Do you feel the game is easier now that the community knows more?

[Roth]

Obviously if you know more it's gonna be easier, but theres something ive been thinking lately that I couldn't really word but I think it's just that the overall general knowledge improvement of people makes the games tons easier to actually play.

For example, back in the older days if you wanted to solo people would say: Go necro mage, and some of the other classes "could" solo but people didn't really understand. Now almost every class can solo because people understand how to do it. Enchanters for example were really almost never talked about as a solo class. Even as a warrior, while it's not perfect, people understand to level bind wound and how to craft their own set of banded armor. It's a lot easier overall to play any class you want to.

Secondly, grouping is just a lot easier in general. An example of this is like last week I formed a dalnir group with a paladin and a monk, I'm a shaman. We went and did dalnir ALL for the first time ever, none of us had ever been there before. But I felt everyone had a strong mastery of game mechanics and we were able to solve the zone fairly fast and get a lot of exp through research, and just testing out the areas. Eventually we did die but there was no risk of losing corpses, and a few times before that even when we had to run we managed to get out.

I guess what I mean to say is the overall community knowledge is a lot higher than it used to be, and it feels like the game is MORE balanced than it used to be just because people understand how to actually use the tools given to them better. It feels like there's more depth as people learn how to do things.

Idk, I'm just rambling. Anyone agree or disagree?

edit: travelling. Forgot this one but it's important. Now that people understand how to get around the world it seems like it's a simple task to go from any continent or area to another. Everyone knows how to get to any zone they want without much trouble or to relatively go where they feel like.

[Ugrask]

Given that we were all MMO noobs back then and it kind of made EQ the original survival horror game, it's kind of expected.

Same with any kind of game IMO, when I was first playing Counter Strike/Golden Eye as a kid you do well against your friends, but in the grand scheme of online play you got clobbered, but as more FPS came out, you just kind of learned and adapted better. And with EQ we've all done MOST of the game before, so it's easy to adapt/learn to anything you dont already understand.

[Lamil]

I'd agree with this. I had maps drawn and printed out on legal pads back when I first started playing.. Also I remember when Velious first came out and everyone said it was too hard and now lvl 30's go there

[BahamutDF]

Of course. You couldn't imagine the unparalleled levels of derp I played with back in 2000 on my Iksar SK.

[Sturgeon]

I use to get lost in Everfrost all the time when I first started playing. Couldn't remember how many times I crossed the frozen river thinking it was a different river only to be the same one...

But yes its obviously easier here than back then since everyone here has played EQ before.

[Sarajo]

I think the expectation has changed, and that has influenced player competence as well. We now have this idea of "death shouldn't happen often, and when it does it shouldn't be a huge inconvenience", so people have learned to ask for binds nearby before looking for a group in a dungeon(no more dying at the bottom of Splitpaw and respawning at the Orc Lift) or have learned to invest in HP rings instead of being warriors still wearing cloth and rawhide armor.

A phenomenon would keep happening in WoW land: I would hear variations of this theme in guild or global chat frequently, "most of the really good players I ever played with were old EQ players".

So I think the mindset, from not having everything spoonfed to you, from having a death penalty that strongly encourages caution in the future, and from having that real hunger for information/adventure have just made the game "easier" because of new vocab words like "wiki" that didn't exist when EQ was good.

[BahamutDF]

I think the expectation has changed, and that has influenced player competence as well. We now have this idea of "death shouldn't happen often, and when it does it shouldn't be a huge inconvenience", so people have learned to ask for binds nearby before looking for a group in a dungeon(no more dying at the bottom of Splitpaw and respawning at the Orc Lift) or have learned to invest in HP rings instead of being warriors still wearing cloth and rawhide armor.

A phenomenon would keep happening in WoW land: I would hear variations of this theme in guild or global chat frequently, "most of the really good players I ever played with were old EQ players".

So I think the mindset, from not having everything spoonfed to you, from having a death penalty that strongly encourages caution in the future, and from having that real hunger for information/adventure have just made the game "easier" because of new vocab words like "wiki" that didn't exist when EQ was good.

Very concise. Great points

[Thugicorn]

Socially, no.

[Crede]

Enchanters for example were really almost never talked about as a solo class. .

I played live for many years, and always thought enchanters were strictly grouping. Heck, the P99 wiki even says, "Enchanters are a powerful class, but often rely upon a group to reach their full potential".

It wasn't until P99 that I realized they could solo from the forums of Tecmos posting 1 million pp that he soloed and Lorean's Solo Artist Challenge.

