Things I have found to amuse myself and other musings.

Discussion in 'The Newbie Zone' started by Finfan, Mar 20, 2018.

  1. Finfan Augur

    My ranger is now level 30 and I am really thinking that they have lowered the bar quite a bit in the lower levels. I mean I have gotten that far without getting my character killed even once. That would have been totally unheard of in the olden days. I also have a lot of spare time these days so I have come up with some activities to amuse myself with in game.

    1. Going to the gym. - That is to say just sitting in Crescent Reach chain casting spells to bring up my casting skills. So far all five skills are at 140 or higher. It really helps avoiding fizzle-fests during critical moments.

    2. Spell collecting - I am trying to accumulate every spell available for my character even if I don't need them.

    3. Tradeskills - A ranger must have a bow and arrows so I am currently working on Fletching. I will probably do the Trueshot Longbow quest eventually just for old times sake. I'm sure there are many better weapons available now but I liked that quest.

    4. The faction game - I remember there used to be an Iksar character who specialized in faction adjusting and could travel just about anywhere in Norrath. I believe one of my next missions will be go to High Hold Pass and try to make the Gnolls an endangered species. Just to see if I can get to amiable with the guards.

    5. Trying to get WTF reactions - Just looking for silly things to do that will make people stop and stare. Last night I was leading a train of Fluffy Bunnies around Crescent reach. Unfortunately it seems that every time one of them actually managed to score a hit on me there was some sort of auto response that struck back at them (not a damage shield) and many of them died. Any way to turn this off?

    There are also some things that I find a bit baffling. For some reason the system won't let me leave items behind. If I ignore a no drop item that I am not interested in it will follow me and show up every time I attempt to loot something. They will even be waiting for me if I zone and come back in. Is that a way to prevent littering? Also so far I have found that the map/find function does not work in either Blightfire Moors or High Hold Pass. Is there any way to correct that? I'm guessing that those maps have changed since I was last a regular and must be updated.
  2. Aurastrider Augur

    As for the loot question if you are playing solo and select never on an item it should never show up on your loot window again if you are playing solo. If you are in a group you will have to manually select to leave the items on the corpse. If you zone and items are still in your loot window they will still be in your loot window if you zone back in before the timer has run out.

    As for the map issue do you mean it is not showing you the yellow trail to the next zone? If this is the case open your map. You should see a red x marking your destination. Some places "are not easily found" or you are to far away for it to lead you to them but it should place a red x on your map. If your destination zone is reached via an npc, clicking an item or boarding say a ship it might not be able to show you the location. In this case you might have to investigate how to enter the zone and then try to manually find its location.

    As for the above I might add the hero's journey quest line to the mix if you already have not. It is intended for your level range 1-80ish and has some nice rewards. You wont be able to solo some of it and there will be parts that you will need a raid to complete unless you significantly out level the content but its still a fun way to earn experience and knock out some achievements.
  3. Finfan Augur

    I have no map or find functions. I can see a list of things I can try to find but when I select one "mysterious forces" prevent me from finding it.
  4. ntellect Augur

    You have both as they are built into the game. You probably dont know how to access them is all.

    Find is Ctrl-F

    Map is M but if your screen is empty download the map packs from EqMaps (forget the name but if you Google it, it will show up)
  5. Annastasya Augur

    Most of the time you get the message about mysterious forces preventing you from finding your destination, it is a matter of vertical distance that the game historically has trouble pathing.

    Specifically if you are in Crescent Reach, if your destination is not on the same level you are, (there are 3 levels to the city proper, plus a hidden grove with Dragon elders up in the trees, and a total of 3 elevators) then the pathing for the Find function is unlikely to succeed.
  6. Finfan Augur

    To be clear, I have the map window open but there is no map of the zone. So far I have only encountered this in Blightfire Moors and Highpass Hold. In Highpass Hold I think the find feature problem might be the vertical difference since it works sometimes but only when I'm on the right level.
  7. Xyroff-cazic. Director of Sarcasm

    Likely you riposted them. It's an auto counter-attack for melee characters. To avoid riposting something, you can turn your back to it. This prevents dodge, parry, and riposte from firing. Alternatively you can equip non-weapon items (like a book or stein etc.) in both your primary and secondary slots, and you'll be unable to riposte at all even if something hits you from the front.
  8. Finfan Augur

    I downloaded and installed the EQMaps data and it solved that problem. Thanks!
  9. Quatr Augur

    A lot depends on how well you know the game and on how hard you are pushing yourself. A few years ago I took a 60ish character, who was wearing PoP-era (and then Bazaar-purchased) armor, to 105 plus thousands of AAs without a single death. FD helped, but it still required working knowledge of the character's limits and game mechanics.
  10. slayerofbats Augur

