Nostalgia

[dulak]

Ah, the old days. So who all recalls way back when EQ first came out? Back when the tutorial was offline, level cap was 50, drunken deaths in Kelethin, or even the dreaded /yell "Sgt Slate to EC Tunnel!!!!" So many things back then made the game awesome. Now, not so much. Input?

 

[burntbulb]

I started with PoP release and didn't use mq2 or anything until much later....
They introduced a lot of nice things since then but also slipped in other areas. I do recall when the tutorial was a separate game, actually cant you still play that escape to norath or what ever... I recall killing the PoD's although i never did it. I did my PoP progression before ever joining a guild, and have very fond memories from those days. One of my good ingame friends Called it quits in eq after beating Time for the first time (major achievement at the time). I often thought back about him as I progressed thorough the game but then I often envied him when the game became an endless time sink of farming xp and side quests to get caught up. The guilds I was always in were always roughly a full expansion behind current release and it seemed impossible to get cought up with all the time sink things that were required with each expansion.

 

[SiegeTank]

Hunting outside the gate of Kaladim, where it was relatively safe. But then making the daring run to "the Crossroads" and getting jumped by the bandits that lurked along the path.

Hearing rumors of a mysterious chessboard, located deep in the wilds of Butcherblock Mountains, inhabited by strange undead creatures. The first time I stumbled onto that weird place...

Making the long dangerous run to Unrest... without sow, lev or any form of invis. The recommended strat was to run about the middle mark of the wall running down to the Cauldron, while trying to avoid the skellies and aqua goblins. My first run to Unrest was at the suggestion of a ranger I had just met who wanted to pharm some armor drops from there. The idiot took us deep inside the Estate and I would have never recovered my corpse but for a passing "high-level"who took pity on us.

Getting jumped and slaughtered by that stupid unicorn in LFay. Man, there was never anything good about that zone!

Zoning into Plane of Fear for the first time... the sheer ass-puckering impact of it. The ridiculously long corpse runs that followed...

The first time our guild killed Gorenaire in Dreadlands. The 50 or so of us waited what seemed like an hour on that frozen lake while the bard took forever to pull her to us. We won but rezzing the dead took another hour, so it seemed, and was very frustating since none of the loot would be announced until all were rezzed.

I could go on and on... LOL

 

[hawthorne]

I remember. 640x480 with 1/3 of your screen taken up by the UI. 8 bank slots. First day as a new character and one of your friends that has been playing for a while shows up, lvl 50 wizard. You are standing outside of a weirdly named city, Qeynos, and then someone points out the SonyEQ thing. Killing rats, snakes, and skllies. Running from Fippy because he was red, then yellow. Learning what "con" something meant stepping into Qeynos Hills, and then someone says we should try West karana. At level 4. Seeing a lion take a bite out of you and then you are LOADING PLEASE WAIT. The first time you run from Qeynos to Freeport, and hug the wall in Kelethin because you got there at 7pm. All the auctions in East Commons. Carefully hugging the wall in East Karana. Gnolls and orcs killed within seconds of life in Highpass. Wondering what Orc 2 was while running through West Commonlands. The EC Tunnel for the first time and the screen shock of so many people all at once. Seeing how different Freeport was to your beloved Qeynos. Hearing about Tumpy Tonics for the first time. Meeting a druid and then bam.. in Butcherblock. Following a level 41 ranger as we hunt the werewolf in West Karana for the message pouch. The Short Sword of Morin. My first piece of Ivy Etched Armor. When I finally got my first spells at level 9 and fizzle, fizzle, fizzle. My first visit to Oasis, and meeting the woman who became a lifelong friend. Killing gnolls at the spires in South Karana. The first time I saw Quillmane. Kunark opening. Standing on the shore of Lake of Ill Omen with my guild.

yeah I remember.

 

[wunaye]

I remember raiding pohate with my shitty computer and I had to face the ground the entire time as looking up would nearly kill my computer, luckily I was a cleric so I could still heal while staring at the ground.

 

[JimJohnson]

I had a BBQ last night with some friends we ended up talking about JBoots original drop location and all kind of other things from OLD school EQ like the EC tunnel. It was a blast down memory lane.

 

[jamie75]

3 day long Plane of Air raids. raid all day, camp and all log back in at a set time...

 

[Zeta1]

3 day long Plane of Air raids. raid all day, camp and all log back in at a set time...

As a Mage who needed the crown from the 7th isle for 1.0 Epic (back in 2000/2001)...this brings back awful, awful memories. Mother fucking Bees

 

[PRWraith]

I remember calling out of work because we intended to be in plain of fear breaking it wiping on the demi's and coming back for the foreseeable future. and i still never got a full set of the sebelite for my iksar war //

 

[StaticX27]

Mage's summoning armor for the whole raid to do corpse recoveries, or asking an uber guild to come save us.

Or... /shout wave 6 7 8, GO!!!!

