Everquest 1

[Peppered]

I played Eq1 a long time ago and quit at lv 63 ( enchanter ) other toons were lv 50 and lowerer.
Question 1, is is it worth coming back to and starting out new now.

Question 2, is are there guilds out there that will work with someone that works a 12 hr swing shift and sometimes cant log in for a week or maybe 2 do to overtime.

Question 3, if there are guilds like that will they help when they have the time ? Guessing it will be hard to lv up now days do to most of the comunity will be doing raids?

 

[brandonb]

Originally posted by: Peppered
I played Eq1 a long time ago and quit at lv 63 ( enchanter ) other toons were lv 50 and lowerer.
Question 1, is is it worth coming back to and starting out new now.

Question 2, is are there guilds out there that will work with someone that works a 12 hr swing shift and sometimes cant log in for a week or maybe 2 do to overtime.

Question 3, if there are guilds like that will they help when they have the time ? Guessing it will be hard to lv up now days do to most of the comunity will be doing raids?

I just recently quit (a month ago) after starting last August brand new on a server and climbing my way up from nothing. I got to lvl 78 with 2 characters (had 2 accounts).

That said.

1) Depends on what you are looking for. The servers are pretty much barren until you start hitting level 75+. Most of the population is 80+. However finding groups 75+ can be ok at times, but you have to be in a guild which focuses on grouping. Putting /LFG up might take all day. However, it's not like the olden days where you can go to a populated zone, say you are LFG and get in a waiting list and get a group within 20 minutes. Most zones have no more than 20 players in it at any given point, thats the highly populated zones. Most have 0-5. And those willing to group are hard to find.

2) The guilds I was in didn't reallly care when I logged in. But then again, the person aspect of Everquest has dissappeared. It's harder to make friends, its harder to find people to play with regularly. The game is more soloable now and most people run 2 or more accounts, not to mention you can hire NPC group members (warriors and healers) so alot of people play on their own. I had the opposite problem, hard to find anybody actually interested in playing with me.

3) You hit the nail on the head. The ones who still play are powergamers who just raid. To find a group is nearly impossible. Things like Epic quests require you to raid an old zone from Omens of War (anguish) to get the last part of epic 2.0. Nobody raids it anymore. So, to get help with it will be nearly impossible. The only people who will help are those who don't have epic 2.0 and want some of the loots. Getting help is pretty hard to get these days in the game. The community doesn't exist like it used to. People usually only help if they get something out of it.


If you didn't catch my drift, the game is low on population, and those who are playing usually play by themselves and raid. It's not fun to play these days, and you will likely be alone most of the time. There is a lack of community in the game. If you had a level 85 already then it could be fun. I'm not knocking the game or the players. The game is just so old and those who still play have invested so much time into it, if you jumped in now you'd be all alone and "gimp", and it just wouldn't be fun trying to raise yourself up in the game and be able to jump in and play with any success.

I did try up Vanguard though a month ago, and I'd say its the spiritual successor to EQ1. If you want to play EQ1, I'd suggest playing Vanguard instead. While its a bit faster paced than EQ1 was, it's community is more healthy, if you play on Serradon anyhow. I can find groups doing level 13-18 dungeons on a daily basis. It's a bit more healthy. You won't even find 6 people total logged in to EQ1 level 1-50 on any given server at any given point that is not a bazaar mule.

 

[CKent]

"...Vanguard..."

I've heard good things about EQ2 lately as well. The problem with both titles is you're paying Sony.

 

[Peppered]

Thank you so much you answered all my questions very good.

I had a Enchanter that was lv 64 and quit becasue the guild I was in wanted to become more of a Hard type Guild were everyone could be on to do raids 3-4 days a month.

The problem EQ use to have if it hasnt changed to get good equipment you had to do raids.
Raids to a long time to get together, usaly and then they were a long time also once you started. I didint mind that nor did I mind having to do the raid many times to get what I needed. I just couldn't be online as much as most good guilds needed to be in there guild, was at work way to much and still am.

