Everquest vs Project 1999: An Honest Comparison(and rant)

[@Someone_EFD]

Imagine if they remastered Original Everquest.

[@denisdemonte15]

jeesh waiting on this! fingers crossed!

[@StevenMichaelCunningham]

You mean modern graphics with Ever Quest as is?

[@jakoclown4175]

Never happen

[@jakoclown4175]

Gamers are too fragile these days. Hell , people can barely handle losing at fighting games, can you imagine snowflakes losing an item they spent weeks getting after being ganked

[@ExecutionDbl9]

They basically did with the Luclin models

[@SadisticStang]

The biggest flaw in this 'comparison' is the undertone used when discussing the 'complexity' of classic vs modern EverQuest and that somehow the older more simple (though it's not) is worse. In reality, one of classic EQ's charms and staying power is the fact it's not a game of micro managing forty-eight abilities over four stacked hot bars with a graphical UI that clutters the screen.

[@evan2212]

very true and newer games seem to be moving away from having a crazy amount of abilities. even wow doesnt have that many anymore.

[@Zenn3k]

Yeah, I'd really rather NOT manage that many abilities. Casually using about 4-6, is right about the pace I like.

[@uumanebs]

Except the original classic UI literally did clutter the screen. Most of it was just pointless clutter, at that, as it wasn't even abilities and hotbars. Thankfully they did change that rather quickly and eventually completely did away with the classic UI. And four hotbars? That's determined by play style. Personally, I don't use linked keys or multifunction hot buttons, so I have a lot more. Some people have as few as 1 and assign all vital combat skills/spells to one button. No different than most people who mash the skill attack on classic to make sure they use the ability as soon as it refreshes.

[@jeffwells641]

IMO classic Everquest is much more about managing yourself and your environment. You might be able to take down one mob pretty easily, but if you do a bad job of pulling that mob away from his friends two or three mobs are going to wreck you. To an extent that's still true in current Everquest, but they've done a lot to blunt that danger. The complexity of the Monk class, for example, wasn't in the kicking. It was in aggro management, as they were probably the best class to pull mobs in crowded zones. But it wasn't just some ability you could click. You had to think about when, and where, and how to use Feign Death to get the mob AI to do what you wanted and send only one mob to your party. It was a skill. The best monks could grab one or two mobs out of a full, dense zone and safely bring them back to the party to kill without dragging the entire train with them. It's a beautiful thing to watch someone who does it well. And you had to be good at it, because if you weren't, you were in for a nasty corpse run in a crowded zone full of mobs to get your stuff back, and a loss of hours to days worth of experience that, unlike new Everquest, you can't get just get back by touching your corpse. You've got to earn it all over again.

[@cupriferouscatalyst3708]

i feel like having that many abilities isnt complex as much as it is convoluted. or rather, it is complex but on a small scale. those 48 abilities are all still used for the same purpose: to more effectively kill an enemy. what makes an RPG really fun, and i know EQ has this to an extent, is when your abilities do widely different things, like help you travel, affect what you loot and gather, allow you to control NPCs and so on. id love to see and MMORPG with a bunch of crazy spells that let you fly, summon magical ladders and elevators, control the weather, create items out of thin air, etc. not that MMOs dont have stuff like this, but in the end, 90% of the things your character learns is usually for combat and combat only.

[@laurieracline2722]

Note that the P1999 video had other players running around, one with LFG on. That pretty much tells the story right there. Were there any fellow players on the live feed? Thats sad considering everyone starts in the same frigging zone.

[@guysmiley4830]

The magic of EQ was making friends in a new and mysterious world, growing together as players and learning about the real people behind the keyboard (no voice chat). The modern game can be played without interacting with anybody. There was a time when you had to talk to people for ports, rezes, buying gear, selling gear, getting buffs etc. Before health and mana regen became instantaneous, group members would actually chat with each other while they sat to regen health and mana. The problem I think some people have with modern everquest is that they had to ruin old content when they came out with new content to the point where you basically weren't playing the same game anymore and at that point you may as well just try a new game. There were no shortages of new MMO's to try.

[@Heeroneko]

I don't play games based on how quickly I can get to max level. I play them based on how enjoyable the journey is to get there.

[@gradygilchrist4923]

Classic EQ you had to work, things were tough to get you had to work together. Dying was a major penalty. Modern MMO are all too easy, no major loss if you die etc. So much is just handed to you.

[@formless7068]

Calling p99 players delusional for thinking that p99 is more challenging (and thus more rewarding) than live EQ only demonstrates that you really don't understand what we like about p99. First and foremost, the reward is from competing against other players, not from competing against the server. Nobody cares that you can zone into a private instance and take down a raid boss. EQ isn't actually hard that hard once you become familiar with the game. There's not much reward in beating the computer, but there is a great sense of accomplishment when you mobilize and execute a raid boss kill when you're up against a few other teams of players trying to do it before you. Now you've not only bested the computer, you've also bested other human players. This also is the reason why you're complaint about the server being time locked really doesn't hold up. You worry players are just going to all get fully geared out and all the loot will rot, but you're coming to that conclusion from a perspective of an environment where every raid group gets to kill every raid boss every week. You have to be able to imagine what it's like when access to raid mobs isn't trivial, but needs to be earned. You don't just get a free shot at all the raid bosses, there's only one of each per server, so there's much less loot being distributed than on live EQ, so you get geared up much more slowly than you might think. Another thing to note is how you kinda contradict yourself because you don't think through the implications of your conclusions. You state that live EQ is more complex, so you've got more tools to work with. You give a great example of this with the bard's 'Mulligan' ability. Then you go on to say that p99 isn't harder or more challenging, but you completely fail to realize the affect on the game's difficulty of the tools you laud for giving the game what you think is depth. Guess what, on p99 if a bard fucks up, he doesn't have a free out. He has to play more carefully and more creatively. This makes it harder because it's less forgiving. The fact that it's harder makes it more rewarding The bard has to have a better understanding of the gameplay and mechanics in order to succeed, giving the game more depth. Having 11 different ability timers on a monk just isn't what p99 players think makes for a good game, and complexity for the sake of complexity doesn't make a game deep. The depth of p99 comes from the creativity and teamwork required to out compete other players with the limited toolset each player has.

[@SrgtRock]

Classic EQ was about the thrill of exploring combined with the fear of death. Dying actually meant something, not just a bit of lost exp. If you die alone, you could be in trouble. Corpse runs were never routine, and losing your equipment was a very real possibility (Kedge Keep, the Hole). And depending on where your respawn point is (if you can find someone to bind you, if your character couldn't do it yourself), you could have a very long and dangerous run, possibly even by ship, before getting to where you died. That was the main reason that I got into playing EQ in the beginning... the adventure and risk.

[@Movie_Games]

The problem is that there's no checkmark for the zones. I want the old classic zones.

[@cupriferouscatalyst3708]

what ill never understand is this mindset people have in MMORPGs. everyone wants to reach max level as soon as possible, and wants a constant stream of new content for max level characters to do. in single-player RPGs youre usually not even expected to ever reach the max level. in every MMORPG ive ever played its been way more fun to make a new character than to do the usually really repetitive endgame content over and over, yet people force themselves to keep playing their max level character, not doing much of anything between content updates. is there any reason other than attachment to their character that people do this? i really dont understand.

[@JamieHawkinsWWD]

It's akin to it as speeding up to a red light. Part if the experience is growing not just your character, but your skills in mastering all available to you. From what I've witnessed in the past two decades is that nobody can fly through the levels and be a worthwhile companion to group or raid near or within the endgame. This is why I've hated PLing - helpful for the immediate, but that is *all*. With linear/MMOs-on-rails sich as WOW, the progression as well as the levels are handed to you on a silver platter. It makes it easier for the Halo generation to switch from FPS' to MMOs, but you just effectively crippled a more rewarding and challenging experience for the game by handicapping and spoon-feeding the fresh player base. I'm optimistic that greater challenges will be craved by those individuals, and increase the demand for more quality and *challenging* content, but not holding my breath.

[@odin6667]

While I do agree new characters are really fun and the journey leveling is the best. I also love end game gear and being better than the average players.

[@potsos]

These comments are somewhat irritating. ["everyone wants to reach max level as soon as possible"] A generalization. ["its been way more fun to make a new character than to do the usually really repetitive endgame content over and over"] Personal opinion. ["yet people force themselves to keep playing their max level character"] MMOs are endemically about continuous power increases. What's the issue here? Not everyone loves to make alts constantly. ["From what I've witnessed in the past two decades is that nobody can fly through the levels and be a worthwhile companion to group or raid near or within the endgame"] Many EQ players are on some countless iteration of the same class they've made many times before. Slogging through old content for the umpteenth time doesn't make you any better at your class. There's a point of saturation. Most people have already mastered the class they're playing and they're just playing it again. ["With linear/MMOs-on-rails sich as WOW, the progression as well as the levels are handed to you on a silver platter. It makes it easier for the Halo generation to switch from FPS' to MMOs, but you just effectively crippled a more rewarding and challenging experience for the game by handicapping and spoon-feeding the fresh player base."] WoW is fundamentally different than EQ. They shouldn't even really be compared. EQ is niche, WoW is made for large numbers. So what? EQ's challenge is in the leveling/solo and group game and WoW's challenge is in the high-end raiding game. There's something for everyone. Why does one have to be "good" and one "bad"? [I'm optimistic that greater challenges will be craved by those individuals, and increase the demand for more quality and challenging content, but not holding my breath.] There's nothing in EQ anywhere near as challenging and complex as WoW's Mythic raids, so I'm not sure what you're on about here. There is plenty of challenge in WoW--especially when you consider PvP, which doesn't even exist in EQ. Both games have massive content and nothing in EQ is anywhere near the polish level so I'm not sure what type of "quality" it would be lacking.

[@JamieHawkinsWWD]

@@potsos Responses like these are not my favorite as well as it does not create or encourage a forum between people, such as what I may have meant by a statement, or might be able to elaborate upon, as much as it just becomes a target to be picked apart and made wrong. I will hope that you haven't decided that this conversation was over with before it started, as the reason I returned to EQ was largely because of the communities and have missed the people that they consist of, and the friendships that could be forged - such as hopefully like yourself. That said: Obvious fact is obvious. Clearly my statement regarding *everyone's* agenda is a generalization. I have no polling information to support a statement either way. But unless who I'm grouping with, or observing as an independent party, demonstrates either skill with the class or familiarity with the game and jumps at the opportunity to PL'd or be carried by their group (consisting of twinked veterans), they have no business speeding through the levels. I will elaborate further into a response to other issues you have with my post. Cupriferous made the statement about "forcing to playing their max level character", not I. To that I would say to each their own, the power in this style of game is the power of choice. But after that is where you pick back up with my post regarding expeditiously achieving high or max levels, which built on my last paragraph, I fail to understand how it could be disagreed with. If all an inexperienced player wants to do is start the game, hit level cap ASAP, and play solo (impractical), then cool. But if I'm new to the game, or if I'm new to the class *regardless* of being an experienced and accomplished player using other classes, you have a responsibility to yourself and the community you would eventually play with to familiarize myself with my character. By that I mean baptism by fire - taking advantage of the leveling crawl to be exposed to, respond, fail, and learn, then repeat, until I understand and have a feeling for my character's role(s), abilities, and approximate limits. If this journey is avoided, then I am now a liability to the groups/raids that will rely on them to do their job, do it decently enough, and not drag my teammates down. EQ, WOW, etc - the target audience or mechanisms of the game are irrelevant as I see this as a universal obligation. It's never too late to learn, but reflexes and confidence will not be as innate and the teammates I would have let down until its learned would have been needlessly and selfishly allowed. If you still find a flaw with this logic, I am sincerely eager to hear it. Tethered mobs, the option to lazily resurrect at an NPC and only suffer a durability loss/cost, a clearly scripted path for progression through all of the levels, are only part of what I am referring to in most modern MMOs (WOW is just a convenient and more widely familiar example to make it easier for others to relate to) that streamlines growth in the game, aka "silver platter". I would hope gamers would want to play games that challenge them, and grow, but some just want an escape, which sadly does not negate the negative consequences I've stated. To me this weakens the overall player base, emboldens newer players who cut their teeth on modern games and joining EQ to Leeroy Jenkins often to different degrees, which in turn encourages game developers to dumb down current and future games in competition for not being "too hard". I for one would like to see games with components such as those from Everquest, Vanguard, and Pantheon, but that won't happen if we are complacent accomplices in the direction these games have been evolving. tl;dr Beneficial and educational elements of EQ/VG/PRF being abandoned to cater to gamers with lower demands and skills is harmful to current and future games, and negatively effects the experience for themselves but especially others. Hi.

