Do you all remember the days in 1998 / 99 when Verant had control? Back when playing EQ was a challenge...when a suit of bronze and a PGT would carry you all the way to level 30? If you identify with this, PLEASE /feedback the following message: "We, the consumers, demand that a new server be made. And that on this server, only the EQ trilogy expansions may be used, and there shall be no transfers to this server." If this is done, we can bring back the old days of EQ ( for the most part ). Please take this into serious consideration.

i don't think you can bring back the old days of eq, for one alot of people saw it, and two, they are sick of it

its another one of those ideas that looks good on paper, but really isn't that good when implemented

I'm almost certain I'll be doing this.



Hahahah.

90% of the people who claim to be old school like this dude didn't even play till velious. I myself started after kunark, and people who say "i remember when PSC was worth 30k" crack me up every ftime.

the "best part" of the old school game will never be brought back, except by those nostalgia addicts who spam bazaar channel. People have figured out old school EQ. No longer will you level up in Guk, when you can just go crash in velk! No longer will you be in CT or SolA, cuz there's always OT - DL.

I hate people who do stuff like this with a passion.

It was lack of knowledge that made the game how it was back then. Removing expansions will never change the fact that you know exactly how to min/max your way to the limits of whatever the current progression are.

Decent thread on it over at FoH: fohguild.org/forums/showt...eadid=9754 (http://fohguild.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9754)

I started playing about a month after release. I definitely understand where you're coming from. It's over though.

I remember the old days, like Sanchek i started about a month after release. I did the whole dual wield pgt and lockjaw hide vest thing, i saved for weeks to buy a combine weapon so i could hunt in unrest (omg 65pp!), before that i paid 10 pp for a mino axe at level 8 and felt freaking uber. The thing is, if i started a new char and gave him a mino axe i would feel like a total weakling, if it took me more than 5 minutes to make enough money to buy a magic weapon to fight in unrest i would simply give up in frustration, and if i did manage to do it i would go to unrest and be bored out of my mind. You CANNOT get back the old school feeling just by replaying the old world, old school EQ got most of its charm because of the feeling of newness and exploration.

more BoB tourneys


course you couldnt in reality because the game has so much to allow so many players to get ahead of each other that things would be highly imbalanced :)

BoB was awsome to watch back on CT when they firrst started it.


I started at the kunark release. But i do consider myself old school. :(

I cant really claim to say that I am "old school" either, but I agree that the 'magic' (for lack of a better way of saying it) has gone out of the game.

Why you say? Most likely because everyone knows everything their is to know about the zones that you would consider 'old school', the reason the game was so much fun when you first start is because you have no idea at all what you are doing.

Hell when I started (kunark days) I remember getting the everlovin crap beat out of me by a guard, simply because I hit A, before I realized I should have remapped the auto attack key.

It was so much fun just wandering around trying to find out what a quest was, how to interact with an NPC without ripping your hair out by the roots, how to turn RUN on (boy it took me a while to get that one), what sword was considered the best at the time, how the HELL I was going to get to EC to sell all the HQ bear pelts I had spent hours killing polar bear cubs for...

Another story that I have heard second-hand (someone who started EQ should know this or at least know of it) but their was a rumor circulating that their was a special NPC in highkeep that would teach certain classes a special move if you could find him.

Nowadays, if you try to tell a level 23 in the zone that they will just laugh in your face and call you an ebay. That sense of exploring the unknown has gone out of the game, even with new expansions being thrown into the mix the players have it fully explored within a month or two of its release date and hitting the shelves.

Hehehe, Worlds of Warcraft baby, I think it's gonna make it all better :)

eqlive.station.sony.com/c...p?id=59945 (http://eqlive.station.sony.com/community/dev_view.jsp?id=59945) ;)

i'm creating a 6 man wizard team!

BoB tournaments are rigged.

Yeah... what makes a game really fun when you start playing it, is knowing nothing about it. Once you have seen everyting, it is whether the game as an addictive value or not that will keep you.

Right now, I'm having fun with Horizons. Its not all it could be, but I'm having fun exploring a new world.

BotB were fun... I just wish I was higher level when they took place. I was 55 at the time (started a year after release, a little before Kunark) and the max level was 60. I made it to the semis (placed 4th) but I couldn't compete with the level 60s with full velious gear. They wouldn't work now unless they paired people based on equiptment and AAs.

Why not just start a character on the Test server?

Im about as old school as you get(since beta 2) and I want the "old days" back about as much as I want the old P133 I was running EQ on at the time. It was the lack of knowledge and fun of discovery that made the game great, you can't get that back without somehow wiping your memory.