This is to bad though because I found that EQ was probly the most fun of the online games like that I played till I got to that point. It was very fun finding a group of folks that you could work with and do do things that a group or raid took to do.

WOW was to easy to lv and seems most we re there to do PVP once you got to high lv's.

 

[JKing106]

Originally posted by: CKent
"...Vanguard..."

I've heard good things about EQ2 lately as well. The problem with both titles is you're paying Sony.

Vanguard is the real EQ 2. It's unfortunate it had such a terrible launch. The original devs on EQ 2 should've been shot. Terrible, terrible game.

 

[brandonb]

Originally posted by: CKent
"...Vanguard..."

I've heard good things about EQ2 lately as well. The problem with both titles is you're paying Sony.

What's wrong with Sony?

Anyways, I played EQ2, and it just didn't have a good feel to it in my opinion, I can't remember what lvl I was when I quit that, 71 or so on my defiler. But it just felt more stale or more mechanical in nature. More like you were crunching numbers. With the zones and instances it just felt like you had several non related zones glued together, to get between them you rang a bell or did something and whoop you are magically teleported to another location.

You didn't go from a dark spooky forest (Nektolus) and have the land slightly get more volcanic (lavastorm) to the higher level area. It just went from one to the other and nothing in between. And got magically teleported there. So it just very blah.

 

[waggy]

join wow. there are guilds that will help.

I played EQ1 and EQ2. i really enjoyed EQ 1 played it like 2 years. I played EQ2 for like a year and half. Only reason i played that long is i was in one of the top guilds on my server. We were raiding everything. We were the 2nd guild on the server to get the prismatic weapons (missed it by a day). We were t he first to clear most of the content on the expansion on teh server aslo. it was fun going ot places nobody else went to. but the people (well the "leaders") were assholes. it was no fun logging in unless you were raiding.


I play Wow now. i am in a great guild. we are not "elite" at all. we bearly clear all of naxx 25 (KT is the only boss we havent downed). the main thing is we have fun. a lot of us make alts to level up with each other for fun. right now 5 of us group up a few hours a week with a all LOCK group hehe. Also we will do "naked runs" trhough low level instances with our high toons for fun. I have been trying to get a 40 man level 1 raid on hogger. hear that sopposed to be fun LOL

 

[Psynaut]

Originally posted by: brandonb

Originally posted by: CKent
"...Vanguard..."

I've heard good things about EQ2 lately as well. The problem with both titles is you're paying Sony.

What's wrong with Sony?

Back in the days of EQ 1 Sony hurt a lot of people with decisions that were callous to the point of feeling Stalinesque to the people that arbitrarily were chosen to suffer under the brutal regime. People who had Monks for 4 to 5 years were one day nerfed into complete non-utility after the leader of the most powerful guild in EQ complained about them to the Devs; other classes suffered the same fate. People would spend a year raiding to acquire a particularly powerful weapon, and then it would suddenly be nerfed into average-ness. Spells would be nerfed, classes would be nerfed, weapons would be nerfed, all without warning and all without any seeming sense of... well, sense. If the Devs played a class, they were given special treatment (this still happens in EQ2)

Sony would make these nerfs not 2 weeks after implementation, but after years, when players had invested huge amounts of time into characters, which were suddenly transformed into something quite different. Moreover, this stuff seemed to happen with nearly every patch after Sony bought out Verant from Brad McQuaid.

Sony's response to the questions and complaints of players in response to these actions was to treat players with disdain. EQ was the biggest and best game in town, and EQ players had no real alternative, and the Devs at Sony were condescending. They acted like they were in power to puff up their own egos and not to support the game or the players. This is not an exaggeration, if you read their comments back then.

The seeming lack of concern by Sony for the time and effort put into the game by the player base turned a lot of people off to ever playing another Sony game. I was one of those people who swore never to trust Sony with my gaming fun again.

I have since played EQ2, but it took more than 5-years for the bitter taste in my mouth to wash away after quitting EQ, and Sony seems to have learned a lesson and changed there ways since those EQ days.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: Psynaut

Originally posted by: brandonb

Originally posted by: CKent
"...Vanguard..."

