Everquest - Live Servers

Kithani

Vyemm Raider
2,009
2,812
I've already said it twice, but I don't remember the exact time frame (though I really want to say it was between late '02 and mid '03). However, what I do remember is:

1. During the period in which I was farming the Fungi Tunics, they were still extremely valuable or I wouldn't have been wasting so much time doing it.
2. The camp was extremely difficult. Every time I managed to kill the King I was always near death, too. I distinctly remember a few times where the fight came down to the last swing or three.

The hardest part really wasn't the King, it was breaking the spawn up and needing to stagger the death of the surrounding shrooms so they didn't respawn and kill me or heal the King. A respawned shroom while I was engaged with the King was an immediate Escape or death if it was on cooldown.

I was very well-geared rogue (I always was until I quit) and I maxed every worthwhile AA. Still, things had to go absolutely perfectly or I'd have to use Escape and try again. I still died more than a few times despite using every-single-tool I could get my hands.

1. Locustlure. 35% slow was huge and the camp wouldn't have been possible without it. I had a Willsapper too, but the slow on that weapon seemed to get resisted more. I can't remember if the Spinebreak slow poison existed at that time, but if it did, I would have used it if it were better than the weapon procs.
2. Stanos' gloves (30% click haste) on top of my 40-something worn haste item.
3. Poisons.
4. Kilva's damage shield potions as well as several other sources that stacked.
5. The HP/AC/MR Resist buff from Stanos' BP.
6. Primal Weapon for Avatar buff then I would swap to my better weapons. I'm 99.9% sure I was stat capped, but the 100 atk from Avatar was delicious.
7. As much in-combat regen as I could muster. Pre-nerf Fungi Staff, Dain Ring (10 Regen/10 Damage shield) for one. I don't remember how high I got it, but it was enough to provide a few hundred hp over the duration of the King fight. Significant for the time.
8. I know I had a few clickies that gave me more weapon procs. Symbol of the Planesmasters and Timestone Adorned Ring were two of them but I don't remember what else I had.
9. Mrylokar's gaunts to pull with dispel on mobs that were damage shielded (or whatever other dangerous buff).
10. Mrylokar's beastplate for the click heal I'd use to reduce downtime. It had a much better hp-per-second click than the 'upgraded' bp that came after it.
11. Nightfall (dagger) for snare. (no longer drops in the version I have).
12. The usual stuff like Jboots, Shrunken gob earring, all 5 flowers of functionality, Lodi boots, Blood Orchid Katana, Shield of the Immaculate, Pegasus Cloak, Tiny Cloak of Darkest Night, etc., etc.

I had a bunch of other tools and consumables that I simply can't remember. Despite all that, it was still incredibly difficult.

Something else I don't think you, and the couple of the other skeptics, have taken in to consideration is, at that time, I was on Stormhammer (in Township Rebellion). That server had a completely different economy than regular servers. The population was much, much smaller and very top-heavy. Everything was considerably more expensive. Also, the typical plat farmers didn't really exist for a couple reasons. The server had a low max capacity and the GM presence was constant so the farmers got banned relatively quickly.

I also think the server's demographic was more willing to spend money to get what they wanted, when they wanted it.
neil degrasse tyson we got a badass over here GIF
 

Pharone

Trakanon Raider
1,443
1,310
Not necessarily. Fte and no truebox is a rough mixing. Hyper xp and 36 weeks until pop is even rougher.
That 36 week thing is insane honestly. They need to let people get past fucking PoP sooner already. Let people get the nostalgia hit for a short while, and then let them get on through the expansions in a rate where the playerbase isn't burned out and moved on before we get to the later expansions.

The whole design of these TLPs to make them die after PoP in order to feed the next TLP is one of their worst decisions (that they keep making over and over).

Maybe.. just maybe if they allowed a popular TLP to get caught up to Live in a reasonable amount of time with a solid population, they could create a whole new group of LIVE gamers that actually purchase the new expansions every year rather than just repeating the TLP cycle. You would think that selling expansions would be a number one goal of a MMORPG developer. I guess bag sells on TLP servers makes more money.
 

italica

Trakanon Raider
104
38
That 36 week thing is insane honestly. They need to let people get past fucking PoP sooner already. Let people get the nostalgia hit for a short while, and then let them get on through the expansions in a rate where the playerbase isn't burned out and moved on before we get to the later expansions.

The whole design of these TLPs to make them die after PoP in order to feed the next TLP is one of their worst decisions (that they keep making over and over).

Maybe.. just maybe if they allowed a popular TLP to get caught up to Live in a reasonable amount of time with a solid population, they could create a whole new group of LIVE gamers that actually purchase the new expansions every year rather than just repeating the TLP cycle. You would think that selling expansions would be a number one goal of a MMORPG developer. I guess bag sells on TLP servers makes more money.

Didn't one of their earnings calls in the last few years show that Live vs TLP income was more or less a 50/50 split? Why risk 50% of your incoming cashflow on speeding up the release cycle to the point you risk losing what is more or less free money for them at this point?
 

Daidraco

Avatar of War Slayer
11,059
11,903
So you were a rogue in at least Planes of Power with (imo) underwhelming gear, struggling on kunark Myconids. I mean, at least we know how you did it as a solo Rogue now.

Think the confusion for most of us was that when we think of the Fungi Tunic at its most valuable- which $400 USD is pretty valuable in 2000 in my mind - he had to be soloing King in Kunark era. Which would be mathematically impossible with the gear available in Kunark and no AA’s.

Classic Hp Regen was capped at 30? Or 35? And it was still a solid item in POP for shamans etc. iirc. But whoever was buying them for $400 during POP is an absolute moron and that is now - the point of contention in your claim.

Or to take it one step further, a class, like a Shaman, could be power leveled by an AOE group In any number of locations during POP. The amount they would pay to be power leveled to a point that they could solo fungi camp by themselves, at the time, would cost substantially less than $400.

Server rarity is a thing, sure. But in POP era - there were multiple websites out for auctions. To think there wouldnt be at least a handful of guys out there that would instantly invade that server and farm tf out of old world content that sells for $400 is an outlandish dream at best.

If you did what you say you did, then congrats. But Im sensing some real rose colored glasses here.
 

Kebabman

Bronze Squire
127
69
I've already said it twice, but I don't remember the exact time frame (though I really want to say it was between late '02 and mid '03). However, what I do remember is:

1. During the period in which I was farming the Fungi Tunics, they were still extremely valuable or I wouldn't have been wasting so much time doing it.
2. The camp was extremely difficult. Every time I managed to kill the King I was always near death, too. I distinctly remember a few times where the fight came down to the last swing or three.

The hardest part really wasn't the King, it was breaking the spawn up and needing to stagger the death of the surrounding shrooms so they didn't respawn and kill me or heal the King. A respawned shroom while I was engaged with the King was an immediate Escape or death if it was on cooldown.

I was very well-geared rogue (I always was until I quit) and I maxed every worthwhile AA. Still, things had to go absolutely perfectly or I'd have to use Escape and try again. I still died more than a few times despite using every-single-tool I could get my hands.

1. Locustlure. 35% slow was huge and the camp wouldn't have been possible without it. I had a Willsapper too, but the slow on that weapon seemed to get resisted more. I can't remember if the Spinebreak slow poison existed at that time, but if it did, I would have used it if it were better than the weapon procs.
2. Stanos' gloves (30% click haste) on top of my 40-something worn haste item.
3. Poisons.
4. Kilva's damage shield potions as well as several other sources that stacked.
5. The HP/AC/MR Resist buff from Stanos' BP.
6. Primal Weapon for Avatar buff then I would swap to my better weapons. I'm 99.9% sure I was stat capped, but the 100 atk from Avatar was delicious.
7. As much in-combat regen as I could muster. Pre-nerf Fungi Staff, Dain Ring (10 Regen/10 Damage shield) for one. I don't remember how high I got it, but it was enough to provide a few hundred hp over the duration of the King fight. Significant for the time.
8. I know I had a few clickies that gave me more weapon procs. Symbol of the Planesmasters and Timestone Adorned Ring were two of them but I don't remember what else I had.
9. Mrylokar's gaunts to pull with dispel on mobs that were damage shielded (or whatever other dangerous buff).
10. Mrylokar's beastplate for the click heal I'd use to reduce downtime. It had a much better hp-per-second click than the 'upgraded' bp that came after it.
11. Nightfall (dagger) for snare. (no longer drops in the version I have).
12. The usual stuff like Jboots, Shrunken gob earring, all 5 flowers of functionality, Lodi boots, Blood Orchid Katana, Shield of the Immaculate, Pegasus Cloak, Tiny Cloak of Darkest Night, etc., etc.

I had a bunch of other tools and consumables that I simply can't remember. Despite all that, it was still incredibly difficult.

Something else I don't think you, and the couple of the other skeptics, have taken in to consideration is, at that time, I was on Stormhammer (in Township Rebellion). That server had a completely different economy than regular servers. The population was much, much smaller and very top-heavy. Everything was considerably more expensive. Also, the typical plat farmers didn't really exist for a couple reasons. The server had a low max capacity and the GM presence was constant so the farmers got banned relatively quickly.

I also think the server's demographic was more willing to spend money to get what they wanted, when they wanted it.
If you could sell fungi's for 400 dollars in pok you could be rich enough to shag Kim Kardashian and release a sex tape