Hi, everyone! So, my buddy and I are considering finally diving into EQ after all these years and I've been doing some research for the past week around servers, timelines, and just general info (including that I needed to actually log-in to my EQ client to post on these forums), but I wanted to make this thread and get some more opinions on our particular situation. As I said, neither of us have ever played EQ (though we've heavily played the MMO genre as a whole) so we're not familiar with its idiosyncrasies, its mechanics, its pace, anything. We're going in completely blind. As such, the idea of a brand new progression server, which seems to come out every May, appealed to us greatly. Getting to experience the game as it was throughout each expansion (mostly) as it moves through everything to current day sounds like an absolute blast. There's definitely things we'd miss hopping into Live with almost 25 years of content available. However, in doing some reading and trying to understand more, it does seem like Progression Server tend to be fairly breakneck at the beginning and a lot of people seem to hop to the new server every year. Our worry is that since we have no conception of how EQ is played, that we will very quickly be out-paced and won't really get to experience everything on offer because we'll be lagging behind the general populace and won't be able to group, guild, raid, etc. So there's a bit of like pro/con to maybe we start characters on a Live Server currently, get an understanding of how the various systems work, then play on Progression in May. But that would inherently sacrifice some of the "wonder/mystery" of playing a brand new game. What's everyone's thoughts on how feasible it would be to mere babes in the woods when a new Progression Server started? Also, I've seen a lot of talks around what this year's Progress Server (and possibly that is singular on purpose?) will be. Optimally, we'd like a "normally paced/normally interfaced" server. IE: Servers like Corinav, Mangler, and Aradune seem like the most ideal ruleset, although Mischief seems like it would also be fun. Servers like Vaniki and Yelinak having the earlier expansion launch more quickly seems like it would be detrimental to us. Is the general community consensus that more "basic" servers probably won't continue to exist and that they'll do more "experimental" servers? There's also some thought that we could play Live for this year and then do Progression for the 25th Anniversary if there's more likelihood there would be a "normal" Progression Server. The other big question is around the subject of "2/dual boxing". I've seen tons of threads in this newbie area asking about different class compositions and what have you regarding this concept. The question is: Even with mercs is traditional "sololing" just not viable? Like I said above, my friend and I are planning on playing together, but there's always a chance one of us doesn't like it, or we have an off week, or someone gets bored after 6 months, etc. Hopefully, we'd be able to find a static at some point, but worst case, is the solo+merc experience not viable? Do you have to dual box so you're in an effective party of four all the time? I looked into it a little bit (but didn't want to tread too far so I don't spoil myself) and it seems like it's maybe just leveling "faster", but I'm not sure what all that entails or how much "faster" really is. If there's anything else that anyone feels would be helpful / insightful, please feel free to share. There's a bit of trepidation in starting something this many years after launch and there's a certain air of like, not wanting to ruin the magic because we're going in blind to such a historic experience. It's definitely an exciting prospect though.
