Everquest - New Server planned for Feb. 15th

[Dan256]

I know that not many here will be interested in playing a 12 year old game, but on the off chance anyone wants to re-live the experience, Everquest is opening a "Time-Locked Progression Server" on Feb. 15th, 2011.

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts ... _id=173099

Yes, unfortunately, it still costs $15 a month to play a 12 year old game, but it was worth it to me the last time they did this in 2006; so, I'll give it another go.

Oh, and it seems all old accounts have been reactivated until Feb 21st; so, hypothetically, you could get a free nostalgia kick without re-subscribing, but I doubt a free week or two would be worth the hassle of reloading everything, but you always never know.

[msduncan]

What does "time locked" mean?

[YellowKing]

Time-locked means new content will be opened only after a certain time period has passed. Original progression servers were unlocked by completing certain goals. The problem with that was, really good guilds could burn through those goals and unlock all the content before most people even had a chance to do anything.

[GreenGoo]

I have no details, but my boss has been playing EQ on a private server. I'll ask him about it. Some sort of project in the name of it. Boss said it scratched his EQ itch just fine, with no issues beyond the issues you'd find in a 12 year old game.

It was free of course.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I have no details, but my boss has been playing EQ on a private server. I'll ask him about it. Some sort of project in the name of it. Boss said it scratched his EQ itch just fine, with no issues beyond the issues you'd find in a 12 year old game.

It was free of course.

Sounds like one of the open source EQEmu servers.

[Paingod]

I'll never forget dragging a newbie Troll all the way to Kelethin, killing Crushbone Orcs, getting the guards to accept me, and then getting into the elven treehouses ... Other newbie elves were literally falling out of the tree trying to run away from me, thinking they were being invaded or something.

Good times ... but I don't think I have the time for EQ anymore (unless they changed the experience progression to something like 10x what it was).

[Greybriar]

I remember my Ranger dying in the bottom of a dungeon, running a long way to loot his corpse, and dying again. And again. And again. He lost two levels before he finally drug his corpse out of there.

And I remember my druid soloing and getting next to no experience because he wasn't in a group. I finally gave up on leveling him up. Shortly afterward I quit playing EverQuest...after six years.

I have tried EQ out a couple of times since then and each time I have come away disheartened. The "updated" graphics were sometimes good and sometimes awful. Freeport was a mess. All my old friends but one had moved on years ago.

Nostalgia will only go so far and I don't plan on ever playing EQ again. Even if it were Free-to-Play I wouldn't go back to it.

[msduncan]

I remember my Ranger dying in the bottom of a dungeon, running a long way to loot his corpse, and dying again. And again. And again. He lost two levels before he finally drug his corpse out of there.

And I remember my druid soloing and getting next to no experience because he wasn't in a group. I finally gave up on leveling him up. Shortly afterward I quit playing EverQuest...after six years.

I have tried EQ out a couple of times since then and each time I have come away disheartened. The "updated" graphics were sometimes good and sometimes awful. Freeport was a mess. All my old friends but one had moved on years ago.

Nostalgia will only go so far and I don't plan on ever playing EQ again. Even if it were Free-to-Play I wouldn't go back to it.

Depressing post.

[Austin]

I remember my Ranger dying in the bottom of a dungeon, running a long way to loot his corpse, and dying again. And again. And again. He lost two levels before he finally drug his corpse out of there.

And I remember my druid soloing and getting next to no experience because he wasn't in a group. I finally gave up on leveling him up. Shortly afterward I quit playing EverQuest...after six years.

I have tried EQ out a couple of times since then and each time I have come away disheartened. The "updated" graphics were sometimes good and sometimes awful. Freeport was a mess. All my old friends but one had moved on years ago.

Nostalgia will only go so far and I don't plan on ever playing EQ again. Even if it were Free-to-Play I wouldn't go back to it.

Duh, you needed to go kite the dwarf guards at BB.

[Greybriar]

Duh, you needed to go kite the dwarf guards at BB.

First off, I wouldn't want to get KOS to the dwarves (my toon was Human). Secondly, as I mentioned the experience penalty for soloing gave me only the tiniest fraction of experience that someone in a group would get.

