately this also causes some alt-key sticking issues when alt-tabbing between our client. To prevent this, it is recommended to use the window focus switching functionality of a program called HotKeyNet which is included in the supported client zip archive.

Staff and Server Location

The Al'Kabor Project was started by and is run by two long-time Project EQ developers. The lead programmer has been involved in the EQ Emulator community for over a decade and is the project lead over at Project EQ. Project EQ is the default database for EQ Emu, which is where the experience to create TAKP came from. TAKP developers did not merely take open source code and database and start up a server overnight-- they came from and were contributing to the EQ Emu community long prior. Other developers involved with the project also have years of experience from working on other emulated servers.

TAKP has a very close relationship with EQ Emu and the server is in fact hosted at the EQ Emu data center. The same data center that hosts the EQ Emu login server and the most popular EQ Emu servers also hosts TAKP. This server will be around a long time.

Combat Accuracy

TAKP has uniquely accurate combat mechanics that were meticulously researched and modeled to fit a mountain of data collected from Daybreak's Live servers. No other server replicates classic era EQ combat as well as TAKP does. This includes Daybreak's own progression servers, because Sony (and later Daybreak) granted players more powerful abilities, raised spell damage, raised damage bonuses, raised skill caps etc. which made players much more powerful than they were in the classic eras. Careful research was done to account for these additions when deciphering the underlying melee combat algorithms which have not changed.

For a detailed analysis of EQ melee combat mechanics and TAKP's implementation of it, see this thread on eqemulator.org. No other server has fully implemented this model; however EQ Emu may decide to adopt part of it in the future. (more work is required for expacs beyond PoP)

Parts of the model came from decompiles of TAKP's client executable, which makes the model absolutely precise in many respects. Included in this were the actual AC softcaps and the overcap returns algorithm, which Sony was kind enough to leave in the executable. This is very significant.

An accurate model still requires data however. TAKP developers have spent several years parsing NPCs on Daybreak's servers to determine their combat statistics. This is another aspect that separates TAKP from other emus, which do not go into anywhere near as much detail. TAKP goes way beyond merely parsing NPC hitpoints and max hits-- developers also parse: (not a complete list) attack rates, resistance values, special attack rates (how often something flurries for example), slow mitigation values, armor class/mitigation, atk/offense, accuracy/to-hit, and avoidance. The latter four statistics are parsable only because of the accurate melee model in use here. Upwards of 6 to 10 hours are spent per raid boss to ensure accuracy.

For a detailed explanation of how data is collected for TAKP, see this article.

Lastly, hundreds of common NPCs were parsed on Al'Kabor prior to the shutdown, ensuring classic era hitpoints, damages, and attack rates. As this source of data is no longer available, no emus which came after us can be as accurate for those statistics.

Comparison with Daybreak's Progression Servers

Daybreak's progression servers differ from the classic game in many ways and are in fact worse recreations than TAKP and EQ Emu's most popular server, Project 1999. For a real classic experience, one must go to the emus.

Here are many ways Daybreak's servers differ from TAKP: (this list is not exhaustive)

• All raid bosses were granted the 'Mitigation of the Mighty' perma-buff which multiplies several combat statistics. This was implemented instead of reverting all the changes that made players more powerful over the years. NPCs without this buff are killed by players very easily.
• All raid content is instanced, which means servers are flooded with raid loot and all competition between guilds is gone. NPCs do not respawn inside these instances which further trivializes the content.
• Sony revamped many of the classic era zones, which most players find to be inferior.
• Store bought pay-for-power items like exp potions.
• Items are not left on corpses when players die. (no CR runs)
• Sub 50 spells do significantly more damage and in many cases are obtained at lower levels.
• Melee skill caps are higher.
• Player damage bonuses are larger.
• GoD era leadership AAs enabled at launch and granted for free, including a very large ATK bonus.
• AAs enabled pre-Luclin.
• Augmentations available pre-LoY.
• AC overcap returns are much more generous.
• Pets were granted more AC and ATK.
• Monk fist damage is much higher than than classic.
• Two minute feign death full-aggro wipes.
• GoD era tradeskill interface.
• The advanced loot system is in place.
• Many common NPCs have had their stats reduced to be less challenging.
• ALL PoP era NPCs had their damages reduced by roughly 5%.
• Underwater vision is much farther.
• NPC 'forget range' was globally reduced to 600 units; meaning NPCs will forget the players they hate after only 600 distance. (3x spell range)
• Rampage and Flurry are a bit less threatening than they once were for a couple of reasons.
• Coin has no weight.
• Maps enabled.
• TAKP and P99 frankly have less problems with hacks and bots.
• No boxing limits; although some progression servers limit you to one account per physical machine.

The primary disadvantage that TAKP and indeed all emus have is that emus cannot be 100% precise recreations as not every single variable or quirk of the game is fully understood or knowable. Drop rates for example are taken from magelo and common sense and/or spreadsheets are used to try to remove the randomness of the data before loot tables are made. Some of the more obscure quests might not be implemented. Some of the obscure mechanics may also not be precise. These issues are minor compared to the modifications Sony/Daybreak have made to the game since the classic era however.

Comparison with Other Emulated Servers

All currently running emulated EverQuest servers are based on the open source EQ Emulator code. (EQ Classic will be the exception if they open a server in the future) The vast majority of emus utilize the Project EQ database, which is the default database of EQ Emu. The differences between servers primarily come from how much projects modify these two sources. It is possible for somebody to download both and start up a new server, available to play, in a matter of minutes.

TAKP Server Source vs EQ Emu

TAKP's source forked off from EQ Emu in 2013 and is heavily modified. TAKP supports a client older than any of the clients that EQ Emu supports; that support required a great deal of network code modification as the client protocols changed between 2002 and Titanium. (EQ Emu's oldest supported client)

EQ Emu does not try to emulate any specific era of EQ, and attempts to support clients from several different eras. The consequence of which is that project focus is diluted since they must support many more features and ensure no conflicts between different clients. Also, mechanics that are implemented will be the modern versions instead of classic. This means that any server team wishing to replicate classic eras accurately still has a great deal of work to do after downloading EQ Emu source. A lot of things are still not working correctly or remain unimplemented. TAKP has spent the last four years implementing PoP era mechanics into their fork.

TAKP has a huge advantage over any other classic emu in that our community spent literally a decade playing an era frozen version of EverQuest. These people have a vast knowledge of PoP era game mechanics and are able to point out inaccuracies in detail, as they have been playing the real thing up until Nov 2013 instead of 13 years ago.

TAKP's Database vs Project EQ

TAKP's database was mostly created from scratch, but with some PEQ data copied into it. While PEQ has most NPCs hand-placed, TAKP developers instead wrote a custom tool to generate NPCs in the database by sniffing network packets. The result is that the vast majority of NPCs in the TAKP database have precise visual characteristics and locations. This data was taken directly from Al'Kabor prior to shutdown, ensuring era accuracy.

NPCs in TAKP's database all have more accurate combat statistics than PEQ. PEQ also is missing many quests that TAKP has implemented. PEQ's accuracy is inferior to that of TAKP's, but they have content up to Omens. PEQ devs are currently focusing on GoD and later content while they import TAKP data as it is made available to replace the less accurate data. Since TAKP was in fact started by PEQ developers, much of TAKP's data and additions are being imported to the PEQ database. Tools created by a TAKP developer to parse NPC statistics are now in use by PEQ developers who are not involved with TAKP.