Or hoping you could be in the xp group with the wizzies, rogues and mages on raids =P

 

[ThunderStruck]

haha the original UI. I remember sitting was pretty much a death sentence for me on TZ but you had to in order to meditate. That and the first time I left my home city as an erudite. Playing in the forest with some friends and seeing "Grobb Grobb DA ARMY OF GROBB" in chat. We were all thinking wtf was that? maybe some NPC's and then Bam, friend dies and I have 4 giant things running all around me and freaking out. Only later did I find out that I wasn't killed because I was below the level for pvp but my friend wasn't.

Also watching soooo many people trying to look over the edge into The Hole and watching them fall in and then doing it myself. And then I started an Iksar necro because all my friends were "darkies" on the other side of the world and it was easier to just restart than to run to their side of the world.

When Luclin came out and I found out about Katta Castellum (necro candyland), The Grey (charming killing) and The Scarlet Desert. That's when I learned how to fear kite 4+ mobs and it was soo much fun.

Just typing this made me remember about traveling anywhere. Back when you had to take the boat. How many times I was bored and fucking around and missed the boat and had to wait another 20+ mins for the next one. For some reason I would always jump in the water and try and swim to the boat in the hopes of getting on it but never making it.

And back in the day when the necro corpse summon spell was actually useful and people would pay me to come and summon their corpse in whatever zone.

 

[SiegeTank]

Yeah, I made long-time friends with a couple of necros after asking them to come summon my corpse. Same thing with clerics for rezzes. It's supposed to be a social game but a lot of the most recent "improvements" have undermined the social aspect. Unavoidably, I guess, since finding other "real" people to group and play with has become so difficult for many.

 

[boostit]

Running through Kithicor forest at night and trying not to be killed by the undead!

Running across the continent from Queynos to Freeport -- man that took a long time.

I can also remember sitting in Maidens Eye as a level 17 monk waiting for a Goranga Spiked Club to rot so I could loot one and getting killed several times when I tried to loot rotting corpses because FD was too low!

Corpse runs.

Ah the memories.

 

[foxman350]

Being on the list for the next open spot for Aviak Guards, in Lake Rathetear!! I spent a lot of time leveling there.

I continued to level alts there until about 4 years ago! Nice and private hunting!

 

[SiegeTank]

Maidens Eye reminds me of Umbral Plains... our guild used to pharm Spirit of Radir for the (then-) "incredible" wrist drops he'd provide. This meant a bunch of us running along the wall from the ME zone-in. Guild leader would always warn the guild vehemently not to EVER step onto the staircase leading up to Vex Thal. Never said why. I dunno if he himself was misinformed and thought somehow stepping on the stairs would spawn Rumblecrush. But given how RC could SI maybe his warning was wise, as we always had an idjut guildie who would just to have to see what was at the top of the stairs and then he'd bring RC down upon the whole guild.

The mystery was part of the fun... something hard to achieve today with all the resources available on-line for gamers.

 

[dewey2461]

I really got into killing all the named in maiden eyes to sell the wrists. Was boxing monk + shammy by hand in those days. Made a lot of plat at 15-20k a piece. Would also sell loot rights to the rotting no drop weapons which were great low level gear.

 

[kirbanmanaburn]

Leveling as a lowbie in Qeynos, feeling invincible in full banded armor and two minotaur axes. Going to Erud's crossing because I heard wisps dropped lightstones and thought that must be the most lucrative farming ever. Realizing I couldn't damage the wisps. Saving what seemed like a TON of plat and running to Karana for Combine weps. Coming back, farming wisps, selling Greater Lightstones to vendors and shitting myself over how much plat it produced.

Also, I wound up making a lot of plat leading full groups on Qeynos to FP runs. People would really pay to be shown how to do it safely. I took the Rivervale run (via Runnyeye/Beholder's) as opposed to Highpass.

 

[SiegeTank]

Also, I wound up making a lot of plat leading full groups on Qeynos to FP runs. People would really pay to be shown how to do it safely. I took the Rivervale run (via Runnyeye/Beholder's) as opposed to Highpass.

Boy, that's entrepreneurship. I never would have thought you could charge money for guiding players across zones. LOL

 

[PRWraith]

back in pre in game map days a man with a map book was a god

 

[MakoStreak]

I started in PoP... on Tunare..

SENSE HEADING 4TW!!!

Copper.. over encumbrance!

When it actually took some serious grinding to lvl up.

Corpse runs!

When my most uber piece of gear was +7 wis +7 dex!

MGBs were done in the PoK! Main bank or Nexus stone..

KEI lasted forever and could land on any lvl...

The Manastone had meaning...

Hell.. the Amulet of Necropotence had meaning...

Sitting with my cleric in EC and healing, casting temp on all the lowbies running around.. and then getting faction hits causing they were killing the good guys..lol

Gone are those days.. and most of the people who were there.. whats that video called ..Sayonara Norrath...