EZ Server

Not that im trying to distract anyone from the drama i just read in the forums yet again... Yeah I am trying to do just that.

Whats are some of your fondest memories from Everquest, when you first started, and it wasn't about a grind?

Mine would most certainly be the velious era, farming tizmaks and kodiaks for what seemed like forever. And eventually stepping up to the Frost Giants and the Frost Giant Elites....Feeling uber for about a month or so =)

Meeting complete strangers, grouping with them for a common goal (stupid early on stuff like blackburrow and the like) and eventually forming lasting friendships with those same people. For me EQ was about the interaction with others in the early days of the game, focusing on that kept my mind off the grind.

I remember after playing live for nearly 8 years, I had so many I would call friends and formed lasting relationships with it was crazy. Started a char, leveled up steadily with the same group of people all the way to max level or near there... Play a while, start a new toon, find a new group group of people leveling, keep in contact with previous friends, rinse, repeat.

Was nice logging in, seeing 5+ friends online. Kept playing the game fun, even though you were doing something tedious. Talk to them about the day, plans for the week, what's going on in the world, etc..

Just don't get that kinda connection anymore. At least not here anyway

Running from rivervale to freeport as a level 5 halfing druid, because all my friends were home citied there.  Level 5, because there was no death penalty, and I couldnt go any lower  :)  

I died repeatedly trying the super slow sneak through Highpass, and it was a HUGE suprise the first time I zoned into Kithicor forest after dark.  

The funny thing is, as soon as I got my circle spells, they wanted to go to North Karana for the bandit camps, Everfrost for elephants, and Permafrost.  

Edit:  Or Fear corpse runs, wearing mage summoned armor and weapons, because it was better than naked  :)

The best for me was the endless vox raids..delevel to only wipe and find out you didnt have a sk or nec on :)
oh the fun of vox camping your corpse. Those where the days
But aye it was nice to put up your lfg and actually get someone to invite you.

It doesn't have to be like that for any of us. We can take the time to give a damn again. And Reed, you knwo I am not flaming you in any way. I'm talking about US all as a whole. Myself, I find i can't hide online. Some days are bad for me, really just F everything days, and I want to log in and absorb myself and be done. You know what happen's? I get a /tell.... "hey man how are you?" .... i pause, faking not seeing it briefly.

Then i reply, then i have convo from someone I dont know, that honestly gives a damn how i am today. Then that convo will end, I'll go off thinking it's time to farm now, nope..." Hi bro, what are  you doing today?"

I used to think, why can't I just log in and play. Then I remembered, these people are my friends. They send me tells, because they actually care how i am today, or what my plans are. Too often we take it for granted. We forget the people we see chatting are human beings, on the other side of that line. That may need a pick-me-up as well, or just a simple "good man, and you?"

We all play for different reasons. Some for self worth, others to kill time. However we have one thing in common, a simple need to interact. Ultimately its why we log in, its why we gear out toons. It's why we show off stuff or help others out. It's interacting, making friends, chatting about bs...w/e you call it. It's what we all did when we first started playing.

I'm going to make it a point, from here out, to try to appreciate what i have... I hope others will follow.

-----Now gimme my tree-fitty bish!!! xD

To be honest I don't interact much with the players in game. Other than my guildies in <Rage> and the odd person I help out. Its not that I am anti social, I just find OOC too cluttered with random crap. While I love being able to play EQ here on EZ, there is nothing to foster that need to interact with others. Its just too easy to fire up another alt and continue on what you are doing. Grouping with "strangers" from QVIC+ is counter productive since everyone needs the same thing...the drops. Sure it would be fun to just group for the hell of it and chat away while pounding the living hell out of mobs....
But in the end we all succumb to the need to gear out our toons in that vicious cycle to get to the next tier of content. (Grinding HoH for pages to complete books for 8+ toons)
Could you imagine forming a PuG to do the same and still keep your sanity with the current drop rate on pages ;)

*edit* Sorry for posting something other than fond memories of original EQ. I am not trying to hijack the thread *
(http://www.funnyforumpics.com/forums/Thread-Hijack/1/Hijack-In_progress.jpg) (http://"http://www.funnyforumpics.com")

Back in EQ too, it was essential you had others. Encounter required real people and not boxes. AoE root, blind, shadow step, etc... Making it impossible to just box encounters (not that i expect many people back in 2005ish to box 20 accounts anyway). Not to mention raids were more than just gear. You needed flags, or keys, or quest progression that was a benefit to everyone participating.

Now it is solely the gear. Qvic is needed for a 3.0 flag, but requires each person to get 15 tokens. Its a pain, AND can be soloed with the right set up (on tier) or obliterated (over tier). So if it can be soloed, why do it with others for any reason other than just conversing and making the attempt at friendship? Not to sound mean either, but say you run a few people through Qvic (people, not chars), only a small percentage of the people you do run through will likely stay as a frequent EZ player. Alot who play here end up leaving for one reason or another (boxing, primarily).