[@odin6667]

potsos you have never done high end raiding in EQ have you? Otherwise no way would you be saying WoW raids are more Complex....

[@petervenkman8835]

I am 100% challenged by EQ P99 because I didn't play it in 1999. It's all totally new to me, so I am in fact creating whatever nostalgic sense of team work and exploration that was in original classic.

[@gamerplayer8882]

Did he just say modern everquest is harder than old everquest? *HAHAHAHAHAHA FUNNY JOKE MAN YOU MAKE ME LAUGH*

[@CiphecDec]

To say that we don't have a challenge on P99 because the content has been beat 15 years ago is wrong. Our levels + Gear available make Vindi still a hard kill for those of us who are not Hard core raiders. Maybe you took on Vindi, ToV dragons, Sleepers Tomb 1000 times but for a lot of people who played Everquest in this era they never fought those mobs. I play both P99 and Live on your server FV and Vox. I have a 98 Monk, 91 cleric, and a 80 Rogue on live, and a 54 cleric 53 Sk, 52 Wizard, 51 Necro on P99. What I love about Live is that I can get home and do some missions, dailies, get a few levels and that's it. No one talks to me litterly NO one talks to you. On Vox I've been lucky to get in a good guild, they actually help me with the game, gear where to go, and I transplant that information to FV which I have been playing on longer. On FV I am taking my 98 monk and putting him in retirement and starting over. Find a good guild, do crafting and maybe do some raiding. I have to say that while dailies get you to go to places you've never been, it is a HUGE learning curve to come back to EQ. What you didn't mention about FV is that you can't talk to anyone in direct tells unless you know Elvish, which is the servers standard language. Also something you don't know until you start talking to someone in direct tells. Luckily if you mention something in General they will teach you elvish or start you on elvish to teach yourself with a merc in your group. As a creator of content for Everquest and showing your server you have a slight obligation to know that some people will want to play on the same server as you. Another very important piece of information that they might want to know as well is it has the most inflated prices of any other server because of the fact that no drop items can be purchased via the bazaar (e.g. Robe of the whistling fist monk epic piece, Willsapper, Fabled items, and Raid Weapons & Armor). While you may not have felt you were being bias, you sure did spend a lot of time talking about Live more than P99. I can only gather this by your video the reason being that you do not have a level 50 plus character on the server. Until you have a character level 50 or higher on P99 any review you conduct as per the differences of game play specifically can only be seen as opinion/bias and not fact. I will leave with this Those comments you were getting from what you call the "P99 Community" was a Facebook page for P99 players and you were peddling your Everquest live videos on it. This is only a small portion of the P99 Community. That last paragraph was unnecessary, as people will play what they like. I just happen to be one of the people you slapped in the face with that comment who plays both.

[@Yomom12388]

“Slapped in the face” Fucking Lmaoooo. You’re talking about video games, right?

[@fightingfortruth9806]

Modern EverQuest is just a straight up clone of nearly every other modern MMORPG. It offers almost nothing that I can't find in something else like WOW or LOTRO or . All of these games have the same game-play loop. Find a quest giver, kill 20 boars, turn in quest. They all cater solo gamers for the most part. Nobody hardly communicates outside of a guild. They feel generic and over-produced. On the other hand, there is almost nothing like EQ P99 available to play anymore. It's much more of a sandbox, more open-ended, more extreme highs and lows. The game hasn't been tailored for an "experience". It just is what it is and it is up to you to find your own fun. Players talk to each other more because there is a need for binding and ports and grouping. You often can't just insta-port to your guild-mates for a raid. You often are stuck on the other side of the world and have to make do. EverQuest P99 to me feels FAR more what an MMORPG was originally envisioned to be in the beginning. A true world that you need to make your way in. Ultima Online worked this way too. Modern mmos like modern EQ have simply gone away from this model. That is undeniable.

[@foxplayz3117]

I prefer Project 1999 (although I no longer play there, retired due to real life time commitments) -- P99 provided me with the least "tarnished" experience, I know that's a pretty harsh word so I will elaborate. On P99 my first goal was to relive the journey I did "back in the days: aka Nostalgia reasons as you put it" I also streamed on twitch *I wasn't very good thou* So I made a monk although rather than Human monk like I was back in the day because I started with classic launch and I never re-rolled when iksars came out, on P99 naturally I started and Iksar monk and leveled him 1 - 60, mostly sticking to groups past level 12 or so, and while I did get a few items donated to me via Twitch viewers I was by no means "twinked" aka no fungi or super items, just a couple starter weapons like wu trance sticks. After reaching 60 on my monk I went about collecting a lot of rare loot I never got to get "back in the day" with the idea to do better than what I had done in the past. So I got rare clickies like Peggy cloak, holgresh beads, etc etc, Then I joined a raid guild because at the time I wanted to see ToV and what-not again Well suffice to say I experienced all the velious raids again ToV, Growth, Kael, AoW... and although I had to play another persons ALT who had a key. I was even able to personally experiance waking up Kerefyrm (Long story) However all this came at a expense.. my respect for Everquest "End-game". You sound like a really experienced EQ player so ill give your review the benefit of the doubt and say that yes P99 raiding is a strange beast... for some people that ultra competitive race is what they enjoy...for others they simply enjoy attempting to have a monopoly of the raid targets...But the whole aspect of organizing a raid, clearing into a raid and killing targets is dead on P99. Instead it is placed with silly FTE rules (First to Engage) Zone-wide pulls and Meta-gaming with old - janky aggro swamp / gain / and dump mechanics to essentially pull any raid target (Yes even Vulak) to the zone in *or other location* Completely solo. No guild clears into NTOV and has that "adventure" style of raid, its just a pull, Tank dumps aggro clickies (slow mallet) and cleric CH rotations -- as you said not very complicated ((Aside from the aggro exploiting mechanics of the zone-pull)) Awhile ago the "Rules" of p99 raiding **Yes its so Janky they have to have server rules and lawyering as to HOW you can raid and kill targets** has changed to a "Foot race" for the FTE, meaning players gather and skype screen share to know when the boss spawns, and then Run into the zone as a race to see who gets FTE -- whatever guild gets the FTE then has 1hour to pull and kill said target. ((I think you get where this is going... essentially all this lawyering and abuse of aggro pulling made end game raiding "Not fun" there was no adventure of clearing trash and going and killing these bosses. Simply camping a pre-buffed geared toon out at a zone-in and camping him in when bosses spawned. So yea enjoyed some of my raiding time and was super stoked to take part in waking the sleeper on P99 as its sort of a "Once in a life time experience" sorta things but eventually the burden of (Rules Lawyer raids) made end-game unfun After I hung up my monk and raiding on P99 I leveled up a enchanter a class I had always wanted to learn / play, but never had the chance. I heavily twinked my enchanter with gear I had gotten from my monk (Skyshrine Quest gear , basically the works) I for the most part charm solo'd all the way to 60, grouping with a druid friend and a cleric from time to time, but not very often. As for complexity sake you are right ALOT of the old EQ classes lack complexity and gameplay in general is very simple. I didn't feel this way with enchanter, with enchanter I didn't feel limited as all I felt there was always a bit more I could push for and risk's I could take to do something absurd **Yes classic ENC is belligerently overpowered when compared to other classes** the risk versus reward for enchanter was insane! With a little help but mostly solo I got 1 piece away from completing my enchanter epic (without any guild help) However due to how stupid camping "Verina Tomb" is on P99 ((Flat out just Horrific, you literally have to have enc camped in 3rd gate and either screen-watch or hope for a server restart to get her)) I was not able to complete my enchanter epic **Literally was my last piece** But I enjoyed learning a zone I had never gotten to see in my previous EQ career with my ENC .. Plane of Mischief, my enchanter leveled from 51 to 60 all in PoM. Towards the end I saw what my Enchanter and solo gameplay was amounting too, and its part of P99 that I don't like , its the whole "Nothing is sacred, everything is money" clause of P99, essentially you get good enough at soloing you begin camping rare spawns, or epic quest drop items, selling the gear or Multi-Quests or even loot rights for plat in EC, this is a pretty big blemish on P99... higher level toon's camping Ancient cyclops for cash, camping PoM Alice 4 for Thrones / Kings, or Puppets for Thrones/ Kings for pretty much ALL DAY LONG, nearly any rare spawn or epic quest item that can be solo'd and Multiquest'ed will be camped at some point some of them quite often by a geared out ENC or Shaman who does not need it himself but will camp and solo it for plat -- Alts and Plat are a huge thing on P99 (Because locked at velious DUH) so Alts for people that want a full roster of 60s. But why plat you ask? well not only to gear out alts, but in in classic EQ and P99 there is quite a few very powerful clicky items (Slow mallet, Complete heal Reaper, Wort pots, etc etc) that all can be recharged by using a vendor trick (not going to explain here) but in order to recharge them you had to essentially sell them a fully charged on, then sell them the uncharged item, and then buy them back , some of these items taking a good amount of plat in order to repurchase off the vendor - however they come repurchased with their charges back on them (vendor cant differentiate between multiple items of the same type having different charge counts, so the first item sold with full charges over-writes the next item sold) This is a pretty big part of P99 economy and although I took part in it, the competition in drove and created in some areas for High value items and targets was reminding me of the silly crap I had done in P99 raiding... After feeling I had done very well in learning the Enchanter class and truly enjoying the experience of learning a class I did not play "In the old days" I did the same thing with druid and leveled up a druid to level 60 primarily solo, using only money and plat I got from porting people or earned myself on my druid to buy gear in EC (East Common-lands) However after getting 60 on my druid I did not compelled to challenge myself with my druid as I knew anything I could possibly do with him would be over-shadowed by my Enchanter's accomplishments (charm + pet gear + haste + memblur healing = OP class to the max) So I stopped playing the druid At this point the whole (experiencing a new class) fervor had sort of died off, as I felt at least from a solo and challenge aspect my Enchanter had accomplished more than pretty much anything other than a raid geared - torpor shaman could. I gave a small effort to make a self challenge to myself called "The Naked Necromancer challenge"to level a necromancer up to 60 with no gear at all, and only using money he had personally acquired to purchase spells... however around level 15 or so my passion for classic EQ was running on fumes.

