EQ

EverQuest Adventures on Phinny (Progression Server)

stargrace November 30, 2016 2Comments

I know, it has been said time and time again – you can never go home (in this case the home they are referring to is your first MMORPG love). In my case this is EverQuest. Of course I’ve never really been one to listen to what everyone else says, so when I found myself drawn to Twitch streams of people playing EverQuest I decided to subscribe for a year and play along on one of the more recent progression servers.

Just like that.

I didn’t plan anything out, and I am pretty busy with the newborn so why on earth I decided to pick one of the most time-intenstive games to play I have no idea. I’m determined to make it work – plus the little guy spends a lot of time sleeping right now.

The first hurdle I had to figure out was getting the game to run on my macbook pro without having to install a lot of nonsense. Thankfully steam came through. Any game that isn’t native to my mac I can stream from my PC. My main reason for gaming on the macbook is because I’m typically on the couch rather than at my PC. It’s easier to watch the little guy and just closer to everything I want to be near. So I installed EverQuest on steam and remote to my PC. Easy peasy.

Once I was in game I had to make a decision about what to play. In a perfect world I wanted a class that could find groups easily so I’d have very little downtime – but in my actual world I knew this wasn’t going to be possible. The little man isn’t on a schedule (or rather he is, it’s his own schedule) so I can’t just join a group and hang around for hours at a time. I needed to be able to spend time soloing (for now) with the ability to group up when I find myself with an hour or two here and there.

I initially decided on a shaman, and then scrapped that idea for a beastlord. The progression server has unlocked up to the Luclin expansion at this time, and my first character was a troll named Beautiful. After grinding my way to level 3 I decided I wanted to bind myself in the Nexus. I also wanted to visit the bazaar. Unfortunately that’s not an easy walk for a troll.

I did make it all the way to North Karana and I was waiting for the wizard spire to whisk me away to the Nexus when all of the sudden a guard roamed into the centre and in half a second the hour progress I had made walking was wiped out and I was back in Grobb.

Ugh.

This is what EQ is all about though – and I love the game for that. Unfortunately because time is not my friend as much as it used to be, I ended up rerolling my beastlord as a Vah Shir instead, named Meowsical. Fitting name for a bard, even if I’m not playing one.

I spent the remainder of my game time catching up to where my troll was, which means I’m now level 3. Then I wandered to the Nexus with far fewer deaths even though I did have to run through some pretty intense zones (intense for my level, especially).

Once in the bazaar I found an amazing deal on a new weapon – a heavy iron ulak for one plat. I had exactly 4 plat to my name. I also grabbed two insignia rings (very cheap because everyone has been getting experience in PC), and a new tunic with 11ac. Over all I was incredibly pleased with my beginner purchases. Time was getting late, so I set up my own merchant in offline mode, and called it a night.

The next expansion to go live in Planes of Power in February, and I’m hoping to catch up by then. I don’t know if that’s a realistic expectation given my current situation at home, but we’ll see how it goes. I do plan on streaming what I can of my adventures to my twitch account, and writing about it here, of course.

I also want to find my way into a guild of some sort. I haven’t even begun to look for a place to call home, but I’m hoping I can find a family orientated guild with an older audience. Given the age of EQ I don’t think that will be too much of an issue, but since I don’t have the best of luck with guilds we’ll just have to see how that goes, too.

All in all, I’m pretty dang excited about these new-ish adventures!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! You can find me in EverQuest on the phinny server as Meowsical – feel free to add me to friends and say hello!

Ragefire – Leveling Continues

stargrace July 1, 2015 0Comment

I haven’t written about it much (well, I haven’t written about anything much this summer to be honest) but I am still playing on the EverQuest progression server, Ragefire. My magician is now level 17, along with my druid. I’ve been camping Dervish out in South Ro along with Kasul playing his shaman. The place is dangerous. There’s a mixture of dark blue mobs mixed with some white, a handful of yellow, and then the reds (usually Orc Warriors, and the odd Sand Giant that wanders by). The zones are still really packed with players, and I use the /pick function as often as I can to swap to quieter instances. There’s a large number of players who are now at the level cap, but I’m not in any rush.

We did have a poll option to see if we’d like Kunark to come out earlier than normal, which I did vote in favour of. I think it offers players a larger range of zones to explore and will help spread the population out even further. Of course one day I’d like to see myself in a raid but because of the population issue I’m not expecting to be able to help out for quite some time. I’ve been contemplating creating (yet another) alt in the meantime, but I suppose I should at least reach 50 on one pair of characters first. I know there are better (ie: faster) camps out there, but I”m content to sit and wait on three spawns in a relatively safe location.

There has been a lot of chatter in all of the channels I join when I log in, but not a lot of that chatter is centered around groups or camp checks. This is one of the biggest differences I’ve seen between playing back when I first started, and playing now. Now it’s only to easy for people to box multiple accounts, or to have already established groups. I suppose it was a bit foolish to think that things would be exactly as they were 10 years ago, but a part of me had hoped.

Between leveling I’m working up my tradeskills. Earning skill points is a slow process, but one I find incredibly valuable. I haven’t been selling anything I’ve created yet, but I do enjoy having a fine selection of foods and drinks to choose from. I did also create myself a set of gear, and while it offers nothing in terms of actual stats, it does offer AC, which is very important.

Playing a magician is quite easy. There’s so many of them around. The only time I really have any concerns is when a roaming mob (or two, or three) has wandered into my camp, and then I get flustered and forgot to watch the health of my pet and before I know it I’ve been taken out by a named I wasn’t even aware of. It’s exciting times, and I’m glad to be a part of it.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!