# Suggest a free Everquest-type online game. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 15, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873 "2014-01-15T15:07:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/1 "2014-01-15T15:07:07Z")
I downloaded EQ again after a few years away. For whatever reason it won’t connect to the Sony server and I really don’t care enough to figure out why. What I’m wondering is what other free online games are like it? (Graphics, gameplay, non-linear, etc) 'd like something I can focus on, like quests and such, but also something where I can just roam around for a couple hours killing stuff here and there. Any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/2 "2014-01-15T15:23:31Z")
Lord of the Rings Online is probably the most Everquesty of the “free to play” MMORPGs so you might want to start with that. Note that most, if not all, free to play games have cash shops and game play mechanics designed to nudge you into spending a few dollars: Raised level caps, xp-gain potions, increase bag slots, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/3 "2014-01-15T20:10:05Z")
Sliding this over to the Game Room. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/4 "2014-01-15T20:47:03Z")
I just recently downloaded [RIFT](http://www.riftgame.com/en/) and have been having a lot of fun there so far. It doesn’t seem to hit you over the head with “HEY! WE HAVE A CASH SHOP! YOU REALLY OUGHT TO PURCHASE SOMETHING FROM OUR CASH SHOP!” nearly as much as most F2P games do. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/5 "2014-01-15T21:16:48Z")
I’m having fun with Neverwinter from perfect world. Modified 4e D&D. I’ve maxed out a couple of times on various builds and never felt I had to pay to survive. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/6 "2014-01-15T21:29:49Z")
Second vote for Rift. Also Star Wars: The Old Republic. They took out about a third of the game when they made it free to play, so if you played it prior to that, it’s like playing a lobotomized version of the game. If it’s new, you might not notice the gaping holes. And, it’s very pretty. And Star Wars. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/7 "2014-01-17T15:18:18Z")
Another vote for LotRO; It and Everquest are the only MMOs I’ve ever seriously played. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/8 "2014-02-03T15:40:24Z")
I used to be a big LOTRO fan but they’ve now changed the mechanics to a really poor tree system and turned the difficulty level down to -11. It’s now just another solo MMO purely built around the Store. ---
**Author:** ![Oliveritaly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oliveritaly/32/15233_2.png) [@Oliveritaly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oliveritaly)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/9 "2014-03-12T09:15:36Z")
Duffer, if you can get the EQ issue resolved they are rolling out “Heroic Characters” today. It’s basically a level 85 (with appropriate gear/aa/skills) offered for free\* in an effort to encourage people to play or to return to play the game. The rules surrounding the free level 85 toon are at [everquest.com](http://everquest.com) if you’d like more information. I’d even guess it’s having some effect, the game seems a bit more crowded (thought not at all over crowded) and there’s a lot of old familiar faces that have been popping in to say hello over the last week or so. - They are free for the next couple of weeks as part of the anniversary celebration. After they will cost a few bucks. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/10 "2014-03-12T13:50:36Z")
I MIGHT go back to Everquest if they let me actually USE the characters I still have, but the fact that as a “mere” “former subscriber” my characters are crippled (can’t use half their gear and a lot of their AAs! Woo! And it’s not like I was a bleeding edge raider back in The Day) basically makes me shake my head and close the game down. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/11 "2014-03-12T13:57:12Z")
The old republic is one of the most single player/questing friendly MMO’s out there. I’d recommend that. Much of WOW is also free to play now a days. But I don’t much about MMO’s so I’m not sure what qualities make an MMO - everquest-y. I have an Elder Scrolls online beta key if you’re interested. It won’t be a free to play game when it comes out though. ---
**Author:** ![Oliveritaly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oliveritaly/32/15233_2.png) [@Oliveritaly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oliveritaly)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/12 "2014-03-12T14:48:27Z")
Airk, I might be wrong but I think they removed a lot of those restrictions … regardless check it out this week at least I thought they were doing something to encourage players to come back. I think they rolled them back a while ago but there are further roll backs for this month as part of the anniversary stuff. I’m at work so I cannot check but if you get a chance it might be worth a few minutes to see … Curious to see what you find out … ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/13 "2014-03-12T16:57:25Z")
