I didn't. lol

http://www.everquest.com/free

I knew Everquest 2 had a free to play version but never knew there was a free to play Old Everquest. Of course it has restrictions, but, still it looks like it's offering up the 17 expansions as well, full featured.

I never understood what "spell rank" was/is though? Anybody know what that is?

I think Ima get the Silver Membership since I am a loot ho' and I will need those bags.

This is like a late birthday present. I've always wanted to play Everquest again but didn't want to pay that monthly fee that came along with it. None of these MMO's are worth $15 a month anymore to me as they all are just about the same and with Guild Wars 2 coming out in a few months without any monthly fees I willl be there anyways.

I can only imagine how that looks these days.

I recall trying Asheron's Call again, a couple years ago.  My God Man!!   My eyes bled.

Originally Posted By Nefaro (25 JUN 2012 2:52pm)

I can only imagine how that looks these days.

 

I recall trying Asheron's Call again, a couple years ago.  My God Man!!   My eyes bled.

They redid a lot of the graphics in quite a few zones a couple of years ago--it's probably an ongoing thing, but I haven't played EQ in quite awhile so I can't say for sure. Some zones looked better than others after they were redone, but not many of them impressed me favorably. Freeport was redone with 3D graphics and I wish they had left it alone.

But it doesn't matter to me because I won't be going back to EQ. I received an email from SOE when EQ first went free-to-play but I'm just not interested in that game anymore. I played EQ for over six years. The game is old and looks it even with SOE's attempt to update it.

However, don't let me stop you. If you like it, by all means play it. Have fun! Enjoy yourselves. I did myself for a long time.

Graphics never bothered me with EQ. The character graphics were always pretty good even as old as it is, plus the items in the game and their graphics are practically unlimited and that's what I loved about it most. Armor changed and weapons changed. I remember it being sort of blocky and square but like I said that never bothered me. Solo playing was/is still fun to me and twinking out low level characters with lots of hit points armor gear is still fun.

Plus, well you just can't beat FREE to an AWARD winning game like Everquest that's giving you 17 expansions for free as well. I know this I'm certainly happy to be able to play it vs WOW or RIFT. Even RIFT has a F2P version now called RIFT LITE that only lets you play 20 levels and restricts you to the first zone and I think the first dungeon. EQ is giving just about everything to you for FREE and I like that.

One of the things I read in the FAQ's is if you have more than the restricted characters or classes in the FREE or SILVER edition that you get the grandfathered mode of play and can still select from the amount you already had on that account. That's pretty nice of them as well.

Just being able to play it again brings back such fond memories of those days and times. My wife and I played it side by side just about every night and all day on the weekends. Ahhhhhh those were the days my friend we thought they'd never end.

What servers were you guys on Grey and Nefaro?

Old EQ. Like Greybriar I had over 6 years in this game. I started in Beta as an Ogre Shaman and later played a beastlord once that expansion hit. I was looking at this the other day-and there seems to be some cool additions- like the hireable NPC mercs- which seems a sweet idea when you can't find a group- which i imagine with the low populated servers it is quite common.

I do not think the free part interests me. The restricted classes are not ones I'd play and they seem to have nerfed spells there too.

I played on the Rathe Server. not even sure that exists anymore. It was an RPG server, I perfer those as they had less griefers.

Still think it is the best MMO of the bunch. Everything else that has followed seems shallow.

I played mostly on the Bristlebane server, although I had at least one character on every server. (There was a rumor going around the EQ crowd once upon a time that some of the servers were going to be locked to anyone who didn't have at least one toon on them and I made sure to start a new toon whenever a new server went live.)

But the graphics weren't the thing that irritated me about EQ. What griped me was the way they penalyzed those who liked to solo. Grinding out levels was hard enough in a group, especially since you lost experience when you died. But it took much longer if you weren't in a group.

It's one thing to reward players for playing in a group. It's quite another to penalyze players who prefer to solo.

So I quit EQ and the only thing I regret is that I didn't do it sooner.

