Experinceing the grandfather of MMOs!

[Corkscrew]

Howdy everyone! first off let me just say that im am amazed at the level of time and energy that must have been spent by everyone in this comunity to bring this project to life! I am supper impressed with what i've seen so far and have no doubt that my experience will be the same that my friends have had who go on and on about how great Everquest was!

This brings me to my first topic. Im currently a WOW player and as much as I love WOW. I feel as tho it's gotten a little to rinse and repeat for me. I will still continue to play it and such but it seems whenever someone complains about wow they will praise Everquest for what it did right that wow does wrong. So please forgive me if I compare things to wow alot because that's what I know!

Since EQ is widely regarded as one of the best MMOs ever made I feel obligated to give it a chance and see what it's like! Since I don't want to ruin my experience or the experience of others through my noobness I'd figure i'd ask the community a few qustions instead of diving right in with no knowledge of how to progress or even what im doing.

So with that being said please help me with the following questions!

1) When can you start doing "end game content" Like raids?
2) What class should I start with? (after doing some research on this topic Monk Seems very appealing. That Fegin death ability seems like it would allow me to get out of super sticky situations not to mention they seem to be pretty wanted in groups.)
3) how is in game buying/selling done? (I'm aware of the Bazzar but I don't belive that was implemented in the first expansion)
4) With an average amount of playtime say 4+ hours a day. How long will it take me to reach cap?
5) what's the player base like?
6) Is there an In game map or will I have to use websites like EQ Atlas?
7) What classes are good for beginner players
8) is there any sort of "Hearth" system in game or do you have to walk EVERYWHERE
9) what happens if you don't go back to your body after you die?
10) Are Epic items implemented?
11) This one will sound odd but i'm a sucker for vanity items. Items and gear that serve no practical pourpous but are interesting or have a unique effect. Things like vanity pets or toys and such. Are items like that In EQ?
12) as far as endgame content what is there to do?
13) is player housing implemented?
14) just how steep is the learning curve?
15) any other tips for someone just starting out who doesn't wana get completely wrecked in the first 5 minutes of play?

I've familiarized myself with the server rules as-well and will try my absolute best to not ruin anyone elses time. Thanks so much and I look forward to playing with you all!

[Muchyawn]

Hello, and welcome to Norrath, and Project1999 :)
As a fellow WoW lover, I had no prior knowledge of Everquest, or P99 before arriving here & I feel slightly obligated to chime in and answer some of your questions.
A little history, I'm from the background of WoW fulltime progression raiding, RPer, active player on retail WoW up until 2013, and Vanilla 1.12 TBC 2.4.3 private servers on and off for the past 7 years.
In short, I love the first-generation Warcraft mmoRPG so much it actually hurts and have spent over 10,000+ hours of my short 24 year life living a second life of some flavor on Azeroth.
hehe you said something about referencing warcraft? ^ ^ I could spend all night drawing praise, and correlation between the first generation warcraft and everquest! but I should probably start answering some of your questions ;)

[fan D]

good grief

if u need any help pst me in game ill be on my toons angelice or nikkole

[elwing]

Hi, just added some responses:

1) When can you start doing "end game content" Like raids?

- When you reach high level, are good enough with your class and find a raiding guild. there are sometime some "open" raid that remove the last requirement, but obviously the high level is still needed.

2) What class should I start with? (after doing some research on this topic Monk Seems very appealing. That Fegin death ability seems like it would allow me to get out of super sticky situations not to mention they seem to be pretty wanted in groups.)

- pick the class that appeal you, all are to some extend wanted. some people will counsel to avoid classes that are too gear dependant, while some other have bias toward specific class, monk is one in my opinion.

3) how is in game buying/selling done? (I'm aware of the Bazzar but I don't belive that was implemented in the first expansion)

-there's no bazaar, it's all done by chat, there's even a /auction chat command that let people filter it differently. you can do that everywhere, but there's a permanent market in East Commonland tunnel.

4) With an average amount of playtime say 4+ hours a day. How long will it take me to reach cap?

