how can i get into this game?

[tavitael]

im only 19 but it just seems so damn cool, the root of gaming. i remember watching my dad play wow when i was a little kid and this game is like wows dad! but every time i think about getting into it i just dont end up playing....

[Mblake1981]

im only 19 but it just seems so damn cool, the root of gaming. i remember watching my dad play wow when i was a little kid and this game is like wows dad! but every time i think about getting into it i just dont end up playing....

Literally purchased my first Win98 PC to play.

I had a bank loan for the Gateway computer at 18 years old, working full time so EQ was just in the evenings after work, plus the monthly phone line bill for my dial-up internet, and the montly bill for the game itself, $9.89 which was a reference to 989 Studios.

That was just the monetary responsibilities. :o

Today its free, can be played on a 15 year old pawn shop laptop.. or if you are skilled, on a tablet-like device. There are no monthly fees, everything is figured out. The real thrill of cutting edge 3D worlds and the advancement of online play is diminished as every kid that is 20 years old today has never known a world without high-speed internet.

No motivation. :o

[loramin]

Everything you need to install the game: https://wiki.project1999.com/Everquest_Titanium_Installation_Guide

Everything you need to know to learn the game: https://wiki.project1999.com/Players:Newbie

[Tunabros]

I started EQ when I was about 15. Still fun as hell

if you need someone around your age (23), I'll be able to help you out

Send a tell to Azile in game

discord: tunabros#3913

[Midoo]

I was in the same boat as you a while ago. I discovered what Everquest was at all three years ago when I was 17. I was getting frustrated with World of Warcraft so I installed P99. Of course I was hit with the fucking whiplash of how different EQ was (MUCH slower combat, stiffer spell animations, mobs your level being usually impossible to kill, no map, bag system, spell scrolls)

All the game's negatives are outweighed by its positives. Everquest spells are creative and interesting, classes have a variety of different non-DPS uniqueness (buffbot shamen, CC master enchanters, wizard raid portals, the guild of druids that use their group portals to roleplay as taxis for money)

The dungeon system is INFINITELY better too. In wow and wow clones you match up with randoms to clear a 10 minute straight lines of boss kills and get showered with loot then leave. In Everquest dungeons are non-instanced, non-linear zones the size of entire player cities (massive enough to fit multiple groups farming at the same time), with multiple rooms of respawning adds and bosses being more like rare mobs. You go there with your group, and you camp a room as it respawns for a xp or for loot. I prefer it because of how real and bustling with people and things dungeons feel as opposed being forgettable disneyland rollercoasters you get in and out of with your brain turned off.

If there is one singular thing I want you to remember about EQ is that it's exponentially more fun than any other MMO BUT the fun kicks in multiple months after you start playing. Because at first you will die a lot, and the first 15 levels of any class is a boring slog since you don't get any unique moves, but I promise you after that bottleneck you'll leave your starting zone to start exploring and that's when you'll have the time of your life.

Check out how varied EQ's mob grinding zones are.. Just looking at the screenshots is enough to make me want to log in rn
https://wiki.project1999.com/Per-Level_Hunting_Guide

[Mblake1981]

^

Half way through reading and its a 10/10 so far. Speaking my language.

https://i.imgur.com/XXpgsQq.png

Edit: One helpful new guy tip, when you reach your first EQ Dungeon do not go Away From Keyboard at the zone in.
You might come back to an awful surprise but a good learning experience.

[tavitael]

thanks for everything you guys have said, its hyped me up

i cant decide what class and race to play though

[UrkTheSlayer]

I would suggest a Druid as your first character. They’re pretty decent at melee early on and they’re very adaptable to situations. They also get utility that encompasses the mechanics of almost every class so you’ll end up with a good foundation of how the game is played from a lot of different perspectives.

Starkind has mentioned on a previous thread the benefit of choosing a Druid as your first character is that you can port for money, buff lowbies and make friends with them. Another benefit is the ability to solo loot camps to twink your ranger/sk/pally.

It’s very frustrating to play a ranger/sk/pally as a newb at this state of the servers with no gear, sure a veteran can get by but even the majority of them get a full caster to 60 when returning before twinking the melee they really want to main but I highly discourage this to a new player.

I get it, you want to be a face punching warrior with some arcane abilities, just chill- Druids are capeable at punching faces till 20’s. If you really hate the idea of a Druid go with wizard, you won’t have as great of a foundation and sofar it’s quite a bit harder then Druid soloing but you can, and you will have friends from porting.

