Is Everquest free as advertised?

[Asassinx1]

I have just started downloading it as I saw it was free but on looking through the forum I am seeing threads about subscription to daybreak for 15 euros.

Is it free or do I need a subscription to play this??

[Asgaeroth]

You can play for free, but your progression is limited without subscriber benefits.

[Asassinx1]

Cant tradw without membership????

I was even going to give Everquest a try with the possiblility of membership next month...but I refuse to pay for a BASIC ingame service like selling your junk items.....thats just wrong...

[Black Captain]

Melee characters are pretty easy to play the game for free. Don't really need to trade unless you are trying to be twinked. This game is frighteningly easy now compared to years ago.

[Orge Lambart]

you can play for hundreds of hours by yourself or with other twinky characters.. but you'll eventually reach a point where you need to actually subscribe if you want to continue to get better.. I think you can get to level 85, and maybe like 100 AA's with the free account..

Depending upon how much you encounter others you can get to 85 in anywhere from 1 week to a month.. just depends on you getting lucky and finding someone who wants to powerlevel their character or what level up path you take...


I'll agree with what DuWryght said,, years ago it would take you 6 months easily to reach max level, and then you'd have countless AA's that were considered mandatory to get before you could even begin to consider yourself anything less then pathetic..

These days you can reach max level in no time, and gear that would have made you top of the line years ago drops like candy.. You can be average without much effort..

[RobCardIV]

they give you more free content than you could ever possible explore.
the first like 80-90-100 levels are free, the last 10 levels you need to pay.
it will take you months to get to 100, unless you really know how to power level with higher level helpers.
you could play forever for free and never even notice what your missing.
if you get really serious and play all day all week and want to raid the newest boss, (newest 10 need subscription, but there are 500 other raid bosses from the last 20 years worth of content that are free).
the game is free.
so free that , the people who pay, are just doing it to be nice becaus ethey are bored and live there.

[-$ilver-]

So you can not trade with other players? You can not do the bazaar/flea market? Or you can not sell back to NPCs what you found in quests or off kills in the free version?

I started with Everquest Trilogy myself. Before that I had borrowed a thick guide book of Everquest and would read it religiously just for all the stories. The idea that every single race and class had a place and all in a 3D environment astounded me. When they said to live in their world, I believed them. "You're in our world now..." had me believing it. I was even happy with Shadows of Luclin.

But after that... it felt like EQ went down hill. Slowly at first as they took away some of the most major class differences. Like one of the magic user's ability to craft items. Or the need for another magic class for teleportation because of the books. Little things like that began to add up. Before it became free I tried another time, either a paid month or a free week or two I forget. The old starter cities were barren waste lands. I saw one person appear from the frozen tundra of the Barbarians newly born only to run off to go hunting on one of the other plains because it was easier and most likely it's guild was there to help them.

I start the free account now and I am not sure where I am at. I have no idea how to get back to, if it is even possible, to the old towns, as that is where I would want to play, even if totally by my self. And then I am given gear that are throwaways now anyway and that back in the day would of taken a person days to get a complete set of banded leather armor and although still weak, be damned proud you had it. (Names might be off.) It's just not the same now...

[Orge Lambart]

Originally posted by -$ilver-:

So you can not trade with other players? You can not do the bazaar/flea market? Or you can not sell back to NPCs what you found in quests or off kills in the free version?

I started with Everquest Trilogy myself. Before that I had borrowed a thick guide book of Everquest and would read it religiously just for all the stories. The idea that every single race and class had a place and all in a 3D environment astounded me. When they said to live in their world, I believed them. "You're in our world now..." had me believing it. I was even happy with Shadows of Luclin.

But after that... it felt like EQ went down hill. Slowly at first as they took away some of the most major class differences. Like one of the magic user's ability to craft items. Or the need for another magic class for teleportation because of the books. Little things like that began to add up. Before it became free I tried another time, either a paid month or a free week or two I forget. The old starter cities were barren waste lands. I saw one person appear from the frozen tundra of the Barbarians newly born only to run off to go hunting on one of the other plains because it was easier and most likely it's guild was there to help them.