-depend of the class, what you like to do, and how... 4hours+ is a lot and you should advance quickly if you at least partially focus on leveling

5) what's the player base like?

- an average of 400-800 player at the same time I'd say...

6) Is there an In game map or will I have to use websites like EQ Atlas?

-in game map as been disabled as it did not exist back in time at that level of the timeline

7) What classes are good for beginner players

- some are harder or trickier, but all come with a low number of capacities that slowly increase... if you level by yourself you should master your class no matter which. obviously, for some class you just assist, press autoattack and click skilly sometime, while for some other you've constantly to switch target, CC classes comes to mind. so once more, pick what you want.

8) is there any sort of "Hearth" system in game or do you have to walk EVERYWHERE

-the basic mean of transport is by foot, some classes have group teleport, there's even a guild which offer teleportation services if you want to pay...
there are also some movement enhancement spells that help a bit. also travel between continents use boats... using them is something you have to do, but you'll get tired of the wait quite quick.

9) what happens if you don't go back to your body after you die?

-you're naked. your corpse hold the items you were wearing and some exp. by recovering your corpse you get back the items, and if a cleric is near he can cast resurrect on your corpse to give you back some experience. (resurrection teleport you to your corpse, so you don't have to run if there's a cleric nearby)

10) Are Epic items implemented?

- Yes

11) This one will sound odd but i'm a sucker for vanity items. Items and gear that serve no practical pourpous but are interesting or have a unique effect. Things like vanity pets or toys and such. Are items like that In EQ?

-choice is more limited than in newer MMO, no vanity pet and such also. but you are not the only one having this deviation. in fact here it's called "FashionQuest". you also have "TunnelQuest" for the person that tend to do only bartering in EC tunnel and "ForumQuest" for the various forum dwellers and other trolls lurking here.

12) as far as endgame content what is there to do?

- loosing any form of social life maybe?

13) is player housing implemented?

- nope, it exist on live, bu it didn't came after lots of expansions, like 12 or more, unsure.

14) just how steep is the learning curve?

- the major difficulties if you come from other MMO is the lack of: map, quest log, tutorial, lots of things are done using chat commands and the need to reconfigure the interface to play correctly (by default the interface is configured with basic action but you will need to add buttons for skills and such). you've lot of things to learn but you can acquire that while leveling if you're curious enough and ask around yourself.

15) any other tips for someone just starting out who doesn't wana get completely wrecked in the first 5 minutes of play?

-ask for help in game

[Muchyawn]

1) When can you start doing "end game content" Like raids?
2) What class should I start with? (after doing some research on this topic Monk Seems very appealing. That Fegin death ability seems like it would allow me to get out of super sticky situations not to mention they seem to be pretty wanted in groups.)
3) how is in game buying/selling done? (I'm aware of the Bazzar but I don't belive that was implemented in the first expansion)
4) With an average amount of playtime say 4+ hours a day. How long will it take me to reach cap?
5) what's the player base like?
6) Is there an In game map or will I have to use websites like EQ Atlas?
7) What classes are good for beginner players
8) is there any sort of "Hearth" system in game or do you have to walk EVERYWHERE
9) what happens if you don't go back to your body after you die?
10) Are Epic items implemented?
11) This one will sound odd but i'm a sucker for vanity items. Items and gear that serve no practical pourpous but are interesting or have a unique effect. Things like vanity pets or toys and such. Are items like that In EQ?
12) as far as endgame content what is there to do?
13) is player housing implemented?
14) just how steep is the learning curve?
15) any other tips for someone just starting out who doesn't wana get completely wrecked in the first 5 minutes of play?



