Grr bark bark grr! SOE launches another EQ progression server on Feb 15th

[SuperPopTart]

Prancing, Ceridon, Tiemas, Dagnabit are why EQ is a good game. 

Playing project 1999 is a welcome relief from playing WoW simply because it has a community and everyone isn't perfectly self-sustainable.  I like being able to log in, /who all zone, and be able to recognize half of the people in the zone.  WoW LFD with a non-stop stream of random douchebags is less enjoyable than camping a room with good, fun players you've grouped with before.  Of course, this is lower level when there is less catassery going on, but hey, don't kill my buzz man.

Amen to that whole thing. You get a gold star.

[fuser]

So when's a bat country starting on project 1999 

[Merusk]

(This was a direct hold-over from the CIRCLE and ROM MUDs EQ stole much of its combat so heavily from.)   I recall many a rogue in my guilds chuckling about having stolen the Hill Giant heads and half the plat off of giants when others were camping them.

DIKU, too.  "c 'locate object'"  <yoink>

I stole so much stuff with my thief.  Well, when I didn't just stomp on the mob.  Though a lot of gear loaded equipped so stealing it wasn't an option.  I kind of miss mobs using what they had.

Now that I'll agree to.  One of the most fun things ever was giving loot to your pet and watching it rip things to shreds.

  I had an enchanter friend in the early days of Luclin who had entirely too much money.  (Probably because she and her husband 4-boxed almost 19 hours a day)   She used to give those longswords that were the big upgrade for normal people at the time to her pets, because they'd get 3-4 a day.  Those pets turned into little death machines.  I'd just sit there soaking up xp in their group, occasionally tossing a heal on the pet or her husband's warrior or nuking.  (Their group was Enchanter, Warrior, Bard, Shaman)

[fuser]

Now that I'll agree to.  One of the most fun things ever was giving loot to your pet and watching it rip things to shreds.

I played a Magician for the longest time so I'm the poor sap who had to keep up Dragon faction for CoH. The best pet related incident was an Enchanter friend asking for a full set of pet items (swords/armor/belt) while he was in Crushbone. Ended up charming Dvinn and wandering around for an hour after handing him all the set items. He forgot about the items when he let Dvinn charm go and zoned.

That poor camp in throne room, it was a blood bath.

[Merusk]

Oooh, yeah buffs on NPCs.  I remember many a story of folks charming then giving items to Sergent Slate, buffing him to hell and back and then letting him go at the tunnel.

[Strazos]

I really wish I could recapture the feel of early EQ. I remember being up in the Throne Room in CB, having the pull go wrong and needing to run away...so I jumped out the window and made my way to the tunnel successfully.

As harsh as the game was...there were parts that I loved and wish I could relive. Like a buddy and me trying to go through Kithicor as newbs, not knowing that the zone turns nasty at night. We started seeing badass skeletons, so we hid in a house as stuff wandered about outside until dawn. Good Times. 

[Tale]

I really wish I could recapture the feel of early EQ. I remember being up in the Throne Room in CB, having the pull go wrong and needing to run away...so I jumped out the window and made my way to the tunnel successfully.

... while your train chased you to the zoneline along its path, then walked back to its area along the same path after you zoned, aggroing on all the other people fighting lesser orcs along the way, causing mass death in the zone. Jumping out the throne room window and zoning was the classic way to cause a mass naked lineup at the zoneline. Fleeing for your life like that was a thrill though!

[Threash]

A friend i met in the original EQ talked me into trying this.  I made an iksar monk since the lizards were the only race that didn't look laughable.  I did three levels of angry birds in the time it took my lvl 1 monk to kill one rat.  Uninstalled.

[Strazos]

... while your train chased you to the zoneline along its path, then walked back to its area along the same path after you zoned, aggroing on all the other people fighting lesser orcs along the way, causing mass death in the zone. Jumping out the throne room window and zoning was the classic way to cause a mass naked lineup at the zoneline. Fleeing for your life like that was a thrill though!

Hey, at least I called my trains! 

[Surlyboi]

Could be worse, could be KC.

[Strazos]

Never delved all that deep into KC, so I don't have much experience with trains there.

[Koyasha]

Oooh, yeah buffs on NPCs.  I remember many a story of folks charming then giving items to Sergent Slate, buffing him to hell and back and then letting him go at the tunnel.

Buffing every guard in Nektulos Forest with See Invis was fun with my little dark elf enchanter.  People would run through there invis a lot to get to Lavastorm, but after I did a round of see invis buffing I'd always see a few more corpses on the ground.

Various other 'buff the NPC' shenanigans were fun too, especially in zones where I had good faction but most people didn't, like the live side of Lower Guk.  Having unusual factions was one of my favorite things.  I remember being incredibly careful in Halls of Honor to never, ever take a faction hit there on one character.  I don't remember if there were any hostile mobs in the zone if you'd never taken a faction hit.  I do clearly remember that in the raid zone where you kill Mithaniel Marr, none of the NPC's were hostile because of that.