[@foxplayz3117]

(Continuted) ---- My experience on Live servers on the flip coin, well too me many of the Quality life improvements, as well as gating "Ease of play" behind a paywall tarnishes the integrity of the game , to me it just cheapens the experience; tried a few times to level up on Live with various classes and highest I have gotten was 75 for the most part even the "revamped all in one" newbie areas at least once you get out of crescent reach are devoid of other players, there is not much grouping to be had unless you already know people, or go out of your way to try and group with others. Some of the mechanics , health values, and durability of the player seem to have been altered as levels progress (I don't have EQ experiance 80+ so I guess the game must change drastically) but as I was leveling up beating yellow and even con mobs like they are nothing did not feel good to me, it felt kinda sad that the leveling aspect had become such a burden that they water it down so much. I don't know if its a convenience thing, the lack of leveling players, or people just min-maxing but most people seem perfectly content leveling with their mercenary rather than playing with others on Live to me this was a huge slight to what I personally feel what Classic Everquest and Project 1999 did so perfectly was that players depended on one another and not just for high end raiding, but for day to day things... be it a port from a druid or wizard, or healer to a camp group, many classes in classic

[@angrybeaver8424]

so i just started on P99 a few days ago.. and uh if u gave it up, uh u know i will take your account... =) or maybe you want to loan my lvl 9 iksar monk Swooshin some gear. just gave up using my starter club because i hit for more with my hands lol. *cough *cough (angrybeaver300 at gmail) lol u know.. or just log back on and school me on being a monk, pulling, questing, oh wait you said you already didnt have time for that.... idk well good post! was like reading a novel. GL and maybe save time for when Pantheon comes out... And yes Grouping is what brought me back to EQ p99 - tried ESO and everyone just was soloing. I love logging on and seeing the same faces and fighting mobs and doing corpse runs.. the struggle is real and thats what makes the game

[@foxplayz3117]

Deleted all 3 characters as well as my EC mules live on Twitch... When I quit a game I quit 100% and nobody gets my stuff - That's how much I care about fair-play and integrity when it comes to MMO's, p99 staff deserved nothing less for making such a great historical server rather than have players RMT their characters and bring shame upon the server. Plus I am just flat out not cool with other people playing my characters even If I'm not playing the game anymore. Being a monk is fairly easy. Learn these following steps Feign Flopping(p99): If you are not on a hate list and feign before getting aggro, when you stand up, upon standing up even if its within mobs aggro range (Unless you are literally inside their character model) they will not aggro you for about 1.5 seconds (this allows you to run up to a mob and feign before it aggro's, wait for feign to re-fresh, and then stand run as far by it as you can before 1.5seconds is up and feign again... (ALTERNATIVELY: If the npc's back is exposed and no mobs that he will assist are around, you can stand up quickly get behind him and hit sneak to get by them without aggro) Sneak: Level it up its essential, when behind a mob they will con indifferently - this is helpful for using merchants that hate you, turning in quests, getting by npc's undetected, pulling... you have to level it up, period Pulling: Sneak while feigned, wait for mobs to turn around: Stand and throw weapon at mob in the rear for clean solo pulls (There is other variances but this is the most basic one) random feigns to break a pack can also work given you have enough distance to work with but this is rarely used... more finesse can be had if you ever get Holgresh Elder beads, but as this item was removed from the drop table its price is going to just keep going up and up. As a monk if you like pulling a lot I would heavily advise getting a Peggy cloak, and prioritizing getting a velious quest bracer, either thru Kael or MQ to you, so you can summon yourself shruyikens endlessly. For raid pulling you may want to pick up blacksmithing to make yourself forged Javelins (Huge throwing range) or just buy them in EC, don't use them all the time mostly just for raid tagging.

[@angrybeaver8424]

thanks for the tips

[@Qrofol]

Heh, I remember checking out your stream several times and it seemed like you were always in Highpass Keep basement. Had to go look up your deletion steam VOD for some closure. When I quit EQ the first time around 2002 I deleted all my chars and gave my stuff away. But I ended up coming back for a while (before leaving for WoW in '05), so I super regretted doing that. Which is why I never do it anymore - I can't be sure what I'll want to do in the future, so I won't burn any of my bridges.

[@CodySMitchell]

I love how the P99 screen has sooo many more people playing it.

[@NerdNavigator]

I hope you enjoy your time man, Enchanters are a pretty sick class, hope you rock it.

[@Tanis161]

Ooh, I've grouped with you before Sleepyeyes, just the other day. On my paladin, Stromek in Crushbone ;)~

[@CodySMitchell]

Stromek!!! What is up my friend!? friend me! Lets group again soon!

[@Tanis161]

Cody Mitchell definitely although I'm sure you'll out level me ;)

[@CodySMitchell]

I am only level 14! :) You?

[@Qrofol]

I used to play on P99 and I loved it. When I hit raiding though, I quit, because EQ was never really about raiding for me. Right now, I'm fooling around on TAKP and I will be subbing once Agnarr goes live. I think the point you're missing here, is that you're evaluating the servers based on pure mechanics. For me, EQ was always about the community, though admittedly the mechanics that forced you to rely on that community were a part of it. You mentioned unbinding the map key on Live - why would I do that, when others won't? Gimping yourself makes no sense, but playing on a server where the function is disabled is fine, since everyone has the same issue. That then leads to /ooc conversations about locations and how to find places, if EQAtlas and your own navigational skills fail you. Most of MMO players in my experience are min/maxers to a lesser or greater degree (the rest are RPers). We love efficiency. So it really has to be the game that enforces certain rules and limitations, and not the players themselves. Having been in a P99 raid guild that sort of does the same thing over and over again, despite knowing there is no next expansion or anything: for them, it's an activity that lets them hang out with their friends. EverQuest was always best enjoyed as a interactive chat room. Leveling always took forever and a lot of that time was spent sitting in a dark corner in zones like Karnor, CoM, LGuk or MM where you killed the same mobs over and over again. Sounds super tedious, right? Well it wasn't, really - because you were talking about random bullshit with your group or with the strangers in the zone through /ooc. Classic EQ and it's mechanics fostered camaraderie between internet strangers. We were all going through the same "suffering" when were grinding out hell levels, camping AC or farming Kael for faction and it was that shared suffering that brought us closer together. From what I've played on Live in more recent years...it just seems like it's effortless to play these days - it's super easy and accommodating, in a way that most modern MMOs are. Usually, you'd say that it's a great thing, that the game respects your time. And yeah, it has it's benefits - but it definitely takes something away from the experience and very much makes the community unnecessary except for the raids, which I assume are the main attraction for EQLive these days. P99 raid scene is a cesspit, but there are raiding guilds there, that are super nice and friendly (shout-out to Omni) that you can be a part of and not have to worry about the toxic raid atmosphere - you can leave all that to the guild and raid leaders if you want. But most importantly, the leveling experience in P99 is still super good and captures that classic experience better than anything else out there. You have groups available at all levels and it's not just twinked out alts, but it seems there is fairly constant stream of new people going to the server all the time - they level up to max or so, and then maybe quit. Minority probably start another alt or join the raid scene. But because of that, when you're leveling, you're hanging out with some great people who're also there to experience classic EQ. EQLive just can't offer that experience at all because it is way more efficient and easy to level up while soloing (or more likely, moloing). None of the options are perfect though, for sure. I'm also kind of tired playing through the same content and want some more. But I don't want the modern MMO experience that is what new MMOs offer and what EQLive aspires to. Which is why the MMO I'm really looking forward to is Pantheon - it's the first MMO I've been hyped about since the launch of WoW. From all the dev streams it seems like classic EQ wearing a new skin - it will have death penalties and corpse runs, but also a bunch of new systems and obviously it will be set in a brand spanking new world. I have my fingers crossed.

[@evan2212]

so excited for Pantheon! its funny because Pantheon is bringing back all the old school mechanics Mr. Nerd Navigator here doesnt like, but obviously many many people do like classic everquest and thats why pantheon is going to be the new everquest. I hope Nerd navigator enjoys everquest live, because unfortunately it doesnt look like it will exist much longer. i just started playing p99 because of my excitement for pantheon and so far im loving it! even tho i die....a lot...lol i did play live but i did not last very long because i had the same feeling when i tried to play wow again, that its made for kids. the fact that there is a video comparing a live game with money being invested by a corporation to a EMULATOR of a game that was made 18 years ago is a credit to how great and revolutionary to the gaming world classic everquest was and how uncertain its future is. this guy can hate on p99 all he wants but the people that play it dont care. they play newer games and it doesnt give them the joy and happiness that p99 does so they are just fine in their emulated, retro universe as they wait for pantheon or another game to come along and give them the experience they had when they first played EQ.

[@electrowerkz]

Qrofol well said.

[@RonOnTheWay]

The end game sucks in P99 😑.

[@guysmiley4830]

One of the coolest p99 experience I had was when our guild and a rival guild both showed up to plane of hate and the GMs got called in to mediate the dispute. Their solution was to temporarily make the zone PvP and let us sort it out on our own. 99 was the best eq fun I had since PoP on live.

[@musicbro8225]

I like the way you have not turned Rant on like Nerd_Navigator. Why does he go on so much about P99 not being challenging? Like he has played it to the point that it's trivial and not enough to challenge him anymore. I just think he has the wrong attitude and can't let go of the investment he has in Live so he tears P99 down so he can feel like continued investment is the correct decision. I had two groups today in KC; one was a mad crazy pulling murder squad and the other was an evenly paced chilled and relaxed group. I got different things from each group. Tbh, as a shaman I found this chill group easier and more relaxing but the chat was no more or less in either. I can't quantify the differences cause every group is different, the people play from their own circumstances and we interact from those circumstances while playing our classes the way we have developed over the characters life time, maybe we vary things here and there but essentially each member plays their part and there is a unity attained, a feeling of pride and gratefulness. As far as the raid scene goes; it is what you make of it. You can go join Riot and raid several targets daily or you can join a less prime raiding guild and do less but occasionally kill Vulak or whoever, racing to targets after an earthquake and getting a buzz cause you killed Severilous before Vanq and Riot got the FTE lol, or you can not raid at all, it's up to the player... When I first joined Blue server I heard a lot about the toxicity of the raid scene, but now I just see individuals with their unique frustrations or satisfactions. I look at people and remember that they all have different lives and circumstances and some people are learning civility and other are learning patience and others still are learning perspective and it seems to me on P99 there's a very healthy space where people can grow and be supported in their journey, not by game mechanics but by actual real people, go figure eh. We know that there is a lot at stake sometimes like today the murder squad broke up and one necro stayed down in the basement while everyone else left. We made a small train and I decided to kill it so the group ended up with me at the ent and the necro in the basement (the rest had left). So the necro ended up keeping his charmed pet and it broke; he had 2 mobs beating on him and he died. I told him I was not comfortable going down there to drag his corpse but I ended up going down there and I died hehe. It's a pretty standard CR scenario where you feel the task before you, the xp you have lost, the gear you have laying there out of immediate reach, it's all a bit daunting but it felt better that I had tried and we were in this situation together. He got a port from a guildy and invu's down there and drags our corpses up to LCY where a cleric clicked us and I offered some plat to the cleric and she said 'Not nescassary, anytime', so I sat there medding and buffing myself and her group and feeling easy and satisfied that I was in a zone with friends... I do love a bit of Karnors Castle :) I know it very well as I have spent probly hundreds of hours there but people die there all the time, it CAN BE a challenge (Nerd_Navigator).