    I think the low level game was dumbed down and ruined. It is empty and boring, and stupid. And then at 60+ it also becomes a tedious slow grind. Whoever designed all this should be ashamed at overseeing such an epic fail. Sucking out all the unique things that this game had and replacing it with a generic quest hub MMO grind, only with no other players.

    p.s. The bunnies dying is because of riposte, so turn your back or you can stay crouched.
  11. Wazzat New Member

    At the risk of being flamed... this is why I joined the Coirnav server. But if you are not a fan of the grind, this server is not for you. It is however, the closest thing I've seen to bring back the real classic experience/nostalgia. I'm loving revisiting the lower level content/quests and going for low level drops. Seeing people fight over cracked staffs.. lol. Good times.
  12. Flatchy Court Jester

    If you dont want your bunnies to die of riposte you can also have no damage weapons in your hands.
  13. slayerofbats Augur

    Yea I was very tempted, but a few things stopped me. Partly that I don't know anyone else playing it, they are either in other games or other servers, and I think I would only enjoy it if I could have regular groups of good people. Another issue is that I have multiboxed for so long now, I think I would really miss at least playing 2, but I don't have a second PC. Also even if I got one, I would have to pay 2 subscriptions which I wouldn't really wanna do on principle. I think my EQ days are mostly finished. 19 years is a good run.
  14. Finfan Augur

    So today I went for a run through Highpass Hold, the Karana's, Queynos, Erudins Crossing, and Erud. It was like being the sole survivor of an apocalypse. I made a /who macro and every zone I entered was empty of Player Characters. It seemed like an episode of the Twilight Zone. The world is empty. *sigh*
  15. IblisTheMage Augur

    I think there are 600+ zones? Most will be empty, and actually not spun up unless you enter them. The Greatest Game e’Ever Made is also really big.
  16. slayerofbats Augur

    The world is empty until level 100+. And even then people wait many hours to find a group.
  17. Aurastrider Augur

    I will say since the artisan's prize I have seen more people in older zones than I have in years. Not that most of these people are potential groups for the lower level toons due to the level spread but a lot of these old zones are being visited (velious, POP, GOD and a couple other expansions especially).

    I have actually encountered several lower level toons out farming also which I was not expecting. Some in places that I would have never even imagined people would grind by todays standards.
  18. Aurastrider Augur



    I am not sure about your logic here. First you are mad about the game being dumbed down but then you are also mad about having to grind? Would you rather it all just be dumbed down so you can race to the top or all be a tedious grind so you can feel some sense of accomplishment along the way?

    How should the company have designed things differently when the natural progression of a game like this like any experienced based game is going to create a separation of players based on levels. There could be better in game tools for grouping but by no means is this game an epic fail.

    To alleviate this they have spun up the new TLP servers. There are some that are not true box which addresses your issue of not wanting to buy several computers. If you don't want to pay for multiple subs that's more of a personal issue rather than a poor design on their part. Considering you don't have to buy expansions on a TLP they have to make money on them some how because after all this is a business and they need to make a profit.

    I don't know what you mean by "sucking out all the unique things" unless I missed something. Did they go back and remove all the old quests? Do you have to do TSS path instead of the original path? Do you have to equip defiant gear instead of using classic gear? No this just provides us as customers more options which is a good thing. Take the new path which is faster and more rewarding or take the old path which is slower and less rewarding or do a combination of both.

    Based on your posts and comments which all seem to have a negative reflection about everything in this game I am not sure why you are here. Rarely do I ever suggest somebody not play EQ because I wish more people would play but I think a break might be a good thing for you. Unless you are just trolling on these forums I don't see how you are getting anything positive from your EQ experience. Then again maybe I am just reading your comments wrong which has been known to happen.
    Quatr likes this.
  19. slayerofbats Augur

    There is nothing illogical about what I'm saying. Grinding has nothing to do with challenge. It is just making you do something 10,000 times to get a level instead of doing it 100 times. It is no more challenging at all, it is just massively more time consuming. The main problem with the grind now, is that you have to do it alone because this game barely has any players, and the ones it does have are all 100+. I played EQ from release, and I subscribed for years, and it was far grindier then that any server today. It didn't matter as much for many reasons, the main one being, I found groups constantly.

    It is a massive failure and it is sad I have to explain this to you. They removed what made EQ unique, they replaced EQ with a dumb version of the same game, death, trains, etc, all nerfed to be meaningless, and you now play with heavily inflated gear that trivialises everything. I doubt most of the current EQ players even understand the significance of this, but it used to be that soloing a single mob was a dangerous challenge, and not even possible for a lot of people. When your gear was mostly chainmail and your earrings were +2 agi each, it was a totally different game. Now you can buy stuff 100 times better than that from an NPC in PoK.