Originally Posted By Greybriar (25 JUN 2012 3:24pm)

 

 

However, don't let me stop you. If you like it, by all means play it. Have fun! Enjoy yourselves. I did myself for a long time.

Oh no.   Don't look at me.  If I go MMO'ing, it'll probably be with Rift now that it's supposed to be getting some big open-pvp zone (finally!).  I may have to jump back in & check that out after it gets done.

Originally Posted By ghostryder (25 JUN 2012 5:11pm)

Old EQ. Like Greybriar I had over 6 years in this game. I started in Beta as an Ogre Shaman and later played a beastlord once that expansion hit. I was looking at this the other day-and there seems to be some cool additions- like the hireable NPC mercs- which seems a sweet idea when you can't find a group- which i imagine with the low populated servers it is quite common.

 

I do not think the free part interests me. The restricted classes are not ones I'd play and they seem to have nerfed spells there too.

 

I played on the Rathe Server. not even sure that exists anymore. It was an RPG server, I perfer those as they had less griefers.

 

Still think it is the best MMO of the bunch. Everything else that has followed seems shallow.

Sorry to say "No Mercs" in the Free to play version. And yes only 1 rpg server left. Only 1 pvp server too. 

Those that played in the early days get a "grandfathered" feature that allows you to play ALL the characters u played and used. New players face the restrictions.

I do agree it's the most fun MMO I've played and I've basically played them all except WOW and Conan and Ascherons Call 2.

It's real close with Star Wars Galaxies origional version before the NGE too. I really enjoyed that one bugs and all. The crafting system was just the greatest.

I played on Quellious and started out as a Barbarian Shaman (wished I had started out as an Ogre now because of that inheirent regen trait they get. I eventually played a halfling druid and a dwarf cleric and paladin, a woodelf ranger and a sarnack monk. I played during the days of level loss if you died close to the beginning of another level, the Hell levels 30,35,40 and 45 that took 5 times as long to level in as the others. When dying could mean the loss of everything you valued if you didn't get your corpse within 7 days. Where being NICE meant something and gained you a lot of friends to help you get your corpse and being an azz usually meant you lost everything and you got blacklisted and nobody wanted to play with you. Ahhhhh the good old days when acting human meant something. lol

Originally Posted By Greybriar (25 JUN 2012 5:23pm)

I played mostly on the Bristlebane server, although I had at least one character on every server. (There was a rumor going around the EQ crowd once upon a time that some of the servers were going to be locked to anyone who didn't have at least one toon on them and I made sure to start a new toon whenever a new server went live.)

 

But the graphics weren't the thing that irritated me about EQ. What griped me was the way they penalyzed those who liked to solo. Grinding out levels was hard enough in a group, especially since you lost experience when you died. But it took much longer if you weren't in a group.

 

It's one thing to reward players for playing in a group. It's quite another to penalyze players who prefer to solo.

 

So I quit EQ and the only thing I regret is that I didn't do it sooner.

One thing in defense of EQ about soloing is it was "never advertised" to be SOLO friendly. It was hyped up and built up as a MULTIPLAYER GROUPING MMO. I even remember that. It wasn't to say you couldn't solo in it but it wasn't going to be friendly.

Now of course just about ALL of TODAY's MMO's are SOLO friendly an even advertised that way. WOW was the first and now there's plenty more out there. Guild Wars although not an MMO per say was still very solo friendly and even had henchies and heroes to join you if you didn't want to just play with one character yet still solo. Probably one of the most more like an offline rpg than any other. Now RIFT has come along and soon Guild Wars 2 and I've been soloing in Anarchy Online for quite awhile now and it's very easy to solo.

Personally I found soloing quite comfortably easy and seemed fast enough for me. Of course we all remember the "down time" regenerating hit points and mana and/or both but you had to do that in a group or solo. Where the groups got the advantage over solo was the ENCHANTER who could give clarity in levels and help you regenrate your mana a lot faster. Of course many soloists started going and finding them and buying the high level clarity that lasted over an hour I believe. Same with the cleric who had those Heroic Bond buffs that gave you umpteen hit points and stuff.

