You think your luck is bad?

[Jlpstrtkng]

I waited almost four hours to get my shot at the AC. Then camped his PH for another four hours. No avail. So I went to bed and when I woke up early around 5 AM I figured see if he’s up. He wasn’t but the zone was dead empty but me. After about 15 minutes someone came up and asked to get on the list and I was like “it’s too early for this shit the camps all yours” and no sooner when I said that the elusive AC spawns for this guy. His luckiest day, mine not so much. Gonna stew on this at work lol fml. Any other unlucky stories from you guys on here?

[Halfcell]

I mean, I lost the roll on Torpor in Seb crypt on my shaman 7 times from 56 to 60. When the 8'th one dropped i just split 80k with the group and scribed it on the spot.

[Ruhtar]

It took me a little over 6 months of scout rolls to win one bracer. I missed maybe 5 rolls in that time. I still have 3 talismans and 5 bracers I want to get, but uh...who knows when that'll happen.

I've done 50+ KDT kills and haven't won an orb.

Lost count how many fungi tunics I've seen drop in trios and full groups alike and the only one I have is one I bought.

On my third rogue, I camped ass/sup for a DE mask and didn't get an assassin to pop in 10 hours.

Took over 24 hours of camping Lord Gimblox and Gurgleballs to get the ring and crown.

The one time I camped Stormfeather, he skipped his first cycle, then I crashed in window on the second, came back to a lvl 40ish monk killing SF.

I'm sure there's quite a few other instances, but those are the ones that have stuck out over the years.

[Xulia]

I camped the jail in Droga for 72 hours total over the course of a week before getting the Stone Key for my Lord of Pain's Khukri.

[Legidias]

Ive lost 3 scout rolls with 980+ rolls. Once lost a 994 roll to a full 1000.

Lost on 2 T-staves with rolling 80+ both times.

I have logged at least 30+ hours in TT on forager / hunter with only 2 (non item drop) named spawn.

Also have done LoIO goblin ring camp (the double spawn) over several characters for at least 20 hours. Never seen the ring.

Also, when I was camping DE mask, it took about 24 hours total to get it to drop (though I did see like 8 belts drop).

RNG sucks bro.

[Jlpstrtkng]

These are great lol. As frustrating as it all is, it wouldn’t be classic Everquest without it

[Fammaden]

I mean, I lost the roll on Torpor in Seb crypt on my shaman 7 times from 56 to 60. When the 8'th one dropped i just split 80k with the group and scribed it on the spot.

You were carrying around 80k while doing CE?

[Celery4183]

I hear that...about 2 weeks ago I was camping the AC in ro and he finally spawns.. I'm in the process of running to him and this epic'd out shaman, geared to the tits snags him when I'm about to launch an arrow to tag em. I was so freaking pissed like why did he need to MQ that when he obviously had over 200k worth of crap.

[bradsamma]

I spent 40 real life hours camping raster.

5 hours on the AC isn't that much.

[Titanas]

I spent 24 hours non stop camping FBSS on live for my warrior. Went on a PoAir Raid the next day and got the Warrior 21% haste belt. Bad luck at first but worked out in the end.

[JayDee]

I waited almost four hours to get my shot at the AC. Then camped his PH for another four hours. No avail. So I went to bed and when I woke up early around 5 AM I figured see if he’s up. He wasn’t but the zone was dead empty but me. After about 15 minutes someone came up and asked to get on the list and I was like “it’s too early for this shit the camps all yours” and no sooner when I said that the elusive AC spawns for this guy. His luckiest day, mine not so much. Gonna stew on this at work lol fml. Any other unlucky stories from you guys on here?

Veteran move is to say yea after this one. Kill if it is named or leave if ph

[Nexii]

Nope my luck isn't bad
In one week on blue I won:
Earth staff vs 21 others
Torpor vs a raid
Willsapper (gave it away)
That's about 1 million pp in luck

It continues on red...donals bp, torpor, coth off rolls in a short period of time

[Halfcell]

You were carrying around 80k while doing CE?

Nope, died and ran to the bank, then got rezed back in with the cash.

This was also a while back when Torpor was commonly 100-110k, so I actually got a deal on it, since it was like I was "paying 100k to the group" of 5 people, but I was one of the 5, so 20k a pop.

