Old School EverQuest

[Ulfhedinn]

The epicness of Ever Quest with WoW mechanics and you've got yourself a fucking winner.

Funny I was just thinking this. If someone would copy the basic gameplay of WoW(character movement, UI, scripted bosses) and basically keep the rest of EQ (Classes, story, community, giant areas and fear of death) I would be in heaven.

[Coombs]

Funny I was just thinking this. If someone would copy the basic gameplay of WoW(character movement, UI, scripted bosses) and basically keep the rest of EQ (Classes, story, community, giant areas and fear of death) I would be in heaven.

Exactly. The fluid play that warcraft has and all of the truly epic properties of original EQ and it might not get 11million subscribers, but it will get 500k quality subscribers.

[MillorTime]

I loved reading this thread. I played from around launch to just after LDoN and raided on my 65 rogue mainly in PoP, with a few other twinks I made after striking it rich in Bastion of Thunder. I think the biggest thing I remember about this game was how...plain user unfriendly it was. There were so many aspects of that game that made it hard for the player, but that was part of its charm and the challenge. I remember a guild was doing some part of an epic quest in city of mist, beyond doors that required a rogue to pick the lock. They apparently had someone open it but wiped and didn't have a rogue with them and couldnt retrieve their bodies. They paid me 5k plat (which was a ton for me at the time) to drag all 50 of their corpses out.


I loved the Epic Quest system in EQ, and wish they did that more in WoW (or future games for that matter). My own epic quest was not so epic, though. It took me approximately 4-5 hours, from beginning to end, to finish my rogue epic quest during SoV. Got a super lucky drop on one spawn, which cut out having to get rare drop robes from 4 different dungeons, along with everything else being spawned when I had to interact with it. I had a monk friend that camped one piece of his epic quest for like 100 hours, and I'm sure many other have horror stories as well.

[Ulfhedinn]

I loved reading this thread. I played from around launch to just after LDoN and raided on my 65 rogue mainly in PoP, with a few other twinks I made after striking it rich in Bastion of Thunder. I think the biggest thing I remember about this game was how...plain user unfriendly it was. There were so many aspects of that game that made it hard for the player, but that was part of its charm and the challenge. I remember a guild was doing some part of an epic quest in city of mist, beyond doors that required a rogue to pick the lock. They apparently had someone open it but wiped and didn't have a rogue with them and couldnt retrieve their bodies. They paid me 5k plat (which was a ton for me at the time) to drag all 50 of their corpses out.


I loved the Epic Quest system in EQ, and wish they did that more in WoW (or future games for that matter). My own epic quest was not so epic, though. It took me approximately 4-5 hours, from beginning to end, to finish my rogue epic quest during SoV. Got a super lucky drop on one spawn, which cut out having to get rare drop robes from 4 different dungeons, along with everything else being spawned when I had to interact with it. I had a monk friend that camped one piece of his epic quest for like 100 hours, and I'm sure many other have horror stories as well.

The only problems with the epic quests was that some of the quests where not epic and some of the weapons where not epic. Many classes only used theirs for show because of how much they sucked. I was a bard so mine was both useful and a pain to get... drops from dragons that everyone on the server is fighting for... good times.

As for user unfriendly... Nothing was explained... nothing. You had to read about it outside of the game OR talk with someone in the game to find out how things worked. I knew so many people that drowned when they first started. It has been pointed out here already but everyone died at least once because they turned on auto attack trying to talk to a guard. Maps? we don't need no stinking maps... sometimes I wonder why so many people played the game.

[MillorTime]

Maps? we don't need no stinking maps... sometimes I wonder why so many people played the game.

Oh god that brought back nightmares of spamming my /loc hotkey trying to find the entrance to old sebelis. I think that was my favorite zone of them all though.

[Ulfhedinn]

Oh god that brought back nightmares of spamming my /loc hotkey trying to find the entrance to old sebelis. I think that was my favorite zone of them all though.

