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EverQuest: Return to Everquest Part 2: Crafty Devil
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
RETURN TO EVERQUEST!" It sounds like and epic movie but it's really just MMORPG.com writer Phil James on a hunt to find an MMO home and going back to familiar territory. Phil has fond memories of Everquest from years ago and he jumps back in to see if it still captivates. In Part 2 of Return to EverQuest, Phil continues his look back at one of the "classic oldies". Check it out and then let us know what you're thinking in the comments.
So what is a guy to do? Reading this may give you a clue that I write about MMOs. As a rule I like to devote around 10-15 hours a week or so to knock out one of these masterpieces. Of course being the junkie that I am means that I end up playing more than that (a lot more). But when time is short I worry that I can’t generate enough content to write about. Add into the mix that Everquest takes a lot of time – I know because I bought a Prima guide, and it says so right at the beginning – you can understand my dilemma. Do I skip a week or two until things get back to normal or stick to the plan and write a piece each week? The fact that I’ve waffled on for over 250 words must make you wise to my decision.
Read more of Phil James' Return to Everquest Part 2: Crafty Devil.
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Comments
You do, actually, make a decent brew.
Just wait til you do your 1.0 or 1.5 or 2.0 quests ... HAHAHAHAHAH... hated..every..hour..of..those..quests...
PS - All mammals have nipples.
Get over it already.
I love reading these EQ post. I played and loved EQ back in the day, before they ruined it. These progression servers sound right up my alley. Well at least untll they get to the expansions that ruined the game. Too bad I don't still have my EQ disc or I would be all over it. Please keep these articles commin'.
I know leveling was hell, but you got to know poeple and enjoyed the leveling aspect of the game not just the end game. I wish more games would have went this route. I have yet to find anything that holds my interest more than a few months. most games to be to easy. One of the more recent ones had poeple at max level in less than 7 days. Even powerleveling you spen your share of hours grinding away in everquest
hey bud you can download the station launcher and it will have all the games you want in it. I didnt do eq as I was playing earth and beyond then, but I do play eq2, the station launcher rocks for streamlining your soe games with downloads and updates.
playing eq2 and two worlds
EQ was amazing shadows of luclin just decimated the entire game. The old world was left to rot /cry I MISS YOU EQ
Agree'd I quit after Luclin too. Game turned to crap. Best MMO ever besides DAoC
I lasted through the Planes (and hated them) but then RL and EQ2 happened. I'm currently in EVE (left LOTRO due to the dumb-down 2 years ago) but reading your articles here has started to renew my interest. I may just re-up my Station Access and retry both EQ & EQ2 within the next few months. Keep these coming. They may just turn the tide for me.
~ Adder ~
Quick, Silent, Deadly
Just my 10 cents worth.
In regard to the Coyote Pelts, kill the armadillos - hell kill everything you can in the zone. Spawns pop randomly - random location, random creatures. Chances are if you wipe out as many creatures as you can - more Coyotes will pop.
Still love this game, it is my first and main love in MMOs. I play WoW, but it is a watered down, kindergarten version of Everquest. It does some stuff well, but it will never keep me as excited and entertained as EQ did back in it's glory days.
Laterz!
I love your description of the questiong. I've hated all the hand holding in the other MMOs. I'm looking forward to ArcheAge, but I might try this until it is released.
I do have one question for anybody out there. How are EQ and EQ2 in combat?
Beyond all the hand holding in questing, I hate all the weak combat. If you can take on 10 to 20 mobs without a chance of dying then there is a problem with your combat system. At most you should be able to take on 2-3 mobs most of the time, and then have to eat, drink or something to recover. I hate this crud of never dying. I remember one of the games I tried that actually congradulated me because I managed to die (I left in the middle of battle. I had a phone call that lasted 20 minutes, that's a long death). Too easy of a fight = ZERO adrenaline, challenge, or fun. That is the definition of a true BORING grind.
So how's the combat plz ;-).
Still, let's hear it for a game that still has some ADVENTURE for its questing. OMG who would think that having to hunt for something without a dotted line type crutch would be a challenge worth having?!
Tradeskilling is not for the weak, hehe you should have tried it before the "new" tradeskill windows came
There was only one thing that could drive me to tradeskilling, and that was coldain prayer shawl quest (200+ hour quest from Velious era).
