Ishbel, Drakkin of Norrath

stargrace April 21, 2008 2 Comments

Norrath’s added a new race since I played last. The Drakkin. They are the children of the dragon – or so I’ve gathered. They have tattoos of scales that cover their body in a decorative pattern, and at the character selection screen you get to figure out which dragon you’ll form yourself after. It’s for lore purposes only, and of course me being me, I don’t know anything about the lore. EverQuest was always a game I played with friends but never really delved into so to speak. Not for lack of wanting to, but that was just the way it was for me when I played. Of course now, I’m regretting it. I wish I knew everything. I won’t, there’s just too much. But I wish I did. In any case, they also have designs on their faces that represent the ‘horns’ and scales of their dragon kin. Very cool. It was only natural I play one. I’m typically an elf person, I know, how boring is that. Though I have been known to play halflings, and ratongas.

Anyhow. Since the Nostalgia group has been working on their racial armor quests I decided it was time to travel back home and see if I have any myself. I’m not sure yet, I didn’t quite make it that far before I was side tracked into viewing the six dragons that protect my home.

Even in a game as old as EverQuest, how can you NOT be impressed with dragons. They are the epitome of the fantasy genre mmo. Typically big bosses where ever you go. They’re imposing, impressive, and just plain awesome.

So now I am on my way to meet up with some people from my little town (is it little? Maybe it’s city sized, I honestly have no idea) and prove that I am one of their kin. Gain some rank with these dragon folk and tell them that I’m good enough to heal their people. Or anyone, for that matter.

I managed to ding level 12 wandering through paludal (sp) caves with Lackey. When I used to play EQ1 that was the best place I’d ever leveled. Best for power leveling too. I’d get myself nicely buffed with druid buffs (especially the damage shield) and just stand where all the phlargs were. They have a noxious debuff called “creeping crud” that requires some curing (and lasts a REALLY long time!) but other then that.. it was great.

I didn’t want to get too far ahead of the Nostalgia group though – so I of course have an alt (I think we all have alts now). A little necromancer. I finished off the tutorial last night with help from Lackey, and then in accordance to the little mail message we received upon hitting level 10, we headed to Najena. Which is the EQ2 server I play on. How amusing. We only managed a few pulls in there though before we called it a night. LOTS of adds. Lots of mean adds. I was only level 10 (necromancer) and he was level 12. The suggestion to go there was obviously meant for either a full group, or someone twinked (which neither of us are). It was still fun though, the few pulls we got in were great exp, about 10% each kill.

Surprisingly enough – not a SINGLE skeleton of the night (and I killed at least 10-15) dropped bone chips. How am I supposed to summon my pet? I ended up buying 5 off of the broker (that’s all that was for sale) just so I could be a competent necromancer. Oh well, I’ll save that search for another time. The sad part is that I deleted my 44 shadowknight, and on her in her inventory, were 60 things of bone chips. Little did I know they’d actually come in handy when I decided to delete them. Oh wells.

Nostalgia Group – Night One

stargrace April 19, 2008 2 Comments

We were early, a lot of us. Really early. Four hours early even. We gathered around eagerly awaiting adventures. Not really sure what to expect or who would show up. A lot showed up. A lot more then I had thought would. We (thanks to our faithful leader, Tipa) organized and split off into two groups, collecting tasks along the way to complete. It started off slow, killing rats, bats, spiders. Vermin nests. Remembering to sit to meditated and regain power. Playing in first person.

I met a lot of new people, and that was great. We chattered about various things but mostly kept focused on the goal of completing the tutorial. The quests slowly changed from solo easy quests to ones that were more difficult and required a full group. My group consisted of three people, an enchanter, brave warrior, and myeslf (cleric). Cordanim was around at the beginning as his rogue, but had to leave not too far into it. For the group of three we had, we did fantastic. We had no deaths at all, and even though it took some time to take encounters down, we still did great. It of course had its mishaps. My internet decided to wreck havoc on a named encounter as I closed my eyes in real life and hopped I hadn’t just caused the group to wipe. Our brave dwarf and his faithful enchanter pulled through, despite my mishaps (I am so sorry!).

We all hit level 10 within the tutorial, and walked to Plane of Knowledge to set up the fellowship. Another one of those “uhms, what are THOSE” moments for a few people, myself included. It lets you place campfires where people can gate to, apparently. Looking forward to using them in the future.

While the night was exciting and a lot of fun, and I did get to meet lots of new people, it was slightly disappointing in some ways as well. I’d had my heart set on FINALLY getting to group up with the fabled Tipa and play with her (after all, it was just three of us who wanted to give EQ1 another go originally) but it didn’t work out that way due to the numbers interested. Not that it’s a big deal, the more the better of course. It was just one of those “dang.. oh well” moments. I was also slightly concerned that there were so many rules and restrictions we all had to adhere to – but on some reflection (and a full nights sleep) I can understand why the rules are there – mainly because there ARE so many of us. We don’t want to out level, miss content that someone may want to explore, etc. No doubt Tipa has been swamped in details.

Hopefully everyone else had an amazing time as well, and next week will be just as fun. The main goal of the evening was to leave behind the blasted tutorial. While it did better equip us for our adventures in the actual world of Norrath, it was also.. well, very much a tutorial. Next week we’ll work on getting to 15, and traveling the world a little bit. Slowly, bit by bit, more commands and bits of information are coming back to me. I mean, it has been over three years since I’ve played. A lot has slipped through the cracks.

My main impression of the evening was that – if you were looking to play an old MMO to recapture what you had felt when you played the very first time, it probably won’t happen. You’ll always be pitting the past with the future, and over time, things change. It’s much the same as comparing EQ1 to EQ2. You simply can’t, because the two games are (though EQ2 is modeled after EQ1) in the end, very different. Our experiences and personal friendships and bonds, trials and tribulations, are also different over time. We (as human beings) tend to look at the past with rose coloured glasses and remember specific events and happenings in a certain way. It’s difficult to emulate those some time down the road.

However.

That doesn’t mean we can’t all form NEW opinions of the game we once loved. Form new friendships, learn new encounters. Reminisce of course about ‘the good ‘ol days’ with an open mind and heart for the future.

Familiar Sights

stargrace April 18, 2008 2 Comments

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 5 Comments

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 4 Comments

 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*