Welcome to EQ! I don't have the time to give you a proper response, but I'll give you thoughts off the top of my head to get started, and I'm sure others will chime in with some great tips for you as well! There's an easier way to decide between live or TLP: Live - you play at your own pace and progress anywhere that your gear and abilities allow you to. You can box and have mercenaries from the start. TLP - you play at a scheduled pace. This is a long term commitment in that you won't get to see later expansion content until it unlocks. That's like 5 years+ or so, on the typical length TLP? You'll get halfway through before you have access to mercenaries, and boxing restrictions will, maybe, loosen up around halfway through the progression as well. In either case, you can go at your own pace. The only thing forcing you to do "current" content and forsaking the past, is yourself (and your guild / friends, to an extent I suppose). You can totally start on a progression server not knowing anything, much easier than starting on live, in the sense that you have a lot less content and system/function stuff thrown at you from the very start. So, in that respect, starting on TLP will be easier. Starting on Live has many more perks, but you will need the knowledge of the game to take advantage of them. Not a big deal really, you'll learn. And you can ask for help and tips. It's going to take time to learn everything no matter what route you go. You can totally solo on Live and on TLP's. But it gets progressively harder, and at higher levels, very difficult for most classes. EQ is not really a game for solo play. There are activities to do solo, but you aren't going to complete very much content solo. Duo'ing is good start, with good class combo choices, you can level up together pretty easy, but it's still going to be a slow process to learn everything, acquire gear upgrades, etc. Adding two merc's will help, but this doesn't even come close to having a full group of players, and still isn't as good as having 4 real players. Boxing isn't necessary to play the game, but there's not a lot of content that you can do solo at end game, without a lot of downtime. Boxing allows you to be self reliant on when you want to group, and where you want to group. The more boxes you have, the more choices you have. If you don't box, you can make up for this somewhat by joining a guild and/or making friends and using merc's. EverQuest is a wonderful game, is rich in lore and has a lot of history. Give it time, don't try to rush through it. It's a journey, not a race, in my opinion. Click on the link in my signature, there's a thread with some helpful links you might want to bookmark and share with your friend(s). I wish you the best of luck, and hope you have a lot of fun!
First up - no matter where your going to play you need maps. So download both Good's Map - on page 18 of this linked post (https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/goods-maps-pack.238818/page-18) and scroll down to where he shows a walk thru on how to download them and for Brewells' you will need to google his but then just follow those same download directions. I would suggest make a free game account and go thru the tutorial in Gloomingdeep. Take your time, no hurry but this will cover the "concept" of how to play and do things like swim, fights, open containers etc. And then once your done with that move up to POK (Plane of Knowledge) and find Secalna Galnor who is over by the book to Cresent Reach and do more quests called Out of Gloomingdeep. These are much shorter than the base tutorial ones. Ok at this point you have a good idea of the game. If you want to be All Access or to play on a TLP you need to pay a subscription. I would not worry about 2 boxing right now as you and your friend and the mercs you will use can carry you well into the top of the game if your not about raiding. Mercs are not allowed in raids. If you wanted to make another account and 2 box then you sure can and add that character to the mix with a merc and you'll have a full group. About mercs: There are many posters who will say you should only use a tank merc up to level 60 and after that they rot. Well, I never used a tank merc on my Ranger cause I wanted to learn all the ins and outs of that class. And on my Enchanter who did use a tank merc...at level 120 that tank merc is doing fine. So the moral here is try stuff your self and find what works best for your playstyle. After following this guide you should be well equipped to play the game on whatever server you want.
First, thanks so much for taking the time to reply. Even if it's not your full-fledged "proper response" I found it wonderful. This all definitely makes sense though. The time investment of a TLP is a big consideration for us both (plus, the obvious cost factor). It's probably the biggest reason we haven't just solidified doing it. I think whatever the TLP announcement ends up being will be a big part of making the decision. I think "logically" it makes the most sense to play on Live with Free Accounts starting now and play through the next year and then hop into a presumably big 25th Anniversary TLP. But the idea of doing a blind TLP is very exciting. Of course, that also means we'll have to wait another 1.5 months to actually play and I dunno if I can help myself, lol. So, from most other MMOs, there's a general like "leveling is solo-able, but dungeons/raids/endgame is group activities". Really the only one I played where you couldn't solo leveling was FFXI and they fixed that with a system that I think is similar to Mercs (though you could have up to three of these summoned characters). Is this like, 10-20 levels before max I simply won't have any overworld/questing/etc. to level and I'll be forced to party up to dungeon run? Obviously, I know this is an older system, so I'm expecting some differences from "modern" conventions. Thank you again for all the info. The idea of really sinking into such a fleshed out world is something that's deeply interesting to me. I love just getting absorbed in new worlds and new places. Granted, I'll fully admit I have a tendency to fall off after a while, but maybe I'm still just looking for my true home. Sweet deal! I've seen lots of posts about these sorts of maps. Is there a reason you want two different ones? Or do they just cover different zones? This is a good heads up to sort of guide that tutorializing step. We're still on the fence about going in truly "blind", but I'll keep this in mind. Excellent. I'm glad there's no like truly "you screwed up" decisions when it comes to that. I'm not one to like look up a build immediately and follow it from the rip. I like to play a class that looks fun and just sort of find my own way for a while. Eventually I always respec and then will follow whatever is "meta" for that game, but that's not until much later.