I've heard good things about EQ2 lately as well. The problem with both titles is you're paying Sony.

What's wrong with Sony?

Back in the days of EQ 1 Sony hurt a lot of people with decisions that were callous to the point of feeling Stalinesque to the people that arbitrarily were chosen to suffer under the brutal regime. People who had Monks for 4 to 5 years were one day nerfed into complete non-utility after the leader of the most powerful guild in EQ complained about them to the Devs; other classes suffered the same fate. People would spend a year raiding to acquire a particularly powerful weapon, and then it would suddenly be nerfed into average-ness. Spells would be nerfed, classes would be nerfed, weapons would be nerfed, all without warning and all without any seeming sense of... well, sense. If the Devs played a class, they were given special treatment (this still happens in EQ2)

Sony would make these nerfs not 2 weeks after implementation, but after years, when players had invested huge amounts of time into characters, which were suddenly transformed into something quite different. Moreover, this stuff seemed to happen with nearly every patch after Sony bought out Verant from Brad McQuaid.

Sony's response to the questions and complaints of players in response to these actions was to treat players with disdain. EQ was the biggest and best game in town, and EQ players had no real alternative, and the Devs at Sony were condescending. They acted like they were in power to puff up their own egos and not to support the game or the players. This is not an exaggeration, if you read their comments back then.

The seeming lack of concern by Sony for the time and effort put into the game by the player base turned a lot of people off to ever playing another Sony game. I was one of those people who swore never to trust Sony with my gaming fun again.

I have since played EQ2, but it took more than 5-years for the bitter taste in my mouth to wash away after quitting EQ, and Sony seems to have learned a lesson and changed there ways since those EQ days.

and that is why EQ2 is pretty much dead and you won't see EQ3. with Blizzard havign wow and better costumer support and less frequent use of the nerf bat they are going to be in controle.

there was 2-3 guilds that had teh devs in there pocket. They would get instances reset and so they got a few server/worldwide first. If they bitched about thigns they were nerfed down.

I was thinking about getting back into EQ2. but my guild and charectors are gone. no reason to fire it up at level 1.

what really killed it for me was a major error in teh game. one that would kill playing. when complaining about it you would get smedly saying its "working as intended" AHHH FUCK YOU ASSHOLE..sigh now i brought up some bad memmories. ack.

 

[Koudelka]

Originally posted by: JKing106

Originally posted by: CKent
"...Vanguard..."

I've heard good things about EQ2 lately as well. The problem with both titles is you're paying Sony.

Vanguard is the real EQ 2. It's unfortunate it had such a terrible launch. The original devs on EQ 2 should've been shot. Terrible, terrible game.

I was tempted to play Vanguard again just now. But guess what.. there's a 75% chance if you run Vista, Vanguard will not even launch for you.

AND, there suggested fix for the last 2 years has been disable your sound drivers and play with NO sound.

Vanguard could've been one of the most badass MMO's ever. But if even after several years they cannot even get their game to launch on Vista? Holy shit.. fail.

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: Psynaut

Originally posted by: brandonb

Originally posted by: CKent
"...Vanguard..."

I've heard good things about EQ2 lately as well. The problem with both titles is you're paying Sony.

What's wrong with Sony?

Back in the days of EQ 1 Sony hurt a lot of people with decisions that were callous to the point of feeling Stalinesque to the people that arbitrarily were chosen to suffer under the brutal regime. People who had Monks for 4 to 5 years were one day nerfed into complete non-utility after the leader of the most powerful guild in EQ complained about them to the Devs; other classes suffered the same fate. People would spend a year raiding to acquire a particularly powerful weapon, and then it would suddenly be nerfed into average-ness. Spells would be nerfed, classes would be nerfed, weapons would be nerfed, all without warning and all without any seeming sense of... well, sense. If the Devs played a class, they were given special treatment (this still happens in EQ2)

Sony would make these nerfs not 2 weeks after implementation, but after years, when players had invested huge amounts of time into characters, which were suddenly transformed into something quite different. Moreover, this stuff seemed to happen with nearly every patch after Sony bought out Verant from Brad McQuaid.