If I could tell "me starting off" anything whist starting EQ from a WoW perspective~
1. Classic ever quest was developed, in parts, throughout the early to late 90's and used no prior template for designing an mmoRPG, my biggest mistake when progressing, and leveling my first playthru vanilla character was not taking my time, and playing with the goal to reach max level
The beauty in everquest is in the zones. in party interactions (whether duo, full party camping in active n bumpin' zone, or with your entire guild). in the mechanics, numbers, and overall combat feel, flow and speed and depth of class race combinations. Play for the journey, not the destination

2. Forget gear, shinys, epics, daily quests, and forget gold, these are for only the most established and dedicated of adventurer.. your goal as a new player is to grind your first 7-10 levels on mobs outside your home city. I advice using this time to familiarize yourself with the landscapes and landmarks beyond the protection of the cities gate guards, try not to get lost and slay every creature in site (so long as they arent a red con! hehe) though tedious, these early levels should give you an idea of the EXP differences between different level enemies, and reinforce the importance of "Considering" enemies, sizing them to determine what its safe for you from a distance, to walk past, to run away from, or to kill whilst farming.
Use your first 10 levels to train Sense Heading, and Bind Wound after first training 1pt into them at your classes skills trainer

3.The Wiki page is your map, questlog, class skills trainer, and best friend consult it for everything, if you cant find your answer there, the community at large is friendly, helpful, and often very knowledgeable and when asked nicely are 9/10 more then happy to help with info or advice

[Pyrion]

Welcome to EQ!

Your questions have already been answered so i will just give you some hints.

1) The world of EQ is unforgiving. You always need to be alert. Even in some low level zones there are aggressive high level mobs that wander around (griffons in commonlands for example).

2) EQ has a nice faction system. When you are a troll the guards of human cities will kill you. BUT: If you are THAT troll that was slaying all those nasty orcs around the city... THEN the guards may welcome you.

3) The death penalty is severe. Try to stay alive. Try to make friends, you will need them. Since everybody needs other players from time to time, people tend to be friendly to your requests (with exceptions of course). Especially as a newbie, use the /loc command before you die (you can macro it). That way you will be able to at least find your corpse. If you can't find it, there are 2 classes that can help: Bards and necromancers have a locate corpse ability.

[Muchyawn]

1) When can you start doing "end game content" Like raids?
2) What class should I start with? (after doing some research on this topic Monk Seems very appealing. That Fegin death ability seems like it would allow me to get out of super sticky situations not to mention they seem to be pretty wanted in groups.)
3) how is in game buying/selling done? (I'm aware of the Bazzar but I don't belive that was implemented in the first expansion)
4) With an average amount of playtime say 4+ hours a day. How long will it take me to reach cap?
5) what's the player base like?
6) Is there an In game map or will I have to use websites like EQ Atlas?
7) What classes are good for beginner players
8) is there any sort of "Hearth" system in game or do you have to walk EVERYWHERE
9) what happens if you don't go back to your body after you die?
10) Are Epic items implemented?
11) This one will sound odd but i'm a sucker for vanity items. Items and gear that serve no practical pourpous but are interesting or have a unique effect. Things like vanity pets or toys and such. Are items like that In EQ?
12) as far as endgame content what is there to do?
13) is player housing implemented?
14) just how steep is the learning curve?
15) any other tips for someone just starting out who doesn't wana get completely wrecked in the first 5 minutes of play?

