Launch Day / Year 1 stories

[m004yu]

Hey all, I was never around for Classic EQ but as a fan of old games I've really been enjoying the EQ experience. I've managed to spot some really interesting memory recollections in YT comments and throughout forums, so much so that I went back to usenet archives to look at the newsgroup on launch day. https://usenetarchives.com/threads.php?id=alt.games.everquest&y=0&r=0&p=188

To those that played Year 1, or have any interesting classic stories, share! I'd love to hear them.

What was launch day like?
How many players per server on launch? Throughout year 1?
How crowded were various zones?
How did people play the game then when nothing was known?
What was trading like before everyone agreed on EC Tunnel?
What was leveling like before people found all the 'best' spots like unrest?

Any stories, memories, or screenshots I'd love to hear about and see.

[magnetaress]

there where level 12 enchanters handing out ac buffs at newbie log in nektulous

ppl ran out to EK and lake rathe for groups

we had groups around the little camps around the lake for like lvl 12-18's ppl

the aviak chicks where a hot commodity even the one or two camps. i remember sitting out on an aviak spawn with 2 of the little guys with 3 ppl and we killed them :p we just sat around chillin

I even duo'd the hermit out there

banded was like big boi armor

enchanters sucked so bad they grouped

[Allishia]

I remember playing my necro but I was on dial up. Everytime I got a good pet someone would call and kick me off the internet/nod

Same thing happened to my mage, I quit mage at lvl 16 cause was too dependant on pet lol.

[Encroaching Death]

ppl ran out to EK and lake rathe for groups

we had groups around the little camps around the lake for like lvl 12-18's ppl

the aviak chicks where a hot commodity even the one or two camps. i remember sitting out on an aviak spawn with 2 of the little guys with 3 ppl and we killed them :p we just sat around chillin


I envy this.

I wish Lake Rathe was more popular :(

I do remember grouping at KFC back in the day. I remember because I got banned there.

[Encroaching Death]

I remember playing my necro but I was on dial up

I HATED this. Especially as the little brother in the family.

"You've had enough, let your sister call her boyfriend!"

They would of course be on the phone all night.

Fuck dial up.

[Evia]

I remember vividly Enchanters and bards were group classes. You never ever heard of either one soloing. I think within the first year bards started figuring out kiting but I remember being in luclin era and never hearing about solo charming enchanters. I'm sure it happened but it was rare not commonplace. Some servers chose to sell goods in gfay or North Freeport over the tunnel.

[Tongpow]

To those that played Year 1, or have any interesting classic stories

i used to swap my SMR for a oracle robe and try to NBG a 2nd one if it dropped in lguk

i remember a GM killing me for exploiting freeport guard pathing by Gfluxing me off the wall and freezing me in place while the guard killed me

falling asleep at jboots camp in najena before the SolRo/Hole patch or whatever and ended up missing school the next morning and getting grounded.

i remember high pass orc camp being a FFA KS fest between multiple groups for the entire like week i spent xping there and my entire job as enchanter was just mem blurring shit, i remember HHK goblins being like 5 camps....

idk i remember having a whole bunch of fucking fun then kunark launched and it was new and i didn't like it and i really didn't like velious and bounced way before cats on the moon at like lvl 54 to shit like Anarchy online

[Danth]

Fuck dial up.

If it makes you feel any better, I had cable internet (it came available in my area early in '99) and it disconnected from EQ fairly often as well. Not as often as dial-up, admittedly, but it wasn't rock steady like we take for granted on P99, either. Quite a bit of the connectivity issues EQ had, especially in crowded zones, were in part cased by the game's compatible-with-dualup low rate data output. Doesn't matter how fast my fancy new cable ISP can receive if the host is only transmitting at a limited rate.

[Ooloo]

Very early on /consent allowed you to full loot other people's corpses. As a young barbarian rogue I would find corpses out in the tundra, talk the person into consenting me and then vendor all their stuff. Backpacks were big money!

Yes it was a dick move but I considered it roleplaying! Also I was coming from ultima online so stuff like that came naturally.

[azeth]

Op is an incarnation of a banned user trying to re establish themselves as a typical poster

[magnetaress]

Op is an incarnation of a banned user trying to re establish themselves as a typical poster

Congratz.

U described virtually every body.

[Castle2.0]

On launch day on Green, I remember knowing I would be the most epic, most distinguished, biggest receiver of self-determined and self-ascribed awards.... then I went and did it, like a total boss.

I almost feel nostalgia for those days but because I was 100% confident, I actually feel like I do now with my EQ trophy case in my basement: bliss.

Cheers.

[Neno]

There was already a lot of info about the game and leveling spots before live launched. Some people tried to keep beta info top secret going into live and there was drama when lower guk spawns/loot were leaked since only a small group of players had done any real work in there.

There were definitely a lot of clueless newbies, so while people may have understood early on where to go the skill level of players and their ability to navigate the game were awful. Very little understanding of things like proximity aggro.

