Everquest going f2p

[Redgiant]

Announcement


Only giving warrior, cleric, wizard, rogue as free classes? Guess freeps don't need no stinkin' cc.

I'm sure there will be blood over on the EQ forums.

[Kageru]

This could turn it around for EQ.

/joke. Everquest is too old and brutal I'd think, and as the number of f2p titles increases the novelty dwindles and the pool of possible players is divided. And the old Everquest being perceived as obsoleted by Everquest 2 naming snafu continues to haunt them.

It's somewhat tempting to re-visit my old characters, but it might be better to leave them as fond memories I think.

[Fordel]

Does that include all 52 expansions?

A number I'm not actually certain I just made up.

[Hawkbit]

Again, SOE.  I'd really like to take that romp back through time, but they put so many cockblocks on the process, it just makes it easier to not play. 

I didn't really like their zone revamps, anyways.  I loved old Freeport, but the new wasn't as fun.  I actually like the old graphics. 

I still contend that if they made a closed server of ONLY Classic, Kunark and Velious I'd pay them $20/mo.  But they would have to be like they were at release, same UI, old zone graphics, all that jazz.  Oh well.  Wishes and fishes, I suppose.

[koro]

Amusingly, the only possible reason I could think of to play EQ1 in 2012 -- the progression servers -- is for subscribers only.

[Redgiant]

I didn't really like their zone revamps, anyways.  I loved old Freeport, but the new wasn't as fun.

I remember when LDoN came out and they "updated" Nektulos Forest as the first zone changed from the classic map, saying they needed to do so for the LDoN camps.

Hard to believe anyone who played in classic would like any of the classic zone changes of today, they are awful and pointless. The game hangs it hat on nostalgia, and its never going to have more than a poor cosmetic update to the classic zones, so why partially fuck it up like they have? The older audience was faithful to those zones, and newer folks don't care anyway.

It wasn't broke, but they fixed it.

Cities have been dead space since PoK was introduced in PoP, so the revamps don't even have the memories of a bygone populous era to remember.


Worst for me, they fucking changed the awesome Jay Barbeau soundtrack for Freeport, are they serious?

[Simond]

They revamped Nektulos again because the first attempt was so fucking bad. How terrible at zone design do you have to be for SOE to turn around and go "No, this is unacceptable".

[UnSub]

They should be turning Vanguard F2P, not EQ.

Unless EQ Next is further away than they've been letting on and SOE is really desperate for cash.

[Azazel]

Again, SOE.  I'd really like to take that romp back through time, but they put so many cockblocks on the process, it just makes it easier to not play. 

This.

When I saw the announcement, I thought that perhaps it'd be nice to play around with my old characters again. Then I saw that SK and Druid (my 2 mains - 2 accounts) aren't included. Not that I'd do much more than take the tour before going back to WoW/LotRO.

[taolurker]

When I saw the announcement, I thought that perhaps it'd be nice to play around with my old characters again. Then I saw that SK and Druid (my 2 mains - 2 accounts) aren't included. Not that I'd do much more than take the tour before going back to WoW/LotRO.

I dunno it seems like your existing characters won't be locked.. If you get a gold membership and let it lapse.

From the Free Play/Silver Gold Details and FAQ page (Spoilered non-relevant information)

From the Membership section:

8. If I decide to downgrade from the Gold to Silver or Free membership, what will happen to the Gold perks I had with that membership?
- Character Slots: When you downgrade from Gold, all characters that are on the account will still be visible to you. Characters that were created before February 29, 2012 will be allowed to log in (regardless of if you are currently over the cap of characters or do not have their race or class unlocked). Characters that are created on or after February 29, will only be available for use if you have both the race and class unlocked. For character slots, only the most recently logged-on characters (up to the character slot cap for your membership level) will be available for play.

- Races and Classes: Any character you created before February 29th 2012 will be playable regardless of race or class. New characters that you create will be limited to the four available races and four available classes unless you purchase access to another race or class or upgrade to gold.

And also this from the account section:

1. I used to play as an EverQuest subscriber before it became free-to-play. What does this change mean for me?

Previous EverQuest subscribers who did not have an active subscription at the time of the free-to-play conversion will automatically be converted to the Silver membership.

So basically anyone who was a previous subscriber (which probably includes all accounts), will have a Silver membership (with 4 characters unlocked) and should conceivably be able to use their characters, although it'll require a single Gold membership billing (that's if I'm reading this right).

The things I'm seeing being the bigger issue, is them changing the number of backpack/bank slots which will have a huge impact, and the method they're using is going to be sending them via in game mail. The removal of ranks of spells also could equal screwed as well.

Does that include all 52 expansions?

A number I'm not actually certain I just made up.

Actually it looks like they're giving ALL the expansions (17 not 52) up to the previous one to players for free and this includes the one with Mercenaries, as well as everything up and until House of Thule. The newest expansion, (#18) The Veil of Alaris, seems like the only one that needs to be purchased.

