Meditation made EQ great

[Arclanz]

Soloing was a lot less common back in the day. Meditation used to require starting at your spell book (until level 35); and I think this encouraged casters to group. It also got people to talk; staring at the spell book = boring. Removing that aspect of EQ caused people to socialize and group less.

[Houdiny]

As a Wizard I solo for better exp than in groups. But I would rather group and always look for a group. It's an MMO. You want to interact if you play. Or at least you should.

Staring at the spell book in no way has any bearing on waiting for full mana to solo as a solo class though. I watch TV, chat with guild mates or friends, look up stuff on the wiki. Do little things around the house waiting for full mana. So I'm not even looking at the screen, ipso facto I could care less whether there is a big book on my screen or not.

There are much more inherent reasons why people solo and don't group as opposed to this one I think. Twinking, lack of knowledgeable players etc.

Until you get into a higher level group pulling and killing is pretty tedious. Lack of sufficient mobs, lack of dps, whatever the case may be grouping at lower levels is tough. I have sat in MM and Highkeep groups and gotten 20% exp in an hour and a half at lvl 28, when I could have solo'd for 40-50% in that time. Once you get passed 34-35 it begins to pick up. It will make a difference later on in levels I assume.

[Silentone]

wasn't removed, they are unable to mimic the original UI due to the titanium client. Also because UI is on your PC so anyone could change it.

[Caridry]

As a Wizard I solo for better exp than in groups. But I would rather group and always look for a group. It's an MMO. You want to interact if you play. Or at least you should.

Staring at the spell book in no way has any bearing on waiting for full mana to solo as a solo class though. I watch TV, chat with guild mates or friends, look up stuff on the wiki. Do little things around the house waiting for full mana. So I'm not even looking at the screen, ipso facto I could care less whether there is a big book on my screen or not.

There are much more inherent reasons why people solo and don't group as opposed to this one I think. Twinking, lack of knowledgeable players etc.

Until you get into a higher level group pulling and killing is pretty tedious. Lack of sufficient mobs, lack of dps, whatever the case may be grouping at lower levels is tough. I have sat in MM and Highkeep groups and gotten 20% exp in an hour and a half at lvl 28, when I could have solo'd for 40-50% in that time. Once you get passed 34-35 it begins to pick up. It will make a difference later on in levels I assume.

not in highkeep with me! XP BE ROLLIN!

[nilbog]

Might be possible to do something like.. if spellbook open, and player < 35, make the screen have blind effects (black), with the spellbook on top of it. Rogean had mentioned it might be possible. I do not think it will be possible to replicate the 'Meditate' button as it once was.

In August 2000, they removed the necessity of clicking the 'meditate' button while spellbook was open, and also removed the /meditate command. Meditating still required the spellbook to be open, prior to level 35.

AUGUST 30, 2000

Opening your spellbook will automatically cause you to begin meditating providing that you have the skill.
Removed the /meditate command since it is no longer necessary. Pre-35 spellbook meditating was removed altogether in 2002.

MARCH 19, 2002

Spell casters no longer need to see their spell book when meditating. Once a character has the meditation skill, it will function when the character is sitting down.

[Atmas]

I remember my days as a young wizad on Tallon Zek and having to stare at that book. Always at maximum paranoia levels. I really wish the PvP server here had a different rule set =/

[LizardNecro]

I remember being jumped while meditating in frontier mountains on sullon zek. Really scary on a pvp server to have that book!

[Danth]

Of course the old client didn't really like being minimized, either. That also helped encourage socialization during downtime. On P1999, if someone walks past me when I'm meditating and says "Hi," odds are as good as not that I won't even notice because I'm reading wikipedia or something.

Danth

[Houdiny]

Of course the old client didn't really like being minimized, either. That also helped encourage socialization during downtime. On P1999, if someone walks past me when I'm meditating and says "Hi," odds are as good as not that I won't even notice because I'm reading wikipedia or something.

Danth

This probably has more to due with the lack of socializing in the game as much as anything. With old computer systems it was a chore just to minimize and you were lucky if it maximized back without crashing lol the other main reason for the difference in socialization is ventrilo or teamspeak. Other voice clients that allow people in a group to talk to each other without typing.

Today's mmo's have also ruined gaming in a sense that people prefer to solo, prefer to be loaners, and prefer not to count on anyone to get them exp. The questing system, the linear progression of most games has changed the way everyone plays. Me I like to socialize. I love to chat. I like yacking peoples ears off. It's fun to impart knowledge and also at the same time take it in. Not everyone is this way.

[Snagglepuss]

I liked that GU comic where the caster was medding and the cyclops was tapping him on the shoulder.

[Anesthia]

I liked that GU comic where the caster was medding and the cyclops was tapping him on the shoulder.

http://www.gucomics.com/comics/2000/gu_20000831.jpg

[Lagaidh]

I love most classic EQ, but the book just never made sense to me. I can agree with it encouraging social behavior in groups like the original poster said. However, EQ being a pioneer in its genre and influencing all MMOs that followed it, there are some things they just got "wrong" out of the gate.

I just feel like you should always be able to monitor yourself and your immediate surroundings in a video game. This is opinion, but it seems to be shared by the masses. EQ was (and ... is) a visual treat. I always hated staring at what amounts to a user interface menu for major tracts of my casters' lives.

I can get the pro arguments fully, and even agree with them on some level. For instance, the notion that regenerating magical energy might take a trance-like concentration from the individual, and as such, he or she ISN'T aware of the immediate surroundings. In my perfect world, this would be handled in some other way visually. Think warped graphics kind of like being drunk, but the warp flows from your avatar in 3rd person view. Meh I dunno. Blahdee blah!