1. level 45+ is your first chance to enter raid, to begin earning reputation but no exp, and loot etiquette you should really never roll until you have reputation towards towards to gear being rolled
2. I suggest a caster, they are (generally) more forgiving combat wise, and give the ideal vantage point to learn, and become familiar with the often frustrating, never forgiving reality of life and death, & classic everquest mechanics as a whole
3. 99% of your transactions in game will be with the many and various NPC vendors, often unexpected NPCs in unexpected places around the world will have various odds and ends, trade good, reagents and spells. many players develop their unique "guy" (or often times girl) who theyll retruns to for certain goods, food, reagents at all levels of their progression
4. 4 hours a day is more then enough time to have a lot of fun in EQ. reminder that, sometimes you may do nothing but run across zones either exploring, corpse running, or traveling between camps. Be prepared to log on, die somewhere unknown, or unexpected unintentionally. Some sessions you will spend having no fun at all! (quite the opposite in fact. You may be frustrated, angry, sometimes even scared. You will overlook it in the moment, but in time you learn that these very instances are all pieces to the classic puzzle and all part of what make it the standalone timeless it continues to be..
4. ii. ~my first character, a highelf wizard named Yvey averaged 4-12 hours played, was boosted by a talented enchanter friend from 34-52 at frog king in living guk, before a few days in KC till 55 finishing 55-60 in 2 days in Chardok. I was able to reach 1-60 without any EQ knowledge using only my time, determination and the good will of powerful friends met along the way in6 months. This is not realistic - As I reflect I recall those 6 months as nothing less then "full time" I know players who have been on Blue for years, have several established and successful alts, who will laugh as they tell you without a doubt they will never reach max on any.
5. never seen less then 450 online in my 2 years here. Usually 1100+ players are online, weekends will often push 2k online and double EXP is nothing short of packed.
8. Wizards and Druids can teleport, unless you are either you will need to befriend as many of them as you can find in order to get from 1 continent to another, to come to your naked rescue during a corpse run, and generally whilst traveling anywhere farther then 2-3 zones distance Wizard spires, and Druid Ruins act as hubs whilst traveling, or looking for a place to rendezvous. In a pinch, use the /who all druid <> or wizard and message those online above level 34 - one eventually will be willing to meet you
9. Running to your corpse will be the main way to recover after you have died. though as you progress and level up you will group with and become acquainted with clerics who have the ability to Resurrect, even from a distance back to your corpse(skilled clerics can also train to return experience upon resurrection) often times its best to be happy for any res at all . If you died somewhere you know for sure you or a cleric friend wont be gettin back to safely, you can inquire into the services of a friendly necromancer to corpse hunt your body somewhere safe, or for the rich and connected.. have your corpse returned thru the nether and resurrected with full experience ;)
10. Items in everquest are all of equal "quality" can be worn only by those races, classes specified in the items text. All items have no level requirements, are never.. (rarely, quest items) bound to character, and can be traded an infinite number of times, for an infinite dollar value Each class unlocks a class specific quest (usually between level 35-55) in which upon completing (difficulty, price and teh value of your item awarded upon completion vary..) But often this "Epic Quest" awards players powerful, and in some cases BIS weapon. Besides that, consider any gear with any stats, (even +1's or 2's of a single stat) to be rare, and precious. you may not equip a single piece of gear with any stats besides armour until youre in your 30's or 40's. My wizard didnt see, or need any gear besides simple cloth for hundreds of hours, not till 50+ and wealthy did I wear gear I liked or wanted.
12. If you are able to make it to level 60, and spent the money buying some pre-raid bis(or spending the time to singleplayer farm everything you need for cheap to start, and continue raiding.. You can begin applying for guilds, checking start times for raids, and finding a guild you feel comfortable calling home. If you indeed get this far then you then begin raiding farm, and low risk content with your guild. You may never leave Kael. Or you may perhaps learn and grow with your guild, if are tallented, and hone your craft as your class~ you will find a good home on blue server. if you play to simple relax and enjoy leveling on different alts with many dif ppl whilst still experienceing the game as intended, and to its fullest. you will also find a good home on blue server.
13. No, personally since the time I was born I will always call Felwithe Forest my home. Though Ive resided formally for months at a time, online, at T1 of the Trade Tunnel. Everquest is unique, in that it embraces the idea of "playing afk" like no other MMO... And I find myself quite often spending a rainstorm sitting under the quiet and tranquil cover of the Caster Guild in Felwithe..:o. For hours just enjoying the company of my character and the atmospheric, immersive beauty without log to character screen, disconnect, or an inactivity flag over my character
14. The steepest. Ive spent most of my natural born life in an MMORPG, not one of them prepared me or put me at any advantage during my classicEQ inauguration. After creating my first character I pulled aggro whilst OOM from an orc wandering too close, I thought I could outrun the beast, who was chunking my clothy healthy. WIthout a map, or any idea of of where I was, or had run, I died not far from the wizard spires, and logged out immediately, discouraged. It took 2 more trial and error sessions weeks apart before I had felt I had some idea or what to do, and one night I bit the bullet, grinding to level 8, buying some neat spells, and entering CB. Once I was level 14 and had done "my time" in CB, I made the adventure to Unrest, the game began feeling bit by bit more familiar, in contrary to my familiarity with the zones, the combat, and new charted knowledge, the game only felt become more difficult, the situations I was finding myself in felt to be increasingly unforgiving, and the scare of possible slaughter around every corner (and resulting hours long corpse runs) I became only more cautious and aware. maybe at level 60 and 60+hours a week of practice deep I stopped fearing imminent death at any moment whilst not in a group. The learning curve for most will never end, and unless you invest thousands of hours into the game - expect the game to be a constant, all around challenge
15. I honestly have a thousands tips and a multi volume book you could learn too much from, but ive honestly shared as much passion, and love for the genera and series as possible for now hehe I loved every second of your questions :) As a lost in love, addict of mmos, with more opinions and stories then caring people to hear them~
not even conclusive TLDR;
If you are looking for a world to slay dragons, contribute collectively towards the goal of BIS loot through comradely, amongst brothers to farm, progress, or endgame chainpull alongside 40 comrades putting fourth 110% to push for fastest clear time and raid optimizations Play vanilla WoW
If you are looking to have an adventure. if you want to take large risks, be rewarded with realistic and "earned" rewards, have just as much fun grouping at level 19 as you do at 50, make plenty of friends, and have plenty more interactions. Play EQ... the things I love most dearly Ive found here in Norrath.. If any of what ive said speaks to you, and if you seek, what I seeked from an MMO.. welcome!

