That Everquest magic recaptured

[Rygar]

I haven't seen too many people comment on this, but during the Halloween event, it was more than just a cool, fun event. It helped to recapture for those short few hours the original magic of Everquest for me.

There was no wiki on what to do, people were helping each other, for a moment in time it seemed like raiding mattered to no one. That thrill, the comradery, and the excitement of the unknown reminded me of when I logged into this game for the very first time.

My most heart-felt appreciation to the entire staff that puts their time and effort into this game, thank you for this event and making me appreciate this game even more.

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My Halloween story (please share yours):
I was doing tradeskills in Freeport as I was waiting for my son to fall asleep before committing to any adventure. I kept seeing illusions run by, spectres, ghosts, werewolves... I kept thinking, "Man, this looks ridiculous!".

Son falls asleep and I join in, grab a port with a fellow guildie to NK to start the quest. Just a hoard of people at gypsy camp. I get there and there is this paladin with epic that is in some kind of hardcore werewolf form (Not Boon of the Garou, something else). I'm grabbing screenshots left and right, just loving the atmostphere.

Get my illusion and have some fun seeing my spectre illusion die when I FD (cool face plant animation!) then I get my book and start trying to figure out how the whole thing works. Get my BOO on with first mob and we are on our way to Lake Rathe. On the way a bard passes me with some group mates... WAIT! WAIT! Please let me join you! I plead. They stop and invite.... sweet bard speed! We scare our second mob, and to my complete serendipity one of the bards other group members is a druid... ports + speed?! The world was our oyster! The whole time guildies are linky juicy loots like Candy Corn, Rubicite, etc.... anticipation builds! We port back to NK and run to surefall glade (a zone I've never been in). Afterwards, we see a ton of people in everfrost, despite hearing from guildmates that TOFS was where to go, you just can't resist checking it out, maybe they missed something. We run around exploring (*gasp!*), and eventually give up to go to other mobs we hear are more certain.

At this point my son wakes up and I'm on baby duty, so need to camp for the night. I didn't do any hand ins and get any loot, but I found myself not caring... I had FUN! An aspect much of us have lost sight of in the thirst for pixels. Thank you for that devs, my hat is off to you.

[Lhancelot]

I haven't seen too many people comment on this, but during the Halloween event, it was more than just a cool, fun event. It helped to recapture for those short few hours the original magic of Everquest for me.

There was no wiki on what to do, people were helping each other, for a moment in time it seemed like raiding mattered to no one. That thrill, the comradery, and the excitement of the unknown reminded me of when I logged into this game for the very first time.

My most heart-felt appreciation to the entire staff that puts their time and effort into this game, thank you for this event and making me appreciate this game even more.

--------------------------------------------------------

My Halloween story (please share yours):
I was doing tradeskills in Freeport as I was waiting for my son to fall asleep before committing to any adventure. I kept seeing illusions run by, spectres, ghosts, werewolves... I kept thinking, "Man, this looks ridiculous!".

Son falls asleep and I join in, grab a port with a fellow guildie to NK to start the quest. Just a hoard of people at gypsy camp. I get there and there is this paladin with epic that is in some kind of hardcore werewolf form (Not Boon of the Garou, something else). I'm grabbing screenshots left and right, just loving the atmostphere.

Get my illusion and have some fun seeing my spectre illusion die when I FD (cool face plant animation!) then I get my book and start trying to figure out how the whole thing works. Get my BOO on with first mob and we are on our way to Lake Rathe. On the way a bard passes me with some group mates... WAIT! WAIT! Please let me join you! I plead. They stop and invite.... sweet bard speed! We scare our second mob, and to my complete serendipity one of the bards other group members is a druid... ports + speed?! The world was our oyster! The whole time guildies are linky juicy loots like Candy Corn, Rubicite, etc.... anticipation builds! We port back to NK and run to surefall glade (a zone I've never been in). Afterwards, we see a ton of people in everfrost, despite hearing from guildmates that TOFS was where to go, you just can't resist checking it out, maybe they missed something. We run around exploring (*gasp!*), and eventually give up to go to other mobs we hear are more certain.

At this point my son wakes up and I'm on baby duty, so need to camp for the night. I didn't do any hand ins and get any loot, but I found myself not caring... I had FUN! An aspect much of us have lost sight of in the thirst for pixels. Thank you for that devs, my hat is off to you.

I had very limited time to play during the event due to RL stuff going on.

