I have to agree totaly. I played EQ from right as Kunark came out through POP and maybe the next expansion. Since then I have not been able to find a single game that could give me the satisfation . I cant really figure out why exacly. All those thing that where so difficult about EQ..ie.long traveling, XP loss, slow xp gains..ect Have been removed from all the newer games. This somehow seems to make them lose substance. They seem to easy or quick like AoC..in my opinon. I played WOW longer than any other new game out thus far and it got old after only a year or so. Hopefully they will come out with a something that can get me as excited about a game, as EQ did for years and years.
most classes had to learn everything from scratch: swimming, wind direction (a working compass)
Trading with others was pure interaction. Player made Bazaar zones (ours was in the tunnel near freeport) No silly full automated Auction Halls.
New EQ:
3rd Party Programs.
Especially the wind directions and swimming thing is remarkable and a perfect example why EQ ruled so much over the modern easy trash.
All these little hurdes and burdons caused players to interact with each other and solve those riddles. Now you get a fully functinal radar system where quest mobs are clearly marked, even resources to forage are shown you dont have to ask anybody anything.
Thats why EQ was about the community and world while the new MMO's are soloable cartoon movies.
In the end it was cheats and 3rd party programs that caused me to stop EQ. Every paladin had better tracking than the rangers - it was ridiculous.
The new EQ is not all about raids. There is a metric crapload of group content, a zone for groups that has loot that is amazingly nice (500ish hps/mana) , other zones with random dropped augs that some raiders even want.. how is that only raid content?
i think that is what I dont like about EQ now.......I liked teh game all the way up to the GoD expansion...Then it seemed like it started to get way out of control........While it was nice to get nice upgrades I felt that once players started getting items that had ridiculous stats the game jsut wasnt much fun anymore.......I mean when I went back last time for LL there was food items that were better than items I had gotten from POTime........I also didnt like seeing tanks with 35k+ HP, clerics with 35K mana, rangers that had so much HP they could tank mobs, etc etc etc.......To me the gear got so out of hand it took away alot of strategy we once had to use......... I think for alot of us we have our memories of what our favorite part of the game was and who we spent that with........The problem is we just cant go back to that game ever again........
I played EQ multiple times throughout, from the beginning up to GoD. I had a lot of fun in all its incarnations. I loved the fact that I had all those zones like lguk memorized in the beginning. I did like the addition of sow pots since it made people less reliant on druids, although, everyone basically picked up jboots, heh.
I think I did prefer the game more after PoP. You still had to run places, but it wasn't ridiculous after the port. I hated boat rides. I always hear about people saying how they missed it, but during the game, more people complained about the 10+ min ride to get to one place. I remember when people left corpses all over the place and would ask for a rez (when you could still do that, lol)
I enjoyed the no instances, even with camp wars, but it wasn't so bad and it was nice dealing with others. It made it feel like it was actually an MMO.
The LDoN instance did work though. I found that fun and refreshing, but wanted it limited to that which is was, at least while I was still around. I really enjoyed the AA system. I felt it kept me more interested in playing and grinding which didn't feel like a grind since I was accomplishing something. The fact that I was grouping all the time since basically had to, made the whole experience more enjoyable.
EQ is just 1 of my favorites throughout its history since it felt like a MMO to me and I had interaction, community and a world to play in. DAoC gave me similar feelings for a while since all the grouping in RvR I was able to do. Those 2 are my favorites. I've had my moments in other games, but nothing like those 2, nor for as long.
I prefer new eq up to LDoN thats when some of the stuff started getting out of control suck as the revamp of old zones, but I would have to say old eq with all its long runs, asking for a port if you didn't bind in qeynos when you where bound in gfay due to pvp. all those little things made it eq but some of the new things where fun i like doing LDoN on occasion.
The funny thing is that I always hated asking for ports. I thought ports made the world generic, and I always thought that everyone should have to use boats. It is unfair that two classes, above all others, should be able to port. I thought it was so unfair that an already overpowered class, and probably the best solo class at the time, could make a fortune porting, sowing, and buffing people.
The original class designers either really loved Druids or were not aware of how overpowered they made them with 1) ports, 2) buffs, 3) sow, 4) soloability, 5) heal (they can completely heal like a cleric), and of course 6) resists. I think they even got 7) track and 8) forage. Oh, they also did 9) not aggro animals. Least we forget they are great 10) dps as well.
The Druid was the "jack of all trades and master of all."
Did you play a Druid? I played one for a long time and i can tell you that your "Jack of all trades and master of all" is a crock.