[Zuranthium]

These are great lol. As frustrating as it all is, it wouldn’t be classic Everquest without it

Yes it would be. Classic everquest was never supposed to be about sitting around doing boring ass camps, and for the majority of players during 1999, it wasn't. People just got in groups and fought stuff, or did various other community events. The location of all these items, or their existence in the first place, wasn't known to the majority.

[Ghostly]

Yes it would be. Classic everquest was never supposed to be about sitting around doing boring ass camps, and for the majority of players during 1999, it wasn't. People just got in groups and fought stuff, or did various other community events. The location of all these items, or their existence in the first place, wasn't known to the majority.

What?

I'm not sure what Everquest you played, but there were camps that people knew about specifically for items. Maybe not every camp that's done now, but FBSS, AC, Goblin Rings, Evil Eye, Guise etc were camped pretty frequently when i played.

[Jlpstrtkng]

Veteran move is to say yea after this one. Kill if it is named or leave if ph

Hindsight definitely 20/20 on this one

[7thGate]

Spent 16 hours camping an Iksar Berserker Club before giving up. Ended up with good luck to balance it in the end though, ended up walking into befallen to practice my lockpicking skill and immediately aggroed gynok molkor through the door. Traded the platinum ring to an ALS shaman for his Iksar Berserker Club.

[Xulia]

What?

I'm not sure what Everquest you played, but there were camps that people knew about specifically for items. Maybe not every camp that's done now, but FBSS, AC, Goblin Rings, Evil Eye, Guise etc were camped pretty frequently when i played.

Frenzy was perma-camped well into Luclin on Drinal.

[Lament Icarus]

Camped Raster for 85 hours in a week and he never spawned.

Saw Bro Z up one day and just got some friends to kill him instead.

[Zuranthium]

I'm not sure what Everquest you played, but there were camps that people knew about specifically for items. Maybe not every camp that's done now, but FBSS, AC, Goblin Rings, Evil Eye, Guise etc were camped pretty frequently when i played.

AC quest and Goblin Rings (Kunark?) didn't exist when the game came out. It seems you played during a later era. Most people didn't know about the camps. Most people weren't high enough level to do a lot of those camps you listed in the first place.

Camping quickly became more and more commonplace, but at least for awhile it wasn't what people played the game for. People went to Cazic Thule or Lower Guk to get in any group, not to farm an item.

[zodium]

Loce and me once did about 40 consecutive puppet show rounds with zero throne drops :<

[bradsamma]

AC quest and Goblin Rings (Kunark?) didn't exist when the game came out. It seems you played during a later era. Most people didn't know about the camps. Most people weren't high enough level to do a lot of those camps you listed in the first place.

Camping quickly became more and more commonplace, but at least for awhile it wasn't what people played the game for. People went to Cazic Thule or Lower Guk to get in any group, not to farm an item.


Lol, I was playing at the start and there were most assuredly camps. People learned real fast where what items were where.

Camps have been a part of the game since day one.

[Zuranthium]

Lol, I was playing at the start and there were most assuredly camps. People learned real fast where what items were where.

Camps have been a part of the game since day one.

Not true. At "day one" people were wandering around newbie yards, often after taking a long time to learn how to even get out of their starting city. Except for maybe a tiny handful of people who played beta extensively.

Eventually as people wandered into dungeons like Najena and found out Jboots dropped there, information would spread and it would become more camped, but the majority of the player population didn't even know Jboots existed during the first 6 months of the game. They were off playing in other parts of the game world and that information never got to them.

[bradsamma]

Not true. At "day one" people were wandering around newbie yards, often after taking a long time to learn how to even get out of their starting city. Except for maybe a tiny handful of people who played beta extensively.

Eventually as people wandered into dungeons like Najena and found out Jboots dropped there, information would spread and it would become more camped, but the majority of the player population didn't even know Jboots existed during the first 6 months of the game. They were off playing in other parts of the game world and that information never got to them.

I'm telling you that camps were common very early on. Maybe you were focused more narrowly on what you were doing? Did you play a "solo" class back in the day?