    This is not EQ anymore, even P99 with its maps and modern conveniences is still far more challenging and closer to the real EQ than EQ itself. Yet at the same time they failed to bring in any new players, so the entire game is completely empty from 1-100. And even from 100+ it can take hours to find a group. I don't know why you would even begin to defend something like this. They utterly failed at their one job, which should have been getting people to play together.

    There are hundreds of things they could have done to make this better, cross server grouping, a mentoring system etc. They even bought Vanguard which had a mentoring system built in that they could have reproduced. But instead they assumed the millions who grew up on WoW, will never be able to cope in EQ, so they removed everything that made EQ tough. Death is meaningless, trains stop before causing any trouble, mobs can be killed easily, quest hubs were added everywhere, a hand holdy and painfully generic tutorial leads people through the first (and most important) part of the game, overpowered gear dropping everywhere, and mercs who mean anyone can succeed by themselves. Their plan failed miserably because the WoW type gamers are still in WoW or one of the modern alternatives like ESO, SWTOR, etc. So they destroyed EQ's uniqueness for an audience that never came. And now all they are still back at square one, with a tiny playerbase and their game isn't even unique anymore. All of this could have been done so much better it is hard to even imagine it could go so wrong.

    The TLP servers are too little and far too late. They also have stupid ideas and rulesets, and each one cannibalises each other because they all have basically the same design. Yet again, stupid. The fact that they create a big new exciting server, and then another one a few months later that drains the first one, just shows how logic is completely alien to this company and it is so ingrained, they will never improve. DBG might be fresh blood, but they inherited a massive failure, so that is now part of them.

    True box is one example of 'stupid' design. It does not alleviate anything. Whoever thought it up has no business being part of the gaming industry, or making decisions for any company. It was then ok'd by a team of yes men who have no clue either. There is no justification for it. Everything about it is wrong and there are better ideas that many people could have come up with. There is zero argument for it, try me.

    Don't pretend not wanting to pay multiple subscriptions is a personal issue, because it isn't. I only would want to multibox because the classes are shallow which is less of an issue in other games, and finding a group can be hard or impossible. This is not personal to me, it is something millions of other people would agree with. I paid for a subscription on this game for years, when it was still a decent game.

    How they should be making profit is an entirely different discussion. But again it is all too late to even be asking that question. They had 2 options, be a premium niche game that requires a subscription, or be a free game that makes a lot of money from free players who buy bling. They could have easily done the first option, the second option required a lot of changes, and they even managed to screw that up. There are games like League of Legends that don't require buying anything, yet make a lot of money from selling cosmetic junk, because it has so many players and enough good will that people are happy to support them and the game they enjoy. All these other business models had been beaten to death by other companies. All SOE needed to do was copy one and do a good job of it, and they couldn't even do that.

    You missed too much for me to fit into one post. But the stuff above should explain some of it, I also recommend playing P99 to see the only thing that even resembles the real EQ.
  20. Aurastrider Augur



    You have options within EQ yet you dislike any of the options so its a failure to you. For some reason you think that anyone who disagrees with you must not have played classic EQ (I started in 99 myself) and therefor should go and experience classic again to understand your perspective. You neglect the part of the conversation between the two threads where I advocate for better grouping tools in game and think this is important. As far as mercs and OP gear and all of that you seem to have some form of short term memory loss. EQ was at its peak and then it got hit with a mass exodus of players. Grouping became tougher so insert mercs. Grouping became even more difficult so insert OP gear at early levels. The design was to allow people to even play at those levels so they could try to catch up to those who had remained faithful and were at end game.

    You can point the finger at SOE/DBG all you want but at the end of the day every player who left this game is just as much responsible. Players left and created a void in the group game. The company responded and now people are back wondering what happened to "their" EQ. Sorry time did not stand still and wait for your return. The players kept on without you and while we are happy to see people return you have to hold some accountability for these issues as the players helped create the problem. I was a returning player also as I have pointed out before on the forums. I left for college, came back and just enjoyed the content. The grind sucked but here I am. I kept with it and utilized resources in game to get to where I am. Go out and find a guild. Help out other players who are lower level than you. Try to help out even some of the higher level players if they need assistance. Believe it or not there are tons of high level players who might exchange their time in helping you level for your time farming certain items to evolve their artisans prize. Get creative and use the tools available to you now and think outside of the box. If what you are doing is not working try something different.

    You want more groups at lower levels, you want the gear to be dumbed down and you want a more classic feel for your EQ experience. I hate to tell you but something like this is already here and its called TLP servers. You advocate for wanting to group and then you also say you must box. I am not sure where to even go from here with this. Sure you can do both at the same time or even do one or the other depending on your mood or the situation but you are basically saying EQ does not fit exactly what you want and was not designed specifically for you so its a horrible design and everyone involved in the process is an idiot.
    Quatr likes this.