EQ going Free-to-Play....but the Mac EQ server is shutting down

News:

http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/ne...

And on the Mac server:

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/po...

For those that don't know, the Mac server (Al Kabor) was frozen at the end of the POP expansion, preserving a very old-school EQ environment.

I sent a PM to Elysium but I thought I'd share with you guys here too.

I have no idea why but I am trying to talk myself into siging up for this.

Lets be honest, anyone who considers this is going to have to spend money in the cash shop to make it remotely viable. I doubt hardly anybody is going to get a lot of mileage with a (human, barbarian, erudite or gnome) (wizard, cleric, rogue, warrior), and two character slots per server.

We are also going to have to put up with dated graphics and animations, and a horribly cluttered UI. But I am thinking that I wouldn't mind a step back to simpler leveling by killing 50 slightly lower level monsters.

You could actually go a pretty long ways with an Erudite wizard as a solo player. Everquest added ultra-fast out of combat mana and health regen a long time ago, so the old days of staring at your spellbook for 15 minutes to recharge are just a memory.

The main problem I see is that they're probably going to lock down the equipment and inventory space as harshly as they do in EQ2. Playing EQ2 without subscribing is an exercise in frustration as they effectively limit you to the lowest ranks of gear and abilities which makes you perform a few levels lower than your actual level. I'd go so far as to call EQ2's F2P model a really extended trial that you can pay money for.

Also, I don't think you can go from level 1 to level 2 by killing a mere 50 mobs in EQ

Levels 1-5ish were different. Maybe even as high as 7.

But it was pretty consistant that each high blue conned monster you killed netted you half a blue bubble. There were 5 blue bubbles for each yellow bubble and 5 yellow bubbles per level. There were certain areas in Luclin where the xp didn't get split or split as much so people flew through levels 15-25 in groups. I think there were some dungeons that gave xp bonuses. It has been so long, yikes.

Things changed again once you hit level 50 and who knows how long things took 60+. I quit long before that was available. And of course there were hell levels which they have technically removed but not really since they just spread the hell level xp amongst the other levels.

As far as equipment, well you just go with the classes that were not dependant much on gear. The pet classes were always good for that. I was figuring on playing casters and pet classes anyways because I remember melee combat had serious line of sight issues that were an exercise in frustration with missing unless you had the perfect angle on the monster. Although now that you mention it, all the scary stuff is coming back to me where you split xp with your pets.

Dipped my toes back into EQ, both on the PC and on the Mac. (SOE heard the pleas of the Mac players and have kept the server running, still frozen at POP). The two experiences are VERY different.

EQ-PC felt a lot like WOW. Very directed, lots of labels above NPC heads telling you what they are (merchant, quest-giver, guildmaster, etc.). quick leveling (was lvl 10 as a cleric in under two hours, soloing), a quest tracker.

EQ-Mac felt like the EQ that I played originally - very little guidance, tough soloing, buffs/debuffs make a big difference, people in groups have specific roles, getting swarmed by adds gets scary, trains to zones - it was all there. Have a 23 cleric and a 16 necro at the moment.

Of the two, I enjoyed the EQ-Mac community better. Gameplay is a bit of a toss-up, with EQ-PC having a leg-up on the interface and availability of tools to manage inventory, spell-line-ups, tradeskills. But EQ-PC feels very much like a connect-the-dots picture, while EQ-Mac still requires that you work on a blank canvas. I'll probably spend more time on EQ-Mac as a result - I had my fill of connecting dots with WOW.

I would conclude that EQ-PC is not like WoW. It may have WoW like features or streamlining of features. But it is still EQ with warts and all. But that isn't really a bad thing depending on what you want to get out of the experience.

They are trying to diguise apply tiny bandaids the grind, the trains, the unneccesary deaths, the extended downtime, the forced grouping. I am not a casual mmo player. I put a lot of time into them. But I have no expecations so I have a completely casual approach to EQ. The new "gadgets" intrigue me. Mercenaries seem like basically letting every class get a pet to solo with, that is your level and carries level appropriate gear automatically. Also, don't be fooled about downtime. It is better, and maybe the amount better increases as you level, but it is still lengthy to regain mana.