[@larrywolf2509]

I started playing EQ back when it started and have played it straight on through the gabillion expansions til now. I still play Live on occasion, but mostly 1999. To me, Live lost a lot of it's "charm" when it started it's hardest to "keep up with the Joneses" and dumb itself down closer to "WoW" level hand-holdiness. Adding more abilities does not equal "harder." I don't know where you get that erroneous idea. As a matter of fact, it means things are easier. Most of those abilities are just the same lines you've already gotten, just continued on anyways. If you're a wizard, you get more nukes of higher values, go figure. Adding more capability just means things _get easier_ for you. There's a huge difference in playing a 1999 SK and a Live SK, you have to be far more creative playing a 1999 SK since you haven't gotten 20+ expansions of abilities and gear under your belt. One *_huuuuge_* flaw in your arguments is you claim "well all the content in 1999 is on Live too." Sure it is. There's also _no one in it, EVER._ Luclin is there, Velious is there, Kunark is there, Old World is there... and you'll be the only one walking through it. There's no one to experience it with. No one goes there. There's no groups because everyone is off in the same 10 current hand-holdy (easier) zones with mercenaries being anti-social and soloing. Most "newbies" will never bother going anywhere else or even hearing the names of those zones. I like them both, but the reason I still play EQ (at all) is because it _was/is_ the Old School "hard" game that you don't find anymore. Live isn't hard. Live is now like a pretender to that throne, trying to appeal to the "save point every 5 minutes" millenial crowd where EQ desperately wants to be "liked" to the point it's trying it's darndest to compete with WoW's "ease of use." 1999 though is the "remember the old days when shit was scary?" Everquest to me. Dying sucks. Levels are achievements. Gear is a milestone. The only thing that'd make EQ1999 perfect to me is if they actually kept the content as it is, but worked on _class balance._ Far too many classes in 1999 are under-balanced and need love that comes with later expansions. If the staff on 1999 simply advanced some classes to the point where people had reasons to make things other than warrior/cleric/monk/bard/necro/shaman/chanter it'd be ace. About the only time I login Live now is to say hello to old friends that aren't on 1999 and when I want to play a class that's underpowered on 1999, is about it and every year it seems less and less a reason to pay the fee.

[@traxcanonch.2421]

That's why I don't play Live, I only play TLPs. Exact same reasons. Live is just so anti-social from lvl 1-100. Noone plays the old zones in Live, which is sad. But the reason I don't want to play P99 is because the raiding community is so toxic. I just want to chill and have fun raiding without having to stress like in P99.

[@firesyde424]

So, some background on me, not that anyone asked: I started playing in late 2001 as a Dark Elf Necromancer. I've quit and come back a ton of times and my primary account has over 3 years of played time on it(Not sure I should put that number out in public). I like Everquest the way it is now. The quality of life is certainly better. If I could change one thing about modern EQ, I would add corpse runs back in or possibly make it so that looting your corpse returned a percentage of EXP. In all the years I played, some of my most memorable, terrifying, and "holy shit did that just happen?" moments came in the middle of a corpse run. It forced me to rely on other players and some of my longest internet friendships came from meeting someone who I had helped or someone who had helped me on a corpse run. I agree with you, mostly. Part of the fun of EQ for me was that it was my first online game. My first love, if you will. There were no guides or in game maps, just printed binders from EQ Atlas. I remember the sense of dread and awe I had the very first time I spawned into the Necromancers guild in Neriak. I was so new to the game and I was so worried the first time I tried talking to Noxhil V'Sek. Turns out, I had good reason to be worried. I had only played FPS games before this so I assumed EQ followed that keyboard layout. I remember hitting W to walk up to Noxhil, then A, to turn left and see what was next to me. Except, in old EQ, the default keyboard layout mapped A to "Auto-attack." So, and this is true, the very first thing I did in Everquest after opening my inventory, was to accidentally auto-attack the Necro guildmaster. P99 is the closest experience to that game I fell in love with. No, it's not hard. Yes, all the content is indexed and mapped and there aren't any more places to explore. Yes, the raid scene is toxic and bloated. But it's still fun and that's the primary point. If I want a challenge, I go play live EQ. If I want some nostalgia soaked fun, I go play P99.

[@amycraig72]

I played when original Everquest looked like project 99 ! I think I’m going to have to start playing again! Great video!

[@steveolie985]

@@kindredspiritzz66 how is it as a new player ? Are there groups?

[@CaptainXJ]

Great video until you got a bit insulty at the end.

[@StevenMichaelCunningham]

Bemoaning never has extras.

[@stevendibernardo1015]

Feb 14, 2000. My first Day in Norrath. And this, only due to the fact that 5 of my co-workers had finally talked me into joining them as their 6th group member, because, well; they needed an Enchanter. I was completely unsure of what that might be, and after returning the EverQuest Game Box back onto its tenacious grip upon the Software Store shelf at least 6 times in the past year of "looking for something" - I finally found it, thanks to the encouragement from my work mates. (yep; we used to have to buy software in a box, at a store) In any case, this is THE GAME as far as I am concerned, and I still play... and hope to for the rest of days.

[@scantlander]

I've played current live, TLP and p99 and I couldn't make it past the first month with both live and TLP. However I've been going strong on p99 for well over a year and no plans of quitting anytime soon. I am a fan of good graphics but the difficulty, risk vs reward, good population of ALL levels, game mechanics, guides / devs and most importantly, the community, makes it all worth while. TLP is a weird hybrid of live and p99. Although I prefer it to live, there is still way too many ways they hold your hand. Live is not even the same game. It takes the social aspect out of the game almost completely. If it wasn't for guilds and high end raiding, this would be a single player game. IMO EQ died after LDoN. I wasn't a fan of Luclin but I did enjoy raiding in the PoK dungeons quite a bit. LDoN instances was fun for awhile but after so many runs, they got pretty boring. If I decide to play another version of EQ, it will be p2002 only. High hopes for Pantheon though! Please Brad don't let me down!

[@crowsbridge]

what is pantheon?

[@kisp249]

pantheonmmo.com

[@sirprepsalot6268]

Yeah, but I will grow a beard down to my feet, old, and have arthritis in my hands before Pantheon comes out LOL :) I have been watching Pantheon Videos for a year now and... nothing.

[@waldocam10]

@@sirprepsalot6268 hopefully won't be too much longer. It's only been in development since 2015. Good mmo's tend to take 5-7 years of development

[@Abololo33]

DJ Landerz Brad died tho :(

[@kimmykimko]

What was classic EQ? Fun, friends, immersion in a world that felt so real you never wanted to leave, and so addictive you forgot to eat and sleep. Working overtime to afford a new PC and cable internet, only to quit ... Yeah... I remember EQ. EQ was a helluva drug....

[@alligoetz1584]

I don't think anyone bashing P99 has ever even tried it. Lol. People like to say they are such "jerks." But have you talked to anyone in-game? The community is amazing. There's something to be said about knowing the GRIND it takes to level your toon, to hunt for your body in a dangerous zone and and knowing the frustrations of losing a level due to death. The people in general care about their character and helping out their fellow comrades. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten free gear, free buffs, free ports, people sending me a tell to move my body to the zone entrance just out of kindness. People are respectful not to kill steal or to take over camping sites because their character means something to them. There is so much more trolling on the live servers. Especially now that people make newbs to sit out at the bazaar and can hide behind their low level toon to act like an idiot. I personally miss the boxing experience. It's nice when you feel like soloing but don't have the time to wait 800 years for your mana bar and the experience to crawl up. If p99 allowed even just two-boxing (no more than that) it would be perfect. Sometimes the grind does get a little crazy much when you have a life at home lol.

[@axey7476]

23 button presses in your rotations, you are king of the rotations, the mosty rotationest.

[@NoirVelours]

I play/played both Everquest but for different reasons. I love the content in modern EQ, so many things to do and ton of exploration every time a new expansion comes out. But, in P1999, the slower pace means more interaction between players, the sense of community is more present outside of guildmates too and there are no 2+-boxing. I think it's because you need downtime for the mana users to med etc that leaves more time to chat while fighting or in-between pulls. Making friends is easier on P99 for me. I think making regen super fast in EQ brought in that rush here rush there pace of modern mmorpg and it's meh. Both have their pros and cons. I would say P1999 is awesome for those who want to return for a while to relive their adventures. It's not 100% as when it was new since you already did the content but that nostalgia kicks in and it's very enjoyable still. EQ have you play more actively with your spells and skills though, more fun for melee types for sure. That said, I'm waiting for Pantheon to make new great memories!

[@NerdNavigator]

Excellent points!

[@tokcitik]

I am starting to think Pantheon is never going to actually be released. I don't see anything on their website, I tried to try P1999 a while back and couldn't get it up and running.

[@cramittv633]

Good Video. Interesting comparison. As someone who did play retail EQ about 3-4 years ago. I made a warrior and leveled to about lvl 83. Since then I have gone to P99 and stayed there since. Although with multiple lengthy breaks from it as well. I think the main differences you will find between retail EQ and P99 is character. P99 aims for the original style, imo, of EQ where retail EQ followed the tropes of the modern MMO genre. Some of the things you mention are very true in terms of the changes made to EQ in later expansions from the velious era. There is certainly many QoL features and mechanics that have been added over time through the many expansions of EQ however I would argue that many of these changes goes against the original character of EQ. The original character of EQ, imo, is that it was a living, breathing world, almost a simulation of our world but in a fantasy setting. It offered a world that was dark and dangerous and if you weren't careful would knock you on your ass real quick. Retail EQ, instead, continued with more expansions but each expansion seemingly degraded this character down to the point of seeming like any other MMO. Losing the original character of the game. Instanced zones, poofing a copy of an area out of no where with no realistic reason for it. Spells, like your bard example, that reduced the risk of the world. Mercenaries, no longer needing cooperation from other fellow players. These changes, while nice from a player perspective, changed the game to be less like a living, dangerous world to more of a common game world of any MMO, losing the character of classic EQ. No longer did you feel like you were in a place that had consequences like the real world but rather a safe space with a controlled environment for you to move around in. I think this is what makes the difference between the two. In retail EQ, you can go into a game much like other games in the MMO genre. There are tools to help you survive the world where once there was only your ability to play your character, to work and cooperate with your fellow players. In P99, your inside a world that requires you to not only rely on your own skill but also that of your fellow players to progress farther. Retail seemingly still has parts of this, but only at the higher end of play. Where once groups of people occupied the world, now you have boxers and mercenaries helping that 1 player progress. Where once you needed to trek for hours to get to locations, you now have random books on pedistals that will send you to "grand central station" of EQ to get anywhere you need in a couple moments. The annoyances that made the world feel like a world are gone in retail and replaced with tools that make it feel like a game. Now everyone is different and what makes things feel like a world to me maybe just annoyances and bad design in some other persons opinion. I get that, which is why I am glad their is both. However, especially in terms of EQ, I feel like a good portion of the playerbase and developers forgot what EQ was offering and instead tried to bring it inline with other offerings in the genre. To keep the game making money, I get why they did it however I feel they allowed to much of the original character of the game to be lost. The typical P99 player doesn't want the "watered down" version of the game they grew up with, they want that same game they played back in 99 and so P99 is where they hang their hats. Maybe it's nostalgia, maybe it's ignorance but I personally feel it's just wanting to be in the world of Norrath and not the game of Norrath.

