Everquest - Live Servers
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Xarpolis
Life's a Dream
- 14,110
- 15,614
I used to effortlessly farm Mistmoore using dog form to run around without angering anything. It was nice. Also, being able to levitate to the roof made getting Cloaked Dhampyre even easier. You didn't need to clear an area. Just drop right into his room and start laying waste to the mobs inside.
Big Flex
Fitness Fascist
- 4,314
- 3,166
First character on launch day, Dark Elf SK, drowned. Delete. Make dwarf warrior, first other character I see in Everquest was a dwarf named Dildobaggins.
- 3
Xarpolis
Life's a Dream
- 14,110
- 15,614
I was a player of Sierra's The Realm. A friend of mine who also played The Realm had a much better computer. Word got out in game that this new 3D game called EverQuest was coming out, and they're now doing Open Beta. He downloaded the beta and made a Dark Elf. We ran around for an hour or two just trying to get out of Neriak. I remember really falling for the game back then. It was almost like a mix of Duke Nukem 3D (1st person) and The Realm (RPG). It was pretty awesome. I downloaded the beta when I got home, but my video card couldn't handle it. I upgraded my computer in time for release date, but I read EVERYTHING I could online about EverQuest prior to release. I knew when the game came out I wanted to be a Wizard. And I wanted to be Dark Elf. I even knew where I wanted to put my points. I worked at "Tru-Green Chemlawn" at the time, doing telemarketing. I would go there right after getting out of High School every day. I was a few minutes late on March 17th, because I had to stop by Best Buy and pick up EverQuest. That day at work I definitely didn't earn my wages. But I read those booklets and looked at the map from the moment I went in the door until I left that night. Thus started my EverQuest career.
The game was awesome. I remember finally getting into my first dungeon (Befallen) and regretting that I was a Wizard as opposed to a Melee class. I needed to root things and move away to kill them. There's no room to do that shit in a dungeon! And no one in my level range wanted the risk of Befallen. Not when you could easily farm the orc camps in West Commons, or try your hand at the Dervish Cuttroaters in North Ro.
The game was awesome. I remember finally getting into my first dungeon (Befallen) and regretting that I was a Wizard as opposed to a Melee class. I needed to root things and move away to kill them. There's no room to do that shit in a dungeon! And no one in my level range wanted the risk of Befallen. Not when you could easily farm the orc camps in West Commons, or try your hand at the Dervish Cuttroaters in North Ro.
- 1
Jysin
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 6,275
- 4,027
Earliest exploit I remember back in 2000 was some fairly trivial tradeskill armor combine that sold for more than the cost of components. I was low teens and clicking combine like crazy for a week straight. (no automation apps back then) When all was said and done, I was balling around in twin yaks and full crafted armor before I could even make my surname. People assumed I was a twink. Nope, just a tradeskill abuser. It was patched very shortly after.
I spent most of my first three weeks of EQ in and around Crushbone. Orc camps outside, learning what it meant when someone yelled "TRAIN TO ZONE IN!" when first entering the zone, doing the Polished Granite Tomahawk quest repeatedly for lots of scratch, and getting raped constantly by Ambassador D'vinn. To this day, one of the most gratifying moments in my EQ career was the day I finally killed that mother fucker!
Xarpolis
Life's a Dream
- 14,110
- 15,614
My first exploit was a real one. I say exploit, because it wasn't just roof running (that shouldn't be allowed). It was something legitimately broken.
It didn't exist until Luclin, which worked out great. I made a ton of plat early into Luclin using Manaburn to farm Dragons. We would kill any and all 32k health dragons or world bosses we could get around. We had a group of people that were Wizards as well as a few Necromancers. We made a group called BDS (burn down squad). We had people everywhere that would tell us when a mob spawns, not to mention our own timers. We would sell EVERYTHING, but typically "give away" the scales for like 1k. We had so many of them. Anyway, I earned around 1 million plat within a few months of Luclin being released. Eventually SoE got smart, and nerfed Manaburn, thus eliminating groups like mine.