And that brought back nightmares of trying to find my body. I once died on my ranger in iceclad and had no idea where I was. I had to wait for about an hour for my friend to come find me corpse. After that I always tried to hit my /loc hotkey before I died or if I thought I might die just so I could find myself.

[Coombs]

And that brought back nightmares of trying to find my body. I once died on my ranger in iceclad and had no idea where I was. I had to wait for about an hour for my friend to come find me corpse. After that I always tried to hit my /loc hotkey before I died or if I thought I might die just so I could find myself.

My friends made characters in Qeynos so I had to walk from Freeport to Qeynos on a level 10 or w/e. I died many times in the karanas and had to find a way to get my corpse back. I made a monk so I wouldn't have to worry about dying ever again.

[Tharkkun]

Understatement of the century (all 3 parts)

Anyone who complains about any aspect of WoW should be forced to play EQ. You will never hear another negative comment out of them again.

Correction: Kill credit goes to the player/group that did the most damage to the mob, not who had the last hit. Plenty of experience with this on my wizzy. Also, pretty sure EC tunnel was more popular than all of GFay... until Luclin and the Bazaar RUINED EVERYTHING!

I miss classic EQ and my good old blind human. Remember what happened when it rained? FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Will SoW for clarity.



Ahhh, yes. Plane of Fear. My favorite. How did that go again? Something like...
Cazic-Thule shouts, "Drakhar! You must DIE!"
Cazic-Thule's death touch hits YOU for 9001 damage!
You have been slain by Cazic-Thule.
LOADING, PLEASE WAIT...

Oh and while I'm on the topic, the WoW trolls who /emote to tell people to type /afk in BGs got nothing. Remember when someone would do a /shout and say "a mountain giant punches YOU for 256 points of damage!" and your heart would skip a beat? Good times.

I recall the first time breaking into the Plane of Fear. Before everyone had planes gear! We had 7-8 groups of people and would invis one group and send them in. Pray invisibility didn't drop because it was a random duration or that a patrol came through that could see through it. Then you would run to the east wall and wait!

If you were unlucky your whole group would be slaughtered. You would sit there for 45 minutes while each group broke through and someone would eventually drag your corpse to the main group for a Resurrection. You would then slowly proceed to pull 1 mob at a time clearing a safe zone towards each boss.

Patrols would respawn every 8 minutes so you were always on guard, looking behind your back. It was very stressful.

I played on the server which had all the Blizzard employees, LOS which was run by Rob Pardo and Tigole for quite some time. It wasn't until they left the game to start on Wow that people really put two and two together as to who they really were. They were the hardcore!

[Bobdanjoe]

Another thing I miss about EQ...

Buffs.

Unique buffs that actually matter. I mean WoW buffs are ok, but they're nothing like EQ buffs...literally enchanter buffs would double your dps (and regen), healer buffs would more than double your survivability/regen heals for the win!

I know they did some slight homogenization later on, but for the most part buffs were unique and awesome, and if your class didn't have sweet buffs they were a stellar dps (or the only true tank, go warrior!). Or you could solo well, which was rare in that game. Necro/mage/wiz comes to mind - and druids had the best of all worlds!

Not to mention honest to goodness debuff classes. Something that WoW has lost completely...and that was my favorite role to play. CC and slows, oh how I miss the enchanter. Shaman wouldn't have the CC, but they'd have the slows, which being buffs in reverse, were just as epic as buffs!

/cry

[ro9ue]

This thread was a really great read. I played EQ from Kunark release up until somewhere in the Gates of Discord or Omens of War area. At which point I started heavily playing WC3. Then I saw my first screenshot of WoW's stranglethorn vale and knew WoW was going to be a nice combination of what I loved from WC3 and EQ... and it was. Vanilla raiding, which as insanely painful it seems compared to current raiding, was SO much easier than EQ raiding.