Not old school here. Started with Luclin. But I remember the damned splattering off the Woody town platforms and the unforgivable crushbone orc. My first experience with EQ. That was fun and exciting getting the shield off the Trainer and trying to hold down the emperor room with a bunch of ill equipped newbs. My best piece of armor was a BCP that someone gave me.

I really enjoyed EQ at that time and through my leveling, until i hit 51. The game pretty much sucked from that point forward. seems more like work than play any more. I hate work. Down Ssra:|

IM OLDSCHOOL! I REMEMBER WHEN I ZONED INTO POK THE FIRST DAY I GOT THE GAME AND GOT TEMPERANCE!!!

old school was such a badass movie

FRANK THE TANK!!!

You're my boy, Blue!

I am not old school either, I started playing summer of 2001.

I agree though, that what made the game fun was the lack of knowledge of the game and events. Thats something that a player cannot recreate. While it seems like it would be fun to play the old school way, that I love to hear about. When you grab a mino axe, that comparitively sucks, I doubt you will be enthused for very long.

I remember on my first character(paladin) a very kind Wizard gave me a 2 handed fine steel sword(and I still talk to him this day). I had seen these on merchants for 70 plat and I got it for free and thought it was such an awesome weapon. That kind of feeling will not be recreated.

Not to say I don't enjoy EQ now, but when I was a young and nieve player, everything seemed more interesting.

LOL, same here. My first toon was a druid and her little level 17 self was trying to master the art of snaring in Oasis when this cute little druid chap approached me on the dock and handed me a velium sword. He was my hero. Aurelious was his name and I'm tickled to be guilded with him today.

To the point, i got a little less enchanted with the lack of newness myself. My solution was to try a bard.

Jingles (AKA Puss)

there's a few people who could verify i'm pretty damn old school..heck i'm still guilded with a bunch of them ;)



Orun

not sure if i qualify as old school or not, started back in early '99 but since i left game for over 2 years and recently returned, its not like i been playing for 4 and a half years straight.

however, i remember getting a grobb cleaver at level 8 cuz a high level (24) troll warrior helped me do quest. i was about to quit the game in frustration but that cleaver was so badass it had me keep playing =D

grobb cleaver = Dmg 15, Dly 45. +3 Str +3 Dex +3 Int

uber huh? well as an ogre i couldnt even cast my skellypet without it equipped hehe.

earmuffs!

'there's a few people who could verify i'm pretty damn old school..heck i'm still guilded with a bunch of them '

- Well seen as you were lvl50 and soloing Sand Giants in Oasis when I was a little newbie (must be going on 3 and a half years now), I'd say you were pretty old school.

It's been longer than 3 and a half years for me and you Halo, I started when I was 16 or so and I'm nearly half way through "Level 20".

We're old school, not as old school as Orun I'm guessing, but we're veterans alright!

Aye, I thought it was.
But it's been too long that I actually can't figure it out :(
I know that I started in '99 on my Paladin, but Halo wasn't created until late that year. And I didn't meet you in Oasis until about lvl13. Must have been 4 years or slightly over then.

And in those 4 years, you've played more mains and quit more times than anyone I know Zag :P

Wedri and I (and Sotek, who has since quit playing)started our junior year in high school, and as I am finishing my final year of college we've been playing for quite a while.

That being said, we started playing on Discord recently and its been really, really neat to see a brand new economy, having to fight to save up enough money to get your first weapon, nice to see the newbie zones full up.

But, the inability to experiement (which leads to death) is scary.

I for one have been concidering FFXI, because it'll have that "new" feel ... or of course WoW.

I'll have to check my /played, but it's summer '99.

old school you say....

I was an officer in Ice Claw on Sol Ro before the split... I started in June 1999...

i started not long before they took jboots out of najena.around august 99.
before paineel or the planes (i think it was sky or hate) were added in on a free download patch,cant remember.

played a dark elf mage as my first toon on bristlbane sever.couldnt get to first level at all without dying(tried to kill stuff with a dagger alone cause i never understood how to mem or cast spells lol).
so i deleted that toon and made a ogre warrior,got to 9th level (getting to 9th level back then was insanely slow),wound up dying and losing my corpse with all my stuff.didnt like the fact i was kos in nearly every city as well.so deleted it and started a barbarian warrior on sol ro server,which i still play to this day.

like alot have said already.the way old EQ was, will never be repeated.we already lived through it,we know what to expect and the ins and outs of this game now.taking it back to before kunark would be extremely boring now.the newness is gone,cant bring that back.it might be nice if your new to the game to experiance it,but not for those that survived it.

dying in old EQ was truly a nightmare.especially deep in dungeons,took a good hour+ to CR.melees back then had to bind in zones far far away from where they exp grinded.the fun run from freeport to guk or highpass.
the most feared zone back then had to be kithicor at night,i remember tons of people sitting at the highpass or west common zoneline for daylight to appear in kithcor before running through to freeport or highpass.