Anyway, on to the exploit: They had a bug with every vendor. It was helpful for Clerics that had to buy tons and tons of Peridots. Hold down shift when you buy something and it'll buy a full stack. The bug came about because vendors could suddenly sell you a full stack of any item, even if you only sold them 1 of them. It was a dupe bug, but a VERY expensive one. I used it to level my tailoring to 230, and took Jewelcrafting, Herbalism, Baking, Brewing, Fletching, Pottery, Smithing to 200. It also allowed me to cap Research, which was awesome.
Every type of tradeskill had infrequent drops from mobs. I would buy 1 of them from the Bazaar, just to sell it to the vendor and purchase back a full stack of 20. Doing this for all of my trade skills cost a ton of money. Around 600-700k plat easily. But I was able to crush through all of my tradeskills in a week at the most. It was great never having to leave Shadow Haven to gather materials to start the next tier of crafting. It was time consuming, but nothing like doing it the legit way. Having to purchase items from COUNTLESS different zones, not to mention gathering things out in the wild.
Anyway, that was the bug. It was fixed shortly there after. There were people that started farming all of the materials to make that Tradeskill earring, so I used them to get my tailoring up to 250. I was one of 2 tailors on server that could make that robe, so to max my skills quickly, I would charge people 150 plat per combine. But any time I would get a skillup for doing it, I would give them 500 plat in return. It helped me get to 247 (I think that was the highest you could get with that robe) in no time, but I made easily a few thousand robes for people. They would sell so many of them just to make that earring. It was a great business. I forget what I had to do to earn the last 3 points to hit 250, but it wasn't very bad. I'm pretty sure doing all that clicking also burnt out a button on an old mouse that I was using at the time.
It didn't exist until Luclin, which worked out great. I made a ton of plat early into Luclin using Manaburn to farm Dragons. We would kill any and all 32k health dragons or world bosses we could get around. We had a group of people that were Wizards as well as a few Necromancers. We made a group called BDS (burn down squad). We had people everywhere that would tell us when a mob spawns, not to mention our own timers. We would sell EVERYTHING, but typically "give away" the scales for like 1k. We had so many of them. Anyway, I earned around 1 million plat within a few months of Luclin being released. Eventually SoE got smart, and nerfed Manaburn, thus eliminating groups like mine.
Anyway, on to the exploit: They had a bug with every vendor. It was helpful for Clerics that had to buy tons and tons of Peridots. Hold down shift when you buy something and it'll buy a full stack. The bug came about because vendors could suddenly sell you a full stack of any item, even if you only sold them 1 of them. It was a dupe bug, but a VERY expensive one. I used it to level my tailoring to 230, and took Jewelcrafting, Herbalism, Baking, Brewing, Fletching, Pottery, Smithing to 200. It also allowed me to cap Research, which was awesome.
Every type of tradeskill had infrequent drops from mobs. I would buy 1 of them from the Bazaar, just to sell it to the vendor and purchase back a full stack of 20. Doing this for all of my trade skills cost a ton of money. Around 600-700k plat easily. But I was able to crush through all of my tradeskills in a week at the most. It was great never having to leave Shadow Haven to gather materials to start the next tier of crafting. It was time consuming, but nothing like doing it the legit way. Having to purchase items from COUNTLESS different zones, not to mention gathering things out in the wild.
Anyway, that was the bug. It was fixed shortly there after. There were people that started farming all of the materials to make that Tradeskill earring, so I used them to get my tailoring up to 250. I was one of 2 tailors on server that could make that robe, so to max my skills quickly, I would charge people 150 plat per combine. But any time I would get a skillup for doing it, I would give them 500 plat in return. It helped me get to 247 (I think that was the highest you could get with that robe) in no time, but I made easily a few thousand robes for people. They would sell so many of them just to make that earring. It was a great business. I forget what I had to do to earn the last 3 points to hit 250, but it wasn't very bad. I'm pretty sure doing all that clicking also burnt out a button on an old mouse that I was using at the time.