It is true that some newbie armor quests are OP, fortunately SOE is so slow to react that it still only works for some race/class combos yet. The argument about newbie armor is not "classic" is kindda lost on me though, because everquest is hardly the same game as it was. SOE did a great job changing eq over the years - Mostly for the worse .. sometimes it makes you think if the guys in charge are clueless to the virtues of everquest. Fortunately they can't ruin everything, and the core of the game is still intact. Worst problem at the moment is crowdedness and a serious money making flaw that has ruined the economy completely.. SOE is investigating (for weeks) - In the old days, such a thing would have caused an emmidiate shutdown of servers and possible rollback.
Still playing despite all the problems.
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
To answer the question about eq and eq2 combat. Eq2 is not comparable to eq, the only thing in common is the world history - Eq2 combat is more like WoW in style.
Combat in eq is its main force in my opinion, no mmorpg since has been able to produce as interesting combat as eq does. First the classes are truely unique, with spells, songs and combat abilities that are very versatile and supports so many different tactics. There is no threath-meter which adds some random elements as you can never know when a mob will suddenly turn and attack your healer, some mobs will attempt to flee and if reaching other mobs (of same faction, tribe etc) those will add in. There are slows, snares, mesmerizing, rooting, debuffing of all sorts, which all are not just a fireball1 2 3 4 type, but much more complex and again unique spells. When to cast what, which to cast what on, when to heal, when to stand close when to stand far, and so on. This means that it matters alot how you play your character (skill).. and switch when others change play style - This will take you years to master.
Can only say eq got the deepest tactical combat/group mechanics I have tried and no mmorpg comes close.
ps. just wanted to add, combat pace is slow .. my guess is its about 3 times slower than wow - can easily take minutes for a group to take down a tough mob.
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
At lower level you can >usually< solo a mob the same level as your character, at higher levels it becomes risky to take on a fight with anything high enough to give you XP for a lot of classes, even in raid gear. I'm probably a bit jaded from playing a rogue, but other than corpse dragging I was a one hit wonder and next to useless without a group. Fear kiting doesn't really work when your fear fails more than 1/2 the time.
This time around a rolled a monk on Flippy Darkpaw just to have more of a fighting chance at groups and some soloability. Fear kitting is still pretty much useless but at least I'll be able to pull singles and feign death if need be more often than a rogue can escape/vanish (like 50 minute cooldown in EQ1) There is no running 50 feet away if you take on more than you can handle, the mobs will not forget you and go back to their spawn point. If you don't have an abilty that will drop your agro (and there are only a few classes that do) then you are on those mob's sh*t list until you zone out, they die, or you die.
[quote] I however didn’t play EQ way back when [/quote]
Some one who is the opposite of that ^ should be writing "Returning to Everquest." Stating in part 1 that you tried EQ2 then thought to go back to try EQ1 cuz there was a "2" only to stop after 2-3 months makes you not qualified to write this. It's kinda of a worthless article to someone like me who was there at the beginning and stuck with it for 6 years.
You have no idea, nor the "gaming experience" to write about how it was back then.
Highest resolution support was 800x600 (maybe 1024x768) - DirectX 3 baby, maybe even 2
Later an update that updated the UI to remove the Might & Magic "look"
However, opening your book put you back in 800x600 with the Might & Magic "look"
Knowing how to get around Kelethin WITHOUT a map
Knowing how to get to every good spawn in LGuk WITHOUT a map
A book you had to stare at til level 35 to get your mana back as a caster
Becoming one with the SINGLE chat window to know when it was YOUR group that was under attack while you were medding
2 character models that could literally clog a dungeon passage way
Taking out the windows key on the keyboard just so you don't close the game out
Having www.eqmaps.com up in the back ground to alt-tab and/or printing the maps off
Pressing Sense Heading over and over just to get your skill up to use the aforementioned website
Using all of the resource at eq.allakhazam.com BEFORE it cost money
Using everquestraids.com to "hold" a raiding spot in game
Druids and wizards bringing in the plat on port services
Completely starting over at double digit level XX because your corpse was unrecoverable
Having to grant /corpseloot permissions so someone could loot your corpse to bring you your stuff
Later game up date, to grant /corpsedrag permission for someone to drag your corpse
Carpal tunnel trying to twist 4 songs as a Bard
A bazaar every Sunday (on Tarew Marr) in the EC tunnel
Know exacltly what this means "WTB lambent stone at T2"
Knowing this phrase: "Always zone in to the right or zone out to the right, doing the opposite WILL get you killed."
Slate to EC tunnel
Train to zone
LOADING, PLEASE WAIT....
Your screen flickers, text moves up slightly on the chat window
LOADING, PLEASE WAIT....(again) - Yes, you just died during zoning
Once you've experieced all the above and more, then you can write this article.
Im sorry but saying eq has the deepest tactical combat/group mechanics is just silly and plain old wrong.
