Volsung Tribe Campfire

been currently tooling around in the free demo "escape to norrath"

might consider starting up on the progressive servers when they go live...depending on whether or not i have time.


all i can say is
wow, i'm a nooooooooob at this game. hard to believe i used to play it...and quite successfully (well, sorta).

What, exactly, is a progressive server?

as far as i understand, they are servers that don't have any of the expansions outside of kunark, maybe not even that one. just classic EQ with all the nice upgrades that are in the game.

found a bit more info on it:

This new server will be a no transfer, start at level one server that begins with just the Antonican world and will allow player actions to unlock each expansion as time goes by. As the player community develops this world, the content that was released with each new expansion will come in “small bites”, Producer Chris Lena explained. That’s right, no frogloks or Vah Shir to start out with. They have to be discovered. No boats, but no PoK either until Planes of Power is unlocked. The old stories of running through Kith forest at night will come alive again, I am sure!

Players that roll a character on this server will get to experience the history of EverQuest, for the first time or for the second. All those wonderful old school encounters can be experienced again or as a fresh new experience that many players never had. One of the lead programmers warned, “you are going to lose some flexibility in features you have been accustomed to … it will be a little bit of the pain you may not have remembered” (or ever experienced!). I think many folks will cheer “bring it on,” if the posters on the EQ forums speak for more than themselves.

The dev team and the players had an excellent brain storming session about some of the details of this idea, including corpse altars, quests that include expansions that may not be released, the tutorial, the bazaar, shadowhaven, and bank slots. The tutorial will have to be modified so the nice gear that drops there now won’t enter this brave new world of cloth armor. When and how Legacy of Ykesha (LoY) and Lost Dungeons of Norrath (LDoN) could be introduced were also questions that have not yet been answered. There is much work to be done in the details to make this effort authentic and still retain the fun. Kudos to the development team for listening to the players, making a world where new players and old can experience what the veterans are always talking about, and giving us all a chance to make some interesting new memories

While I oft times get a certain nostalgic feeling about EQ1, the 'truth' of what it was really like to play EQ1 in the early days, versus the newer MMORPGs like EQ2, WOW, Guildwars, etc. is not pretty.

Just for fun, I recently re-installed my EQ1 software, manually downloading the new patcher, since the original one will not work at all anymore. I pulled out my old 52 level ranger, Rhynn. Ran accross the Karanas in a pooring rain. Spirit of the Wolf, green armor, twin proccing long swords... yes it felt GREAT.. until some level 72 aggro mob I've never seen before hit me twice for insane damage, and killed Rhynn.

Never even saw the mob coming. Never got a chance to target it, or swing.

And of course, that was followed by the extra 45 minutes of trying to find my corpse so that I did not loose all my gear when it decomposes.

Then, I pulled out my level 15 Necormancer, who was amost naked because I did lose her corpse, and a level in East Karanas before I quit my account. I had to beg a newbie for a few silver to buy some water & food, so that I would actually regen my health & mana. Oh yeah, I forgot that you MUST eat to regen power & mana.

She had an old level 10 staff in her bank account, so I was able to go out and regain level 16, and get to use all those level 16 spells I lost access to. And man, does it take a LONG time to mediate (sitting down, book open) back after a fight. 3 parts sitting around, 1 part action: EQ recipe for boredom...

oh dear.. excuse me... I must have gone into a rant... <tsk tsk tsk> .. I hate when I do that!

Ahh yes... those were the days...

yeah, the original EQ had was insanely harsh compared to today's MMOs, but that's what I miss about it. I try to think of it as Darwinism for gamers.

I remember being an ogre at level 7 in greater faydark after I paid someone to TP me and bind me there from Oggok.

Then I ran out and got killed by some orcs, lost my corpse, was found in Gfay -- and had NO idea how to get home or even where home was in relation to Gfay.

I couldn't approach the wood elf city, and I couldn't go anywhere without dying because I had nothing. It was bad.

Eventually some folks took pitty on me (Kalerdarie), and showed me the ropes a little better.

Then another guy, Icut actually helped me get from Gfay back to the Oasis, and from there showed me how to run through the swamp back to Oggok.

At some point years later - my little Ogre was out solo'ing Guardian Wurms by himself in Skyfire and taking quick jaunts to go solo in Veeshan's Peak or even that dragon-zone out from the Western Wastelands in Kunark, and then into the Planes of Power and solo'ing in the elemental planes.