Heh, I never understood the need to wait for night to pass in Kithicor. As a level 12 to 20 paladin I made the run at night dozens of times just by sticking to the zone wall, and avoiding the...southwest corner, I think it was, where there were a few orcs. Not once did the undead get me (that I remember). I didn't use sow or IvU either.

there's a few people who could verify i'm pretty damn old school..heck i'm still guilded with a bunch of them


Ayup, I remember grouping with you in guk, when that place was still the shit. :)

I'm June 99 myself, and I'd be all for this simply if it let me use the pre-nerf necro 49 pet in the old world. Those things were friggen whoopass in a can.

Heh, I never understood the need to wait for night to pass in Kithicor. As a level 12 to 20 paladin I made the run at night dozens of times just by sticking to the zone wall, and avoiding the...southwest corner, I think it was, where there were a few orcs. Not once did the undead get me (that I remember). I didn't use sow or IvU either.

That's cause you were a paladin and therefore couldn't really see what was around you. Now if you were a ranger and hit the tracking button, you'd see hordes upon hordes of foul nasty undead thingys that well see through your nice invis spells. You couldn't even tell that they were red cons back then but just knew they had to be.

Heh, I never understood the need to wait for night to pass in Kithicor. As a level 12 to 20 paladin I made the run at night dozens of times just by sticking to the zone wall, and avoiding the...southwest corner, I think it was, where there were a few orcs. Not once did the undead get me (that I remember). I didn't use sow or IvU either.
Yeah. That was an easy run at any level. Although, the first few times I went through there after the change, I got completely mauled since I didn't expect it.

The run like that I really hated was between the bridge and ramp in EK. Pure, unbridled terror right there.

I used selos and went right through the fucking middle ... admidtedly one time I landed right in the camp of all those harm touching ones, the one the general spawns in now.

Anyone remember the day of the Bloody Kithicor wars? That was pretty hectic but lots of fun.

Picture this - managing to out run hoards of undead, only for it to come around to 8am halfway through, still having Werewolf illusion on, and being Bruce-Lee punched by Kithicor himself.

Wasn't a fun day.

I'm with ya, started in beta 3. And as others said, it was the unknown that was the most exciting part of it. I still get goose bumps when I run past Felwaite and hear that music come on cuz in the old days, that meant I made it home in 1 piece :) I remember when people would freak out when I put levitate on and ran past(above) them. And man wasn't that Mino cave in SF the scariest thing...

Anyone around that remembers or was in these guilds(if so, "heya" from Kradyl, Athief):
Braveheart
Sanguine Crusaders
Artic Collective
The Looking Glass

June 99 here as well,,

I made an erudite wizard, I had a P1 166 with a 12 meg voodoo card. I couldnt see ANYTHING at night. Then I logged out that first day, only to log in the next day (onto another server) and was confused as to where my wizard went.

Finding your guild master on your first day after reading the note that came with your char creation. Oh man what a nightmare that was for me. Someone telling me you cant take the boat to qeynos from Erudin untill you where level 4, (it was almost a year before I realized this was not true)

Orc hill in 1999, was the bomb, and finally venturing into CB was uber.. Beholders maze camping EE's to become RICH I tell you RICH. and finally saving enough to buy that Green silken drape, then the Oracle robe! Trying to get a mask of the deciever before the nerf! Fighting Centaurs in SK while waiting on that group at paw to have an opening. Aviaks in Rathe, getting the arena spawn for me was the own. Getting dead everytime I entered Unrest. then Kunark and raising the level cap to 60!! Back in the day when getting 51-60 was real hell.

Leveling from 25+ in places like CT-Guk-Sebillis where you learned your class, these days wiilll not be back it seems.

But its an entirely different game now, and its not all bad. I get a thrill out of that big kill, when you get your guild together and throw yourself at a pretty tough mob again and again till you learn the encounter. Being a somewhat demi god compared to all the old world mobs that used to scare the crap out of you.

The one thing I REALLY like about how things have changed is in someways it can be more like what I originally thought the game should be. When I first got EQ I was thinking along the lines of D&D, 4-6 people would be able to go and kill some really tough mobs.. Now days you can take that many and kill some of the old world boss mobs and its still somewhat of a challenge. My friends and I killed Vindicator with 9 people, I got a big rush out of that.. I enjoy doing stuff like that almost as much as killing a pop god with my guild.

