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Back in the EQ groove
So, I've now played for two nights and made lvl 8 with my new Troll SK. I played about five years ago and have returned since none of the other games of late have seemed like real worlds.
I've talked my wife into playing again and she has made a Human bard. A few observations on the game.
* At first the graphics are dated but as you play you forget. Running thru the Tunnel in Commonlands was still awe inspiring and seeing a Nightfall Giant as well as Cazel still made me stop and take a detour.
* The newbie fields are tougher than they used to be. Mobs are smarter now and snakes, wolves, skellys and more will "summon" every other buddy over to help out. Not random walkbys but serious ganking. Most start in the tutorial and go to Crescent Reach but for those wanting to see the old cities this is pretty tough but no XP loss for death so just keep trucking.
* I can still get lost in the cities although I remembered Neriak from my old days.
* My character at level 8 has already had more adventure than in 40 lvls in most games doing gather quests. I log in, figure out what I want to kill and go exploring and whacking. I passed by Guk, saw a new Sand Giant camp in Ro, sidestepped a named Orc, got chased by a Dry Bones, and barely escaped a guard in Commonlands (didn't see Slate 
), The difficulty and freedom add to a sense that I am really living my own adventure and not a script on rails.
* The game is tough to get back used to. WOW and other sequels had made me forget about buying spells, running back to the trainers, typing the right response to trigger a quest, etc. Again, the content is worth it to get the swing of the older less obvious rules.
* the world isn't as populated in the lowbie zones but the people are nicer than any I have met in any other game since EQ1 and DAOC back in 2001-2002. Already have met people that helped me out with an item here or an item there. Just seems like a friendlier community. It could be a troll with no pants just screams for help? I still haven't gotten a free SOW yet though. 
Anyway it has been really fun to return to the original world of Norrath. If your bored with current games give it a try again. If you see a rainbow colorerd Troll running around the Luclin/Veeshan server then feel free to say "Hey!"
Comments
Nice read Abraxos
I never played EQ1, and i'm excited to give it a good shot soon, when I have time to devote ( 2 to 3 weeks ).
HOWEVER I met a guy at work that is heavy into EQ2 ( 4 years, and guild master ). I was telling him my intentions about EQ1 and he told me he also has EQ1 experience " no " the game is dead now, and just way to outdated. I told him about the latest expansion and the Merc's and it's made easer now. and he still told me no, and I should come back to EQ2.
It felt like someone riped my hart out showed me it, then put it in a brown paper bag
. Your post restored my faith, however you had played it before and know the deal. I may be ok because I 'm mature and very social, I don't mind a hard mmo, but I don't want to play a solo game even with murc's.
So please help me out with some words of wisdom.
Well, I will say alot of my excitement comes from playing a game five years ago with my wife and friends and then coming back and seeing everything again. EQ2 is a lot easier to get the swing of, right out the gate. Everyone's experience will be different. You might love EQ1 and the guy at work might have loved it but got burned out? Just hard to say? No other MMORPG is 10 years old so it gets some strange and varied reactions.
EQ1 and EQ2 both have newer expansions with newer easier starting cities. EQ1 has a 14 day trial that starts in a dungeon/tutorial and then you can exit into a city at any time that is nuetral to both evil and good races. In the old days however everyone started off in their home city and met up in their teens. There wasn't many quests in 2000. You just got dropped into the game with a rusty short sword or dagger and killed stuff till you dinged and you wandered around till you found your trainer. I'm a bit tired of the WOWized questing so when I went back to EQ1 I selected to skip the tutorial and I choose to go to my home city instead of the default. That's a bit masochistic though unless you know your way around. Try out the trial? It's a little bit catered to newer MMORPGs. The big thing in EQ was non instanced dungeons crawls and leveling came from sitting in an area and having someone pull mobs back to the group to kill. Newer expansions probably have more soloable quests. I haven't gotten there yet to say for sure.
Also look up Everquest Hotzones. At lvl 20 thru 85 they have specific old world zones that give you Xp bonus's and drop loot from random and named mobs. This is where you will experience the most people to group with. Both EQ1 and EQ2 suffer from old zones being empty so the Hotzone thing is a cool way to encourage people to experience the first expansion's content without getting gimped on gear. Hopefully this helps? I'm a bit new even though I played for three years a long time ago. Maybe someone else can also chime in? It's a huge world. I'm only familiar with the first five or six expansions and have ten other areas of the world I've never seen. I love the world more in EQ1. Norrath was just cooler before EQ2 when they blew up everything although EQ2 is working to bring many areas back from EQ1 like Kunark and Neriak and Faydwer. Enjoy!