I want to just bring up a few things I miss about EQ hopefully I'll hit some memories.

1) Camping an alt somewhere on a mountain or wherever and then running your main there to drop off items for him. When you logged back onto your alt, there would 'hopefully' be a little brown bag there with your stuff and maybe a coin or two representing the money you dropped. I actually knew my friends camp spot and hid there when he was doing a trade and snagged his shit. He was freaking out!

2) The world felt like a familiar place. You actually went out into the world and for most players the best thing you could do for traveling long distance was get a 'SoW' or spirit of the wolf.

3) Kithicor Forest. At night it turned into an undead infested area, god I loved the night and day differences with some places. Some mobs only spawned at a certain time of day.

4) Seeing other people in your dungeons (pre LDoN). Sure it could be a pain sometimes, but honestly I loved it. The world had life to it, which is far more than I can say for WoW.

5) EQ wasn't made to be a popular thing, just a virtual world with obscure objectives for you to go with your friends. The gameplay itself was horrible and I don't think anyone could dispute that. What made EQ what it was, was the primary focus was the community. You could barely get past level 10 without a group. Your reputation mattered so you tried not to be a dick, and people would just walk by, buff you/help you for no reason at all. The game itself took a back seat to the community.

6) Druid buffs when leveling. I remember when buffs actually felt like they made a difference. Having a nice high level wood elf druid run by and spot you a Chloro, Thorn Shield and SoW. Powerleveling was a huge thing in this game and having a high level bud felt great. Thing is, you didn't even really need a RL bud or anything, people were sometimes just so kind I could count multiple times having a random druid passing by and just helping me for no reason at all. Great community.

7) Boon of the Garou. Turned you into a werewolf. Nuff said.

8) Differences between classes and races. If you went from say a Dark Elf Necromancer to a Human Warrior... the game felt different. You couldn't go to certain areas based on your diety/race and just certain things.... the Dark Elves had Ultravision which means you could see at night the best and a Human needed a torch or light source. All of the spells were so different (obviously except between a hybrid and it's corresponding pure caster) and a new character just felt like you could experience a whole new game.

9) No linear questing. Although I think the grind in EQ was absurd, I liked that there were always multiple options where to go to level. In WoW it seems like you have maybe 2-3 zones where you have to be for a certain level, and because of how the quests work, you usually just stick to 1 zone for 1-2 levels because you want that end of the chain blue item. I think both of these games will be topped by the likes of GW2 where you could go wherever you want and just get involved in dynamic events, but we will see.

10) Twinking. In this game, if you wanted to play an alt, you get a fungi tunic. The regen compared to say WoW eating food, was pretty much laughable, but in EQ this was the best thing ever for twinking. Also the ability to buy items that were level 50-60 without a level restriction, or items with a straight HP bonus meant you were fucking unkillable at your level. Twinking just felt much more powerful.

11) I played a paladin, and I had a Deepwater Helm. You got this helm to keep casting whatever that spell was on yourself to heal up free of mana. It took like 20 casts but the mana saved was worth it lol.

12) Old school, pre luclin models. I don't think you can ever top the old school models of the Troll and Ogre. Fucking awesome

13) Ambiguos level requirement for raids. I remember not having to be a max level for people to invite me to raids. My buddy was I believe level 60 doing the Velious raids and invited me, a level 47 or something to go there with him. It was great as a low level paladin rolling with a Frostreaver Axe (from Dain)

14) EC Tunnel. WTS bags full of random stuff at Torch 2, open trade to see what I got.

15) Lake of Ill Omen. Since leveling was so hard I ended up with a bunch of level 25-30s or so. I saw a lot of this place. The windmill camp, goblin camps and sarnak castle were such fun places to explore. Then there was that close zone with the Forest Giant castle, and you would see a few level 25-ish groups and one level 50 druid looking for his Forest Loop earring.