[redman]

Everquest

20 minutes waiting for the damn boat
Group members getting disconnected one by one until only you are left facing the named mob
Giving /loot corpse to someone to get your stuff off your corpse and finding out that person has mysteriously disappeared
waiting for boat to go do corpse run on another continent
Druids were really in demand for their porting
The Estate of Unrest-hehe good times
paying someone to make you banded armour
E-bay people selling items and gold and they actually spoke your language
Camping for that last damn item for 4 hours only to be rushed by high level item sellers when said mob finally spawns

However, EQ was some of the best gaming I ever did and I didn't buy another game from like 99-01

[Kyosho]

I have no details, but my boss has been playing EQ on a private server. I'll ask him about it. Some sort of project in the name of it. Boss said it scratched his EQ itch just fine, with no issues beyond the issues you'd find in a 12 year old game.

It was free of course.

Sounds like one of the open source EQEmu servers.

Pretty sure it's Project 1999. Last year I tried it out and recorded my initial experience. Big nostalgia trip. Not much to watch in that little set of videos, except to hear me reminisce about the game and stuff. I was pretty excited at the time. Project 1999 is quite awesome but I lost interest after a while.

[Austin]

Duh, you needed to go kite the dwarf guards at BB.

First off, I wouldn't want to get KOS to the dwarves (my toon was Human). Secondly, as I mentioned the experience penalty for soloing gave me only the tiniest fraction of experience that someone in a group would get.

Ahhh memories...

[Greybriar]

What a coincidence. I got an email this morning from SOE advising me: "Your account has been turned on for FREE from 2/10/2011 – 2/21/2011." So far I don't feel any great desire to install EQ on my new PC.

But free is free. Or is it?

[Ralph-Wiggum]

What a coincidence. I got an email this morning from SOE advising me: "Your account has been turned on for FREE from 2/10/2011 – 2/21/2011." So far I don't feel any great desire to install EQ on my new PC.

But free is free. Or is it?

I got the same email. I haven't played EQ since 1998.

[Greybriar]

I got the same email. I haven't played EQ since 1998.

If that's the case, I should log onto my old EQ acount. I might run into some friends I haven't heard from for years.

[redman]

well, I guess there was more interest in this then even Sony anticipated
They totally filled the server in 12 mins
They are setting up a second server for tomorrow
Go figure!

[Kelan]

I will cross post this just in case there is interest here to try this again . I plan to dive in later today!

Not sure if there is any interest still for these, but they are launching a new Progression Server called Agnarr on Wed, May 24rd at 2pm PT (Today), I believe.

Link to server rules:

This one will be a bit different in that it will time lock after Planes of Power, Legacy of Ykesha, and Lost Dungeons of Norrath are enabled. This will keep the era locked at a point many people believe is the best era for EQ, with a modest amount of AAs and level limited to 65. LDoN will add instanced dungeon adventures and Ykesha the ability to play froglocks so it could be a perfect server to play for a more extended period of time if you want a bit easier play than p1999 and still a mostly classic experience. I am not sure, but I also believe there is a way to gain access to instanced raid zones so it should make it much more widely available to get people into the raid scene, if they chose to, compared to the tough competition it can be on p1999.

It will also be a true-box server like Phinigel was, I believe. This should help to pare down the 6-12 man mage armies that flooded servers like Lockjaw and Ragefire when they were released. You still can box on different physical machines, though, so I may work on a cleric on the side this way just for utility.

I am gearing up to play again and will have a nice 5 1/2 day weekend to get started. I may even roll more alts this time around. We have a fairly decent sized group gearing up to start this week over at The Old Timers Guild that @Oghier and I are a part of. Hopefully we have close to as much fun as we did the last time around.

If anyone else gets in, give me a shout and we can get together for some adventures sometime.

[coopasonic]

Link to server rules:

URL tags or it didn't happen.

[ColdSteel]

WoW was my first MMO and although I've played Everquest2 quite a bit, I've never played Everquest at all. This has always been something I've regretted. Based on all the great stories about the game, I keep having a nagging feeling I'm missing something special.

For someone that's never played it, is it worth playing today, 18 years later? Or would it not be all that much fun when not viewed though the nostalgia tinted glasses of the original experience? I think it still has a $15 a month subscription to play, is that accurate?

[coopasonic]

I played EQ for a few thousand hours back in the day. There is no way I would pay to go back. It was an amazing thing at the time, but I don't think it would hold up at all. The very worst of the grindy Korean MMOs, who are the masters of the grind, make Everquest look like a cake walk.

