Bored or Nostalgic? Everquest: Time Locked Progression Server - Fippy Darkpaw

[philefluxx]

So EQ is still a modeled purchase+sub, but EQ2 is F2P?

[jearle]

Yes, EQ1 also has a much larger subscriber base, there are a surprising number of people who have never unsubscribed which is pretty amazing to me.

EQ2 is F2P for some of the content but not all, also EQ2 is in my opinion horrible and EQ1 (in its old school form through first few xpacs) is a better game.

[Always Z]

Was mask of the deceiver (been a while.. think that's the name) ever made useable to all classes like it was way long ago in this server? Or was it always the changed version only useable by rogue/bard. Was lucky enough to get a copy on my paladin before they changed it originally. Kept it and used it often throughout my time playing EQ.

[masterprtzl]

Sweet, when I last checked out the progression server it was still on vanilla.

[Radoria]

I'm surprised I haven't heard of this before. I'll definitely check it out. Though frankly, I hope most of you don't, because WoW has the most selfish community any game has ever seen in the history of gaming, and Everquest's had probably the best. I'm not trying to be a jerk but, to anyone that played both EQ and WoW for years, you can't even begin to compare the communities.

[jearle]

Was mask of the deceiver (been a while.. think that's the name) ever made useable to all classes like it was way long ago in this server? Or was it always the changed version only useable by rogue/bard. Was lucky enough to get a copy on my paladin before they changed it originally. Kept it and used it often throughout my time playing EQ.

The DE mask? 1 of 2 things happened, either they changed it when the server was released, or they left it in its original form pre-kunark then changed it.

My guess is it is in the changed form. Not everything is exactly as it was, there are no corpse runs and the spells for casters are spread amongst levels instead of getting a batch every 4-6 levels.

---------- Post added 2011-09-01 at 08:52 AM ----------

I'm surprised I haven't heard of this before. I'll definitely check it out. Though frankly, I hope most of you don't, because WoW has the most selfish community any game has ever seen in the history of gaming, and Everquest's had probably the best. I'm not trying to be a jerk but, to anyone that played both EQ and WoW for years, you can't even begin to compare the communities.

I agree, although anyone with an open mind who wants to see where and how it all started might want to check it out. Might make you appreciate the evolution of the gameplay of their current MMO.

The people you refer to are immediately apparent, asking newb questions and then responding "Why do you have to..... You mean you have to.... That's stupid....."

There is actually a WoW emulator UI skin that I put on my wife's computer (she has never played eq) it is actually really cool looking. I myself am a longtime Quartz UI fan when it comes to EQ, but the default ui is much different now.

The community aspect of it is really nice though, I enjoy meeting nice people when I group and chatting and stuff. Camping rare spawns is really fun to me, it can be frustrating of course but it adds in an element of randomness that is great.

Kikkyikky is my monks name and I am in a small casual leveling guild, feel free to whisper me in game.

[Drakhar]

Somehow I feel horrible knowing I remember all this so clearly... oh god the time spent in lower guk... I NEVER saw a FBSS in any of my many many hours spent on that frog.

My life was complete when I got mine and equipped it proudly. Also, same feeling on the bolded, that's what happens when you invest this much time in a game. (A GREAT game, that is)

I am pretty much only playing to get a chance to go back and camp lower guk again, I love that place so much. Its a love hate relationship.

Yeah, likewise. I'm pretty sure I spent more time in LGuk than anywhere else in the game. Devoted straight up DAYS of my life there pre-Kunark. Not to mention I was a Paladin so I camped the Shin Lord in UGuk for my Ghoulbane... twice. Hate that place so much, yet brought all my alts there. Seriously, this game just turns you into a raging masochist. And you like it. Please sir, can I have another.

Hmmm so easy grouping eh? Maybe I'll go with a class I never leveled very far, like Enchanter/Shaman/Cleric. I was only leaning Druid/Necro/Bard because I expected long solo grinds

Wow, I completely forgot about the exp cap.

EQ2 is F2P for some of the content but not all, also EQ2 is in my opinion horrible and EQ1 (in its old school form through first few xpacs) is a better game.

The undeniable truth right here. EQ2 made me cry when I picked it over WoW oh so many years ago...

I'm surprised I haven't heard of this before. I'll definitely check it out. Though frankly, I hope most of you don't, because WoW has the most selfish community any game has ever seen in the history of gaming, and Everquest's had probably the best. I'm not trying to be a jerk but, to anyone that played both EQ and WoW for years, you can't even begin to compare the communities.

While that's sooo true, the vanilla WoW community was exponentially better than it is now. The EQ community just didn't degenerate like WoW's did. Sounds like those old school players are back, I'm gonna DL the game tomorrow. Really excited to come back, haha.

[jearle]

I have seen 1 cleric, 0 wizards, 1 mage, 1 rogue while grouping from 5-25 and watching the LFG in all channels this is about right. Tons of Druids, Necro, Shm, Rangers, and Monks with the other classes about normal.

It all comes down to playing what you enjoy, but this is a pretty good assessment of popular classes if you want to get an idea.

[Drakhar]

Pretty much what I expected. Except Rangers. WTF? Rangers? Did I miss something? Did they make bow combat viable?

Got it narrowed down to Bard/Cleric/Magician/Shadow Knight/Enchanter now. Can't do Wizard or Rogue since those were my two most played alts, avoiding those classes like the plague along with my wonderful main's class, the constantly struggling Paladin.

I honestly think the WoW devs who designed the Paladin class played them in EQ, and reminiscing about their fits of rage, made sure the class was outrageously OP.