Although the old days wont come back, if you have a good circle of friends like I do that have all played since the old days, you can still find a way to roleplay or find challenges and do it with people that appreciate the old style at the very least.

I like the idea of a "original game" server. But it should be without any expansions whatsoever, and level 50 as maximum. Like the Discord server, except not PvP.

Anyway, I played in beta and made Edeina right away when the game was released. Got it a few weeks late because of shipping issues, living in Sweden and all. Started raiding around the time of the release of Kunark, got to slay CT/inno/naggy/vox in the last few months of them being the mightiest foe anyone had ever slain. I remember six minths or so earlier when I was in my thirties and some of my old friends had leveled way ahead of me and turned all Uber. Met one level 50 mage who was so extremely cool. She was about to go on a vox raid, and I didn't even know what dragons looked like! :)

you're probably old school if you...


ever used a guise of a deceiver to get to vox the "easy" way.

killed guards because they were the best exp

ever bought a combine weapon because you needed something that could hit a wisp

camped EE for a bag and cursed when a manastone dropped

did najena for jboots

planned for ways to defeat the anti-camping radius

lost a corpse in fear

>>ever used a guise of a deceiver to get to vox the "easy" way.

The levitation bug?
Nope, only used it in freeport, and only for laughs.

>>killed guards because they were the best exp

Oh yes. Freeport was a great dungeon.

>>ever bought a combine weapon because you needed something that could hit a wisp

"What's a wisp?"
I was level 20+ allready when I saw one for the first time.

>>camped EE for a bag and cursed when a manastone dropped

No way! Liveside faction.

>>did najena for jboots

"Too long queue. And why would I want JBoots anyway? I'm a mage, not a puller!"

(Kinda regretted that later. The AC camp sucked!)

>>planned for ways to defeat the anti-camping radius

Never believed in that urban legend.

>>lost a corpse in fear

Nah. But I did help others getting THEIR corpses back. And I ALMOST lost a corpse in Hate once.

Ah Fear and corpses.
Once was apart of a raid which ended up in every single person having at least 2 unrezzed corpses on "break in". I think the record was actually someone having 7 unrezzed corpses.

I think Hate comes second, when being briefed begun as "When we port up and die, wait for your rezz.." Not.. "When we port up, and if you die.."
Raids were actually planned around a mass wipe. No one ever expected to get up there and get to the SS alive.
Now.. the fucking zone in is safe and it's like an exp zone.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE VERANT?!

The reason that EQ seems so much better to me and probably others is the fact that you knew nothing.

This was the first game I had ever played like EQ. Everything was totally new and exciting. Hell even killing newbie trash and selling the loot for cash was awesome.

When you have played for a while there isn't much that is "unkown" you may raid and see new stuff, but you don't get the feeling you did when you saw the zones for the first time.

Unfortunately you cannot go back to that, even starting a new character you are spoiled by knowing what is good equipment and bad. I remember hearing that mino axes were a great weapon back at release, but how many people would be happy to have one now when it was appropriate level wise to have one. We have been spoiled.

But I still enjoy the game, as do most. Just because it doesn't have the fact that I knew nothing going for it doesn't mean that I do not think it is interesting.

Old skewl? Dual PGTs (hated when they went lore pending) Heavy as hell though. Stamina eaters :p
http://home.earthlink.net/~jim_howard/hillg.jpg

Necro's able to solo Lord by charming the guards, FD'ing, and charm staying =p

And in those 4 years, you've played more mains and quit more times than anyone I know Zag :P

Heh, the funny thing is that I'm quitting again!

Tired of the bullshit, feeling the need for something new, and with Horizons just being released and it being a game I've been watching for nigh on 2 years, it's safe to say I'll give that a try when I get back to uni on the 5th of January :)

Anyone else playing Horizons? What servers are you on/do you recommend?

I would have tried Final Fantasy Online, but that whole worldpass thing is incredibly lame, it scars my sense centres just thinking about how stupid that idea was.

Yep i do remember making the run too NK with no sow just too buy 2 combine swords too attack wisp.
I also remember being the only on in a few groups that could kill ghouls in Nro.

I remember being ported too DL at 16 and making run too LOIO. That was when travel was not always safe.

THERE he is :P

Hullo Blearchie! You didn't let us know you were playing again you sod :P

IMO with almost every expansion that comes out, you can get that same feeling back. Just don't read the spoilers and try to figure it out for yourself.