I actually went back to play EQ last year or so and it was still great. The community was still awesome, but what I didn't like was some of the changes... there was a lot to catch up on. And seeing some old school places, like EC tunnel, completely revamped was kind of disappointing. I actually just recovered my password while reading this thread, might go back and try it again.

[Ulfhedinn]

This thread was a really great read. I played EQ from Kunark release up until somewhere in the Gates of Discord or Omens of War area. At which point I started heavily playing WC3. Then I saw my first screenshot of WoW's stranglethorn vale and knew WoW was going to be a nice combination of what I loved from WC3 and EQ... and it was. Vanilla raiding, which as insanely painful it seems compared to current raiding, was SO much easier than EQ raiding.

I want to just bring up a few things I miss about EQ hopefully I'll hit some memories.

1) Camping an alt somewhere on a mountain or wherever and then running your main there to drop off items for him. When you logged back onto your alt, there would 'hopefully' be a little brown bag there with your stuff and maybe a coin or two representing the money you dropped. I actually knew my friends camp spot and hid there when he was doing a trade and snagged his shit. He was freaking out!

2) The world felt like a familiar place. You actually went out into the world and for most players the best thing you could do for traveling long distance was get a 'SoW' or spirit of the wolf.

3) Kithicor Forest. At night it turned into an undead infested area, god I loved the night and day differences with some places. Some mobs only spawned at a certain time of day.

4) Seeing other people in your dungeons (pre LDoN). Sure it could be a pain sometimes, but honestly I loved it. The world had life to it, which is far more than I can say for WoW.

5) EQ wasn't made to be a popular thing, just a virtual world with obscure objectives for you to go with your friends. The gameplay itself was horrible and I don't think anyone could dispute that. What made EQ what it was, was the primary focus was the community. You could barely get past level 10 without a group. Your reputation mattered so you tried not to be a dick, and people would just walk by, buff you/help you for no reason at all. The game itself took a back seat to the community.

6) Druid buffs when leveling. I remember when buffs actually felt like they made a difference. Having a nice high level wood elf druid run by and spot you a Chloro, Thorn Shield and SoW. Powerleveling was a huge thing in this game and having a high level bud felt great. Thing is, you didn't even really need a RL bud or anything, people were sometimes just so kind I could count multiple times having a random druid passing by and just helping me for no reason at all. Great community.

7) Boon of the Garou. Turned you into a werewolf. Nuff said.

8) Differences between classes and races. If you went from say a Dark Elf Necromancer to a Human Warrior... the game felt different. You couldn't go to certain areas based on your diety/race and just certain things.... the Dark Elves had Ultravision which means you could see at night the best and a Human needed a torch or light source. All of the spells were so different (obviously except between a hybrid and it's corresponding pure caster) and a new character just felt like you could experience a whole new game.

9) No linear questing. Although I think the grind in EQ was absurd, I liked that there were always multiple options where to go to level. In WoW it seems like you have maybe 2-3 zones where you have to be for a certain level, and because of how the quests work, you usually just stick to 1 zone for 1-2 levels because you want that end of the chain blue item. I think both of these games will be topped by the likes of GW2 where you could go wherever you want and just get involved in dynamic events, but we will see.

10) Twinking. In this game, if you wanted to play an alt, you get a fungi tunic. The regen compared to say WoW eating food, was pretty much laughable, but in EQ this was the best thing ever for twinking. Also the ability to buy items that were level 50-60 without a level restriction, or items with a straight HP bonus meant you were fucking unkillable at your level. Twinking just felt much more powerful.

11) I played a paladin, and I had a Deepwater Helm. You got this helm to keep casting whatever that spell was on yourself to heal up free of mana. It took like 20 casts but the mana saved was worth it lol.