Most of us both maps because they are just enough different that sometimes you want to check between them. One also has ground spawns marked for the collections part of the game. I actually use 4. (its easy to flip between them) There is a default one which is pretty streamlined down but if you make notes on it they don't save very well so I have another separate one from Goods that I make notations on as I am in a zone.
Welcome to the new-to-you world! I'll echo CatsPaws in recommending you start with a free account and do the Gloomingdeep Mines tutorial. Not only is it a great way to learn a lot of the game's mechanics, but you also leave (at level 10) with gear that's best for your level. You get more than one character per account per server even on a free account, so you can even try a few different classes and/or servers to see what you might want to play. In the Mines you'll even learn about mercs, though only 2 types are available there (tank and cleric) and you don't get told the merc stays the level it was "summoned" so you might want to camp and return every few levels or you will out level your merc. There are 4 types of mercs available outside of the mine: cleric (healies), melee damage (stab stab poke poke, rogue-like), spell damage (firestarter), and tank (slash and bash, not as much damage as the melee damage merc but can taunt). The free account can get an apprentice merc. All Access can get a journeyman merc. The apprentice is, of course, not quite as good as the journeyman. You can solo and duo (with your friend) without mercs, but the merc does make it easier, especially for some classes. Soloing with a merc is often called "moloing". Boxing is one player playing 2 or more accounts at the same time. On most servers you can even do it on a single computer but need to run the launcher separately for each login. Using automation software to run 2 or more characters (whether on one computer or multiples) is generally considered cheating and can actually get your accounts banned. You don't really need to box, but some players do so for convenience or to make it easier. Like having a wizard with a ranger for transport to places it would take a lot longer for the ranger to walk crossing many zones (my original reason for a 2nd account back in the aughts only then you had to have 2 computers to box, which is called "true boxing" now). There are lots of "newbie" friendly guilds on various servers. Look for guild recruitment posts on the forums or messages in the general chat. While you are on a free account, try a few servers both to see what the population is like during your playtime and also what the vibe is on chat. Finding a guild could also give you a choice of a "home". I'm a roleplayer (one of a minority, sadly) and I play on Firiona Vie (FV) which started as a "roleplay preferred" server. It also has "free trade" meaning most items are tradeable. On most servers there are a lot of items which are "No Trade" (meaning you can't give them to any other character), "Attunable" (you can trade it until you wear it or attune it to your character), and "Heirloom" (you can use the shared bank space to pass it to another character on the same account, same server). FV also has an XP bonus that you don't notice unless you play on a different server Don't worry about learning how to do everything all at once. You can play quite well without knowing every nuance and just add knowledge as you go and want to do more. Above all else, have fun
Thank you. You are welcome! I think others here have posted good advice. If I were just starting EQ now, I think I would probably play on live to get used to the game, with a free account. Try a couple toons that appeal to me most. Finish the tutorial on two classes that I am most interested in, and then stick with the one that I enjoy most for a while. Do some quest lines in cresent reach, learn crafting if you like crafting, explore, have fun. If you are are still having fun when the TLP launches, and you can afford to subscribe, go for it. You don't have to commit to 5 years or even 1 year to start on a TLP. Some players just play for a month or two at launch and then stop because that's their favorite part of EQ. Some go back to live servers after reaching a certain point. And some players decide to stay on a certain TLP until it catches up with 'Live', at which point they are usually given the option to transfer to a live server of similar ruleset. I like to save my UI settings on live or a previous TLP so I can quickly set up my UI on a new TLP using the same settings. TLP launches are a blast a launch because there are a couple thousand players all trying to get in and group up and grind XP together for hours and hours have fun! One can level on NPC's overworld all the way to max. Using a merc will make it significantly easier. Playing with a friend? Even better, especially if you both use mercs at least part of the time. There are all kinds of quests that offer various things. Depending on your goals and preferences, some will be worth doing, some of them are epic, some are simple and easy. And a lot of them require a group at some point to complete the quest. I look most of them up online before starting them. Raids generally require more than a group like most MMO's, yes. Dungeons are both group and raid content mostly. I don't think there is much for solo dungeons, unless you are boxing. Some one feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't played live past the 80's yet! I mean, while you can solo in some dungeons, some classes are much better equiped to do that than others, but you will almost always fair better with a larger party. I started playing EverQuest in 2002. Ever since EQ2 and EQ Next, I've been trying to find the next, new MMORPG that's going to be my new "forever home" but I always come back to EverQuest. Always.