[@livelucky74]

I agree with this. I played a TON (too much) Everquest from 2000-2004. The reason it was fun is because it actually required risk to get a reward, which made it seem valuable. There is virtually 0 risk involved in any game today. In addition to that, the loot system made it very possible that you may NEVER see a raid item drop that you want. That might sound terrible to some people, but that was why you dreamed of getting that item. It wasn't like current games where there isn't even a question of whether or not you WILL get the item, its just a question of WHEN you'll get it. It just isn't that valuable if I know I'm going to get it no matter what, and not only that, but every other person who plays my class has the exact same thing. By the way, check out TAKP emulated server if you want to go back in time. It is similar to p99 except they are going to go up to PoP instead of stopping at Velious.

[@MarkMark-ji6ts]

The problem with the original game was time. They should have spun of a server(s) that allowed people to only play say 15, 30, 40 hours a week. People choosing their time option get locked into this instanced world and everyone plays the same amount of time. It means you don't have to be online 24/7 to remain competitive or lose friends who can afford to spend more time online than you.

[@okiebronco]

lets not forget the 100 or so raids we were part of to help our friends without expecting anything in return. theres a reason it was dubbed evercrack and live is not that reason

[@Pneuma001]

I prefer the official Everquest servers because I appreciate all of the features and changes that they've made to it to make it more fun and engaging.

[@JohnDoe-zy6tm]

P99 hands down for me. I started eq in 99 as a kid. I loved eq PvP. In Classic eq a casual geared toon played well can handle a raid geared toon. With SOL that ended. An endgame SoV geared player was scary but killable. A raid geared SoL player could kill a raid of casuals. I returned to eq every few yrs, live and p99. The red99 experience is everything I loved about classic eq and it never lets me down. Just my experience but live as is not the same game. P99 is what eq will always be for me.

[@xuttharx]

Nice, I play on a progression server (Lockjaw) and the reason I rolled there was to really experience the raids I never did as a teenager. Now with classic, kunark, velious, and luclin behind me I can honestly say I never need to do that again and man does that feel good! I also don't understand how some like to redo the same stuff over and over and it sucks your getting so much hate on your videos. I guess people just get old and wanna rehash things they know, like my old man who loves running train simulator from 1995.

[@Yomom12388]

It’s just very much “back in myyy dayyyyy”

[@MrCodboss]

I think you are missing the point. I played eq for the first 6 years. I think the challenge was the higher death penalty. It's not a big deal dying in current eq so people are not as careful as they used to be. I think that's all people mean. Also, I used to play a mage and i loved the blob looking elementals. They tied the skins to those pets with horses so i was forced to use the new skins and it sucks. On a side note, it's always bugged me that wizards didn't get the clarity line of spells instead of enchanters.

[@cheeze5875]

p99 has given me ptsd whenever i see a griffon

[@noshow]

The audio on this video is so painful...

[@littlecouchgames2239]

The upcoming Planes of Power TLP server is the first thing in a while to make me think about playing again.

[@brosephjames]

I like the aesthetics of classic everquest/p99. The retro charm. You have to be able to get a cathartic release out of the simple joys in the game or it wont do anything for you. For example finally being able to afford a fungi for your alt so you can level with no downtime - vs vanilla wow where a 5 silver piece of cheese did the same thing. Chilling with a group of xpers as you all get into an efficient trance-like state. Appreciating the persistence of the world, the most persistent virtual world in existence actually. And it's not an either or thing. I love that p99 exists and every zone is contested. I also think instancing solved so many problems and is a better approach to game design.

[@JesseBevil]

As you mentioned the MQ2 community has blocked MQ2 from being used in True Box servers. However, Agnarr has already seen Trucidation players bypassing the block. Despite our request to the community to avoid it's use on Truebox servers, users have circumvented the block because MQ2 is open source. While it isn't certain who is behind the unblocking, it's clear that the users of the unblocked version of MQ2 aren't very bright and will hopefully be brought to justice by DBG as opposed to the community getting into a patch war with DBG. Note: I don't actually play EQ anymore, I mainly code macro's for the programming experience. Hard to find an existing user base willing to test your programs for free while providing feedback of any sort. /dodge flames.

[@tayzer4577]

I just recently started playing Everquest for the first time because of my girlfriend, and I must admit, we play both, I like both and for different reasons. P99 gives me the ability to experience the game back when people were first starting their journey in 3d mmo's and gives a very challenging experience to someone who comes from modern mmos. While live gives me a more streamlined and focused experience due to the quality of life changes and extra content added throughout the years. Both have their pros and cons, and even though I am a relatively new Everquest player, I love them both equally as in the end they both combine to give me the most complete Everquest experience I could ask for.

[@Aprio_UK]

Oh wow, great video. Then you mentioned Blood Oath and that jarred me, they were my first guild on Mith Marr! I remember Drucylla, Bergman, Daffodil, Dagouaan.....great days. Great to see the OGs are about to this day

[@gelatinouscubereviews3143]

Having played EQ day 1 when it released, given, I was 11 years old... but I did play it up until Lost Dungeons of Norrath. I came back a little while ago to give it a go, I mean hell it's free. It just seems like it's so incredibly easy, and without its soul, which is my issue with almost all MMO's at this point in gaming. Listening to your disposition on which is the superior, particularly when you said, "Everquest has more depth now, then it ever did in the past." you are correct that the game has evolved and people have found new ways to do things. But the point that you seem like you haven't been able to really get, is that the depth was in the sense of human interaction. Yeah now a days you can hop on there and get a group and everyone will be doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing with all the new fancy tools the devs have made up for everyone. But people want hardcore, people want to have a "Port Guy" that they can /tell for a favor. People want to know a Bard that played the songs they liked, or a Warrior that was a perfect puller. The depth came when people had to haggle, legitimately haggle over items that they wondered how the people even got in the first place. Or buying up stack after stack of batwings and selling them at the Oasis for highway robbery. It's not just Nostalgia, it was EQ's soul. The long dangerous adventures to get my Erudite Wizard to Antonica where I enjoyed my first boat ride. A nice player helped me find my way and gave me a little bit of money and a lightstone to see the path before me. The game now has depth, sure. But it's a puddle in the infinite fathoms of depth that EQ had in community at launch. EQ was hands down the best, most memorable game that I've ever had the privilege to play. Now though, it's a game that just wished it could keep up with WoW. you keep saying that it's not making it easier... yeah it is. Also even on the timelock, this new Freeport is garbage. if it was really timelock bring back "realport" I just came to your page though, I don't know when you came to EQ.... but farming, spawn sitting, and patience.

[@Breadbored.]

Couldn't have said it better myself. The community was the game.

[@Morraak]

This is truth. I started playing when Ruins of Kunark came out and while late to the game a little bit I still got to see that living, breathing world.

[@Timorio]

The presentation in this video needs significant improvement. Most importantly, you should have made it more clear (visually) which server you were talking about at any given time.

[@WarderKembal]

As a former raider of p99, I have a love/hate relationship with the server. I really did enjoy the server for quite a while and I love the people I met there. It just became too much of a chore trying to compete with the other high end guilds hitting raid targets. So for now, I'll be going to Agnarr to relive my PoP days and await Pantheon.

[@mage1439]

I think the biggest problem with the server is that it didn't include Luclin. You can block off the Bazaar without leaving the other stuff out. AAs would have helped, faster out of combat regen (not instant, if that's in Live it's newer than I ever played) was good, and I believe Luclin tutorial introduced the gate stone, which despite all the crap people throw around about "asking for ports helps the community" is a nice relief for non-casters. Running from FP to Qeynos is fun until you realize there's hardly ever anybody in Qeynos and so no way back. There's never an allowance made for the fact that sometimes the community is nowhere to be seen. A lot of people want to deny any good that happened after Veilous for some reason, and even when something was bad in the old days it's kept that way. Also, since you mention raiding. Instancing is not bad. The only people it hurts is people who monopolize loot camps. I will agree that as MMOs go on, they add too many mechanics. Live has way too many for my interest now. But despite my perfect world being Luclin-based with some QoL stuff from later, there's a divide between too-classic and too-modern, with nowhere really in between, even on custom servers.

[@Razimuth]

There are many valid reasons a significant portion of the Everquest playerbase prefers the "Brad" era of Everquest (Classic to Velious). You should attempt to examine those reasons despite your personal (and commendable) bias to play Live. I gave it a good try on FV many years ago but really it wasn't the same game anymore. I enjoyed it, but nothing compares to the original for me.

[@RawLu.]

As someone who played EQ1 every year for 16+ years starting in early 2000? only the 'Current' EQ, never P99? All I can say is its my favorite game of all-time bar none, And I would still Highly Recommend it in any form! as of 2019 ;-)

[@Orekid1]

All the reasons you hate P99 are all the reasons I love it.

[@NerdNavigator]

Hate is a pretty strong word which I don't believe I used in this video at all in regards to P99 itself, its more of a preference then "hate", at worse a dislike.

[@espiogirl]

Something doesn't need to be complex to be challenging imo. P99 just has a bigger risk factor and incentivizes you to interact with others. I'm way more immersed in that world rather than Live where no one has to talk to anyone and you can just teleport most places from the plane of knowledge. I actually have a lot of nostalgia for EQ after the Luclin expansion because I ran around on my dad's characters around that time but never played seriously. I came back years later, leveled a bit and enjoyed myself but P99 just appealed to me more because there's more of a social factor. The world also feels bigger and more dangerous without maps or fast travel, especially if you die. I know I could lose my items forever and that makes me fear death in the game. Travelling from Qeynos to Freeport on my first character wasn't even that challenging, but it felt like a huge accomplishment because it took time, knowing where you're going, making sure you don't drop invis, etc. The lack of instancing does cause conflicts but it also makes the world more organic. For me getting to the end game is also not the point, I just like escaping to that world. I've never played an mmo that gave me that same feeling of living in the world.

[@Lessthanpropane]

I know this video is old but you're one of the only KZbinrs I've seen make a shirt thats ACTUALLY WORTH WEARING cool slogan and great execution!

[@RussianRanger47]

I think there are good points brought up in this video, specifically the argument about repeating content you've done before. The first time versus the hundredth time are vastly different experiences. However, in regards to challenge, although yes classic melee wasn't the pinnacle of diversity with auto-attack and a couple combat moves, flooding your hot bars with moves is a delicate balance. There is a point where there are *too many* abilities that are either redundant or aren't as efficient in a rotation as others. Eventually you find the cookie cutter rotation and just cut out the fluff you don't need. But speaking of balance, I think there is a nice middle ground available to players these days that want to bridge the gap between classic experience and modern day experience. And that is through the EQ Emulator community. They have currently crafted an emulated server environment that rolls through Omens of War and if players take some time to understand how to customize it, can customize their entire EQ experience. The "choice" you mentioned about current EQ, well that's present in this community a thousand fold. You can turn no drop off, you can alter quests, zone lines, restrict expansions like 1999 while still allowing quality of life improvements, maintain revamped zones or revert to classic. There are a ton of options present and I personally think its the best of both worlds. But bear in mind, I'm doing this for a solo/family experience, where it is just myself and a few members of my family so we can re-experience Norrath in our own vision. If you're seeking community, there are custom servers, like P99 but with separate visions (some Luclin locked servers, OoW, PoP, etc). Search up EQEmu if you're curious, but I think its a solid way of customizing your experience, while also preserving the king of MMOs no matter what happens to Daybreak or the private servers.

