Support NeoGAF

[ShadyMilkman]

Oh fun, EQ stories.

My first real character was a human monk named Athdorei Aurora. From level 46 to 59 I only left Karnor's Castle to sell gems that I had collected or to stock back up on fish rolls and drink. One day I logged directly into one of KCs many, many trains. Instead of training left as they were supposed to do, the offender trained the right exit and got several AFKers killed. I logged in just as several other people entered. We quickly grouped up and took on the train, barely defeating it. Lost in the train was the fact that one monster was the drolvarg warlord who just happened to be carrying a Tranquil Staff, pretty much the ultimate monk item at the time. I was lucky enough to win the drop (people actually cheered). I still have that T-staff to this day in my bank. I will never sell it.

My other favorite time is the first raid boss I tanked with my warrior, Tormax the giant king of Kael Drakkal. The monks pulled him perfectly from amongst several other giants, I hit him with an arrow and my heart stopped as he thundered towards me. Just in time I remembered to hit Furious which allowed me to riposte every attack made on me for the first ten seconds. I got a few early procs with my Blade of Carnage, sealing aggro. Right as Furious dropped and my health began to plummet the first of the Complete Heal chains hit me. It was a narrow escape. I turned on defensive, called assist and experienced the most glorious several minutes of my gaming life. I scrolled all the way out to see my tiny, shrunken wood-elf warrior being attacked by a towering giant with a full 30-40 people attacking him from behind. That 72 people coordinated so well to keep me alive and take him down was just one of those times that you get the chills at how heroic it is, kinda like the Ride of the Rohirrim or something. It's a stupid video game, I know, but it didn't really feel like it at the time.

Oh, Karnor's trains were awesome.

My favorite trains were the ones from Unrest. Camping the Dwarven Work Boots and seeing "a festering hag begins to cast a spell." and freaking out.

My favorite memory would easily be me getting my epic. I know the Rogue epic was the easiest of them all, but my guild was not a raiding guild, and probably could only field about 10-15 50+ (this was during 60 cap). I hopped on with another rogue who was doing the General and we were able to get our sealed boxes.

Problem being, I still needed a Kedge Robe, and there was no chance in hell of getting one from Phinigel Autropos, so my small guild needed to learn how to split the cabin and get it from one of the dark elves that were inside. I made a level 1 Halfling Rogue and camped him right next to the cabin in Kithicor to see every now and then if any of the elves were wearing the Kedge robe.

One day, I checked the cabin and the Kedge was up. As fate would have it, I also had enough member of my guild on to be able to take on the Elf. The biggest issue with that cabin was splitting the pull; there was no way we could take on more than one at once.

Our ranger, Ryodin attempted to give it a shot and first try, split it perfectly. My heart was beating through my chest as we downed the mob and I got my Kedge Robe. Turned in all my shit, and got my Ragebringer.

For a guild as small as mine was, getting a member epic'd was a huge deal. It may be a stupid game, but that sense of accomplishment when everything clicks was marvelous.

 

[JWong]

The WoW they made isn't really the WoW that exists today.

That assuming they stopped developing on WoW right on the release, which is false, which means your statement is false.

 

[Anno]

Oh, Karnor's trains were awesome.

My favorite trains were the ones from Unrest. Camping the Dwarven Work Boots and seeing "a festering hag begins to cast a spell." and freaking out.

My favorite memory would easily be me getting my epic. I know the Rogue epic was the easiest of them all, but my guild was not a raiding guild, and probably could only field about 10-15 50+ (this was during 60 cap). I hopped on with another rogue who was doing the General and we were able to get our sealed boxes.

Problem being, I still needed a Kedge Robe, and there was no chance in hell of getting one from Phinigel Autropos, so my small guild needed to learn how to split the cabin and get it from one of the dark elves that were inside. I made a level 1 Halfling Rogue and camped him right next to the cabin in Kithicor to see every now and then if any of the elves were wearing the Kedge robe.

One day, I checked the cabin and the Kedge was up. As fate would have it, I also had enough member of my guild on to be able to take on the Elf. The biggest issue with that cabin was splitting the pull; there was no way we could take on more than one at once.

Our ranger, Ryodin attempted to give it a shot and first try, split it perfectly. My heart was beating through my chest as we downed the mob and I got my Kedge Robe. Turned in all my shit, and got my Ragebringer.