The Druid class was probably the best soloer in the game They could snare 4 mobs at once and kite them around and kill them all at once. I remember the uproar over that in the forums. haha I had one and I was happy soloing two mobs at a time incase something happened bad. I got braver at Karnors Castle field and it was quite fun and leveling was quite fast.

What characters did you play Grey?

Clarity actally lasted nearly 3 hours-last I played was the upper planes times. One of the reasons I loved the Beastlord was that they also got clarity spells at the higher level. With your pet, and your own clarity you could pretty much solo almost as well as a druid- and the enchanter's clarity stacked!

I quite right after that one expansion came-can't remember which one's name-where you had instances- and could go through them with 3 people. Very much lite raid material if you were not up to an all night raid party. I then switched opver to WOW- but I got to tell you I never meant the same type of player in WoW that I frequented in EQ. WOW was a much younger-and ruder crowd-  and the game compared to eq was pretty dumbed down in my view. Ohh it was slick- you had flying travel through zones, and all that but I never felt the same dangers and rewards.

I played Anarchy Online a bit way back before that first expansion. The player base killed the game for me- I though the solo play in it was fun but one incident where some tweaked griefer stole our long camped target and drop and the only reply from the GM was- "well he was stronger than you. Come back when your ready to take it away" was too much for me. The guy was stronger in his illegally purchased toon and gear sure--that's the intire point of the griefer- and to have a GM wave it off as 'tough tittie' meant to me they cared not about the player base. In EQ that guy would be banned in a heartbeat.

Now of course it's an ingame FEATURE in Diablo- I guess I am getting old. But to me that is SOOOOOO wrong and upside down it's more like a twilight zone episode than age to me.

Heh.... found this in my files from my EQ days.

I forget how I got the list (program?) but It lists all the items I had in the bank, on my toon, stats etc....

a little sample, my Monk : enjoy the memories.....

Starting stats:

Str:  80 Sta:  80 Dex:  85 Agi: 105
Wis:  75 Int:  75 Cha:  75

Money on the player:      94 platinum  395 gold    7 silver    9 copper
Money in bank:          5766 platinum    5 gold    4 silver    7 copper
Details:

Items equipped:
|
|-Left ear: Vah Shir Claw Earring  [29725]
|-Neck: Ayillish's Talisman  [27249]
|-Face: Ancient Pirate's Eyepatch  [31313]
|-Head: Rotting Gorilla Hide Helmet  [27869]
|-Right ear: Earring of Essence  [14714]
|-Left finger: Valorium Ring of Gallantry  [29046]
|-Left wrist: Silver Chitin Wristband  [2747]
|-Arms: Hardened Grey Flesh Sleeves  [6415]
|-Hands: Celestial Fists  [10652]
|-Right wrist: Icicle Wristband  [25563]
|-Right finger: Valorium Ring of Gallantry  [29046]
|-Shoulder: Mantle of Fire  [4298]
|-Chest: Fungus Covered Scale Tunic  [2735]
|-Back: Dire Wolf-Hide Cloak  [25019]
|-Waist: Silver Shiverback Hide Sash  [27833]
|-Legs: Flayed Barbarian Skin Leggings  [25212]
|-Feet: Boots of the Destroyer  [31336]
|-Primary: Waning Light Katar  [26213]
|-Secondary: Ancient Prismatic Mace  [29444]


