The Old-School Thread

[Zivin Bane]

pre kunark was a blast, everything was new and exploration was both dangerous and chancy, no one wanted to have to run 30 min from the nearest town for an easy CR, or a couple hour CR if it was a hard one.

Best zone was Lguk, pre kunark solb was the buggiest zone ever, all hail ogmuk and his 1h fiery avenger for shamans =). Managed to put together a 6 paladin group early morning once, 2 of us had mith 2h, and one with Razing Sword of Skarlon (uber). but the 5 of us who had ghoulbanes whipped em out and tore the hell out of deadside, incredibly powerful group i might add.

Other than that, favorite zone had to be mistmoore, god bless that horrible mob that wasnt really there but ghosted thru the graveyard, attack it and bring like 20 mobs from the castle down on you, oh the joy. Also cloaked damphyre was a cool camp back then, me and a ranger sneaking in there was always cool and dangerous.

[Zurren]

I love old school EQ, but alot of the games 'wow' factor back then had alot to do with it being one of the first of its kind/scale/quality.

The *wow* factor of stepping out into steamfont and seeing the wind mills, the thrill of dodging though Oasis at lvl 12 to hunt in upper guk avoiding the sand giants allways got my heart racing.

The game at that time seemed so big and fast and dangerous, there was 'real' risk in the sense you could die in a bad spot and lose your corpse. Zones that only had 1 or 2 groups in them at a time tops.

Seeing 'old' beta players fly by giving you a sense of awe the first time you saw a flaming sword. Beliving the rumours that 6 level 35 specters sournded the execetioner in lower guk.

Alot of this simply cant be replicated in this game, or in any other game really for many players aside for 'true newbies' to the MMORPG genre who have never played one before.

The wonderment of pre-RoK did have alot to do with the game, but alot more with the fact it was "new" for so many people.

and, as much as I love pre-RoK.. if it was not for the expansions, the game would of grown stale, boring and stagnet within 2 years .. games, espcially MMORPGs, need to expand to remaind competative/fun.

I think if even if I was to be transported to a pre-RoK world .. the game would not be as fun 'now' as it was back then for me.

But..all that being said : EQ was far more fun/challenging/interesting when monk FD pulling was never heard of and enchanters were a rarity, and the idea of 'sit, camp, pull' was one I rarely would have the patience to tollerate.

I still remeber camping the entire lower guk tower, and instead of sit/camp/pull.. it was 'rest, clear roamers (by moving into them), rest before room ... 'CHARGE' and just bumrush a room full of monsters' .. the savant room was by far the most challenging i think, go go charm and duped corpses.

[Mecha Washu]

Originally posted by Zivin Bane
pre kunark solb was the buggiest zone ever, all hail ogmuk and his 1h fiery avenger for shamans

That sounds very familair. Please refresh my memory.

[VelMonk]

How could I forget about PoA. I remember pissing my pants about corpse loss. And just barely making it through Bixie island, like, by the skin of our teeth.

But now people farm the Keeper and Spiroc Lord, go figure.

[Khylen]

Even though I got my gnome necromancer to 50 before Kunark was released, and experience all the planes, I'd have to say that Misty Thicket is my all time favorite zone. I remember I was a noob in the gnome newbie zone (stormfront mountians? I forget) and a friend of mine from 'The Realm' created a halfling warrior and was telling me how awesome the newbie zone was, so I ran through G Fey and then BB and caught the boat to FP, then I had to make my run through EC (where I saw a level 38 monk killing a griff and I thought "WOW! A LEVEL 38!!!") WC, and then kith.

Once I arrived in RV the sheer thrill if finishing my trip was awesome. Then I zoned into misty and found this kickass zone with bears, BIG wasps (not the kind you see in G fey) and a lot of goblins. I remember when me and my HFL buddy took out Mooto for the first time we nearly flipped, it was such a feat.

Second fav zone would have to be L Guk. I loved hunting from 39-50 there, moving from an arch mage group (and winning my first SMR) to a frenzy group where I'd stay online for like 12 hours just hoping to win an FBSS to sell for like 10k in EC.

Oh the memories.. I'd kill to get a game that awed me so much like EQ when I first started.

[aychamo_aycono]

Originally posted by Khylen
Oh the memories.. I'd kill to get a game that awed me so much like EQ when I first started.

That is actually a very good quote, and I think is the same thing that a lot of us feel.

[Frelance]

I lost that sense of wonder the first time someone told me about /loc. Why they would put in such a cheaterific command is beyond me, killed any absorbtion I'd built up. Still a great game, but as soon as zones were built on x,y axis, the wide-eyed wonder was gone for me.

[Stridar]

Originally posted by Frelance
I lost that sense of wonder the first time someone told me about /loc. Why they would put in such a cheaterific command is beyond me, killed any absorbtion I'd built up. Still a great game, but as soon as zones were built on x,y axis, the wide-eyed wonder was gone for me.

It was put in to begin with in beta for a bug reporting tool only, so you could report where so and so problem was. They for some reason never removed it, but were planning on it.

My favorite places were many. I remember the 2 hours trip just to get out of Halas the first time I played in beta. LOL. THen I wondered around the mts at lvl one untill I ran into a Wooly Mammoth and was in awe, then got slaughtered by a orc. EQ beta was like the 3rd game I'd every played in pc so starting out I was just in wonderment.

I loved Blackburrow even though I dropped down into the hole the first 2 times I went to it and lost all my equip both times...Bronze spaulders owned. Haveing 2 mino axes at lvl 13 was God like.