For a guild as small as mine was, getting a member epic'd was a huge deal. It may be a stupid game, but that sense of accomplishment when everything clicks was marvelous.

Kunark epic quests are about the only kind of quests I can stand anymore. The first time that I got my Swiftwind/Earthcalller combo and later my Whistling Fists felt truly epic.

 

[madara]

. I made a level 1 Halfling Rogue and camped him right next to the cabin in Kithicor to see every now and then if any of the elves were wearing the Kedge robe.

One day, I checked the cabin and the Kedge was up.

Oh that cabin was bad ass. I was level 14 bard and people asked me to run in and drag their corpses from near that cabin. Dear god even with my speed and skills I made it out of their with only 28 health. Once and while zoning near Kithicor I would get a tell tasking for my locator song and help finding a corpse. Every damn time I knew it was near that cabin and yet they only nuked me to death once.

 

[Eteric Rice]

Oh God fuck Kedge Keep man, fuck that place! It's so easy to get lost, even in raids!

Also, best zone ever is the Unrest. My God, I remember being like level 8, and a friend of mine was level 10 and he took me there. Basically, he told me to stay by the entrence and not move, and stay against the wall or we'd all die.

The exp was amazing but Jesus you could die so fast it was unbelievable.

 

[WinFonda]

Anyone else think the next EverQuest should be designed to be played from the first-person perspective? Back when EQ released, first-person games and RPGs were the norm, but third-person became the hot trend shortly after and has stuck since. A first person MMO could be a good differentiator now while also feeling like classic EQ.

 

[Eteric Rice]

Anyone else think the next EverQuest should be designed to be played from the first-person perspective? Back when EQ released, first-person games and RPGs were the norm, but third-person became the hot trend shortly after and has stuck since. A first person MMO could be a good differentiator now while also feeling like classic EQ.

Yes, I'd love this to make a comeback.

 

[Man]

I find the amount of quests in Wow overwhelming.

I would like for there to be 1/5 texted quests and 3/5 hunt2 and 1/5 gathering/discovery.

I liked how Anarchy Online let you choose your quest/hunt parameters yourself. No text involved, just pure gameplay.

Final Fantasy 14 is seemingly learning from AO in that regard (as I've understood it) and you create your own quests based on parameters ('guild leaves').

 

[Warnen]

I loved eq until they added the bazarr and the non Druid/wizard teleports. The danger in crossing from qeynos to Freeport was epic when you had to run it. I remember the 1st time I did it to get to the auctions in the commons I heard people chatting about. We had a guide that cast sow on us and lead us thru hills dodging gaints to a maze with minatours thru a goblin filled hide out to a halfling town past a haunted Forrest (that we dare not go into at night) then finally to the commons. Got myself a PGT (polished granite tomahawk) and a pair of claws. The world felt huge.

I miss that but to be honest don't think I would ever invest that much time in a game again.

 

[ShadyMilkman]

I started with Kunark (official French release) and quit halfway through Gates of Discord. I was in Almageste which became Novae, we got every server first from Bertoxx to Quarm and had some amazing times.
Definitely remember Awahili, SF and GH (who split to ARo if memory serves) and I believe Maximum rebranded a million times and had turned into Fama Volat by the time I was up there raiding.

As with most people, I loved the game so much because I had 12 hours a day to pour into it for years. Hell levels, camping, Epic weapons, rare spawns and 4am planes / primal raids are only cool when you don't have a job to worry about.

SoV and PoP were the highlights of my EQ years. PoP because at that point we were dominating, and SoV because of the varied environments and encounters and overall amazing atmosphere. I also loved the whole faction games and their consequences. Invis runs through Kael Drakkar, SKs kiting Sontalak while the whole guild got through to ToV, the Vindicator > SoRZ > AoW progression ...

Too bad everything went to shit with Luclin (so little character and the start of "keybord mashing" mob names) and then Gates.

I missed this post. Yeah, Maximum seemed to change guild names every other week. I remember Fama Volat and Almageste. I also remember <Paralax> was somewhat decent. I think Shadowed Fates left the server once DAoC hit.

I remember Awahili sort of merged with Clan of Unity, which I joined for a bit before finally retiring for good. My rogue had such a lame name - Stubbers Enhasa. I was replaying Chrono Trigger and decided Enhasa would be a cool surname.

