April 2008

Familiar Sights

stargrace April 18, 2008 2Comments

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.

EQ Nostalgia Group – Getting Ready

stargrace April 17, 2008 5Comments

I blame Tipa. Isn’t that always the way it goes? I’d seen her blog posts about EQ1 and felt that twinge. Now, I only played EQ1 for a year and a half and then EQ2 was released. So I don’t really classify myself as a veteran. I remember Bertox raids, Thul raids, Plane of Hate, my first time in time and other random bits and pieces. I wasn’t a huge raider and I stuck mostly to small things, but I remember all of that with a huge fondness for it. So I bought EQ1. Little did I know it would snowball from there (and I’m glad it did). I’m now a part of a group that will play together once a week and level up in EverQuest through all those zones we know and love. Exciting, hmms? I think it is.

The group consists of Tipa (ranger, as of now at least), Cordanim (rogue), Egat (enchanter), Einhorn (warrior), and Ishbel (myself, cleric). We do have room for one more – we’re looking for someone who can make Friday nights at 7pm EST on a constant basis. Even if we get more then one, we’ll be forming up a guild and I doubt it will be too much trouble to join and chatter, and maybe if enough join up start a second group. We’re playing on the luclin server, mostly due to my whining convincing, as I have higher level crafters there and can’t justify spending $50 to move around. As Tipa herself mentioned, I’m only willing to do so much in the name of nostalgia. I’d rather have a little coin and some higher level characters to play around on.

So we’ve created our characters (most of us) and are hanging out in the group area of the tutorial eagerly waiting for Friday night. We each had some key things to do, like grab maps, a new UI, making sure we owned all of the expansions, that sort of stuff. I managed to find a UI that I like quite a bit, even if I don’t remember what all the buttons do. Actually it’s quite similar to my UI from when I used to play, that helps. I’ve slowly been going through and memorizing commands, how to open certain windows, remembering that I have to play in 1st person rather then 3rd. You’d better believe that I’m taking notes. I spend lots of time looking over old items in my bank wondering to myself “what the hell was that for” or “why did I keep that” since I have no idea what more then half of it is for any more.

I was surprised to see as many people as I did in game. The open guild hall area (before you zone in to your particular hall) was filled with people hanging out and of course clerics peddling their wares (rez) in the lobby. It was really nice to see. There was even a raid going on, with room for pick ups. They gave out a channel name for those who were flagged, and then asked others to /join airpig which just made me giggle and remember how you can “piggy back” people into raids who are not flagged. The game is down for 8 hours today to patch, so not a whole lot has changed in that regard. Everything else is still very new to me though. Tipa mentioned guild banners, and campfires, and fellowships. I have no idea what any of that is. There’s also a tab on my UI for a currency exchange, and I don’t have the vaguest idea what that’s for. I do remember LDoN’s, and I do remember monster missions. I even remember how to do a few of them still. I remember how to open doors (which I didn’t remember last time I poked into EQ1) and I’ve gotten the hang of the camera views. The rest is still slow going. It feels great though.

Of course all because of the fact that I know I’ll be playing with wonderful people. It’s the community that pulls me the most. Plus, after all this time I’ll finally get a chance to play with Tipa, something we’ve never done before as we’ve always been on different servers. I’m almost giddy about it. It’ll be nice to play with Cordanim too, who I haven’t played with in quite some time. Chattered to, of course, but not played. I’ll also be starting up a little beastlord to play with a friend of mine who’s returning but is unable to make the Friday night schedule. I don’t know how far any of us will get in this trip down memory lane experience, but I think it’s going to be a whole lot of fun in the mean time. Just simply remembering things like sitting down to regen and gaining meditation skill ups, has made me smile.

More Then a Little Lost

stargrace April 16, 2008 4Comments

 That’s right, the screen shot does not lie. Yesterday as the other half decided to pick up a PS3, I browsed through the pc games and happened to find a copy of Secrets of Faydwer. $40 for all 14 expansions of EQ1 with a few other tid bits (claim items) thrown in for good measure. It itched. I looked at the case, thought about Tipa’s posts, and in the end ultimately decided “hell, why not”. The 2 DVD disks are a far cry from the 10+ I have kicking around the house that I’d have to install (and patch) and who can pass up /claim goodies anyhow.

So that’s how it came to be that I installed EverQuest last night. This morning, I logged in slightly nervous and sat at character select (which is completely different then I remember it might I add) looking at characters I haven’t played for three years now.

Needless to say, I’ve forgotten a lot. Like how do I get my actual items to show up as I mouse over them instead of just the name of it. If anyone knows how I can do that simple thing I’ll be eternally in debt. I kept wanting to actually LOOK at the stats on my gear, to be able to tell what is better then what. I tried to look through key bindings and simply couldn’t find it. That’s step one. Step two, anyone know if UI mods are still made for EQ1? Default is slightly, annoying. Though I can make due I suppose. I decided after peeking at my characters and being unable to tell much from them that I’d run through the tutorias. Of course, being unable to actually see the stats of anything in my bags or that I’m wearing made it frustrating, so for now I set it aside. I have forgotten so very much.

I do have plans to play (off and on) for a month though, I figure I’ll wander around lost and nostalgic in between other things, for short spurts. I have a friend who I used to play with in EQ1 way back when also activating his account, I imagine we’ll wander around together some. I haven’t been back in so long, and I don’t even know what was added any more, but it’s still a lot of fun. I need a quick sheet of all the commands I’ve forgotten over the years.

I also need to figure out how to free the mouse so I can get front views of my characters (is that even possible?) for now the screen shot has me looking at the title screen as I test out other commands to try to make the gear / inventory items have more then just their names showing.

Oh, and Tipa, there’s a new level 2 necromancer named Stargrace wandering around your server apparently. She forgets the names of your characters though to add to friends *grins*