Some questions from a new player

Hi all,

I started playing EverQuest a couple of days ago and so far the game looks interesting and makes me want to continue my adventures. After thinking much about which server to start on and which race/class to pick, I went with Bristlebane server and a Wood Elf Druid character. I spent some time getting used to the controls, UI, skills and chat system and now I am Level 10 and exploring/questing in the Mines of Gloomingdeep.

I took note of some questions to help me understand the game better and I will appreciate if more knowledgeable players could answer them.

- Why do mobs have "a" in front of their names? e.g. "a cave bat, a cave rat". Does it indicate anything?
- Is there a way to understand which mobs are friendly and which ones are hostile? For example, in another game I play, the cursor changes appropriately when I hover over a hostile NPC.
- Can I see the Level of the NPCs, mobs, other players? e.g. when I click on them?
- As I leveled up, slaying some mobs don't give XP anymore. How do I know from which mobs will I get XP? Also, if a mob is low level that I don't get any XP, I will not get any skill-ups when fighting with that mob, right?
- Is it possible to see Health, Mana (on player window) and XP (on inventory window) values as numbers rather than %?
- I play in windowed mode. The game, colors, lighting look much better in windowed mode for me, but there is no antialiasing in windowed mode. Did anyone else have this issue and know any fix for it?
- Can I deselect an NPC when I click somewhere on the screen? Other than having to press ESC all the time.
- When I click EQ button and select "Welcome", it displays a blank window.
- Is there a way to hide corpse text? e.g. "a cave bat's corpse". I hid NPC names but the corpse names are still visible, which is a bit annoying for me when many of other players' corpses lay around on the ground. The less UI and text on the screen, the more immersion for me.
- On everquest.allakhazam.com, quests are noted in a level range. For example a quest is in level range 5-10. Does that mean I will not be able to get/do it if I am Level 11?
- How do I know if some spell effects stack or not. For example: "Thistlecoat" and "Shield of Thistles".
- Where do I see Faction standings/points? If possible.
- Does the game have a visible night/day cycle in open zones? I'm asking because the server I started on is in US time (I guess) and if there is a visible night/day cycle like another game I play, I will need to restart on an EU server, if there is one.

If you know of any interface addons that would help with some of the things I asked above, that's also fine too.

Thank you very much!

"a" means nothing, just a clear indicator that it is a generic mob.

Select a mob and press c, or type /con. Only "scowls" and "glares" will attack you.

Relative level is indicated by the colour of the target ring - white is the exact same level as you (but can sometime he hard to distinguish from grey, which will give no experience when killed, and no skill ups), light blue is more than five levels below, dark blue is five or less levels lower and gives double exp of light blue, yellow up to 3 levels higher, and red is the rest.

You can use /hidecorpse, which has several options - "/hidecorpse looted" is possibly the most useful.

You can pick up most quests at any levels (apart from the Franklin Teek dailies), the ZAM indicators are somewhat unhelpful indicators of when you might be able to complete them.

If you want to check on spell stacking, look at the "lucy" data on ZAM.

You find faction levels by using /con.

An EQ day is 72 minutes long - I think (someone will correct me shortly ). Earth time is not related to it.

You can also consider or "con" npc's by right clicking them. As Borek noted, conning a mob gives you its level range and your faction standing with it.

You can see the time of day with /time

This may not be the case any longer, but I remember being able to click an empty group member slot to clear my target.

You can download different UI's from eqinterface.com if you're looking to modify your windows and the stats they display. I don't think there is one that measures exp in points though. Sometimes custom UI's won't function after patches until they're updated.

As far as spell information goes, I would use http://www.raidloot.com/Spells.aspx

Thank you both for the answers and tips. Seems I will just need to get used to how the game works a bit more. Other than some UI parts, I like how the game works in general: nice amount of storage space, many item slots for equipping, many skills, group quests, rare-spawn mobs, looting barrels (I hope there are more of such lootable objects in later zones) and helpful people. Especially being chased by Krenshin for the first time was adrenaline-packed.

I'm Level 13 now, completed the tutorial zone and it was fun so far, preparing to leave the mines, want to make sure that I checked everything since there is no coming back (completionist I am).

I understand the right click (consider) better now. Gray mobs don't attack me and give XP or skill-ups. Yellow and blue etc. do.

/hidecorpse ALWAYS looks like what I needed.

Thanks again.

Some grey mobs will attack you, just for being there. So long as they con scowls or glares.

Thanks, I will pay attention to that.

Also, some mobs are social and will assist similar/related ones. Some have larger aggro ranges than others as well.