The first time I played EQ back in 1999, I had no idea what I was doing. It was my first MMORPG, having only played Elder Scrolls games prior. I played for hours in the noob area of Freeport before I ventured "too far" and had my first zoning experience into a new zone. I thought I died or broke the game. That's when I realized there was a huge world to explore. EQ took its hold and I was hooked. The people playing back then were amazing and so helpful. Best gaming community I've seen to this day. We were all learning together. It's funny, we were the gamers that created emojis and shorthand typing, like "afk, lol, brb." Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't the millennials. Cheers!
I remember being absolutely frightened to leave the FP newbie area! One of the fondest(?) memories I have playing when Kunark was the only expansion. Such a great and challenging game!
My first few hours were in Qeynos. I tried a few races and cities at first to see what I would like most. I ended up having my primary as Dark Elf. But I remember those first few hours, it was mesmerizing. The NPCs casting spells. I think my first death was accidentally auto-attacking a merchant somewhere. I was hooked from the start. Nothing compares to classic Everquest. I look at it as like beta-testing the mmo genre. There was so much stuff that no game would have today, with trains, with being able to buff and heal NPCs. And putting high level aggro NPCs just beyond the newbie area?? What game does that? Then leaving all your things on your corpse and you have no choice but to go back and get it. There was so much that was unique to EQ. And it was so brutal sometimes with the xp losses, the corpse runs that could take hours... but once you had that Epic or whatever item you had been spending months grinding on. So rewarding.
Classic EQ has a more alive world then most open-world games from PS4 & PS5. Let that sink in 🤣 .... EQ player base isn't as large as it once was, yet the world still feels alive enough to role-play in. *GUK , is a good example of that. I was actually surprised how active the creatures are. You literally see frogloks patrolling hallways. BUT not even just in GUK. NPC casts spells randomly* another reason, is you cannot just roam around. Creatures will chase you down. You think EQ is a ghost-town? Them creatures say otherwise.
This is so cool! My buddy and I just started to get into P99 again (more seriously this time) and I was actually just watching your Ommog's shaman guide vids for tips. I've watched your channel for years, with the EQ stuff being my favorite, so it's awesome that you're planning to get into it again!
I was in phase 3 and 4 beta in 98/99, I remember when they added corpse dragging, priests of discord, bard mail quests, research skill... back then the game was a lot harder because good equipment was rare, people were buying gear from armor and weapon merchants still. Lots more low and mid level grouping as a result.
I think games like Everquest were made during the perfect storm of innocence and creativity. The people who made these games were a special breed, and I just don't think that kind of mentality exists anymore. Even the people involved who have tried to go off and recreate what they made can't recapture it.
You seem knowledgeable. I've been playing cs:go and mwII and i got burned out of these shooters. Played guild wars 2 and a tiny bit of oldschool runescape. Are these games worth it in the long run? Or should i rather play Everquest P99 or Tibia or Oldschool Runescape or Ultima Outlands or Guild Wars 2? I'm just looking for the best of the best mmo to play. Everquest P99 caught my attention because the graphics remind me of a better time and it looks cozy.
I will be loving and playing this game until either it dies, or I do. Whichever comes first. Thanks for being a great member of the EQ community, Bob 👍 Cheers, mate.
I really liked that I misheard you at the start. "I need to find Paladin guild master, Tin Can." Made the whole video so much more enjoyable. I main a High Elf magician, but I've always had a High Elf paladin alt. Their cultural plate armor is gorgeous and perfect for the class.
I've been playing the EQ2 time locked progression server Varsoon. It's been a lot of fun playing on a populated EQ2 server. It has elements of classic EQ while still having some quality of life improvements from modern games.
Extraordinary game, and an unrivaled experience back in the original days of having to discover so much. I spent a couple years as a teenager making it to level 21... haha. I'm a cyclical P99 player now. Gonna have to get back in soon :)
Not sure if it was because EverQuest was my first MMO/love, but I have never had a more rich experience in a game like I did back in the old days of EQ. I have been searching for something to rival it, but nothing holds a candle. Achieving anything in this game was so much slower and difficult, it made those achievements mean so much more. Thanks for the video. My first ever character was a HE Paladin too….I grew up in GFaydark. :)
Well said Bob, I couldn't agree more with your thoughts on complexity and the systems in Everquest - I think this is why we all keep coming back. The honeymoon period in WoW or other modern MMOs is great, but once you get down to brass tacks the theme park system just isnt as deep and interesting. This video topic is something I think about alot and I feel as if you pulled words right out of my brain, especially the last 15mins or so.
For me what makes an old school mmorpg is complete character agency, like point investment at the character selection screen, strength, agility, charisma etc. And of course graphics, I love simple, old, yet pretty graphics, I will always use crusader of magic and magic for the ps1 as an example, ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IpDxv3Q2NY4.html To me that is peak pixel beauty. Also no hand holding, if I want to run off into the distance and get lost, that should be my choice, I don't want linear hand holding and tutorials / notifications.
Greater Faydark is probably the worst starter zone I've done in my leveling experience lol. Lots of struggle trying to find proper mobs to kill without them being all scarced up across the entire zone, as opposed to Freeport or Qeynos, for instance. At least there is Crushbone. :P
Asheron's Call was my gateway into MMORPGs back in late 1999. Played it on and off till it shut down in 2017. I have tried retail EQ a few times, and it's a hard game to get into if you do not have any nostalgia or prior experience with the game. I don't mind the graphics, but the UI and the clucky feel of moving and interacting with the world makes for a rough experience in my opinion. You must have an open mind when trying it out. Project 1999, I have never tried it because of the technical hurdles of getting the darn thing up and running.
