I miss the old EQ

[Ebins]

My name.. Ebins. Got it from my first EQ character back in '99. I was an Erudite Cleric. I haven't played in years. For all I know, my character is still there. Was on the Bertox server. I loved the Kunark expansion. I remember fighting the sarnaks and that one zone where you had the DE patrols and it was the boat over from the oasis. I lost all interest when the devs added mercs. All of a sudden, unless you were in a hard core raiding guild, clerics became useless except for rezzes. Every now and then I think about coming back... but don't see the point. The last few times I tried, everyone was boxing and the funnest part of the game (grouping) was basically gone. Those that did group hardly ever looked for a cleric. It was the only class I ever really enjoyed playing, and I played them all. Sighs... memory lane.

[Yuki Almasy]

try playing on one of the time progression servers that don't have mercs yet

[Dashurohem]

I actually think it's better now because of how much more casual it is. I too played back in 1999 and quit some time in the early 2000s, I think the expansion that came directly after PoP.
I like to play casually while watching/learning something on YouTube.
I like that when I die, I can easily recover and regroup instead of 20 years ago when death meant a lot of exp loss and exp took a lot longer to gain.
I think also that as I've become older, I value my time more and that means that I do not have the desire to spend 8 to 10 hours in a group somewhere leveling or hunting like I used to in 1999 - early 2000s.
One thing that I find fun is that I missed a decade or so of expansions and so now I have fun exploring the old expansions, doing the quests and collection achievements and hunting the named.
Something else that I find fun is they added player housing to the game and you can decorate it with furniture as well as with weapons and items that some of the named creatures drop.

And finally, something else that's fun to me is going to the old zones that I remember being extremely hard like Plane of Hate, Plane of Fear, various zones off of Plane of Tranquility and completely soloing them, places that I remember wiping out 40 member raids.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Originally posted by Dashurohem:

I actually think it's better now because of how much more casual it is. I too played back in 1999 and quit some time in the early 2000s, I think the expansion that came directly after PoP.
I like to play casually while watching/learning something on YouTube.
I like that when I die, I can easily recover and regroup instead of 20 years ago when death meant a lot of exp loss and exp took a lot longer to gain.
I think also that as I've become older, I value my time more and that means that I do not have the desire to spend 8 to 10 hours in a group somewhere leveling or hunting like I used to in 1999 - early 2000s.
One thing that I find fun is that I missed a decade or so of expansions and so now I have fun exploring the old expansions, doing the quests and collection achievements and hunting the named.
Something else that I find fun is they added player housing to the game and you can decorate it with furniture as well as with weapons and items that some of the named creatures drop.

And finally, something else that's fun to me is going to the old zones that I remember being extremely hard like Plane of Hate, Plane of Fear, various zones off of Plane of Tranquility and completely soloing them, places that I remember wiping out 40 member raids.

I think you hit the nail on the head!

[Poyzo]

Have you heard about Project 1999? It's EverQuest where the content is original, Ruins of Kunark and Scars of Velious. Nothing more. No AA, no Plane of Knowledge, no boxing. However, there is still toxicity at max level with the raid guilds.

[Ebins]

Yeah, but I've lost all of my original CD's. Since I have an account still on EQ, it still "remembers" what expansions I have.

[Konaan]

Hello. Nice to see a few other old timers here. My main was Konaan. Currently a 95 Barb War on Tunare. I signed in for the first time in I don't know how many years. Took me a while to get my old login information though. I can't really play any of my 6 chars since they are all over the F2P limit so I popped on to chat with some old guildies for a few mins. Miss those guildies.

[dragonsphotoworks]

what i miss is people... ive gone all over trying to get responses to ingame questions. And i get ONE answer an hour IF im lucky in POK. 90% of toons i see are afk in same spot for hours in all the zones.

Asked for while HOW the heck do i lvl tailoring and find recipies. never got an answer. I used to love game. and when realised was still going i wanted to buy all the expacks and get sub again... glad i tried f2p first. And finding info on google didnt lead me anywhere. All the sites on recipies simply listed them. didnt say where or HOW to get them. And the tailoring guide i found said to buy from tradeskill book vender... he had none.

EQ has deffintly gone down hill far as i can see so far. No groups, no chatting, no info....

also if not in large guild with full banks.. forget gearing up as new player with out a high lvl alt. Saw lvl 15 gear going for 100+ plat. even vender prices been highly raised.

[Cadwalader]

Completely agree with @dragonsphotoworks and @ebins. I used to play EQ back in 1999. Did Kunark... best time of my life. Yes, game wasn't casual... you had to sit for 20 mins if you missed the boat in Freeport ... and then you worked on some other skill. You did your corpse run and you hated it... but I want that back... SO BAD. I've been eyeing Pantheon, Rise of the Fallen and I keep hoping they'll ever come out of alpha build.In EQ you had to have skills. The game didn't just do everything for you. The game punished you for sucking. Your name, your reputation, your skill level was worth something. Made some of the best friends in that game. There was NO problem sitting in a camp for 15-20 minutes waiting for the next spawn, just talking ... just talking about everything imaginable. Tell stories, pass the time, POP ... slaughter the mobs and back to talking. The community was awesome. It was like living in a small town, everyone knew everyone. ... I wanna go back there :) ... even if I have to do hour long corpse runs!

[dragonsphotoworks]

Ya and knowing a recipe was some thing. you had to know what recipe was to make some thing. Didnt mind that too much. made your item more likely be worth some thing. Not current 1,000000 plat costs like see in bazaar now. but reasonable prices.