- 1
Muligan
Trakanon Raider
- 3,213
- 893
EQ simply existed in a world where there was no standard or expectation not to mention was being played by a niche crowd primarily that had played single-player RPG's, table tops, and a host of other games that took work and patience. We were just happy to be in one place, a virtual world, with a lot of other people like us that had, at best, played games like Diablo or UO where it left us wanting a bit more.
EQ facilitated exploration and a lot of learning because I don't think they really knew what they were doing either on the development side of things so they would make stuff and we would discover it, conquer it, or break it. However, we did it together. It required people to come together to accomplish nearly anything and everything. Even out of game we complained, planned, organized, competed, shared, argued, etc. with or against other people. EQ was our world... for awhile, the developers were working for us whether they knew it or not. Now, we are customer, 1 of millions of quick cash grabs they everyone is trying to get. The target audience is so broad all with a list a mile long of their expectations and you can't please everyone. The more you try to please, the more difficult it becomes. EQ was out to please us and people like us. Adventurers, role players, and dreamers all wanting to further our characters and figure out how to kill a dragon.
To join in with some of the other discussions...
I really enjoyed traveling and running into high level people with gear that you quickly learned by name. It became your goal to be able to get to that level and achieve that piece of equipment. You would camp it for hours, take down lists of people to keep the group going, and talk with everyone as you passed the time. As a healer, as soon as I popped on, I would get server tell's of people wanting to know if I would take another healer's spot in a hour or if I could do this or that... if you could do your job, people knew you by name and friend lists meant something. I could probably tell you a good chunk of the people's names and ability to play their character from Lanys. Everyone knew the good from the bad. I think simple goals are what I loved about EQ the most. I liked simple skills and spells. Limited number of items, quests, and dungeons.
I could go on and on but it's been awhile since I've stepped back into the world of nostalgia. Good times...
EQ facilitated exploration and a lot of learning because I don't think they really knew what they were doing either on the development side of things so they would make stuff and we would discover it, conquer it, or break it. However, we did it together. It required people to come together to accomplish nearly anything and everything. Even out of game we complained, planned, organized, competed, shared, argued, etc. with or against other people. EQ was our world... for awhile, the developers were working for us whether they knew it or not. Now, we are customer, 1 of millions of quick cash grabs they everyone is trying to get. The target audience is so broad all with a list a mile long of their expectations and you can't please everyone. The more you try to please, the more difficult it becomes. EQ was out to please us and people like us. Adventurers, role players, and dreamers all wanting to further our characters and figure out how to kill a dragon.
To join in with some of the other discussions...
I really enjoyed traveling and running into high level people with gear that you quickly learned by name. It became your goal to be able to get to that level and achieve that piece of equipment. You would camp it for hours, take down lists of people to keep the group going, and talk with everyone as you passed the time. As a healer, as soon as I popped on, I would get server tell's of people wanting to know if I would take another healer's spot in a hour or if I could do this or that... if you could do your job, people knew you by name and friend lists meant something. I could probably tell you a good chunk of the people's names and ability to play their character from Lanys. Everyone knew the good from the bad. I think simple goals are what I loved about EQ the most. I liked simple skills and spells. Limited number of items, quests, and dungeons.
I could go on and on but it's been awhile since I've stepped back into the world of nostalgia. Good times...
- 2
Chukzombi
Millie's Staff Member
- 71,702
- 213,021
to this day, every tme i come back to eq to mess around, i always stop by QH to kill that bitch. now i just sic dogdog on her for poetic justice.
- 1
Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
- 24,632
- 31,985
Remember role playing idiots? Got I miss making fun of those idiots. People who talked in old english and shit. The worst is someone joining your group and you had no idea they were an idiot till they started talking about how they were there to slay the best and shit went on and on. I''m sure they got trainied more than anyone else.
I have a CD full of screenshots, but no CD drive on my computer anymore lol.
I have a CD full of screenshots, but no CD drive on my computer anymore lol.
Warflagon
Peasant
- 108
- 54
For me it was freedom.
Freedom to write a check my ass could not cash, freedom to get myself in deep shit, freedom to die for saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing to the wrong person or NPC, freedom to explore at my leisure/peril, freedom to give a legendary weapon to a young'n, freedom to choose what house/town/faction I wanted to be friendly with, freedom to stay online afk all day if I wanted.
