Any EverQuest players here?

[ritditditdidoo]

Great to see so many former players here! If any of you get a hankering to play again and want to know about various emulators, let me know. I've played most of them. I still play now on a new one.

I still think it had the most intense dungeons I've ever seen, referring especially to GuK, but even starting with Befallen - and the 'start your character over' well.

Yeah and they were so big. I loved how several groups could all be in the dungeon at the same time and each had their own area to focus on, and the dungeon was big enough to cope. I remember doing Lower Guk when it had 50+ people every night and when the 'dead side' was busy, we would make a group and head over to the King on the live side and even the journey there was exciting. And then splitting his room was a challenge and then we would hold the room for a good few hours. I liked how it was tense and challenging because one mistake could wipe out the entire group and ruin the whole night because you would have to go on long corpse recoveries etc. And yet it was a sort of relaxed experience too because once you took over a room, you could just chill out there for hours, killing stuff as it respawned.

I played EQ1 a lot, and then Vanguard. Have jumped around lots of MMOs since but none really can be called my gaming home.
I couldn't go back to EQ1, but I am looking towards Indie developers creating niche games which take the essence of the older games. Right now, Pantheon and Saga of Lucimia are the two games I am keepiing an eye on.

Never heard of that Saga of Lucimia, looks great! Thanks for the heads up. Also did you know there is a Vanguard emulator being made? They seem to have some really skilled people working on it so it is developing quickly and accurately. It still has a long way to go but I am so happy I will be able to play it again sometime. I loved that game almost as much as EQ.

) it alienates alot of average players. But then how do you keep the hardcore.. Wow had done it with a million time sinks (factions, pets, mounts, achievements, etc.. ) but in the end content is king, not mini games.

oh well EQ will always be the one I remember as the best.

I always wondered that too. It seems if they don't release content fast enough, people run out of stuff to do and then quit. If they release it too fast, the quantity and quality isn't quite there. If they focus on tough content and raids, then it screws the more casual players. If they focus on dungeons and standard content, the hardcore players get bored and quit. And if they try to do both, it leaves both sides wanting more. All in all... seems like a hard battle for devs! I think if I made my own game I would make it for a middle ground type player and if hardcore players run out of stuff to do and then quit, so be it. I would rather that happen but have a solid fan base that stays with the game long term, and maybe the hardcore players will keep coming back when new stuff is eventually added.

And yeah I played WoW briefly and some of the grinds are crazy. I'll love EQ forever

I lived and made it to the cave. No maps, no idea where I was going, first time there.

It is an amazing experience. I find with maps I spend half the time just watching where I'm going on the mini map. But with old EQ, you end up completely absorbed in the world and you learn landmarks. I could find my way to anywhere using landmarks - run straight to the big creepy looking tree, turn right 90 degrees and run straight until you see a bridge etc.. It was amazing. And if all else fails, hug the zone wall

EQ1 was real fun for its time. I'd like to see an MMO with:
..sniip

I think that would be perfect for a lot of people! I think Vanguard did many of those things, it had the death penalty and the grinding, the long journeys and the significant downtime etc. Just a shame it was so buggy and flaky and didn't work out. I think they almost nailed it. Hopefully eventually some other game will come along like that, and have a budget big enough to get it all right.

 

[Indus]

Sometimes I'm concerned that I'd like to see more people support the original EQ that's still going, especially now that a venture capital company bought it.

It's not owned by SOE anymore?

And I haven't played since Deathknell.

I remember being part of the first crew that awakened the sleeper across all servers.

Of all the things, the worst thing that could happen in original EQ was when Plane of Fear came out and the warning was.. people die in dungeons, people die lots in planes. Do not contact GM's for help, they will not aid you!

Lots of people were crying screaming for help to get their corpses back (and this before necros had the spell to summon corpse).

 

[ritditditdidoo]

Yeah SOE is no more, they got sold to a venture capital company. They are now called Daybreak.