Druids were not overly loved in groups and here is why:
Druids could heal, but not nearly as good as a Cleric. Plus Shaman was equally as good.
Druids could buff, but not nearly as good as a Shaman.
Druids could blast, but not nearly as good as a Wizzie or Mage.
"Jack of all trades, Master of none" is what we were. Which is why we were so great at soloing, that is usually what we did most of the time.
The perfect EQ group was Tank, Healer, DPS, Messer, Off Tank and whatever. Druid fit none of these rolls as well as someone else did, thus Druids were not highly sought after.
But anyway. Old EQ for me. I loved EQ prior to the Bazaar and prior to the Books. And yes, i loved making money from Ports, mainly because i had to buy all my gear since noone wanted me on raids. )
I would love it if a company, even SOE, would remake EQ with the same ruleset, but a different world/map. I would play that in a second.
I prefer new eq up to LDoN thats when some of the stuff started getting out of control suck as the revamp of old zones, but I would have to say old eq with all its long runs, asking for a port if you didn't bind in qeynos when you where bound in gfay due to pvp. all those little things made it eq but some of the new things where fun i like doing LDoN on occasion.
The funny thing is that I always hated asking for ports. I thought ports made the world generic, and I always thought that everyone should have to use boats. It is unfair that two classes, above all others, should be able to port. I thought it was so unfair that an already overpowered class, and probably the best solo class at the time, could make a fortune porting, sowing, and buffing people.
The original class designers either really loved Druids or were not aware of how overpowered they made them with 1) ports, 2) buffs, 3) sow, 4) soloability, 5) heal (they can completely heal like a cleric), and of course 6) resists. I think they even got 7) track and 8) forage. Oh, they also did 9) not aggro animals. Least we forget they are great 10) dps as well.
The Druid was the "jack of all trades and master of all."
Did you play a Druid?
I still have a Druid, though it is inactive.
The Druid, perhaps, of every MMORPG I have played, was the most overpowered class I ever played.
As explained in the above post. Your argument, broken down, is, "hey, Wizards have more powerful direct damage spells. Therefore, the Druid is not the jack of all trades and master of all."
Just because a class can do something a little better than a Druid does not negate the varied abilities and power of the Druid.
The Druid had ALL of these abilities, and more, than any other class. And its direct damage, heal, ability to solo, port, you name it, by far made is grossly (grossy) overpowered.
I see a game such as SWG where community interaction is encouraged where it is a part of the game and done in some sort of context: traveling on a ship; in a bar; in someone's mansion.
In Everquest, you sat on your ass, folks, and had nothing better to do but say, "hey. Ya? Hey, where you from. Oh, I am from Michigan. Ya." Give me a break. If that is YOUR community, count me out.
I played everquest from the beginning and I have active accounts today. The notion that EQ was this great community is the biggest fabrication in MMORPG history. In MMORPG history. The people that played everquest were neglecting parents, stoners, burn outs, and some normal people like ME. A lot of addictive-personalities played Everquest.
In the beginning, sure, it has a fun community. But that was quickly erased with the emergence of teh "raid" guild and how being an addict was really rewarded. The more EQ you played, and the less successful/productive you were in real-life, the more successful and productive in EQ you were.
Summary: Sure. When people really had no alternative MMORPG, casual players played Everquest, there was downtime, and people had nothing better to do than interact.
This will not, in today's world, make a "great" or social MMORPG.
I prefer old EQ style. It was lots more fun because EVERYTHING was hard. When AA's came in, you could solo raid bosses, whats the fun in that? And by that time you're basically twinking your toons with raid gear. There was actually lots of people in zones back then, look at how it is now I can honestly say that the majprity of the zones are empty or has less than 10 people in the area. Taking on Nagafen and Lady Vox and PoH and PoF was truly fun when you can actually wipe at any time. It was actually worthwhile. Getting your epic weapons 1.0 was fun doing the lore was truly amazing. It was very hard to do unless you had a huge force. Now days people can 1 group 2.0 raid bosses (sometimes even trio them) The old EQ brought me so much more memories and stories I could tell. Newer EQ is nothing to brag about.
I agree with you on that man. It kinda sucked for me when luclin came out. I wish sony didn't distroy every game they touch. Other than that i was great while it lasted.
I had no problem with eq until around when GoD came out, then I started to get bored since my friends and interests both started to drift.No point in overstating memories of the game, I'm fairly certain I'd feel exactly the same as I did then if I started playing the game now, only bored and tired of it because nobody I like to play with plays the game anymore.