That being said, I agree, the event had a ton of work put into it, that was obvious. Was it perfect? No.

Nothing is perfect though, and considering Braknar never ran it live to really know how it would all work out, till it actually went live, it was quite impressive how smoothly it did go.

I wish more events or even new quests could be added to the game on P99, with the same high quality this event had.

We have some people on the forums that actually write extremely well, too bad some of their imagination and technical writing skills could not be fused with technical coding and writing of Braknar... Imagine what they could come up with!

Perhaps with the success and overall enjoyment of this past event, we will see more in the future.

I just have one request if that happens. Please lengthen the duration of the next event so more people have a chance to complete it. :p

[Rygar]

Yea I hear you with regards to the duration. One of the things WoW did great was having holiday events happen for about a 10 day stretch leading up to the actual holiday. The bad part is they were easy to farm in instances and felt like a handout.

I see a lot of pros and cons to this... A one day event may prevent people from grinding the event to farm items for their alts. With tier 5 loot as a reward I would think you need to have a limited scope. However, I'm against having events on actual holidays (should be for family, not encouraging EQ time). A non-poopsock type event that you can complete over a few days would be fun!

I don't know the perfect solution, but this event was a great time, can't take anything away from that!

[Expediency]

I really liked it. I couldnt be ready at the start time, so I got started about an hour late, but still scared 13/16 mobs and got a rubicite helmet before I had to go to bed. My only suggestion for improvement is to hold the event next year either the day before or the day after halloween; 8pm est start time is rough for those who have families.

[Lhancelot]

A one day event may prevent people from grinding the event to farm items for their alts.


Funny you mention this, I don't know if it's true, but a pal of mine said his guildie ran this event 3 times... is that possible?

Anyway, it's hard to stop farmers and people who can invest a solid 7 straight hours non-stop from milking an event for all it has to offer. You can't stop that.

Instead of trying to eliminate this, I think it's best to give the event a longer duration so more people have a true opportunity to really enjoy it.

Afterall, so much time and effort went into this event, creating it. I feel it's a shame many people could not see it to the end.

It's like painting a Picasso, then showing it to someone for 3 seconds before pulling it away, depriving the viewer of it's intricacies.

[SamwiseRed]

It's like painting a Picasso, then showing it to someone for 3 seconds before pulling it away, depriving the viewer of it's intricacies.

drugs?

[jarlerop]

I really liked it. I couldnt be ready at the start time, so I got started about an hour late, but still scared 13/16 mobs and got a rubicite helmet before I had to go to bed. My only suggestion for improvement is to hold the event next year either the day before or the day after halloween; 8pm est start time is rough for those who have families.

Yea, try 2 am with a family :)

[thufir]

I don't normally play these events, but if I'm still playing this game next year I'm gonna check it out. It sounds like Braknar did a great job in making the event both fun and rewarding. Normally I look at GM events as a chance to get some dungeon to ourselves but this time I clearly missed out. +1 to GMs for this one.

Also, don't award more loot! I am pretty sure you had no intention of doing so but there was some amazing stuff being given away as t5 loots that doesn't have any place flooding the server. Everybody wants some, but we can't have it all.

[Jazzy]

drugs?


lol, love spotting other red players droppin bombs on blue forums


how u doin sammy?

[Braknar]

This year, the event ran 7-8 hours, which I think was a great stretch and roughly what I had planned (last year I think it was 3 hours or so). The give and take here is with really good rewards, we want to only have it live for a smaller slice of time to mitigate some of the farming that has been mentioned. So if we did a longer lasting event, the rewards would of course have to be lessened dramatically.

On the note of getting some of the community to help with events, sadly, we really can't have that for much the same reason SOE/DBG can't use their community to come up with events. If we work with a player on something, there's always that chance they will tell their friends, or even innocently let some detail slip then giving an advantage to people. For this event I told no one anything. The ONLY staff that even knew anything about this was Sirken, Nilbog, Rogean and myself. Not even the guides knew much more about it other than what you all knew.

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the clues, it took me an absurd amount of time to just come up with the clues, mob locations, dialog, etc (and I still had some lore mistakes in there, sorry!). I put in a LOT more time this year than last and it looks like it was well worth the effort. Hell, I put in 1.5 weeks just in testing the thing. I started working on this event on Sept 1st.