Then moved on to Befallen and Najena and got a whip. Those were the days.

After release I have to say again Befallen, Najena and Cazic were my Fav's for a long time. Met Sean and Blazer while saving their corpse's in Befallen after they fell down to 3rd floor. I was twinked out thanks to Koraf and Kalaran. LvL 14 with barbed whips and decent armor was godly. Remember coming into Najena to see them killing the JM boots bitch at zone in and she dropped boots. They were for Myrl but he'd went LD, so I was going to get them. Then just as I went to loot the bitch logged in. LOL Camped her twice for 20+ hrs and never saw another pair drop. Should have just took those and made Myrl camp em.

Cazic was a blast when it wasn't full. Going to the back temple and watching Sean kite them around while our group picked them off and finished them one at time was a blast. And oh how those Ranger swords from Guk were kick ass back then untill the nerfed em. Snare was a groups best friend back before everything was camped and a mob running away would bring back the whole damn zone on ya.

[Tooth]

Elderon said "I am sure Kreugen will remember the group we came leveled up with. It was 2 druids(neither who healed), 1 shaman, 1 ranger(me), 2 Paladin(Kreugen and Dalron? is that right kreu?). Anyway we mostly did SolB, this was when it only had 1-2 groups in it max, and lower guk live side"

I remember those days, I was the shaman. I was always the main healer, slower and buffer of the group. Since none of the druids would even mem a heal spell. ONe of the druids was Dalas and the other I forgot his name.

As for equipment, Im sure you could buy my full set of gear I got to level 50 with for about 200 pp at the Bazaar today.

Good times!

Tooth

[Baluddar]

Solb.

Greater Kobolds and Sol kobolds.

champ, king area

Move on to Bugs bats.

At most 2 groups in the zone. Sometimes had foh doing FGs while we were there.

awesome exp

Baluddar

[Cybsled]

Heh I remember the first time we dropped Nag on our server. Was SS/EA/DA/CC. Originally we were all going to work together, but then some looting drama started so the would-be alliance died. But we were the hardcore guys in SS so we were going to do the unthinkable...a one guild killing of Nag. Then the GM showed up and bitched everyone out for loot bickering and he just wanted the dragon dead. ROFL. So the other guilds came back (I'll never forget the ironic comment from one of the officers in another guild "SS can join us if they want" ROFL). There was who knows how many there. When Nag died the whole zone crashed instantly though. Came back up, all the casters were bound in the FG lair so they were getting chain killed over and over. Some lost a few lvls because they didnt think to pull the plug hehe. GM freaked out, res'd whoever had corpses left (naked ones poofed like a naked moss snake corpse back then), ran into the lair, solo'd Nag, and handed out the loot from the kill. All I remember is Sharn getting the first LEGIT Cloak of Flames (you old school from CT know what I'm talking about hehe) and Shade got an orb. That loot was so godly back then...planes didnt exist yet so everyone was in ruby/mith/fine steel/mesh. Rofl.

Course we went back and did the solo guild kill on Nag a bit later. And we were the only guild to be able to kill a dragon inhouse until after kunark ;P Someone in EA made a funny banner on that topic, I've misplaced it though hehe.

[Elderan]

omg tooth been a long time. I can not remember that other druids name but I think it was some female char. Yes I remember those days of endless pulling of kobolds. As the puller being constantly charmed was the best... I remember kreu and you being the only ones who ever healed because I know the druids did not.

Diffrent times thats for sure...

[Tooth]

Female druid was Elspeth,

[Darkmyst]

Original Cazic Thule was the best zone Verant ever did.

[Samus Aran]

Tooth!

How dare you mention old times and leave me out of it!

Toss me a PM man, I've lost contact with ya.

The old days in EQ were amazing. I played the game for a week and was so hooked that I quit my job and played 16 hours a day for the first 6 months. Living in a house with 5 EQ addicts made it 10x the experience I'm sure as well. In the long run that really hurt me financially, but once I was all caught up, I still had zero regrets for the choice I made early on.

I can't say I really had a single zone that I really liked more then any other place. If I had to choose, I would say that I had the most fun in Cazic. Permafrost in the high teens to low 20s was the bomb too. Kind of crazy how we purposely pulled chaotic trains not knowing anything about AE mes or AE stun, shit, we didn't even know really what an enchanter was for until the late 20s. I always hated Sol B myself. Well, I won't say I hated it, but I preferred guk anytime of the week. My group going up to 50 was a lot different then any group I could imagine today. Shaman/Cleric/Ranger/Wizard/Wizard/Enchanter or Warrior. Was me on Devante, Alloria, Sean, Blazar, Senir and either Daerin or Lleluvyn respectively. Sean pulling, Alloria nuking and stunning, and me healing. I fondly remember the nuke count downs as well. The nice thing about our crew though, was that none of us had jobs or any responsibilities at that time, so we would set up the next days camp spot and login time before we finished that night. We leveled hard and fast and it wasn't ever boring.

Killing Lady Vox, marching up to Nagafen's Lair, killing the PoD, fighting in Fear, Hate and Sky were all damned good times. I agree with most, I don't think those rushes and feelings we had back in the early days of EQ will ever occur again in this genre, no matter what the game. And I also agree that I would do anything to have that kind of gaming experience again.

Shit, I'm still having a blast in EverQuest. Planes of Power is outstanding imo.

Edit: My first memory though, hands down, was when me and Tooth saw our first Ice Giants in Everfrost. We both saw it and ran for our lives to Halas. I don't even think we agro'd the damn thing and I'm not too sure why we ran. But the game definitely had a huge impact for sure.