 

[Indus]

Just getting a FBE or the Dwarve boots were a real PITA at one time.

I actually camped the FBE guy like 4 days once I figured out where he popped and got up before work to take him out finally, there was some guy ebaying the things I had to finally out damage just to get one when i got the jump on him on the NPC.

I never did get the EQ dwarf speed boots, that was a real PITA.

I had a few friends thought I was pretty crazy, called myself a battle wizard i there, I never hit 70 either, but I think I was like 68 at the time just running amok doing things like soloing Ice Giants.

I'd run into guys who thought I was funny as hell.

OMG I hear you on the jboots. It took me 3 days and nights camping.

Some peeps just came by trying to steal drelzna by nuking it where as I was a tank and had like no dps but when it dropped I was so happy. Later on though it dropped off the ancient cyclops and that gnome in Rathe mountains. Carrying 5000 silver to him was a real pain!

 

[asteldian]

EQ1 was real fun for its time. I'd like to see an MMO with:

Challenging leveling not EQ tough bit not gaining multiple levels every night
Unique classes and every class isn't equal or capable of doing everything
Longer heal/rest times without the right support classes
Long travel time but not 40 minutes waiting for a boat plus a 10-30 minute trip
Big world, real big
PVE focused with some areas for PVP
lots of skills & spells and you can't have them all
Fun crafting, mini games & quests
Money sinks to make it so currency has value
Mini map but no explanation points above heads
Not F2P but not $15 per month
Some kind of death penalty but no EQ harsh. Maybe an hour or two of playtime to recover but not so painless you'll run into any fight

Looking at that list, I strongly suggest looking up Saga of Lucimia. It may not be ideal due to a sub fee planned and no mini map (also the PvP would be nothing more than an arena like Eq1 had at most) but likely the closest match to your wishlist

 

[xantub]

With all this EQ1 nostalgia there is ONE thing I really don't want to see again, like ever again... spawn waits. I'm not talking about 20-30 minute spawn for something, I'm talking 24 hour spawns. If they want to control how hard it is to get something, don't make it by just parking your character somewhere and do nothing. I'd rather if they had it so you have to do a long intricate quest, or hell, make it IRL time so that you have to wait days to get it but you can still play, but waiting 24 hours for some mob to spawn doing nothing was bad. It didn't provide any challenge, just how much free time you had (so parent-players need not apply).

 

[Unoid]

I was an original player, Erollisi Mar, Had evil eye sewn bag, original Dropped Jboots etc.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I was foolishly excited for EQ Next then I saw the gameplay videos and left in disgust.

 

[MeldarthX]

I love EQ; still do; but not sure I could play it right now hehe.....

I started just before planes when they were running a free month with first 3 expansions. I soloed a lot as a paladin and learned the class; what I could and couldn't do.

I remember my first raid with my guild to plane of fear. I was like maybe 48; geared crappily; but because I knew my class throughly in and out; I knew what I could do. We wiped of course as most in the guild was around my level and for most it was their first time in fear and the agro range of course is insane. So I'm holding my own; guild leader told everyone that could port to port and we'd get the bodies.

I was there slowly making my way to the exit; was protecting a few people while they got their stuff. Jcey my guild leader was will you go all ready. I was like nope; *used to really piss her off because I wouldn't leave. It was my job as a tank to die if needed to protect others so I'd really take massive risks and usually I could pull them off * She was on her cleric; second in command Nikon had ported as soon as it was said to port. She was just watching me while trying to get others out.
She was just about to port out but she'd noticed as health go down it come back up and I was slowly inching my way to the exit. Little did she know I was slowly running out of mana and I knew I was going die; but long as we got others out I didn't care.