I can't say when/if we'll have more events, only that this experience has definitely got me thinking more about what other events I could write up. Likely less massive/server wide affairs, but some smaller, special, level specific events.

[qualia]

i enjoyed the hell out of it. ran around all of norrath with my assassin squad. had a blast with friends, guildies, and the whole server.
was fun to see everyone in disguise everywhere.

i liked that it was a long event - a great way to rekindle all the love for classic content.

really hope to see more like this!

[Expediency]

On the note of getting some of the community to help with events, sadly, we really can't have that for much the same reason SOE/DBG can't use their community to come up with events. If we work with a player on something, there's always that chance they will tell their friends, or even innocently let some detail slip then giving an advantage to people. For this event I told no one anything. The ONLY staff that even knew anything about this was Sirken, Nilbog, Rogean and myself. Not even the guides knew much more about it other than what you all knew.

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the clues, it took me an absurd amount of time to just come up with the clues, mob locations, dialog, etc (and I still had some lore mistakes in there, sorry!). I put in a LOT more time this year than last and it looks like it was well worth the effort. Hell, I put in 1.5 weeks just in testing the thing. I started working on this event on Sept 1st.


There's got to be a way to crowdsource at least some of this work in a way that doesnt lead to competitive advantages to save you some work. As I'm sure you are aware there is a small group of people who try to do events every few months, as well as some lone wolves who run their own events. (example: https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=255861 a very well done player quest with two quest lines )

Is there no way that players could somehow help you by sending in clues and/or dialog? If you had several submissions, by the time you put your own twists on them and/or used material from two or three sources, the advantage of cheaters would greatly diminish.

[Braknar]

I mean, we could do that but even in crowdsourcing clues some of the mystery of the event would be revealed ahead of time.

For instance, if I had asked people to give me clues/hints about scattered NPCs across Norrath, everyone would have started knowing this event was a NPC scavenger hunt. Sure I'm sure some already suspected as such from last year, but if I specifically asked for that, it would be known for sure.

I will try to see if I can come up with ways to obfuscate things or ways people could help but right now I can't really think of much.

[Lhancelot]

I don't normally play these events, but if I'm still playing this game next year I'm gonna check it out. It sounds like Braknar did a great job in making the event both fun and rewarding. Normally I look at GM events as a chance to get some dungeon to ourselves but this time I clearly missed out. +1 to GMs for this one.

Also, don't award more loot! I am pretty sure you had no intention of doing so but there was some amazing stuff being given away as t5 loots that doesn't have any place flooding the server. Everybody wants some, but we can't have it all.

Come on man. Really?

You didn't participate in the event, you thought it was going to be a waste of time, you compliment the GMs, then you chide them for giving away too much loot?

Sour grapes much?

They give loot away one time this year, and you think the players who got some shouldn't have gotten as much.

Just got to lol at that one.

I mean, we could do that but even in crowdsourcing clues some of the mystery of the event would be revealed ahead of time.

For instance, if I had asked people to give me clues/hints about scattered NPCs across Norrath, everyone would have started knowing this event was a NPC scavenger hunt. Sure I'm sure some already suspected as such from last year, but if I specifically asked for that, it would be known for sure.

I will try to see if I can come up with ways to obfuscate things or ways people could help but right now I can't really think of much.

Yes, I see your point I never thought about that. Basically it sounds like you are on your own with events on the server.

The good thing is like a mad scientist, no one will know your secrets, the bad thing is that all of the work rests solely in your hands AND no one will know your secrets!

I mean it's hard for people to appreciate what you do, when so small of a number of people participate in the production of your works.

In my eyes creating such an event is nothing short of art. It required imagination, time, and creativity.

This project deserves all the recognition it has received, and Braknar no doubt deserves all the kudos to go along with it.

Thanks for your work and passion Braknar, and thanks to the guides and Rogean for making a lot of people's lives happier, even if it was via an old elf sim.

[skarlorn]

Likely less massive/server wide affairs, but some smaller, special, level specific events.

I think this is a great idea, Brak. Smaller stuff takes so much less time on your end and casuals and lowbies would love it.

I hear what you're saying about the difficulties if you crowdsource writing. But, you could still do it, even if you were only to get people to help you out writing characters and dialogue. Furthermore, I'm sure there are at least a couple of people who would do it under the premise of non-disclosure to preserve the integrity of the events. If you ever do something like this, I'd apply :-)

[Lhancelot]

I think this is a great idea, Brak. Smaller stuff takes so much less time on your end and casuals and lowbies would love it.

