Seems to me that this is very simply not the game for you. You have some valid points, and it is not an easy game to break into so many years into its run. However, you have to be willing to yield a little, too. For the money aspect, yes, I'm gold. I work and this is how I choose to spend some of my entertainment dollars. I don't buy krono, but I have 2 accts with all access. The only things I get from the marketplace are the occasional experience pots. I'm not hard-core, but I'm max level with nearly 13k aas (I was max aa before I left for a couple of years), so its not all about the cash. I'm a member of a now largely-defunct guild, but the few who are left are incredibly helpful and had no issues in redoing old content to catch me up when I came back (left during VoA and came back for EoK). Some guilds are so raid-oriented and future-forward they won't do this, and I'm sorry if the folks who took you in won't help, but they are certainly not all like that. I hope you find something you enjoy. You seem much too fixated on the whole "Ponzi scheme" concept, when games are really about fun. If you feel the only way you can have fun in EQ is by spending a fortune, might want to look into other options.
It wasn't meant to be mean. I'm sorry if you felt offended by that. I was serious, though, and here is why. (The following is meant for Azzy since he is the OP, but you guys appear to agree on a lot.) Your problem is that you are lashing out and casting blame on the game design and virtually everything else besides what you have direct control over. Complaining that the game does not do enough to force others to group with you when and where you want is not going to help. But enough of that. I have spent a lot of time on what is now Bristlebane. Maybe somewhere in the area of 8k hours before transferring to Luclin a couple of years ago. There are many, many fantastic people on this server and my point is that you should make a stronger effort to get out of your comfort zone and meet some of them. It's not a single player game. There are dozens or even hundreds of other players in common zones and in general chat and I can fully guarantee that most of them are also working on progression in older expansions (on alts if not on their mains). There is no shortage of players to group with. I think what the issue is is that people who come forward with this complaint - and don't feel bad, it's common - are relying too heavily on certain crutches (general chat, guild roster, their own box accounts) and there is either an unwillingness or a general ignorance of all of the tools at your disposal. Most advice for new/returning players is to find a nice guild and everything will work out just fine. Well I think that's wrong. Almost any guild that you join is going to be full of people 3-boxing and just being in the guild is not going to mean they will invite you to groups every time there is an opening. I also 3-box for my own reasons (limited play time, lengthy AFKs, working on boring tradeskill quests). Others have said this, but you - and anyone else in a similar situation - should do the following if you want to group with other players. 1. Put away the boxes. Seriously. 2. Don't be picky! Take any group offer you get. If you get along, start building up your /friend list for later. I often group with players well below my level and they turn out to be great teammates, have higher level characters, or at least are interesting to chat with. Often they progress quickly and end up at nearly the same level of progress as you within a matter of weeks. Don't focus so much on your immediate needs but rather on getting out there and doing something. Even if you start with only 1 other player and your mercs. 3. Ask your guildmates what they are working on, and ask if one of them could drop a merc to make room for your main. This should result in a group 99% of the time if that player is going to remain online for a while longer. If they refuse, they are just a complete . 4. Stop using /general to announce that you are LFG. Instead use it to ask what people are working on. Someone out there is using a mercenary that you can replace. 5a. Learn to use /who 100 105 (or whatever level range you're looking for). Also /who all warrior 105 or whatever class you're interested in for your group (across all zones). 5b. You need to be the one to send out tells to people that you have never interacted with. "Hi. Could I join your group with my cleric for a little bit?" and "Hi. We can really use a xx class for a mission. Are you available?" are usually effective. 5c. If there is no response within 2 minutes, go on to the next name on the list. You should have formed a full group in no time. 6. Talk to your group. Make decisions together. Ask what they can use help with, and also ask if they have any characters that are also working on content that you are interested in. Continue building your /friend list and continue to build your personal reputation as a player that is helpful, knowledgeable, and fun to group with and you can soon go back to viewing your additional accounts as a convenience or at best a stopgap rather than a necessity. Be proactive. Be a leader. Be decisive. Players will begin to look for you when they log in and your options (and the game in general) will begin to open up. Best of luck.
At this point in time there is absolutely no reason to require any player, new or otherwise, to start a new character at level 1. New characters should begin with an auto-level to at least 50 if not higher. Levels 1-50 serve no purpose whatsoever, beyond serving as a barrier to entry for new players. I truly feel sorry these days for new players, who don't know about Defiant gear, which was created for the sole purpose of helping players breeze through level-appropriate content. Seriously, DBG, levels 1-50 serve no purpose. Just get rid of them.