Fear was still broken so I could handle what was popping as long as I had mana. My guild leader couldn't abandon me *she felt guilty and bad* she came running back over to me and we found one of our level 47 enchanters and rezzed her. She couldn't believe a lowly level 48 paladin with crappy gear as tanking what he was as well as he was. *plus all my gear was mismatched colors which really drove her mad; so mad she made me dyes on her shammy to dye my armor. Which when I became known as the golden pally; or golden boy as I'd found the perfect golden color*

Good times......we'd raided all the earlier content at the right levels. I was also the only paladin on Tun to get into the tank rotation for the dragon in HoH planes. She was considered the hardest mob in Planes of Power outside Quarm....

 

[pathos]

I played at launch, but quit after the first month. Couldnt get the game to run properly at the time, finally gave up. I do remember my character was a human ranger out of Surefall glade. Spent more time trying to exit that cave than actually play the game, i think. Even when I did make it out of the cave, half the time I'd aggro the skeleton ring over just outside of it, and die horribly. I remember fishing up some sandals, and thinking "yeah! I got some equiptment now!"

I came back to the game right after Kunark was released. Played a barb shammie pretty much the whole time. Played through the expansion that introduced instaces, but don't remember the name.

It's the only game I've ever 2 box'd. But, instead of running a monk/shaman like most shammies that 2 boxed, I 2 boxed a cleric and shammie. Mostly I did that to raise the cleric, and quest the epic, so I'd have an insta rez whenever I wanted it tho

Sadly, I tried coming back to the game about a year ago, and just couldn't even make myself get out of that starter dungeon. Just not the same now, sadly :\

 

[Craig234]

"I never did get the EQ dwarf speed boots, that was a real PITA."

I did (jboots), just before they no longer spawned in Najena. It was a 36 hour camp.

 

[ritditditdidoo]

Good times......

Lol I enjoyed reading that. I like that although it was all about gear and levels, an individual persons skill and personality could really make a big difference. I remember playing with this amazing Cleric once who would deliberately over heal at the start of a big pull and steal aggro. Then he would run to all the corners of the room and root the extra mobs in place. Then the group could happily relax and tank n spank the mobs down one by one because all the others were parked in the corners unable to do anything.

I later found out that Clerics had the best root spell line in the game, he also had very high armor class so could do all this without taking much damage, and if it ever went wrong they can use Divine Aura which saves them. The result is that a pull of 6 or 7 mobs would end up requiring one heal on the cleric and some low mana roots, and then it was smooth sailing against 1 mob at a time. Most other clerics would just try to desperately outheal the damage dealt to the tank and it could go very wrong.

It is a great game for letting good players flourish, and yet average people could just do the basics and mostly get by ok too.

Sadly, I tried coming back to the game about a year ago, and just couldn't even make myself get out of that starter dungeon. Just not the same now, sadly :\

Sounds like you played it a good number of years! But yeah it is a different game now. I think it starts you in a tutorial dungeon and I think you can skip that by clicking a box when you are creating your character. At least that way you get to start in one of the original starter zones. But even then it still isn't the same. All the low level areas are empty of players, xp is so much faster, mana/health regen is so much faster, it doesn't have the same challenge or feel, there are NPC's you can hire which are overpowered and trivialize most of the game, etc..etc.. Also they remade a bunch of old areas and totally ruined them. Cazic Thule was a great place to level from about 18 ish to 30 ish and they turned it into a high level zone. But then more recently they remade a lot of the other zones including Freeport and now it is a huge sprawling city of brown, a chore to get around and lost all the old charm.

It's a shame really, they peaked at about 550,000 subscribers but they just couldn't do what they needed to do to keep that going or grow it. And then WoW cleaned up. Shame, but at least I have my emulators I love them.

"I never did get the EQ dwarf speed boots, that was a real PITA."

I did (jboots), just before they no longer spawned in Najena. It was a 36 hour camp.