[Zuranthium]

Camps were common in the sense of groups staking out certain areas to fight in. That's not the same as endless waitlists for a boring placeholder NPC like AC, where individuals sit around doing nothing. Again, not many people had the knowledge of where all the items dropped, or were even high enough level to take part in it. 90% of the playerbase was no higher than level 30 during first 6 months of EQ.

[Keza]

Having him spawn right as you walk away is the definition of bad luck, considering it's a guaranteed drop. I imagine you'll never leave a camp prior to respawns again. As far as Jboots go it took me 8 hours straight to get the only pair I ever camped in OOC. After that I decided it was easier to farm money and buy them, especially because when I camped it was before there was mega elflords corpsing 30 rings on the island to hold the camp forever and I didn't feel like contending with the very embodiment of anti-fun gameplay.

I'm sure there's plenty of mindbroken mages out there with a story or two to tell about the earth staff pre-update. That was reason enough for me to never make a mage, since their epic was pretty important.

[Wallicker]

308 scout rolls and counting.... no bracer

[Seungkyu]

I missed a rare item only 3 people in the entirety of EQ worldwide had, by a week.

Sorry, yours was unfortunate but you gave up the AC willingly before waiting for the spawn.

[Blingy]

I read "The Witching Hour" while camping the power of fire and that fucking horse in SK. Eventually just bought the MQ to Phinny's staff.

After I got my epic I posted the mother of all flaming rants on the Saryrn Tavern message board over it.

So now when people ask when I'm going to do the mage epic on here I get a twitch.

[Jlpstrtkng]

Definitely won’t give up the camp until the last placeholder that’s for sure. You’re right about the corpsing. It’s the same three of four people with corpses all over the island and I have a hard time contending with that level of poopsocking. Hopefully I get lucky and breeze thru the list of four people ahead of me and NOT have to camp for another 8 hours by that time. But I doubt it

[Jlpstrtkng]

On a positive note. Got the ring in 45 mins tonight so I guess the karma balanced out

[Seungkyu]

Grats on your AC Ring :)

[Tethler]

Camps were common in the sense of groups staking out certain areas to fight in. That's not the same as endless waitlists for a boring placeholder NPC like AC, where individuals sit around doing nothing. Again, not many people had the knowledge of where all the items dropped, or were even high enough level to take part in it. 90% of the playerbase was no higher than level 30 during first 6 months of EQ.

I specifically remember waitlists in Highpass at both orcs and gnolls cause people wanted the PGT and shralok packs. People going to a place specifically for an item was most definitely a thing.

I remember groups forming in Unrest too because people wanted dwarven workboots and jagged bands from the ghost.

[Bristlebaner]

I have my entire enchanter epic done other than fear and hate. Been sitting on all the pieces for 6 months.

[Arvan]

Won’t say here because repeating it brings up too much trauma but i believe i had the worst luck in p99 history.

[Jlpstrtkng]

Won’t say here because repeating it brings up too much trauma but i believe i had the worst luck in p99 history.

Can’t just bring it up and leave us hanging. Relive that trauma. BE the trauma

[Cen]

Ive been on a long break from P99 after a failed Guardian Robe camping spree for a few months straight.

In classic I camped AC in OOT for two weekends straight during an event so people werent doing him for nothin.

[Zuranthium]

I specifically remember waitlists in Highpass at both orcs and gnolls cause people wanted the PGT and shralok packs. People going to a place specifically for an item was most definitely a thing.

I remember groups forming in Unrest too because people wanted dwarven workboots and jagged bands from the ghost.

People naturally gravitated towards GROUP exping in places that dropped an item they heard about, of course. That is not the same as a line of 20 individual people sitting in front of a single non-exp giving placeholder all day long. The ease of getting an item like PGT is also far removed from the utter boredom of camps that came about later in EQ's timeline.

This notion of camps was much different back in the day too. The "play nice policy" back then stated that everyone had to take turns. Nobody owned a camp. P99 is explicitly non-Classic about this. Back then, if you wanted to go somewhere and do something, anybody who was there immediately had to take turns with you. Because of this, there were rarely ever more than 2 separate groups/individuals on a given "list" for a camp, because otherwise it would become too diluted. People would just go find something else to do.