I prefer new eq up to LDoN thats when some of the stuff started getting out of control suck as the revamp of old zones, but I would have to say old eq with all its long runs, asking for a port if you didn't bind in qeynos when you where bound in gfay due to pvp. all those little things made it eq but some of the new things where fun i like doing LDoN on occasion.
The funny thing is that I always hated asking for ports. I thought ports made the world generic, and I always thought that everyone should have to use boats. It is unfair that two classes, above all others, should be able to port. I thought it was so unfair that an already overpowered class, and probably the best solo class at the time, could make a fortune porting, sowing, and buffing people.
The original class designers either really loved Druids or were not aware of how overpowered they made them with 1) ports, 2) buffs, 3) sow, 4) soloability, 5) heal (they can completely heal like a cleric), and of course 6) resists. I think they even got 7) track and 8) forage. Oh, they also did 9) not aggro animals. Least we forget they are great 10) dps as well.
The Druid was the "jack of all trades and master of all."
Did you play a Druid?
I still have a Druid, though it is inactive.
The Druid, perhaps, of every MMORPG I have played, was the most overpowered class I ever played.
As explained in the above post. Your argument, broken down, is, "hey, Wizards have more powerful direct damage spells. Therefore, the Druid is not the jack of all trades and master of all."
Just because a class can do something a little better than a Druid does not negate the varied abilities and power of the Druid.
The Druid had ALL of these abilities, and more, than any other class. And its direct damage, heal, ability to solo, port, you name it, by far made is grossly (grossy) overpowered.
I agree with you that Druids were very powerful in EQ, sadly not too many people forming groups thought so, at least on the server i was on. Guild groups/Buddy groups sure, but not pick up groups.
And yes, my arguement of " A Wizard has more powerful DD spells then a Druid" does make the Jack of all Trades Master of All invalid. Druid was not the master of anything (except maybe kiting) because there was another class that was better at each thing a druid could do. Thus making the Druid "Jack of all trades but master of none".
The Holy Trinity of grouping mind set is what left Druids out in the cold. (I dont agree with this by the way) You had to have a Pure Tank (Warrior) a pure Healer (Cleric) A Mezzer (Enchanter), A Buffer (Usually Shaman) and will the others with Off Tank, Puller, DPS. SK and Monk fit pretty good as Off Tank and Puller, Wizzie was looked for as pure DPS, Sometimes Mage, a good Bard was well recieved also. Often it was Rangers, Necros and Druids left out in the cold. And yes, your right, Druid could have easily filled the DPS, Buffer, Healer/Backup Healer and maybe even Puller in those groups.
At least of the three left out in the cold Druids and Necros could solo great, Rangers were really hosed. And to a lesser extent Rogues also.
The idea of the "Perfect Group" hurt EQ alot, it made some classes all but useless. But i would take it back in a second.
Did you play a Druid? I played one for a long time and i can tell you that your "Jack of all trades and master of all" is a crock.
Druids were not overly loved in groups and here is why:
Druids could heal, but not nearly as good as a Cleric. Plus Shaman was equally as good.
Druids could buff, but not nearly as good as a Shaman.
Druids could blast, but not nearly as good as a Wizzie or Mage. "Jack of all trades, Master of none" is what we were. Which is why we were so great at soloing, that is usually what we did most of the time. The perfect EQ group was Tank, Healer, DPS, Messer, Off Tank and whatever. Druid fit none of these rolls as well as someone else did, thus Druids were not highly sought after. But anyway. Old EQ for me. I loved EQ prior to the Bazaar and prior to the Books. And yes, i loved making money from Ports, mainly because i had to buy all my gear since noone wanted me on raids. ) I would love it if a company, even SOE, would remake EQ with the same ruleset, but a different world/map. I would play that in a second.
Um, sorry do not agree with either the DD or the healing points.
A druid could do nearly the same DD
A druid could be an adequate group healer, as early as the PoP expansion.
I agree with you that Druids were very powerful in EQ, sadly not too many people forming groups thought so, at least on the server i was on. Guild groups/Buddy groups sure, but not pick up groups.