Ouch. I did it after they changed it to be the Ancient Cyclops in Ocean of Tears or South Ro. I didn't need it originally because I played a Bard who could run really fast whenever he wanted. But then I made a Necro and they really needed Jboots for kiting. The problem is the spawns are random so you could show up there and get first kill (which many lucky people did), or you could be like me and camp it for 40 hours and it still not show up.

Harsh game. I love and still play but there are some things like this which I wish I could change.

 

[Markbnj]

EVERY guild i was in in EQ took getting to know the people before they would let you in, and before you even decided to join.

Yeah it's not the same anymore. You can't go back.

Btw, Darkfall Unholy Wars is an indy MMO with a lot of that EQ/AC spirit (AC Darktide, I mean to say ).

 

[MongGrel]

Just another one.

I remember shortly after launch it was Halloween.

I forget what even zone I was in someone was broadcasting about a dragon.

I broadcasted something along the lines of "You're nuts there are no dragons in this zone"

I promptly ended up flat on my back watching a damned GM driving a black dragon off into the distance, all I saw was a tail flipping back and forth.

Was pretty amusing at the time actually.

 

[JeffNY35]

ahhh...level up a bard. Train Sand Giants on everyone in Oasis. Sweet memories. Actually I was the one usually getting stomped but still...memories none the less.

 

[soulcougher73]

I played from Kunark up through PoP if i remember right. Raided as an SK on i think the 3rd strongest guild on the server. Forgot which server now though. Tried to go back a few times since but its not the same. Nostalgia is a bitch at times lol

 

[Craig234]

ahhh...level up a bard. Train Sand Giants on everyone in Oasis. Sweet memories. Actually I was the one usually getting stomped but still...memories none the less.

I thought people who would do that were jerky - griefers.

Sorry but haven't changed my opinion.

 

[xantub]

I thought people who would do that were jerky - griefers.

Sorry but haven't changed my opinion.

I must confess I did that too. I would train the specters near the hmm... Lake Rathe? and train them all through the beach. I should say I'm ashamed, but hell was it fun! Only did it once or twice though!

 

[MeldarthX]

Lol I enjoyed reading that. I like that although it was all about gear and levels, an individual persons skill and personality could really make a big difference. I remember playing with this amazing Cleric once who would deliberately over heal at the start of a big pull and steal aggro. Then he would run to all the corners of the room and root the extra mobs in place. Then the group could happily relax and tank n spank the mobs down one by one because all the others were parked in the corners unable to do anything.

I later found out that Clerics had the best root spell line in the game, he also had very high armor class so could do all this without taking much damage, and if it ever went wrong they can use Divine Aura which saves them. The result is that a pull of 6 or 7 mobs would end up requiring one heal on the cleric and some low mana roots, and then it was smooth sailing against 1 mob at a time. Most other clerics would just try to desperately outheal the damage dealt to the tank and it could go very wrong.

It is a great game for letting good players flourish, and yet average people could just do the basics and mostly get by ok too.




Sounds like you played it a good number of years! But yeah it is a different game now. I think it starts you in a tutorial dungeon and I think you can skip that by clicking a box when you are creating your character. At least that way you get to start in one of the original starter zones. But even then it still isn't the same. All the low level areas are empty of players, xp is so much faster, mana/health regen is so much faster, it doesn't have the same challenge or feel, there are NPC's you can hire which are overpowered and trivialize most of the game, etc..etc.. Also they remade a bunch of old areas and totally ruined them. Cazic Thule was a great place to level from about 18 ish to 30 ish and they turned it into a high level zone. But then more recently they remade a lot of the other zones including Freeport and now it is a huge sprawling city of brown, a chore to get around and lost all the old charm.

It's a shame really, they peaked at about 550,000 subscribers but they just couldn't do what they needed to do to keep that going or grow it. And then WoW cleaned up. Shame, but at least I have my emulators I love them.