@@Learnerofthings I did take a look at it years ago, long before it came onto Steam and early access. At the time there were just two people working on it if I recall correct, and it was just a fun hobby project. Maybe I should take another look 😀
Great vid Bob - purple club survivor on your first mob :) I love classic EQ, certainly put more hours into it than any other game, but the new player experience wasn't great - seems like they were trying to put people off playing it. Back when I was a newbie we didn't have RU-vid, I think I read a PC Pro article on what to do after you log into EQ, plus I had a few friends already playing it - if I didn't have that I may not have played it for very long.
If you havent played final fantasy 11 online. From 2004 era you could always try it out. Huge learning curve with controls but you can play on controller since it was made for the ps2 at first. There is a private server that came out 6 weeks ago or so its amazing loads of players awesome community. HorizonXI is the name of it. There are others as well but it would definately be a different flavor of MMO RPG you might enjoy the tough love it delivers. Cheers looking forward to the p99 content too!
@3:30 forget legendary items. in ever quest it is an epic. hahaha. yes! simply, Epic. p99 is genius. 'the scars of velius'... years of real world time... what an influence. ontop of kunark? and everquest? why should all expansions not be in this graphic?? lol. minecraft.... i wish luclin and the future of everquest would have not been a graphics chase.... did any one developing the game object? did any one have the forsight, and curage to speak up? are we able to recreate what we once had? or is everquest much like ancient ice age civilizations lost and fleeting? thank you for your very entertaining videos. i do sincerely mean this.
you can find cheap starter armor if you can find raw-hide or player made patchwork in shops. very cheap and way better than the cloth drops you can get at that level.
@1:14 having not gone through the entire video, your pre face notes make me think of modern "survival" games..... everquest had food and water. it was the first survival game. imo. also sir, if you are reading this, i have little extra time. with witch i enjoy learning. after years not exploring earth. though i will say. if any game i would wish to master it would be p99.
LOL dude, I started a Human Paladin in P99... I musta chose the wrong city. Unlike you going through one door and finding the guild master, I had to traverse this long winding city and then an even more complicated guild hall that was almost impossible to navigate without a map.
If this is your first pally I would suggest avoiding the high elf. They don’t have enough strength to wear the armor necessary to give them any level of survivability. A seasoned pally could work around it, but for someone new to it you’re going to be very, very, squishy. Squishy is okay for an int caster or even priest type, but not a tank class. With that said very excited to see new super bits and bob eq content!
Your comment is interesting because it demonstrates another issue with recapturing the old experiences. Every game is so 'solved' now before it even comes out. Thousands of guides being created, helpful advice in the comments, nobody is allowed to make mistakes or discover their own path. That is one big reason why these classic experiences are no longer possible.
I've always wanted to try out Enchanter, but I absolutely despise Greater Faydark as a starter zone. What other race would your recommend other than High Elf?
@@Ribyum Just curious, why the hate? Its lack of lvl2 and lvl3 mobs can make 2-5 a slog but then you have steamfont or BB. But beyond that its great, vendors in the zone, guards in multiple places. decent loot, a couple decent newbie quests.
@@RH_-_ I guess it's just the fact that 2-5 in G-Fay is enough of a slog to scare away new players and make them give up within a few hours, I just find it to be a bad zone overall for starting, despite being attached to a few good ones.
Wow has plenty of mind control mechanics and priests have the ability to mind-control monsters and players. Some raid bosses are even designed around this ability. The inability to succinctly list what makes a classic mmo interesting is probably what makes it difficult to design one. What I think would be the goal is a large overlapping class based system with support and cc classes, and a very long slow leveling curve that is focused group play. That combined very limited travel options to ensure you feel tied to your characters current place in the world, would be what I think most people would go for. Instead of that we get soe trying to combine Minecraft or pantheon trying to do physics based mount and climbing systems that is not only impossible for their team, but also a waste of development resources since no potential market for that game is being enticed by botw EverQuest.
"classic" MMO. I've loved and hated this term. Classic to me implies group-centric class interdepence, socially structured MMOs, where its a world and not an on rails experience. This term is only a thing now because of the DRASTIC turn that WoW forced the genre in to with the greed of developers. IMO its not the "classic" MMO its just the MMORPG experience. Games like EQ, DAoC, UO, set the standard and the direction for MMOs to go in. WoW took that path, tangled it, lit it on fire, then took a shit on it and mowed its own path. No one wants the shit strewn path so they took WoW's cleanly mowed trail instead. We see where that got us...
P99 is awesome. But if you and another are playing on the same connection you can get screwed pretty quick. Me and my wife petitioned to P99 to allow two connections with the same IP. They never got back to us after 3 weeks of waiting. A buddy of mine from the original Sol Ro EQ set us up with awesome gear. So, we got a VPN. Well there we are in north Ro, she is medding and went to get coffee and a DM appears and tells me we have 15 seconds to comply to run in a circle. I explain that my wife is downstairs and on the way. I'm screaming at my wife to get upstairs and boom our accounts are banned for life lol - We are now creating other accounts and waiting to approval for two accounts first before we start over.
@26:10 or one could be at a young age while playing and not read anything at all, or even the controlls. and be totalay enamored and frustrated at the same time.
@@SuperBitsandBob I’ve been playing it. Fun to have something a bit different from p99 but it’s very crowded. I think there were like 2.5k players on yesterday! Every noob yard had like 80 people.