And yes, my arguement of " A Wizard has more powerful DD spells then a Druid" does make the Jack of all Trades Master of All invalid. Druid was not the master of anything (except maybe kiting) because there was another class that was better at each thing a druid could do. Thus making the Druid "Jack of all trades but master of none". The Holy Trinity of grouping mind set is what left Druids out in the cold. (I dont agree with this by the way) You had to have a Pure Tank (Warrior) a pure Healer (Cleric) A Mezzer (Enchanter), A Buffer (Usually Shaman) and will the others with Off Tank, Puller, DPS. SK and Monk fit pretty good as Off Tank and Puller, Wizzie was looked for as pure DPS, Sometimes Mage, a good Bard was well recieved also. Often it was Rangers, Necros and Druids left out in the cold. And yes, your right, Druid could have easily filled the DPS, Buffer, Healer/Backup Healer and maybe even Puller in those groups. At least of the three left out in the cold Druids and Necros could solo great, Rangers were really hosed. And to a lesser extent Rogues also. The idea of the "Perfect Group" hurt EQ alot, it made some classes all but useless. But i would take it back in a second.
Thank you for at least recognizing that Rangers were really hosed.
Druids could however be reasonably effective nukers, and last I check could be reasonably effectie group healers also.
I remember MANY multiple group guild events where some groups would get a druid as a mainhealer.
I VERY clearly remember that rangers though had virtually no purpose in the game whatsoever for 62 levels I suffered through being the red-headed stepchild of EQ. Somehow though, I still loved the game.
Old EQ... Felt like something was missing after the millionth expansion. Really didnt care much for the rate Sony pumped out expacs either.. Way to fast and eventually spread the player base way to thin.
Originally posted by declaredemer Downtime ... >shudders< Who has time for downtime?
The white-knuckle classic people that insist on these "features" (flaws?) do not know what they want.
Be careful for what you wish for.
You miss what that kind of thing brought to the game. What do you do when you're waiting? You chat with your group members. You build a community. You find people you like and people you don't like. You build reputations. That's exactly what games today are missing.
I liked when you had to look at that book to meditate. What better way to learn who you can count on than when you're sitting in a hostile environment blind!
Old EQ had so much going for it. The pain was there for a reason. Pain makes friends of people who wouldn't be friends otherwise. Pain builds community. Beating the pains together equals fun!
If you never have to ask for help.. how do you learn who's helpful? In old EQ you asked for help 3 or 4 times a day.. sometimes just to find your corpse LOL
First of all, Druids could not complete heal at release. If you think Druids were overpowered at release then you have a bad memory. Many druids complained that they couldn't compete with other classes, this lasted for years. Sure they had a good set of abilities to solo with, but they couldn't heal like a Cleric, couldn't DPS like a Wizard, and didn't have any special utility or buffs as good as a Shaman. This meant in raids (which is what EverQuest was all about) every class in the game was preferred over a druid... I would say they were finally "balanced" when they were given complete heals a lot later (which still weren't nearly as efficient as a cleric's). This is only because complete heal was a ridiculous spell that should never have been put in the game in the first place.
Also, yes, you had to stare at your book to meditate in original EQ, but only until level 30. After then you meditated just by sitting down. Plus the book thing was removed completely fairly early into Kunark iirc.
Plus real old EQ had a total of 6 hotbuttons. That's right. 6.
I wouldn't lump Planes of Power into the "bad" EQ. Luclin had a few raids that were actual events instead of just powerful mobs, (High Priest, Emperor Ssra) but Planes of Power really expanded on just what a raid experience could be. No body who has raided events like Rallos Zek, Coirnav, The Rathe back when they were the cutting edge encounters will ever forget how awesome they were. These raids were the foundation of WoW.
And to Brostyn who said, "Luclin further degraded the grouping experience by handing out overpowered gear to zerg raiders only"
You obviously never raided Luclin. You can't zerg Lord Inquisitor Seru. Matter of fact, very rarely was there ever anyone on him other than the tank. It's a sloooow meticulous fight where if anyone screws up, the raid is wiped. In Planes of Power we would one-group him and it went smoother than when we guild raided him the expansion prior. Sure, you could "zerg" a lot of Velious content such as AoW, as long as you had capable clerics who could run a rotation and capable tanks who could pick up aggro after Defensive ran out. But like I said above, Luclin introduced actually having to think on raids, such as Emperor Ssra where you had to keep a small army of mobs mezzed and offtanked throughout the entire encounter. Also, good luck zerging Emp Ssra, a mob who was very hard to keep aggro on and who was invulnerable to all weapons except the difficult to obtain Ssra bane.
You're wrong. Luclin, PoP and beyond rewarded strategic play, not zerg guilds.
Gates of Discord was horrible though and killed the vast majority of top-end guilds though, we can all agree on that. It didn't help that I played a Shaman who went from absolute gods in Luclin to a well balanced class in PoP to complete uselessness in GoD where every mob was immune to slow. We became buff bots and patch healers.