There is a task system centered around a new starting city that apparently has content to solo from 1-75. It works but I think any resemblance to WoW's questing is overblown and usually from a unnecessarily jaded viewpoint. It may yield decent gear at later levels though, so it is worth revisiting despite my prefence for regular old chain killing monsters.

The spirit shroud monster play sounds very in depth but very much in line with EQ mechanics that are tough to start and a steep but less so learning curve as you go along.

It is funny that there is a lot of griping about the limitations of the free accounts. Its the perfect example of design out of control. We don't care where we are headed as long as we are moving incrementally to dangle the carrot just a few inches further. One of the main complaints is that the AA cap is too low. I think a lot of the staunch veterans lose sight that the people they are trying to bring back or the people that would stick with the free account could care less about AA's. I haven't played since 2003ish and I remember AA's but they weren't required to raid or level to at least 60 if not 65. I think if you talked to raiding guilds back then, they would be dumbfounded that 3000 AA's were a minimum requirement to raid. And these were people that made groups of 5 meditating and chain full-healing clerics and 1 warrior to kill a raging giant boss. I think he took 40 minutes to 1 hour to kill. So don't think for a second they weren't the tops of the hardcore.

So I am waffling a bit. But with minimal investment, the free account can provide unfettered access to countless hours of nostalgia. And I think it is my expectations and my lack of investment other than whimsical fancy that is combating EQ's warts most strongly, not its "modern features".

Is it wrong to be charmed by some of EQ's notable inconveniences.

Some of the new texture work is really good but it really is lipstick on a pig with the (years ago) revamped character models and animations. You hack away at little rats and bats for dozens of seconds. You would think it wouldn't take 35 swings to kill one, but you would be wrong. The only reason you haven't died many times over is because of a newb tutorial buff that negates 90% of the damage. Yes! I have attained offense(6) and piercing(11). Your spell fizzles, what?

The above may sound like snark but it is not. All of these things tickle me and may keep me playing. Would I subscribe to this, hell no! Playing it for free is almost a no brainer. Its too bad I decided to jump onboard after the date when the premium classes would be grandfathered in. But I don't think EQ is going to close down in the next year so spending the 20-30$ or so to unlock some character slots, classes and races seems like a real bargain. I'm guessing at prices but we will see what that gets me in the cash shop. And this is even knowing the massive onslaught of upcoming online games.

I've got to get the froglok race, no question. Some of the other races are maybes, like half elves, wood elves, halflings and iksar (though I really like the old school iksar so much better than the revamp).

Pretty much all the classes interest me but the warrior, wizard and rogue interest me the least. Too bad they are 3 of the stock classes you get for free. I hope they have class bundles or class/race bundles. Although I think classes in EQ2 are 200 cash points or 2 bucks so 10 classes is a measily $20.

With all the EQ news lately, I tried to dig up 1 of my 3 old EQ accounts, and I have no idea the emails, login names or passwords I used to use during the dark days of my EQ addiction.

Maybe it is for the best I leave that chapter permanently closed.

I had to create a new account!

I had like 5 accounts tied to my email address. Sure some of them were EQ2 and planetside and betas for dcuo or free realms. I couldn't remember a password for one of them.

Well EQ is now f2p.

Races are 300 sc ($3). Classes are way overpriced at 750 sc ($7.50). They should be less than $5 IMHO. Or at least they should offer 3 class or 5 class packs where the discount lowers the per class price to below $5.

They are having a sale for 1 mercenary slot. It is 800 sc or $8 now and was marked down from 1500 sc or $15.

They start you off with no bags and 4 inventory slots that are filled with food, water, lamp and intro quest book. So I don't know how they expect you to make money to buy a bag when you have no space to put the beetle eyes and bear skins to sell. Thankfully I was a froglok with ultravision so I didn't need a lamp. I destroyed it and bought a bag. Its not a big deal for returning veterans but the newbs will be frustrated from the get go.