Ahh gotcha! That makes sense. I'll install both of those then. Thanks for the additional info! I saw when I logged in and selected a server (to get access to these forums, ironically) that I got two character slots so that was nice. Interesting that you have to resummon mercs to ensure they "level" properly. That's good to know. I was looking into FV purely based on the different rulesets, but I was curious if a) How dense the roleplaying actually is (I've done my fair share of MMO RPing, but not positive if I'd want to stay IC all the time) & b) How much different does the XP feel once you move to another server? Also, the concept of "Free Trade". I assume most raid gear is No Trade on most servers? So FV has a bigger economy of sell drops you don't want buy ones you do, rather than grind for drops ad nauseum? Yeah, I think I'm personally starting to lean more toward the idea of using the time between now and the next TLP to get more familiar with the game and learn some stuff. There's definitely a benefit to learning everything before just being thrown to the wolves. Cool, that all sounds in line with what I was anticipating. Though I am curious about "a lot of them require a group at some point" for questing. But it's curious in a good way, haha.
A. Sadly, there aren't as many RPers on FV now as there were when I was first playing in the aughts and even then there were a lot of non-RPers. I think by the time I left the game originally RPers were in the minority. I have never been a fan of the so-called hard core RPers who claim to always stay IC and/or self-appoint themselves as RP police. Thankfully, I haven't run into any of that type in my latest return and could mostly avoid them (like the plague) in the past as well. Most RPers do use some sort of marker for when they're not IC (such as a double parens) so it's not confused for their character but try to stay IC in particular places or chat channels intended for RP. But we can and do get chatty, too, as in real life conversation vs our characters. Lately, work has been consuming more hours of my life than I would like. And I sadly haven't been able to get in as much game time. But, my guild has a regular group (or tries to... darn real life interference) every Friday starting around 6:30pm-ish Pacific time. Who we play at what levels depends on who will be able to make it. We recently started some new ebils to meander through low-level content just for the fun of it. Only a few of us active have characters over 100. On Sunday mid-day, some of us also group up with players of another guild for high level (i.e. 110+) stuff. Back in the aughts our guilds were bustling with many active players but now we have dwindled to just a meager few but we still have fun and that's all that matters. B. I'm not the kind of player who watches my XP until I am about 95% into a level and then it seems to crawl for that last 5% no matter what level, what content, or even what server But, I have very rarely played on any server other than FV so I don't really know how much I would notice. I really am much more of a "it's the journey" player than a power leveler. So... I think it depends on how fast you want to make it to 120 + 99% with max AA if you would notice it. However, in more recent years, development has moved more to XP being % of a level for various things like quest completions and achievements. That, I think, is not as accelerated by the FV bonus. C. I am always amused and amazed by what I find is No Trade on other servers. Yes, anything tradeable is sellable. This is both a good and a bad thing on FV. Some say the prices are higher on FV, but very little is rendered unusable and sold to an NPC or destroyed. If you outgrow gear or get drops you can't use, on FV you just sell them on or give them to a guildie that's leveling up. I'm sure the same Simple Defiant Breastplate has been worn by at least a dozen characters (and someone should have washed it a some time in between all that, peee-yewww). Even the class armor is tradeable which can help you pay for the materials to make the next set, unless you find it already made from someone else. Yes, on non Free-Trade servers, nearly all raid drops are no trade or attunable, but they often can be sold in the bazaar or the auction chat channel on FV. *howls*
TLP offers more low-level grouping opportunities. On a Live server you will level 1-50 extremely fast, like a matter of hours. 50-60 is probably longer than 1-50, 60-70 even longer, etc. Most classes have an effective solo/molo strategy, but this starts to fall off rapidly after level 80 or so. Again, class dependent. E.G. Shadowknights can do well, while Clerics do not. After level 100, regular "killing enemies" experience becomes nearly worthless unless you're being powerleveled on enemies 10-15 levels above you. Besides per-kill experience, you will notice that enemies become much more dangerous as you level up. Time to kill an NPC goes up, while the time it takes them to kill you goes down.