Originally posted by Eliago First of all, Druids could not complete heal at release. If you think Druids were overpowered at release then you have a bad memory. Many druids complained that they couldn't compete with other classes, this lasted for years. Sure they had a good set of abilities to solo with, but they couldn't heal like a Cleric, couldn't DPS like a Wizard, and didn't have any special utility or buffs as good as a Shaman. This meant in raids (which is what EverQuest was all about) every class in the game was preferred over a druid... I would say they were finally "balanced" when they were given complete heals a lot later (which still weren't nearly as efficient as a cleric's). This is only because complete heal was a ridiculous spell that should never have been put in the game in the first place. Also, yes, you had to stare at your book to meditate in original EQ, but only until level 30. After then you meditated just by sitting down. Plus the book thing was removed completely fairly early into Kunark iirc. Plus real old EQ had a total of 6 hotbuttons. That's right. 6. I wouldn't lump Planes of Power into the "bad" EQ. Luclin had a few raids that were actual events instead of just powerful mobs, (High Priest, Emperor Ssra) but Planes of Power really expanded on just what a raid experience could be. No body who has raided events like Rallos Zek, Coirnav, The Rathe back when they were the cutting edge encounters will ever forget how awesome they were. These raids were the foundation of WoW. And to Brostyn who said, "Luclin further degraded the grouping experience by handing out overpowered gear to zerg raiders only" You obviously never raided Luclin. You can't zerg Lord Inquisitor Seru. Matter of fact, very rarely was there ever anyone on him other than the tank. It's a sloooow meticulous fight where if anyone screws up, the raid is wiped. In Planes of Power we would one-group him and it went smoother than when we guild raided him the expansion prior. Sure, you could "zerg" a lot of Velious content such as AoW, as long as you had capable clerics who could run a rotation and capable tanks who could pick up aggro after Defensive ran out. But like I said above, Luclin introduced actually having to think on raids, such as Emperor Ssra where you had to keep a small army of mobs mezzed and offtanked throughout the entire encounter. Also, good luck zerging Emp Ssra, a mob who was very hard to keep aggro on and who was invulnerable to all weapons except the difficult to obtain Ssra bane. You're wrong. Luclin, PoP and beyond rewarded strategic play, not zerg guilds. Gates of Discord was horrible though and killed the vast majority of top-end guilds though, we can all agree on that. It didn't help that I played a Shaman who went from absolute gods in Luclin to a well balanced class in PoP to complete uselessness in GoD where every mob was immune to slow. We became buff bots and patch healers.
I loved the old EQ, it was a challenging game, none of this easy quest system and to level you had to find camp spots with friends and pull all day, plus a class had it's abilitys defined like dps, healing or tanking.
unlike newer games. The newer EQ system has some good points, but the new remade area's spoil the game TBH, I use to like the having a high level toon and farming gear for my alt. plus there used to be groups doing the same killing mobs just for fun.
Or even getting guild groups together for the old epics.
Comments
I have to agree totaly. I played EQ from right as Kunark came out through POP and maybe the next expansion. Since then I have not been able to find a single game that could give me the satisfation . I cant really figure out why exacly. All those thing that where so difficult about EQ..ie.long traveling, XP loss, slow xp gains..ect Have been removed from all the newer games. This somehow seems to make them lose substance. They seem to easy or quick like AoC..in my opinon. I played WOW longer than any other new game out thus far and it got old after only a year or so. Hopefully they will come out with a something that can get me as excited about a game, as EQ did for years and years.
Old EQ:
most classes had to learn everything from scratch: swimming, wind direction (a working compass)
Trading with others was pure interaction. Player made Bazaar zones (ours was in the tunnel near freeport) No silly full automated Auction Halls.
New EQ:
3rd Party Programs.
Especially the wind directions and swimming thing is remarkable and a perfect example why EQ ruled so much over the modern easy trash.
All these little hurdes and burdons caused players to interact with each other and solve those riddles. Now you get a fully functinal radar system where quest mobs are clearly marked, even resources to forage are shown you dont have to ask anybody anything.
Thats why EQ was about the community and world while the new MMO's are soloable cartoon movies.