Now the good news, hopefully, is that all my characters I created in the trial are accessible. I only have 2 slots for 7 characters, but I was able to play my froglok necro first thing this morning. Characters created before feb 29th were supposed to be grandfathered in. But it looks like characters created before the extended maintenance on march 15th were also grandfathered in. I hope this isn't a holdover from my 14 day trial and my characters won't be locked as soon as that is up.

It will definitely be worth it to pay the $5 for the silver membership. You just can't pass up 4 character slots per server and apprentice V mercs. Oh and inventory slots gets bumped to 6. The extra AA alotment of 1000 won't come in to play until much later.

I can't believe SOE won't be smart enough to have unique mercs for purchase in the shop that will hopefully allow silver accounts a higher tier merc than apprentice. Though I must say, my necro with pet and merc and my dots is a force to be reckoned with!

This just in... starting noon pacific they are having a double station cash sale for 24 hours.

So:
Silver account is now $2.50
races = $1.50
classes = $3.75

I just logged in and checked out my old character. They restricted things just as bad as I expected them to.

Spells are restricted to rank 1 unless you pay 750SC per character to unlock them, inventory slots are limited to 6 unless you buy more at 250SC per slot, and AA's are limited to 1,000 unless you pay 250SC per 100 to raise the cap.

In addition to this, augments are forbidden on a silver or lower account, which means any gear with an augment is completely unusable, and there is no way to unlock it. Also, platinum is capped based on level with no way to raise the cap.

Considering that AA is the heart of advancement in Everquest, I'd have to immediately pay over $30 in real money just to be able to continue AA progression on my old character (and that would only let me earn another 50 points or so.) Realistically if I wanted to go back and play this I'd be looking at a minimum expenditure of $50-60 to get started as a "Free to play" customer.

SOE just doesn't seem to get the F2P concept. This is an unlimited trial with microtransactions, not a true pay-as-you-go model. Anyone seriously into the game will be forced to subscribe in order to overcome some of the more arbitrary restrictions they saddle the free accounts with.

Oh I don't disagree with you. If you want to raid, either subscribe like you used to or drop a one time fee and be done with it. Seriously though, do you really think that anyone who is still raiding in EQ after all of these years wouldn't love to drop even say $100 dollars and be set until the servers go down? People are still paying $100 for the yearly subscription for this mmo. (my mind is completely blown here) People pay $200+ for lifetime subscriptions in other mmos.

I am of 2 minds on this. They are absolutely being particularly greedy with the restrictions. But at the same time, with double station cash I can spend a little more than the price of an expansion pack (say $50) and play everything I'd ever want to get out of this game (10 more classes, 3 more races and 1500 for inventory, etc.)for the indefinite future. There is a metric ton of 1-90 content out there that doesn't require raiding.

The one thing I don't understand is the AA. Is that 250sc per 100 AA across all of your characters or for each? Is the 1000 AA cap for silver accounts across all characters or each character gets 1000 AA's? I.E. for either the cap or the cash shop boost does my necro get 1000, shaman 1000 and ranger get 1000 AA limit or would I have to spread 1000 over the 3 of them (necro get 250, shaman gets 600, ranger gets 100 with 50 left over)

I think their flaw is that they will remove the subscription but expect you to repay for content already created. When with all of the systems in place, they could make a fortune selling new AA's, spell ranks, cosmetic items, unique mercs or new merc skins, pet cosmetics, monster types for monster play, housing and furniture, races, and the list goes on and on...

The AA cap is on a per character basis, and it's the most crippling element of the limitations. 1,000 AA is nothing in the scheme of the 70+ Everquest game, and I'm not talking about raiding at all here. From the Gates of Discord expansion onward all the content in the game was tuned with AA in mind. Without high levels of defensive AA's the mobs rip through you like you're tissue paper, and without significant investment in the offensive AA it takes forever to kill anything.