[UrkTheSlayer]

I highly discourage starting fresh(not a plat, and especially not a Dragon Kill to your name) any melee class.

I encourage any full caster to 60, and if your real heart is a melee class: a Porter to 40’s when they have all ports so you can take some 30-40 loot camps to help your melee out and make plat porting.

[Midoo]

i cant decide what class and race to play though

Avoid melee classes like the plague as a rule of thumb. They're way harder to play than magic users, they're very gear dependent and most of them have XP penalties. Plus the sheer convenience and quality of life of having a Gate spell (like the hearthstone) as well as Invisibility and Levitation makes healer/magic user an obvious choice for a beginner.

Druid is objectively the best option for a new player who wants to try a bit of everything, and once you're comfortable enough with the game play whatever you want.

Once you're high level and feel like making alts you'll realize gear is not soulbound in EQ so if you're rich enough you can even buy raid weapons and finally make melee classes viable.

[tavitael]

how do i transfer stuff from one character to another

[Mblake1981]

how do i transfer stuff from one character to another

1. Make trustworthy friends.
2. Join a new player guild.
3. Ground transfer*


*Ground transfer requires knowledge of the game world.
Where it is 'safe' to do it. You risk losing all your stuff.
You have limited time, anyone can pick it up while
you switch characters.

[sarah615]

I'm around your age and just getting started with giving it another try, if you are looking for another person to group with.

[Toxigen]

OP and Sarah:

If you want an easier time getting started, play on Blue. Noobie gear is incredibly cheap, to the point where people are just looking to get rid of stuff off their mules.

Hit me up via PM and I can get you both into a nice little starter kit.

Would definitely recommend duoing together and trying to find other people to tag along with. Everquest is more enjoyable in groups and there are lots of helpful people.

Oh, get real friendly with the wiki. I started playing over 6 years ago and I still use it often.

Make characters you find aesthetically pleasing...you're going to be looking at it for a long, long time.

The hardest thing is just deciding what class you want to play.

[UrkTheSlayer]

how do i transfer stuff from one character to another

There is policy on p99 against fraud, ask someone if they will transfer for you and if they say yes that should be enough. Get a screenshot of the convo if you’re that scared. Fraud is enforced and you will get gm attention for stealing- so people don’t do it.

[Jibartik]

Is OP asking how to install it? or how to enjoy playing it?

[Firevine]

im only 19 but it just seems so damn cool, the root of gaming. i remember watching my dad play wow when i was a little kid and this game is like wows dad! but every time i think about getting into it i just dont end up playing....

The fact that I've been playing since you were swimming in your dad's ballsack is really uh... :eek: Lawd I'm about to be 41. I could have a kid your age. Jesus.

You can get into the game by just doing it. Head first. Get the client and go. I still remember the night my friend told me about the game, and I went out to Walmart at like 4:00 AM, bought Trilogy and Luclin, installed them, aaaaaannnnndd...waited like three days for them to patch on my ol' 56k modem, using AOL as my connection.

Have fun dude. It's the best game ever created.

[Tunabros]

I tried teaching this game to this kid but all he does is complain about how the game

is dead and how everything is boring

[Firevine]

I tried teaching this game to this kid but all he does is complain about how the game

is dead and how everything is boring

Huh. Last time I was on P99 (Quite a while ago due to work, etc) it seemed quite lively and populated. I had a good time in Oasis, meeting new people and killing crocs.

[Gustoo]

I once thought I would one day play this game with my son.

As I continue to raise my son I realize I want to provide him opportunities for better use of time, like playing the guitar, or just walking around looking at things in real life.

So now its a dead end for me, as I won't encourage anyone that isn't already hopelessly playing games for endorphins to play it, or any game that I love.

[Mblake1981]

So now its a dead end for me, as I won't encourage anyone that isn't already hopelessly playing games for endorphins to play it, or any game that I love.

Wisdom.

Besides, when EQ released no one really had a clue as to how far mobile & social media would change the culture. Today people can't sit still for more than 2 minutes without reaching for their mobile smart device.

I think it's only natural to push in the other direction.

Wearing earphones and listening to music or podcasts while inside a professional office building has become normal and acceptable even by members of upper management. Do you know how absurd it is to say hello to someone and they just walk by, then you are left to figure out "Oh, they are listening to those damn earphones."

