200 Miles of EverQuest - A Mischievous Review

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Benchpress, Jul 16, 2021.

  1. Benchpress New Member

    Let me start off by making something very clear - I am not the target audience for EverQuest. I’ve played EQ on-and-off since the beginning, I’ve never raided, and I’ve never completed an epic quest in era. . . but I do thoroughly enjoy this silly game.

    Before the launch of Mischief I started experimenting with walking on a treadmill while playing EQ. Last year, I created pre-boss workouts in Guild Wars 2 https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/igkqds/minimooses_workout_compendium_thank_you_letter/ while bored during covid lockdown so this year I wanted to try something a little different. I ultimately decided to restrict my playtime to treadmill only. This means I’m limited to approximately 1 ½ - 2 ½ hours of play each day around 3PM EST and raiding/epics are pretty much an impossibility (which is totally OK). After 200 miles of walking I’ve had ample time to think about my experience with EQ over the years and some of the things about classic that have always been a bugbear to me. Now, there’s a TON of things we could discuss; the lack of rogue utility, enchanters making most classes obsolete, camp snipers, toxicity, krono trade, box armies, P2W on P2P, etc. We’ve all heard this a million times and we can beat that dead kobold in another thread, plus I don’t want to write a book here. I like classic EQ and want to continue playing but there’s three major things that make it incredibly difficult to form groups and actually play the game: Travel time, mana regen, and crowd control.

    Travel Time: 5-30 minutes LFG, 10-20 minutes to travel to a dungeon from origin location, 30 minute warning to find/wait for a replacement tank, 5 minutes wrap things up. A bad day can be REALLY bad and really brings to light why so many people started boxing characters.
    Suggestion 1: Give group leaders the ability to summon someone from anywhere in the world. I don’t care if this could be abused or makes CoTH irrelevant. It would be a tremendous help for players like me and drastically improve group management. Limit it to players who have the zone achievement.
    Suggestion 2: Give EVERY class an out of combat evac to zone line. If it weren’t for the /pick trick I truly wouldn’t be able to play every day. Origin to Kaladim only to repeat the run to Chardok every day would absolutely make me quit.

    Mana Regen: Enchanters and Bards are too essential. Mana regen breaks groups faster than any other mechanic and makes things incredibly boring.
    Suggestion: Add a classic group mana regen buff to wizards/druids/clerics/anything.

    Crowd Control: Enchanter mez is considered essential for most groups and often makes people not even attempt to group unless they have an enchanter.
    Suggestion: Add a root that breaks on damage and does a 90% slow for priests/wizards/rogues.

    I don’t want to see enchanters nerfed because of how powerful they are. . . I want to use their power as an example of areas other classes could be improved. I know that much of this was fixed in later EQ expansions but I don’t really enjoy live EQ (too many abilities and the treadmill laptop I use doesn’t like it).

    Let me add one more positive note:
    I’ll never be able to play a non-Mischief loot server again. I’ve acquired almost all of my gear through group play and that means I haven’t wasted much time in EC trying to find equipment or travel around to specific camps. It has actually made this entire treadmill experiment possible! Thank you for this ruleset!

    I've met so many awesome people and had a fantastic time talking about my treadmill shenanigans. Some people even joined me in the experiment! There's so many cool people in this community and I hope to see you all goofing around in Chardok/Sebilis with my Paladin Benchpress or my Cleric Deadlift. I did try to level a rogue named Walk entirely on a treadmill but finding groups as a rogue is a painful experience. Bless all of you dedicated rogues out there - you are the true champions.

    And finally. . . Remember to stay active and keep your heart healthy!
    Fallfyres likes this.
  2. jeskola pheerie

    I don't really see that as a positive.
    Machen likes this.
  3. bardybard Augur

    Once you get a taste of crack you never look back
  4. Atomos Augur

    Rogues and Wizards should 100% get mez, and Bard mez should be made a tiny bit better. Wizards should at least get some personal mana regen early on (think they get some later?), but I think they'd also be fine with being given the Clarity line, just at later levels (like sometimes they wouldn't be able to cast the best mana regen spell at max level).

    Druids get mana regen on their HP buff, but I don't think it is until Velious and don't recall how good it is (willing to bet it's nothing compared to the other options). They should implement the regen to druid HP buffs from the start (unfortunately it would require all new spells since they share the HP buff line with Rangers, and Rangers getting a mana regen buff is a bit too much).