If you want to start a brand new character, I'd agree that there's probably a lot out there to see in the 1-60-ish range, but after that it's going to turn into a very frustrating game.

Even the Serpent Spine 60+ content? (the print claims level 1-75 with solo task content)

I expected as much with the AA's but I didn't think it would affect single monster pulls or at least you can have your merc tank for you as a viable option.

Elycion wrote:

I just logged in and checked out my old character. They restricted things just as bad as I expected them to.

Spells are restricted to rank 1 unless you pay 750SC per character to unlock them, inventory slots are limited to 6 unless you buy more at 250SC per slot, and AA's are limited to 1,000 unless you pay 250SC per 100 to raise the cap.

In addition to this, augments are forbidden on a silver or lower account, which means any gear with an augment is completely unusable, and there is no way to unlock it. Also, platinum is capped based on level with no way to raise the cap.

Considering that AA is the heart of advancement in Everquest, I'd have to immediately pay over $30 in real money just to be able to continue AA progression on my old character (and that would only let me earn another 50 points or so.) Realistically if I wanted to go back and play this I'd be looking at a minimum expenditure of $50-60 to get started as a "Free to play" customer.

SOE just doesn't seem to get the F2P concept. This is an unlimited trial with microtransactions, not a true pay-as-you-go model. Anyone seriously into the game will be forced to subscribe in order to overcome some of the more arbitrary restrictions they saddle the free accounts with.

Wow that is even worse than Champions.

fangblackbone wrote:

Even the Serpent Spine 60+ content? (the print claims level 1-75 with solo task content)

I expected as much with the AA's but I didn't think it would affect single monster pulls or at least you can have your merc tank for you as a viable option.

Mercs can definitely help, even the Apprentice level ones that you are restricted to as a Silver member. The Serpent Spine content was definitely tuned in a post-AA world. I played many of those zones a couple of years ago during a brief return to EQ and they're worlds different from the other content in the same level range (Luclin, etc.)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that the game is completely unplayable. I'm just saying that in their desire to encourage people to upgrade to a subscription that they've royally fooked the F2P model just like they did in EQ2.

Yah, EQ2 didn't have the nostalgia lure that EQ does. It is probably going to get me over the hump in coming back to EQ.

In EQ, I have that pull that says "I must have the froglok race and I must have the necro/druid class." I never felt any attachment like that to anything in EQ2 (maybe the shadow knight or illusionist). And its why I can't play LOTRO either. (the minstrel and the warden were possibilities)

Say what you will about Brad McQuaid but he knew how to make memorable classes or he knew how to hire people that did. I mention this because Vanguard has some terrific ones too. (bard, blood mage, druid, disciple, etc.) Practically no class was generic.

Okay so here is a returning newb FAQ for f2p EQ:

With a little bit of knowledge you can go a long way.

Mercs - get a tier V tank merc no matter what class you play. If you aren't a silver account you can get a tier II tank and it will work well too. This will let you kill low yellow cons and white cons for fast and fun leveling. After 2 hours, my newb bard is level 8.5. This is with an essentially naked character with no twinking. I have 3 quest rewards (weapon, sleeve and leg armor) you get from a few quests in the tutorial area.

There are some high level buffers in the serpent spine newb zone casting buffs which helps. But to be honest, it only made my bard maybe 10% more effective because I was already trading off taking hits with my tank merc and using the hp regen song for minimal downtime.

classes - Pet classes will have the easiest time along with druids and shaman. The necro was a cakewalk with just casting one dot and letting the pet and merc handle what is left of the yellow con monster. The enchanter, magician and beastlord should fair just as well.