^Well you weren't kidding were you. I started my character on Fironia Vie last night and played for about an hour; though, at least half of that hour was spent in the character creation screen. Hopefully, Vah Shir Bard isn't a bad combo! But running finishing the first tutorial quest, ho BOY do I have more questions now. 1) Is this game supposed to be played in first-person? That seems to be what the default is when you log-in and even scrolling out you don't really get very far up over the shoulder. Also, it took me AGES to figure out you couldn't "look-up/look-down" unless you were in first person mode. Which was quite infuriating looking for that sword that I maintain is DEFINITELY NOT UNDER THE BRIDGE. It's slightly down river from the bridge and I thought I was mad looking for it. 2) Is there like a preferred UI setup to make things more... manageable? Quest dialogue is in a super small box in the bottom middle of the screen. Inventory is top left. I couldn't even find my "Breathing Underwater" bar for like 5 minutes. Half of the default UI stuff on the right-hand side didn't feel immediately important, but I'm sure with 24 years of iteration there's a like "This plays the best" type of feel for most people. 3) Is there a way to have quest dialogue be in a separate window from normal chat? Or like, a way to make that window ONLY quest dialogue? I'm really trying to immerse myself in the story (yes, even of the tutorial), and when that box starts moving it's MOVING. 4) More of an observation than a question, but I think it's interesting that experience is done as like percentages rather than flat rates and that you don't even really see your "total" experience, just the percentage to the next level. I can think of a few drawbacks to this system from a player engagement perspective, but also a few interesting design mechanics in terms of things like certain encounters giving a static percent for X amount of levels or something. But yeah, first play session was admittedly somewhat frustrating / humbling (drag+drop really doesn't exist does it), but I'm eager for more.
Bards rock. Both work. I play a mixture. Generally prefer 3rd but tight areas or certain classes I go first. You can map look up/down to keys for 3rd person (pgup/pgdn i think is default) Mine looks like this (2k) Yeah I think the default view is tabbed. You can right click and close/create tabs or new chat windows. Don't need to drag. Click to pickup, click to drop. Longpress to make hotkeys.
