I had an attempt to get my main character back Well I was bored and since I have a brand spanking new PC I figured id try again and it was successful this time and other than a few technical changes I dislike and things I have to get used to the biggest thing I noticed is 1 I lost a few lvls and two its flipping empty I don’t know if its the e-marr server or what …
especially in the 15 to 30 areas like the ro deserts … I’m trying to earn some change to buy armor since I lost everything I had a 2nd time right before my PC was messed up
So I might start a new character and learn the new stuff and then go back to the main … but yeah its a shock tho
From what I understand, what low level population exists in Everquest is all on the “progression” servers. Those are the ones that essentially start the game over then time release when the expansion areas unlock in order of release. On the standard servers, everyone is messing around at max level.
Probably not as powerful as you would think. EQ, like most other MMOs, has a level cap (currently at level 120, if Wikipedia is accurate), which they have gradually raised over the years. In between expansions (and liftings of the level cap), it’s likely that one can get some incrementally better gear, but playing continuously once you reach that level cap (and get whatever the maxed-out gear is at that point) probably won’t get you a whole lot.
A character who’s been played continuously since 1999 likely wouldn’t be more powerful than a character that has been started relatively recently, and which had been advanced up to the level cap, and geared up with whatever the top-level gear is in that game at this moment.
Having played several MMOs over the past decade, what is pretty common is that there are a lot of players who only play the game when new content drops – they play the new story quests, level their characters up to the new cap, get better gear, and then they stop playing until the next patch or expansion gives them something new to do again.
I don’t play EQ, so I have no idea. My guess would be more like the former than the latter, but that’s a guess. (Cap in EQ appears to be level 120, according to Wikipedia, but that article may be out of date.)
Back in '99 when I was an intern at [REDACTED], we all got free accounts for life of Everquest. I ended up putting in something like 24 in-game days over the course of 90 real-world days. It was… not good. But it largely inoculated me against MMO addiction as I didn’t touch it again afterward. Unfortunately, I gave the account to a friend, and I think played a minor role in him failing out of college. Although I played some MMOs here and there after (WoW, EVE), it was never close to the same level.
Some good memories that I have no intent to revisit. Wouldn’t be the same.
Oh, and I did write myself a cheat for the game. For illumination at night, you had to buy an expensive orb thing. It took up an inventory slot and actually kinda sucked due to the vertex lighting and immense triangles. I hacked the graphics device driver to always have a minimum level of illumination. Never got darker than twilight, basically.
That’s a huge bag of “it depends” Guesses below but disclaimer that I haven’t played in years…
If your end game buddy talked you into joining with the promise of leveling you up? Probably well under a hundred hours. When you’re low level, you get piled on buffs and the best gear you can use and tear through things well above your level. When you get within leveling range of your buddy (30 levels on the high end), you join them in a group and soak up experience while they fight stuff.
Solo? Totally depends on class. A pet class like a Mage, Beastlord or Necromancer can buy cheap powerful temporary weapons for their summoned pet and let them destroy things. A class like a cleric or fighter is going to go much slower though you can hire “mercenary” companions to assist you. Also they added a class of armor to the lower end game called “Defiant” which drops randomly and is far better than any of the legacy gear for its level range so you can skip looking for better gear and just keep slaughtering stuff for experience. A pet class, I’d guess 100+ hours if you just level grind. A less solo-capable class, maybe 3-5x that.
The cheat-y answer? You can buy a Heroic Character slot and be near max level immediately (I think level 100 now?) then work your way up from there.
Starting from level 1 in a level appropriate group? Will never happen on the main servers. No one is just adventuring “normally” from 1-120 (or whatever) these days. If you want to play that game, you need to join the progression servers which are designed to relive the glory days.
to 2001. Project 1999 is a free to play Classic Everquest Server, unaffiliated with Daybreak Game Company but operating under legal permission. Our goal is to restore the magic and difficulty of the original Everquest game, including the mechanics, interface, and challenges of Original Content, Kunark, and Velious. Project 1999 is the most popular and most accurate reincarnation of Old School Everquest.
Strange. I quit playing in about 2001 or so, so I’m far from up to date. I had assumed it had just sort of faded away with the rise of WoW and the rest of the MMORPGs of the early-mid 2000s.
I knew about Project 1999 but that’s almost a whole different game than even the Progression servers. It’s supposed to be a “true” old school EQ experience with the original graphics, UI, and none of the Quality of Life improvements added to the game over time.
It’s how I originally played the game and I have fond memories of it but I’m also well past wanting to spend three hours waiting to get into a Frenzied camp in Lower Guk for the sake of nostalgia
Servers not very crowded, very established player population, most leveling players are twinks of a raiding character. I was very ghetto, starting from scratch. And then, in one group some guy got all up in my sh*t because my weak, ghetto cleric can’t keep up with his pulls. People take that stuff way too seriously. I played for a couple of months, mainly solo, it was fun nostalgia.