So now you kinda wasted ~1-2 hours for someone who just quit on you. Its a pretty shitty feeling =/ Would just as well not met them tbh. It was different on live. There was kind of a commitment. Paying 15$ a month, taking weeks to get up to lvl 50+, and grinding out quests for gear... you knew helping someone was worth the effort. You knew they wouldn't just up and take off, or at least weren't likely to. They knew the way EQ worked and apparently liked it, otherwise why would they have stayed so long?

Here its pretty easy to get up to Qvic solo, or with little help. You don't see how EZ really is until Qvic+, and thats when people decide to either stay or go.

I came here from p99 where if you dont group your chances of gear wont happen anytime soon and your exp will be so slow you wont even want to stay loged in. I might see 1 or 2 lfg on ez a day if that. To me thats the problem with trying to find a group on a server that 90% of the toonz are  boxed. Alot think omg if so and so joins my group they will take me uber loots. But really it only takes what a week for most to get up to t3 and beyond, epics and all. And you can normally find anyone willing to kill terr or quil or even MOW and TT. Its the t2 mobs up that really require any help.
Not all of us can box our way to the top.
dont hate on me just my thoughts

And yes it does suck to help someone run through qvic (for free cause we are nice like that and way op) for there coins to only see them quit the game. Most will pay the 100k for a run and hey if the drop the game oh well you made 100k. I can toy around in ldon for say a hr or so and make 25k easy..it all adds up.
For the solo players there are always guilds looking for more so ask around..gear up... and kill some shit. If your not into guilds or grps then box, its a easy choice. You can 1 grp everything on this server all the way 3.5 MCP oin the other hand only a few can box him for a 4.0 book
I`ll add that i see alot of decent drops rot..can always sit in qvic or ldon, ect, kill solo and just wait to see if a rot comes up you can use.Even 3.5 pages rot alot. Alot of us are just farming stones.
Im in a guild, i box, my toonz are mostly all t4 and yet i still will group up with others just to pass time with some simple conversation.
To me its the high cost of augs,instances, and so on that make us want to sell items for big pp instead of just letting the needy loot up.

Before high prices for everything, it was just "Item X is rotting in Zone Y, CoTH available for anyone who wants. PST". But with 100k instances and 1mil augs, it seems only natural you would want compensation for the time you put in for someone else's gain.

I usually just let things rot for much the same reason I dont advertise selling items. I don't want to load up a char to sit outside of my instances to guild tag chars and have my mage loaded to coth someone. Especially true in Qvic which cant be coth'd in, so getting someone to you to loot rot can be painful at times.

In PoDragons and such, if im ever in public instance i just give away items to whomever is in zone... but generally I stick to guild instances. Cuts down on drama, ninja looters, and claims to tikis. If i get a bunch of fire crystals, and someone is on Fire... gotta wait. GI isn't that way, obviously.

To get back on topic fear was also just as bad as Lady Vox. I remember many wipes there. Get a mag to summon a power grp gear to help with cr or zoning in and getting the run run run to the wall ss. lol the good old days of live

1.  Running through Emerald Jungle one day,  I turned on the auto run function and got up to get a beer.  To my surprise, I heard the sound of combat and rushed over to check.  Sev, that bastard of a green drag with his obscenely rare green scales, had literally spawned on top of me.  I managed to resist his fear and instantly began sending frantic tells to every friend and person that I'd helped on the server - the scale was the last part I needed for my warrior epic.

Within 5 minutes, I had a raid formed of everyone from top tiered raiders to various poorly equipped 60's who I constantly invited to groups.  We managed to take Sev down on the first kill, and the other warriors did not even suggest rolling for the scale.  Shit was truly epic.  A group of close friends rushed with me to complete the quest.

2.  I once gave my password to a friend so he could powerlevel a real life friend of his.  Big mistake.  One of them had guide powers and managed to use the guide GM powers to bind my character (a wood elf druid) to the Neriak Shadowknight and Necro guild.  My character was de-leveled about 30 levels...  GM's restored my account because I guide was involved, but that incident caused me to transfer servers anyhow.

3. My two best friends: the best healer I've ever known (dwarf cleric - at the time a constantly high college student) and the best puller I've ever known (human monk - at the time a sexually repressed MILF, lulz).  We met in Oasis one day around level 11, and played together for over 2 years.  At times we were dragged to different guilds, but we all managed to make it to the high end raiding guild for several months.  We quit around the same time after Luclin, but still keep in touch through email and facebook. 