When I first started playing in 2001, Vah Shir bard was my very very first ever character. But, there was no Gloomingdeep Mines then, I started in Shar Vahl. I switched servers, created a completely different character and finally got back to a bard main last year. Bard is one of my very very favouritest classes. Bards shine most while in a group, too. Bards can move while "casting", however most (or all) of your damage songs won't do damage if you're in motion (this was a change while I was gone from the game to "nerf" the bard swarm kiting", gathering up a bunch of stuff and running faster than the crowd while also singing them to death with dots.) Back in the early years, you needed to "twist" your songs to have multiples up at once, stopping and starting each song in a sequence. Three was easy, four took a bit of effort, and five or more was tough. Now we have /melody that can be put in a macro to cycle through a group of songs and the duration of many sings has increased as well. I wouldn't be able to twist now, like I did over 20 years ago If you want growing up bard tips, the bard community tends to be pretty nice. I have a 120 bard and a 89 one, too, not counting that original one who might still be sitting on my original server (I keep forgetting if she is). The game was originally designed to be played in 1st person. The controls for 3rd person do take a lot of getting used to, especially if you're coming from another, more recently developed, game. Mouse look is how you can look around, however, the direction your camera is pointing is the direction your character will move it, kind of. F9 will cycle you through the 'views'. I generally use 3rd person and I find I need to cycle the views some times to get back 'centered'. In 1st person, the 5 on your number pad will center your up/down view. Swimming, page up and page down are how you go up and down even in 3rd person, but it will get your up/down un-centered which is unnoticable just looking in 3rd person but will affect you for levitate and other such. You can create additional char windows and even filter specific types of content into them. I recently created a "quickie" tutorial for an open raid on installing some helpful tools for raiding. At the bottom I also explain how to make a new chat window and add a filter: https://rijacki-game.blogspot.com/2023/03/SundayFUNday.html. Skip the Discord and GINA stuff, those are more for raiding (but I do include the link to find the Everquest Discord). Actually it's done both ways. Flat XP is commonly called "Kill XP". Newer quests (newer being several years now) and tasks give a reward in %. Old quests still give a flat amount. Kills give a flat amount. Te flat amount you need to go to a new level increases each level. There is a lot of debate on the forums about how XP is granted. To drag and drop, you have to click and hold until the item gets 'picked up' on the pointer. The controls for the game are still mostly as they were since the game started and in many cases can't be changed either because of legacy use (new way of doing things can be tough in a 20+ year old game with players who started day 1) or because of the way the game was coded in the beginning. Drag + drop, inventory management, and movement/camera are a few of the things that make it hardest switching between games, even between EQ and EQ2.That's another reason I recommend the tutorial for first time players and those returning after a loooooong absence (like I did when I came back in 2020 while recovering from a broken shoulder - oddly easier to play with my right, dominant side, shoulder in the last stages or healing and getting back to movement.) And, again, welcome! I hope you have fun!
Okay, that seems much more cleaned up. Though there's only one, maybe two things I would traditionally call an "Ability Bar" on your screen? Or are those what all those exclamation points over to the left are? Interesting. I 100% of the time I can always pick Bard ever since I first played Icewind Dale. Unfortunately, FV already had my name taken that I use for Bards, so I opted to use one of the main characters of my book instead. I swear I was mashing page-up/page-down, as well as 3/9 on the num pad and it wasn't doing anything while I was in third-person. I even changed the bindings to work one-handed with WASD to F/G and nothing happened. Maybe I'll try to play "as intended" in first-person for a while to see how things go. Sweet. I can do that easy enough! Ahh, I guess my two sources of XP so far have been the first tutorial quest and the Achievement I got for learning about achievements. Interesting to see that both types are still supported instead of just going back and altering the amounts based on relative level. Seems odd you'd keep both systems. Yeah, the controls are definitely taking some adjusting to get used to. I thought maybe since I still play OSRS (I'm drawn to older games apparently) that maybe some of the more archaic design stuff would sort of just meld into me. Haha. Going to try to squeeze some time in later tonight if I can. I'd like to see if I can get out of the tutorial area.
Brand new character havent even filled all the buttons on the first bar yet. You can always create more through the EQ menu hotkeys # Extended target window. Enemies appear there.