Sony's response to the questions and complaints of players in response to these actions was to treat players with disdain. EQ was the biggest and best game in town, and EQ players had no real alternative, and the Devs at Sony were condescending. They acted like they were in power to puff up their own egos and not to support the game or the players. This is not an exaggeration, if you read their comments back then.

The seeming lack of concern by Sony for the time and effort put into the game by the player base turned a lot of people off to ever playing another Sony game. I was one of those people who swore never to trust Sony with my gaming fun again.

I have since played EQ2, but it took more than 5-years for the bitter taste in my mouth to wash away after quitting EQ, and Sony seems to have learned a lesson and changed there ways since those EQ days.

I couldn't have said it better :thumbsup:

I was one of those people who played a monk. Perhaps 3 monks per server had those pants off the AoW. They were only 1 piece of equipment, hardly a full suit. The absurdity of castrating the entire monk class, tens of thousands of players, when, at most, only that one item which a few dozen people had needed to be nerfed, was mindnumbing.

By calling Sony disdainful you're being kind. Their literal answer to the complaints was to remove the general discussion forum for the game from their website. It felt like communist China.

There was also rampant double-billing. If you called them (not toll-free) they would refund your second billing for the month, but a lot of people didn't bother so they made a lot of extra cash that way.

It really isn't surprising, since the parent company is such a piece of shit with their format wars and overpriced products which are about as reliable as an American car. They wouldn't stand for their Online Entertainment branch having any integrity; it just wouldn't fit the company image.

Fuck Sony. You've forgiven them after 5 years, I never will.

 

[brandonb]

I've never had issues with EQ1 or Sony I've been playing one of their games atleast once a year since EQ1 was released. I've never been double billed, all the games have run for me (except planetside which doesn't anymore.) I still even think that EQ1 is light years better than WoW on a gameplay aspect.

Sure AoW might have had 1 piece of pants for a monk, but if you go to other locations in Velious you'd have alot more. I remember my bro's monk getting some uber items from plane of growth Tunare. I think when it comes down to it, people just love to complain.

But for me, doing that type of stuff was half the fun. Doing AoW raids, etc. The raids and such in newer games (WoW or otherwise) just didn't have the same charm as it did back then, probably because everything is given to the player just for showing up. If you were that monk that had the pants, wouldn't you feel a bit more proud of your character?

 

[OCNewbie]

I suffered through the big Monk nerf and it really tarnished the fun I was having at the time with my monk. I started playing EQ1 in '01 I believe, a couple years after it was released. I have a lot of fond memories from playing that game. A lot of things about it I miss. One thing that I liked about that game, that you don't see in current games, was a real penalty for death. Not so much the exp loss, but being deep within a dungeon, and actually being really concerned about dying. I liked having corpse runs. It teaches you to be more cautious, when there are real consequences to reckless behavior. Fun game, not sure if the experiences there will ever be duplicated.

 

[Dumac]

Originally posted by: OCNewbie
I suffered through the big Monk nerf and it really tarnished the fun I was having at the time with my monk. I started playing EQ1 in '01 I believe, a couple years after it was released. I have a lot of fond memories from playing that game. A lot of things about it I miss. One thing that I liked about that game, that you don't see in current games, was a real penalty for death. Not so much the exp loss, but being deep within a dungeon, and actually being really concerned about dying. I liked having corpse runs. It teaches you to be more cautious, when there are real consequences to reckless behavior. Fun game, not sure if the experiences there will ever be duplicated.

Yeah, I miss that too. Unfortunately, that method is too discouraging and scary to the large casual gamer crowd. They don't want to feel any bit or risk at all.