The healer classes will be just as effective except they will have to trade off some hits but get buffs, heals and utility spells. The druid should be able buff the merc up and have a damage shield that will let the merc solo yellows. The shaman will be able to buff up the merc greatly and then they will also get a pet way down the line in their 30's.

market - I bought $50 worth of station cash. With that, I bought the silver membership and the 3 character slot bundle. I bought a couple of races and 4-5 classes. I don't intend on playing any of the free classes except maybe the cleric. I am already using the barbarian and humans of the free races, and will fill in with frogloks or one of the elven races as needed.

newb zone- The 1-10 area in the serpent spine newb zone has wandering monsters but none of them so far are aggressive. Yes that may not be very EQ like, but at least there is a choice. I have to admit I am dying to try and find my way to the field of bone to bring back the flood of memories.

Money - is ten times easier to come by. That doesn't necessarily mean it is easy or even current to modern games. But every now and then some armor or weapon drops that can sell for 1-2 plat. And there is also a lot more animal bits that sell for 1/2-7 gold that stack.

I downloaded and logged in just to see my 13 year old characters again. My highest level character was a 42 High Elf Enchantress. Just looking over the equipment and my Deluxe Sewing Kits was worth the download I didn't get a chance to play yet. Man, my characters are so pathetic, decked out in Polished Bone Bracelets, Robe of the Oracle, etc. My enchanter's foot item isn't even magical; it's raw silk slippers or something. Good lord.

Two things preventing me from downloading this. 1. My wife absolutely detests this game and it has been banned from my house.(but she doesn't mind WoW or SWTOR?) 2. I don't know my account info from when I used to play all the way back to beta through Kunark, I think.

The only thing I can remember about EQ was camping things for ungodly amounts of time...looking back I realize how ridiculous it all was...I mean seriously playing a game for 29 hours straight for some rubicite.

You can still do that I am sure if you really want to. All the old content is there. It is just not necessary anymore. At least it seems that way so far.

fangblackbone wrote:

You can still do that I am sure if you really want to. All the old content is there.

Actually Rubicite was pulled out of the game a long time ago. They replaced it with the class-specific Temple of Solusek Ro quest armors. Once the Sol Ro quests went live only Rogue armor still dropped in Cazic, because at that time it was believed that Rogues required an Affirmative Action program.

Much later Cazic Thule was revamped into a much higher level zone with entirely different drops.

Oh, wow. It's time for some nostalgia!
I wonder what my login is...

Dear Sony,
I remember now why I hate you.
Love,
Me.

I believe I've become pretty spoiled with MMO's over the years. I started with Asheron's Call back when it was first released, and if I had to guess, the control scheme is about the same from what I remember (between EQ and AC). I played the sh*t out of some AC back then, but I doubt I could do it now.

Installed EQ and ran it for about 3 minutes before getting frustrated and logging out. Will uninstall it later.

I should be on the same page as you guys. I don't know why its sticking for me.

I mean it isn't going to be my main mmo. And it certainly isn't going to be played much once d3, gw2, secret world, etc. come out.

I've gotten to level 18 with my bard and over half the classes to level 14-15 now. The lane bumpers are starting to come off (and will probably be gone once you hit level 20) and I now find myself having conversation of which class is going to be the most self sufficient.

The bard is very self sufficient but it gets no pet other than a mercenary. The mercenary is tough enough, but post level 15, monsters are starting to hit really hard and they cast roots, dots and nukes. So backing off to heal and med is becoming riskier. Downtime used to be nonexistant but now its apparent the trend increasing as even with the regen song, you will have to heal 40% inbetween fights.

So the enchanter is looking good because the pet and the tank merc are great at killing yellows all by themselves. Throw into the mix one of my decent dots and killing is quick. Then I have breeze mana regen boost to keep me full and I'll only have to take one hit per fight to get my pet involved. Except that it seems they have drastically reduced the effect of breeze. And I have no heals so a single add is going to chew through my merc, pet and me. Well I could always be much safer killing blues but as with typical EQ gameplay, monster numbers shrink as you level, so you pretty much take what is available too you.

Then there is the healer classes. Right now I am testing out a cleric, but so far the shaman, beastlord, and druid all have their struggles. The beastlord gets a pet which gives it an edge in killing speed. But the hits are getting bigger, the newb leather doesn't drop as much as the plate and chain and so more heals are required and thus more mana and more downtime.