And when that window fills up and goes off the screen with more... sometimes your best option is to get out the drum and RUN. On the subject of drums... in the long past, for bards using an instrument would make a significant difference on many songs (and some require it). Now, in the lower levels there is still a bonus when using an instrument but not so much later on as the bonuses were transferred to visible gear (chest, legs, boots, hands, head, arms, bracers). I still like to use instruments even if it is mostly just for show. It's a visual emote
Gotcha gotcha. Makes sense. I thought I might actually die in my session I just played since a named spider killed my Merc, but I powered through and survived. After that though, boy howdy did the frustration set in. So, another forum member messaged me and said they too had just started EQ for the first time and that they were creating a character on FV. Awesome! We happened to both be playing tonight so I saw them and added them as a friend. I then /tell'd them and they responded... in an unknown language. After trying tells, group chat, zone chat, etc. there was only once where one of their messages ever came through not as gibberish and I couldn't figure out how to emulate it. We both assume it has something to do with FV being an RP server, but I gotta say that's probably one of the largest player barriers I've ever come across in a game's tutorial. Having to use OOG communication is wild (especially when it wasn't at all prevalent 24 years ago). Then, there was an issue with the quest I was doing. Gathering Cocoon Silks for Valhara. According to my quest tracker I had looted 4 of them, but when I went back to the NPC she gave me the dialogue and the pop-ups for the "Basic Training" quest I had already completed. I tried giving her my two "normal" silks and she did give me some armor but that didn't complete the quest. I tried to go back and kill more cocoon's but by this point I was grouped with another person and even though I was clicking "ND" which I assume is the "Need" roll for grouped players I didn't seem to be getting anything. After doing some light Googling I confirmed that the "Cocoon" Silk is indeed different than just "Silk" (which I thought initially), but also that the Cocoon Silk doesn't stack so maybe I wasn't getting the drops because my inventory was full? I couldn't find like a "Quest Item" tab so I don't think that was it. But after all that I had burned like 15 minutes of the 45 minutes I had to play tonight (just wanted to actually fight some stuff lol) and I logged. I am not discouraged, but I am absolutely realizing how good of a decision it was to start here rather than wait for a TLP. There is lots of inscrutability baked into the fabric of this game (which I realize previously was purposeful to an extent, but I'm curious how I'd feel about some of this even experiencing it 20 years ago).
ACK! I am so used to FV's language that I forgot to tell/warn you. On FV you only start with your racial language. On other servers you start with Common or Dark Speech. But, it's actually quite easy to learn languages. You need to be in group. Then you can spam the group chat. So you and your compatriot can sit in a safe space and spam your own languages and in a few minutes you will start understanding each other. Depending on your intelligence/wisdom and the RNG, you will start to see skill ups quite readily. Getting to 100 can take 15+ minutes of "language lessons". On FV in the old days, there were "language parties" to trade languages with newer characters. Now, this will often happen ad hoc when a new character shows up. You can also use a merc to help you learn language. If you have at least 1 point in a language, you can babble to your merc to learn it. However, learning from your own babbling is a bit slower than learning from someone who has a much higher skill in the language. For most communication on FV, Elvish and Dark Elvish are handy languages to know.Those became the "standard" languages in the early days and it stuck. Cocoon Silk comes from the egg sac piles. You can either damage it or /open with it targetted. Sadly, there is no "quest item tab" though many of us would really really like it. And now, tutorial mode..... Looting when you get in a group... is both made easier and complicated with the Advanced Loot window. I have been learning it over the course of the last 3 years and probably still don't understand it fully. To start with you have a master looter and everyone else in the group. To make that a bit difficult at the beginning, the default window size actually hides a lot. You can display the Advance Loot window without killing anything by clicking the EQ button > Actions > Advanced Loot. However, some of the buttons and controls are only available when you have a loot item in the window. Normal looter window at default size only shows you the ND and GD. Expand the window a bit to the right side to see more. The first three are single item: ND is Need, GD is Greed, No is Don't loot this. The three to the right add the item to the filter for future rolls: AN always roll need on that item if it comes up again, AG always greed, NV never loot that item (useful for quest items for a quest you've done before or never will do and can't be sold, i.e. 0cp or otherwise isn't worth