Items in inventory:
|
|-Slot 1: Box of Abu-Kar  [11703]
|  |
|  |-Slot 1: Halas 10lb Meat Pie x18  [9752]
|  |-Slot 2: Fish Rolls x19  [13475]
|  |-Slot 3: Halas 10lb Meat Pie x20  [9752]
|  |-Slot 4: Traveler's Boots  [1740]
|  |-Slot 5: Fish Rolls x20  [13475]
|  |-Slot 6: Red Headband  [12922]
|  |-Slot 7: Fuzzlecutter Formula 5000 x19  [12260]
|  |-Slot 8: Cloudy Potion  [14514]
|  |-Slot 9: Golden Star Slippers  [25446]
|  |-Slot 10: Fish Rolls x20  [13475]
|
|-Slot 2: Bag of the Tinkerers  [17403]
|  |
|  |-Slot 1: Obsidian Coldain Insignia Ring  [30268]
|  |-Slot 2: Note from Kromrif  [18084]
|  |-Slot 3: Shackle key  [1046]
|  |-Slot 4: Orc Fang Necklace  [30102]
|  |-Slot 5: Ry`Gorr Iron Armguards  [30115]
|  |-Slot 6: Fisherman's Companion  [29175]
|  |-Slot 7: Key to Charasis  [20600]
|  |-Slot 8: Trakanon Idol  [20883]
|  |-Slot 9: Collapsed Tackle Box  [9199]
|  |-Slot 10: Collapsed Spit  [9200]
|
|-Slot 3: Treasure Hunter`s Satchel  [17702]
|  |
|  |-Slot 1: A Crystalline Spider's Heart  [25597]
|  |-Slot 2: A Razorfiend's Heart  [25598]
|  |-Slot 3: A piece of the crystalline globe  [25798]
|  |-Slot 4: Tiny Jade Inlaid Coffin x3  [9962]
|  |-Slot 5: Peridot x5  [10028]
|  |-Slot 6: A piece of the crystalline globe  [25796]
|  |-Slot 7: A piece of the crystalline globe  [25797]
|  |-Slot 8: Filleting Knife  [9753]
|  |-Slot 9: Facesmasher  [31375]
|  |-Slot 10: Golden Idol of Quellious  [9715]
|
|-Slot 4: Bag of the Tinkerers  [17403]
|  |
|  |-Slot 1: Ry`Gorr Chain Leggings  [30116]
|  |-Slot 2: Snow Bunny Meat  [30099]
|  |-Slot 3: Bracer of the Hidden  [11911]
|  |-Slot 4: Grand Master's Wrist Wraps  [31094]
|  |-Slot 5: Golden Star Pants  [25445]
|  |-Slot 6: Woven Frost Giant Beard  [30106]
|  |-Slot 7: Medallion of the Kylong  [19955]
|  |-Slot 8: Medallion of the Obulus  [19953]
|  |-Slot 9: Medallion of the Jarsath  [19954]
|  |-Slot 10: Crystallized Pumice  [14524]
|
|-Slot 5: Medium Coin Purse  [17204]
|  |
|  |-Slot 1: Torque of Hoar Frost  [30013]
|  |-Slot 2: Orc Fang Earring  [30110]
|  |-Slot 3: Rygorr Invasion Plans  [30136]
|
|-Slot 6: Taskmaster's Pouch  [17118]
|  |
|  |-Slot 1: Enchanted Ring of Torden  [9425]
|  |-Slot 2: Zeruzsh's Ring  [19717]
|  |-Slot 3: Orc Fang Earring  [30110]
|  |-Slot 4: Amulet of the Grey Wastes  [31744]
|
|-Slot 7: Herbalist Pack  [17358]
|  |
|  |-Slot 1: Orc Fang Earring  [30110]
|  |-Slot 2: Orc Fang Earring  [30110]
|  |-Slot 3: Frost Giant Toes  [29125]
|  |-Slot 4: Snow Griffin Egg  [1429]
|  |-Slot 5: Leif's Napkin  [1415]
|  |-Slot 6: Frost Giant Toes  [29125]
|

what's those numbers in brackets onaccountof?

that expansion was Lost Dungeons of Norrath ...Ghost. I loved that expansion and only wished they allowed it to be played solo or with mercs. I got a lot of good gear out of there.

Originally Posted By Wolverine101 (25 JUN 2012 9:33pm)

what's those numbers in brackets onaccountof?

I beleive they were ID numbers for the items (either EQs or the program).

Originally Posted By Wolverine101 (25 JUN 2012 7:00pm)

 

....What characters did you play Grey?

On Bristlebane my highest level character was a High Elf Enchanter. Due to his naturally high charisma, I created him to buy vendor items for my Wood Elf Ranger. By the time I left EQ for WoW, I was mainly using him to buff my guildmates as his Clarity spell would last three hours.

