Hello! New To Project 1999

[hobowillie]

Hello everyone!

I just got all signed up to play Project 1999. I played original Everquest (around 1999-2000) for a bit. I was pretty young and I think I only got to the mid-30s or low 40s on a Barbarian Shaman when I played but I do have fond memories of the game and got a nostalgia itch to check it back out.

I originally loaded up the "retail" version of the game for the tutorial but then I found out about P1999 and that seemed like it might scratch the above itch a bit better. I definitely got hit with the nostalgia of how setting up games to play used to be. Definitely makes me appreciate Steam a bit more since modern games take a couple clicks and you are good to go.

I'm thinking of starting on Green, as that seems to be the server that is better for low levels finding groups, but I'm open to any if someone's persuasive enough. I'm thinking I will play a monk or a druid, but haven't quite decided yet.

I set up WinEQ2 and got the resolution to where I like it. Is there anything else people generally do to get the game more palatable on modern systems? I saw things about Duxa UI and such but most of the posts were pretty old, so I was wondering if there were different opinions 10 years on.

[Philistine]

Welcome! DuxaUI is great IMHO. Wineq2 was a good get as well.

I play on blue and groups are doable in prime time in xp highway zones, but yeah I hear green is better for starting from scratch. Haven't played on it tho aside from my level 5 chanter :p

You might get a lot of input on what class you should start, with me being the first :p Play whatever you find fun IMHO. Also, I wouldn't sweat the decision too too much. If you're like me You'll try a bunch of different classes before settling into one or two.

[Sonolin]

Druid is a great beginner class. Very versatile and fun although they arent the best sole healer of a group. Monk is pretty easy except keep in mind in groups people will want you to pull. Just something to keep in mind.

[Toxigen]

Go druid first over monk. Get to level 44 by charming animals. Once 44, port people for money to fund your first alt and you'll have a good grasp of most of the games mechanics.

Definitely make accounts for each one of your alts. One of your friends could log in your druid to port / buff / plvl your other chars if need be.

[rhold]

Definitely make accounts for each one of your alts. One of your friends could log in your druid to port / buff / plvl your other chars if need be.

I wish I had done that. Very good advice.

[hobowillie]

Welcome! DuxaUI is great IMHO. Wineq2 was a good get as well.

You might get a lot of input on what class you should start, with me being the first :p Play whatever you find fun IMHO. Also, I wouldn't sweat the decision too too much. If you're like me You'll try a bunch of different classes before settling into one or two.

I went ahead and grabbed DuxaUI and it's definitely an improvement over what I was using. And I think I'll definitely try out several classes, possibly to some arbitrary cutoff before I pick one to run with.

Druid is a great beginner class. Very versatile and fun although they arent the best sole healer of a group. Monk is pretty easy except keep in mind in groups people will want you to pull. Just something to keep in mind.

I definitely made a Druid on Green today. Got to level 4 and outside of getting lost repeatedly in the Greater Faydark (and dying without knowing where my corpse was), I've been having fun.

Go druid first over monk. Get to level 44 by charming animals. Once 44, port people for money to fund your first alt and you'll have a good grasp of most of the games mechanics.

Definitely make accounts for each one of your alts. One of your friends could log in your druid to port / buff / plvl your other chars if need be.

When you charm an animal, do you get a pet bar and control them or do they just kinda do their own thing for you? I saw that I get the first charm at 14.

If you make multiple accounts, that doesn't flag you for potential multi-boxing?

[Sonolin]

Nice!

Yes, charm turns them into a pet (you get a pet bar just like mage/necro/etc.). However, there is a chance charm will randomly break and then you have the potential of 2 enemies on your hands so it is definitely more to worry about than just root rotting.

Also, if you don't know there's a command "/loc" that shows your location on the map. Make sure to use that before you die and you can always find your corpse. It is recommended to make this a hotbutton so you can press/click it in game.

Good luck!

[hobowillie]

Yes, charm turns them into a pet (you get a pet bar just like mage/necro/etc.). However, there is a chance charm will randomly break and then you have the potential of 2 enemies on your hands so it is definitely more to worry about than just root rotting.

So from the wiki, the first spell shows a duration of 3s to 5min (up to 20min). Is there any indication I'm about to have a wild ride as it wears off? Is there any penalty or diminishing returns on recasting? I mean, I'll obviously figure it out as I go but just thought I'd ask the question to have a little heads up. haha

Also, is there any way to know the level of a mob I'm targeting since the wiki says "up to level 24" or is this just by feel/experience? Should I shoot for mobs that con as "a gamble" until I'm around 24 myself?

And to tie it all together, do higher level animals have lower duration or is it completely random?


Also, if you don't know there's a command "/loc" that shows your location on the map. Make sure to use that before you die and you can always find your corpse. It is recommended to make this a hotbutton so you can press/click it in game.

Yeah...I figured this out. I was perplexed for a bit trying to figure out how 14-year-old me knew what to do here because I didn't remember spending so much time doing a walk of shame. But I remember dying...a lot. Once I remembered the /loc command, I got it bound and hit it periodically just to help orient myself since my Sense Heading is still garbage.

