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Anyone playing Everquest?

Saighdiuir de na Iomproidh
Galrois
Saighdiuir de na Iomproidh
Posted On: 08/28/2016 at 02:23 AM

Anyone playing Everquest?

I got nostalgic for EQ a few weeks ago, and since it has a free to play option now I logged on to run around the world a bit. I was afraid to actually fight anything because I had no recollection of how to actually fight on my character (61 Wizard, retired since 2003), and remembered the brutal death penalty. So I logged into one of my alts, a 20 Druid, and because he has many less spells than the 61 Wizard, it was reasonably easy to go through the spellbook and figure out what was what. So I went off and started fighting things on the Druid...and had a blast.

It turns out that they made some changes over the years that made EQ a lot faster paced. In particular, about 30 seconds after you exit combat your health and mana regen rate goes WAY up, and the boost is proportional to your mana pool size. Result: you go from 0 to 100% mana in under three minutes, no matter how big your mana pool is. Compare that to the old days when it could take 10-15 minutes. They have also added mercenaries, basically NPC warriors, wizards, rogues, and clerics that you can hire. You can have one mercenary at a time, and they essentially act like a group member. You don't control them in detail like you do a pet. You assign them a role (such as whether a warrior mercenary is the main tank or a secondary tank, things like that), and they play similarly to the way a human of that class would play. With an appropriate mercenary, most classes can solo reasonably well (quite a change from when Sony ran the game, and hated the concept of soloing).

Anyway with these changes, in just a few weeks of very casual play a couple times a week, my Druid, playing solo (without a mercenary) is already level 47, and has made about 7000 plat.

On the regular free servers, the population below level 100+ is pretty low, so my Druid pretty much has any zone he wants all to himself. I kind of like that. Zones full of players always bugged me in heroic fantasy games. When was the last time you read a fantasy novel and the hero was unable to make progress on his quest because everything he needed to fight was camped by other adventurers?

For those who want a head start, you can purchase an "Heroic Character" slot for your account. You can use that to create a new character, or apply it to an existing character. The character is created at or boosted to level 85, given all spells and abilities and alternate abilities for that level (except trade skills and language skills) and a complete set of good gear. If you delete your Heroic Character you can use the slot again on a new or existing character. You also get 15000 plat when you first buy the slot, but not when you reuse the slot. Heroic Character slots are a one time $35 cost, and can be bought.

People who pay for an all access account get access to more servers, including a couple "time-locked progression servers" (TLP servers). The TLP started out with just the original EQ content, and then over time introduce the expansion. I believe that there is one that is on a fixed expansion schedule, and one that has the players vote on when to unlock the next expansion. I've been told that these servers have high populations at low levels, so getting a group is easy, and that you need to do that because the experience rate is lower than the regular servers.

All access also gets access to better mercenaries, better mounts, can have more alternate advancement points, and can elect to automatically get alternate advancement abilities instead of having to divert experience to alternate experience to get them. If you buy a month of all access, get more alternate advancement points than a free account can have, and then go back to free, you keep the extra points. It looks like a lot of the paid things work that way--you have to be paid to get them but once you have them you can keep them.

In summary, EQ is now a lot more friendly to the casual player. It can be played reasonably free, and a lot of the extra stuff that is not free can be obtained on a free account by just buying a month of all access now and then.

 So...any other Gaiscioch over there? (I'm on Erollisi Marr/The Nameless BTW).

 

 

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Response:

Caomhnoir de na Aracos Gorm
Foviel
Caomhnoir de na Aracos Gorm
  • GW2: Hamingju.9830
  • ESO: @dpwildboar
Replied On: 08/30/2016 at 01:00 PM PDT
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i had a soe pass that let me play anything they were the publisher of and i played it a few times during that.  but, once they sold off their soe assets that was canceled.  i have been playing landmark also, up to around that timeframe... but, sort of lost interest once they said they were canceling eqn... there are some that say landmark may instead become eqn, but i will believe that when i see it. it voxel based world is pretty cool, so i would like it to happen.

i played eq for like 4-5 years, and much like daoc, warhammer, even rift and other games of that time... they are showing their age and its fun for a while... but, fails to hold my attention for any span of time.

that said... i really miss my halfling druid and the small guild i was part of there during that time.

 

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Devotion Rank 19Valor Rank 11Fellowship Rank 13Scholar Rank 3Artisan Rank 9Social Rank 6
Caomhnoir de na Aracos Gorm
Foviel
Caomhnoir de na Aracos Gorm
  • GW2: Hamingju.9830
  • ESO: @dpwildboar
Replied On: 08/30/2016 at 08:54 PM PDT
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oh... and one thing i do not miss... is asking for a corpse summons... nope... not at all. don't miss that.

Awards & Achievements
Devotion Rank 19Valor Rank 11Fellowship Rank 13Scholar Rank 3Artisan Rank 9Social Rank 6
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