Overall though, for me I would attribute the easiness to a internet connection much faster than dial up and a computer that actually can run EQ along with having access to Wiki/Forums/Maps whenever I want online. Couldn't alt-tab before. You just have to find more ways to challenge yourself. HS is still no cake walk. Use less numbers, it's usually more fun/challenging that way.

[Man0warr]

On Rallos Zek the best soloer on the server was an enchanter (Rigamortiz I think was his name) - he could do some mind blowing stuff (or what we thought was mind blowing at the time) like solo camping Ghoul Lord and Frog King at level 50.

Hell that stuff may still be difficult.

[Swish]

Insanely easy... I probably didn't know 80% of the stuff I know during Kunark on live that I know now.

Including OT hammers, WC hats, snare necklaces etc etc. Not to say most other people didn't know that perhaps... but when everyone has something good, you ask more and make sure you get the good things :p

[Sirken]

On Rallos Zek the best soloer on the server was an enchanter (Rigamortiz I think was his name) - he could do some mind blowing stuff (or what we thought was mind blowing at the time) like solo camping Ghoul Lord and Frog King at level 50.

Hell that stuff may still be difficult.

umm.. RZ's Rigamortiz aka Kringe, was one of the biggest cheaters to ever grace the lands of norrath. wouldnt really call that the best.

(no offense kringe, u know i still <3 u)

[Man0warr]

He was on the server for a long ass time, so if he was cheating he never got caught while I was playing. What hacks were even out in 1999 for him to use? If you mean stuff like pathing exploits, well original EQ was rife with that kind of shit and most everyone took advantage of it.

[justin2090]

I equip'd a fire beetle eye in my off hand for a light source on my human warrior. All the way to the 50's....

True story

[Asap]

I equip'd a fire beetle eye in my off hand for a light source on my human warrior. All the way to the 50's....

True story

My first character was a DE SK, and I remember putting all starting points into INT and gearing for all INT. I may have had a stein of Moggok in my offhand well into my 40's.

Funny thing is, nobody ever corrected me lol

edit - Could you imagine if that happened now? Your group would flame you and kick you in a matter of seconds

[Rathnir]

I think it's just that the overall general knowledge improvement of people makes the games tons easier to actually play.
This is true, there's a ton of people on the server that have over a decade of experience in everquest, and it all culminates in being able to handle "new" situations more appropriately.

However, I think probably the biggest advantage, and the one people don't use as much as I'd hope, is the knowledge references that are available any more. Allakhazams was just in its infancy when the game hit, and was unreliable at best, same as any of the other webpages.

Today, you have Lucy, Allakhazam, the Wayback Machine for numberous class-specific sites (The Runes, The Grove, Safehouse, Steel Warrior, Monkly Business etc.), GamParse, the p99 Wiki, and others. The forums are a prime example of that, it's why you see all the 60 monks going no weapon mainhand/SoS offhand. I very much doubt that that being the "best" combo for monks was known at all, let alone commonly known. And even if it was known, that may not have been true on Live for the translation this server takes.

The only reason that's known is because someone had a question about it, and went investigating. Pretty much daily I still peruse a lot of those sites because I'm constantly going "wow, really?" or "That's a thing? And I haven't been doing it?". Only the other day did I find out about the Rebbys Whiskers quest, and on live I had an infatuation on being un-KoS to all possible factions. You can always be a better player, and the people that take that attitude become the best. Many people, even still, just stagnate with what is comfortable or known to them.

[Aborath]

In a word: yes. The responses in this thread are spot-on. It's mainly about knowledge and the evolved nature of the internet. Everquest in 1999-2000 was mysterious and sometimes terrifying; that's what made it really stick with us. Maybe it's because I played a monk in classic and now play a wiz in P99, but the world seems much smaller, less intimidating. In short, everything's a known quantity. I still love the game, but wouldn't delude myself into believing this to be a carbon copy of classic EQ.

[Brocktree]

I played live for many years, and always thought enchanters were strictly grouping. Heck, the P99 wiki even says, "Enchanters are a powerful class, but often rely upon a group to reach their full potential".

It wasn't until P99 that I realized they could solo from the forums of Tecmos posting 1 million pp that he soloed and Lorean's Solo Artist Challenge.

Overall though, for me I would attribute the easiness to a internet connection much .