I wouldn't worry too much about EQ2 folks, EQ2 is a different game than EQ1. The 2 games, while they share the same name "Everquest", play completely different. So people who like EQ1 may not like EQ2, and vice versa. Also remember EQ1 and EQ2 are fairly similar when it comes to player population. So people are always trying to get others to join them, since both games want players.
In my opinion, see the game for yourself. That's my suggestion anyway. You can see the list of games I've played, many of them multiple times and many of them multiple years. But yet right now I'm having a great time in EQ1, and it was one of the best choices I've made coming back.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
I have also recently returned to EQ after a 5 year hiatus and a slew of dead end MMO's. Every day I seem to run into more and more people who have also recently re-subbed. More than any other game I have experienced other then AC, EQ offers a real sense of accomplishment. I frankly got tired of all the carebear worlds and hand holding victory marches to end game grinds. I originally left EQ when I grew tired of the endless (planar) raids and ever-camps. 16 expansions later, EQ offers an incredible amount of diversity and unrivaled depth of experience for almost every type of gamer. And still EQ offers a real challenge, no hand holding here. Its nice to fear death again and the consequences of travelling. Anyways, its great to be back! )
Del Cabon
A US Army ('Just Cause') Vet and MMORPG Native formerly of Trinsic, Norath and Dereth. Currently playing LOTRO.
Trying the demo now. Wondering how going back will be.
Playing: DO Trial, EVE 1 Day Buy a PLEX promo.
Played: UO, EQ, AC, GW, WoW, CoX, EQ2, AoC, WURM Online, Ryzom, Eve Online, FE Trial
Genres: 4x strategy, Sim Racing, American/Euro RPG, Fighters
Understand something about EQ. You will die and you will die a lot. Especially if you have never played before. It does not hold your hand and unlike a lot of these new mmo's where it is almost impossable to die to lv 1 mobs well lets just say get your skills up fast or those rats will be killing you.
Allakhazam.com will become your friend. Its data base for items and quests is very helpfull. I love EQ and even though I do not play atm it is still my favorate game of all time. Also even though they have added ingame maps sometimes it is helpfull to download printable ones and look at them. Everquest is all about exploration it is a huge world with lots to see. Sadly though with SO MANY expansions out, there is a lot of empty zones. Look up where the current HoT zones are (zones that give a bonus to xp) and that is where you will find people most of the time.
I hope you enjoy the game and give it a chance. Though the lower levels can be fun the game honestly picks up more at lv 51+ so you might want to try out the lv 51/50 server where you start out at lv 51 and have 50aa points to spend.
yep there should be a warning
experienced gamer only
Understand something about EQ. You will die and you will die a lot. Especially if you have never played before. It does not hold your hand and unlike a lot of these new mmo's where it is almost impossable to die to lv 1 mobs well lets just say get your skills up fast or those rats will be killing you.
Allakhazam.com will become your friend. Its data base for items and quests is very helpfull. I love EQ and even though I do not play atm it is still my favorate game of all time. Also even though they have added ingame maps sometimes it is helpfull to download printable ones and look at them. Everquest is all about exploration it is a huge world with lots to see. Sadly though with SO MANY expansions out, there is a lot of empty zones. Look up where the current HoT zones are (zones that give a bonus to xp) and that is where you will find people most of the time.
I hope you enjoy the game and give it a chance. Though the lower levels can be fun the game honestly picks up more at lv 51+ so you might want to try out the lv 51/50 server where you start out at lv 51 and have 50aa points to spend.
Yep. EQ was my second MMO. Kinda miss the old interface, but otherwise seems okay. Will look for the lvl 50 server, right now doesn't seem to ask me which. Thanks.
Playing: DO Trial, EVE 1 Day Buy a PLEX promo.
Played: UO, EQ, AC, GW, WoW, CoX, EQ2, AoC, WURM Online, Ryzom, Eve Online, FE Trial
Genres: 4x strategy, Sim Racing, American/Euro RPG, Fighters
Yeah i will say if your trying to get into playing EQ play on the Mayong server. Yeah u prolly wont know what ur doing for the first few days but if u ask someone im sure they will help. Just beware alot of EQ players are playing multiple accounts so if one person doesnt respond dont be dishearted ask another.
edit: mayong is the 51/50 server and dont spend ur AA's also other then on Inniate regen/run. you will not get any good AA's till 55.
I'm on the trial -- never asked me for server. Will it do so once I finish the tutorial area? Or can you just not choose the server without the full 15/mo sub.
Playing: DO Trial, EVE 1 Day Buy a PLEX promo.
Played: UO, EQ, AC, GW, WoW, CoX, EQ2, AoC, WURM Online, Ryzom, Eve Online, FE Trial
Genres: 4x strategy, Sim Racing, American/Euro RPG, Fighters
I'm on the trial -- never asked me for server. Will it do so once I finish the tutorial area? Or can you just not choose the server without the full 15/mo sub.