Just everything I haven't been able to do since......
Freedom to write a check my ass could not cash, freedom to get myself in deep shit, freedom to die for saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing to the wrong person or NPC, freedom to explore at my leisure/peril, freedom to give a legendary weapon to a young'n, freedom to choose what house/town/faction I wanted to be friendly with, freedom to stay online afk all day if I wanted.
Just everything I haven't been able to do since......
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- 1
Muligan
Trakanon Raider
- 3,213
- 893
A lot of truth here.... I haven't experienced any danger in a MMO for years. There are a number of moments I was scared to death in EQ. I was thinking about losing my corpse, experience, and curious if I was even putting other people's time and energy on the line. Being a cleric my entire MMO life, I've been on a lot of corpse runs and handed out more rezzs than I can count. I miss doing that... It was good to be needed and fun to help people out. It's a shame they have really taken that aspect away. Druid and Wiz's were required for travel (and yes bards too at times), clerics for rezzes, mage for COH, rogues and monks to drag corpses, necros for summons, classes with SoW, etc. That's a lot of stuff that occurs outside the group.
Koushirou
Log Wizard
- 4,880
- 12,413
Biggest thing I loved about EQ and being a shaman was how much I could help people and how much clutch shit I could pull off when things went bad. Like you said, it felt good to be needed and I've never felt needed in any other game as I felt in EQ. I was in high demand and I was appreciated and I was useful. It's insane how shitty WoW is now in this regard, especially after the latest pruning. Shit hits the fan now on my shaman there? Okay I can maybe throw a shitty spot heal, but that's it. In EQ I really felt powerful when I mastered shit. For some reason, I was also a much nicer, much less elitist person when I played EQ. I turned into a bit of a raging asshole at others when I started playing WoW. Everyone just seems so much more dumb in WoW vs. what I remember from EQ. I can't tell if it's because EQ made you actually not be dumb to make it to max level or if my being young just skewed my perspective.
To the other point, early EQ was absolutely terrifying for me, between shit being so unfamiliar and me just being a complete idiot. I remember fleeing from a mob in FoB when I was little and getting lost in the woods (which I dunno how I got lost because they're not that big) and hit the zone line for Warslick's Woods which I'd never even heard of or new where the hell it was and wondered if I'd ever find my way back to the pit again. Much later when I was in the high 20s, a couple people took myself and another monk into Dalnir for some sweet loot. We got overrun in the church and the druid evac'd us out. I'd never been off of Kunark at all before. I was scared shitless about ever making it back home, but the druid was nice and decided to escort me back to Frontier Mountains where I knew the way from there. We're invised and leving through Dreadlands when just as we get to Karnor's the druid DCs. I hang out and wait for him, but eventually my invis starts wearing out. I have no clue where the fuck I am or where to go, so I just found the emptiest area I could and just FD'd. The druid never came back and I laid there from like 3-6am begging in /shout for someone to come help me gtfo of there and offering all of the little bit of plat I had.
The first time I hit level 20, I wanted a sweet surname and the one I wanted to make had an ` in it, so I had to petition for a GM to put it on for me. So I throw my petition in and as I'm waiting, I'm in the deep end of the FoB pit pulling some high greens and light blues to pass the time while trying to be careful not to die. End up pulling a mob too far back up a ramp and pulled a scorpion from the field behind me and got double-teamed down. Of course as I'm running back to my corpse is when the GM sends me a tell, but I deleveled and couldn't get my surname. So I go back to the pit, pick a cleaner spot and level back up to 20, put my petition back in and went back to killing the easy shit. Eventually end up getting a shitty pull where a bandit I grabbed ran by a dog which aggro'd the bandit then decided to switch to me when it got close and I got killed and deleveled again. And of course, that's when I got the GM tell again and once again had to go back and relevel before they could give me the surname. So I say fuck it and I get 20 back and then go sit in Cabilis at the Haggle Baron shop. So I needed something to pass the time, so why not level my Beg skill? Sure enough, shopkeeper gets pissed at me eventually and kills me. I logged off for the night after that.