[jearle]

No idea on Rangers but i have run into a bunch of them. Almost rolled a Halfling one myself again but Ive been dying to play a monk for a long time and boxing with my wife's shaman or grouping with her works well.

I haven't seen alot of SK's but everyone crys about them being OP or some shit, some people are dual boxing them. I haven't had the time or the inclination to find out why.

Magicians would be best if you want to solo while looking for groups, they are pretty beast. Their epic quest has alot of rare quest spawns too, which as frustrating as it is, is fun to me lol.

[Drakhar]

Haha trust me, you don't have to tell me about rare spawns. I'm in the same boat though, it's kinda fun, and when it pops it's that much more rewarding. When I came back for the first round of progression servers I played a magician/necromancer team with a friend, OP as hell. The Bard is really calling to me right now though.

[jearle]

If you do hit me up in game Im low level but i might have something sitting around that can help.

New server economy is pretty awesome for low level players though, 1p per bone chip, 2p per spider silk. It is pretty easy to stack some cash if youre willing to sit in EC and sell to the big buyers.

[Drakhar]

I'm gonna start downloading now.

How do I get the 45 day credit? Does it do it automatically when I log in for the first time? Their website is hideous and quite unhelpful, updated my account info (yay I wasn't hacked in the past 8 years) but saw no links except to try to charge me $14.99+.

Also it looks like there's a second progression server sitting in Kunark still, I may jump on that one since I'd like to be as close to classic as possible. If there's a big population difference (or some other factor that makes it unappealing?) I'll definitely go to Fippy.

[jearle]

Huge population difference, I would suggest going to Fippy. The other servers lower levels are like ghost towns from what I hear and I would imagine a number of their player base has re-rolled on Fippy. Although if you're interested in raiding the other server is probably dying for some end game raiders.

The 45 day credit is just active already , it should say something like 45 day non-recurring on your account when you log into station.

[Deleted]

I want to try EQ now... Never played it tho, will it be "hard" for me to start playing it? :P

[jearle]

It is an extremely simple game in some aspects, ui, gameplay. In others it is extremely frustrating, difficult, and grindy.

If you have played any mmo you can play EQ, it just doesn't have the bells and whistles that the new MMO's have. Remember games like WoW took alot of aspects from EQ and made them alot better. EQ has has some serious old school ~2000 graphics.

Give it a try, what can it hurt really.

Was kind of funny when I told my wife how the quests work, you actually have to say things to NPCs to trigger and move quests along. There is no clicking and going.
You can also attack any NPC in the game, even your own guards.

Every race except Iksar has newbie armor quests which will last a long long time 30-40 if you dont have a higher level feeding armor, these are not easy to complete and will take a good amount of time across several levels.

Melee classes are extremely basic, 2 buttons, maybe 3. Casters have more spells but mana is a pain at low levels. It is a group centric game, you can solo but it is extremely slow going (depending on the class) and grouping always yields more XP.

There are very very few BoP items in the game outside of Raids. Everything is tradeable, forever, nothing binds to your toon for the most part. No level requirements on gear for the most part either, so you could literally fully twink a level 1 in level 55-60 gear.

Mobs don't drop aggro either. My wife couldn't believe this but it is a true part of the game. Enemies will chase you across an entire zone for 20 minutes until you zone out, die, or a guard kills it/you kill it.

Classic EQ also had class specific Epic quests, that took weeks to months to complete most needing 1 or more EXTREMELY rare drops from rare spawns and 1 or more Raid boss encounters. This gear lasted for a long time in most cases and was never replaces.

There is no raid ui, there arent raids. Since everything is open world you could literally throw hundreds of people at raid bosses. There at a time were guilds labeled Zerg guilds that would simply throw numbers at bosses and try to get kills.

I was in a few raids that had over 100 people, its pretty awesome, even though it is near impossible to have any clue WTF is going as a raid leader.

EQ is pretty hardcore in some ways, its a throwback to a different time in MMOs.

[Deleted]

I installed EQ2 Free Version and... It's weird... It's simple but somewhat difficult to learn when you are so used to WoW :x

[Drakhar]

Well, went to get the game and saw:

For all other customers, your time begins upon your first login to each of the relevant games. Customers must login by 11:59 pm PST August 31, 2011 to claim the game time.

Missed it by a day that's what I get for waffling. Sooo then I went and emailed them, counting on the slight chance that SOE's customer service had improved since 2003, maybe they had learned that part of Blizzard's success is in their customer service? I let them know how I had just found out about the welcome back, intersted in progression servers, would like to give it a try, etc etc. See the response this morning that literally amounted to "lolol too bad so sad." Ahhh yes, and my nostalgia trip for this game was complete. Not the first time I've gotten that response from them, all the shit I had to deal with with GMs - besides never being online to solve your problems, items disappearing, items decaying, bugged ass bosses, so on and so forth came back to me. And to think there was actually a time when I thought SOE >= Blizzard Entertainment. Shameful.

Basically, imad, QQQQQ, fuck SOE/Sony in general, there's no way in hell I'm paying them a cent. GL getting anyone interested in EQNext, you useless assholes.

/endrant, cya guys in SW:TOR/GW2.

[jearle]

That sucks man, sorry to hear it.

It is pretty laughable seeing the "flavor of the month" mmo players give EQ a try. It is so much more frustrating and difficult than anything you could imagine today and when one complains about it in a public channel they get railed.

Playing through the old stuff is still pretty fun for anyone else still interested, lots of folks leveling and starting new toons.

[Joey Ray III]

that's pretty cool. shit like this is most likely coming to wow in a couple of years as well.