The Hidden Forest

First of all, thank you for your interest in Covenant! This is a home that is being built with the desire to experience THF in a natural manner, for everyone to feel useful and proud of the accomplishments of the guild tag they wear. The motive behind this guild is something of "equal opportunity." If you've grouped with a player wielding the omnipotent power of donor suits, you likely felt at first awe, shortly followed by questioning yourself with "Why am I even here when playerX can accomplish this by himself?" shortly followed by "I guess I better donate so I can feel useful." We aim to remove that stigma and offer members a true, challenging experience.

Secondly, I want to encourage players TO donate to the server. The Hidden Forest is BY FAR the best custom content server ever available. With unbelievably well designed raids, 24/7 support from the GM staff, beautiful progression arc, this server is a work of art. You can see the attention and love that has gone into every element of the server. If you feel the urge to donate in the true sense of the word, please please please do so and show your appreciation for the home we inhabit.

But back to our home... To put the description of Covenant in one sentence: we do not permit donor equipment and we are starting out as progression based (guild can't raid T3 until t2 is completed, etc). We intend to go tier by tier, completing objectives and plunging our guild as far as we can go without "I can't die" or "Boom, j00 dead" clickies. The rules are written in more detail below. If you are interested in joining us, please read them thoroughly and then PM me here with the character name(s) interested in joining. Please make sure you meet the requirements and restrictions. The inventories and banks of each character will be searched in magelo to ensure compliance with the rules. Donor items have pretty unique item icons and can be spotted from a mile away.

Your main is in another guild, but this one sounds fun for your alt? No problem. So long as your alts membership here does not violate your main guild's rules, you are more than welcome to re-experience the server with us.

---------------Rules---------------

1) Item restrictions:

• No donor equipment. No exceptions. This rule is here to keep things balanced and fair while also keeping the challenge of THF raiding alive.
• Distillers and Dyes will obviously be allowed, no matter how you obtained them (either from holiday or donation)
• All other items and spells are allowed. I'd like to make progression as natural as possible, but it's impossible to police every single item and spell every character uses. Also, the addition of bazaar/ldon/RC gear will make the transmission from tier to tier smoother, and the ultimate goal is not to spend 3 weeks in NTOV but to eventually progress to current near end-game content. If you want to deck your toon out in radiant crystal armor with holiday weapons and rk1 spells, so be it. These are all relatively easily obtained items that everyone can do, regardless of donor status. Build your toon and enjoy. The guild's progression will be kept largely in line by the use of flag checks.
• Note on the above statement: Use common sense. If we make you do a flag check to ensure you're not flagged for T5, you pass the check, then turn in a khasva token, head to HoH to AFK for t8 gear, and you show up to our Vulak raid with two fully evolved weapons and Rk. 3 spells, I will be very disappointed in you, lol. Please try and stick close to the guild's current tier as far as these kinds of things go. Requirements like these will eventually be more lax and ultimately disappear altogether, so be patient.

2) Flag restrictions:

• These are done to help keep everyone in the guild close togethor as we advance through the wonderful content of this server. When an officer has agreed to invite you, you will meet him/her at whatever tier zoning NPC the current requirement is set at. You will be invited and then asked to target the portal NPC and /say the portal phrase. If you don't zone in, you're good. If you do zone in, sorry, but you will be temporarily removed until we reach that stage of progression.
• We are starting out with a very lax requirement that you can't be T5 flagged. I wanted to set this at T3, but since T4 is an open no-restriction zone, it didn't make much sense to forbid t3 access when t4 is right there. Having said this, we are STARTING out in T1-T2, and will NOT be raiding T3 until Vulak and all of NToV are dead. The same principle applies to the following tiers, we will not being raiding T4 until the Sleeper is dead, etc. (T4 final boss requirement may be skipped due to the fact it's an open zone and he's rarely up during raid hours...)
• If you are currently flagged past our stage of progression, do not fret. Every time we move on to a new tier, I will post such advancement here along with updated requirements and restrictions. You can also PM or /tell an officer about the current status of the guild.

3) Raid times:

• The raid hours for the guild are set as follows: Friday at 8:30pm EST, Saturday at 9:00pm EST, Sunday at 9:30pm EST. Attendance is heavily encouraged, but not required. The remaining days of the week are FFA, any guild instanced raid target may be killed at any time if you have the force to do so... The one exception to this is nothing may be killed Thursday after 8pm EST for the obvious reason that we'd want said target(s) to be available for the designated raid hours.
• Set raid hours may change in the future based off guild's average peak player time, but changes will not be made lightly and there will be an open discussion if such a matter arises.
• These hours are to accommodate NA time zones. If you are in Japan and can accommodate these hours, excellent! Also note that you will not be turned away from the guild because these raid hours conflict with your own schedule. If you can't make it to the raid, so be it. You're still welcome to wear the tag as long as you follow all the rules and represent us in an honorable manner.