12) Old school, pre luclin models. I don't think you can ever top the old school models of the Troll and Ogre. Fucking awesome

13) Ambiguos level requirement for raids. I remember not having to be a max level for people to invite me to raids. My buddy was I believe level 60 doing the Velious raids and invited me, a level 47 or something to go there with him. It was great as a low level paladin rolling with a Frostreaver Axe (from Dain)

14) EC Tunnel. WTS bags full of random stuff at Torch 2, open trade to see what I got.

15) Lake of Ill Omen. Since leveling was so hard I ended up with a bunch of level 25-30s or so. I saw a lot of this place. The windmill camp, goblin camps and sarnak castle were such fun places to explore. Then there was that close zone with the Forest Giant castle, and you would see a few level 25-ish groups and one level 50 druid looking for his Forest Loop earring.

I actually went back to play EQ last year or so and it was still great. The community was still awesome, but what I didn't like was some of the changes... there was a lot to catch up on. And seeing some old school places, like EC tunnel, completely revamped was kind of disappointing. I actually just recovered my password while reading this thread, might go back and try it again.

Old school EQ Ogre looked like a giant cartman. I still remember the first orge I saw, it was in the karanas. People invited me to kill bandits with them, I found them and was looking around to see was around us. I turned around and there was this HUGE ugly thing standing there.... it was awesome. I also remember large races having problems getting stuck in places and needing shrink.

[Bobdanjoe]

...must fight project 1999..........kjalsjflsdf school is more important - I seriously might have to try it though.

[Lenerien]

I am now on P1999 and playing my favorite class Shadow Knight. Thank You for this post. Just shows how easy wow is. I lost 2 lvls last night trying to get my body back cause i didnt put any PP in bank to get soul stones.

LOVED IT>

[killerb141]

This thread needs to be brought back!

I remember Everquest as insanely amazing. I started playing this game when I was 8 years old on an Windows 95 PC. I watched my brother play this for a few months and eventually got to try it myself. This game was absolutely insane back when it was first released. A total mind-blowing experience at 8 years old. I started on a warrior and leveled it into the 50s before I realized how I was playing a very hard class. 2 years in I bought a necromancer from a guy and leveled it from 45, after years of seeing them be an amazing class. I then started playing the necromancer seriously for almost 6 years. Fear kited just about everything imaginable. Kited and soloed that huge turtle in that place near Eastern Wastes... I did almost every single zone or raid besides Veeshan's Peak in the game before I quit (x-pac after instances were released) which is an amazing concept...that a /played of 400 days and I still had not seen/killed everything. I spent years farming...Kael Drakkel, Icewell Keep, Western Wastes ...Zlandicar (never ever ever saw him ever in 6 years?!?!?!?!)...Sontalak ...farming velium in Velketors Labyrinth. Got to watch a monk solo Plane of Fear for Amulet of Necropolis because Dread (i think?) doesnt death touch. Got to do insane wipes in Plane of Fear. Almost lost my body with only a day or so from rotting after a DC in PoFear.

I had managed to do insane things that makes WoW look so easy. I remember soloing Trakanon after almost a year of trying to find him up. I mean seriously...there is nothing like soloing Trakanon in any game in existence. I knew a bard named Astuce on Innoruuk server which is now Nameless that was able to solo or duo anything in this game. He learned how to play a bard unlike any other person I have ever seen. He had a science to what he was capable of doing...twisting songs and just pushing that class in a way that I have never heard anyone do before. I knew a guy who 4 box'd and along with my necro...we could do King Tormax and NTOV and amazing fights like that.

Spent 7 years playing this game. Loved every minute of it. Was totally addicted and wow did this game take up a lot of time but - worth it!

And then instances came out and ruined the game. Now I'm on WoW The end

Btw - character name in Everquest is Dreake on Stromm server.

[Height]

I have very fond memories of EQ.

I miss having my class feel important and the difficulty which helped enforced social interaction and grouping. It was nice just camping a spot and being able to get to know your group members. It didn't bother me you had to meditate for mana. The game was just great for creating a social environment that I don't really get from the newer online games.

[Sj]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...P-restrictions