Ive done that. I returned to EQ two weeks ago, and I chose to commit to boxing 3 accounts as its MUCH easier to do that than it is to find a guild in game. Ive asked numerous times in game for guilds that are recruiting returning players, ive made posts in the guild recruitment forum trying to find a guild and after two weeks it has 0 reply's. Ive basically committed myself at this point to playing EQ alone and by myself as for me its not even a grouping game anymore. I would go so far as to say that EQ is not a solo game, its not a group game. It is a raid / established players only game.
You limited yourself to the FV server. If you had said Rathe, I would have responded and sent you to A friends of mines guild on Rathe, a very large family/ non-required raiding guild. However I do understand where you're coming from, personally I've given up on grouping and 4-box, but it's more because of my short comings than the games.
If you think levels 1-50 have no purpose, then you've not been a new player for a long long time. Also anyone who starts playing Everquest at this point should know that there are going to be things they're gonna need to research. I never talk in general or ask questions in game because I always have a browser open, and I find the information on my own. If they want the game to be spoonfed to them, then they should go play one of the modern MMOs that hold their hand.
It's really not as bad as all that. This game is not instant gratification. I came back four months ago, one character. Level 70 ranger. Casual play. Low population server. Now level 105, approaching 15k AAs. Found a tiny tiny guild. Made just a few friends. It's not really broken. You don't have to box. (I do now, when I can't find a group because it's vastly enjoyable) All you have to do is stick with it. Do old progression solo. There's tons of content anyone can do that isn't "top tier". This is an RPG. It has story line. Stick with that, instead of just the level grind and he game is greatly more fun.
Read back catcattank.. I put up a logic and he followed up with he's quitting. There is nothing else to be done there. If someone wants to voice their troubles in a public forum, get feedback, then continue to say how they're going to leave.. Good luck, he wants a game that no boxing happens and everyone gets groups whenever they want. Not in any MMORPG my friend. It's tough, work at it. It's all I'm saying.
There is a big difference between "spoonfeeding" and providing a game play experience more conducive to drawing a new player in. Sure, we hear about the *occasional* new player who starts at level 1 and manages to catch up to a large portion of the player base. More often than not it happens largely because they already know people who play. However, we don't typically hear from the new player who grinds to level 10 or 12 and just decides the time and effort it will take to catch up is just completely unreasonable. My educated guess is the number of those falling into the latter category is a much bigger number. I'm not saying EQ should be one of those "more accessible" (/vomit) games. I'm just saying it should find a much happier and more reasonable medium. There is nothing a player learns between 1 and 50 that they can't learn between 50 and 65...and *still* have 40 levels and thousands of AAs to earn before topping out. I think many of us get used to twinking and PL'ing through the game and forget that we fly through that 1-50 range for a good reason. We wear the fact that we ground through all those levels like some kind of twisted badge of honor and feel obliged to insist that everyone else do it as well, knowing full well that most of us have little interest in that 1-50 content. There is no reason to assume that a new player who starts at 50 is worse at playing their class after maxing out at 105 than the typical level 65 was, when that was max level.
A new player without any help will be past level 50 in less than 20 hours of play time. The speed of leveling has been vastly increased on normal servers. Not only the actual XP rate but the fact that a tank mercenary does 90% of the work and defiant gear is miles ahead of classic gear. Out of combat regen. What more needs to be said? FTP is held back by the 250 AA count. Any player that wants to catch up to the end game can do so by subscribing, opting in to Auto Grant, and just playing normally for another few weeks. So with all respect, this is a non-issue because the game has already changed to take care of any new player that actually wants to play.
You can absolutely get by with just one tank account being subscribed and two supporting accounts being once a year auto-grant + whatever AAs you earned in that month. So that cuts your costs to $240 a year for 3boxing current content. Less if you got that $72 a year deal. However, you can also have a lot of fun on a solo account doing older content. The trick is not to chase the new shinies but go for the older shinies. Very hard psychologically(keeping up with Jonese effect) but once you start playing for older achievements it is fun.
don't need to have 3rd party software ,, I play 4 on same computer and screen ( I only click the eq icon on taskbar , not bad once used to it ) and can do all EOK tasks except the last hero task in labs. hero of droga and chardok are easy tho.,,LCEA hero was rough as well.. btw I play caster group : shm / mage / chanter and druid . and for the cost , well I pay with kronos that I get in game from players who sell them for plats. depend on server you play at as well
The fact that levels 1-50 have been trivialized by the game designers just further proves my point. Not that I agree there is any way for a new player to make it to 50 in less than 20-hours played without any help. I've managed it by twinking the heck out of a new character and buffing/healing/DS'ing them with a high level toon, but not by much.