I start the free account now and I am not sure where I am at. I have no idea how to get back to, if it is even possible, to the old towns, as that is where I would want to play, even if totally by my self. And then I am given gear that are throwaways now anyway and that back in the day would of taken a person days to get a complete set of banded leather armor and although still weak, be damned proud you had it. (Names might be off.) It's just not the same now...

you can choose to start in the new starter location they have or choose to go to your starting location.. it's an option you have to toggle while you're creating your character.. you'll eventually wind up back in your starting city, after you finish up the tutorial missions..

not a bad idea if you're rusty on how to play the game.. Also the starter area normally has quite a few players in it.. atleast it did back when I played again for a few months..

Progression servers are nice if you want that old school everquest feel... they are good until the new progression server come out and you have to switch over or watch as the numbers dwindle..

[-$ilver-]

Originally posted by Orge Lambart:

you can choose to start in the new starter location they have or choose to go to your starting location.. it's an option you have to toggle while you're creating your character.. you'll eventually wind up back in your starting city, after you finish up the tutorial missions..

not a bad idea if you're rusty on how to play the game.. Also the starter area normally has quite a few players in it.. atleast it did back when I played again for a few months..

Progression servers are nice if you want that old school everquest feel... they are good until the new progression server come out and you have to switch over or watch as the numbers dwindle..

Hmph... I kept getting started in a jungle like area after the tutorial... I did not realize there was an option to start at your old stomping grounds... I miss Tundra Jack and Iceberg...

I would prefer them to lock the servers at Trilogy or Luclin, but I guess they do not do that.

[Orge Lambart]

Originally posted by -$ilver-:

Originally posted by Orge Lambart:

you can choose to start in the new starter location they have or choose to go to your starting location.. it's an option you have to toggle while you're creating your character.. you'll eventually wind up back in your starting city, after you finish up the tutorial missions..

not a bad idea if you're rusty on how to play the game.. Also the starter area normally has quite a few players in it.. atleast it did back when I played again for a few months..

Progression servers are nice if you want that old school everquest feel... they are good until the new progression server come out and you have to switch over or watch as the numbers dwindle..

Hmph... I kept getting started in a jungle like area after the tutorial... I did not realize there was an option to start at your old stomping grounds... I miss Tundra Jack and Iceberg...

I would prefer them to lock the servers at Trilogy or Luclin, but I guess they do not do that.

I'm not sure on the progression servers some of them stop, but I think the progression stops at like Planes of Power,

As for a jungle area,, not sure what you're talking about,, I mean they have the Mines of Gloomingdeep, maybe you're thinking of the Drakans or whatever people..

Yes you can start at your starting city, I think you have to opt out of the Tutorial.

[-$ilver-]

Originally posted by Orge Lambart:

I'm not sure on the progression servers some of them stop, but I think the progression stops at like Planes of Power,

As for a jungle area,, not sure what you're talking about,, I mean they have the Mines of Gloomingdeep, maybe you're thinking of the Drakans or whatever people..

Yes you can start at your starting city, I think you have to opt out of the Tutorial.

Hmmm... well I always finished the tutorial and where ever I was teleported to seemed to have lush greenery, the exact opposite of the gloomy dungeon and it was killing the performance of my laptop. Another reason I would prefer the old stomping grounds as well. Maybe next time I will simply skip the tutorial altogether.

Anyone remember playing EQTrilogy and having lag as you went through the populated areas for trading and duels? The name escapes me now. Good times. ^^!

[KOOLLAYDTAC]

For a true free to play experience you want P99. They officially endorse this emulator so here is the link. https://www.project1999.com/ Now that being said it is classic EQ only. If your ok with that then your good. New content I'd say pop a sub eventually when the time is right for it.