There’s no restrictions on AA’s you already have. In fact, people used to sub gold for one month, just grind out AA’s then lapse back to free and keep their new abilities. Restrictions on augments were reduced as well (they no longer make the equipment unusable, just the aug). I still find it funny that my +65hp hotzone aug is allowed but my old +2 agility LDON augments are verboten. Back to AA’s, now they autogrant you (nearly) all the AA’s for your level when you reach it so there’s no grinding of AA’s any longer. I’m not sure how that works with the silver level subscriber cap since I haven’t been on in months. Also, some AA’s are exempt from autogranting such as the Spell Casting Subtlety line since some classes (necros, for instance) rely on the spell aggro while pet kiting. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/14 "2014-03-13T13:53:49Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > There’s no restrictions on AA’s you already have. In fact, people used to sub gold for one month, just grind out AA’s then lapse back to free and keep their new abilities. Restrictions on augments were reduced as well (they no longer make the equipment unusable, just the aug). I still find it funny that my +65hp hotzone aug is allowed but my old +2 agility LDON augments are verboten. Oh, cool, this must be a recent change, since the last time I logged in, the first thing I did was try to self buff myself, and my own self-only spell bounced off myself because the version that was on me from the last time I logged out was BETTER than the version I was casting now because like 2/3rds of my AAs were blocked. > [@](#): > > Back to AA’s, now they autogrant you (nearly) all the AA’s for your level when you reach it so there’s no grinding of AA’s any longer. I’m not sure how that works with the silver level subscriber cap since I haven’t been on in months. Also, some AA’s are exempt from autogranting such as the Spell Casting Subtlety line since some classes (necros, for instance) rely on the spell aggro while pet kiting. Er…what’s the point of even having AAs then? o.o That’s super weird. Anyway, I’ll check it out. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/15 "2014-03-13T15:28:28Z")
Agreed about the AA changes but I assume they’re trying to shepherd people along to the end game levels. I can see it being daunting to realize that your level 85 paladin is still crap for tanking unless you have 3,000 AA on him as well (or whatever, just illustrative numbers). I believe you can fully disable the autogranting in case you’re a weirdo who enjoys grinding AA as well but I haven’t logged in in a few months so don’t quote me. From what I understand, Heroic characters on Silver accounts come with AA granted to the Silver level cap. You could sub Gold for a month and have the rest autogranted and, as I said, you’ll still keep them when you lapse back to Silver. I’m sure the hope there is once you paid $15 for one month to beat the system, you’ll decide Gold is worth the money. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/16 "2014-03-18T14:04:36Z")
So yeah; Logged in briefly yesterday. They might have RAISED the cap on “AAs you can have before we cut you off” because my ALT no longer hits the AA cap, but my main character? Yeah. 2224/1000 AAs. 😛 And most of my gear was still not giving me stats. On the plus side, they gave me a bunch of random reward gear that replaces a lot of that stuff anyway. -\_- I dunno, partly it just makes me sad, and partly, gear in EQ has too damn many stats for me to try to remember what they all do. Did they ever implement a screen that actually told you how close to the cap you were on all the random BS bonuses from gear? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/17 "2014-03-18T14:25:36Z")
You might have had 2224/1000 AAs but they all should have been active. You couldn’t gain more but you could use all the abilities from the AAs you earned. Agreed about the stats. Guess it’s just a case of trying to keep a fifteen year old game ‘fresh’ but I also don’t know what half of them do when I get a piece of gear and there’s a spreadsheet attached to it. ---
**Author:** ![Oliveritaly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oliveritaly/32/15233_2.png) [@Oliveritaly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oliveritaly)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/18 "2014-03-18T15:29:45Z")
It, at least at the moment, is bringing a lot of players in or back in. The ‘hot zones’ where you can do daily tasks (for really good exp) are insanely crowded at the moment. I think that’s a great thing if a percentage of them stick around. I created a Heroic Character on the day they pushed them pushed them live on my two accounts. With casual playing since then (playing with a maxxed toon on my other account mind you) I’ve gotten the HC almost to 89. Grouped with a few old friends in game that came back for the HC who were silver and I can’t recall any of them having too difficult a time but again having a maxxed toon with a tier V cleric merc does make most encounters a lot easier. Not sure what sever either of you (Jophiel or Airk) play on but I’m on Cazic as Raoull most days. Shoot me a tell … ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-a-free-everquest-type-online-game/678873/19 "2014-03-18T20:27:49Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > You might have had 2224/1000 AAs but they all should have been active. You couldn’t gain more but you could use all the abilities from the AAs you earned. Possible. Maybe it’s only that some of my gear is shut off that’s keeping me from being able to overwrite my own buffs. > [@](#): > > Agreed about the stats. Guess it’s just a case of trying to keep a fifteen year old game ‘fresh’ but I also don’t know what half of them do when I get a piece of gear and there’s a spreadsheet attached to it. Yeah. It’s REALLY not easy to compare gear due to the lack of standard ‘formatting’ too. Quick, what’s the difference between these two items: A+10,B+20,C+12,D+13,H+15,Q+21,Z+1 A+10,B+12,C+11,E+13,H+15,R+21,Y+1 ? 😛 Edit: Oh, and I think I’m on 7th Hammer, but not really playing yet, per se.