[maahes]

Soloing was a lot less common back in the day. Meditation used to require starting at your spell book (until level 35); and I think this encouraged casters to group. It also got people to talk; staring at the spell book = boring. Removing that aspect of EQ caused people to socialize and group less.

It also prevented a lot of nerds from /q'n. Can you image what the nerds on this server would do if you had to stare at your spell book still?

[Danth]

I can get the pro arguments fully, and even agree with them on some level. For instance, the notion that regenerating magical energy might take a trance-like concentration from the individual, and as such, he or she ISN'T aware of the immediate surroundings. In my perfect world, this would be handled in some other way visually. Think warped graphics kind of like being drunk, but the warp flows from your avatar in 3rd person view. Meh I dunno. Blahdee blah!

I agree with this idea. Meditate was bad as a gameplay mechanic, yet on some level it had some positive side effects. Downtime sucks, yet that downtime is largely why I'm still playing this game as opposed to newer alternatives--I can do other stuff, even go AFK, while my character meditates. Three hours online, here, isn't really three hours when over half of it is AFK. I can't really do that effectively in most newer games because they require almost 100% attention.

Whatever the pros or cons of meditate as a mechanic, book-in-the-face was a bad idea. It would have been better if the book was rendered as though you were holding it in your lap, while still able to see over the top.

Danth

[Snagglepuss]

http://www.gucomics.com/comics/2000/gu_20000831.jpg

Thanks for finding that! I remember feeling like that in South Karana. I'm diggin the Oracle Robe too!

[Houdiny]

I thought that was just a chair he was sitting in.

[Lagaidh]

For that guy's art style, the caster is crouched. Knees out to the side, shoulders above. Hmm. Sounds like a good night with Mrs. Smif.

[Striiker]

Well, this has always been a weird spot for me.. This whole, changing a mechanic because it's classic. There are changes made which I really dislike and feel that we could do without. In the end, I accept it (obviously as there's no choice) and I just tell myself that this is how it was in classic and it's always been their stated goals to replicate it all.
Personally, I'd hate to see item linking go away, group loot messages go away, etc. I'd hate to see the spell book requirement return as well. It sucked to see target rings removed and XP penalties for race / class put in. I played live from release for years and can remember when these annoyances were removed and enhancements put in. People were overjoyed because these changes really did seem like it should have been this way from the start. Yet, I am fine with the hell levels as it's a sort of rite of passage through levels and I guess the spell book requirement was sort of the same.. There was an elation of finally hitting the level to remove this need. It was just a crappy requirement as it blocked out so much of the game.
As is always the case, people adapt to these changes and soldier on or leave the game.

[Valiant]

medding with book open was horrible, no thanks

[Danyelle]

medding with book open was horrible, no thanks

BUT IT WAS CLASSIC. ARE YOU INSINUATING SOMETHING LUCLIN+ WASN'T SHIT?????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????

CAPSLOCKSARCASM

[Nirgon]

Meditate button pls

[Valiant]

BUT IT WAS CLASSIC. ARE YOU INSINUATING SOMETHING LUCLIN+ WASN'T SHIT?????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????

CAPSLOCKSARCASM

lol seriously though, I like to be aware of whats around me, and not die because of a book in my face.

[Nirgon]

You know, I made my wizard a Dark Elf instead of an Erudite on live mostly because of this.

Oh yeah and I was on a PvP server :P.

I miss the old char select with the good or evil backgrounds depending on race/religion. Old UI, my old friend, where have you gone.

[Danyelle]

You know, I made my wizard a Dark Elf instead of an Erudite on live mostly because of this.

Oh yeah and I was on a PvP server :P.

I miss the old char select with the good or evil backgrounds depending on race/religion. Old UI, my old friend, where have you gone.

The character select zone is actually just that...a zone. It isn't part of the UI. You can get it back again, both the Classic and Luclin versions, by deleting clz.eqg and renaming load1.s3d or load2.s3d (Classic and Luclin character select zones respectively) to clz.s3d including text files and _chr/_obj files. HOWEVER, it will always place you at 0, 0, 0. Not in the appropriate spots (there's tiny little "rooms" for each good/evil/class/race etc in one giant zone that you would go to depending on character choice, since that's no longer the case it defaults to 0 cords now and that can't be changed.)

[Nirgon]

So my dark characters will start in that cave with the lava and shit instead?

[Danyelle]

Nah, you'd be in the right zone, but due to the placement of modern character select it'd put you at 0 cords which i believe is dead air. you can see all the rooms floating around you though :P

[Nirgon]

Sounds like something the great Bog or Kanras can do.

[Snagglepuss]

I don't mean to be that guy who says, "Not classic." But it's kind of cheap when you time med ticks while casting, and when you are "ping-poning" an aggro'd mob to catch the med ticks without getting hit.

[Kelthan]

I remember my days as a young wizad on Tallon Zek and having to stare at that book. Always at maximum paranoia levels. I really wish the PvP server here had a different rule set =/

True, but we had amazingly organized spellbooks.

[Houdiny]

True, but we had amazingly organized spellbooks.

haha so true. I had all my self ports on one page, my group ports on another, all my old spells I never use were shuffled to the back page, had all my spells organized on the first page so I could just go down the line clicking and setting them up.

I remember hitting 34 I think was the level you stopped looking at that dang book and I was never so happy to hit a level in my life!

[Arclanz]

hah what patch permitted reorganizing the spell book. I hadn't really played a caster up to that point; but I know all the casters screaming "THANK GOD!"