[Lantyssa]

Factions are something I'd like to see more of in games.  I had all kinds of crazy factions maxed in SWG, and Fallen Earth is the only other game I can think of than these two which had them in the last decade.

[raydeen]

Never delved all that deep into KC, so I don't have much experience with trains there.

Karnor's was one of those dungeons that had two zone points, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the right was supposed to be used as an entrance and the left as an exit. And if you had to make a bee-line for the zone you were expected to use the left (and of course call train). There'd always be somebody though who would train the zone to the right so that groups who were either zoning in or getting their shit together would get their faces eaten off before they knew what happened. I think one of the Planes had a similar setup (PoJ maybe?). Always made for some interesting times.

[Surlyboi]

It was PoJ. You could always tell the noobs in KC because their corpses were strewn about the left. Or outside as drolvarg fodder.

Man, if it wasn't for the regular nutkicking, I'd love to play EQ again.

[Sky]

So when's a bat country starting on project 1999 

You know, I'm still tempted. I have no idea why. Goddamned nostalgia.

[raydeen]

So when's a bat country starting on project 1999 

You know, I'm still tempted. I have no idea why. Goddamned nostalgia.

I played a little bit on it a year or two ago. Only problem was there weren't many low levels to group with (or I was never on when everyone else was). I'd be up for it I can remember my login info. I remember I had to change it at one point as the main EQEmu site got hacked and everyone's account info was compromised. Might just have to re-register anyways as I doubt they've kept my account around.

[Tale]

Factions are something I'd like to see more of in games.  I had all kinds of crazy factions maxed in SWG, and Fallen Earth is the only other game I can think of than these two which had them in the last decade.

Me too. I liked that Velious thing where the giant/dwarf/dragon cities could either be scary dungeons or friendly quest hubs/banking areas depending on which factions you raised.

[Koyasha]

Yeah, proper factions - not the pale shadow that more recent games have - is something I really would like to see again.  Even EQ moved generally away from such a stance from Planes of Power onward.  Velious was the best done example of factions I've ever seen, and Luclin would have been great except for the whole thing where it wound up being redone halfway through development.  But in Planes of Power they started making clear delineations of 'these are the friendly NPCs that you can't hurt, and those are the enemies' and there was no crossover.  The Halls of Honor comments I made earlier?  While you could maintain good faction with Mithaniel Marr by never killing anything in HoH, there was nothing you could DO with that faction.

I think any modern MMO could easily implement factions in a fun and comprehensive manner, so it strikes me as odd that no one has ever even tried, as far as I know.  I'm not even sure what Vanguard's history with that is, since when I tried to play I never really got the feel for it and never got out of the newbie zone.

Velious's main issue was poor endgame balance though.  There was no giant version of NToV or Sleeper's Tomb - if you wanted the most uber endgame zones, you had to screw up your dragon faction (or go through ridiculous shenanigans to keep it, like I did).

[Surlyboi]

Man, I remember that. After working really hard at getting max dragon faction and enjoying walking through TOV unmolested, the guild said, "hey! we're gonna start raiding TOV! Time to kill some dragons!"

Going back and forth between Veeshan and Kael and doing random cons.... those were the days.

[Sky]

Rolled a monk named Mujin and a necro named Caviglia on p1999. Not sure I'll be able to overcome the arcane interface, the primitive graphics don't bother me much, though. The sounds are hilarious, it's funny how deeply rooted in the brain sounds become. Just casting my necro shield spell or hearing the cackle of a skeleton brought back so many memories.

But the UI, ye gods how did we ever put up with that mess? 6 abilities on-screen? Hah.

Hilarious to see the string of corpses through Qeynos.

[Hawkbit]

A lot of those were likely mine... I forgot about being a necro and some NPCs not liking that much. 

[raydeen]

Either that or they were bards who forgot to turn one of their songs off (forget which one it was but it was an aoe spell that if it hit the guards...well, you better hope you had a sow.)

[Sky]

A lot of those were likely mine... I forgot about being a necro and some NPCs not liking that much. 

A good half of them were erudite, and one was still wearing a blue or purple robe. I just go dark elf with my necro, so at least I'm loved in my hometown. Also, dark elves rulez! My highest level guy in EQ was a dark elf necro, loved the class until I became a mana cleric. Our old trio was wizard/druid/necro.

[Merusk]

Either that or they were bards who forgot to turn one of their songs off (forget which one it was but it was an aoe spell that if it hit the guards...well, you better hope you had a sow.)

Bards have no need of SoW!  Selo's FTW!

Shit.. the idea of playing a Bard might just get me to try this out.  Damnit.

[PalmTrees]

The thread's definitely tugging on some nostalgia strings, but then I recall sitting on my ass for hours waiting on quest mobs to spawn and the shame and regret burn away all the nostalgia.

[Strazos]

I only seriously played rogues, so...

I don't enjoy the thought of having nowhere else to really go at one point but the orc hills in HHP, and the goblins under HHK. Or at one point having to find groups to hunt City of Mist, for lack of better hunting grounds.

[Sky]

yeah, seriously. Sitting waiting for my monk's health to regen at level two...that's enough nostalgia for me.