[-$ilver-]

Originally posted by KOOLLAYDTAC:

For a true free to play experience you want P99. They officially endorse this emulator so here is the link. https://www.project1999.com/ Now that being said it is classic EQ only. If your ok with that then your good. New content I'd say pop a sub eventually when the time is right for it.

Except that you need the Titanium version of EQ which I have never even seen, much less owned. Why they simply did not use the original Trilogy disks, which is what the game is set up for only, the last time I bothered to check, I have no idea. I guess they thought everyone owns Titanium. Either that or the architecture would run better, I have no idea. And who is "They" that "officially" endorses this "emulator"?

[KOOLLAYDTAC]

Originally posted by -$ilver-:

Originally posted by KOOLLAYDTAC:

For a true free to play experience you want P99. They officially endorse this emulator so here is the link. https://www.project1999.com/ Now that being said it is classic EQ only. If your ok with that then your good. New content I'd say pop a sub eventually when the time is right for it.

Except that you need the Titanium version of EQ which I have never even seen, much less owned. Why they simply did not use the original Trilogy disks, which is what the game is set up for only, the last time I bothered to check, I have no idea. I guess they thought everyone owns Titanium. Either that or the architecture would run better, I have no idea. And who is "They" that "officially" endorses this "emulator"?

Well when I said they I was meaning Daybreak aka SOE mate. I just thought that was a given. Sorry I should have been more specific I guess.
https://www.everquest.com/news/project-1999-daybreak
The game then was a lot different then the game now. So I am thinking as long as they don't try to emulate the current version with any of the new content and expansions and stick with the 1999 time period they will be all right. Some people argue which is better. I personally like both for different reasons.

That being said I want to say at one point it used to be that all you needed was the Trilogy expansions. Not sure why that changed as I can't really recall. Pretty sure it's because they added some features needed from those disks though. I am not sure I can post them here, but there are iso's of the disks you can pull off Google Drive that people have linked on reddit. I've looked at and scanned at least two sets of them that came up clean in case I needed them for friends.

I've had both versions myself. I actually caught Titanium years after I got Trilogy if I remember correctly on sale at a Wal-Mart and even found a copy on Google after I had a house fire some years back, but it was basically just one of those updated packs with expansions you could get if you needed to get caught up on the game. That was before the age of digital downloads becoming a thing. Possible you just never seen it because you weren't playing it at the time or maybe just never noticed it mate.

I and I am sure anyone who plays it would be more then happy to point you or anyone interested even in the right direction you need to be if you really wanted to play that version of the game mate. Really it's just more of a question of if you want to be bothered with setting it up. It doesn't take that long, but some people just want to download their game and off they go. lol Let me know if you have anymore questions mate. Hope this helped clarify things a bit more.

[-$ilver-]

I had checked for a copy of Titanium and all were bogus, this was a few years ago however. I don't go the pirate route myself, but I have owned/still own quite a few EQ games/expansions myself and figured I would see what could be found. If I bought a used copy online, it would not of helped the creator/maintainers of EQ in the least anyway. I've heard that SOE had not tried to shut Project1999 down per say, probably because the way they did the coding for the game and that they will NOT give links to Titanium for a free download. But I have never heard that SOE was actually endorsing them, just that they had not sent that cease and desist letter yet. ^^!

[KOOLLAYDTAC]

Well the link I provided from their own web site pretty much says it all mate. It's pretty much straight from the horses mouth. Also considering the game software is a free download now days I also wouldn't say sharing those iso's is pirating either. I also wouldn't say it's hurting their pocket books any. People who play live are going to pay a subscription regardless after a certain level. That's is where their money is now made. There are essentially three flavors of EQ which is Live, Progression Servers, and P99. Really it's up to the person which one they prefer to play. If you want a legit copy of Titanium I'll be more then happy to look for those links again for you. Just let me know. If not that's fine too mate.