I also had a Wood Elf Bard, a Dwarf Cleric, a Gnome Mage, an Erudite Wizard, and a Dark Elf Necromancer. But my favorite character was my Human Druid.

The one thing I miss most about MMO's is the newness and virginity of the first one. Mine of course was Everquest and they say you never forget your first and she's always special somehow over all the other beauties down your lifes road.

Everquest even in the beginning had such a selection of classes and races and areas to start in. The world was huge even as just the first installment. That run from Halas to Crushbone was a five hour jaunt I shall never forget. You know the web maps were never quite accurate in the beginning. lol The run through mudgolem gorge was horrific (I went the wrong way of course lmao thank god sow didn't wear off). So, just getting to Rivervale was an experience. It was when we got there that I said I had to have a halfling character (druid of course) because of course Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit were very popular then. My wife and I were both lvl 14 shamans at the time so we had our "bind" spell and of course SOW and were very popular along our way. It also wasn't until Crushbone that we got our first shock of KSing (Trainer Hill) where it looked like 80 players were up there trying to get the most damage on him. That was really an interesting experience and a lot of mouthing of "I'm the greatest" lol Of course every once in awhiile Dvinn and Emporer Crush made their appearance outside and a million players all at once blasting them and Dvinn still killing about half of them.

Sadly when you go back to Crushbone today there's nobody there. All it is now is just a nostalgic memory, if you listen closely you can still hear the gayity and laughter and smash mouthing in the wind. The shout of Dvinn train coming and seeing armies of blue orcs as well as him heading for the zone entrance. Train became a word you paid much attention to in EQ. I'll never forget some of the newbs asking where they get on to it. lmao I couldn't resist sometimes telling them to goto the bridge in front of the castle and it would be there to pick them up shortly. They were so excited.

Wolverine101...reading your post brought back some very fond memories of my eq days back when the game first came out.  It was new, unique and an incredible gaming experience.  I downloaded and tried the now free version and it just isn't the same....I know some of it is that I have changed, but the game itself barely resembles the original release.  I played for a few days then deleted it from my hard drive.

Originally Posted By Wolverine101 (26 JUN 2012 1:31am)

The one thing I miss most about MMO's is the newness and virginity of the first one. Mine of course was Everquest and they say you never forget your first and she's always special somehow over all the other beauties down your lifes road.

 

Yes, of course.

I started with Ultima Online and still have the best memories.  Despite the complete chaos and player-killing you had to go through as a noob.  Hell, even as an experienced character, you had to be careful.  Maybe it was the constant fear and risk of losing everything you had on you - and I mean everything - when you were killed.

Seems I spoke too soon about Crushbone and some of those older lower level dungeons. I just got killed in Crushbone by an Orc who hit me for 6954 points of damage. lol What they are doing each week is something called revamping and the old lower level dungeons are becomng lvl 90-95 dungeons so it brings players back to some of the areas that have been abandoned for so long.

That one expansion Lost Dungeons of Norrath I spoke of, now if you are lvl 80 or 85 and above you can play in it SOLO! woohoo. Normal play was you had to have at least 3 players.

I got a Veterans reward that rezzes ALL of your corpses to where you are and gives you all the experience back you lost from them (as long as they are still rezzable).

Originally Posted By Rayfer (26 JUN 2012 7:42am)

Wolverine101...reading your post brought back some very fond memories of my eq days back when the game first came out.  It was new, unique and an incredible gaming experience.  I downloaded and tried the now free version and it just isn't the same....I know some of it is that I have changed, but the game itself barely resembles the original release.  I played for a few days then deleted it from my hard drive.

Yeah 17 expansions surely changed the game a LOT!. The origional EQ is still pretty much the same in looks and map. I don't really see an issue with the graphics though as the character graphics as I said had already been improved long ago. Mainly for me though it's just whenever I go back to one of the old zones a flood of memories comes rushing in of all the things we did in them and all the times we DIED in them. lol

Wow, they have really revamped the loot drop system and this gear called Defiant Gear really takes over the show up into the 80's. I've never seen such quality stats and they come with regen hit points and mana already on them. This makes my 5 year old gear I had look like newbie gear.