[Thermite]

0 for 12 with Hierophant's Cloaks here on p99.... lol haven't went back to camp in year or so now.... my /random 100 is really broke. =(

[Tethler]

People naturally gravitated towards GROUP exping in places that dropped an item they heard about, of course. That is not the same as a line of 20 individual people sitting in front of a single non-exp giving placeholder all day long. The ease of getting an item like PGT is also far removed from the utter boredom of camps that came about later in EQ's timeline.

This notion of camps was much different back in the day too. The "play nice policy" back then stated that everyone had to take turns. Nobody owned a camp. P99 is explicitly non-Classic about this. Back then, if you wanted to go somewhere and do something, anybody who was there immediately had to take turns with you. Because of this, there were rarely ever more than 2 separate groups/individuals on a given "list" for a camp, because otherwise it would become too diluted. People would just go find something else to do.

Just because people are getting xp too, doesn't make it not a camp. People lined up in Guk too during classic for SSoY's and FBSS. Your definition of "camp" is too narrow and doesn't match the reality for most people I think.

[Zuranthium]

People "lined up" in Guk by entering the zone and calling LFG, or by bringing a group of their own. It was not a line of individual people sitting at the SSoY or FBSS camp and doing nothing. Nor was it safe. Guk was a death box, people were dying all over the place, groups were constantly splitting up.

Yes, more and more people wanted to "camp" the SSoY and FBSS after finding out about them and where to get them, but the percentage of players who had that info/ability was still relatively small. The concept of "camping" those items also involved playing the actual game. Entering a scary dungeon and needing to work with people to survive.

Camps were inherently contested in actual Classic EQ too. Before the Play Nice Policy, people could do whatever the hell they wanted, and it was just whichever group did the most damage that got the loot rights. There was a lot of drama and it was great fun. Sure, plenty of people did go along with a general concept of "first come first serve", they didn't want to risk making enemies or getting into fights, but there was no set rule about it at all.

After the Play Nice Policy, camps were still contested by groups simply showing up. Anybody could go play in a game area if they wanted to. No single person or group could "camp" any specific spot endlessly and force everyone else to have to wait for them to leave. They had to share. Again, some people didn't want to step on any toes, and went along with a mentality of "if a group is there first we don't want to interfere", but that's not what anyone had to do if they didn't want to.

[24kanthony]

I've camped the pained soul enough to get him 16 times. I don't feel anything anymore.

[Tethler]

People "lined up" in Guk by entering the zone and calling LFG, or by bringing a group of their own. It was not a line of individual people sitting at the SSoY or FBSS camp and doing nothing. Nor was it safe. Guk was a death box, people were dying all over the place, groups were constantly splitting up.

People went TO places to go TO camps that dropped gear that they wanted. It happened. I did it. Lots of people did it. People specifically went LFG at frenzy trying to get a sash and at lord to get yaks.

Guk was not really a "death box" either. At least on my server, it was not rare to be able to run from zoneline down past the safehall without seeing a mob because there were groups all over the place killing stuff. And people sure did wait LFG at camps. I remember working up low level melee skills on the frenzy mobs with my warrior while waiting for a spot to open.

Yes, more and more people wanted to "camp" the SSoY and FBSS after finding out about them and where to get them, but the percentage of players who had that info/ability was still relatively small. The concept of "camping" those items also involved playing the actual game. Entering a scary dungeon and needing to work with people to survive.


Just because YOU didn't know about loot, doesn't mean other's didn't. People were always talking about where they found some cool item in guild chat, in EC tunnel, RL friends that also played, etc.

Certainly the percentage of people that did this was much much lower than on P99, but to say it didn't happen at all is nonsense.

[Zuranthium]

I've camped the pained soul enough to get him 16 times. I don't feel anything anymore.

Yeah, I've done it twice, and this shit is not what I would ever call "Everquest". There's no reason for the game to have something like that, and in fact it never did have any camps like this when it came out. It's just a clear case of poor design, where the EQ dev team thought they needed to make something be ultra rare in this manner for it to be "more epic", not realizing that busy work doesn't mean epic.

