# Help me have more fun with Everquest **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792 "2004-10-06T03:18:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ummm.yeahh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ummm.yeahh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ummm.yeahh)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/1 "2004-10-06T03:18:37Z")
So I bought the game about 2 weeks ago. In general, I am an RPG fan. But I am having a hard time staying into this game. But I feel I should give it a little more as I did drop the coin to buy the game. Most of the time I wander around until I either get lost, get killed by a much larger NPC or just get bored. What am I missing about “Evercrack”? What’s fun about walking around a desert killing snakes and Puma’s? Why would I ever want to learn how to “virtual bake”? I’m assuming once you hook up with friends and start questing it gets better but I’m not sure how to do that. In my opinion, there should be a much better system for Newbies. I really don’t want to give up on this game. Please help! ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/2 "2004-10-06T04:29:07Z")
I’m not familiar with that area of the continent, but try to do the newbie armor quests. Not sure what class you are, but someone around the area that you first ported into (and probably the person your guildmaster advised you to see first) can give the quests to you. Some classes solo poorly. I’ve only been playing about a month, so I’m no expert, but those classes are better played with a group. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/3 "2004-10-06T04:56:25Z")
Oh, and if you happen to find a book on a pedestal somewhere in your wanderings, touch it. It’ll take you to the Plane of Knowledge. My best advice is to find the soulbinder in the neutral quarter south of the Library and bind to the Plane of Knowledge, because you can go just about ANYWHERE from there. There are portals to almost every major city in Norrath (and Luclin), good, evil and neutral. ---
**Author:** ![Grossbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba8739/32.png) [@Grossbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grossbottom)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/4 "2004-10-06T14:36:27Z")
If you’ve just started, you’re in for a lonely existence for awhile. Most of the players are in the endgame stage…they’re all over level 60 and killing gods, exploring high-end expansions, etc. Those that start new characters use other accounts and/or friends to raise the level of the new character quickly. At least on my old server, the starting areas are pretty empty…there’s not really anyone with whom to group and play. Last time I tried to go back I got bored and cancelled my account. Honestly, I’d just wait for Everquest 2 to come out, that way you can start on a server with many years ahead of it and chockfull newbie zones. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/5 "2004-10-06T16:01:46Z")
Not exactly what you’re asking, but keep an eye out for World of Warcraft, Blizzard’s upcoming entry into the genre. I’ve been following its development, and spent a frenzied week buried in its stress test; although I’ve not played Everquest, I get the impression from other players that it fixes many of the former game’s problems. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/6 "2004-10-06T16:10:00Z")
> [@Grossbottom](#): > > If you’ve just started, you’re in for a lonely existence for awhile. Most of the players are in the endgame stage…they’re all over level 60 and killing gods, exploring high-end expansions, etc. Those that start new characters use other accounts and/or friends to raise the level of the new character quickly. > At least on my old server, the starting areas are pretty empty…there’s not really anyone with whom to group and play. Last time I tried to go back I got bored and cancelled my account. Honestly, I’d just wait for Everquest 2 to come out, that way you can start on a server with many years ahead of it and chockfull newbie zones. Not entirely true. The servers Morden Rasp and Maerlin Spyre (I think that’s the spelling) are newbie servers, and are in fact the servers that SEO requires all of the free trial people to use. ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/7 "2004-10-06T16:19:53Z")
Tell us some more about what class/race you are playing and your current level. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/8 "2004-10-06T16:22:26Z")
And I’m assuming you’re in Ro somewhere, since you mention desert, but could you confirm just WHERE you are, as well? ---
**Author:** ![Grossbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba8739/32.png) [@Grossbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grossbottom)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/9 "2004-10-06T18:09:49Z")
The OP said he paid for the game, so I assumed they could be on any server… Anyway, if you decide to stay, make a troll shaman. Makes it that much more fun to cook up some high elven veal and serve it to the cleric on your next dungeon romp. Or gnome kabobs…or dwarf chops… One fun thing that any character can do is tradeskills. Starter ingredients are everywhere on the monsters in newbie areas, which makes getting started as a baker/tailor/blacksmith cheap and easy. You’ll find recipes and more help on [www.eqtraders.com](http://www.eqtraders.com). And believe it or not, some of the easiest things to find and make sell the best in the Bazaar. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/10 "2004-10-06T20:08:26Z")
I don’t understand why more women don’t get into EQ. It’s all about hanging out with friends, shopping, sewing, baking, and wearing the right jewelry. Seriously, Everquest is mostly about grouping with other people, strategizing (hopefully), and combining disparate characters’ strengths to kill things that yield the maximum loot and/or experience. So as others have said, you probably should check out the newbie servers (I had no idea such a thing existed). Also, check out > **[Video Game News, Reviews, and Walkthroughs - IGN](https://www.ign.com)** > > IGN is your #1 destination for all video game news, expert reviews, and walkthroughs. [http://www.eqatlas.com/](http://www.eqatlas.com/) [http://www.gamespot.com/features/everquest\_gg/](http://www.gamespot.com/features/everquest_gg/) These sites will give you an idea of what the game is about and how to set up an effective character. Usually, if you start grouping with people and are not a blithering idiot, you will get an invitation to join a guild. The level of commitment varies, but basically guilds are mutual aid societies: richer, older characters will give you equipment you could never afford, and in return you help other members with quests or raids or whatnot. If you have trouble finding people to group with, you could start a character on the Nameless server and let me know your character’s name - I’ll tell my husband (who has four or five 60-ish characters) to keep an eye out for you. ---
**Author:** ![ummm.yeahh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ummm.yeahh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ummm.yeahh)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/11 "2004-10-07T01:31:28Z")
I’ve started a few different characters. Right now I am a Human Paladin. Yes I am in Ro and surrounding territories. I’m playing on the Stromm server. Thanks for the advice so far. ---
