Familiar Sights

While a lot has changed in EverQuest over the past three years (give or take) that I’ve been away, there are still a lot of familiar sights. If you weren’t around for the 2005 revamp of the bazaar, well, you’re looking at it now. The bazaar is split into three sections, a red section for selling, a blue section for buying, and the middle section hosts a few vendors and some crafting areas. If you’re an old player you remember (I was not around, but I heard stories) shouting about your wares in the EC tunnel (east commonlands?) and I heard many stories about this. Then a proper bazaar was added, and not much has changed since then. You still have to be online in order to sell.

Most people set up a trader character, and that’s exactly what I did. I have so much stuff on me that I’m just not sure what to do with any more. Old gear from deleted characters, and random bits and pieces. So I began the very long process of cleaning all that out. I deleted a few lower level characters who I knew I’d have no interest in playing. EQ1 is limited to 8 characters per server. I have my 70 rogue, 68 enchanter, and then I also have a 40 shaman, 31 druid who I am partial to. I have my level 3 cleric made for Friday Night Nostalgia, and a level 5 beastlord I am playing with a friend. My seventh character is a twinked out ranger named Starling, who I decided to use as my trader character. I loaded her up with trader satchels from the vendor (These weigh a lot, but there’s no weight boundaries in the bazaar, which make them great for bank space as they only cost 1p each) and then spent some time organizing all the prices.

Lets face it, almost everything I had for sale was exceptionally old, and for 90% of the items I didn’t see anything else for sale. A quick /who proved that EQ is certainly NOT dead, as there were too many people selling to finish the list. I loved seeing that. The channels were pretty active too. I even ran into someone from ‘way back when’, Krakerzz. A troll beastlord who was always very friendly. Turns out he’d recently returned to “da best game” after trying some others. I added him to friends (and his new shaman alt) and told him to keep in touch.

So did anything sell?

Actually, yes. I made 5,000p which is still only pennies according to EQ standards, but hey, it’s a start. I sold a soulscream belt (popular back in the day) and I even sold an opal encrusted stein – those charisma boosters from way back when. I’m sure the majority of my items won’t be good for anything other then guild tribute fodder, but it was fun none the less. Tonight of course is the first gathering of the EQ Nostalgia group, and I’m excited. We’ve set up forums, and if anyone else is keen on checking out the game but maybe can’t make the Friday schedule, PLEASE get in touch and join the guild, come chatter with people who share your love of the game. Hell, maybe you’ve never even played EverQuest before, but you’ve got station access and are looking for a community. You’ll find that here, too. I did some simple preparation like writing down what spells I need for the next five levels (that’s right, you aren’t told what to buy in game, you have to go hunting for spell lists, write them all out (or print them) and keep them close by. EQ is still very much a pen and paper game in a lot of ways) worked up my meditation, and tried to bribe new players to teach me their languages (as a Drakken I speak elder dragon and dragon, hoping the other group members will teach me their languages, as I remember that fairly fondly).

There was a huge patch yesterday that also eliminated a lot of keys and backflagging requirements. My banks were filled with portions of keys for random old zones, so I finally deleted them since they’re no longer needed. I’m debating taking Invis (the rogue with SoS) into a few zones to wander around and look at things I’ve never gotten to see before. Remember, I’ve never really been ‘uber’ in EverQuest, so a lot of this stuff is still new to me. Not to mention my memory is pretty bad, and things are slow coming back. Fingers crossed that I don’t wipe the group (I forget how to turn on HoTT…. is there a command for that??) and that the basic ‘how to play’ feeling returns.