Imagine if all of the spirits in that area had a chance to immediately spawn Pained Soul after being killed. Instead of being an ultra boring solo camp where 1 target in the entire area is permanently hunted, and everything else is ignored, this area would instead become a place where exp groups are regularly forming; knowing they are working towards getting a rare item while leveling up together. This would be a very interesting grouping spot because of all the roamers and obscured field of vision from the ruins, adding more danger and ambiance.

Instead of being a fun place where people are constantly running around the ruins and not knowing exactly what lurks around a corner, it's just dead content. People run past this very interesting place to go to Sebelis or they sit in front of the Pained Soul spawn point. BLAH.

Just because YOU didn't know about loot, doesn't mean other's didn't. People were always talking about where they found some cool item in guild chat, in EC tunnel, RL friends that also played, etc.

Certainly the percentage of people that did this was much much lower than on P99, but to say it didn't happen at all is nonsense.

LOL, this lack of logic and twisting of words! First you try to redirect the fact of the majority of the 1999 EQ population not being aware/able to get the items into a falsely speculative claim of "me" not knowing about it. Then you try to say I claimed "it never happened at all", which shows you haven't been paying attention to what has been written ever since my first post on this subject. THEN, you completely ignore what I said about the PnP and how people behaved before and after it, which makes it look like you didn't actually play early EQ.

Finally, you completely contradict yourself, exactly describing how your own "camping" experience back then was indeed much different than the type I described in my initial thesis:

People went TO places to go TO camps that dropped gear that they wanted. It happened. I did it. Lots of people did it. People specifically went LFG at frenzy trying to get a sash and at lord to get yaks.

Guk was not really a "death box" either. At least on my server, it was not rare to be able to run from zoneline down past the safehall without seeing a mob because there were groups all over the place killing stuff. And people sure did wait LFG at camps. I remember working up low level melee skills on the frenzy mobs with my warrior while waiting for a spot to open.

Exactly as I said, you were waiting for a GROUP. You were not trying to solo camp something, mindlessly waiting in a single-file line. You were in fact actively playing the game, because you knew it was a dangerous spot where you could possibly die, and also to curry favor with the group there, such that they would look more warmly upon you and choose you for the group after someone left.

If Guk was not a death box when you played, then what this points to is you not playing early EQ. Those zones were not crowded to the gills early on, both because not enough people were high enough level for such a thing to be possible and because most people didn't know where everything dropped, so everyone didn't hunt in the "optimal" places. Even when fast forwarding a bit more in time, to when more people did begin crowding these places, that doesn't mean they knew exactly how to play the zone and the exact pathing and such of the NPCs there. There were TONS of deadly trains in Guk.

Perhaps also your server was more crowded, but regardless, places like L-Guk were definitely not figured out right away and immediately turned into threat-less, AFK pixel farms. If you did play on an overcrowded server that had a more boring atmosphere because of it, then this just points to a design/executive flaw of EQ and how server populations should have been split sooner and/or how the content itself should have been modified. The developers themselves specifically said they didn't like how often the "camping" situation arose in the game, with too many people crowing around certain areas and groups not moving enough.

And the real reason why those things didn't get improved upon, why the developers' own vision did not become as well realized as it might have been, is because they were busy churning out expansion content in order to make more money. Profit over creativity and improvement.

[Tethler]

LOL, this lack of logic and twisting of words! First you try to redirect the fact of the majority of the 1999 EQ population not being aware/able to get the items into a falsely speculative claim of "me" not knowing about it. Then you try to say I claimed "it never happened at all", which shows you haven't been paying attention to what has been written ever since my first post on this subject. THEN, you completely ignore what I said about the PnP and how people behaved before and after it, which makes it look like you didn't actually play early EQ.

Finally, you completely contradict yourself, exactly describing how your own "camping" experience back then was indeed much different than the type I described in my initial thesis:


Of course it's defferent than your thesis. I'm arguing against your idea that to be "camping an item" you need to be soloing the camp. People camped stuff in groups. Your definition of "camping" is too narrow.



If Guk was not a death box when you played, then what this points to is you not playing early EQ.

I played early EQ. Started in '99, like I assume you did.


Perhaps also your server was more crowded

Maybe so. I played on Bertox. Server was pretty packed. Some camps even had more than 1 group in camp. Freeti in solb had 2 groups killing at times with both groups rolling on boots since 1 grouping there was dicey.