[@jayeisenhardt1337]

4 or 50 there is always the optimal max damage that you flutter to match your team. The dance stays the dance unless ya doing pvp. As @Cupriferous Catalyst was saying "what makes an RPG really fun, and i know EQ has this to an extent, is when your abilities do widely different things" Combat fluff which sometimes sucks if it's just clutter then in game living fluff which can be great. All the little class spells that made them them and live differently than you, not just fight differently. A little shadow step here, or just the basic gate class vs run there class. Porters, illusions, summon food and drinks or weapons. Love all those out of combat extras that you feel solo or in a group without them. Can't remember most as I did warrior things mostly and forget my alts. Just remember making a Paladin as blind made me think my screen broke and went black and I wanted to try that on someone. lol

[@TSPlayer62]

I think you did a nice job with the comparison @nerdnavigator. I played EQ from 99-08. I'll agree that some aspects of the classic EQ were 'simpler'. However, not everyone craves the ability spam combat system of modern MMOs. Simplicity doesnt always have to be bad. Second, when classic EQ players refer to it as challenging, i dont think they are referring to the difficulty of encounters. Rather the prestige of being max level because of the very lengthy and difficult road to get there. Being max level really meant something, in most modern MMOs it cant obtained in a few days to a week. That wont immerse me and connect me to the character emotionally. I was by no means a hardcore player in classic Eq, but it took me close to 2 years to hit max. That character felt important to me, and there is something to be said about that. Another piece of the nostalgia with regard to the punishing corpse runs, is that it made you fear the environment which was very immersive and useful. Of course, the time sink downside to a classic corpse run is a pill too big for most to swallow. Finally the technical features preventing people from in game maps was immersive and encouraged exploration. To this point, I will concede it is difficult if not impossible to recapture this feeling of adventure with how quickly maps go up on the internet. All I am saying is I can see both sides of the argument, but I understand if your arent seeing the nostalgia through rose colored goggles. I dont play P99, but im looking forward to Brad McQuaid's new game Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. It seeks to recreate that classic EQ feeling with a modernized touch. Thanks for putting this comparison together.

[@Sirkenp99]

I enjoy your videos a lot, and thank you for attempting to make a EQLive vs P99 video. One thing I've said for years (and I firmly believe to be part of the reason that Day Break made a deal with P99 to legitimize the P99 server) is that Live servers and P99 servers attract (for the most part) completely different people. The people that play on P99 are generally people that do not like the direction that the game went in starting with the Luclin expansion, whereas the people playing on Live are people (like you) that actually enjoy all the quality of life changes, all the different abilities, the uncountable number of AAs, and expansions with junk common loot that is higher stats than some previous BiS items from the previous expansion. As for the challenge, I agree with you, its not hard to PUG in Sol B, or to tank & spank Venril Sathir. The "challenge" of EQ (like most other aspects of EQ) was dependent on the community, as in before Live watered everything down with instanced zones/content players competed against each other for shiny pixels and bragging rights. If you want to talk actual game/raid mechanics I strongly suggest you touch base with someone who is both familiar and successful with highend raiding on P99. Because I've seen countless guilds show up and talk about how "easy" things are in classic, only to watch them eat the dirt when attempting to pull mobs in Veeshan's Peak or the Temple of Veeshan. And don't even get me started on things like Nexus, Bazaar, Luclin Character Models, PoK, AAs, Maps. All that being said, I enjoyed your video, and I look forward to your future EverQuest videos. Keep up the great work.

[@chrisd8180]

The #1 best thing i love about EverQuest, something alot of MMOs do today, something that will cause me to quit almost instantly is...... Level scaling or Level syncing. I seriously despise Level scaling, it completely removes character progression and the entire purpose to level a character, which means theres no reason to play the game. I loved GW2 till i seen my hard earned level 80 level scale to level 24 in a level 20 area. Loved ESO until One Tamriel released and scaled the entire world and made every areas enemies/mobs have the same stats (in 2016 my level 50 character could be killed in the starting newbie area/zone) retarded. I dont understand why developers are doing this BS with alot of new games, it makes leveling a character pointless. Gaining in power and being able to out level mobs or other players is what gives you the fealing of progression and keeps a player attached to his toon. Entering an area or even a dungeon, and having the enemies/mobs scale to whatever level your character is and even if you level up the enemies will level up also, has got to be the most repetitive and stupid system i have ever seen. Ok so gear that drops is lower, so what go to a higher area then. LEVEL SCALING WILL DESTROY THE RPG OR MMO GENRE. I played Ultima Online, runescape in the late 90s when i was just hitting an adult, im old school and dont enjoy a game that changes my characters statistics because i entered a lower area, not acceptable.

[@cruddas]

Star wars the old republic did that, and i outright quit because of it, and the most frustrating part is that if you look at the forums, so many people think it was the best this to ever happen with the game and would defend it to the death no matter WHAT kind of argument you had against level sync.

[@malevolentbishop7146]

I hate the lvling scaling in games. They did it to alow you to play with your friends who just started, I like the way everquest did it by introducing shrouds. I still play today on the rathe sever, and the occasional tlp server

[@im50yearsold]

P99 is great, the folk in there have been nothing but awesome to me. So long as you're willing to actually interact with people (hence the Massively Multiplayer part of MMO) it's a great experience, People keep dropping me gear for no reason even though I want to progress through the game naturally and some folk wander through dungeons to buff people and I've even had people get angry because we forgot to party them up so they could buff us to help us. People getting mad about not being able to give us free buffs, that's a first. I don't care about the experience penalties too much, but thank god Pally doesn't have the -40% now. 10% I can deal with but 40 is a bit too harsh for a class that excels in a niche area

[@christophersatake2851]

I’m a P99 guy. Been playing since it started off and on. I wish I had more time to play but I think the draw is the adult community on p99 and the lack of children on the server. The draw and challenge comes from the patience it takes to level and removal of that modern game immediate satisfaction that’s so prevelant in today’s games. I wouldn’t call entertainment a challenge. My major draw to it is merely the experience. This idea of knowing how to defeat the game on the levels in which this guy is talking about is pretty sad. I know places and I have friends who know places. I guess I could know them all but I have more on my mind then how to defeat the gaming experience in eq. Eq is an escape and I’ll simply master the content i want too without the need to know it all. I could care less. I’m just here to adventure

[@Z3rostar]

26:00 I'm late to the discussion here, but I'd like to point out something you may not have encountered in real life: Some people only have fun when other people are not having fun. The raid scene in Everquest was dominated by people like that. It was pseudo-pvp that they were engaging in. They didn't care about being able to clear raids for the encounter mechanics or loot. Denying other guilds progress WAS the game to them. There's really no good argument to be made against instancing not only raids, but EVERYTHING in Everquest. You will be forced to say "but then I can't have fun at another person's expense."

[@MeatGoblin88]

do you think i'm making a good decision by starting out on p99? i'm only level 12 but im enjoying it so far

[@NerdNavigator]

If you are having fun and enjoying your time, that is allll that matters.

[@TheRealMTR]

I enjoyed this video - as someone who was monk in a high- end raiding guild until 2005 but hasn't touched EQ since. Something I'd like to know is, was is the strength difference in characters that reach max level nowadays. For example, can toons now a days solo Planes of Power raid mobs?

[@NerdNavigator]

Yes, with the level differences, and power creep over the years; older content is trivial up to about the Seeds of Destruction expansion I'd say, if playing on a competitive lvl 105 (decent aas and gear)

[@kalbic]

The original everquest bonded people together like POWs in Vietnam who are tortured together in hellish conditions over years of abuse.

[@look-left7192]

Just found this video and have been playing p99 for about 5 months now. I have to say I started on the server thinking like the people you mention. But I have to say, after your video... I’m going to try modern EQ and give it a real shot

[@CharlesXIIOfMerica]

I personally think the scarcity of p99 is amazing. Nothing is handed to you by the game itself. The difficulty is not to beat the next raid. The difficulty is that everything pushes back. I feel accomplished when i get my next level in project 1999 or complete the next quest. You completely ignore the profound effect a strong community has on the game. Had you played past a decent point you would have seen more, but notice how only on the p99 server did ANYONE bother to help you. Someone gave you a sow (you’re supposed to say thank you lol) usually id agree repeating content is boring but its not the content its the challenge of mistakes with consequences and solo is impossible. You have to interact with people. And that is the charm that classic has over modern. I hope this helps you see p99 in a better light as you did nothing but trash it this entire video

[@AngelTerri]

Curious to know what you think since P99 Green server has recently come out

[@jackw.3504]

I have to disagree with you that classic EQ/ Project 99 is not more hardcore then current EQ(they are both hardcore, but in different ways). I tried PJ99 a few years ago and realized I just don't have the time I used to back when I was 20 years old and I think a lot of other players are the same. The player base has aged 18 years and now we have families and other responsibilities. Also PJ99 is highly moderated. I went through all the hoops so me and my son could play from the same modem ID, but I went LD and came back and my account was banned for botting...I was done with it after that. Current EQ fixed a lot of the glaring problems of classic EQ and made it more enjoyable albeit, a bit more casual to level/catch up to current content. The boss battles are much more skill based and better, but you don't need to amass a raid of 120 players anymore to down one of the gods to get into PoT.(Though it was epic when we did it!) I think the player base has changed and their taste have changed. If you want to relive the old EQ, yeah hit up PJ99. If you are a new player I really can't recommend PJ99 for a new player. It is a very different style of game because it was made almost 20 years ago. Heck give all three a try, but what makes EQ great is not mainly the game, it is the players you play the game with that enjoy it with you. PS. I have not seen you on a raid in awhile...I might need to send my paladin army after you =p Signed The Paladin (Beer) Emperor :)

[@crowsbridge]

I'm not sure I could do EQ these days, not enough free time.

[@r1chr0me43]

Giving Daybreak your credit card number and reaching level 85 instantly is no challenge in my opinion.

[@LiamE69]

85 on live is like lvl 30 on p99. It is nowhere near max. Nowhere near.

[@BulkyPen]

So don’t do it, and start from level one? Idiot.

[@Zenn3k]

I just know I played EQ from 1999-2001, thats the Era I know, thats the Era I'd rather experience. Been playing on P99 for a few months, have a level 39, love the game just as much as I did when it was new. I don't care much about the raiding anyway, I just like the game and the challenge it provides.

[@LittlefootOnthetrail16]

All of that "complexity" You keep talking about is the very reason people play on p99. All that complexity turns an mmo where you chat and have fun with each other into an action rpg where if you have time to chat you are not doing something right.

[@aikonsaikons4984]

It all boils down to a sense of achievement and accomplishment, you want the time you put in to feel meaningful, and reaping the benefit of putting in those thousands of hours, giving you opportunities that people that did not put in the time does not have. If everyone is special, no one is special.

[@gamershow5944]

Old EverQuest 2 is really easy compared to modern. The modern EverQuest 2 requires lots of skill and dedication

[@nixwhat]

feeling some nostalgia this week and stumbled across your video (4 years later) and I really enjoyed watching / listening.