Ouch. I did it after they changed it to be the Ancient Cyclops in Ocean of Tears or South Ro. I didn't need it originally because I played a Bard who could run really fast whenever he wanted. But then I made a Necro and they really needed Jboots for kiting. The problem is the spawns are random so you could show up there and get first kill (which many lucky people did), or you could be like me and camp it for 40 hours and it still not show up.

Harsh game. I love and still play but there are some things like this which I wish I could change.

I drove my guild leader utter mad; as my motto was Its only Purple what's the worst that could happen? I remember getting tells from people going hey you got a body here; my normal response was; "Only 1?" Because I had stuns; I got so good at balancing my agro that even if we were in rooms and there was an over pull; most group pullers *rangers, monks; bards; they would run off to lose the mobs; FD or mez the extra mobs* I just say bring them we'll kill them all; I'd stun them coming in; so we'd either root the extras; or I'd just rotate through the mobs keeping agro and letting dps kill them asap.

If you were good; really good you were allowed to fly. Top pally on Tunare told me several times watching me tank if I got off my butt and got into a real raiding guild I'd easily take his spot as the top paladin tank as I could do things he'd never even thought of or would dare to do

there are some mmos that putting user skill back in to tank some stuff in TOR you do need skill over just Equipment. ESO you need some skill also; yea nothing like EQ.

Vanguard was another mmo that was so close to the next step but even with the mismanagement....

Pantheon looks really good so I'm waiting on that

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Just had a new memory. Making a monk because a friend of mine made on and he use to run around the PvP server yelling someone fight me I have nothing to lose!

 

[JeffNY35]

I must confess I did that too. I would train the specters near the hmm... Lake Rathe? and train them all through the beach. I should say I'm ashamed, but hell was it fun! Only did it once or twice though!

It was the chain of griefing. It would happen to you in lower levels. You would swear revenge. But you couldn't get revenge on the same person. By the time you were high enough level some other low level person had to suffer. Lol....seriously good times.

The bad times...well...like when the Kunark expansion hit. First day me and my buddy shot over there as a couple of gnomes and just explored.

Well, "exploring" in Everquest basically translates to corpse runs. LOTS of corpse runs. I think we lost 2 levels that day. LOL.

 

[waggy]

I loved and hated EQ1. the corpse runs, begging for SoW, etc. Where blacksmiths was more then hitting a combine and letting it go.

One thing i really loved about EQ1 and 2 was that every now and then things would happen in the world. Like giants would attack a zone or something. it was great.

in EQ2 the presmatic quest was a bitch. My guild was the first or second on the server to get it. It was fucking epic.

WoW is fun but it just does not have that feeling that EQ did.

 

[waggy]

It's not owned by SOE anymore?

And I haven't played since Deathknell.

I remember being part of the first crew that awakened the sleeper across all servers.

Of all the things, the worst thing that could happen in original EQ was when Plane of Fear came out and the warning was.. people die in dungeons, people die lots in planes. Do not contact GM's for help, they will not aid you!

Lots of people were crying screaming for help to get their corpses back (and this before necros had the spell to summon corpse).

God. I loved raids in EQ the Plane of fear was something to fear. it was fucking epic.

also corpse dragging. that was great. lol

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Some AT expert should start up an emulator server. We could all play again.
I'd PayPal too.

 

[Craig234]

It was the chain of griefing. It would happen to you in lower levels. You would swear revenge. But you couldn't get revenge on the same person. By the time you were high enough level some other low level person had to suffer. Lol....seriously good times.

The bad times...well...like when the Kunark expansion hit. First day me and my buddy shot over there as a couple of gnomes and just explored.

Well, "exploring" in Everquest basically translates to corpse runs. LOTS of corpse runs. I think we lost 2 levels that day. LOL.

First day in Kunark, I road the boat with Uberwolf, we were both excited.

Got off the boat, big field to cross. Hm, giant frog men are attacking. No problem, click my jboots and outrun them.

What's this? They're faster than jboots.

Corpse run very fast after arriving. Pretty embarrassing. To a frog.