By about 8-9 months in Lower Guk/Sol B was packed with 100+ players. This was a problem with pretty much every leveling dungeon all the way down to crushbone. Probably a big reason why players sucked so much because there was an almost 0% chance of death during peak hours because your group killed like 5-8 mobs every 20ish minutes. And even back then when the dungeons were filled to the brim no one really bothered with places like sol a, perma, najena, paw, runnyeye, kedge or befallen outside of a few camps that were typically held down by a solo player.

[cd288]

What server were you on where no one was in runnyeye? I remember that place being very popular at least for the first like 5 or so months

[Swish]

It took me an hour to get from the caster's guild area in Felwithe to the newbie area. It's amazing how much smaller the world feels these days.

[Danth]

It took me an hour to get from the caster's guild area in Felwithe to the newbie area. It's amazing how much smaller the world feels these days.

P99's near-instant zoning plays a role in that perception as well. World felt bigger when it took 30 sec or more to cross a zone line. I've heard horror stories from the guys who had dial-up and older computers saying it could take several minutes to zone. Neriak or Freeport must've been awful.

[WokeCat]

banded was like big boi armor

Bronze Breastplate sold for over 100p on my server, and 100p was a big deal back in the day because most of us didn't really know how to make $$$ really fast. We had one drop in Unrest and two kids on my school bus got into a huge fight over it.

[WokeCat]

Bronze Breastplate sold for over 100p on my server, and 100p was a big deal back in the day because most of us didn't really know how to make $$$ really fast. We had one drop in Unrest and two kids on my school bus got into a huge fight over it.

It may have been 300p actually, no exaggeration. This was before crafted armor. I also remember someone raging at me for having a langseax (6/23 1 hand slashing with no stats, warrior only) on my level 10 halfling warrior. he said twinks like me were ruining the game.

[magnetaress]

It may have been 300p actually, no exaggeration. This was before crafted armor. I also remember someone raging at me for having a langseax (6/23 1 hand slashing with no stats, warrior only) on my level 10 halfling warrior. he said twinks like me were ruining the game.

Langseax is ez to cheese at low lvls. Especially with sneak and a throw away alt.

[Swish]

twinks like me were ruining the game.

There was definitely that vibe. Some serial server jumpers (when new servers went up every few months) would try and escape the highly "twinked"/"old" servers :D

[Dolalin]

Here's an old thread from the EQ forums with a bunch of launch/beta memories:

https://web.archive.org/web/20010224065107/http://boards.station.sony.com/everquest/Forum2/HTML/057031-2.html

[Bardp1999]

We spent like 10 hours camping a PGT from Highpass and when one dropped someone looted it but had one in the bank and instead of the "lore" message the item deleted and the GMs told us go kick rocks. 12 year old me was heart broken

[Castle2.0]

We spent like 10 hours camping a PGT from Highpass and when one dropped someone looted it but had one in the bank and instead of the "lore" message the item deleted and the GMs told us go kick rocks. 12 year old me was heart broken

Hahaha

[Tongpow]

how long was the highpass/highkeep treadmill idk if it took me a week or a year honestly, i remember PGT drama though lol

[Bardp1999]

how long was the highpass/highkeep treadmill idk if it took me a week or a year honestly, i remember PGT drama though lol

As a career Qeynosian, passing through the Karanas and Highpass was the greatest adventure of all time. When we actually made it to Freeport, and then Oasis, it felt like a years long journey because of all the bull shit we did in-between. In hindsight it was legitimately a week or two because of the stops in the Karana's, Highpass, and Beholder, and the rez runs from various group mates, and no one having maps. We had a group of 4 of us that were friends IRL and 2 more that were online friends from UO, and it was the biggest cluster fuck but also nothing that could ever be recreated in my life at this point... thus why I am still lurking in 2023.

But the highpass/highkeep treadmill is the same as on P99, if you really wanted too probably 16-35

[Tongpow]

i just remember the clusterfuck and me and erudite magician or wizard saying fuck this and we went and lived in gorge of king xorbb till whenever the eyes stop giving xp

[Rygar]

Played with 2 friends on 1 PC day of launch. Most popular server I recall was Rallos Zek (PVP). Maybe 2200 folks on launch?

Just patching took a long time, constant drops. Couldn't stay logged in for more than 10 mins if that. We had a phenomenal time in newbie zone (Qeynos) and eventually going to Blackburrow entrance and exploring Karanas.

We literally looked at our cloth map that came in the box and saw a village in the karanas and went to find it (we weren't aware of any map sites at the time).

We were shocked when we saw the village appear in the distance after a run that seemed like it took the entire night with all the LDs. There was something magical about that moment for us, like we were going off of an old cartographer's map and not knowing if we'd find our destination. We were literally cheering in the middle of the night.

Imagine even more our surprise when this village turns out to be the Aviak village! Couldn't find any birds that spoke to us, eventually held our breath and attacked.

Dead in seconds...

Welcome to EQ! I'll never forget that night