In the end it was cheats and 3rd party programs that caused me to stop EQ. Every paladin had better tracking than the rangers - it was ridiculous.
i think that is what I dont like about EQ now.......I liked teh game all the way up to the GoD expansion...Then it seemed like it started to get way out of control........While it was nice to get nice upgrades I felt that once players started getting items that had ridiculous stats the game jsut wasnt much fun anymore.......I mean when I went back last time for LL there was food items that were better than items I had gotten from POTime........I also didnt like seeing tanks with 35k+ HP, clerics with 35K mana, rangers that had so much HP they could tank mobs, etc etc etc.......To me the gear got so out of hand it took away alot of strategy we once had to use......... I think for alot of us we have our memories of what our favorite part of the game was and who we spent that with........The problem is we just cant go back to that game ever again........
I played EQ multiple times throughout, from the beginning up to GoD. I had a lot of fun in all its incarnations. I loved the fact that I had all those zones like lguk memorized in the beginning. I did like the addition of sow pots since it made people less reliant on druids, although, everyone basically picked up jboots, heh.
I think I did prefer the game more after PoP. You still had to run places, but it wasn't ridiculous after the port. I hated boat rides. I always hear about people saying how they missed it, but during the game, more people complained about the 10+ min ride to get to one place. I remember when people left corpses all over the place and would ask for a rez (when you could still do that, lol)
I enjoyed the no instances, even with camp wars, but it wasn't so bad and it was nice dealing with others. It made it feel like it was actually an MMO.
The LDoN instance did work though. I found that fun and refreshing, but wanted it limited to that which is was, at least while I was still around. I really enjoyed the AA system. I felt it kept me more interested in playing and grinding which didn't feel like a grind since I was accomplishing something. The fact that I was grouping all the time since basically had to, made the whole experience more enjoyable.
EQ is just 1 of my favorites throughout its history since it felt like a MMO to me and I had interaction, community and a world to play in. DAoC gave me similar feelings for a while since all the grouping in RvR I was able to do. Those 2 are my favorites. I've had my moments in other games, but nothing like those 2, nor for as long.
The funny thing is that I always hated asking for ports. I thought ports made the world generic, and I always thought that everyone should have to use boats. It is unfair that two classes, above all others, should be able to port. I thought it was so unfair that an already overpowered class, and probably the best solo class at the time, could make a fortune porting, sowing, and buffing people.
The original class designers either really loved Druids or were not aware of how overpowered they made them with 1) ports, 2) buffs, 3) sow, 4) soloability, 5) heal (they can completely heal like a cleric), and of course 6) resists. I think they even got 7) track and 8) forage. Oh, they also did 9) not aggro animals. Least we forget they are great 10) dps as well.
The Druid was the "jack of all trades and master of all."
Did you play a Druid? I played one for a long time and i can tell you that your "Jack of all trades and master of all" is a crock.
Druids were not overly loved in groups and here is why:
Druids could heal, but not nearly as good as a Cleric. Plus Shaman was equally as good.
Druids could buff, but not nearly as good as a Shaman.
Druids could blast, but not nearly as good as a Wizzie or Mage.
"Jack of all trades, Master of none" is what we were. Which is why we were so great at soloing, that is usually what we did most of the time.
The perfect EQ group was Tank, Healer, DPS, Messer, Off Tank and whatever. Druid fit none of these rolls as well as someone else did, thus Druids were not highly sought after.
But anyway. Old EQ for me. I loved EQ prior to the Bazaar and prior to the Books. And yes, i loved making money from Ports, mainly because i had to buy all my gear since noone wanted me on raids.
)
I would love it if a company, even SOE, would remake EQ with the same ruleset, but a different world/map. I would play that in a second.
The downtime between fights was when people actually talked to each other.
A feature sadly lacking in games these day.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
Downtime helped people talk, instead of constantly following the yellow brick road to a new "quest".
It encouraged COMMUNITY, interacting with people. Thats, at its core, what MMOs were about before WoW came along.
Darkfall Travelogues!
The funny thing is that I always hated asking for ports. I thought ports made the world generic, and I always thought that everyone should have to use boats. It is unfair that two classes, above all others, should be able to port. I thought it was so unfair that an already overpowered class, and probably the best solo class at the time, could make a fortune porting, sowing, and buffing people.
The original class designers either really loved Druids or were not aware of how overpowered they made them with 1) ports, 2) buffs, 3) sow, 4) soloability, 5) heal (they can completely heal like a cleric), and of course 6) resists. I think they even got 7) track and 8) forage. Oh, they also did 9) not aggro animals. Least we forget they are great 10) dps as well.
The Druid was the "jack of all trades and master of all."
Did you play a Druid?
I still have a Druid, though it is inactive.
The Druid, perhaps, of every MMORPG I have played, was the most overpowered class I ever played.