EQ had some serious issues with penalties, but there was just NOTHING like the pride you would get in accomplishing some of the tough mobs in that game either. The first time Trakanon died was a GREAT feeling. Then later the Avatar of War in that giant zone, and finally Rallos Zek and Mithaniel Marr themselves.

Good stuff.

well said. you definitely earned everything in EQ. These days, it just doesn't seem like you have to work as hard to do something.

Well, there are moments like that in DAoC too -- but they're harder to get folks interested in.

We killed Rift a while back on Galahad with 3 people (all dual-boxing 2 characters). It took us 2 solid hours, and one guy on his SM + shaman kiting around all those GRAPE undead mobs there circling rift for 2 straight hours while the other 5 of us (his SM included) tried to tackle rift.

We had a warrior, 2 healers, 2 spiritmasters, and 1 shaman. The only time we could even damage rift was every 5 minutes when the ML9 pets were up. The warrior just kept it under attack so it didn't re-heal.

Meanwhile, those grape mobs would tear up anyone they came in contact with - even the shaman if he died... and nobody else could get agro -- that's the kind of epic fights that are fun though.

It makes things like the dragon or Nosdoden pale in comparison.

Sort of like the very first time I solo'd that big turtle Lodizal in EQ there in that ice-zone off from N.Ro. (Eastern Wastlands ??? ) Geesh it's hard to remember now.

But I solo'd that 500,000 HP turtle with my shaman, and that felt pretty good too. I think that took me the better part of an hour as well between cannibalizing for mana, and using torpor and turgur's to keep myself standing while I slowly dotted him down - all the while he was hitting me.

Then there was Vex Thal. Talk about a love / hate relationship there. before it was all over though, my shaman had his crown of mediocrity, and whatever that book-staff looking thing was with the burning affliction IV bonus, plus that ice-bone shield or whatever it was called from there, and other stuff.

DAoC is a great game too -- and has potential, it just doesn't have any insane type risk-reward items or dungeons in the game.

Anyone ever get caught by a werewolf in the Karanas when you were just a noob? or get smushed by Tarbul Earthstrider?

I really loved EQ at the low levels way back when, but I always burned out around lv 30 or so and cancelled again.

I'd like to experience the raid game in it though, just to see how it compares to wow. But I couldn't do that grind to get there, no way in hell.

Rhylith wrote:I really loved EQ at the low levels way back when, but I always burned out around lv 30 or so and cancelled again.

I'd like to experience the raid game in it though, just to see how it compares to wow. But I couldn't do that grind to get there, no way in hell.

I agree, the grind in EQ is waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much for me. WoW's end game is good. It's really good. It's just too bad that the majority of players don't get to experience it because they aren't in a good raiding guild.

At this point I feel like I'm grasping at straws in WoW. If I let go I'll fall way too far to catch up ever.

wru Warhammer

feel like I'm grasping at straws in WoW. If I let go I'll fall way too far to catch up ever.

That's always the problem in this type of thing. It's insanely difficult, so not everyone has access to things, and then the problems can be further compounded by things like keys required, or other required tasks or quests completed to get in - and that causes no end of annoyance to folks trying to get a key - or to guilds trying to get or recruit new players who may not have their keys yet.

PoP in EQ was bad -- but Vex Thal had to be among the worst keying adventures I've ever experienced. 10 shards - each piece a 40 - 80 hour camp - sometimes requiring a group, and each person in the group may need the shard, 2 shard container pieces -- raid encounters, PLUS you had to collect the 3 pieces (hard) just for the emperor key, and then win a drop off the emperor - who was a 45 - 60 man raid himself, just to finish the Vex Thal key.

The raid game is fun, but there is that feeling of racing to keep up and the illusionary pressure that you have to do this or others will get in front of you, or you have to do it to remain competative.

I know we have tried it a few times on new games/servers but we really should all get together and try to do a very close knit guild/clan again. I honestly think we can field about 20 or so people across the 5 games that we play :p

If warhammer doesn't suck, we could do that

Same goes for the WoW expansion (If it really shifts the focus to smaller 5-10 man, it could become the best mmo ever created, even if world pvp dies a horrible fiery death in 1.12).