They have this new thing (to me anyways) called HOTSPOT quests and you can pick from levels as early as 10 up into the 80's or 90's and it will send you out to collect or kill something and also give you gear that is pretty awesome and once again much better than the stuff I had on.

One thing I'm finding and remember quite well is the community is so helpful and friendly and willing to pick you up in a group in a flash. It is soooooo different from say a Guild Wars or RIFT and I'm sure WOW it's like night and day the way players act. I'd meet or see an azz every single day in GW or RIFT and not one in EQ since I've been back. When I ask a question in gen chat I get a good answer not some "go find it yourself" or "what a noob" or "retard" lmao. Some will even come find me and take me to the combat area or to a stone or place I need to be to get to my quests.

The one thing that bothers me a little bit though is the amount of traders in the Bazaar and items in the bazaar has gone down "drastically". I could hardly find a weapon in there for my Shaman. I remember when those lists used to be miles long and I'd spend a whole gaming session nearly browsing them. I'm just wondering if this new gearing up system has put a hurt on players trading in the bazaar?

Anyways for "free" you all should come try it or back again. It's not your old EQ by a long shot especially when you walk into Crushbone and get slammed for over 6k dmg.

I never got into Everquest due to a couple reasons:  1) Small zones that must constantly be loaded into, and just the general feel that the world was so small.  2) Having to group to go most anywhere interesting. 

The latter one was the final kicker.  I played my month and beat feet back to UO, back then.  I preferred being able to wander around with a lot of room and not have to group to accomplish stuff.

Well well, my station account still exists.  However, the server I used to play on (E'ci), doesn't exist anymore, I wonder if my old characters were moved.  I'm re-installing the game now out of curiosity.

I beta-tested EQ and bolted UO for it as soon as it launched, along with many people I knew from UO.  So I started EQ as a co-guild-leader with a good group of 20 friends, which made the whole game worth playing.  We eventually peaked at about 80 active members, with enough raiding going on to keep most members happy.

What drove me away eventually was a lack of new content to explore - by nature I am an Explorer archetype, not an Achiever, so raiding and grinding don't really interest me.  The fabulous new world of World of Warcraft pulled me back into MMO gaming.

Some of my best and a few of my worst MMO experiences were from those days.  If I can remember where I archived my screenshots, maybe I'll post a couple.

EDIT:  Well, my characters are all there, on Tunare, but I have absolutely zero desire to play.  Strange, because I have a lot more good memories of EQ than I do of WoW (which was a much better game) or any other MMO I played.  Probably because of the people in my guild, who are all out of contact now.  Oh well, (virtual) life goes on.

How much harddrive space does all thoes expansions eat up? I can't remember my username nor password-heck I can't remember the email address the account was tied to- so I'll likely just start anew. If it doesn't gobble 40 gigs of hd space.

Surprisingly, just 8 gigs or so.  The game sure looked ugly and retro though, one of several reasons I have zero interest in trying it again.

Originally Posted By Nefaro (29 JUN 2012 9:38am)

I never got into Everquest due to a couple reasons:  1) Small zones that must constantly be loaded into, and just the general feel that the world was so small.  2) Having to group to go most anywhere interesting. 

 

The latter one was the final kicker.  I played my month and beat feet back to UO, back then.  I preferred being able to wander around with a lot of room and not have to group to accomplish stuff.

Well, it's a LOT more solo friendly than it ever was. These Mercs in the game can solo red stuff and you can move around instead of staying in one spot. I don't know what you really mean by "small" zones because most of these are HUGE now and lots of mobs and the respawn rates are faster than before. I'm having a ton of fun and I don't worry about the graphics because they don't make a game anyways. It's the fun factor of the play that makes the game. The newer zones don't have bad graphics either and even some of the older zones many of them mobs have been revamped. I think everything looks great considering how old the game is.

So come one come all try it again for the first time.