As explained in the above post. Your argument, broken down, is, "hey, Wizards have more powerful direct damage spells. Therefore, the Druid is not the jack of all trades and master of all."
Just because a class can do something a little better than a Druid does not negate the varied abilities and power of the Druid.
The Druid had ALL of these abilities, and more, than any other class. And its direct damage, heal, ability to solo, port, you name it, by far made is grossly (grossy) overpowered.
Downtime created community?
I see a game such as SWG where community interaction is encouraged where it is a part of the game and done in some sort of context: traveling on a ship; in a bar; in someone's mansion.
In Everquest, you sat on your ass, folks, and had nothing better to do but say, "hey. Ya? Hey, where you from. Oh, I am from Michigan. Ya." Give me a break. If that is YOUR community, count me out.
I played everquest from the beginning and I have active accounts today. The notion that EQ was this great community is the biggest fabrication in MMORPG history. In MMORPG history. The people that played everquest were neglecting parents, stoners, burn outs, and some normal people like ME. A lot of addictive-personalities played Everquest.
In the beginning, sure, it has a fun community. But that was quickly erased with the emergence of teh "raid" guild and how being an addict was really rewarded. The more EQ you played, and the less successful/productive you were in real-life, the more successful and productive in EQ you were.
Summary: Sure. When people really had no alternative MMORPG, casual players played Everquest, there was downtime, and people had nothing better to do than interact.
This will not, in today's world, make a "great" or social MMORPG.
Downtime does not create community. LOL.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, of course.
Ha, ha ha!
I think that is true.
Substitute "normal" for "casual." My bad. LOL.
I agree with you on that man. It kinda sucked for me when luclin came out. I wish sony didn't distroy every game they touch. Other than that i was great while it lasted.
I had no problem with eq until around when GoD came out, then I started to get bored since my friends and interests both started to drift.No point in overstating memories of the game, I'm fairly certain I'd feel exactly the same as I did then if I started playing the game now, only bored and tired of it because nobody I like to play with plays the game anymore.
The funny thing is that I always hated asking for ports. I thought ports made the world generic, and I always thought that everyone should have to use boats. It is unfair that two classes, above all others, should be able to port. I thought it was so unfair that an already overpowered class, and probably the best solo class at the time, could make a fortune porting, sowing, and buffing people.
The original class designers either really loved Druids or were not aware of how overpowered they made them with 1) ports, 2) buffs, 3) sow, 4) soloability, 5) heal (they can completely heal like a cleric), and of course 6) resists. I think they even got 7) track and 8) forage. Oh, they also did 9) not aggro animals. Least we forget they are great 10) dps as well.
The Druid was the "jack of all trades and master of all."
Did you play a Druid?
I still have a Druid, though it is inactive.
The Druid, perhaps, of every MMORPG I have played, was the most overpowered class I ever played.
As explained in the above post. Your argument, broken down, is, "hey, Wizards have more powerful direct damage spells. Therefore, the Druid is not the jack of all trades and master of all."
Just because a class can do something a little better than a Druid does not negate the varied abilities and power of the Druid.
The Druid had ALL of these abilities, and more, than any other class. And its direct damage, heal, ability to solo, port, you name it, by far made is grossly (grossy) overpowered.
I agree with you that Druids were very powerful in EQ, sadly not too many people forming groups thought so, at least on the server i was on. Guild groups/Buddy groups sure, but not pick up groups.
And yes, my arguement of " A Wizard has more powerful DD spells then a Druid" does make the Jack of all Trades Master of All invalid. Druid was not the master of anything (except maybe kiting) because there was another class that was better at each thing a druid could do. Thus making the Druid "Jack of all trades but master of none".
The Holy Trinity of grouping mind set is what left Druids out in the cold. (I dont agree with this by the way) You had to have a Pure Tank (Warrior) a pure Healer (Cleric) A Mezzer (Enchanter), A Buffer (Usually Shaman) and will the others with Off Tank, Puller, DPS. SK and Monk fit pretty good as Off Tank and Puller, Wizzie was looked for as pure DPS, Sometimes Mage, a good Bard was well recieved also. Often it was Rangers, Necros and Druids left out in the cold. And yes, your right, Druid could have easily filled the DPS, Buffer, Healer/Backup Healer and maybe even Puller in those groups.
At least of the three left out in the cold Druids and Necros could solo great, Rangers were really hosed. And to a lesser extent Rogues also.
The idea of the "Perfect Group" hurt EQ alot, it made some classes all but useless. But i would take it back in a second.
Um, sorry do not agree with either the DD or the healing points.