IM going to me coming back to EQ very soon, probably when UF launches on Dec 1st. However i decided to try and get into the world again. I had no interest in Escape to NOrrath but i DL'ed the trial and planned on leaving it to go to Cabilis and FoB etc, I couldnt figure out how to leave. I know you talk to the revolt leader to leave but he didnt give me the option. I dont think you can leave.
i'm going to re-roll and talk to revolt leader. I remember him giving me that option at beginning but once i started he didn't offer it anymore. Once I leave do you choose the server? Is it just a shared newbie zone? Doesn't make sense to me since it knows whether or not my name is taken...
Maybe you just aren't allowed to choose the server on trial.
Playing: DO Trial, EVE 1 Day Buy a PLEX promo.
Played: UO, EQ, AC, GW, WoW, CoX, EQ2, AoC, WURM Online, Ryzom, Eve Online, FE Trial
Genres: 4x strategy, Sim Racing, American/Euro RPG, Fighters
Trial account can only access 1 zone, you can't leave it unfortunately. There's no server choices when you play using the escape to norrath trial.
Once you activate to a full subscription account, then you can pick a server and leave the trial.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
And the lvl 50+ server is the populated one?
Playing: DO Trial, EVE 1 Day Buy a PLEX promo.
Played: UO, EQ, AC, GW, WoW, CoX, EQ2, AoC, WURM Online, Ryzom, Eve Online, FE Trial
Genres: 4x strategy, Sim Racing, American/Euro RPG, Fighters
The most populated server right now in EQ1 is Mayong, 51/50 server yes.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
EQ now is still not the EQ of old with regards to difficulty.
There is a corpse summoner in the Guild Lobby, and the death penalties are pretty much non existent.
While it is still harder than most others, it is pretty newb friendly these days.
Honestly the reason I quit eq for good was they keep trying to be more like WoW, instead of being EQ.
Mercs put the final nail in the coffin, the best thing about EQ was the community and having to meet people and group to accomplish anything...now players just 2 box with mercs for their own groups.
Of course, the itemization in the past 2 or 3 years has been so freakin pathetic as well, such as focus effects on gear for classes that do not use that spell line, etc...
I dunno. I was a guide for several years on top of being a high end raider, and it just got to the point of why bother.
If EQ was re released as the same game with a modern graphics engine and overhaul, including bug fixes of bugs that have been around for 5 years or more, I would be all over it even if I gave up my characters with 10 years of work.
At this point its like putting yet even more bondo on that old beetle that barely gets you to the gas station and back without falling apart.
As an old school EQer I can't imagine what it would be like to play EQ as a new player today. Even back then the world felt overwhelming with quest, trade skill items, drops, factions, racial gear, traveling/negotiating the world, death penalties, just to name a few things. I'm excited for anyone who is just starting the game, but can only imagine how overwhelming it must be, particularly if you stop by Allakhazam's and see that there are 79,073 known items in the game.
Trade skills in itself was quite a challenge. Knowing what you needed to make to skill up, where to find drops, what was fodder and what was a trade skill item. Maybe I'm over complicating it, LOL, but I know how I felt when the game came out and that was just the releas, now there are 16 expansions, wow.
I came back and played when the Combine was released, when they had the Living Legacy and when Mayong opened up. EQ is a great game and would recommend it to anyone. I do enjoy EQII as well, particularly the current changes. In hind sight if EQII were released with the current mechanics back in 2004, it may have had a far larger following. There was of course a bit of a community division and its going to be interesting to see what happens when Everquest Next comes out.
The Old Timers Guild
Laid back, not so serious, no drama.
All about the fun!
www.oldtimersguild.com
An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it. - Jef Mallett
I thinking of coming back to a game I started with years ago, I left as Abraxos did, did you have a Mage? I had a Mage too, I hope they are better than what they were. After doing LotR, WoW, Warhammer and many more...I have stopped completely and just doing some re-evaluating what I really like. I liked WoW because there was so much to do. I LOVE the raids in EQ, how exciting running to Sra, VT, camping things that are free for HOURS, Plane of Sky, OMG my epic. Just amazing fun stuff and talk about RAIDING, 50-60 people for raid leaders to handle and I cant tell you the tells LOL. Now THOSE were the days. I miss all the comradery and fun and just plain fights in so many ways, I guess I was spoiled.
Anyway, thinking about it and going to reactivate my account possibly and make another toon. Will see if I have the time or patience anymore.
Mages are one of the best classes today, they've improved on them so much it's not even funny. I think you can even safely call them one of the "FOTM" classes....or flavor of the month classes because they're great soloers and they also offer a lot to a group & raid.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO