Why are we not the chosen people who must be punished for our /played

[Iwar]

I try not to evaluate everything - just play the game and let the P99 staff guide. Otherwise it's like someone bugging the DJ at a party - play this, not that etc.

As we all know a mmorpg's biggest challenge is to avoid getting beaten by the players - the hard aspect of classic EQ is what keeps everyone around. Having said that - I must also say that there are tough decisions to be made regarding what to keep and what to leave out, sometimes it goes wrong and sometimes its sad if newbies suffer too much. One not classic thing I think should be fixed is the none aggro skel in the OT boat when you hammer in. I remember always having to kill it on the mountain side and having to worry about maybe also aggro the the foreman - ending up training golem, foreman and half of OT to SF. :-)

[Lagaidh]

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

In what kind of third world countries did you guys live in 99 that didn't have cable internets?

Vast swaths of the United States of America in 1999. How quickly folks forget =) Widely available broadband really is something from the mid 2000s forward. Even now more rural areas still don't have ready access to broadband. If everyone did, we might not see commercials for Hughes net.

[Nogdar]

Yeah, I can tell you 56k was the top of the pop in most European countries in 1999 hehe

[Picked]

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

Dust off your old PC and your 56k and play for a few days. Maybe you don't remember the exploit of "plugging", but your connection speed and stability make a huge difference in game play.

Some quick examples of why this experience is not classic: When EQ came out my comp could barely handle it. My clipping planes was all the way down (all the time) and trees were bugged with my graphics card so they showed up silver on my screen. The 56k was brutal due to disconnects, and tons of lag spikes. (Connection stability was shit...) On Xegony we bought/sold in Gfay, good luck not falling off the tree houses with all the lag. No item links... Speaking of trees, I killed a tree and used it to print out maps because my computer couldn't handle IE + EQ... (I don't even think windowed mode was classic TBH!) Oh yeah, remember how much loading a zone sucked...

There is no way to perfectly replicate the classic experience, unless you can go back in time... Because of this fact, I see no reason to take away all convenience that are not necessarily from the classic time period. That said, the hard part is where to draw the line on functionality that completely defaces the 'classic' game, and functionality that is not 'classic' but enhances game play.

I didn't even have a computer that could run this game when it first released. I had a compaq with 8mb of ram upgraded to 16mb. My friend/cousin had just got a new gateway computer when EQ released. He lived out in the country 7 miles out of a town that bolstered a whopping 1200 people. I remember crashing and instability with 56k,(especially when someone tried using the phone and it DC'd you) but other than that the game wasn't as bad as you proclaim. My server also traded in gfay. Maybe it was his new computer. But aside from the servers coming down for a patch we pretty much took turns playing and never had much performance issues. I remember having to stare at the floor when you went up to the bank. But I never remember the mobs having more hps or being harder to kill because of the connection difference. You either could kill it, or it killed you, or you went LD in the process of finding out. The difference was this is what we knew. This was the only one of it's kind. To us this was normal operating procedure or status quo.

It is hard to draw the line on what should be kept and what shouldn't. Forum threads are usually a small minority of the people's opinion. There are a lot of players who choose not to partake in these threads. It's hard to get a feel for what the entire player base wants.

I tend to agree with Iwar. Just let the devs who run this shindig do what they do and sit back and enjoy it. If you don't like something there certainly isn't any harm in voicing your opinion. But just because someone can't function without a compass doesn't mean they should put it back in. Learn the zones more, adapt, I pretty much know the popular zones inside and out because this feature was not implemented on live when it first launched. It took some time getting familiar again but it's like riding a bike.

[stormlord]

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

I didn't even have a computer that could run this game when it first released. I had a compaq with 8mb of ram upgraded to 16mb. My friend/cousin had just got a new gateway computer when EQ released. He lived out in the country 7 miles out of a town that bolstered a whopping 1200 people. I remember crashing and instability with 56k,(especially when someone tried using the phone and it DC'd you) but other than that the game wasn't as bad as you proclaim. My server also traded in gfay. Maybe it was his new computer. But aside from the servers coming down for a patch we pretty much took turns playing and never had much performance issues. I remember having to stare at the floor when you went up to the bank. But I never remember the mobs having more hps or being harder to kill because of the connection difference. You either could kill it, or it killed you, or you went LD in the process of finding out. The difference was this is what we knew. This was the only one of it's kind. To us this was normal operating procedure or status quo.

It is hard to draw the line on what should be kept and what shouldn't. Forum threads are usually a small minority of the people's opinion. There are a lot of players who choose not to partake in these threads. It's hard to get a feel for what the entire player base wants.

I tend to agree with Iwar. Just let the devs who run this shindig do what they do and sit back and enjoy it. If you don't like something there certainly isn't any harm in voicing your opinion. But just because someone can't function without a compass doesn't mean they should put it back in. Learn the zones more, adapt, I pretty much know the popular zones inside and out because this feature was not implemented on live when it first launched. It took some time getting familiar again but it's like riding a bike.

I smashed my finger yesterday moving rocks, ... i'm typing slower.

These things have been on my mind for years and years.

I started in March 1999, so I experienced it.

Played all the way up to 2010 off and on.

I played a ranger in 1999 and a ranger later on.

I started with track and solo ability and invis and sneak and other things that made the game a bit easier. Sometimes I think that the way I remember the game is distorted by the fact that I played a ranger. Without tracking, healing, snaring, rooting, invising, hiding/sneaking, sowing, kiting, light tanking, buffing, and all of the other goodies rangers had, my opinion of the game would be dramatically different. If I had played a less solo-able class, I would have been more dependent on others and felt oppressed and maybe this frustration would have caused me to happily accept things like in-game maps, simpler zones, cut and dry mechanics, camping (eliminating threat), hand-holding and other things that made me feel I was being repaid.

I learned from a very early time in EQ to be independent - I was a ranger, for christ sakes! I thrived on it and grew to love it. The challenge of corpse retrievals and keeping track of things without automatic in-game assistance was what drove me. So I did learn to hate in-game maps and hand-holding and camping and simplistic things that kept creeping into the game. But if I hadn't been a ranger, I think things would be remembered differently. You see, hand-holding made the game bareable for more group-dependent classes that didn't have the luxuries I had, or maybe they didn't have the desire to be a jack of all trades.

But even to this day, I hate hand holding in the games I play. I hate mudflation too. I crave complexity and doing things on my own or with a couple others. My ideal Everquest would be a class that combines all the classes and a environment that's rich enough to make you use all of the many tools that the classes have. I think the real reason I liked the ranger so much was because of the diversity. I also have liked other classes like the necromancer, paladin and the enchanter. Basically, I think the key to a fun game is to have so many tools that they keep you busy and thinking of new strategies to overcome a challenge.

In fact, this is why boxxing is so enoyable. It's diverse, but it's too expensive in p2p games. It requires a good system to play modern games this way. And it requires lots of computer skills and attention to detail.

Basically, I think too many games are too simplistic. I like to do lots of things when I play. Killing lots of monsters fast tends to be very boring to me, especially if you always do it the same way. I prefer non-linear things like kiting and rooting and pacifying and mezzing and mayhem and fast-paced thinking on your feet. This is why I hate camping so much. EQ had lots of it. Sometimes it could be fun, but mostly it was far too grindy. It was much funner to delve into a dungeon and deal with adds and be in danger and use all your tools.

[Galelor]

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

I didn't even have a computer that could run this game when it first released. I had a compaq with 8mb of ram upgraded to 16mb. My friend/cousin had just got a new gateway computer when EQ released. He lived out in the country 7 miles out of a town that bolstered a whopping 1200 people. I remember crashing and instability with 56k,(especially when someone tried using the phone and it DC'd you) but other than that the game wasn't as bad as you proclaim. My server also traded in gfay. Maybe it was his new computer. But aside from the servers coming down for a patch we pretty much took turns playing and never had much performance issues. I remember having to stare at the floor when you went up to the bank. But I never remember the mobs having more hps or being harder to kill because of the connection difference. You either could kill it, or it killed you, or you went LD in the process of finding out. The difference was this is what we knew. This was the only one of it's kind. To us this was normal operating procedure or status quo.

It looks like we both traveled 10 miles uphill in 3 foot deep snow!!! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] That said, my account is pretty accurate of my play experience. (To be honest, I liked selling in Gfay better [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] )

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

It is hard to draw the line on what should be kept and what shouldn't. Forum threads are usually a small minority of the people's opinion. There are a lot of players who choose not to partake in these threads. It's hard to get a feel for what the entire player base wants.

I tend to agree with Iwar. Just let the devs who run this shindig do what they do and sit back and enjoy it. If you don't like something there certainly isn't any harm in voicing your opinion. But just because someone can't function without a compass doesn't mean they should put it back in. Learn the zones more, adapt, I pretty much know the popular zones inside and out because this feature was not implemented on live when it first launched. It took some time getting familiar again but it's like riding a bike.

I think we pretty much see eye to eye on this point. That said, I enjoy the little conveniences that made play more enjoyable for me personally.

[Picked]

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

It looks like we both traveled 10 miles uphill in 3 foot deep snow!!! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] That said, my account is pretty accurate of my play experience. (To be honest, I liked selling in Gfay better [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] )

I feel the same way! I loved starting a Wood elf or a High elf (my favorite races) and being right in the mix of all the auction stuff. It was great! And like I said maybe it was my cousins computer that was top of the line was a difference maker. I don't remember EQ being that unbearable. But then again that was well over 10 years ago haha

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

I think we pretty much see eye to eye on this point. That said, I enjoy the little conveniences that made play more enjoyable for me personally.

I guess it's not a bad idea that they are there for the people who use them a lot. I just don't ever use that stuff. I don't even use sense heading. I didn't max it on my first character until level 49 or 50. And on my current character I maxed it early because I put it in my macro. But I have yet to really ever use it. I mostly go by locs and feel.

I guess one could compare it to being blind and then getting eye sight. In the early years we had to feel our way through the dark, then when things like the compass came out and maps and such. Made it a lot easier.

[rahmani]

Back to the original thread, I totally agree, and frankly it's what made me earlier this year. I finally just gave my toon to my guild, although I check back infrequently to see how the community is doing.

Why change things to make them more classic when they are just simply glitches in the first place?


The two most annoying are the following:

1) There is some kind of fucking annoying and INTENTIONAL and CLASSIC bug that affects AoE rain spells. If you are in a group, and there are pets around the targeted mob, the pets will absorb a charge of the rain spell. This means if you're a wizard like me, you never get to AoE rain in groups because some dipshit Mage or Necro pet winds up eating all the charges. After much complaining to the GMs I was finally just told that it was purposely broken to be like classic.

2) Necros in skeleton form have no name plate. It wasn't always like this, but somehow a developer decided to make it fucking annoying just like it was in classic. There is really no advantage or disadvantage because of this, just simply dumb, like it was in early clasic.

By the way, both of these things were fixed along the way on live, because they were considered to be bugs.

Other things that make me upset,

- Pets cannot do 100% of damage to target, affecting enchanters the worst.
- There is no way to time your buffs except with third party software or a clock.
- Many instances of glitched mobs in Charasis, making it unplayable for the most part.
- Target ring was removed
- Regeneration auras don't say how much the regeneration effect is on items.

There are more examples of classic things implemented without thought to the original intent of the developers, and in many cases they are clearly bugs, but this was as much as I could think of off hand.

[Kender]

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

- There is no way to time your buffs except with third party software or a clock.

I played a shaman in classic, and the timer was always the shortest duration stat buff cast on yourself. when that runs low, it's rebuff time

[kylok]

^ adapt to your environment?