How did people figure out quest back in the day?

[Daldaen]

The developers on Live already said every complete quest was solved many years ago.

The random quests that seemed to have dead ends, like the named animals in South Karana who drop quest pieces (Cracktusk, Gnawfang, etc.) which have no other purpose, are likely a result of an intern's unfinished project. Many cases of this exist in the early stages of EQ.

[azeth]

Originally Posted by Daldaen [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The developers on Live already said every complete quest was solved many years ago.

The random quests that seemed to have dead ends, like the named animals in South Karana who drop quest pieces (Cracktusk, Gnawfang, etc.) which have no other purpose, are likely a result of an intern's unfinished project. Many cases of this exist in the early stages of EQ.

I think these unfinished quests add value. It's kind of neat that not every square peg has a square hole it fits into

[Erati]

stupid Gnawfang and Cracktusk

such a waste of excitement as a tracking class

[Jimjam]

Originally Posted by azeth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think these unfinished quests add value. It's kind of neat that not every square peg has a square hole it fits into

Agreed, the world feels so constructed when every last detail ties in with everything else...

Plus, having some loose threads allows the devs to tie new expansions into existing content better (not that they ever really bothered doing that so much).

[Sorn]

I still think it's funny that there's a quest for a dragon whose reward is to drop you in front of something KoS in the hopes that you die horribly.

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

Originally Posted by Freakish [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Message boards. There were boards completely dedicated to solving EQ quests. Communities came together and said "Ok I turned this item in and it worked, this is the next step" and someone else might be able to figure out the next step, and so on.

This was the main conduit. I remember when the epics came out, the various boards were collaborative. The main enchanter site had a thread, and people just brainstormed and tried things out, and if they solved something, they posted it.

If I am remembering correctly, it was still laborious. I know my own personal story. I decided to try to be first chanter to 60 on my server instead of doing the epic (I ended up being second chanter to 60, on Quellious). I hit 60 before the chanter epic had been solved. I had VoG. So then the epic gets solved and I see the effect, and I'm like wtf.

Never did the epic.

But also I highly suspect sometimes devs playing the game would leak out infoz on the quests.

But one thing is sure, during classic, quests were not solved at lightning speed. Likewise with encounter strats. I remember Trakanon being a "mystery" when Kunark came out, and it took a fair while before my server killed it.

Those were different days. People were playing **tons** but at another level they sometimes played like casuals -- ie, not really knowing how to tackle content, not being super-efficient, etc. My take on how players do games these days, they want solutions and maximum efficiency to quests and encounters ASAP. That is one reason why designing a modern MMO is nearly impossible. We all are too good at this shit now. We chew through content too fast. What company wants to spend a year+ developing content that will be beaten in less than a week? We done beat the genre -- to death.

[Jimjam]

I just think it is a shame no one ever solved the rogue off-hand epic!

[Daywolf]

Originally Posted by Lagaidh [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Wow I haven't seen that name in ages.

Yeah it wasn't heavily used by EQ players, nothing like zam when that came around. But it was used and well known by UO players that played EQ as well. Was one of the best community sites for UO, everyone used it as a go-to for linked info at the official UO forums. But now, for some years, it's not very active at all, well considering EQ and UO live are low pops. Both games went in the wrong direction some years after release state [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
edit: speaking of stratics

[Yuuvy The Destroyer]

Originally Posted by Daldaen [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The developers on Live already said every complete quest was solved many years ago.

The random quests that seemed to have dead ends, like the named animals in South Karana who drop quest pieces (Cracktusk, Gnawfang, etc.) which have no other purpose, are likely a result of an intern's unfinished project. Many cases of this exist in the early stages of EQ.

I recall a thread on the old foh guild page where a lead dev had said that something like 30%? of the quests had not been found.

Would have been around 2003-ish.

[Sajuuk]

Thanks for all the replies folks. Yeah, it's true that a new mmo like classic EQ would be impossible to market and be a success in todays world. Would be really interesting to see us P99ers try a fresh server that somehow would only be playable without outside help. I know, that would be impossible.

I do really enjoy being able to see how quest turn out. As someone would joined live when LoY came out, questing was just not something anyone I played with did back then... except for PoP progression. As a family man, it's nice being able to do EQ quest even if it's not truely questing using wiki. Oh to be a 14year old loser with 8 hours a day to play again. It's funny tho, even holding the wikis hand while questing, STILL harder than doing a wow quest lol.