I remember sitting facing a wall outside of Cabilis in FoB once and was playing with the settings. I found the distance slider and didn't know what it was, but I just threw it to max anyway. Nothing really changed so I just left it there. Later on I got up and turned around and HOLY SHIT, I thought I literally got transported somewhere else because of how different the game looked. Freaked me the fuck out. Before I found the gamma settings, I would literally just sit there at night time spamming sense heading to train it up because I couldn't see shit all in the dark, even as an Iksar since my gamma was at the lowest setting. I couldn't imagine playing another race with no night vision, cause that shit would be insane trying to do anything.
When I first created my character and got to the stat selection, dumbass me assumed that stats in green, which were also the highest, were at a good level already and good to go and that the stats in red, being the lowest, needed some help. So naturally I dropped all my points into CHA on my monk and later my shaman. Twice.
During my time in EQ, before voice chat really caught on more, I started taking screenshots of all the funny or random shit people said in game. Little inside jokes, people just straight being weird, funny little story snippets people told. I complied them all into a bunch of giant quote boards which I still have today. They've been very good for keeping a lot of old memories alive.
To the other point, early EQ was absolutely terrifying for me, between shit being so unfamiliar and me just being a complete idiot. I remember fleeing from a mob in FoB when I was little and getting lost in the woods (which I dunno how I got lost because they're not that big) and hit the zone line for Warslick's Woods which I'd never even heard of or new where the hell it was and wondered if I'd ever find my way back to the pit again. Much later when I was in the high 20s, a couple people took myself and another monk into Dalnir for some sweet loot. We got overrun in the church and the druid evac'd us out. I'd never been off of Kunark at all before. I was scared shitless about ever making it back home, but the druid was nice and decided to escort me back to Frontier Mountains where I knew the way from there. We're invised and leving through Dreadlands when just as we get to Karnor's the druid DCs. I hang out and wait for him, but eventually my invis starts wearing out. I have no clue where the fuck I am or where to go, so I just found the emptiest area I could and just FD'd. The druid never came back and I laid there from like 3-6am begging in /shout for someone to come help me gtfo of there and offering all of the little bit of plat I had.
The first time I hit level 20, I wanted a sweet surname and the one I wanted to make had an ` in it, so I had to petition for a GM to put it on for me. So I throw my petition in and as I'm waiting, I'm in the deep end of the FoB pit pulling some high greens and light blues to pass the time while trying to be careful not to die. End up pulling a mob too far back up a ramp and pulled a scorpion from the field behind me and got double-teamed down. Of course as I'm running back to my corpse is when the GM sends me a tell, but I deleveled and couldn't get my surname. So I go back to the pit, pick a cleaner spot and level back up to 20, put my petition back in and went back to killing the easy shit. Eventually end up getting a shitty pull where a bandit I grabbed ran by a dog which aggro'd the bandit then decided to switch to me when it got close and I got killed and deleveled again. And of course, that's when I got the GM tell again and once again had to go back and relevel before they could give me the surname. So I say fuck it and I get 20 back and then go sit in Cabilis at the Haggle Baron shop. So I needed something to pass the time, so why not level my Beg skill? Sure enough, shopkeeper gets pissed at me eventually and kills me. I logged off for the night after that.
I remember sitting facing a wall outside of Cabilis in FoB once and was playing with the settings. I found the distance slider and didn't know what it was, but I just threw it to max anyway. Nothing really changed so I just left it there. Later on I got up and turned around and HOLY SHIT, I thought I literally got transported somewhere else because of how different the game looked. Freaked me the fuck out. Before I found the gamma settings, I would literally just sit there at night time spamming sense heading to train it up because I couldn't see shit all in the dark, even as an Iksar since my gamma was at the lowest setting. I couldn't imagine playing another race with no night vision, cause that shit would be insane trying to do anything.
When I first created my character and got to the stat selection, dumbass me assumed that stats in green, which were also the highest, were at a good level already and good to go and that the stats in red, being the lowest, needed some help. So naturally I dropped all my points into CHA on my monk and later my shaman. Twice.