[Masakizt]

good grief

if u need any help pst me in game ill be on my toons angelice or nikkole

lulz :rolleyes:

[Muchyawn]

GLHF, I wish you the same love and charity I saw in my early game .Feelin perhaps foolishly honored to have made it so far to pay it back.

if you create a character you love, choose the class and race you have always
wanted in your mmorpg, and show the initiative to level past the first awful 10 levels; I would be more
then happy to have a set of adequate class gear. I can also assure you will not have to worry about
platinum for spells, spending money, and transportation costs until you are comfortable and can afford to support your progression, if you are truly interested, that is.

For teh rest of yus. Continue to endorse, embrace, and to share the Classic Everquest experience, there almost certainly never again be a game experience quite like EQ. And that is something to be celebrated, recognized, and enjoyed.

Much love~
Muchyawn<3

[Kagukuk]

The wiki is very nice and many many information here.

http://wiki.project1999.com/

[mgriff02]

Like someone else said previously, don't feel too much pressure to get to the "end-game" in EQ. I've been playing on-and-off for 16 years now, more than half my life, and I have never had a max level character either here or on the live servers. For me, and a lot of other players, it's about everything in the game besides high level raiding.

I work on my tradeskills to make things that my player doesn't need (like baking, I love doing baking).

I work on faction so my Dark Elf can tradeskill in Freeport or my Troll can be at home in Qeynos (both human cities).

I work on quests just for the sake of doing them.

I keep going to Plane of Hate, raid after raid, in the vain hope of being able to deck my Cleric out in a full suit of purple armor.

I stop by newbie areas and buff the crap out of the low level characters. I keep an eye out for actual, honest to god, new to the server newbies to give items to.

It's all so fun, and most of that doesn't require me to be a high level at all. All of that can be done in addition to the usual grouping or soloing for exp in order to advance in level.

[AndyErik]

The answers I've seen so far suck.

1) When can you start doing "end game content" Like raids?
46. You cannot go to a planar zone until 46 and thats when people generally consider you for a raid. You go into Kedge Keep at any level and lowest end raid mob is there but you want to wait until 46.

2) What class should I start with? (after doing some research on this topic Monk Seems very appealing. That Fegin death ability seems like it would allow me to get out of super sticky situations not to mention they seem to be pretty wanted in groups.)
Casters are easy to solo, but you may not want to solo. Necromancers can also FD.

Monks are gear dependent and they cannot make a ton of money because they cannot carry very much. If they weigh to much they lose AC. I met a monk (who was new to eq) the other day that quit and uninstalled because he couldnt make money on his monk and couldnt gear up. You can find yourself frustrated as fuck.