I hear what you're saying about the difficulties if you crowdsource writing. But, you could still do it, even if you were only to get people to help you out writing characters and dialogue. Furthermore, I'm sure there are at least a couple of people who would do it under the premise of non-disclosure to preserve the integrity of the events. If you ever do something like this, I'd apply :-)

I had both you and MM in mind when I mentioned people in the community helping with some of the writing etc. Sneaksy would be good too, forgot about Sneaksy. :p

[Braknar]

I mean, the event was not 100% me. Nilbog wrote the boss script, Sirken helped with loot tables and some boss encounter adds speach, Rogean patched it all in and was on-hand for any issues during the event itself, and contributed (last year) to the code that allowed illusions to preserve on zone.

[Lhancelot]

I mean, the event was not 100% me. Nilbog wrote the boss script, Sirken helped with loot tables and some boss encounter adds speach, Rogean patched it all in and was on-hand for any issues during the event itself, and contributed (last year) to the code that allowed illusions to preserve on zone.

Didn't mean to leave anyone out, just didn't know who all contributed etc. It was a success and hope you guys do another one someday. Smaller events would be cool too, no doubt. Just saying. :)

[dbouya]

two subtle changes I suggest for next year.

1) If a player repeats old quest sentences make sure not to reset their progress, you broadcast that this was a bug I think halfway through the event? Anyone who fell victim to it was probably pretty sad. Quests in everquest are finnicky I know.

2) I think it was not clear from the text that partial completion was possible. I think more low level players would've tried for partial completion if they knew it was possible right away. Hearing about having to travel to a dangerous far away high level zone is disheartening to a level 5 character I imagine. However if they knew they could skip a couple of the hardest clues they might've been more likely to try and enjoy themselves? I myself might've skipped the journey to velious if I had known it wasn't required to get a reward. (lvl47).

[thufir]

Come on man. Really?

You didn't participate in the event, you thought it was going to be a waste of time, you compliment the GMs, then you chide them for giving away too much loot?

Sour grapes much?

They give loot away one time this year, and you think the players who got some shouldn't have gotten as much.

Just got to lol at that one.

Don't award *more* loot, the post read. I said it because people were mumbling about how they cut off t5 too soon.

I didn't chide anyone. Don't misinterpret. The GMs did fine, as the post read. No grapes were turned sour in the posting of this compliment.

[Lhancelot]

Don't award *more* loot, the post read. I said it because people were mumbling about how they cut off t5 too soon.

I didn't chide anyone. Don't misinterpret. The GMs did fine, as the post read. No grapes were turned sour in the posting of this compliment.


Also, don't award more loot! I am pretty sure you had no intention of doing so but there was some amazing stuff being given away as t5 loots that doesn't have any place flooding the server. Everybody wants some, but we can't have it all.

I took it as sour grapes because you made it clear you missed the event, then you didn't congratulate anyone on their rewards. You then tell the guides they shouldn't award t5 rewards yada yada yada.

The "Everybody wants some, but we can't have it all" part sounded pretty sour grapeish to me.

When you emphatically tell the guides what to do (or not do) concerning the loots they awarded and how it might affect the server, I took it as chiding them.

Sorry if I misinterpreted the true meaning behind your words. Sometimes the tone of a post is entirely missed, and the mood not accurately reflected. :p

[thufir]

I took it as sour grapes because you made it clear you missed the event, then you didn't congratulate anyone on their rewards. You then tell the guides they shouldn't award t5 rewards yada yada yada.

The "Everybody wants some, but we can't have it all" part sounded pretty sour grapeish to me.

When you emphatically tell the guides what to do (or not do) concerning the loots they awarded and how it might affect the server, I took it as chiding them.

Sorry if I misinterpreted the true meaning behind your words. Sometimes the tone of a post is entirely missed, and the mood not accurately reflected. :p

I told them they shouldn't award *more loot*, buddy. Not *equal to the amount of loot they awarded*. They did good, as I've said twice now.

Projecting, possibly. Oh well.

[Rygar]

No one else has a fun adventure story to share? Was hoping to read about how people had good times, held hands and sung songs and all that. I'm sure Sneaksy will be having a fun story to share soon in her own thread, but can't wait until then!

[Lhancelot]

I told them they shouldn't award *more loot*, buddy. Not *equal to the amount of loot they awarded*. They did good, as I've said twice now.