    Would also be OK with other healers getting their resses and better heals from the start to be comparable to Cleric and then Cleric getting a version of Clarity.

    Tash should be usable by another class, perhaps rogues or maybe wizard.

    Enchanter gets too many unique things and is the best at too many things, whereas pretty much everything else in the game is spread out amongst several other classes. I'm down for anything that makes underplayed classes more utilized and one of the best ways to do that is give them some of the tools that are hogged by classes like Enchanter.

    We also need Beastlords from the start with an earlier level version of their HP/Mana regen buff, think the first one is like almost level 40?

    Thanks for posting about your progress, I enjoyed reading about it on the Discord too.
  5. Wtfagain Elder

    I am the target audience. I've played EQ from release through pop. Many, many world firsts and all server. played wow, came back for combine and 50/50 and every TLP since. I was WAY ahead of the times in release, raiding with multiple accounts, on multiple servers, always in the top guilds. On TLPs I've been in the poop sock guilds and the skill guilds simultaneously.

    I don't need to treadmill during EQ. I simply eat healthy and go to the gym 3 days a week for a couple hours at a time which no one can argue is a burden if they play this game seriously.

    Travel Time: none issue.

    Mana regen: none issue

    Crowd Control: none issue

    and finally the only real issue: Players owning the game. oh you didn't know that? surprise! bunch of stuff makes sense now huh?
  6. Wtfagain Elder

    it was a marketing post homie
  7. Yteran Lorekeeper

    There's nothing that can be done about enchanters without totally destroying the class. I personally don't like how powerful charm pets are (and how they push tanks to the sidelines in classic) but I can't see a viable solution.

    Right now, just about any class can be slotted into a group as long as you have a tank and healer core. It may not be optimal, but not every group has to be. Mez isn't a necessity if you have a monk or pacify puller. Mana regen isn't a necessity either - some group makeups don't need it at all.

    I agree with you on travel time, but I'm not sure I agree with the solution. I'd rather see a bind affinity AA that is granted like origin is (even for tanks - if you think travel time sucks, tanks in kunark have it the worst) as well as a return to bind AA. Campfires come much, much later, and they might work in classic, but I could also see them being abused by krono farmers to hold down multiple bottleneck camps simultaneously. Same for group leader summoning.
  8. Wtfagain Elder

    spoken like a true enchanter. Yeah you're right.. there's nothing that can be done except allowing them to use the best CC in the game, best haste in the game, best mana regen in the game, while stunning and DDing. Poor Poor enchanters without their mega op charm pets.
  9. Piznut Angry Gnome

    Can ya'll stop letting this Wtfagain troll hijack a relatively decent thread please. Looking through his posting history, he brings nothing constructive or beneficial to any thread other than personal attacks and toxicity.
    Stymie likes this.
  10. Elskidor Augur

    I guess they could try to launch a revamped EQ server with a zillion changes but I would prefer if DBG stopped tampering with old school EQ for TLPs. The more it's messed with the less it will feel like the same game. I guess that's what P99 is for. I'd be game for a revamped Everquest server and would love some classes getting boosted, but TLPs are already far different than the original game. Leave them be unless there's something just breaking the game or its something fun with a one time twist like random loot or launching with Beastlords and Zerkers.
  11. Atomos Augur

    It's not different, it's better. And it keeps getting better every year, that's not likely to stop.

    What matters is that the spirit of Everquest is still there, a multiplayer RPG that requires cooperation with other players to beat enemies and obtain loot.

    Old school EQ had many things that were removed or changed on TLP (or Live and just isn't reverted on TLP), like money having weight, pickzones, DZs, and many more. People don't play old school EQ so their money can have weight or so they can compete with hundreds of others in a single zone for hours for a single raid boss that spawns once a week. They play EQ for the multiplayer RPG and social/cooperative experience.

    Without all of these changes and additions, TLP would not be nearly as popular as it is. Just look at P99's population. It's a mere fraction of TLP's, and it's even free to play.

    Changes that make the game better should always be welcome, and sometimes those changes include class balance.
  12. Accipiter Old Timer


    They get tons later. Maybe more than any other class. They get mana regen from their familiars and from their rune line.
  13. Accipiter Old Timer


    Nope. No clue what you're talking about.