I remember also <The Silent Watch> being annoying as all hell and shouting "TSW!" every time one of their members entered a zone.

 

[vermadas]

I played EQ '99 - '01. I sold my character and equipment for a few grand a few months after the release of Velious. I returned again in '02 with a new character at the urging of a real life friend of mine who played the game with me before. I played for a few more years (most of which were spent in a high end guild raiding guild) before calling it quits for good near the end of the Dragons of Norrath expansion.

Nothing will recapture the magic of original EQ for me. I'll keep my eye on this project though.

Here are some old screenshots for the nostalgic among us...


Efreeti Lord Djarn in the depths of Solusek B

Cauldronboil in Kedge Keep

Fighting tenticle tormentors in the Plane of Fear

Taking down a giant bee boss in the Plane of Sky

Raiding Sebilis Chardok

 

[bloodydrake]

awesome pics
I think you mean Chardok tho not seb

 

[ShadyMilkman]

awesome pics
I think you mean Chardok tho not seb

Didn't think there were any sarnaks in Seb.

Gimme some Howling Stones, yo

 

[Open Source]

I played the original EQ for a couple years starting at release. I think the nostalgia and "best game ever" come from the fact that it was very difficult, so being successful meant you were a badass, not just someone who played a lot. Also, it was the first real 3D MMO.

In terms of actual game mechanics, it was not very good, with lots of arbitrary, unfriendly, and nonsensical design choices (e.g., rangers sucked but needed 40% extra exp to level). The quest system was very poor, and it was quite easy to lose quest items that took days or even weeks to get if you handed them to the wrong NPC, or to the right NPC and said the wrong thing. It was an extremely unforgiving game, and as a result, you really had to play hardcore to enjoy it - it wasn't a game that could be fun in small doses.

EQ2 was an awful game at release. It has since changed greatly and is fun either solo or grouping/raiding. There is a ton of content in terms of quests, zones, raids, and various types of progression. Still, it does get old after a while, so I am looking forward to having a new world to discover. I just hope it's not over-designed to the point of being bland like WoW was for me.

 

[Durante]

Anyone else think the next EverQuest should be designed to be played from the first-person perspective? Back when EQ released, first-person games and RPGs were the norm, but third-person became the hot trend shortly after and has stuck since. A first person MMO could be a good differentiator now while also feeling like classic EQ.

I agree completely. First person perspective is fantastic for MMOs.

 

[Seventy5]

I downloaded some of the original EQ midi music awhile back and man does that bring back happy memories. Wife and I started playing when Kunark came out.

What server? Was she a bard?

 

[Eteric Rice]

OH GOD DAMN IT WHY DID YOU SHOW ME THE PLANE OF SKY!

DAT FUCKING CROWN MAN! DAT FUCKING CROWN!

Oh God the insta-deaths... *shivers*

 

[ShadyMilkman]

OH GOD DAMN IT WHY DID YOU SHOW ME THE PLANE OF SKY!

DAT FUCKING CROWN MAN! DAT FUCKING CROWN!

Oh God the insta-deaths... *shivers*

I'm guessing you were a mage.

 

[mm04]

Just in time I remembered to hit Furious which allowed me to riposte every attack made on me for the first ten seconds. I got a few early procs with my Blade of Carnage, sealing aggro. Right as Furious dropped and my health began to plummet the first of the Complete Heal chains hit me. It was a narrow escape. I turned on defensive, called assist and experienced the most glorious several minutes of my gaming life.

I'm not trying to call bullshit on your story, maybe they patched it later or I'm flat out wrong, but I seem to recall there being a universal timer refresh on all warrior disciplines besides the individual timers for each. I remember popping Furious on accident and that got me right out of the MT rotation for Tormax as I could no longer use Defensive for however many minutes it was.

But anyway, your story brought back those same types of memories for me. On my server, there were maybe 2 or 3 MT capable wood-elf warriors and mine was one of them. I still have fond memories of using my prized Willsapper. You're right, there was nothing like the rush of an entire raid counting on your success of staying alive and maintaining aggro. Especially since most boss mobs are contested spawns and you've got another guild breathing down your neck to try if your raid fails. It's funny how so many raid strategies came from EQ and are used in WoW.