**Author:** ![ummm.yeahh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ummm.yeahh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ummm.yeahh)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/12 "2004-10-07T01:34:03Z")
My characters are all around lvl 7 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/13 "2004-10-07T01:54:41Z")
What server are you on? I play on a couple but my main server is solusek ro - i have a 65 paladin named Palledine [yeah, I didnt name him, my goddaughter did - what do you expect from a 6 year old…] a 58 cleric named Aruvqan, a 56 druid named Iadoreme, and a few others. If you really arent too invested in your server come over to solro and i can help you get started up. I do a lot of quests, and tradeskills, and am not in a raid guild so I am not always locked into having to go somewhere and be doing something else. And if you didnt know, you can always get me in chat across servers by /join solusek.aru to join my normal chat group, or send a tell across server with ;t solusek.aruvqan [then insert message here instead of brackets] but you get no indication if i am online or offline and get the message or not… ---
**Author:** ![Phelan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Phelan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phelan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/14 "2004-10-07T03:43:31Z")
Have you been in any groups yet? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/15 "2004-10-07T04:30:30Z")
> [@ummm... yeahh...](#): > > What am I missing about “Evercrack”? I’d say you’re missing, oh, five and a half years or so. Seriously, I got the game in April of 1999 and played for a year and a half or so and it was just absolutely amazing. It was revolutionary. It took a pretty big dive when Brad McQuaid left though. Even though we all hated him for making the game too hard, we realized when he left that it _needed_ to be hard. I picked up the game in the spring of 2003 and found the early part of the game pathetically, boringly easy. I solo’ed to level 52 in under a week, whereas it took me months to get my earlier characters to 45+. And the end game is pure monotonous grind now. No one pays attention to the storyline anymore. No one explores or takes risks anymore. No one goes to the old fun zones like Solusek A & B, Upper and Lower Guk, and Castle Mistmoore anymore. The whole game is just a big interactive billion sided pair of dice now. Basically, in my opinion, the Plane of Knowledge (released late 2002, I think - I wasn’t playing at the time) ruined that game. Travel, and the time it took to travel, was one of the most engrossing elements of Everquest. I doubt anyone who has bought the game in the last year has walked from Felwithe to Qeynos, and no one binds in Freeport to hunt in Guk anymore. How many of you who have come to the game recently have ever ran through Highpass, fearing for your life, and then tip-toed down the looooong ramp to East Karana with your heart thumping out of your chest, afraid you’re going to fall off? How many of you have ran all the way up to Permafrost just to _see_ an Ice Giant? How many of you have fought Lord Nagafen or Lady Vox - and lost? I’m not saying it’s your fault, not by any means. The devs and SOE let that game go to shit. I miss old school EQ ☹ . ---
**Author:** ![barking\_frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/96bed5/32.png) [@barking\_frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barking_frog)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/16 "2004-10-07T05:05:12Z")
Here’s something I posted on another forum recently that is fairly relevant. > [@](#): > > I’ve been incredibly bored lately when it comes to gaming, so I decided to give Everquest a shot again (I played hardcore for the first year it came out, and then quit when Kunark came out). After installing it, it went through a small program to adjust your settings, but the resolution settings were limited to 1152x864 (my LCD uses 1280x1024), so I just set it to the max. I restarted the game and then it kept crashing to desktop upon startup. I figured it had something to do with the resolution, so I went into the ini file and changed the video size from 1600x1200 (which I never set it to), to 1280x1024. I could easily see someone new to gaming/computers not being able to resolve this themselves, leading to a very frustrating experience. > > I managed to get my way to the server screen and was disappointed that I could only log onto two of the servers. I made a character, and then was thrown into a dark foggy cave, and proceeded to go through the most annoying tutorial ever while trying to figure out the cluttered and unintuitive UI (which I understand you can now customize). During one of the steps I was also told to give my only weapon to an NPC, leaving me completely unarmed (I was under the impression I would get a better one in return for giving him mine). I eventually found my way out of the tutorial and was teleported into the heart of the dwarf city; if I had not remembered some of the layout, it would have taken me ages to get out. > > Once I got out into the Butcher Block mountains, I ran around for a bit killing the monsters that were scattered few and far between, all the while seeing no other human characters. The graphics, at least in the zones I went to, have not improved in the 4 years since I’ve played, and the loading times still take almost the same time it did before (even though my computer now is drastically better). I quickly got bored, uninstalled the game, and deleted the file. > > I realize that now EQ caters towards high level players, and 1-55+ is just a grind to get to the endgame content. But really, how do they expect to get new players when it’s so unfriendly towards them? The graphics suck, the whole “loading” thing is no longer there in most MMORPGs, the UI is unintuitive and ugly, the tutorial is aggravating, and there are virtually no other low level chracters to interact with. You are basically thrown into the world and told “kill stuff.” > > I may be a bit biased, so I’d like to know are the any of you who have tried EQ recently? What were your thoughts? There’s a reason that EQ growth has [stagnated](http://pw1.netcom.com/~sirbruce/Subscriptions.html) over the last three years. If you have trouble getting into EQ it’s simply because you missed the boat. The game has taken a radically different direction since it was released, and SOE would rather keep existing subscriptions than attract new ones. I am impatiently awaiting World of Warcraft. ---
**Author:** ![Kricket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f14d63/32.png) [@Kricket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kricket)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-have-more-fun-with-everquest/267792/17 "2004-11-06T22:34:10Z")
Go to the Tunar server and do a who all on “children of honor”. There is one other SDMB member in the guild, and at least one other MB member on the server. We have a great guild and I will help you as much as I can. Naeyeni 47 cleric Vinadrea 34 shadow knight I would love to have more people to play with and chat with!