[Jlpstrtkng]

This is all semantics really. Just cause something isn’t solo camped like today doesn’t mean that it wasn’t camped by groups. Look at the fungi tunic. People group that area hoping for that item and roll for loot rights. And that’s present day. Why would 20 yrs ago be any different. If it was all bout XP people would have grouped easier camps

[Gozuk]

Is winning items really luck or is it strategy?

Take Seb for example... anyone who has spent any time there at all already knows. There's only 3 types of characters capable of winning good loot from that zone.

Rogues (better if level 60, and way higher odds to win if they just joined in the last 7mins)

Level 54 Dwarf clerics

Level 60 Ogre Shaman (this only applies when rolling on the spell Torpor, and the Shaman must have it in his spellbook already to win)

It's more about putting yourself in a position to succeed.

[derpcake2]

I remember arguing in classic that NBG in seb was pants on head retarded.

Monumental loss of time, glad I've left EQ behind me.

Judging by this thread, its still wasting entire lives.

[derpcake2]

Yeah, I've done it twice, and this shit is not what I would ever call "Everquest". There's no reason for the game to have something like that, and in fact it never did have any camps like this when it came out. It's just a clear case of poor design, where the EQ dev team thought they needed to make something be ultra rare in this manner for it to be "more epic", not realizing that busy work doesn't mean epic.

It was more of a "content behind this key isn't finished yet" then a "this is solid content" thing.

Elidroth elaborated that on the fires of heaven forums, its the exact same thing they did with the VT shards and many, many other timesinks.

Of course it still being a thing in "classic" EQ 20 years after the fact is absolutely hilarious, and simply proves you can get people to do any kind of stupid shit once addiction kicks in.

[Zuranthium]

Of course it's defferent than your thesis. I'm arguing against your idea that to be "camping an item" you need to be soloing the camp. People camped stuff in groups. Your definition of "camping" is too narrow.

I'm not sure what your issue is with reading comprehension, but the discussion I've been having this entire time is about how ultra boring solo camps did not exist during early EQ. Moreover, the discussion has been about how the game was never intended to be played in such a stagnant pixel-farming way, and how the early EQ playerbase approached the game much differently.

For something to be camped, people need to know it exists, and be able to camp it. People flat-out did not know about "Short Sword of the Ykesha" existing when the game released. We had to adventure into Guk and find it, and that was after putting extensive effort in to level enough and survive the depths of the dungeon. Again, in the first 6 months of EQ's lifespan, only a tiny percentage of the playerbase was even capable of doing that camp. Groups also generally based their looting on who could use it in the early days. Not casters rolling on melee gear just for the money, or vice versa. Also usually it went by order of who was in the group the longest (there was a lot of group turnover back then), so that cut down on the bad luck of rolling.

I played early EQ. Started in '99, like I assume you did.

When in '99 though? And were you high enough level to be deep in L-Guk before the era when lots of information started getting databased online or at least before the Play Nice Policy? Doesn't sound like it to me.

Look at the fungi tunic. People group that area hoping for that item and roll for loot rights. And that’s present day. Why would 20 yrs ago be any different. If it was all bout XP people would have grouped easier camps

A lot has changed in 20 years. Most people DID group at easier camps, or died a lot at the difficult camps. Not only did they not have the information available now, but there weren't chat programs, and you couldn't even be on the internet while also playing the game. You were just locked into the game (with a UI that gave you a narrow field of vision), with little to go on except what was in front of you.

Like, 99% of the playerbase didn't know what the "Harmony" spell did for quite some time. The playerbase didn't understand how to use Enchanters nearly to their fullest capabilities that get exploited now. A lot of pulling strategies and other mechanics were unknown. It was way, way different.

Fungi Tunic isn't early EQ either. The idea of zeroing in on lucrative camps had definitely become more common by Kunark era, but even then, not that many people were capable of doing the camp. Some people in top raiding guilds hadn't even hit level 60 by the time Velious came out! Fungi Tunic was an item out of reach for 99.9% of the playerbase for quite some time, and the vast majority of the playerbase never even tried to go camp it.