The Glade 4.0

Screenshots

Can you guys believe it was 12 years ago? Crazy. My brother learned how to type from this game.

Wow.... It's always hard to believe I spent that much of my life playing!

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

None of those have the porthole UI. I'm disappointed in their quality as an anniversary screenshot.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Heh, I wonder if anyone still has those old screenshots around. I know all of mine went with a computer crash a few years ago.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

There, happy? Also remember how you used to need to stare into the book to meditate? That was probably the worst design decision ever.

Nice. There was an even worse one, though, if I recall.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I was still in the AF, living in CO Springs and my daughter was at least 2 -3 years from being born.

Dang I loved that game.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

Yeah, none of the tabs on the right. And what's that "AA" stuff

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Random memories from the early days of EQ:

Epic trains in Blackburrow because someone zoned in and fell through the tree with SoW still on.
Learning the path from Blackburrow to Everfrost by heart so I could do it in the dark because I forgot a torch or firebeetle eye.
Dying to a wisp because I hadn't bought a magic weapon yet.
Loading Please Wait
Breaking a group of 3 mobs, by killing one and running to the zone line, because no one knew what Harmony was.
Single pulling the General in Kithicor for the Rogue Epic because I knew what Harmony was and how to use it.
Binding sight from the prison inside Mines of Droga, all the way to the zone in so I could lead a friend who was coming to help us out, but hadn't ever been inside before.
Saving the raid with a well timed snare, flamelick and weaponshield while the Cleric click sticked the Warrior.
8-10 hour Fear/Hate raids.
A mini-raid because someone trained a Brigand to T2.
Rangers and Druids insta-disbanding if someone aggro'd a bear in Qeynos Hills.
Dying to a shark while standing naked at the very top of the boat to Erudin.

Reaching into the vaults...

November 13, 1999: Vlad and Mia get married


The Gate spell had a chance to collapse, even for GM's...


My first crack at a timeline for the Glade. I think this was mostly from those books you picked up in the game.

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I just remember how much fun the world was to explore...

I spent probably 3 years without leveling my monk past 20- I ran all over the world, I messed around with tradeskills, I talked to NPCs....

I remember how even the most basic armor pieces were amazing- I horded leather, banded and bronze for my twinks!

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

There we go. Vlad's second shot is the one I was thinking of. Man, that was an awful interface. I never had a problem with it, stylistically, but the ratio of UI to game world screen real estate was ridiculous.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

On Aizle's theme of Random EQ Memorizes:

EQ had real baddies. What in any game since then can strike fear like a Sand Giant?
Going AFK and just missing the boat after 30 minutes of waiting. Falling off the boat and getting eaten by the Allizewsaurus.
Farming J-boots... in Najena
YOU WILL NOT EVADE ME VLADIMIRR!
Spending 10 hours farming pieces for a tradeskill, hitting COMBINE, you fail!
/loc /loc /loc /loc /loc /loc /loc /loc /loc /loc /loc /loc /loc /loc /loc /loc /loc /loc
Running through the Gorge. Whew! I made it! "an evil eye begins to cast a spell."
Zoning away from a train... into a bigger train.
"The Bazaar" aka 150 people standing around in the East Commons tunnel spamming /SHOUT /OOC
Having the Hand room trained to the basement because someone else wanted Dwarven Work Boots
Aradune, Green Splinted Platemail, and the Fiery Avenger. Nerf Rangers!
"Vlad and Mia's 50 hour Fear raid" (5 full clears). 2 pieces of Thorny Vine.
Pyzjn's Glowing Black Orb - Mia jumping and screaming around the house when we finally got it after days of camping. Traded away for a pair of yaks
Literally crawling out of Unrest all the way back to the city because we were 300/85 encumbered with bags full of fine steel weapons.
'Hail, Priest of Discord.' (You have died)

Oh yeah... and you guys all helping me with that website so I could propose to my (now) wife IRL
EQ had the best community of any MMORPG before or since.

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You could fullscreen out of that UI even in the early days of the game.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I remember once some guy got suspended because he trained 4 Hill Giants on an AFK GM, and then took screenshots that show him dying and posted them places.

Man. So long ago!

