EQ was my first MMO. Played it like crazy from 1999 to 2001 and left soon after velious expanson.
Always remembered eq fondly but never thought id go back to it. That is until i came across Pantheon. After watching pretty much every live stream recorded I needed to get my Pantheon fix somewhere. Found out about EQp1999. It is totally free and only has the expansions up to velious. There is between 1000-2000 daily users and tons of alts and new players to group with.
I’m fully into it now and has made the wait for Pantheon manageable. Currently play and enchanter and I’m working on my epic which is something I never got around to doing back in 2001.
Anyway I highly recommend it. A lot of similarities to pantheon including game mechanics. Why not come hone your skills while you wait for Pantheon
I have looked at it several times, but after reading about how it really isn't EQ of that era, how the player market has had an effect on it, I really have no desire. If I was going to play EQ again, I would download the server, configure it to my own liking and play it with my friends.
I have heard both very strong praise and equally strong criticism of P1999.
I have tried to go back to old games many times. But things that were new and wonderful at the time have become beyond primitive as the state-of-the-art advanced.
You can't go home again is true for me at least.
EQReborn is classic EQ with percentage-based out of combat regen of health and mana, similar to the rates demonstrated in the Pantheon videos thus far. Might be worth a look for players looking for something close to the Pantheon experience, with respect to that mechanic, while still having the content of EQ1.
I played through to level 50 and the community is quite friendly, there. Same infrastructure as P1999.
Evade said: Actually Zorkon, that is a fantastic idea. I could definitely rewatch GoT. Tanix, having played the original eq from start to velious expansion I can confirm that p1999 is really the same as EQ of that era. That doesn’t make it perfect though cause your missing some serious creature comforts that are standard in MMOs (example: in game maps) With that said, the challenges and sense of community are as strong as they were in EQs prime
I am not so sure about that. The leveling speed in the game is far faster than release, this I have verified with friends who played with me during release and were playing P1999.
As for maps, I disliked when EQ introduced maps. I disliked it when they introduced 3rd person cameras and allowed casters to med while seeing all around themselves. From some of the fights described to me by friends (time setup and how classes would function), they confirmed to me it was easier than when we did it on release. The problem is that EQ was changed pretty drastically and quickly early on. By the time PoP released, a lot of EQ's core designs which made it what it was were erroded.
Like I said, if I were interested in such, I would simply setup my own server and configure it as I liked to play with my group of friends. Even if P1999 was exactly like release, you still have the problem of a stagnat system of players who have been playing the same content for years (I think they are capped at Velious right?).
I think P99 is great as long as your don't play too much and keep very casual. Getting in the raid race and competing for things some peeps are farming from years, beeing full BIS from bosses that dropped as little as two items per week, is probably going to drive you insane.
I had a big fun there, but I stood in the low level range and while I might play again from day to day, I don't intent to reach level cap or start working on an epic, or even getting Velious spells (which are as expensive as a kidney).
MauvaisOeil said:I think P99 is great as long as your don't play too much and keep very casual. Getting in the raid race and competing for things some peeps are farming from years, beeing full BIS from bosses that dropped as little as two items per week, is probably going to drive you insane.
I had a big fun there, but I stood in the low level range and while I might play again from day to day, I don't intent to reach level cap or start working on an epic, or even getting Velious spells (which are as expensive as a kidney).
Drop rate doesn't bother me, I like it to take a long time to get something. Funny thing was during EQ, I would spit ball about how to do better systems back then. Even before it was introduced a while after in games like WoW, we talked about token systems to avoid the massive time wait for getting your item in raids. After experiencing years of token systems, I have come to the realization that I prefer the rarity and limited drop system. It made the items far more epic in obtaining them and it was always a treat to anticpiate what "might" drop if the boss was killed. I have come full circle on a lot of systems that I originally had an issue with in EQ as it was a road to understanding that a truly rewarding experience is built on not getting what you want, in fact... the best experience is when you go home empty handed more times than you do with something.
That aside, I am not a big fan of contested raiding (I don't mind small group content as such, in fact I think it is better contested), which is why I moved to the Legends server when it came out (they had a scheduled raiding system between the guilds based on teir and tested ability a GM would assess in an Arena spawned event) because raiding contested in EQ other than picking up the scraps long forgotten is not a game for people who have full time jobs. I did it, I did not like it as I had to spend many a night staying up far too late to raid (it was not uncommon for my friends and I back then to head into work with only a couple of hours sleep). I will pass on that these days.
As for items, I was always the type who camped them, I am a strong opponent against player trade systems, I think they ruin the game balance in player achievement (when people can grind mundane content to gain money, or play the market trade game to gain it so they can buy an item they did not obtain as it was designed, it defeats the entire point of the content being made to a level of difficulty).
many people claim that p99 is "classic", but that is false.
it is close to classic, but it's not classic.
there are many, many differences between the gameplay experience we had on live, and the one we have on p99.
Many game aspects are different : customizable UI/Client, spell resist checks, mobs pathing and warping through walls, NToV Dragons pullable to zone-in, etc...
on live, Kunark lasted 7.5 months before Velious came out. when velious came out, it took a lot of time to clear high-end content. and velious only lasted for 1 year before luclin
on p99, Kunark lasted for 2-3 years of heavy farming. when velious came out, high-end content was cleared the first day.
a true "classic" server would follow the same expansion timelines as they were on live, and cycle back to pre-expansions when it reaches an unwanted expansion (by players vote), with a hard reset.
now that would be real classic.
Tanix said:Drop rate doesn't bother me, I like it to take a long time to get something. Funny thing was during EQ, I would spit ball about how to do better systems back then. Even before it was introduced a while after in games like WoW, we talked about token systems to avoid the massive time wait for getting your item in raids. After experiencing years of token systems, I have come to the realization that I prefer the rarity and limited drop system. It made the items far more epic in obtaining them and it was always a treat to anticpiate what "might" drop if the boss was killed. I have come full circle on a lot of systems that I originally had an issue with in EQ as it was a road to understanding that a truly rewarding experience is built on not getting what you want, in fact... the best experience is when you go home empty handed more times than you do with something.
I dont really enjoy the token systems either, it makes it less exciting when a particular piece drops. But I would love to see some form of exchange system. If 2 or 3 items that drop are unusable. The guild can decide to disenchant (or whatever the salvage mechanic is) or save them. Obtain 10 or 15 extra pieces of gear and you can select one of the items from the boss or raid zone.
Just a way to keep the excitement of random drops but not completely penalize a guild that doesnt get a BoW for 2 months or never gets a DBoW
You will never get the same experience as a new game. I do feel like the EQ TLP servers are a better bet than toxic P1999. But EQ just has too fast of a leveling system with the TLP. People get 50 in a week. Then they are bored. But for those that want people to group with there are many more PUG’s
kreed99 said:You will never get the same experience as a new game. I do feel like the EQ TLP servers are a better bet than toxic P1999. But EQ just has too fast of a leveling system with the TLP. People get 50 in a week. Then they are bored. But for those that want people to group with there are many more PUG’s
I am not chasing nostalgia though. The reason I don't like the TLP servers is due to the games design which is really just a modern MMO packaged as a classic experience. The exp rate, the spells, abilities, and adjustments to numerous game play aspects are what I dislike about it. Even P1999 isn't the same either, as it has also suffered from modern influence to an extent.
I am not looking for some vague emotional memory of play, I know exactly what I want and what will make me enjoy the game. EQ TLP and P1999 aren't it.