Our culture got really weird with tech and what triggered the big change was Steve Jobs, Samsung and Mark Zuckerberg. :o

[Gustoo]

No one triggered it on purpose. It's instrumentalized on purpose but products were made to be as addictive or useful or engaging as possible and later people developed business models that exploited the data generated by those interactions. Facebook wasn't originally a data harvesting tool for nefarious purposes, but that is what it became.

This is the result of the people that Americans tend to think of as overseeing and regulating their commerce activities (they don't allow me to open a hair salon without some kinda state or county certificate so of course they are considering the impacts my cell phone or internet activities) but the fact is that the regulators don't know enough or care enough or benefit too much from letting companies like facebook run rampant.

Headphones in an office is another thing that people never really considered but it just became OK. Some offices do not allow them.

EQ was engaging enough for full attention span when it came out and it could crash at any second. Now that it runs better, it's more likely that a person is going to play two servers at the same time to manage downtime, and have a movie on or at least an audiobook or something.

I used to be engaged in /tell conversation and /ooc conversation and /shout conversation and /auction selling activities 100% of my time online in EQ but these days its pretty quiet in the text based world of EQ and people are in the equivilent of teamspeak/vent/now discord with a smaller group of people they interact with and don't generally need to use /tell

Plus since the game is beaten they know its a bit of a waste of time to travel around to sell 20pp gloves to a noob versus vendoring them and focusing on getting phat loots.

So theres some stuff thats fixable and some that isn't but the thing that never changed is we should encourage people we love to engage in more fruitful activities.

[Shrimapan]

im only 19 but it just seems so damn cool, the root of gaming. i remember watching my dad play wow when i was a little kid and this game is like wows dad! but every time i think about getting into it i just dont end up playing....
I'm on the same boat as you. Started playing today and I went with a warrior, it's not exactly working out for me.
I'll try out of some of the suggestions from this thread :)

[Stonewallx39]

I'm on the same boat as you. Started playing today and I went with a warrior, it's not exactly working out for me.
I'll try out of some of the suggestions from this thread :)

Ah the warrior! You can make it work, but it will be a bit frustrating. There are so many awesome ways to play the game that it might be worth playing another character, at least for a while.

Let me recommend the shaman, you can play it like a warrior and you also get some amazing spells that will make you very powerful. It’s also fun and with more tool to help you problem solve.

[tavitael]

i kind of got bored and gave up but i think im gonna give it another try now

[Gustoo]

Warrior is the simplest play style. You can kill mobs with swords better than anyone else but then you gotta sit around and bandage your wounds slowly.

Consider trying some other class that interests you. The ones with spells are easier to progress in this game, solo.

If you're a warrior you will want to find strong groups and stay with them as long as possible, which is the best way to play the game anyways but you are really dependent versus having some flexibility.

[ScottBerta]

My brother and I saved up 600 dollars to buy a pc to play this game. I was 10th grade and he was 8th. Was in 2001, remember like it was yesterday. We played Rallos.Zek and I went hafling cleric and he went Iksar SK. Same account of course cuz 1 computer and 10 bucks a month was a lot.


If your on blue msg me and give me your char name (whatever you decide to go with) and I will hook you up with pp and items.

I’d suggest Druid, Necro, Cleric or Shaman for first class. If you must go melee I’d suggest Monk or Pal/Sk.

[Amyas]

If you want to try RED /friend Errvin I love helping people get going strong.

[unsunghero]

Wisdom.

Besides, when EQ released no one really had a clue as to how far mobile & social media would change the culture. Today people can't sit still for more than 2 minutes without reaching for their mobile smart device.

I think it's only natural to push in the other direction.

Wearing earphones and listening to music or podcasts while inside a professional office building has become normal and acceptable even by members of upper management. Do you know how absurd it is to say hello to someone and they just walk by, then you are left to figure out "Oh, they are listening to those damn earphones."