[@truckstation527]

I played from Beta up until Omens of War. I find this a good review. I think what I find lacking in all MMOs these days are the friendly social communities. Games have become to solo oriented, and a large amount of the content is designed around that. I came back to EQ back when I believe it was ragefire progression server launched, but as I got to 50 I started running into more and more boxers. and people running Around with cash shop items that were better than anything you could get in the game. EQ will always have that special place in my gaming history heart. I made lasting friends there that I'm still friends with today. Other games that just doesn't happen. everyone is to concerned with themselves. I have mostly given up on MMOs, haven't played in about a year.. I am looking though at Pantheon Rise of the Fallen. to hopefully bring back of the social aspects that I miss in MMOs.. not just a 2 or 3 hour raid, but grouping nightly in virtual world full of danger.

[@Inmate533]

The thing holding me back from playing P99 is getting a copy of EQ Titanium. I'm old school and refuse to download an illegal copy of the game, and I'm not paying the ridiculous prices people want for it either.

[@nsarboc]

Its a valid video and viewpoint that Nerd_Navigator has. It made me think about why i keep going back to TLP and P99 and why I don't just play live. Every time i login to live i feel alone (level 86 legit not boosted). The first thing i do is try and figure out how to get a group, and every time i realize it's not gonna happen. I end up getting a mercenary and playing a box with another mercenary. I settle in and put 40 - 50 hours across a couple weeks and realize i'm going to be playing by myself for a long time. The few times I did get into a group it was a smash fest where class roles did not seem to matter. To me that's not everquest and I can have that experience in many other games that do it a lot better. When I play on P99 I get into or start a group with other people at almost any level. When playing these "simple" versions of classes we sit on the ragged edge of assisting, mezzing, root parking, off tanking, sitting to squeeze in another server mana tic between casts. When we pull it off it's a great moment. It's awesome to get into a rhythm with a good group and bank tons of exp, running the ragged edge of going out of mana and wiping. A good tank or monk with his "simple" toon knows how to balance this. I don't care that I have done the content before because it's fun and that experience seems lost in live EQ or at least i'm not willing to play by myself for 300 hours to get there and find out. If I want to play a game by myself blast through content and have super complex damage rotations i'll play FFXIV.

[@GuiltyKit]

I was having a blast on Live with a six box until I hit the point around 75 to 100, where the only way to really get xp was to grind the same missions repeatedly, where just going to any zone and leveling the "old fashioned way" got no noticeable xp whatsoever. I really like a lot about Live, but the game started to feel less like EQ and more like any instanced MMO. On the other hand, while I like a lot about P99 and had lots of fun, my schedule doesn't allow for consistent, multi-hour sessions of gameplay (on enough of a regular basis) to get much of anywhere. But I'm glad both versions of the game exist!

[@Paradoxxicity]

I never played everquest but I decided to pick it up recently. I couldn't get into the modern everquest servers, but I found i really enjoyed p1999. I found modern everquest even more complicated than p1999 and the low-level grouping scene on modern was almost non-existent. I imagine you're probably right though that the more enjoyable raiding/endgame experience happens on modern/TLP servers.

[@DR1ZZ0]

All always remember starting my erudite wizard in classic and exploring Tox forest, and then discovering the cat people fort!

[@leethalgambit1322]

I like EQ live the best right now. I have tried all 3 as well and because I'm not 15 anymore I can't spend 5-10 hours a day playing EQ. I have maybe 2 hours a day if I merge it with tv time while I play. I like to see my characters level faster then once a moon cycle. With that said EQ live does need to merge all the servers into one and use a shard system, so when I'm running round in low level zones it's not empty unless I go to a shard with no one in it. There are problems with that, like people hopping from shard to shard killing the same 3 day spawning mob and then cornering the market with it's loot. Something needs to be done though because endgame(lvl105) is not what I like about EQ. I hate raids but love exploring the world of EQ and meeting new people along the way. I can't meet new people when the zones I like to explore are empty except me, myself and I...

[@quinlamintheshaman9222]

i like p99 because i dont have to pay for it and there is more people to play with

[@BoreSight1973]

I played eq back in 99 and never really had any raid level characters before I moved on. I played eq2, Shadowbane and several other games but none were as fun as eq but I never went back until maybe 5 years ago. I didn’t like the centralized newbie zone and couldn’t get into it. I recently started playing P99 Green and have been having a blast. My wife is even trying it now. Good times.

[@TheRhyx]

I played on Shards of Dalaya for over 10 years myself, Hell, we may even ran into each other there at some point, my toons were Azarey, Kiral, Kirak, Audra, Rhyx, and well, thats just a few.! I play Live now, on FV even, my main is Vexhal, 105 Necromancer, currently pursuing my master artisan's aug. My Necro was born in December of 1999, so i have some veterancy on live. I've played also on p99, and quit after only a month or so of playing. Only because I just don't see the point in playing through content that I already have, or torturing myself yet again for a coldain prayer shawl. As you said, Live EQ always has new content to learn and develop with, presenting new challenges, new friends, and new experiences overall every year or so. Shards of Dalaya was fun, for what it was, but seriously... SoD's grind was REAL, I'd even argue the fact that the SoD grind, when it came to tomes, faction grind, deity aug questline, was way more difficult in that respect than the classic EQ grind. Telkineny, I love your vids. I've watching a couple of them so far after just finding your channel today, +1 Sub for you man, keep making stuff like this. Maybe I'll run into you on FV, if so, i'll be sure to send a big ole high five your way!

[@reallynow5974]

dude it took me like 10 minutes to install p99 not sure what you were doing.

[@ElectricNikkiGames]

I have no interest in trying to play modern EQ. I had played for a while around Seeds of Destruction, but that was it. My nostalgia is for classic EQ. I like going back to when I was 12 for a little while and forgetting about life as a 30 year old. That's why I play. I've also come across numerous cool people to talk to in P99 that are really helpful. I'm going to keep coming back to P99 and if I want to pay a subscription for an MMO, it's going to be for Final Fantasy XIV.

[@andyzohoury4772]

Great video! I played classic EQ from 1999-2001 as a wizard and have some great memories of those days. Over a year ago I started a P99 account to try to relive classic EQ. However, this time I rolled a bard and learned how to swarm kite. This form of kiting was a lot of fun and something I didn't know existed when I played EQ back in the day. This was a good way to PL myself and others. So, I created a second account and started rolling more toons. However, the GMs caught on, I got banned for a couple months, and even though I now have access to my toons I stopped playing all together. Plus, they nerfed swarm kitting shortly after my ban. P99 was definitely fun and challenging while it lasted, but I understand the points you make in the video. Maybe I'll resurrect my original wizard on EQ. Thanks for the video!

[@kebas239]

A big reason I play on P99 is because of the community. I gave the current version of the game a try for a month, but just couldn't get back into it because that piece had changed so much. It felt barren, and like everyone online was either afk or a bazaar trader.

[@jeremiahcomer]

I don't believe EQ's success was the content, but the feeling of belonging to a community and meeting goals together. I love how a player came to buff you on p99, but on live you just had your mercenary.

[@venedar]

I still like normal eq, it has a huge content. Been playing since Kunark, had some breaks here and there. People been trying to get me into thoose 99 server but never been attractive to step down in so much contents and mecanism they realesed through the years of normal eq. Today im raiding 1 sometimes 2 days a week on AB server. And its perfect, can have a normal life with family, job and still enjoy the end game.

[@griffca4814]

because of pantheon I've been on an EQ Bing the last 7 months. I'm hitting high 40s on 1999 and it's become absolutely trash, it's people's attitude end game is even worse than I remembered it. if I wanted to do anything I had to be in a guild at least aligned with paradigm shfit, Veloci , and one other major one. Those guilds only ally with other guilds that meet THEIR rules. I just wanted to casually enjoy everquest but I can't do that on p1999 anymore. I must be in an allied guild, I must log on regularly and I must participate in THEIR events or I could go fuck off. So I fucked off to firona Vie last week, Got a sub today for phinny/angarr and my boyfriend and I can casually enjoy everquest, casually get to max level, casually get epics and casually raid. we're loving it. I'll hit you up with my character name tommrow. I would love to play with you.

[@chrisd8180]

Agree, P99 is very repetitive anyways, you new new content to stay entertained. I love Live EQ with its crazy 25 expansions

[@BonzaiBomber]

I played EQ from SoV up until GoD. My main was a DE Wizard on Xev named Portman Ondaway. In many ways EQ was the greatest game I have ever played. The width and depth was amazing, as well as the social interaction. So many little details that I had never experienced before. Faction, weather, fantasy realistic vision, and so much more. It had me hooked, and for years It was a major part of my life. It was't perfect though. There was a huge disparity between hard core players vs casual players caused by gear. So much so, that you couldn't keep groups later on if you didn't have certain raid gear. You needed a hard core guild that required 4 hours a day playing minimum. Even when it came to non raid gear, camped spawns was a huge issue. Most of that was forgivable. There was something even worse though.. SoE sucked, to put it mildly. We dreaded patch day, as some one was going to get F'ed over with a nerf bat. They had little to no player interaction, and often came down harshly out of the blue for things they ignored for years. Worst they pushed out unfinished product. The sleeper encounter that caused a whole guild to be banned. Gates of Discord, which caused a player boycott. As a wizard, they nerfed our ultimate ability and forgot about it. Eventualy shadow knights could out nuke us as the level cap increased. It was a freaking mess, which was a shame as the game desrved better. At the end, I was a level 65 Wizard, mostly forced to solo in the planes, where one un-rezzed death led to losing days of hard grinding. I was fed up with the grind, SoE, and seeing all my long term online friends quiting and going to WoW. I ended up leaving, and going to City of Heroes, and it was a breath of fresh air. No camping, no loot, no gear disparity. The Devs were fantastic, and they put out an extremly polished bug free product. I vowed to never buy another SoE product ever again, and have kept that promise. After CoH I stopped playing MMO's and found that I have a much more productive life. And yet... this game still has a hook in me. I can still close my eyes and remember the run across the Oasis of Mar, into the EC tunnel. I get honestly tempted to log back in, just for the sheer tike invested. P99 has appeal because it is very familiar, and won't profit SoE's current incarnation a single cent. But now I am an adult, with far more responsabilities. I just don't think I have the time.

[@jbs2000]

Everquest's direction should have been building non instanced guild halls, or at least rent space in unused buildings. It should have offered a mechanic to set up as a merchant, not in the bazaar, but in Gfay, WC/EC, The Karanas, or one of the boats. It should have fixed the boats, it should have followed WOW in making zone transitions seamless. They should have made KOS players visiting your city CON appropriately and be flagged for PVP. They should have debugged the trade skills and made more of the recipes relevant. Give minor illusion and tree form indifferent CON's. Let enchanters, rogues and bards take a different name under each illusion. The players made EQ alive. The people who made maps, will always be 10* cooler than an in-game map. Give the old school a tool in-game to draw their own, by hand and a way to either share it or sell it. It's not nostalgia we pine for, it's fantastic experiences with fantastic people. /The Vision off

[@Taronas]

Old school MMOs were great because there was no instancing. Why? Because it forced you to interact with people. If you wanted your group to get a shot at that boss that was going to spawn you had to negotiate with the people who were there or try to steal it. Harshly punishing people for failing is good because it makes them care about their performance more resulting in that player getting better. Catch up mechanics are bad because it devalues the effort put in by those who got there the long/hard way.

