I started at the beginning, but I left around the time of Planes of Power...I just came back to see what's up. Why does everyone start in Crescent Reach? Why can't I start at Qyenos or Freehold?
Freeport. Is it a free account? I want to say gold account members (monthly or yearly pay accounts) get the chance to choose the starting city or cities that their class/race started in, with the original game. Free accounts have to start in Crescent Reach. (after the Tutorial) This was done to get new players and low level characters in close proximity for group play and all the social aspects of the game. Everquest is currently and has been for a very long time, a top heavy game. Most of the player base is not spending a lot of time in the low level game content. Crescent Reach is a far better starting zone than most of the original cities anyway. If you want, you can run back to the starting city you were hoping to be in and get a soulbind there. The portal to plane of knowledge is just outside of Crescent Reach, in the Blightfire Moors- in the hills just to the right as you come out. From the Plane of Knowledge you can reach all the old newbie zones and starting cities. Good hunting.
Yeah I just ran from Crescent Reach to the PoK book and then that takes me to Kelethin or wherever you want to hunt. Freeport is bad now though, they replaced the whole thing with a massive city that is too big and convoluted. I recommend not playing this game though, it is fun to reminisce for a while but there is just so much wrong with it. It is so grindy in the high levels, there is nobody to play with until level 100+ and the game isn't even fun anymore. They dumbed it down so much, you may as well just play a modern game that does it properly like WoW or whatever. Even the chat is really bad now. Also the game is a total rip off because you need to pay a monthly subscription in the high levels or it becomes impossible to progress, and you need to buy an expansion every year! And they aren't cheap and you don't get much content for the money, just more of the same grind. It wouldn't be so bad if you get to play with a regular group but if you are solo it is too tedious to make progress and box groups will leave you in the dust because they can do anything. And if you decide to multibox then you need to pay for multiple subscriptions and multiple expansions on every account! Bad game. The real EQ is long dead.
This argument is like saying "No one goes there anymore, it's too crowded!" The place where the bulk of players are actually playing is in that high level content that I suspect you've never even seen so have no qualification to judge. Yeah there are people complaining about the current expansion just like the did the last expansion and the one before that going back the 2000. BTW WoW is way too cartoony for my taste and it's dumbed down playstyle is boring. Not to mention that from what I've heard you're going to need the latest expansion to keep up in that game as well
I have seen it and am qualified to judge and your analogy makes no sense. I have 6 level 110s. WoW may be cartoony but the gameplay is barely any different to EQ now. Also they don't mass produce expansions and you don't need to box.
You make some valid points, but the magic for most people, I suspect, came from the community. I still enjoy playing due to the community. Yes, there are fewer people playing, but it's still an enjoyable game.
Your posting history is that of someone who's quite tentative about the game. In fact you started this thread back in June of this year I have no doubt that you have a boxed crew that you've leveled to 110 and more power to you. Frankly though your criticism takes a few valid point, buffs them up and attempts to batter everything else down. If there was a way to run /stickfigures in WoW I might try it but the graphics suck way too much for me to take seriously and the gameplay differences just annoy me. Can you toggle through different camera angles in WoW? I don't think so if they haven't done that recently and THAT is one of the greatest turnoffs I have found in every non-EQ game
Since camera angels were mentioned. I was going to say that while WoW is the "better game" in the sense of polish and QoL, that I had trouble getting past the graphic style also. I've tried so many times. The other thing though, is the camera angle thing. I have learned that I -really- like playing in first person. I know you can do that with WoW but it really seems like you can tell in this game it was originally intended for 1st person, vs the way mechanics work in WoW. I'm not sure I know how to explain it, but this game was made for first person. I think this really sets the immersion for me. I didn't realize it was a big deal until I got sucked into Oblivion and later did 100 hours plus in Skyrim. In Everquest, when I'm walking around Guk and Seb, I actually have that feeling like "is there a mob around the corner?" similiar to play a FPS on 1player and trying to be stealthy or something. Again, this is very wordy for something so simple, but just didn't feel like I was explaining it right. What is totally weird, is that by choice, I won't try WoW 1st person mode, and even more bizare is that I played DAoC in first person until in the 40's when I found out I was in the minority. I stayed stubborn and played that way until I learned very quickly come PvP (Realm vs Realm) that I was really holding myself back in this view in pvp, and thus letting my group/guild down. I was a cleric, and I needed to be able to watch all areas at the same time to include my box (with stealthers lurking behind you going for backstop oneshot kill). Wow, I typed a lot of words there to say absolutely nothing!
I totally see why this is not the game for you. Not sure that your comment had anything to do with the OP but then again nether does mine. Happy Holidays!
As stated above, new toons rolled on an unsubscribed account have their home city set to Crescent Reach. It is quite easy to get from there to any of the other starting cities, if you wish, via the PoK book in Blightfire Moors. If you have a DBG All-Access subscription, then you can pick a new toon's starting city from the character creation screen, still subject to class/race restrictions as in the original game. If you can recover your original account, which is still possible if you can remember enough of your old info, your old toons will retain the starting cities they had to begin with. If you skip the tutorial zone and go to Crescent Reach as a level 1, I strongly recommend following the Hero's Journey quest line for that zone, which should take you to somewhere in the 18-20 range. Alternatively, if you want to play the "old-school" game, avoid the Crude Defiant armor and weapon drops, and just keel stuff until you get to level 10, at which point you can go to the Plane of Knowledge and starting doing the newbie armor and weapons quests given out by NPCs there. Or you can visit your favorite starting city right away and see how much of it you recognize. For the human cities, N and S Qeynos will be essentially the same, Freeport will be somewhat different.
I just rolled a toon with gold access running (normally silver act here) and I had the option to start in the standard home city or cres. reach. So I did have both options while paying for eq.
Dude, the game has been around since 1999, of course there's not going to be many people under 105-110. Fun is a subjective term that's highly dependent on the person. Total Class Balance is a Pipe Dream of epic proportions, There will always be complaints left and right no matter what a developer does. Not to mention, a nerf is only a nerf if you refuse to adapt to it. I'm not going to get into the cookie cutter aspects of the latest expansions, but also YOU DON'T HAVE TO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO. Yes, I will say it's better to be all-access because you can utilize the prestige flagged gear and augments but again, No one is putting a firearm to your head and demanding you buy membership or expansion packs. You can get by with a f2p if you know what you're doing. I went from 1-100 in 10 months mostly solo. I did 101-105 in the span of a week mostly soloing or running heroics with my guild. Literally piss all the way off with this "It's too tedious" crap. No one is going to hand you 110 on a silver platter. If you want to multibox, go right the hell ahead, but most people already know they have to buy membership and expansions when they go that route. The door is that way ---> Don't let it hit you on the way out.