Our culture got really weird with tech and what triggered the big change was Steve Jobs, Samsung and Mark Zuckerberg. :o

Haha, so true

This is going off on a bit of a tangent from the original question in this thread, but I'm one of those people who got too sucked into tech and I'm wearing wireless headphones (highly recommend apple powerbeats pro, they sound amazing) quite a lot of the time in public. For example, if I'm shopping at a grocery store, I usually have my headphones in. I'll be listening to either music or a angry political podcast or something. I purposefully will put them in when I don't want to be bothered, I call them my "fuck off" headphones. But it does definitely cause me to be more anti-social. Luckily my entire job is talking to people so I get enough conversational exposure that way

And I am completely addicted to the distractions my phone provides. There's a certain time in my job where I got into a particular section of hospitals where phones are not allowed due to patient privacy (phones have cameras). It's during these stretches, sometimes up to 15-20 minutes of waiting...with no phone...that I realize just how much I need my phone for downtime. I'm constantly wanting to grab it, having to re-remind myself I can't do it or staff will yell at me. When I was a kid, cell phones weren't even a thing. And the first cell phones I had sucked. These new phones have completely changed me, and probably not in a good way

[tavitael]

ive decided i want to play a melee caster. mostly thinking of either shadowknight or shaman

how big of a deal is the shadowknight xp penalty?

and how do i know what stats to give my character in creation?

[Mesocyclone]

shadowknight is a melee tank. he can solo, but not more than one (no crowd control or root) - put 25 into STA 5 into str

shaman is a god at high levels even solo. - put 25 into WIS 5 into STA

[ScottBerta]

What race are you leaning towards for Shaman and for Sk? Both can be so many good races.. Ogre, Troll, Iksar all very good for either IMO.

If you go blue, let us know your char name and race/class so we can help you out.

[unsunghero]

Iksar not great for shaman I hear due to armor restrictions

[Homesteaded]

Helping someone too much is a recipe to ruin the enjoyment.

[Stonewallx39]

Iksar not great for shaman I hear due to armor restrictions

Shaman are super powerful and fun. You get to play a lot of different aspects of the game. Can solo, tank (at lower lvls), support, main healer, really can fit a lot of roles

There’s no bad race for shaman, just trade offs. Iksar can be great shaman, you just miss out on one or two really nice armor pieces (Iksar can wear mail which is what most shaman gear is) like the jaundiced bone bracer.

You can also level a shaman with no starting funds, or think them with 100k plus gear. Both are totally viable, and you really never run out of upgrades potential.

[starkind]

This thread has really strong a/s/l vibes lol

[arc]

i remember watching my dad play wow when i was a little kid

damn

[sideshow]

I agree with druid as a first character to learn the game. Very versatile class, decent melee in the beginning levels, DD, charming, root rotting, quad kiting. You can heal, buff and port. You will get track to help locate mobs, and have access to one of the most requested buffs in the game spirit of wolf. Druids are not gear dependent and are very capable of making lots of plat. Having the ability to port around to explore new areas will be a big bonus for you. Like mentioned, the first 15 or 20 levels are the roughest. Use this time to figure out all the little nuances of the game. Commands, skills, UI set up, quests. Figure out how battle works, casting times, aggro ranges, global cool down, ect. Reference the p99 wiki often and learn the ins and outs of your class. Which ever class you choose I suggest going with a good or neutral race. Will make traveling easier and give you access to more cities off the get go. Try not to take too many handouts as it will decrease the fun of the game on you. Nothings more rewarding than obtaining an equipment upgrade from that mob you just spend a few hours trying to kill or by saving up your plat to purchase. Lastly you need to have patience. There will be plenty of fast paced battles to look forwards to as well as that 1-2 hour session trying to recover your corpse. Above all else HAVE FUN ;)

[TripSin]

ive decided i want to play a melee caster. mostly thinking of either shadowknight or shaman

how big of a deal is the shadowknight xp penalty?

and how do i know what stats to give my character in creation?

The xp penalty sucks. But supposedly it's being removed soon in the next patch, which might be like August 6th.

For stats, and almost any other question you have about the game, you should check out the wiki (e.g. https://wiki.project1999.com/Shadowknight). Would also highly recommend checking out the guides section as one of the first things you do: https://wiki.project1999.com/Players:Adventure

People suggest a lot of the time Druid as the best starter class. While they are very versatile, I think it's more important to choose a class and race that you feel an affinity for, that resonates with you. The only caster class I wouldn't recommend is Wizard, because they are designed to be a bursty type of damage dealer but the game is generally designed around needing sustained damage over a long period of time.

Melee can be tough as people pointed out because they're more gear dependent. Also, the pure melees (so SK, Pally, Bard not included) don't have access to a diverse spellbook so with limited abilities I personally find their playstyle to be too simple - but some people just really love hitting things with a metal stick I guess. But groups need a tank. Also, your ability to solo as melee is very limited compared to casters.