EQ1 was great back in the day. Sony begin to fuck it up over the years, and eventually it kept getting more and more casual. Finally, as EQ was dying, the ultimate casual alternative, WoW, popped up and pretty much buried EQ. Because of the success of WoW, I doubt there will be a game truly like EQ1 in its first years.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: Dumac

Originally posted by: OCNewbie
I suffered through the big Monk nerf and it really tarnished the fun I was having at the time with my monk. I started playing EQ1 in '01 I believe, a couple years after it was released. I have a lot of fond memories from playing that game. A lot of things about it I miss. One thing that I liked about that game, that you don't see in current games, was a real penalty for death. Not so much the exp loss, but being deep within a dungeon, and actually being really concerned about dying. I liked having corpse runs. It teaches you to be more cautious, when there are real consequences to reckless behavior. Fun game, not sure if the experiences there will ever be duplicated.

Yeah, I miss that too. Unfortunately, that method is too discouraging and scary to the large casual gamer crowd. They don't want to feel any bit or risk at all.

EQ1 was great back in the day. Sony begin to fuck it up over the years, and eventually it kept getting more and more casual. Finally, as EQ was dying, the ultimate casual alternative, WoW, popped up and pretty much buried EQ. Because of the success of WoW, I doubt there will be a game truly like EQ1 in its first years.

the death penalty in EQ1 was insane. you would be playing all day getting good exp then someone train you and you die. boom you lose all the exp you got for the damn day. ugh it was frustrating. not to mention you had to look at a damn book until level 20 when sitting you couldnt keep an eye out for mobs.

At least in EQ2 they you couldnt gain as much exp when dead. not as harsh as EQ but still enough.

WOW is insane. sure you have to repair but thats it. in a instance you enter and you are fine. no need to sneak to your corpse and hope its not beign camped. heh

 

[Via]

I wouldn't mind running around in EQ for a while just to see what it's like.

Sony has a free ten-level trial on their website. Is there a better way to try the content?

 

[OCNewbie]

The EQ1 trial is really a poor representation for what the game is really like IMO. You are in an area that is only available to people that are using the trial, so once you're out, you'll never see that area again. If you're already familiar with EQ, then it can be fun just to see what it's like, but as a totally new player, I don't feel that the trial area really is representative of what's fun about EQ. I think the massive world, and the history of EQ is what makes it appealing. I suppose you could try it, but again, if you're not impressed with that area of the game, just be in mind that that's not what EQ is all about.

 

[Via]

So what's the best way for someone like me to experience the actual game?

I played AC instead of EQ; to this day I've always wondered what EQ was like.

 

[Koudelka]

Originally posted by: Via
So what's the best way for someone like me to experience the actual game?

I played AC instead of EQ; to this day I've always wondered what EQ was like.

Unfortunately, impossible.

EQ is now a shell of itself.. taking way too long to die off.

The glory days of EQ are long, long gone

All the things people worry about nowadays i never minded back then.

I didnt mind zoning, i didnt mind not having an auction house or mailbox. Not having an auction house just made everyone gather up into a pretty much realistic bazaar in one part of the game. Everyone would be spamming their equipment for sale in Trade chat when you zoned in, and you ran over to the area and you could haggle for items.

Graphics werent a big deal. The death penalty was essential because it made dungeon crawls and getting to the far back camp spots in dungeons more worthwhile. Getting far down into a dungeon for your camp spot and holding it made things that much more intense.

Grouping is also an essential part of MMO's if you want to get to know anyone. The reason Everquest lasted as long as it did were 2 things:

1. Required grouping forced you to get to know everyone on your server, and it created a very real community and very friendly. Everyone knew everyone.

2. Equipment was very hard to come by. It wasnt as simple as running endless instances for badges like wow, or pvp'ing all day long. You needed to do massive 30-70 person raids on single targets or entire zones for gear. AND, the variety of top-end gear was IMMENSE. There was always something better to be had. Nobody looked alike.

There were so many high-end bosses to raid that PUG's were extremely commonplace and very successful. And a lot of the items were tradeable and could be sold for a lot of platinum (ingame money). So, if you werent raiding, you could still buy extremely powerful gear off another person or the bazaar.