[Kelan]

Oops! For some reason the link didn't paste in. Here it is:



Yeah, it can definitely be a grind, but the progression servers are much easier to level in compared to release or even the p1999 server. The experience required is lower and there is now out of combat regen that the progression servers use so it really speeds things up. Plus, new quality of life features like all people getting an Origin bind point at their home city, no corpse runs ever, pets stay alive while logging out or zoning or going invis, etc. It really speeds things up.

Hmm, maybe I can't post links yet .

[Kelan]

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/ind ... 17.239813/

Preview seems to work. Will try once more.

[Blackhawk]

WoW was my first MMO and although I've played Everquest2 quite a bit, I've never played Everquest at all. This has always been something I've regretted. Based on all the great stories about the game, I keep having a nagging feeling I'm missing something special.

For someone that's never played it, is it worth playing today, 18 years later? Or would it not be all that much fun when not viewed though the nostalgia tinted glasses of the original experience? I think it still has a $15 a month subscription to play, is that accurate?

You did miss something special. You missed exploring a huge, dangerous setting in real-time with live friends and a world that continued even after you quit for the day. You missed having to be terrifyingly careful as you made your way across landscapes that were packed with things that would kill you, knowing that a death could be incredibly punishing, to the point of erasing weeks of work if it set off a chain reaction.

It was an overwhelmingly amazing experience. It has, however, had many variations in the nearly two decades since. If you've played other MMOs, you've experienced what made EQ so special, just in slightly different flavors.

[morlac]

Oops! For some reason the link didn't paste in. Here it is:



Yeah, it can definitely be a grind, but the progression servers are much easier to level in compared to release or even the p1999 server. The experience required is lower and there is now out of combat regen that the progression servers use so it really speeds things up. Plus, new quality of life features like all people getting an Origin bind point at their home city, no corpse runs ever, pets stay alive while logging out or zoning or going invis, etc. It really speeds things up.

Hmm, maybe I can't post links yet .

Fine, i'll admit it.

I have been playing EQ for about a month and half now. I was going to dip my toes in one of the other progression servers in anticipation of this new one to see how it was all these years later.. Pretty much been playing it exclusively since then. I can concur with the quality of life stuff. Makes a huge difference in the "unnecessary" grind. It can still be a slog to level but hot damn when you get a group rolling, nothing beats it.

I rolled up a druid on the new server Agnaar and EVERYONE is LFG (major bonus exp on progression servers when grouped). Very refreshing and am having a blast.

[Redfive]

[Internal Struggle]

*I already play an MMO*
*I already play an MMO*
*I already play an MMO*

[/Internal Struggle]

At least I think I'm not saying that out loud.

[morlac]

Woohoo hit level 5 on my druid! A few more and I can powerlevel you Redfive

[sgoldj]

*sings* "Has any body here seen my corpse"

I think I best stay away

[Isgrimnur]

Electric Fun Stuff presents a story which is sad, but true.

[Redfive]

Woohoo hit level 5 on my druid! A few more and I can powerlevel you Redfive

Oh snap, no one said anything about power leveling.

[Jaymann]

I've been playing on the red server of Project 1999. Don't care much about pvp, but WAY less crowded than the blue server (maybe 90 players at a time) so hardly anything is camped. Plus a huge exp bonus, especially for groups. My Iksar monk is up to level 48.

[Greybriar]

*sings* "Has any body here seen my corpse"

I think I best stay away

The command /corpse was very useful while attempting to find one's corpse while playing EverQuest. So useful that I made a hotkey so I could run around in the general area where my character had died. Sooner or later the corpse would be close enough to be pulled out of its hiding place and dragged to a place of safety.

[FishPants]

I hate to think about how much time I spent in EQ.. Honestly it was such a game changer (ha!) that I spent years outside of work in that game. The thrill of running around the outside edge of a zone that you didn't belong in to take a shortcut somewhere, or to go buy something you want at the right price.

I played a druid, it was a thankless job but I'd do it again. Wish I knew what my sony account was -- I'd pay $15 just to thaw out my Druid (Teddan Thistletoe if I remember right) and spend a day seeing what the heck the game looks like. I quit after the second or third expansion I think (the one that added the winter/arctic lands was the last one I bought.. blue box).

God that was like 18 years ago. Fuck.