To be fair I really think charm is more reliable here. I played an enchanter main for original release > kunark. I agree people did not charm solo much unless there was a huge pull and kind of "oh shit" moment when you had nothing to lose. I have no proof so maybe it's just that people have the strategy down and stack more cha etc. etc. I definitely remember enchanters getting yelled at for charming mobs in group situations by the rest of the party because it was "too dangerous"

[Vexenu]

To be fair I really think charm is more reliable here. I played an enchanter main for original release > kunark. I agree people did not charm solo much unless there was a huge pull and kind of "oh shit" moment when you had nothing to lose. I have no proof so maybe it's just that people have the strategy down and stack more cha etc. etc. I definitely remember enchanters getting yelled at for charming mobs in group situations by the rest of the party because it was "too dangerous"

This is what I remember as well. And really, if you think about it, if you made charm unreliable you'd take the Enchanter from being the godlike class it is now to being simply a powerful and indispensable grouping class that provides buffs, CC and a weak pet. Which actually sounds like a balanced class compared to the Enchanter class on P1999 that can do all those things in addition to having a monster DPS and tank pet. I just remember Enchanters being desired for their CC and buffs back in the day, I don't remember much charming at all. I can't imagine that people wouldn't have figured out how to abuse charm back then if it stuck as well as it does here, which makes me believe that charm definitely was much more unreliable back then.

[fastboy21]

This is what I remember as well. And really, if you think about it, if you made charm unreliable you'd take the Enchanter from being the godlike class it is now to being simply a powerful and indispensable grouping class that provides buffs, CC and a weak pet. Which actually sounds like a balanced class compared to the Enchanter class on P1999 that can do all those things in addition to having a monster DPS and tank pet. I just remember Enchanters being desired for their CC and buffs back in the day, I don't remember much charming at all. I can't imagine that people wouldn't have figured out how to abuse charm back then if it stuck as well as it does here, which makes me believe that charm definitely was much more unreliable back then.

Charming was always OP. Fewer ppl did it back on live because the prevailing popular play strats were to be safe and conservative. There are many many many more people on p99 that are risk takers than there were on live.

[Tecmos Deception]

Imo it isn't that the game is easier, it's that we are better at it. Kinda two sides of the same coin I guess.

[Yoite]

its the same game but we all know more. know about more items, know how the mechanics REALLY work, not just hearsay and rumors of how they might work.

For example and to add to the funny dumb stories of when we were noobs, i once made a wood elf war and put everything into AGI and even used AGI gear like serp bracers to try and be a "evasive" war...hehe, it was still great times

[Rhambuk]

For example and to add to the funny dumb stories of when we were noobs, i once made a wood elf war and put everything into AGI and even used AGI gear like serp bracers to try and be a "evasive" war...hehe, it was still great times

ha i remember people doing that, surprised we haven't seen more of this popping up with things like ACR (proven apparently...)

[myriverse]

Certainly. We just realized the truth that the game was never really that difficult.

[Tecmos Deception]

the game was never really that difficult.

Incorrect. The game is (mostly) what you make of it. If you take the path of least resistance all the time, then Everquest might seem like an easy game. But just because you XPed 1-60 killing light blues in outdoor zones with a full group or whatever doesn't mean that there aren't some serious challenges out there.

[Sturgeon]

You know what was difficult. Velks Lab with that slippery effing floor in Velious. Shit was the worst during PvP

[Rhambuk]

I hated that damn floor. Honestly ( Im looking for hate this morning apparently ) I was never a fan of velious, granted I didn't get to raid velious during the era but the exp zones the faction grinding did not appeal to me in the least. Just an aesthetics thing

[koros]

What was difficult is when the phone would ring and I'd go LD in the middle of a kite.

[Lamil]

What was difficult is when the phone would ring and I'd go LD in the middle of a kite.

This and the fact that we had to get multiple phone lines installed in our apartment so everyone in the apartment could play.

[Iumuno]

Let's be honest, there's a few deviations from classic that make the game significantly easier: resist system with no resist floor (used to be around 5% as a minimal resist rate in classic, wasn't changed until mid Luclin), duck spell casting, no book pre level 35, xp from light blues, lull spells actually working - to name a few.

[myriverse]

Incorrect. The game is (mostly) what you make of it. If you take the path of least resistance all the time, then Everquest might seem like an easy game. But just because you XPed 1-60 killing light blues in outdoor zones with a full group or whatever doesn't mean that there aren't some serious challenges out there.
Nope. It never mattered what path you took. The hardest thing was just finding the right position, but once you did that, kick back and nothing.

Pretty much every death ever came down to stupid errors, not a lack of skill.

[coki]

Insanely easy... I probably didn't know 80% of the stuff I know during Kunark on live that I know now.

Including OT hammers, WC hats, snare necklaces etc etc. Not to say most other people didn't know that perhaps... but when everyone has something good, you ask more and make sure you get the good things :p

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