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: Dumac

Originally posted by: OCNewbie
I suffered through the big Monk nerf and it really tarnished the fun I was having at the time with my monk. I started playing EQ1 in '01 I believe, a couple years after it was released. I have a lot of fond memories from playing that game. A lot of things about it I miss. One thing that I liked about that game, that you don't see in current games, was a real penalty for death. Not so much the exp loss, but being deep within a dungeon, and actually being really concerned about dying. I liked having corpse runs. It teaches you to be more cautious, when there are real consequences to reckless behavior. Fun game, not sure if the experiences there will ever be duplicated.

Yeah, I miss that too. Unfortunately, that method is too discouraging and scary to the large casual gamer crowd. They don't want to feel any bit or risk at all.

EQ1 was great back in the day. Sony begin to fuck it up over the years, and eventually it kept getting more and more casual. Finally, as EQ was dying, the ultimate casual alternative, WoW, popped up and pretty much buried EQ. Because of the success of WoW, I doubt there will be a game truly like EQ1 in its first years.

the death penalty in EQ1 was insane. you would be playing all day getting good exp then someone train you and you die. boom you lose all the exp you got for the damn day. ugh it was frustrating. not to mention you had to look at a damn book until level 20 when sitting you couldnt keep an eye out for mobs.

At least in EQ2 they you couldnt gain as much exp when dead. not as harsh as EQ but still enough.

WOW is insane. sure you have to repair but thats it. in a instance you enter and you are fine. no need to sneak to your corpse and hope its not beign camped. heh

It really was great while it lasted :heart: All the things that made it difficult, which some people saw as a drag, i just felt added to the immersiveness. For me the journey was as fun as the destination, I never was one to cry and bitch and moan if I'm not the max level. That's when it really tends to get kinda boring imo, you see the same 3 zones over and over again, and that's all WoW is about since leveling takes no time at all.

Looking back though, the combat system was really pretty primitive compared to WoW's. Autoattack and occasionally mend / kick... I could have some good fun on my shaman, working in slows, dots, roots, snares (Innoruuk troll, necklace), tash stick, etc. while minding my pet, but only by soloing some crazy stuff that I had no right soloing like WW dragons, giants in kael and the fungi king in old sebilis. Gameplay as intended was great at the time, but boring by today's standards. That's something WoW really got right imo.

 

[Denithor]

We were having a very similar conversation in another thread recently. Looks like Blizz got the playstyle right but dropped the ball on the content.

They really need to differentiate the classes again, add in random drops (at the highest levels) so everyone isn't just a cookie-cutter copy and institute a penalty for death that's more than a minor inconvenience.

I recall playing MUDDs back in the day (mid 90s). When you died, the mob that killed you often looted your corpse before wandering off. So when you made it back to your corpse you might be missing gold and/or equipment you'd worked your ass off to acquire. And half the time the mob was still standing there waiting for you to come back and try to recover your gear.

That was frustrating as hell but also made you really really careful - you seriously didn't want to die and could attempt to run away if the fight looked to be a losing situation.

Random drops - that's what made Diablo I/II so much fun and kept me coming back for more. None of this "kill Mob A and collect Amulet B from his corpse" shit - not knowing what was going to drop (beyond the uncertainty of which item from a loot table would drop) kept the interest level high. I played the hell out of Diablo looking for a King's Sword of Haste for my warrior. Eventually found one - on my monk - boy was I pissed.

 

[Aknosis]

I played eq on a friends computer (win 98 w/ 32MB of RAM!) in the beta 4 I think... and I played live until 2002.

If you want to play for free you can check out LINK REMOVED, you need a titanium client without any patches to play on most. I play here: LINK REMOVED]. Another good server is LINK REMOVED - This server needs the client from the trilogy (I think you can DL this from Sony) (This server got so popular at one time they got a cease and desist letter from Sony).

Let's not link to emulators for EQ, this is a very big no no according to Sony.
However if you do want to find them, just use Google
Oakenfold, PC Gaming and Security Moderator.