The Glade 4.0

Its been a long time since I played EQ. Omens of War was the last expansion I played, and barely done so. I played WoW for a while, and even the thought of the upcoming expansion doesn't have me to excited. I play and like LotRO but have come to a "meh" point with it. I was thinking of trying to play EQ again. I was wondering if its worth it to restart after being away so long? I have a 65 ranger but he is stripped of everything but his epics I believe. So if I start, I was thinking of creating a character from scratch. I also don't know how much the game has changed. I am a casual gamer, because of my job that is a necessity. That is one of the main reasons I quit before, I couldn't commit to the time sink involved. Ive heard that it has changed some. Lastly I would be looking for some sort of community or guild. The guild I was part of all moved on to WoW. Most of the fun of the game is the people you meet. Any feedback would be appreciated!

I was in a very similar situation to you, casual gaming only, tough to put in the time commitment to keep up. With the changes since I quit the game is much more playable now, and solo time is a possibility, even though things go faster with a group.

In my first go round I had a 65 ranger with 80 AAs in 125+ days played. Now I have a shaman 62, 210AAs 6 days played, and a warrior 59, 9 aas almost 2 days played. So much easier today. We started new characters on the new Trakanon sever and although the server itself is very underpopulated, we're pretty active.

After five years of WoW, I tried EQ again. The graphics which were once so cool now feel extremely dated, the gameplay was so unintuitive as to be nearly impossible to get a hang on again, and so much about the controls had changed it felt like I was learningit all over again.

I decided to not bother. A new enemy arrives in WoW on December 7. If anyone thinks that date was chosen at random, go ahead, keep thinking it.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I'll tag on here that as far as I can remember, none of the controls have changed since the original days. Even the default key mappings are the same.

I'm currently on hiatus, but I'm playing with the gang on Trak (although woefully behind now, I think), and I've played on the FV server for 6 years now. I played WoW for about 2 years in there, and felt that it was much less intuitive than EQ, but each to their own, I guess.

The game is now more solo/casual friendly than ever, and you can progress from level 1-90 solo and progression if you have to. Most of the regular servers (ie, not Trak, Zek, or FV) have very strong populations following a recent round of mergers, but the low level game is quite sparse compared to say 70+. Thankfully, getting to 70 should only take a few weeks, and can be done solo or with a mercenary.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Rane is right. The game is a lot different than it was. Defiant armor and mercenaries have really changed the way the game plays, at least from 1-60.

I'd say give it a try. As Rane said, you can get a character up in levels with nice playable gear with a much less significant investment in time than in the old days.

On the otherhand, if you are looking for that old 'hardcore' hell-level experience, then I'd say don't bother. That game is gone. Think of the current EQ as EQ ver. 2 (not EQ2).

As Micheal pointed out, the UI is fairly crude compared to most modern games, and the graphics are dated. There are some advantages to both (lower system requirements, more flexibility in configuring the UI for your playstyle, etc.. but if you've been playing modern games, the look and feel will be a bit of a let down.

That said, it only took me about 20 levels (a few days) to get comfortable with the UI again, and the graphics don't bother me at all.

If you are going to start from scratch, you might consider the Trakanon server where this group is playing. The server is *very* low population, but this is a very friendly group who can help you work through the rough patches in re-learnign the game (understanding how mercs, work, etc...)

The Tutorial isn't terribly helpful, in that it won't help you understand the intricacies of how to use mercenaries, etc.. but it will serve to re-acquaint you with the game, and the basic 'how-to' stuff.

Give us a shout on Trak if you decide to check it out...

Edit:
Also, you will need the Seeds of Destruction expansion as a minimum to get access to the mercenaries, and it's probably best to just have all of them so you don't end up not being able to access something along the way. The easiest way it to just pick up the latest (House of Thule). it's all inclusive.

Everything midgen said

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Ok I bought the anniversary edition to give it a try. Probably wont get on till this coming weekend as I change over to night shift and gotta stay up late anyway. I'll post my toons name once I make one. What are some of your toons names on trak that I should look for?

Zyerne (me), Goji (Midgen), Kirah (Midgen), Kimo (Midgen again), Tobiathar (Rorinthras), McDuff
(Ranelagh), McHazzard (Ranelagh) and Jemi (NephyrS) are all names to look for.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I recently went through an EQ stint that started in April and ended in September. I was really enjoying my self until my friends that I was playing with decided to quit. So I stopped playing. I would likely still be playing if my friends didn't stop playing. In that time, I leveled a ranger and shadow knight to 85(the cap when I was playing) and both had 600+ aas, which is insane considering my first go around before GoD came out, I had a 65 ranger that I played every **** day for 4 years and only had 60ish aas to my name.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

So come play with us on Trakanon!

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

For sure come to Trak. Looking forward to seeing you folks join us.

Hey Dominex,

Welcome to Trakanon and the Ranger's Glade guild =)

I'm sure you noticed the guild MOTD. I'm going to defer cleaning 'junk' out of the guild bank until you have a chance to log in and grab anything you might want from there. There is a Tolupumj's Robe and a bunch of "Someday" spells rotting in there. Feel free to grab what you want. Once you've looked it over, we'll be purging stuff to make room for new toys. =)

Woot

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Hey thanks all. I'll try and check that out asap so you can clean it out. I'm looking forward to at least retrying this game. Sent my wife out to get the game and she got the anniversary ed because it was cheap, so I'll be without mercs for a little bit. I played without em the first time around so I can do it again lol. Plus it will at least tell me if I can get back into playing it before I invest more into it. I'm sure I will hit you all up with a million questions as i reorient myself in the game. See you there!

I have to say, getting back into it, the biggest game changer for me is the mercenaries. They make so many more things possible.

I'm not even sure you can still buy physical copies of the more recent expansions. I think the newer ones are only available via the station store, and possibly via the in game Marketplace and station cash.

Edit:
Also, Steam and D2Drive (or whatever it's called) might be sources for cheap expansions too...

Yeah I seen some of them on Direct2drive and the like. Will have to wait for the next payday with xmas and all dragging my pay down.