[Numtini]

Having watched EQ2's conversion to "free to PAY" I'm sure there's a poison pill hidden in there that will make it impossible to play the game for real without going to a subscription.

[Azazel]

It seems they had some kind of Refer-A-Friend program only 6 months ago that gave you bonus exp "forever"* which prompted many people to open multiple accounts, Transfer characters, all that jazz which all costs $$

Naturally, they're ending it, fucking over lots of people. With a single sentence.

"With the change to Free to Play, the current version of the Recruit a Friend program has been shut down. Thanks all."

Cue "WTF Baif-and-switch??" vs "EULA says they can change anything anytime" fight on forums.
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=182872

When I saw the announcement, I thought that perhaps it'd be nice to play around with my old characters again. Then I saw that SK and Druid (my 2 mains - 2 accounts) aren't included. Not that I'd do much more than take the tour before going back to WoW/LotRO.

I dunno it seems like your existing characters won't be locked.. If you get a gold membership and let it lapse.

It really won't matter. I have no intentions of ever playing EQ again, and I'm not paying for 2 months just to look at my old characters. OTOH, if I could play with them, I might (theoretically) be tempted to keep playing (although I wouldn't).

[Shatter]

Everytime I feel nostalgic about EQ1 I perform the RL simulation of going to the kitchen and smacking myself in the face with a heavy pan.  Works every time

[luckton]

Everquest going f2p

Seriously, I would think they'd be doing the genre a service by retiring, not by going F2P.

[Sky]

Seriously, I would think they'd be doing the genre a service by retiring releasing the source/server, not by going F2P.

Not that I'd be interested, but the emu folks would.

But really, any money they're pulling in has to be gravy and it's probably a good place to train up the newb devs.

[luckton]

Seriously, I would think they'd be doing the genre a service by retiring releasing the source/server, not by going F2P.

Not that I'd be interested, but the emu folks would.

But really, any money they're pulling in has to be gravy and it's probably a good place to train up the newb devs.

Good god, why?  Why not just wind up the old Meridian 59 client if you wanna get your ancient-school rocks off?

[shiznitz]

They should be turning Vanguard F2P, not EQ.

Unless EQ Next is further away than they've been letting on and SOE is really desperate for cash.

Is Vanguard still going?

[Chimpy]

They should be turning Vanguard F2P, not EQ.

Unless EQ Next is further away than they've been letting on and SOE is really desperate for cash.

Is Vanguard still going?

Apparently so.

[Cadaverine]

They should be turning Vanguard F2P, not EQ.

Unless EQ Next is further away than they've been letting on and SOE is really desperate for cash.

Is Vanguard still going?

Yeah, it's still clinging to life.  They're down to one server, maybe two. 

[raydeen]

I'll be checking it out again. The highest I ever got was a 56 beastlord and the last expansion I bought was the one with the dragon race. With the mercenary expansion it might be slightly more viable for solo play (the last few times I logged in it was pitiful. No one, and I mean no one anywhere near my level range so no hope of really doing anything fun). I used to rail that all they needed to do was reduce the downtime (healing, mana) and more equally balance the enemies level wise. Used to piss me off that something that conned green could still eat both me and my puppy's faces without breaking a sweat. If they had just made those changes I might not have left EQ completely for WoW. I was subscribed for ten years before finally pulling the plug. It'll be nice to run around the old digs again even if it's only for a day or two.

[Scold]

I'll give this a try, making a Rogue to have fun stealthing around things I can't kill.  Will probably quit as soon as I'm cockblocked from exploring the world because I haven't Killed 10 Rats enough.

[UnSub]

They should be turning Vanguard F2P, not EQ.

Unless EQ Next is further away than they've been letting on and SOE is really desperate for cash.

Is Vanguard still going?

One server and no dedicated dev team until SWG was shut down and SOE needed to keep people employed.

[Simond]

I'll give this a try, making a Rogue to have fun stealthing around things I can't kill.  Will probably quit as soon as I'm cockblocked from exploring the world because I haven't Killed 10 Rats enough.

So about level 5, then? 

[taolurker]

Bah he'll give up before level 5... Being a rogue in EQ and using sneak/hide means moving at snail like speed. That combined with needing to somehow find a Spirit of Wolf (run buff) I figure his sneaking adventure will last an hour at most.

[Redgiant]

I can't see f2p working for EQ.

In Aug 2010, I went back with 25 others for an organized progression on Stromm, and we lasted about 8 months (through demiplane). And this was with players who knew the content, 2-4 boxed as needed to have 40-ish raid sizes.


It is a grind-based game with raid content for organized guilds with the numbers to run them. They made leveing via mob grind very fast now (40+ levels in one day with XP pots + mercs + knowing what to do), but its the goal of doing end-game raiding that keeps you going.