The shaman gets some good dots to help them duke it out melee alongside their merc. Eventually they get a pet that pre merc EQ was less useful. But based upon the low level shadowknight pet, in a post merc EQ they are excellent. Again they aren't as effective as mage and necro pets but the merc is taking the hits so the pet lasts a lot longer when things go awry. But again, the hits are getting harder which means it is going to be longer and longer to get to level 32 to get the pet.

The druid is in good shape because they get damage shields so early. It is so easy to throw a damage shield on a tank merc and let monsters kill themselves attacking her. But the shields cost a lot of mana early on and they fizzle quite a bit, heals are getting to be more of a mana drain and you somehow have to figure out how to do some damage to the monster so that you get credit for the kill. This means either expensive nukes or getting beat on in melee. And as is the same problem with beastlords, the newb leather armor doesn't drop as much.

The necro is still up there with the best of them in self sufficiency. You have more control over your pet than the enchanter and more variety with dots. That doesn't really benefit much over the enchanter as more than one dot will be wasted because the monster dies with half the duration of one dot still left. So far, its a trade off with the necro and enchanter. The necro can heal himself and the enchanter gets mana regen and better buffs. I know the necro gets mana generating abilities but it ends up being a net loss if you trade 100 health for 50 mana and it costs you 75 mana to leach back 85 health. Yes, I know the numbers change dramatically at higher levels but I am talking about the sub 25 or 30 game.

The shadowknight would be the best because they get a weak but effective pet, wear plate, can heal themselves and have dots that are less effective than a true caster's but are good enough. Their only weakness is that their heals are life drains that require them to be in combat. So you get into this sort of dance where what percentage of health is too low to enter combat.

Stay tuned for more...

I can't get into my enchanter, SK, or druid because the controls for the game actually literally make my head hurt. Although it seems to be worse in old school zones. Anyone else notice this? I've been primarily playing in old world zones for nostalgia, and even with the mouse sensitivity maxed it is slow to turn on the horizontal axis. But then I fired up a character that was in PoK, and I swear it seemed like the horizontal mouse movement speed was about 5 times faster than before. Kind of weird.

They revamped a lot of the old zones. Unfortunately the game engine is still a dog. There is no other 13 year old game that runs as relatively horribly as this. I can't even turn on "advanced" lighting or shadows. Well I can turn it on to see how it looks but if I expect to move or turn, they have to be disabled.

IIRC, EQ has no back face culling or occlusion culling in their render engine so it has to render everything in your field of view. Now imagine that when you have your level of detail, fog distance and effect viewing distance sliders maxed or even half way.

You would have thought that they would have addressed that in 13 years.

Just wanted to let everyone know that my magician is almost 20. Pet classes are not overpowered but they are very competent soloers with mercs especially. I know this is nothing new for EQ and people who prefer EQ's harsh nature will probably tell you that the pet classes are overpowered but in the context of modern mmos, they are not.

The mana issues may be not as bad as I had previously thought. It is really easy to coordinate trading off hits between the pet, merc and you. You have a lot of options with the mage such as damage shields that can allow both your pet and merc solo separate blue cons. The shields are mana costly but last 4 minutes so you really don't have to cast anything else for 4 minutes. If you just pull with a small nuke, you never get below 90% mana and the pet and merc kill fast.

It kinda makes me hope that Blizzard would really take their talent system to the extreme of making each spec play more differently and more defined. Like, I would love to see the mage become like a wizard, chanter and magician in its 3 talent specs. I would love to see the druid be delineated to cat, bear and an EQ style instead of melee, nuker and healer that can all shapeshift to cat/bear. It muddies the class. The warlock I would keep the same but make each tree locked to a pet style: voidwalker, succubus or imp.

I woke up with a fire lit under me today I guess. I had worked up my magician from level 11-19.75 and felt accomplished. That is until I worked my beastlord up from 15-22.5 =P