Best Classic Server!

[unknownhost]

people dont realize how cold a place original eq was.

exp was PAINFULLY slow, hell levels and class/race penalties (although halfling i know got a bonus to exp!) didnt make it any more fun. basicly if a human druid needed 100% to level than a hybrid needed an aditional 50% + if were ogre or troll then another 50% on top of that for 200% per level or some such pain... the exp penalty was the balance for hybrids being essentially warriors with spells...

meditation/downtime SUCKED , mana regen was rare (pretty much enchanters only and their friends) , and surely i dont miss staring at my spellbook with my cleric for pretty much 70-80% of his life to 50.

corpses could very easily be lost. there was no summon corpse spell for quite awhile. gm's didnt summon them for you unless it was bugged in a wall.


heck you had to /petition to get your last name at level20. petitioned one day, next day or two gm showed up on me in unrest and bestowed my grandness upon me.

tradeskills were just too confusing at the very begining. i didnt bother with them til after i was a year into the game other than fabricating some patchwork armor.

where was the medium bronze armor in the begining? took me forever to fill the gaps on my human cleric back on xegony. by the time i did get at_least_bronze in every slot it was loong past time for upgrades beyond that.

yay for the lines at drelzna, evileye,an frenzied ghoul! and pretty much everywhere else with decent loot.

yet for all that i thuroughly enjoyed original eq, it was so new and different compared to any other mmorpg available at the time. (pretty much UltimaOnline only thing out there and it hadnt been long since they completely redesigned the game nearly eliminating the pvp aspect while doing so)


anyways, i dinged my second character to 50 the night before kunark released, i remember being so pissed that they raised the level cap and we had to start grinding again haha. think my greatest accomplishments back then were being on Xegonys first vox raid(failed, didnt help that the GM's broadcasted to the entire server the time of the "event" our guild was doing an 300+showed up, yay crashing!) and our guild took down phinigel before kedge was itemized.(though definately not first on xegony hehe!)

fond memories!

[wysh]

Originally Posted by unknownhost

people dont realize how cold a place original eq was.

exp was PAINFULLY slow, hell levels and class/race penalties (although halfling i know got a bonus to exp!) didnt make it any more fun. basicly if a human druid needed 100% to level than a hybrid needed an aditional 50% + if were ogre or troll then another 50% on top of that for 200% per level or some such pain... the exp penalty was the balance for hybrids being essentially warriors with spells...

meditation/downtime SUCKED , mana regen was rare (pretty much enchanters only and their friends) , and surely i dont miss staring at my spellbook with my cleric for pretty much 70-80% of his life to 50.

corpses could very easily be lost. there was no summon corpse spell for quite awhile. gm's didnt summon them for you unless it was bugged in a wall.


heck you had to /petition to get your last name at level20. petitioned one day, next day or two gm showed up on me in unrest and bestowed my grandness upon me.

tradeskills were just too confusing at the very begining. i didnt bother with them til after i was a year into the game other than fabricating some patchwork armor.

where was the medium bronze armor in the begining? took me forever to fill the gaps on my human cleric back on xegony. by the time i did get at_least_bronze in every slot it was loong past time for upgrades beyond that.

yay for the lines at drelzna, evileye,an frenzied ghoul! and pretty much everywhere else with decent loot.

yet for all that i thuroughly enjoyed original eq, it was so new and different compared to any other mmorpg available at the time. (pretty much UltimaOnline only thing out there and it hadnt been long since they completely redesigned the game nearly eliminating the pvp aspect while doing so)


anyways, i dinged my second character to 50 the night before kunark released, i remember being so pissed that they raised the level cap and we had to start grinding again haha. think my greatest accomplishments back then were being on Xegonys first vox raid(failed, didnt help that the GM's broadcasted to the entire server the time of the "event" our guild was doing an 300+showed up, yay crashing!) and our guild took down phinigel before kedge was itemized.(though definately not first on xegony hehe!)

fond memories!

Some people enjoyed classic EQ for these exact reasons.

[ChaosSlayer]

Originally Posted by wysh

Some people enjoyed classic EQ for these exact reasons.

masochists ?
I know I know. I was one of those people who DEVOTLY "played" eq to the best of my ability from October 99 till October 2005.

Now after seeing EQ2 has done it - i realise how stupid we were and how much evereything sucked: the game does not have to put you through YEARS of painful Xp grinding to be addictive

for all the things I liked about EQ there were some horible flaws:

-insane XP grind to get anywhere
-standing in hour long lines just to get into Xp group or waiting for 15 minutes after EACH solo light blue kill just to get hp/mana back
-horrifying death penalty, and death/corpse run loops who could easily make you loose few levels just trying to get your corpse back
-horibly unplayable as solo or less than a group content
-horible itemization - pre kunark having full set of bronze for nagafen raid was prety much a standart - so thats what - 30 levels just to complite a single set of armor?
-horibly planed encounter where your reward was based on how rare mob spawns rather than how hard he is to kill - Ghoul Arch magus o average spawned once in 5 hours after mindless kiling of place holders and only had 10% chance to drop SMR
-outrages customer service

thats NOT soemthing what qualifies as "enjoyment"

EQ2 has demonstrated that game can be addictive wihout havign to force everyone into holy-trio grind groups. That quests rewards can actualy be worth something by the time you can complite them. Encounters content which is NOT only suited for groups or uber raiders and based ONLY on how many people you can drag along to kill a single boss
Crafting system which actualy as impressive as combat! (And rewarding until they screwed it up)
In zone respawn points so you don't have run from god knows where just to get your corpse or beg 2 freakin hours just to get a bind

the list just goes on.