I would be focused more on the race for your first character. Make something that is around other people of all types of other classes (humans or wood elves) early on and see how it works for other players. And make a bunch of classes. Eventually you will find yourself obsessing about gear & levels for one character you've rolled and that's how you know this is the class for you. Maybe it is a monk, I dunno. Its the one that gives you a hard-on. But play a bunch and be around a bunch.

3) how is in game buying/selling done? (I'm aware of the Bazzar but I don't belive that was implemented in the first expansion)
Go to East commonlands and barter with people in person. You can also check out p99auctions.com before you go there to see what is selling.

4) With an average amount of playtime say 4+ hours a day. How long will it take me to reach cap?
6 months.

5) what's the player base like?
Personality-wise they're Knowledgeable, mature, helpful. Like the difference between a non-pvp wow server and pvp server. The previous posters are correct about population

6) Is there an In game map or will I have to use websites like EQ Atlas?
No but every zone is mapped in the wiki. Pay attention to the coordinates in the map image. You can use 2 skills to help navigate, /loc which tells you x, y & z coordinates and /senseheading which is a skill you have to build up that tells you which direction you're facing. You can also drop a sword on the ground and it will point due north. Make sure you build up sense heading from level one. Make a macro that uses that skill whenever you turn on attack or open your spell book or something of the like.

7) What classes are good for beginner players
Try them all. Watch them all. You'll notice the failings of your character before you notice the strengths. Everything in EQ is hard. Do NOT roll a paladin or ranger, they just suck.

8) is there any sort of "Hearth" system in game or do you have to walk EVERYWHERE
This is the question that frustrates me the most when reading other people's answers. YES there is a hearth system in EQ. Every character has a bind point and some classes (nec, mage, enc, wiz, sham, druid, cleric) have a spell called gate which teleports you to that location. You can set your bind point in a city if you're a melee and you can set it to many more places if you're a caster. Casters have a spell called bind that will set someone's bind point. Melees will need to ask for another player to bind them. When you die, you go to your bind point. If your bind point is on another continent, you still go to your bind. This is the reason for the term Corpse Run (cr). Apart from Gating (casting hearth), only two classes have the ability to teleport, Wizards and Druids. They can teleport to a limited number of locations. You'll have to ask one to do that for you. There is a guild that exists specifically for that reason '<Dial a Port>'. You can do a '/who all Dial' (or '/ all dial' for short) command to find one. You'll want to know the nearest port location to where you're headed before you reach out to them. Usually they're pretty cool about helping you find your way though. Be sure to tip them.

9) what happens if you don't go back to your body after you die?
You lose your equipped gear, your money and whatever is in your bags/inventory forever. It takes a week for your corpse to rot so you have plenty of time.

10) Are Epic items implemented?
Yes there's one epic for every class. Not all classes are worth it. Epics are generally the best looking weapons and make good vanity items that aren't vain.

11) This one will sound odd but i'm a sucker for vanity items. Items and gear that serve no practical pourpous but are interesting or have a unique effect. Things like vanity pets or toys and such. Are items like that In EQ?
Ya but like all EQ items they arent as flamboyant as wow items.

12) as far as endgame content what is there to do?
Raid, tradeskill & make money. I cant think of much else. Once you hit 60 you're pretty much just concerned with gear.

13) is player housing implemented?
That didnt come into EQ until way later.

14) just how steep is the learning curve?
As steep as it could possibly be. EQ is the hardest MMO ever created. The questions you're asking here wont cover the tip of the iceberg and 15 years from now you'll realize you're still in the dark and can improve your play with new techniques. EQ is knowledge is strictly tribal knowledge. Read the game mechanics and getting started section of the wiki.

15) any other tips for someone just starting out who doesn't wana get completely wrecked in the first 5 minutes of play?
You wont get wrecked in the first 5 minutes. Join groups as soon as you can and dont be shy about letting people know you're a newb. It's okay. But in a week you'll know if EQ is your game or not.

[maskedmelon]

From the mainpage thread title reads "Experiencing The Grandfather..."



Not what I expected, tbh. Welcome to the server though ^^