4) Personal conduct:

• Every guild says this, but we mean it. There is zero public drama to be attached to any member of the guild. If you've got a quarrel with someone, you take it to /tells. Period.
• Swearing. Don't do it in /ooc, /shout, /auction, and don't do it in /tells to someone you're angry at. Obviously, all server rules apply here. But in severe cases where you may face being muted or suspended by the GM staff, here you will face getting removed from guild. I won't have l33tspeechdudzor69 mucking up the opinion of others in the guild.
• Swearing is permissible in guild chat. 95% of us are adults. We have jobs, families. We drink, we smoke, we have fun and we make mistakes. Swearing is no big deal to most of us, and is only forbidden in public use because there is a group of players who don't enjoy being around it. Respect the open community. Understand that there may be swearing in /gu. If an issue arises between two players within guild based on language or anything else, it'll be discussed with officers and appropriate action taken to correct the issue.

5) Class needs:

• Currently, all classes are being accepted. This may change in the future if our population booms out of control, but I don't see it becoming a huge problem. I'd like there to be a minimum of 3 main tanks in each raid, and that requirement will likely go up in the later tiers. Without the all-mighty "Invulnerability" donor shield, tanks will fall. Frequently. The raid's ability to survive will be the ability to react to this change in MT and carry on. Donations for the funeral of MT#1 will be taken after each raid boss (j/k)
• Class balance here is great. Play what you want to play because you'll do a better job doing what you want to do than something you hate.

6) Box limit:

• Yes, there is a box limit. It is currently set to 6 players. If you are boxing more than 6, then you're a raid unto yourself and that's just no fun for the guild surrounding you. The box limit MAY change in the future, but old players will be grandfathered in if the limit is ever reduced to 5 or less. Boxes are not hard to spot. We all use MQ2, most of us have elegant scripts, we all know what a scripted toon looks and behaves like. If a player is caught violating this rule, he/she will be temporarily suspended a length of time TBD by the officers.

7) Loot:

• Each player selects a main when joining. Changing the status of which toon is your main may only be permitted by consensus from officers. This is because loot will be dealt out in priority to mains, then alts, then bot rot. Loot is handled via /random for the moment.

Also currently looking for two more responsible, trusted and knowledgeable players to serve as officers. PM me here if you're interested!

Edit: In the flagging process for Emperor now, will be targeting him within 2-4 days. T2 should be open for raiding within a week from today.

Spiked wrote:If you've grouped with a player wielding the omnipotent power of donor suits, you likely felt at first awe, shortly followed by questioning yourself with "Why am I even here when playerX can accomplish this by himself?" shortly followed by "I guess I better donate so I can feel useful." We aim to remove that stigma and offer members a true, challenging experience.

I just wanna say that you can be non donored and still have people feel like this. I was non donored long long long long long time .

Your guild sounds like a lot of fun and I wish you luck. Always nice to enjoy the progression without donors .

mystickitty wrote:

Spiked wrote:If you've grouped with a player wielding the omnipotent power of donor suits, you likely felt at first awe, shortly followed by questioning yourself with "Why am I even here when playerX can accomplish this by himself?" shortly followed by "I guess I better donate so I can feel useful." We aim to remove that stigma and offer members a true, challenging experience.

I just wanna say that you can be non donored and still have people feel like this. I was non donored long long long long long time .

Your guild sounds like a lot of fun and I wish you luck. Always nice to enjoy the progression without donors .

Thank you!

----Progression Update----

Emperor Ssra is defeated! Moving on to T2

Previous flag restrictions are still in play until Sleeper is defeated. Once the great prismatic dragon in ST falls, T5 flagged toons will be allowed to enlist and the flag restriction will be moved up to T6 (VP).

----Progression Update----


Vulak and all his minions (minus that annoying annoying melee immune dragon) have been defeated! T3 is now open to be raided. Was terrific fun in there tonight. Lots of loot being utilized! We even had a Ranger death!

Flag restriction remains in place, can't be T5 flagged. Will be lifted once Sleeper is dead, which I'm hoping to be within the week! He's a tough cookie.

Spiked wrote:----Progression Update----


Vulak and all his minions (minus that annoying annoying melee immune dragon) have been defeated! T3 is now open to be raided. Was terrific fun in there tonight. Lots of loot being utilized! We even had a Ranger death!

Flag restriction remains in place, can't be T5 flagged. Will be lifted once Sleeper is dead, which I'm hoping to be within the week! He's a tough cookie.

No good raids without a dead ranger.

Ephyr wrote:No good raids without a dead ranger.

THIS is in my top 5 list of EQ nostalgy !

----Progression Update----

After one failed attempt, the Sleeper has finally been put to sleep! T4-5 are now open for raiding, and toons who are T5 flagged are welcome to join the guild (finally!)

Congratulations T5 will take a little longer since you will have to key yourself for Xegony and since avatars are pretty hard. That will be a nice challenge and I wish you good luck for it Reminds me my old THF days in a guild that was working exactly like yours

Thank you Yup, it's going to be about a week before we target Xegony since we can only flag 3 toons a day to get to her. Still, that leaves us a good amount of time to fill out some inventory slots and etc. We've been pacing through content rather quickly, a pressure-free breather for mild upgrades sounds in order.

I'm pretty pleased so far. Only took us a week to gear through T3 and start our advancement to Xegony. Avatars don't worry me TOO much, they aren't very difficult to FD split from their adds and then it's just tank and spank. Xegony is going to be a real pain because of mana, but I suspect we'll make it through. The DT golems in fear will also be a real challenge and may take a few wipes, but that's EQ. Having a ton of fun so far, and all the real fun is ahead of us!