How complete is the DB?

[robindude]

I mostly followed Vales install here (http://www.eqemulator.net/forums/showthread.php?t=29043) with the exceptions, of course, that I used the latest revision (about a week ago, something like 981 or similar) and am running PrivateLogin instead of the EqEmuLogin ('cause that's what I could get to work for me). I have never actually played this game before, so I know little about it, but I finally got the server up and running. Yay!

All happy and ready to explore the world, I created a character and logged in. Took a while to figure out what was going on, but eventually (by looking up the info online) I was able to leave the mines. I was playing a Dark Elf Wizard and got a "quest" (really just some guy saying how to make armor) early on to head out to the Nektulos forest and get various bits from baddies and make stuff. So I headed out to the Nektulos forest... and appeared in the middle of nowhere with nothing but darkness around me. Being a GM, I ported to a spot in the middle of the map. Of course, all that jumping around meant that I was attacked by large numbers of baddies. Fortunately I am cheating madly and slaughtered them. Hmmm. Decided to go back into town. Except... there's no portal back into town. On top of that, I can't seem to find any actual quests anywhere inside, the Town Crier sells nothing but blank pages... basically the whole thing seem unfinished, effectively unplayable (in the sense that unless you know exactly where you're going and are cheating to get higher levels in the first place, you'll get nowhere). On top of that, I've been attacked by creatures moving under the ground and seen creatures go through walls or over them as if they weren't there.

Is this the case? Is the database so incomplete that you have to know the game really well to play it, or at least have someone who does, not to mention a GM around so you can actually get from one zone to another and back?

[pfyon]

Re: Problems with mobs agroing through walls/ground and zoning in the middle of nowhere. That sounds like you don't have the maps set up properly on your server

Otherwise, that's about the state the game was on live. Keep in mind, everquest came out in 1999 and was one of, if not the first of its kind (3d fantasy mmo). If you're expecting the level of polish that modern MMOs have, everquest isn't the place to find it.

Some races had more newbie friendly starting zones, but on a whole, the game was about exploration and discovery. Everquest did not hold your hand and tell you where to go (or not go) next, you learned the hard way by dying.

I'm not saying hand-holding or telling you where to go is a bad thing, just different than what EQ was about. Part of the reason EQ isn't as big now as it used to be is due to the above issues and difficulty for new players.

[Pandaman]

Not only that, but Everquest was a progression game. The quests, weren't.. exactly spectacular, and even on live, were pretty horrendous. It was a grinding game by far.

Also, if you're just playing the game for the first time, regardless of any game, and you are given the powers to port around, of course you won't know what to do.

My opinion? Go to someone else' server, and play there.

Learn the game, and then mess around as a GM. Otherwise, you won't know what fun stuff you're missing.

[trevius]

It sounds like you are playing EQEmu using the SoF client. If that is the case, then there are quite a few of the old zones like Nektulos that got updated, and the PEQ database was made for the old version. That is why you zoned into a zone in the middle of nowhere and even after porting around, everything was out of place and zone lines didn't work. Because, essentially, the server thought you were supposed to be in the old version of the zone before it was updated. I think there are a few ways around issues like that one by renaming certain files or whatever, but it isn't really a good example of how polished the Emulator is.

The emulator is actually fairly complete up through the PoP expansion and even some beyond. But yeah, you might want to try out playing on other servers to see how you like them before making any final judgements on how far along the emulator is. In many cases, it is very close to Live, and is actually very playable.

[Shin Noir]

I'm guessing from your referencing to quests and town criers you are a player of WoW.

World of Warcraft was released Nov 23rd, 2004.
Everquest was released March 16th, 1999.

In 1999, DirectX 6 was the latest version of the 3d rendering engine, as was Windows 98 the standard Operating System.

Everquest was one of the first of it's kind, though Multi-User-Dungeons (which is what EQ was based on) and 2d sprite based MMORPGs (Ultima Online) were around prior to Everquest, EQ I believe was the first to have a 3d rendered world.

The penalty system of Everquest by default was quite harsh, as was quests and general grinding of experience. The game was challenging to understand and took time to grasp all the concepts inside it. Some of these elements were improved over the years, but others were kept the same for nostalgia reasons.

This game's success and failures in design were what helped future MMORPG's with discovering methods to tap into the MMORPG genre.

World of Warcraft's general design philosophies can be seen in many MMORPG's prior to it, for in the eras of MMO's it actually came pretty late. It crafted a new era of what I call the "WoW cookie cutter" MMORPG era, where many MMOs come out basing it on a template established by WoW. However, prior to WoW, each MMORPG kept to a realm of creatively establishing it's own world with no foundation on how successful it would be, theorizing ways to make a game addictive. It may just be me, but originality seemed more abundant before WoW. Some games that come to my mind range from Dark Age of Camelot (2001), Anarchy Online (2001), Ragnarok Online (2001), Lineage 2 (2003) which if you look at each of these they all have significantlly unique elements to them, their influences not so much contrived from what was successful prior to them, but instead taking a new approach to try to tap the MMORPG market.

Going off topic, I am not a huge fan of World of Warcraft's general design philosophy nor have I found many newer MMORPGs that I enjoy after it's success. So, I have a bad taste in my mouth about WoW, though it did make the MMORPG genre insanely popular and accessible to a much larger player base with the simplicity Blizzard is very well known for.

I prefer a game to be challenging and make you get lost in trying to figure out the next step, this was one of the elements EQ really was good at. Complex quests you would stumble upon and have no idea what the reward was, what the item result would be... It was a very complex and dangerous world. Higher learning curve means it may not be for the general population, but for me I feel as if I accomplished something more daunting.

While on the EQEMU, you may share some of the complexities of wonderment about this world and what you can do inside it. You may enjoy it, or you may prefer to simply walk to a ? and follow the steps designed for you by a programmer beforehand. But regardless, I felt like writing all that and I hope you found it helpful.. :)