[Fraeg]

hmmmm all the nostalgia.

My last attempt to return to EQ was a gnome necro.   I got him to lvl 18 or so then managed to die in a really stupid spot.   After umpteen attempts to recover my corpse I logged and forgot about the game.  2 weeks or so later I logged in and my corpse was gone (had forgotten about that part).  Petitioned a GM to get my corpse back, and was told too bad so sad, but here is some lvl 5 starter crap.

I had bought gold (yes yes shame on me) so that my little guy could be Ubar! and all of that stuff was now gone for good.  /uninstal   

My fault for letting it rot, but that was enough nostalgia for me.  For every great memory of EQ1 I have there is another horrid memory of say begging for someone to bind you in Freeport and dying before that happened (ganked by a high lvl dark elf)... then *poof* back in Quenos with a long long run ahead of me    /shudder.

[Merusk]

I started playing P1999 the other day and quickly remembered just how much original EQ sucked and why I never went back after finally quitting.  I gave the EZmode server at EQEMU a try instead. It's still a horrible interface with stuff that makes me want to scream in frustration, but being level 19 after only 2 hours of playing AND having a 1.0 Epic and armor drops off of lowbie monsters made it much more entertaining.   Lets you get the nostalgia trip of running around in old zones with none of the "Oh shit, I'm going to die and lose everything" pain.

[Tale]

Lets you get the nostalgia trip of running around in old zones with none of the "Oh shit, I'm going to die and lose everything" pain.

But I never did die and lose everything. Neither did anyone else who played the game better than the people who died and lost everything. It's like a PvP mentality - some people like the challenge of survival with a cruel extra threat level, other people hate it. Each to their own.

Re the interface - I find SOE's modern EQ1 interface nightmarish. I can't even get used to the revamped spell gems. But there are links in the P1999 setup thread to put everything back the way it was in say, Velious era 2001 (the days when people were using TKing's mods etc). Obviously it's not going to work like WoW, but if you were accustomed to it back then, it's quite workable now.

In other news, they launched Kunark in P1999, with some fairly well-handled GM events to celebrate. I don't think they care what anyone thinks - those devs just have a passion for doing everything as it used to be. However, inflation on the server is out of control and there's a RMT black market. On their messageboard, they ban any trading except in plat, but it's clearly being converted to cash by some of the people on the board. The downside of emulating EQ as it used to be is that everyone knows the farming exploits and the RMT demand in advance...

[Sky]

I started playing P1999 the other day and quickly remembered just how much original EQ sucked and why I never went back after finally quitting.  I gave the EZmode server at EQEMU a try instead. It's still a horrible interface with stuff that makes me want to scream in frustration, but being level 19 after only 2 hours of playing AND having a 1.0 Epic and armor drops off of lowbie monsters made it much more entertaining.   Lets you get the nostalgia trip of running around in old zones with none of the "Oh shit, I'm going to die and lose everything" pain.

I probably should have done that when I did my trip down Nostalgia Blvd.

But then again, maybe it's better I did p1999 and had my nostalgia utterly crushed. Closure is a good thing.

[Soln]

same with me for p1999.  I was playing it a fair amount, even with my old Prima Guides.  But it's too much.

[Teleku]

I had similar nostalgia a year back for EQ, even fully remembering that it sucked ass (but oh the hilarious shenanigans you guys talked about.  Like giving items to pets, buffing guards, trains, etc.  Oh, and getting raped by Kithicor forest at night).  I played a random Emu server where they started you out with full epic armor and other buffs (like fast mana regen).  After getting over the horrific interface, it was fun to go back and explore the world again, blasting my way through zones and leveling up very very fast.  Thats how you guys should do it.  Its fun to go back and see area's you never had a chance to because you were to low level, or your groups could never make it past a certain point in a dungeon because they kept getting wiped by stupid shit.

The server went down though, and I lost my progress at about level 25, so I stopped.  Might try it again though to see if I can explore more.  I suggest making a druid, since you can teleport around, nuke things fast, and use sow.

[raydeen]

I think my favorite memory from EQ was when Ysheka (sp?) opened. I remember being one of the first to find the Stonebrunt Mountains. Made the mad SoW dash through the kobold tunnels madly trying to evade trains of mobs and actually to my surprise finding the zone line alive. I then spent the next 10-15 levels out there with my druid. I'd bring back blue wicker armor presents for my guild mates and friends. Loved that zone, kiting apes, snakes, pandas and a few elites. And when I was big and bad enough, I'd rape the kobolds for their bevies and the guild would drink for free. And there was that one strange cave in the zone that looked like it should have eventually led to something (had two boulders that you had to squeeze between) but I don't think was ever used. EQ had a bunch of weird little areas that looked like something cool should have happened there but nothing was ever used. Remember that one little underground throne room near the Iksar city and arena? Had a dragon themed throne and looked like something big and badass should have been down there but AFAIK it was always just an empty curiosity. I remember creeping down those stairs with great trepidation thinking something surely was going to eat my face. Nada.