I started post pop with only the first 3 expansions, I did the 14 hour cr filled run to freeport from halas.. I did the /shout what's comming to the docks? (as I ran there).. I even had the 2 backpacks full of spider/ling silks thing to EC tunnel (no one was there, that's when I bought luclin)..

When I had pop I was still using the scions because eqatlas.com did not have an x where the books were and I hated messing up my maps with loc info..

Anyways it's all what you make it, when god comes out it's up to you.. play it w/o asking anyone any questions, figure it out for yourself if it's really what you want.

Old skewl? Dual PGTs (hated when they went lore pending) Heavy as hell though. Stamina eaters.

I remember grouping with Samuel (human ranger) back on sol ro in Unrest. He had dual PGTs and I thought he was god incarnate.

EDIT:

HOLY SHIT, Blearchie..I just looked at your group in that SS.

Elothir, Yuri, Alagron, Dindraine..it's like a who's who of sol ro.

I did a ton of my early days with Ala and Yuri, and an enchanter named Elvenshalee who I think went to test eventually then disappeared. I don't remember Liena though. I remember doing Crushbone with that crew and getting Alagron his Screaming mace...making those first runs to Steamfont to show him where ore was...then the bastard became a master smith and made 100000000 plat.

thanks for the stroll down amnesia lane~

'HOLY SHIT, Blearchie..I just looked at your group in that SS.
Elothir, Yuri, Alagron, Dindraine..it's like a who's who of sol ro'

- Was gonna say the same thing :P'

I played way, way back. Anyone remember cheating levels by making Tumpty Tonic or something stupid like that and giving them to some dwarf? Or having to combine some Kiola nut? That quest got me through levels quite fast ... heh ...

I also remember the days when Unrest used to be a great place to hunt. Or the days when G. Fay was littered with /OOC's for buffs, binds, and dings.

Those were the days....

Oh yes.
I have a level 24 druid who until now never been in battle.
Took all 24 levels on Tumpy Tonics.

In the last few days she raised her Defense from 0 to 5. Her offence and 1h blunt are still stuck at zero, and she don't have any traing points to buy 1hblunt for. I suspect she will have to take a few levels and use the skillpoints from those in order to get started with melee. The defense is going nicely, however. Blessed be the Fungi Tunic. :)

Btw, Tumpy Tonics wasn't a cheat, nor a bug.
The quest was supposed to give faction and xp, and it did.
However, Verant hadn't forseen the industrial scale that people would do the quest on.

Hullo Blearchie! You didn't let us know you were playing again you sod :P

Doing the divorce thing so I found I had a bit more free time again :p

As for the screenie and a few names you might recognize, here's a few I still have around :p Sadly, most of them have left the game and stayed gone :(
http://home.earthlink.net/~jim_howard/_uimages/Naggy.jpg
Or...
http://home.earthlink.net/~jim_howard/_uimages/Vox1.jpg
And...
http://home.earthlink.net/~jim_howard/_uimages/blearchvsnag.jpg

Sorry to hear that.. Or not, you decide :P

Good old "The mob's at the "R" letter!!" phrase.

Fuck that, start playing Final Fantasy, andbehappy with it, oh and
HILLARY DUFF IS SOOO HOT

I still /mourn the old graphic of ykeshas...

The "Magic" in a game is having friends/family in the
game with you and discovering the world together.

When EQ2 or maybe WoW comes out I think a lot of the magic will be back.

Mirr...Old member of Combine 1st guild on the Karana server to kill Vox and Naggy.

anyone heard from jmello? he ok now?

The first time I went to Antonica I got all the way over there from Butcherblock and into EC by the instructions of a friend. I fought a while with my friend there and then when he logged I was alone and lost in the middle of nowhere. I ran around scared and was shouting "help I'm lost!" etc. and a level 50 sent me a tell. I was so awe-struck this was the first level 50 that had ever talked to me. He guided me back to Freeport and he said that he envied me. He missed those days when you could get lost in these zones and now he knew every zone. It was such foreshadowing.
There's no way to bring ignorance back once you know something. If you want that feeling again it would have to come from a new game.

Jmello=Dirrt, Elvis...send him a tell =)

anyone heard from jmello? he ok now?

Last I heard, and it was a while ago, he was ok now :)

^
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| Now there's a poster I haven't seen in a while.

Probably a big newbie experience for me was when I was doing the Bard mail quest. I needed the money (and the XP wasn't horrible, either), so I did it several times, over, and over, and over again.

Also exciting was when I took the boat from Butcherblock to Freeport (because I couldn't afford to pay the fare for a port). I remember when I took my high elf wizard to Qeynos, it was kind of crazy because I wouldn't know how to get back to my hometown.