 

[ShadyMilkman]

I'm not trying to call bullshit on your story, maybe they patched it later or I'm flat out wrong, but I seem to recall there being a universal timer refresh on all warrior disciplines besides the individual timers for each. I remember popping Furious on accident and that got me right out of the MT rotation for Tormax as I could no longer use Defensive for however many minutes it was.

But anyway, your story brought back those same types of memories for me. On my server, there were maybe 2 or 3 MT capable wood-elf warriors and mine was one of them. I still have fond memories of using my prized Willsapper. You're right, there was nothing like the rush of an entire raid counting on your success of staying alive and maintaining aggro. Especially since most boss mobs are contested spawns and you've got another guild breathing down your neck to try if your raid fails. It's funny how so many raid strategies came from EQ and are used in WoW.

Now that you mention the Willsapper, I remember a whole lot of Rogues wanted one, but its proc drew waaaay too much aggro. Remember a bunch of threads on The Safehouse over that weapon. Was the mob Vaniki who dropped that one?

 

[Anno]

I'm not trying to call bullshit on your story, maybe they patched it later or I'm flat out wrong, but I seem to recall there being a universal timer refresh on all warrior disciplines besides the individual timers for each. I remember popping Furious on accident and that got me right out of the MT rotation for Tormax as I could no longer use Defensive for however many minutes it was.

But anyway, your story brought back those same types of memories for me. On my server, there were maybe 2 or 3 MT capable wood-elf warriors and mine was one of them. I still have fond memories of using my prized Willsapper. You're right, there was nothing like the rush of an entire raid counting on your success of staying alive and maintaining aggro. Especially since most boss mobs are contested spawns and you've got another guild breathing down your neck to try if your raid fails. It's funny how so many raid strategies came from EQ and are used in WoW.

Indeed they later did put disciplines on more varied timers. Furious and one other are on one, defensive/evasive are on oneand charge\mighty strike and the like are on another. There are quite a few now. Mind you I didn't do my Velious raiding until maybe the LoY or GoD era. We were a very casual guild alliance of like 4 very small guilds.

 

[mm04]

That's correct, Vaniki drops the Willsapper. We just happened to run into him on our way to Zlandicar and he dropped it. That proc is what made it such a good MT weapon. It was an aggro producing monster as a main-hander.

Well, that makes sense, Anno. My experiences are a little different because of the timing of when it happened for me. Funny about the whole WE warrior thing too. People started making gnome warriors to try and one up us small guys.

 

[Mairu]

Efreeti Lord Djarn in the depths of Solusek B

Fighting tenticle tormentors in the Plane of Fear

I named my guild after Djarn

I also remember falling asleep at the keyboard in PoF. Those were long raids :lol , nothing in WoW can compare to the hardcoreness of raiding in EQ

 

[dogonfire]

What I liked most about EQ were the unintended consequences that the combination of game mechanics and marginally broken abilities created. The fact that you could do things like camp mages in Vex Thal and then pop Eye of Zomms into the ground to target them and start a CoH chain, or bypass a bunch of trash mobs with a combination of divine aura + levitate boots + fading memories + knowledge of mob AI, or pull a named across an entire dungeon with feign death and AE mez.. it created such a feeling of "Here's the world, here are the rules. Go play" that I've never felt in another MMO.

I don't think that's going to change in EQN but I do like the art and will be following this.

 

[LiK]

return of the king?

 

[Yasae]

Cauldronboil in Kedge Keep

Would've had so much Shark Week™ photoshopping potential.

 

[KernelPanic]

I played a monk and feign death pulling was an art Running back to your group with a bunch of bad guys on your tail was awesome stuff.

Karnor's was probably my favorite ("TRAIN LEFT !") but I quit around Luclin myself.

I do miss it, but staying up til 3 am raiding isn't something I can do anywhere, so they'd have to recapture the magic without the insanity.

 

[ShadyMilkman]

And Cauldronboil dropped that 13AC +7 Fire +7 Cold helm.

Or something like that, I can't believe I remember that even somewhat closely.

 

[ShadyMilkman]

I played a monk and feign death pulling was an art Running back to your group with a bunch of bad guys on your tail was awesome stuff.

Karnor's was probably my favorite ("TRAIN LEFT !") but I quit around Luclin myself.

I do miss it, but staying up til 3 am raiding isn't something I can do anywhere, so they'd have to recapture the magic without the insanity.