A druid could do nearly the same DD
A druid could be an adequate group healer, as early as the PoP expansion.
Thank you for at least recognizing that Rangers were really hosed.
Druids could however be reasonably effective nukers, and last I check could be reasonably effectie group healers also.
I remember MANY multiple group guild events where some groups would get a druid as a mainhealer.
I VERY clearly remember that rangers though had virtually no purpose in the game whatsoever for 62 levels I suffered through being the red-headed stepchild of EQ. Somehow though, I still loved the game.
Old EQ... Felt like something was missing after the millionth expansion. Really didnt care much for the rate Sony pumped out expacs either.. Way to fast and eventually spread the player base way to thin.
Rangers were great dps...
- Air
You miss what that kind of thing brought to the game. What do you do when you're waiting? You chat with your group members. You build a community. You find people you like and people you don't like. You build reputations. That's exactly what games today are missing.
I liked when you had to look at that book to meditate. What better way to learn who you can count on than when you're sitting in a hostile environment blind!
Old EQ had so much going for it. The pain was there for a reason. Pain makes friends of people who wouldn't be friends otherwise. Pain builds community. Beating the pains together equals fun!
If you never have to ask for help.. how do you learn who's helpful? In old EQ you asked for help 3 or 4 times a day.. sometimes just to find your corpse LOL
Make a difference!
First of all, Druids could not complete heal at release. If you think Druids were overpowered at release then you have a bad memory. Many druids complained that they couldn't compete with other classes, this lasted for years. Sure they had a good set of abilities to solo with, but they couldn't heal like a Cleric, couldn't DPS like a Wizard, and didn't have any special utility or buffs as good as a Shaman. This meant in raids (which is what EverQuest was all about) every class in the game was preferred over a druid... I would say they were finally "balanced" when they were given complete heals a lot later (which still weren't nearly as efficient as a cleric's). This is only because complete heal was a ridiculous spell that should never have been put in the game in the first place.
Also, yes, you had to stare at your book to meditate in original EQ, but only until level 30. After then you meditated just by sitting down. Plus the book thing was removed completely fairly early into Kunark iirc.
Plus real old EQ had a total of 6 hotbuttons. That's right. 6.
I wouldn't lump Planes of Power into the "bad" EQ. Luclin had a few raids that were actual events instead of just powerful mobs, (High Priest, Emperor Ssra) but Planes of Power really expanded on just what a raid experience could be. No body who has raided events like Rallos Zek, Coirnav, The Rathe back when they were the cutting edge encounters will ever forget how awesome they were. These raids were the foundation of WoW.
And to Brostyn who said, "Luclin further degraded the grouping experience by handing out overpowered gear to zerg raiders only"
You obviously never raided Luclin. You can't zerg Lord Inquisitor Seru. Matter of fact, very rarely was there ever anyone on him other than the tank. It's a sloooow meticulous fight where if anyone screws up, the raid is wiped. In Planes of Power we would one-group him and it went smoother than when we guild raided him the expansion prior. Sure, you could "zerg" a lot of Velious content such as AoW, as long as you had capable clerics who could run a rotation and capable tanks who could pick up aggro after Defensive ran out. But like I said above, Luclin introduced actually having to think on raids, such as Emperor Ssra where you had to keep a small army of mobs mezzed and offtanked throughout the entire encounter. Also, good luck zerging Emp Ssra, a mob who was very hard to keep aggro on and who was invulnerable to all weapons except the difficult to obtain Ssra bane.
You're wrong. Luclin, PoP and beyond rewarded strategic play, not zerg guilds.
Gates of Discord was horrible though and killed the vast majority of top-end guilds though, we can all agree on that. It didn't help that I played a Shaman who went from absolute gods in Luclin to a well balanced class in PoP to complete uselessness in GoD where every mob was immune to slow. We became buff bots and patch healers.
100% agree with everything you just said
Make a difference!
I loved the old EQ, it was a challenging game, none of this easy quest system and to level you had to find camp spots with friends and pull all day, plus a class had it's abilitys defined like dps, healing or tanking.
unlike newer games. The newer EQ system has some good points, but the new remade area's spoil the game TBH, I use to like the having a high level toon and farming gear for my alt. plus there used to be groups doing the same killing mobs just for fun.
Or even getting guild groups together for the old epics.
65 Druid Tallon Zek, EQlive
50 skald Gaheris DAOC,
50 Cabalist Gaheris DAOC,
44 Merc Gaheris DAOC,
43 Healer Merlin DAOC,