New blood will not last long, as there is no real destination for them other than just grinding mobs alone with their merc. No questlines == no breadcrumbs == no way. You won't see active grouping until 80s-90, if you can last that long and if you can meld with all the vets who have been playing for over a decade. No way will people who really never played EQ before last.

And returning blood won't last long either since the game is nothing like what you fondly remember and left behind. Every zone you used to know and love is likely completely empty now, except the occasional other nostalgia lover you might see. The drastic changes to old overland zones will give old-timers a coronary (some are outright gone, others almost unrecognizable). At least all older dungeon zones seem intact.


Oh, and mercs are great for getting up thru Luclin, and grinding the Planes like Disease, Nightmare or Fire. But they start sucking without the upgrade themes that come much later in SoD. SOE has stated in the past that mercs were intended to accelerate players only so far then taper off. You really feel it as you start in on GoD and esp. OoW content. One werewolf in DoDH will rip you and your merc's face off with one hand. So you are back to needing a real group past 60s.

Bottom line: I would only return to solo (maybe with a RL friend or two), everyone grab mercs, go through the Holy trinity of Classic, Kunark and Velious, then Lucin and some Planes then STOP and reroll again. But add in the additional cockblocking that f2p always lathers on to ensure you spend some money, and it sounds bad all around.

[Phred]

I'll give this a try, making a Rogue to have fun stealthing around things I can't kill.  Will probably quit as soon as I'm cockblocked from exploring the world because I haven't Killed 10 Rats enough.

You don't know much about EQ1 do you.

[UnSub]

I'll give this a try, making a Rogue to have fun stealthing around things I can't kill.  Will probably quit as soon as I'm cockblocked from exploring the world because I haven't Killed 10 Rats enough.

You don't know much about EQ1 do you.

He shouldn't have to if SOE wants fresh blood to spend $ on playing it.

[Scold]

Bah he'll give up before level 5... Being a rogue in EQ and using sneak/hide means moving at snail like speed. That combined with needing to somehow find a Spirit of Wolf (run buff) I figure his sneaking adventure will last an hour at most.

This far into the game's life, I assume I'm not reliant on other players for run buffs?  Or at the very least, people have set up bots in the towns to run-buff everyone who comes by?

[Scold]

New blood will not last long, as there is no real destination for them other than just grinding mobs alone with their merc. No questlines == no breadcrumbs == no way. You won't see active grouping until 80s-90, if you can last that long and if you can meld with all the vets who have been playing for over a decade. No way will people who really never played EQ before last.

Why do you say 'no questlines'?  Are there really no quests to drive your exploration/progression in EQ, even at this late date?

[shiznitz]

Not in EQ1.  All monster slaughter grinding.

[Polysorbate80]

There are more quests, and quests required for progression, in the later content.  They're implemented far more awkwardly than other games--while there are now NPCs that indicate that they give single-player or group quests, there's often no clear indicator of when they'll actually *give* you those quests, since many of them are gated by faction or unrelated prerequisites.  There may also be no easy indicator of which ones are actually necessary to complete to open the next tier of progression.  Expect to spend a lot of time on external websites doing your research if you want to bother with them.

Fortunately, you can skip most of that on the way up if you want.  The only more-or-less mandatory ones anymore are the two-year old ones to unlock the higher-tier mercenaries at level 75+.  Some of those won't be soloable until 90-95, and some of them require at least you, your merc, and one other person in group to be allowed to even get the quests.  There may be others to get certain spells that can't be obtained anywhere else, but that varies by class and playstyle.

[Scold]

Wait, so if I'm playing for the "classic" content of vanilla/Kunark/Velious/Luclin/PoP, what am I doing exactly?  Camping monsters in one place until I get to go camp monsters in another place?

[Polysorbate80]

Up until Luclin, more or less.  With Luclin, it adds "kill monsters in one place to get the stuff to make the weapons to kill monsters in another place", with a little bit of story on why the monsters are bad, m'kay? 

PoP is really where they start adding storylines about why you're killing monsters in one place so you can get to the next place to kill the next batch of monsters etc.  Which is more or less what you're doing in a lot of MMOs, except more confusing.  They actually had to implement an NPC in PoP who would clue you in to what bits and pieces of the convoluted storyline you'd missed along the way, so you could go figure out what was screwing up your character flagging. 

(Or wait to hit the minimum level to skip it.)

[Sky]

Wait, so if I'm playing for the "classic" content of vanilla/Kunark/Velious/Luclin/PoP, what am I doing exactly?  Camping monsters in one place until I get to go camp monsters in another place?

There's a reason we make fun of people who want to roll back the clock.

And probably forget the rogue and roll a druid or necro.

[Polysorbate80]

And probably forget the rogue and roll a druid or necro.

Can't do that without paying to unlock them