Damn, Karana had no train left/right rule, it was every man for himself once someone shouted the dreaded "TRAIN INC"

 

[funkmastergeneral]

it created such a feeling of "Here's the world, here are the rules. Go play" that I've never felt in another MMO.

.

Play Minecraft

 

[madara]

Do mmorpgs even let you fall to your death anymore? God that was such a blast as newbie in Kelethin, especially when you add bard speed. I assume everyone had some memorable fall deaths? Katta, bard speed, friends not listening, had some hilarious 10k falls happen with my guild.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

seriously for all those feeling nostalgic for your time in EQ,those that were there from launch onwards. Go check out Project1999
http://www.project1999.org/

its 10X the official progression servers.ITs the EQ we all new and loved back in 99.
They're doing their best to faithfully follow the original patch schedule nerfs and all.
Kunark should be live this fall. ITS AWESOME!

Things going back reminded me so far is.

1.Forced grouping is great,you want to play with people.
2.EC auctioning is so much better then Luclin Bazaar. being level 10 hunting at orc campings with almost 100people in the tunnels..it just brings back that strong sense of community.
3.Raiding is boring the fun part of MMO's are the 6 party group Dungeon crawls.
4.Griffins and Hill Giants in the commons are Fucked up and Oh so fantastic at the same time. Constant fear of dying and corpse retrieval is way more fun then knowing you can run thru any mobs without dying.
Pic from EC couple months old Classic Style

Oh shit! I'm gonna check that out. There are some awesome emulated servers, but so many of them have tiny populations.

 

[Apath]

Oh shit! I'm gonna check that out. There are some awesome emulated servers, but so many of them have tiny populations.

We should get a bunch of people together and make a GAF guild

 

[bloodydrake]

ya p99 has the highest pop i think its peaked about 850ish.
I figure tho it iwill jump to 1200ish when kunark comes out.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

We should get a bunch of people together and make a GAF guild

Forum guilds never work out in my experience, but I'm down if only to easily find people to chat and group with!

 

[ShadyMilkman]

We should get a bunch of people together and make a GAF guild

You know I am in

 

[Iadien]

I love me some Everquest! I'm still subscribed.

I kind of like EQ2 as well.

I really hope they try and revive what made Everquest so great and not name just another WoW-clone. I'm excited!

Holy shit... is that Qeynos!? That looks fucking good if it's in-engine.

That is Freeport, and it is in game.

 

[Apath]

Forum guilds never work out in my experience, but I'm down if only to easily find people to chat and group with!

Well I was figuring it would be so everybody could group up easier, so yeah.

You know I am in

That's 3!

And I actually found my old Titanium Edition box (as well as my Kunark CD). Completely forgot I had it.

 

[RavenFox]

Man I loved me some EQ. This looks amazing. Any release date info? Sorry if it's in the thread somewhere.

 

[Iadien]

Man I loved me some EQ. This looks amazing. Any release date info? Sorry if it's in the thread somewhere.

Nah, it's still very early.

 

[Anno]

You know I am in

I'd probably give it a shot, too. Especially if we can get a good 4-6 man balanced group interested.

 

[Rflagg]

Well I was figuring it would be so everybody could group up easier, so yeah.

That's 3!

And I actually found my old Titanium Edition box (as well as my Kunark CD). Completely forgot I had it.

I am game to try it, will edit later with character infos. If we got enough people too have semi regular groups this would be great. I have tried emus in the past only to get wore out with never seeing anyone.

 

[Eteric Rice]

One of my favorite zones. I used to camp the spider that dropped the haste bracer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ9zXUWFD90

The beat in there was awesome.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Well I'm up and running on Project 1999! :lol

I'm a Dark Elf Enchanter named Zefah.

Is there something wrong with the number displaying how many people are online? It seems to always be at 825.

Anyway, I'm going to go mess around in a bit.

 

[Iadien]

I was going to make a thread about this game, but figured nobody on GAF would care. :lol

 

[JDS 1977]

What server? Was she a bard?

I think she was a cleric and an enchanter.

We were on Xev which then got some dumb name in a merge later.

 

[hXc_thugg]

Fuuuuuck. If they make Bards just like they were in EQ1 I will play this game until it kills me.

 

[Cipherr]

Puke @ first person view MMO's.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Puke @ first person view MMO's.

Why?

 

[Iadien]

Puke @ first person view MMO's.

Doesn't have to be FP...