[@NerdNavigator]

I don't agree, I mean besides the arguments I made in the video, I'd paraphrase Jim Sterling- "Rarely do I think being forced to do something is a positive, especially in a game set in a sandbox environment in which freedom and versatility should be key points. Having choice is better than being forced. I can choose to interact with people, or I can choose not to. Modern EQ still has a ton of features that benefit you for say grouping, such as the group xp bonus modifiers, and the fact that most (ya excluding mages) classes can't beat a EoK boss on their own, they need a group. People improve naturally through failure, you didn't beat that raid? you figure out why and do better next time. no harsh punishment needed for that to happen. I've had Max AA every expansion having put in the time to get it with out an catch up mechanics but I love that when I do group with guild mates that maybe just started on a new toon, or just came back and are just at my level but no aa. I can rest assured I'm not overly carrying them because they at least had some catch up. Do they still have to put in a bunch of time to get to my AA count? Yep! but I'm glad they aren't lagging so far behind. You know how long it takes to get 22,000 AAs with out catch up? Quite a while, longer even then it takes to get to lvl 60 on P99 infact. You are completely entitled to the opinion you shared, but ya.. I don't agree.

[@Taronas]

We don't need to agree. But I figured I would bring something to the table to try to shed light on those with a different mindset as you said people often don't give reasons or they give nebulous ones. While I didn't go into as mush detail as I likely should have allow me to be a little more verbose on the topics. Harshly punishing players being good. While yes people will get naturally better by playing without putting in additional effort. That is only true to a point you can take a look at most online games for examples of people who because they have things in place to assist them and they suffer little to no penalties for being bad just can't be bothered to learn past base mechanics. What harsh punishment does is effectively weed out bad players by either making them invest effort to get enjoyment out of the game or decide that the reward isn't worth it and leave. While this is pretty rough by modern standards the end result is that the average player skill in the community is higher. When you get past a certain point in the game you can then rely on that as kind of a vetting process so you don't need to worry as much about the quality of the person your inviting to group or guild. This also results in a smaller but much more dedicated community which at least in my experience tends to have less of a toxic presence. Catch up mechanics. This is pretty personal but I know I'm not the only one. The idea is that if everyone has to put in the same amount of effort to get to a certain point that they should have an idea of how hard it was for others to get there. Those that haven't gotten there yet but are "on the grind" should also have an idea about how much effort went into getting there. It's the respect for the achievement and effort invested. If you get there in say 1/2 the time you are less likely to have as much respect for that achievement as the person who got there taking the full time and as humans we all want our achievements no matter how small to be respected and understood by our fellow humans. Instancing. The genre is a multiplayer genre. If you don't want to interact with others play single player. Also you can choose to not interact with the people who are there to camp the boss. You can go elsewhere or log off. I honestly don't understand at all why some people play multiplayer only games and then refuse to play with other people. It goes against the very definition of the genre. player Interaction in a multiplayer only game should never be optional.

[@jasonfolkens]

I was unable to tell which gaming experience you preferred until you explicitly revealed your preference. Nicely done.

[@DrewLonmyPillow]

Currently playing on Phinny because I left the live servers right as GoD was releasing. I want to experience the new content and while I could do that on the live servers, they don't have the same amount of pop Phinny will have as each new expansion releases. I do think the Agnarr server capitulates to a similar crowd as P99 but with the QOL changes that later expansions brought.

[@Thebuffshaman]

The reason Phinny is harder on the leveling is there is literally an xp penalty for not grouping and it applies to level 1 and all the way from there. 2 will about even you out to where it would have been in years gone by and 3 will get you into bonus mode. Their way of trying to force grouping more.

[@jtwilliams37]

Appreciate your point of view and you definitely have valid points. The reason why I play on P1999 is that I never got to experience high-end gameplay back then. I was too young at the time to appreciate it, and by the time I was old enough to really get into it other games and life got in the way. I play on project 1999 to see how it is now that I'm an adult. I love the lack of conveniences. I find that the extreme hostility of the world really brings people together. You get a sense of community on P1999 because, as you said, it is difficult to install. It's not something you just try out, you have to be dedicated to the experience. There's no bazaar for people to find what they need without interacting, you go to the EC tunnel and make a trade, you build a community with all of these interactions. I'm recognizing names now, I see the same people everywhere. I'm loving it. In WoW, for example, you click dungeon finder and blitz to the end, you're kind of weird if you even say hello. P1999 is a community. That said, now that I'm doing high-end raids in p1999 it is very simple. As a bard I pretty much do the same thing for hours. There's no "move out of the fire", kite these adds, stand here, jump on this button, etc. that make raids so fun. Making alts appeals to me, but I can see where one would get tired of the raid scene, especially with a lot of the harder targets perma camped by a few guilds. At the end of the day, I'm having a blast with it right now and have been for months for free. I think p1999 is great, but I don't put myself above Live players either. Both have their challenges, both have their advantages. Play what you want, both can be loads of fun! We're all in this Norrath together imo.

[@happysmiles1337]

If you're playing P99 for end game, I feel sorry for you. EQ is about the journey if you ask me. The slow leveling helps you better experience different areas. No Maps makes everything feel bigger. Grouping in the 30s or 50s the gameplay isn't that different. I've played off and on since 99. Haven't played live since 2005 probably. I don't play enough to pay a month fee for real EQ and I would think other modern MMOs would be better if I really wanted to do pay to play than this old patched together build on 18 year old one. The reality is I love P99 cause i do whatever at my own pace and make it my own game. It was and still is the appeal of the old game. Raid encounters are fun but aren't the end all be all for me.

[@tiranathonsourusrex9669]

I've not played on p99, however i do have a question, if its locked in Velious era? Don't people get bored? Or do they keep rerolling new characters? my main on live is 22 years old (in RL), cant imagine what I'd do with a 22 RL char on p99, surely u would have done everything and got best in slot armor, and competed all ur quests as well as be max xp?

[@ryanlarson8096]

good vid. I'm an EQ veteran from the early days. Believe me, no one could easily solo yellows without gear. The hit table was much more tilted against hitting higher level mobs.

[@Raider1377]

Not sure if you will read this comment Josh, but I just had to say hello. From your Half Elf Ranger friend from Blood Oath, Lenthar. I hope all is well with you my friend and that you may be looking forward to Pantheon. It's shaping up to be a great game and may perhaps give you some great content for your channel. If you haven't heard of Pantheon, you should look into it mate. I do miss Nurm the Wurm and that Iksar Monk Kilay who had Drucylla under his thumb. I completely forgot you guys moved from Mithaniel Marr over to FV. You were missed. Be well.

[@NerdNavigator]

Heya man, great to hear from you, it has been quite some time since those days in Blood Oath with our small guild of riff raff, I'm not sure were everyone went, I've had a few server moves in my days from Mith Marr I moved to Bertox when a group of friends in high school all decided that was the server we would play on so from Luclin to Gates of Discord thats were I was, then I moved on to The Rathe, then Xegony but finally my journey has landed me at FV and it is a lot of fun. I actually ran into Nurm's son on one of my facebook promotions and he linked me up with his old man. You are the second old Blood Oath friend I've ran into since making these videos and streaming EQ content on Twitch. I still remember meeting you as I believe you were the first in Blood Oath that I met I believe, you were already 47 and buffed me. Good old times, then there was Bergman Nurm and Drucylla whom I leveled up with until she started grouping with the twinked monk and blew past me. I think that is when I started struggling and lost interest in EQ for the first time as I hit 51 and the leveling started to get grueling without friends to adventure with. I'm familiar with Pantheon, and look forward to when it is playable however I'm hesitant to invest in it yet, for any of the founder packs. I've given into the hype of too many games that were cancelled in development or released in poor condition to invest emotionally or financially in another :( But! When it is out and if its great I can't wait to play it!

[@BoomerElite4u]

One of the things I know from playing on P99 that for sure isn't classic is the damage caps. Like I was literally hitting for 45 damage at level 14 on P99. This never would have happened on real EverQuest.

[@davinathomas5550]

I love the time locked servers myself to get that feeling of nostalgia since so hadn't played for so so so so so long. Modern everquest was so complex it was just too much until I started playing the time locked server. As time continued, I honestly stuck with time locked bc I had invested so much more time. I have to go in and really dive into modern EQ to see how much different it truly is that I haven't experienced yet.

[@ryunbingham6962]

Titanium was my first copy of eq. actually still have it, along with my dad’s

[@guzami77]

Modern EQ is more complex in ability timers and fight strategy... but I played a warrior when skills were few and simple, which forced me to learn how the game played, not how to play the game. For example, I learned how agro radius worked, how root changed npc agro behavior, how user spells modified agro, how melee range affected agro... etc etc. In modern EQ warriors play like a caster. I didn't sign up to play a caster... Modern EQ requires high skill in managing timers.. but the simplicity of the old game made it more fun because of the value in knowledge of game mechanics. On your argument of 'modern eq is about choice'.. well you don't have a choice of abilities at the high end modern game. You wont be effective unless you use the full range of modern abilities.

[@NerdNavigator]

Those are great points. I'd counter the "you don't have choice of abilities at high end modern game." with the fact that you do have a choice to not level that high. I have a lvl 51 monk, 65 rogue, and 75 Zerker all of whom I keep level locked by setting AA to 100%, its a choice to do that on those characters and it means I can play with people in their mid 30's to lvl 80 as they are leveling up. Not many people do that, its true, but the choice is there. If you only wanted to play a lvl 60, you could do so if you wanted. Maybe even get a guild of like minded people that only wanted to play level 60's Who knows, the options are there, just that no one choices to do it doesn't mean its not an available option.

[@guzami77]

The Nerd Navigator Thanks for the response. I'm also into sportscars, and there's something happening in that market currently. Many supercar manufacturers are pushing to make the fastest and highest tech machine possible, but many car reviewers find those cars lose the personality and fun factor gained in a more raw experience. I think the same is applied to this discussion. On another note, I am the type of player who plays one character and strives to be 'maxed'. It's just my personality and my interest in mmorpgs. So my choice was to quit playing. I lost interest in modern EQ because I wasn't going to be happy with many characters at a low level. I would say I didn't have a choice and was forced out by the game direction.

[@BeholdTruthsSecretTV]

Some of the stuff at the end applies to vanilla wow too. I hate listening to people who think vanilla was 'hard' and what not.

[@laurieracline2722]

I do agree with the point made that if youve done the content repeatedly already, there probably isnt much enjoyment to be had in continuing to do it other than nostalgia, or to experience playing another class perhaps. But as someone who worked full time and had limited time to play, i was ALWAYS way behind the hardcores during my time playing live. I was in my teens when kunark came out, so me and my friends ran over there and played. Same thing with luclin. (I wasnt high enough level to experience most of velious content until somewhere around post POK) So for me, im now experiencing content in p1999 that i completely missed the first time around. The slow progression of p99 works for me as a casual player and i dont feel rushed to steamroll through the content just to keep up with the player base. The server has a healthy population at all levels and its not hard to find groups and make new friends. Its really allowed me to appreciate the love and detail that went into this game. Im still discovering stuff i never knew existed. I guess if you are a hardcore and have done and seen it all, i can see why p1999 wouldnt be your cup of tea and why EQ live is, as they keep feeding you content and you keep gobbling it up. More power to ya though. To each their own.