Hubsand and Wife team joining the ranks

[Peevedkitten]

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

My own wife and I enjoy this game, and for a good many years we too played the Paladin/Cleric combination. You can duo if you need to, but you'll work best as the foundation of a larger group.

If you're new to Everquest, there'll be a lot of adjusting to do relative to coming from newer MMOG's. Most of the present MMOG's built off EQ, so quite a few systems in this game will seem outdated (recovering mana by meditating is an obvious example) as will the graphics. As a rule it's a rather slow-paced game, both in terms of leveling rate and combat mechanics. A comprehensive guide is beyond the scope of a single forum post; the Project 1999 wiki is an invaluable resource in that respect. Some specifics come to mind, however:

Classes in this game don't have the same balance or homogeny that those of newer games tend to possess. You'll notice very rapidly, for example, that your wife's Cleric is almost unable to solo, but nothing else can heal even close to as well as it can.

Monsters don't display their levels, so get used to "considering" them. I forget what key it defaults to, but if you're experienced with gaming you ought to be able to handle keymapping. Past the lowest levels monsters tend to be stronger than equal-level players, so get used to leveling off "blue con" opponents. At higher levels, even "blue" monsters are difficult to solo in melee. Everquest was designed as a group-centric game, and it shows.

You have to go to your skill trainer in the city to obtain many of your skills as you level. This includes some critical skills, like Meditate (level 8 for the Cleric, level 12 for the Paladin).

There's no automatic auction system. Players buy and sell stuff to each other either by using this forum (there's a sub-forum dedicated to it) or by traveling to East Commonlands in-game (if you've been to that zone you've no doubt seen the /auction chat scrolling). P1999 has been around a long time so some surprisingly good equipment can be purchased cheaply.

Finally, a note about setting: Unlike so many newer games, you're not the brave hero setting off to save the world here. You're simply some unknown adventurer striking out into a wild and untamed world. The cities are hundreds or thousands of years old and their fates do NOT depend on anything you do. If you're tired of game settings that portray the player as some great savior right from the start, you should like the change.

That's long enough, I think (more detailed info is what we have the wiki for!). Welcome to P1999.

Danth

Thank you for the info. We both have experience in old school MMO's (Utlima, DAOC, Lineage 1 etc.) and it is confusing at first for sure. We've already changed some of the key mappings (WASD for movement) and we are used to and comfortable with keyboard/mouse scripting to make our lives easier. We did briefly venture into east commonlands and I saw the trade spam although I had no idea what 99% of the things being linked were. I was pleasantly surprised to find that after 3 hours of play we had just hit level 3. It's nice to actually have to work for something and not just be running fetch quests for a change. The setting is excellent as well, the hero trope has been played out ad-nauseam.

I honestly can't wait to go home tonight and play!