A Whole New World

I need to come up for a breath of air and actually post something! Sorry for the slow posts, but I’ve been having a blast in EverQuest on the Ragirefire server. I have a lot of stuff to write about, but for the most part I want to focus on giving you guys a brief update with where the game/server is at in general and some of my impressions of EverQuest after over a decade of not playing any official version.

Daybreak just announced tonight that a NEW progression server is coming because of how popular Ragefire has been. The new server will be called Lockjaw. Right now it remains to be seen if a merge will take place down the road, or if this server will suffer the same fate as Vulak (Fippy’s counterpart) did when it became a ghost town. The reason for the server? Yeah, it’s due to the success, but that success has meant queues. On average, the wait time to play all weekend was about 1.5 hours. Oh, and yeah they added a queue. Before the queue, it was mashing the login to see if you could get lucky.

The first Nagafen, Vox, and Phinny kills happened only days after the server launched. Just goes to show you that not only do multiboxers have an advantage, but this isn’t the same EverQuest I remember. This version of Norrath truly is a whole new world.

The Norrath I remember wasn’t full of 80% Mages. Right now, Mages, Necros, and a few other magic classes are so broken that they can burn down yellows like they were nothing. Groups right now are pulling piles of mobs and burning them all down in a DPS race. The Norrath I remember was a careful approach to pulling one mob at a time.

NRO

Leveling is also much, much quicker. Not only is it hard-coded at 2x, with the decrease in difficulty you can plow through mobs without breaking a sweat. Last night in North Ro I was pulling mobs to my group. I’d bring in 2 red con Dry Bone Skeletons, a Yellow Crypt Mummy, and anything else I could possibly snag all at once. In a matter of a few hours we had each gained 3-4 levels. That’s absolutely unheard of in the Norrath I remember. To top it all off, I was tanking — a Bard.

Zones have also changed considerably. They turned South Ro and Oasis into one zone, did something to North Ro to make it squat, merged the Commonlands into one zone, and completely destroyed Freeport. I’m not sure how I feel about the other zone changes, but Freeport definitely sucks.

While this is so far, far away from the Norrath I remember, I’m still having so much fun I can’t stop. For the first time in YEARS I’m antsy to get done with work and play. Something about EverQuest, even when it’s not truly the EverQuest of old, captivates my attention like no other game has ever been able to do.

  • Yeah that has also been my experience playing on an UO emulated shard.
    You never get the same experience you once had back.

    It could, but the problem is different rule sets and monetizing things that buff your character or lets you buy mats/recipes = economy dead. why bother….

    Glad your having fun though… Its not for me.
    I have not experienced EQ back then and by now its to old for me to get into you know.

    Come to think of it its been ages I played an MMORPG. Guild wars 2 was the last one…

  • The people who killed naggy and phinney, whether bots or not, had to be at least close to level 50 right? And they got there a few days after the server started?

  • It was one guild I think, and they had several people boxing (I think it’s more akin to botting, personally) and downed him. Keep in mind that this was with a large number of mages which are so overpowered right now it’s silly.

  • Even in early EQ days a large group of mages could generally resummon their pets faster than most mobs could kill all of them. Back then people weren’t that concerned with the meta game though. They just played whatever class seemed the most fun to them.

    But from what I am hearing, it’s pretty clear that all of the formulas for calculating everything from damage to spell resists must have been completely redone. That’s another thing that you can’t revert back to original because it’s all in the server code now. And that is how you can stay alive tanking as a bard 🙂

  • No offense meant, but that doesn’t sound so great, or at least not very classic Everquest-like. I got excited about the new progression server, so downloaded the EQ client and logged in to all my old characters, and so much had changed. I decided instead to check out Project 1999 instead and it has really scratched that itch. I guess you guys already just did a stint in P99. Can you articulate why you left P99 for Ragefire, when it seems to have a lot of issues, both technical and “atmospheric” for lack of a better term (meaning not very classic EQ ish).

    Anyone still playing P99?

  • @Khoram: Not playing P99 at the moment, but will probably start again when they do a progression server. I left P99 because Ragefire was ‘new’ and ‘shiny’. I wanted a fresh start with more people. If Ragefire starts to suck, I’ll jump onto P99 again.

  • I’m still struggling with how they got over 40 in a few days. I knew it would be faster but I played every day at start and I think it took over 6 months to get to 37.

  • @Ba ba black sheep: Fungi tunic isn’t in. EXP is 2x faster, and you can buy 20% exp potions. Kill non-stop reds and yellows with mages and you can go 1-40 in 3 days without breaking a sweat. You might not stand up more than a few times, but you won’t sweat.

  • Oh well. I also think the movies from 20 years ago are much better too so maybe it’s just age. Glad you are enjoying it. Probably about as close to those past years as we are likely to come.