During my time in EQ, before voice chat really caught on more, I started taking screenshots of all the funny or random shit people said in game. Little inside jokes, people just straight being weird, funny little story snippets people told. I complied them all into a bunch of giant quote boards which I still have today. They've been very good for keeping a lot of old memories alive.
- 2
Xarpolis
Life's a Dream
- 14,110
- 15,614
No, it's because they "give" you max level and great gear in WoW. People have no idea how to play their classes. The last break I took was the end of Lich King. I skipped all of Pandaria, but came back during it's gaming to try the Cataclysm content. By the time I was max level, I had replaced ALL of my end game 25 man hard mode Icecrown Citadel loot with green quest rewards. Then I started doing dungeons with pickup groups. In over 50% of the PuGs I ran, my protection warrior did more damage than EVERYONE in the group. It's really pathetic. I'm not even talking about group targets. Even 1 on 1 shit, I was destroying them. I did pick up raids as well, while gearing up, and would destroy 90% of the DPS people in every raid. It's really sad just how bad people are at gaming, but WoW gives trophies to everyone. You don't have to earn shit. Just show up and it'll be yours.
That's why the EQ player base were way better than most of WoW's player base. EQ people had to control their drooling in order to accomplish even the smallest victories.
That's why the EQ player base were way better than most of WoW's player base. EQ people had to control their drooling in order to accomplish even the smallest victories.
zero_name
Golden Knight of the Realm
- 165
- 166
That time I saw this guy killing a guard over and over in Freeport. That time I killed finally got to exact revenge on Sergeant Slate because he hated my paladin ass. That time me and a random friend online traveled the world getting to Velious and jumped off the ice bridge. That time(OK, times) the fucking goons murdered me in OT because my faction was wrong. That time I got lost in the middle of the issue and some random druid farming some stupid mermaids or some shit warped me home.
A bunch of stupid/minor memories that I fucking love.
EQ was less game and more world for me.
A bunch of stupid/minor memories that I fucking love.
EQ was less game and more world for me.
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Harkon
Vyemm Raider
- 1,549
- 4,090
I started playing EQ on RZ as a DE cleric, I enjoyed it but stayed guildless for a while on a server (almost a year) that was god damn brutal compared to the majority mmo's in the last decade. I got saved a lot because rep mattered and I was a healer so I could walk away from many confrontations.
Eventually I transfered to quellios and joined a raiding guild there (Vis Maior) and did all the server first content to POP it was pretty enjoyable because even though there were alot of people on the raiding guild, it felt like I mattered.
After that played WoW with a guild with some ex FOH members from EQ on ER and it was fun but honestly the damn EQ days were unmatchable for nostalgia because it felt like your rep actually mattered especially on the PvP servers, just nothing out like it now at all.
(that all being said I made some friendships from the wow guild that stay with me to this day so while EQ was the original WoW really cemented some friendships for me.)
Eventually I transfered to quellios and joined a raiding guild there (Vis Maior) and did all the server first content to POP it was pretty enjoyable because even though there were alot of people on the raiding guild, it felt like I mattered.
After that played WoW with a guild with some ex FOH members from EQ on ER and it was fun but honestly the damn EQ days were unmatchable for nostalgia because it felt like your rep actually mattered especially on the PvP servers, just nothing out like it now at all.
(that all being said I made some friendships from the wow guild that stay with me to this day so while EQ was the original WoW really cemented some friendships for me.)
Chillz
Bronze Knight of the Realm
- 133
- 3
I enjoyed the light RP some people did in EQ a lot. The drinking dwarf, the barbarian charging in like a berserker, the noble erudite etc. added all to the immersion. For me, EQ was more a living world instead of just a game. I was totally blown away by this world back then. The lore, the journeys, the friends, the stories: it all was "real" (up to a point). Later when stuff became competetive between the raiding guilds the immersion died down quickly, but i always kept close friends to do some dungeon crawling and thanks to them we experienced countless hilarious stories.