I actually just started playing on this EQemu server called Project 1999. It's developed and maintained as closely as possible to original EQ. They're going to roll out expansions in roughly an equivalent timeline... Kunark is due out some time this month.

It's definitely a bit hard to go back to in 2011, but hey it's more for the nostalgia than actual quality gaming. :p Spent 1.5 hours the other night running from Ak'anon to Highpass Hold to buy my Enchanter pet spells. I have no idea how long it took me to get my Stein of Moggok... essentially my only item with stats on it that I got myself. Took a massive effort to get my tailoring up high enough to make Raw Silk... which is just a minor AC upgrade from the cloth items I've been looting since level 4, with no sign of any items with stats I can make in the future. Alas!

Not sure how much I'll end up playing it, but it's a fun experience. It's amazing how fast you slip back into it, too. Last night I was stealthing through Blackwing Descent on the way back to Atramedes, and found myself trying to con this roamer pack to see if they saw through stealth. . .

I've played better MMOs, but never a better MMO experience. You just can't go home again.

And the superstitions around spawns! There weren't always websites that explained everything to the last detail.

"The king hasn't spawned in 5 hours. We keep getting placeholders."
"You fools, there's an anti-camp radius! Everyone get out of the room!" <entire group proceeds to sit in the adjoining hallway for 20 minutes>
"Maybe he can't spawn unless the whole room is up, and the alchemist is spawned and no one's attacking him." <wait and stare at an empty room for a while>
"No, he only spawns from 7pm to 8pm, and only if it's raining."
"Last time he spawned, I heard a bird noise on my speakers, maybe that's when it happens"
"My brother said his friend's monk saw another group killing him and the whole room was empty! We have to clear the room!"
<rest of group> "Nooooooooo!"

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Kizdean Gix!

I actually re-subbed once just so I could log in and kill his ***. I kited him around for an hour, on purpose, just to make it last as long as possible (till I got bored :p )

Heh.

So many years later: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts ... _id=143508

The other way to play "classic" EQ is to play on the Mac server- it stopped getting updates around PoP. It's not totally "classic", but it's pretty darn close.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Trying to survive the run as a level 6 from Halas to where all my friends were in Freeport. Friggin lions.

I've seen this before. I think it's pretty cool to see.

Re: EQ Spawn rumors, "Truth is stranger than fiction:" indeed.....



I would like to see this code for Quillmane. =)

I remember trading in commons where if you played it right, you could have gone from a greater light stone to a yak in a couple of hours. =P
Camping that big dude in the icy castle so the whole server hated us.
Declaring guild war with another guild cause we were fighting for spawns so much, and during one particular ice city raid, we were managing the king, killing each other, and going after their healers… 3 wipes and 5 hours later… the GM stepped in and put both guild leaders in the secret room under quenos(?) and gave them ‘the talk’.
Naked guild raids on the orc city next to kelethin.
Zoning into Keithcor castle cause of a train, only to run into a bigger train.
Falling off the lift in kelethin, at least once a day, more if we decided to get drunk.
Go afk cause parents wanted something, then come back naked and dead. The frustration follows as you forget where you were.
Having a phone tree of actual people’s private numbers incase something spawned, the excitement in their voice when they actually get your call.
The amazing organization of seeing a 60 people guild go from 2-3 people online to 50+ in under 5 minutes, then mobilization in another 5min just cause something spawned.
4 hour fear guild raid, cause a new guildy got curious and stuck his nose in, just to see what it was like, and regretting giving out your phone number to random online people.
Skipping the majority of first year lectures so you could raid (damn time difference).
The friendship I keep a decade later, and the little things I remember about their lives (both IRL and online).

I couldn’t do it all again (72 hour camping sessions in guk, I’m looking at you!) but I cherish every second. If we could go back in time, it would be the first day I logged into EQ.

edit. I went back to EQ recently just to see what i was like, and the first time I zoned and saw the "Loading... please wait" line, I actually cried.

More spawn time things from GM (all pulled from that thread earlier, but it's 5 big pages to wade through if you go it yourself):





I think this mystery is the biggest thing lacking from WoW. I don't know how the MMO community would handle it now, though.