Projecting, possibly. Oh well.

I never said, "you didn't say they did well."

Paraphrasing here, I said you DID compliment them, but then you chided them for giving away loot you felt wasn't appropriate.

More loot, or lesser quality loot, word it however you want buddy.

You still chided them, and it's pretty apparent you also have sour grapes over the fact t5 loot was awarded and you got none of it.

If I was projecting, wouldn't I have been the one complaining and writing a post about how loot was too good to be awarded? That's right, you wrote that.

Oh well, we can't have it all, now can we?

[thufir]

I never said, "you didn't say they did well."

Paraphrasing here, I said you DID compliment them, but then you chided them for giving away loot you felt wasn't appropriate.

More loot, or lesser quality loot, word it however you want buddy.

You still chided them, and it's pretty apparent you also have sour grapes over the fact t5 loot was awarded and you got none of it.

If I was projecting, wouldn't I have been the one complaining and writing a post about how loot was too good to be awarded? That's right, you wrote that.

Oh well, we can't have it all, now can we?
It wasn't complaining. Interpret it how you want, projecting-guy. I love that they gave away real rewards this time. It's nobody's fault but my own that I didn't get any. The warning was for future events as people were already saying they should have extended t5 loots.

Sorry you're sad you didn't get any good loot though.

[Rygar]

Guys, please stop hijacking the thread... is supposed to give warm fuzzies and not be two people knit-picking statements. Please agree to disagree.

Now onto more fun stories! Please share people! Where are you at Sorn?!

[Lhancelot]

It wasn't complaining. Interpret it how you want, projecting-guy. I love that they gave away real rewards this time. It's nobody's fault but my own that I didn't get any. The warning was for future events as people were already saying they should have extended t5 loots.

Sorry you're sad you didn't get any good loot though.

Really? You love that they gave "real" rewards this time? Huh. The quote down below doesn't sound like you all that excited they gave real rewards away, let alone "loved" it. :rolleyes:

Also, don't award more loot! I am pretty sure you had no intention of doing so but there was some amazing stuff being given away as t5 loots that doesn't have any place flooding the server. Everybody wants some, but we can't have it all.

As for your so-called warning I am sure they will take your advice and heed it, afterall you know better than them.

The only one who sounds sad about loot is you, no one else warned the GMs that they needed to give lesser quality loot. Only you did that.

I actually did part of the event till RL interfered and I had to log. I thought it was great, and can speak from personal experience. What I completed was very well done and it was obvious a lot of effort went into it.

I also recognize that it was not a simple event either, and that any loot awarded was well earned, it was not just handed away flippantly.

Even if it was T5 loot, who cares? How many times have the GMs done this? once this year?

I am pretty sure the economy won't be destroyed due to too many T5 items flooding the market. I just find it ridiculous you are bothered by the fact T5 loot was awarded. :p

[thufir]

Really? You love that they gave "real" rewards this time? Huh. The quote down below doesn't sound like you all that excited they gave real rewards away, let alone "loved" it. :rolleyes:



As for your so-called warning I am sure they will take your advice and heed it, afterall you know better than them.

The only one who sounds sad about loot is you, no one else warned the GMs that they needed to give lesser quality loot. Only you did that.

I actually did part of the event till RL interfered and I had to log. I thought it was great, and can speak from personal experience. What I completed was very well done and it was obvious a lot of effort went into it.

I also recognize that it was not a simple event either, and that any loot awarded was well earned, it was not just handed away flippantly.

Even if it was T5 loot, who cares? How many times have the GMs done this? once this year?

I am pretty sure the economy won't be destroyed due to too many T5 items flooding the market. I just find it ridiculous you are bothered by the fact T5 loot was awarded. :p
I wasn't, as I've said. I know you want to think that I was. The comment was future tense. You are determined to think I was sour grapesing. That says more about you than it does about me.

Sorry Rygar, I'll shut up now. This is indeed a thread for good reports and it's my bad I've felt the need to respond. I feel I was clear and I'll let Lhancelot continue.

[Lhancelot]

Guys, please stop hijacking the thread... is supposed to give warm fuzzies and not be two people knit-picking statements. Please agree to disagree.

Now onto more fun stories! Please share people! Where are you at Sorn?!

Wedar. You can't create a post on a gaming forum, and then expect everyone to create warm fuzzy feelings all over it. That wouldn't be classic. :D