looting). Set all to, below the Shared Loot window has similar options but applies them to everything currently in the window. The Personal Loot window is the stuff that's about to drop into your bag. It will stay there if your bags are full or if you need to respond to a "are you sure" on a No Trade item. Leave all is the same as No. When an item is in the filter with an "always" you won't see it again in the loot window. Eventually you will see that distracting loot window pop up less often but you will still be getting loot rolls on all need and greed items. The filter can be edited... info to come below. Master Looter gets a lot more controls and options and it can be a bit confusing at first.They get the same options as a normal looter and a lot more Set all options plus and action button and manage button. The extra set all options are also everything in the window and affect the Action button. I love the Auto Ask/Roll option because, along with the other autos, it means that annoying window pops up less often. Ask/Roll sets a timer for the roll. Everyone puts in their bid and then the roll occurs. The timer is a couple minutes, so you should have time to mark your boxes. If you've been using the filters, they'll be marked for you making it even easier. Master Looter also gets a Manage button. This affects a single item. Next to the Leave on Corpse button, the drop down menu is for each member in the group. If one is selected, the Give button is available. This is how you can assign loot to a specific member of the group. Auto Roll starts the timer for that one item. There are more controls on this window, but don't worry about them for now. At the bottom of your loot window, there is a Loot Settings button. This is important to check. If you are the looter and you get coin in the drop, it is polite to auto split. If you're soloing and you don't want to deal with being asked if you want to loot stuff, Auto Loot All is what you want to select. This will also automatically drop stuff in your bags from loot rolls. If you don't want to deal with the master looter controls, you can prevent the game automatically assigning you that role. And finally, the filter, the other button at the bottom of the loot window. If you've been using the Auto buttons/options, things will be added to your filter. If you want to change the "always" you can or you can delete the item from the filter altogether. The line of boxes under the ?dice icon is "auto roll". Only 10 items will display, so you may need to use the search after a while to find out why you haven't been seeing any of an item though you know it's been in the loot. (quest items you previously set as NV are the likeliest culprits.) Some of the things, like the Advanced Loot window, were added during the many years I was gone from the game. They have been a bit of a learning curve for me, too. Early on after I returned, I decided to learn things as they come. The game is complex while also being simple. Enjoy the simple and add more complexity as you go along. Fight stuff, kill stuff, take their loot, and most of all Have Fun! I put the information about the Loot window into a blog post: https://rijacki-game.blogspot.com/2023/04/eq-looting-for-novice.html
The cocoon silk comes from the Cocoons in the spider area. They are breakable objects you can damage to open or use the /open command while they are targeted. Kind of like treasure chests. Note- these objects, like many openable objects will not allow you to loot what is inside them if there are angry creatures nearby. (so clear the immediate area of monsters, then open the cocoons to get your cocoon silk) i always make a hotkey while in the tutorial that does 1st line- /open 2nd line /say bless 3rd line /pause 1 4th line /autoinventory 5th line /hidecorpse looted Bless is what you say to the guy near the banker in the Tutorial to get a nice temporary buff. Any time you get close enough to a crate, vermin nest, barrel, spiderling cocoon, pile of bones, and other open-able objects, target it, and press this hotkey. You will then loot whatever is inside, and it will go into your inventory so you don't have to click it manually. Looting all the barrels, bones and crates you find in the tutorial can give you a lot of good things to start with, more bags and backpacks for your inventory space, a bow and arrows(for quest or sale) and random things to sell to the vendor, this should give you plenty of platinum to buy your first spells or hang out as long as you want and get a decent bank roll started.
If you leave Gloomingmines leave after level 10 (or is it 15?), you can't go back. If you leave before that, you can talk to Secalna Galnor (next to the loyalty merchant Alerynril the Loyal in Plane of Knowledge). You can use the Find button on the map to locate her. But... when you leave the Mines through the tunnel, it will take you to Crescent Reach. From there you have to go to Blightfire Moors to find the Book to take you to the Plane of Knowledge, so.. umm.. a bit complicated to explain. You can, though, take the Throne of Heroes port (from your AA window, press V to bring it up, then the Specials tab, scroll down to the bottom to find it and make a hot key to trigger it) which would put you in the Guild Lobby and then you can exit from there directly into Plane of Knowledge.