[Tantalar]

what made classic EQ so good was that it was so slow to level and so easy to lose exp if you didnt know what you were doing. This made it so that you would really develop your character and save up PP so you could buy and trade and sell. In a game like WoW you dont really have this long grind. You just sort of reach end game very quickly even if you are not hardcore.

In old EQ it was all about supply and demand. Something was hard to get and it was rare for it to drop. This increased the price of that item. It was actually rare. In WoW it doesnt even matter. When I quit the game it was on its way out (with the first expansion)

I really liked how hardcore old EQ was. If you screwed up and got killed you were punished. It actually meant something to die. Nowadays in MMORPGS everything is just... too easy. There isnt enough brutalizing punishment, and things are WAYYYYY to easy. The oldschool EQ crafting system is incredible and vastly superior to any other system out there. The best way to control a game is by making stuff rare and or hard to come by. I would be in full support of a game just like oldschool EQ where it was even harder to level up because as a casual player I was able to reach level 60 and then sort of feel like I had done all there was to do without even going to most of the world.

The world in classic EQ (well trilogy) is just so huge. This also contributed to the economy because most people back then didnt know where all of the loot came from. Often times it was from zones that I never even heard of. In WoW and new age MMORPGS you can explore the entire world in less than an hour.

Dungeons in old EQ are incredibly intricate. Nowadays dungeons are made up of a few huge boxy rooms. Very straight forward... Nothing elaborate at all - pathetic. Old EQ dungeons are like huge mazes. I easily can get lost in countless zones simply because they are so hard to navigate through and remember where you are (as it should be) This is yet another unmatched quality of classic EQ.

Classic EQ has boats instead of instant teleports - enough said

Raid encounters were EPIC and required tons of people. Id rather have an epic gathering of people who just zerg something than have an actual strategy. Its realistic. Absolutely awesome how old EQ raids used to be. Gather up all your friends and everyone and just run in and sacrifice yourself for the cause. It didnt matter what gear you had or what weapon you were using... awesome

Quests were awesome. Well most of them are silly but quests in classic EQ are really well done and you dont have some glowing path that shows you exactly where you have to go for each step of it. You are not spoon fed like in all these new MMORPGs. EQ was hardcore. Hell, I couldnt even imagine how the hell anyone could figure out how to get the veeshan peak key without a strategy guide lol.

So much content, so many zones, so many different options. Infinite stuff to explore... I have played the game a lot for a long time and there are still zones that I have never been to in Trilogy era. I would rather pay $50 a month to play a populated trilogy EQ server than get a lifetime membership to play every MMORPG out there!

[Yeormom]

The reason you didn't like EQ1 was you had the power gamer outlook. EverQuest was never about trying to max your level when Verant ran the shop. It was about the social experience and progression through content. Everyone didn't have to be 60 to take down high end mobs, even through Velious. If you rushed the game based on level, you really missed out.

It was definately not friendly to those unguilded.

[Felwithe]

I prefer the classic game - I actually like hell levels and slow exp. If you like PvP, then TZ/VZ is the place for you. For blue server fans, the best I've seen so far is Murdersmithy - it's a new server, but it is currently original and Kunark, does NOT have extra exp. I prefer this, because I think old school Everquest has a lot to offer at all levels, not just trying to grind to the top so you can finally have "fun" raiding. The server population is low right now, and I'm not sure the GMs really want it to go too high, but it certainly has possibilities.

[Babul]

Eq as been a milestone much of us played when still new on mmporg games it was an unrepeatable experience, every game that came out after was a sort of clone with minor exceptions.

Sure enough looking at it today even with all the improvement in the UI and some new graphics the game is old.. I mean the combat system is really basic click and wait.. also the mobs have always been way way overpowered , last year i reopened for a bit my account just to seem my lv 50+ SK unable to kill any solo light blue mob without ending almost dead and with these huge downtime every fight..

yes EQ was nice but it had a lot of stupid thing which they still have not fixed it is basically impossible to play it if you are solo and not in a guild.

[Bah1337ed]

You forgot to add how everything you did in that game was so open based as far as their spell system went. Using root spell to crowd control. Having to actually type out words or phrases to npcs to get the next line of dialog

Where is freeport?
Freeport is where?
What about freeport?
When is freeport?
Who is freeport?
Random npc: "freeport is not a person but a city"

Not to mention random guards in highhold who just picked up your things, or being able tgo give your pets items to use.

Simply put oldskool eq was like driving a manual car

Most mmo's today are like driving automatic

[ChaosSlayer]

Originally Posted by Bah1337ed

Simply put oldskool eq was like driving a manual car

Most mmo's today are like driving automatic

eq was more like a rusty bicycle which kept loosing random parts every 5 minutes with no spares ever to be found

[Mexenlives]

i prefer a manual transmission. puts you more "in control" of the car =D