Community is what made this game before. sitting there working on figuring out a recipe while chating with dozens of people in the zone... Always some one to chat with or group with. People would help as well when needed. Now need have huge guilds "not always helps" or have close friends who play.

Ive met a couple great players recently and that made game more fun. but stil 95% of time im solo and not chattin as no one to talk to. Thats what bothers me most is you get feeling every one out for them selves and not interested in others. "Not saying thats it... just how feels at times".

[Dashurohem]

One thing that I do think was better back then is that it felt like a more coherent world where one could explore and uncover new things. I remember as a dark elf making my way through the commonlands, past the deserts and into the Innothule swamp where I found the dungeon of Guk. I was surprised too when I learned that there was even another zone within Guk called Lower Guk. I even remember making the dangerous journey through highpass hold and coming out of the plains of Karana on the other side and it feeling like a true adventure.

Comparing those memories with the state of the game now, at least the map - it feels like a mishmash of zones just put out there that aren't really connected to each other, especially with expansions that were connected to some of the original zones.

[Ebins]

Cadwater, Dragonsphotoworks and Dashuroham, I agree with you all 100%! I remember when I first entered into the game, I decided to make a DE cleric. I was playing with a friend who had made a warrior. When we finally got into Nek forest, we were confused as heck. The zone was packed, and there was an Ogre there who literally spent 40 minutes teaching us the ropes of the game.. how to use /loc etc. It was all about the community, and YEs the game DID punish you for making a mistake. Corpse runs were horrible. I well remember taking the boat over from freeport and making the run to LOIO. I hated running through those dang arachnids, but when I made it, it felt like such an achievement. Heck, even when I made my first run from Qeynos to Freeport, I was a lvl 10 cleric dodging lions and such. I remember a kind ranger who tossed a sow on me and that really helped. Kith was a nightmare at night and running through HK pass was also very confusing. There were no maps at all except what you could find on line. Knowing zones brought along a sense of accomplishment. The whole world seemed huge. I remember wizards and druids selling their services for ports and everyone who could selling binds. I usually gave mine away for free. Made lots of friends. Now the game is way to easy. You don't need to make corpse runs any more, there are in game maps, teleports lost their signifigance and just about all of the late comers never knew the thrill of having to make long runs through dangerous areas. I remember completing my first quest as a Cleric of Prexis. I got some sort of magical hammer (can't even remember the name now). I had to do every step but man, it was a huge feeling of pride when completed! Nowif you have enough plat, you can gear up your character fromt he get go. No, even with the corpse runs, the long tims sitting staring at your spellbook playing /gems to regain mana (clarity really meant a lot back then) and just chatting... I want THOSE back, not what we got now. THAT was EQ. Not this stuff! Update the graphics all you want, but when you take away from the actual gameplay, you take away from the game itself! You can only "pretty up" a pile of turd to much.. and you know what? It'll still be a pile of turd!

[Ebins]

I was so thrilled when my Sense Direction skill reached 100! Seriously, THAT was an achievement!

[dragonsphotoworks]

The game as become a jumbled mess. The map is fragmented no real path from one spot to another that makes sense. once can start farming plat you ok. But untill then prices in bazaar are out of new player ranges.

But i have to update my prior msg... In POK if are there at right times you CAN find very helpful people. I was on for first time this morning. normaly i get on late. Had one person help me farm hill giants for couple hours! gaiin bunch of lvls and ton pf plat.

I then went to pok to save buffs and check out bazaar "wasnt to hopeful". But i forgot what gear set was for my lvl so asked in /ooc. It took a little bit but i got a answer. And person helped me out. Next thing i knew couple others popped up out of no where in private msgs offering some items my lvl. so ended up with bunch of upgrades and a gift of plat to buy my spells. I turned down a couple offers as was too high lvl gear for me. But still had a couple pieces given to me for when i was higher lvl. Also even more important i was given some information on game. And prior had some one help me do 3 of the trophy quests for tradeskills!

Now i will say game has many failings now. And is hard to find people. BUT when do find people they seem to be extremely friendly and helpful. Met the 4th or 5th top shaman on my server. And normally would expect person to be stuck up like in other games. They spent hours helping me with my trophy quests. Helped me get large capacity backpacks and bags for bank. And wanted help me go get item that would help me when lvling massivily "sadly it was late and i had to log" and offered help me lvl.

While i still have grips against game. If can find some people your likely to find ones willing to help out a new player. When find some it will completely change your night. I was having bad last few days almost quit. couldnt make progress and was very frustrated.

But persn spending hours just to help me get exp and plat. Another helping with trophy quests, And others comeing out of blue to help with gear. Plus the friendly chat and tips turned it around for me. I actually logged of in end happy and looking forward to playing today!

So i suggest strongly to new players like me. it wont be easy but try to find people that are active or guilds. And it will make world of difference for you. The negatives of game still be there, but wont effect you as badly if have people to play with. Seems its very time based. Have to find right time on your servers for active people. With out my guild and friends ive been able to make. Id probably quit game after couple days.

[crypticmetaphor]

small world, i was on Bertox too.

[asnjas19]

Old timers hitting that nostalgia a little to hard.

Id never go back to old eq, forget that. Punishing corpse runs, level demotions, zero quality of life improvements.

Sense heading was a painful joke. Anyone praising a skill that acts as nothing more than a compass, that needs to be trained else it reliably fails and is trained by standing there and repeatedly pressing a button until grass growing boredom sets in, has no business contributing ideas for a game other people play to enjoy.