4.  Finally, my first run to freeport from Qeynos really shocked me at how huge and mysterious the game was.  It was actually scary running through the dark, dodging griffons and orcs and all other ill manner of beast.  This was back when you only had zone borders and /loc to help you navigate. 

Everquest had such a unique and strong community.  The community, as it has been said on this forum, was the heart of the game.

Players needed this community because the world was wild, unsafe, and mysterious.  People had to work together without the help of maps and readily accessible websites.  Everything is now so safe, stream lined, and user friendly that such communities are hard to come by anymore.

Those were the f'in days.

Dude ok least one of your friends sucked. But yeah, you had me at the running forever part to qeynos. I remember trying to navigate qeynos hills forever with no map and i kept getting stuck near blackburrow, trying to avoid every mob that said scowls and attacks, and eventually accidentally falling into the oger chief camp...ended that run super fast.

Those were great days. The cr sucked, but it was fun.

Best EQ memories

First server (povar) playing a barb war, being paranoid to lose sight of the tunnel back into halas because I would get lost. The first run through the Karanas, trying to get to the stupid aviak camp, binding at every town on the way thinking holy shit this game is huge. The run took us 2 hours and by the time we got there everyone had to camp.

My necro getting splurt on Vallon, laughing maniacally killing people.

The huge zone battles in the commons when Sullon first opened.

Being deleveled on my necro from 55 to 49 fighting neuts getting one of the cleric epics done for another evil guild.

Running the <Da Bashin' Iggles> as GM on Sullon, having the best guild ever that would drop anything anytime to come to someones aid, and who would pick a fight with any noot or goodie that happened to zone in. Regardless of level difference.

Starting my rogue on Sullon.

DING 60 THANK YOU !$&(* GOD ITS OVER.

being so hated on Sullon that when I was finishing my epic the whole noot team and good team showed up to block me in kith forest, having all of <Da Bashin' Iggles> <Hate> and <Ruin> show up for a 2 hour battle to clear the zone so I could down General.

All the colorful tells I would get after training noots in VT so they couldnt progress. /who 79... /who 35... /who 2.... /who 1. Woot, wipe, we have a winner!

Being trained and nuked by all the noot rangers and druids during Tunare event because they werent KOS, and still completing the event.

and last but not least, having the same great core group of players, that I met online, that have followed me through servers and games and beyond, that Ive played with for over a decade now.

Way to many great memories, and great friends. I think that playing on the PVP servers made the community even stronger then the normal servers, and its made for lasting friendships.

Fun times. I started out on a blue server with a Barb Shaman. Had so much play time in Blackburrow that I started having dreams/nightmares of the zone.

Later I decided to join my brother's and sister inlaws on SZ, they were season players and I was about as newb as you can get and slow when it came to pvp. I rolled up an Iksar Shaman and during pvp encounters tempers would flare over Teamspeak. "Don HEAL me, Snare/Root that @#$# MALO MALO DAMN!!! I took verbal beatings pretty well but eventually my brother's and sister in law moved on to DAoC or NWN I think, leaving me in EQ solo. I was getting Cc'd by some goody's and Da Bashin Iggles came in and cleaned house to let me get my corpse back then I was invited to join the ranks of Da Bashin Iggles.

Trying to advance and looking for Goody's and Newts every where we went. Some of the Halloween event's were a blast along with huge PVP battles in Lake Rathetear.

The there are those memory you can never forget year after year and always fun to bring up. Like when your guild leader takes you to a new zone that you have to have a wizard to port you to and gets you killed. Not a big deal but having a wife and needing to log off for the night to early to do a CR and your corpse is stuck left up in Plane of Hate and no way to get back to recover your gear. My fearless Guild leader says don't worry give me your account info and I'll recover your corpse for you. Then you logon and and he gives some lame excuse that my password I gave him did not work.

Then ks'ing all of my pvp kills.  Too bad there was no system to track assisted pvp kill's. Otaduke had Malos, snare and dots cooking off as he ran like the wind with Spirit of Cheetah trying to stay alive and Cafi would run up behind the newts and goody's and poke em one time for the credit  :'(

Oh and then there were those times were we made Body walls at the entrance to Ssraeshza Temple to keep the newts and goody's from raiding. Using growth on all the phatty's and having everyone on guard to rain down aoe snare, stuns, dd while others battle rezed the dead or all running back to CR and do it again for hours on end.

Oh yeah and damn those bards with their Charming and running you in to a nest of red con mobs to get an exp loss death and next to impossible CR.

Good times back in the day and still running around in a virtual world of EQ 10+ years later with a good friend and meeting new friends making new memory's on EZ.

lol you bastard, you did give me the wrong password. I also sent an entire raid up there to rebreak and get your body back so there.  :P

yup good times and lots of team effort just to help out a fallen soldier  ;D