Originally Posted by AxerJ
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
Greeeaater Faaaydaarrk! I can't help but prefer High Elves as a main, and I've never gotten past level 23 - so I've spent a lot of my played time in GFay. I have two especially memorable newb experiences.
One cool newbie memory comes from my experience playing my wizard, who is my main, level 23, and who I plan to continue to the far reaches this game has to offer, when he was level 3. I thought I should really try to turn in black wolf skins and bat wings to the caster GMs in Felwithe for phat xp, but they were both dropping really rarely. Of course, I found out later that those quests give next to no xp even at level 3, but I was still determined to hand in stacks and xp efficiently (noob mind there - and I only realized that turning in bone chips actually WAS awesome xp in Felwithe a lot later). So I was Shock of Frosting and daggering these individual bats and wolves, and getting very few quest drops. Pretty slow, and even though I was 3 it seemed the xp was moving SO SLOWLY.
By then, though, I had bought just one other spell - Numbing Cold, which, though I didn't know it at the time, is a radiating aoe for level 1 wizards. I didn't know what it did, and tried it out. Ok, an azure blue particle-y cylinder rising upward from the enemy, looks pretty awesome! I'm a badass wizard, summoning this blue magic upward at the enemy! But then I realized - this spell icon is a different color. This is a freaking area effect spell. At level 3 I was able to take a bunch of hits from bats, wasps, and wolves without too much issue. So I decided to try something awesome, not knowing if I could survive it - I hit a bat, ran to another, hit it, ran to a wasp, hit it, hit a wolf, ran past any wasps I could see because I found out they have a hive mind and aggro you if one of their drones is already on you, and hit another bat. I had like 7 mobs hitting me. Moment of truth comes - I try casting Numbing Cold to take em all out.
..interrupted. Of course, they're hitting me all the time. But I was able to regain my concentration better than I would've thought, and I was able to smoke down a bunch at once! Holy shit, that was cool! AND, it was a lot more fun than going from single to single. AND, I was able to collect way more loot at once.
This seems like a no-brainer, but to my newb-addled mind it was a breakthrough and kind of a triumph. I was able to run around, loving aggroing the wasps so easily, and level through to 4 in no time. I think I kept doing it and got to 5 that way, and was able to turn in a bunch of bat wings and wolf skins for the pitiful xp they awarded. So that was just a really fun level, felt awesome and was fun using ae wizard power on all the Felwithe-garden mobs in GFay. Of course, that was like the last time I used any area effect spells - I hope to again someday...
Another memory comes from when I played in the year 2000, and involves GFay - but I was actually trying to run from Felwithe to Freeport. I was a newb High Elven mage, let's say level 8.
I had found something on the ground, I think - I don't remember what it was. Maybe a mob dropped it, but I can't think what it'd be. Everyone was using the auction channel in GFay back then, and I wanted to be cool and do it too - this thing I had found wasn't like anything else I had seen, I remember that much. So I auctioned it, trying to be cool. PST. After a little while, I was kind of shocked to see someone actually DID send me a tell, and THEY SAID THEY WANTED TO BUY THE THING FOR LIKE 50 PLAT. Or something like that. I was really, really excited. Also, I was 10 years old. So that was something really exciting for a kid who had somehow managed to get to level 8, had no real idea how to play this game seriously, and had never walked out of GFay. And there came the tricky part. The buyer wanted to buy it in Freeport, for some reason - it doesn't make sense now, considering he must've been in GFay to hear the auction (unless auctions weren't restricted to just that zone back then?), but that's what it was. He wanted me to meet him in Freeport and sell it to him for HUGE OMG PLAT, as far as my young mind was concerned.
I had never been to Freeport or even outside of GFay, as I said. But, I had watched as my older brother ran from Felwithe to Butcherblock, past Kaladim, stood at the docks, and spent a pretty cool amount of time on the boat before reaching Freeport. I had seen him do it. He wasn't around, but I could do it. It was the only chance I had to make like 50 plat, and that seemed like a huge amount. So I set off. I remembered where my brother had run, and I followed the GFay trail until it let me to a new zone. OK! I zoned in. It was another forest. OK... I didn't really remember the details of how Butcherblock looked, but I was going to make it to the docks, damnit! I continued on the trail. It'd lead me there. Which way to turn at the dwarven outpost somewhere in the middle of the zone, I thought to myself? I think turn right? I continued along, feeling nervous as I continued, because something seemed different - quieter, not as open, not as sunny as the impression I had of the route... kind of tense and scary. I kept going. Then HIT!
HIT! A brownie hits you for 43 damage!
A brownie slaps you for 58 damage!
WTF?!
A brownie slaps you for 870 damage!
That's what it seemed like.
You have died!
...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! - went my thoughts, my hopes, my dream of running to Freeport and making 50 shiny platinum to buy all the spells I needed and maybe a staff, and still have plenty!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
I still remember the horrible feeling of loss, death, knowing I'd never be able to get my corpse without dying again, not knowing where I went wrong, thinking I had just permanently lost my character and the rare chance to make 50 PLATINUM. PLATINUM. I was distraught. I may have cried a little. It was like trying to do something, thinking you could though you weren't totally sure how to do it, going the wrong way, and dying. I never talked to the person I was supposed to meet in Freeport. I don't think I ever even played that character again. That High Elven mage, my very first character in EQ EVER, died that day. The brownies scoured his bones and ate his flesh, and they had victory. Oh also, I thought at the time that if we died on a corpse run, our original corpse would be overriden by our naked corpse - so I felt that if we died on the cr, our original items would be permanently deleted. Aaand I still thought that until about level 10 or so on my current character, now. Haha! That was quite a relief finding out that mechanic, made corpse runs MUCH less scary.
So those are my two memorable newb GFay experiences, one recent, one 15 years old. I really like the zone in general - it's green, mysterious, misty, roaming orc-y, waspy, tree-city-y with great music, has awesome wizard spires that seemed massive and impenetrable when I was 10 years old, is such a friendly, safe, comforting place to level up to 8 or so before heading in to Crushbone, and used to be auction central, or so it seemed. Also, shouting "ding!" was thing that seemed totally normal. I'll always like this zone a lot - it seems like home, as far as any zone in Everquest can seem like that.
I typed a lot, that may have been tedious to read, especially the first story! But those are two memorable newb experiences I've had in what is likely the best starter zone in the game.
|
10-27-2015, 12:34 AM
Linear Mode