You know you can just download the game right? Log in to your Station account and it will let you download. No discs needed.
That is how i did it. And i have to say i am loving the old EQ. Totally hooked.
Let us know how this is so wrong. Cause I very much share Kjempff point of view, even though I left EQ1 in nov 2004 after 5 years of intense HC gaming.
All gamesafter EQ1 have been designed with combat mechanism where the driving force is to avoid strategy that isn't blessed by Developers. You are forced to group with a tank, heal and dps; where tank keeps aggro, healer heals and dps dps.
There's not ONE game where debuffing a mob is half important as it is in EQ1. There's not ONE game that provides so many techniques for managing mobs : Fear-kitting, fear-pet, snare kitting, quad kitting, PBAOE, charm.... There are so many combinations that allows solo, duo or full group to handle a combat. With and without traditional group.
But the main aspect is that each combat is rewarding. You make one single mistake and you're dead.
In EQ1, "Oh shit !" means you're dead, where in any other games, it means "let's hit my save button #5". How many mistakes are you entitled at wow or lotro before you hit the ground ? Does it make much difference whether or not you pulled an extra mob ?
The reward is inherent to EQ1 combat mechanism = Each time your opponent dies, you feel this intense satisfaction of being alive.
I've been playing DaoC, Wow, Lotro, AoC, CoH, and I've been raiding in EQ2 for 7 years now. None of these games provide so many spell combinations. None of these games invites you to try something different. None of this game suggest you : What if I try to aggro only 4 mobs, so my AE snare will slow them all and I will circle around them until they are so packed that I will manage them 4 by 4. Will I have enough mana ? What if I get a 5th one ? What if my snare is resisted by one ? What if I snare myself ? What if ...
EQ1 is the only game where you look for new tactics. All other games impose one (or very few) tactics.
Those were the good old days weren't they. I have to say i love the fact that dying meant something in EQ1. Just like EVE. You really really really didn't want to die when you are deep in a dungeon somewhere.
Worse was needing to give a cleric a Diamond to give you a 100% rez... if you could find one to come see you.
Man do i miss Karnor Castle though. Can't wait for Kunark to be released. But i am definitely experiencing a lot of the zones i missed the first time.
I know exactly what you're talking about. I now have a family and no longer have the time to spend 5 plus hours a day during the week to enjoy EQ to the fullest as it was back in the day. Kunark was an awesome update that I still have fond memories: camping for hours at the Sarnak fort in Lake of Ill Omen, doing the same in OT and the giant fort in Frontiers Mountain, watching people trying to steal my (Bard) pulls in Dreadlands for only me to charm pull it back to my group.
I too miss the Karnor Castle experience. Every back-in-the-day EQ player had to experience that AND the trip to Sebilis as well as the dungeon itself....once you zoned in, you only had one way out (unless you had gate/port).
I can proudly say I completed the druid epic quest (1.0). Yes questing in EQ is much different than WoW.
Menrin, from one Ole schooler to another AMEN!! You just brought back the old EQ memories flooding my mind. I remember running from Split Paw to Qeynos being so hungry even medding wouldn't get my manna up, so I stopped this Elf who was running by, and asked if he could spare some food, so he gave me some "Rat Meat" and even the icon for this stuff looked nasty, but my character ate it and got just enough mana to survive the run. This struggle between life and death combined with the unforgiving death penalty and steep learning curve made this game unmatched in it's excitement.... Just my humble opinion.
Around this time I was playing UO well before the hated Trammel came about. So is combat and crafting about the same in EQ as in UO? And what about the training of skills?
This is only for the progression server. Very easy to kill equal level normal mobs on the normal servers. You can kinder easy solo all the way
Zoos the Slacker
Comment on article; Many of the quests are not advertised on NPC's as they are in WoW. You need to text-chat with the npcs to find out special key sentences or points. It's a cross between older text adventures and modern questing.
I'd probably return to playing EQ1 is the price suited. $5 USA for a month would be the right ammount. I'd probably play $14-$20 if it was EQ3 and desinged in the vein of EQ1. Example the original crew got together and made EQ3 based on what made EQ1 good on release.
I played some free time at New Years. The server was really quiet so EQ team should merge servers so that numbers are peaking. The original server counts at busy times used to be about 700-1000 players per server so that could be a measure.
Sony should also consider Linux compatibility, as many people in my circle use Ubuntu or other linux distributions. EQ runs with a few probs under Wine in linux.
Yeah like many, times and situations have changed. Without a price change to reflect age, and economic climate, etc, EQ will remain unpopulated.