[bcbrown]

So from the wiki, the first spell shows a duration of 3s to 5min (up to 20min). Is there any indication I'm about to have a wild ride as it wears off? Is there any penalty or diminishing returns on recasting?

It's random and the only notification you get is when it breaks. The probability of a break is mostly the relative level difference between you and your pet. On some targets it'll break like 4-5 times in a minute occasionally. It's best to try to charm targets that are low-blue. If. your pet is weaker than what it's attacking, it's easy to swing the balance through a DS on the pet and a dot on the target. It's harder/less efficient when the pet is stronger than the target, and the goal should be to break charm when both are at similarly low health.

To minimize the risks when charm does break, it's best to have both your pet and the target snared, and the target rooted. But due to short spell durations and small mana pool, this doesn't really become feasible until the low-mid twenties. Until then, just keep sow up and a zoneline nearby so you can bail when a fight goes sideways.

I recently re-leveled a druid, focusing on charming as much as possible. East Karana is possible at around 14, but I found it pretty tough, and went to Oasis instead till about 20. In Oasis I could either group or charm kill, and I found grouping to be generally faster XP. 20-22ish or so I went back to EK, then moved to gator pit/gator alley in CT. This can take you close to 30 I think.

[Sonolin]

So from the wiki, the first spell shows a duration of 3s to 5min (up to 20min). Is there any indication I'm about to have a wild ride as it wears off? Is there any penalty or diminishing returns on recasting? I mean, I'll obviously figure it out as I go but just thought I'd ask the question to have a little heads up. haha

Not really much indication, just gotta stay on your toes. Keeping them snared helps (ensnare at lvl 29, lasts a lot longer).


Also, is there any way to know the level of a mob I'm targeting since the wiki says "up to level 24" or is this just by feel/experience? Should I shoot for mobs that con as "a gamble" until I'm around 24 myself?

Not really sure, but I think the client should give you an error if you try to charm something too high of a level. However, you shouldn't really be charming stuff that's white or yellow IME.

And to tie it all together, do higher level animals have lower duration or is it completely random?

Yes, it seems that charm breaks way too often on yellows especially. Lower blues seem more consistent than higher blues as well I think. The best way to do this is to charm a blue mob and sick it on a white or even yellow mob. Make sure they are both losing HP at around the same rate. Keep the target mob rooted or root them when they get low, call your pet back to ensure he doesn't die and either hide or cast invis vs. animals (use ghazugi ring if you have that). The charm will break and you can kill both of them for more exp.



Yeah...I figured this out. I was perplexed for a bit trying to figure out how 14-year-old me knew what to do here because I didn't remember spending so much time doing a walk of shame. But I remember dying...a lot. Once I remembered the /loc command, I got it bound and hit it periodically just to help orient myself since my Sense Heading is still garbage.


Yea you can bind a hotbar button to your movement keys, helps a lot with leveling sense heading.

[Sonolin]

Also take my message with a grain of salt since I'm only lvl 32 and learned most of this through in-game experimentation.

It also seems that once a mob breaks charm ~3-4 times they break charm a lot more often afterwards. Not sure if this is just a placebo but I usually make sure to kill them at this point. In groups pets don't consume exp I believe, so I generally try to keep my charm pets alive there.

[Flucko]

Welcome! DuxaUI is great IMHO. Wineq2 was a good get as well.

Can you tell me how to make DuxaUI work? It keeps saying my spell files are out of date.

[WarpathEQ]

It also seems that once a mob breaks charm ~3-4 times they break charm a lot more often afterwards. Not sure if this is just a placebo but I usually make sure to kill them at this point. In groups pets don't consume exp I believe, so I generally try to keep my charm pets alive there.

I mained a bard so our charm works a little bit different as its a short duration and I'm often switching targets on what I'm charming.

In speaking and interacting with a variety of charm classes it seems the general consensus is that charm is a bit broken in P99 in the sense that the frequency your charm will break early is very low. Additionally I've heard many a chanter comment that after multiple charms on the same mob the frequency of charm breaking early does increase. A lot of this is just anecdotal beliefs as there is a randomness to how it works that makes it hard to know how exactly its all coded.

[Toxigen]

its just rng theres no secret

[maxtorps]

Can you tell me how to make DuxaUI work? It keeps saying my spell files are out of date.

Have you tried overwriting the installed spell files with the ones available for download on the https://www.project1999.com site - labelled V57?

Download
Extract
Copy the spells_us.txt file into your install directory. The one is V57 is dated 2022.

I'm not sure you need to copy the spellsnew.edd or the spellsnew.eff files but it can't hurt. They look the same as the 2019 titanium installs to me...

Anyway, hope that helps.

[Ashkin]

I didn't replace any files to get duxaui working. I'm running the client under wine, linux host. I simply dropped the duxaui folder into the .../Everquest/uifiles folder and loaded up the UI via in-game options.

That said, ymmv. I had a similar OG experience to you. Was in late middle school when I started, and life got in the way before leveling my ranger beyond low 40s. I tried going back to live once or twice but didn't like post-PoP changes that neutered the game. Started up again here about a week ago and have been really enjoying myself. Such a great game.