New to EQ. A few questions

[Norello]

I've been thinking about giving this game a try. There are a few things I'd like to know first to see if it right for me.

1. How difficult is it to find groups? Is there a healthy population at off-peak hours? I've been looking for a game where I would spend most of my time playing with others.

2. How sociable is the community? When playing most modern MMORPGs the communities feel rather antisocial compared to a decade ago.

3. How difficult and involved is the game-play? The last few MMOs I've tried have been simple, fast paced, and had little risk of failure which resulted in a boring experience.

4. What classes are most desired for groups? The last thing I want to do is end up investing time into a class that makes finding a group a challenge.

[Mitchell92]

I'm finally getting back in once again...

It's EQ, Classic EQ... meaning that to be successful you pretty much need to group. On EQ Live you can have mercenaries, but on P99, you really need to group. Also considering you can't run multiple instances of EQ on the same machine / play on multiple accounts at once... it's really in everyone's benefit to group up! That's what I love about EQ that I hate that newer games like WoW have done... eliminate the true need for group play and social play. EQ2 is also starting to be a frustration to me because it isn't like it once was, to me grouping up and making new friends is all what MMORPG's are about!

Well, as far as a social community... you've found the forum! Everyone on the forum is rather social from my perspective, and these are the people you'll be playing with... so I wouldn't worry there. I got on truly for the first time again in a long time, I proudly announced I'm restarting EQ and am rather confused, and someone came over and gave me some cloth armor that he had looted.

The game play... new MMO's like WoW give you that instant gratification, I suspect it's to keep these young kids on there. Classic EQ (P99)... it takes time, skill, effort, and once again... some quality group play at times. It gives a challenge at times, and can be a frustration at times, but the game play is involved and its very worth it. It's not simple - there is more involved than you would think... and it isn't fast paced. I like to think of it as being around letting you enjoy your experience. You're not going to stay up all night for a week and be max level, at least I doubt it. Some other MMO's... you may be able to do that on. Maybe even EQ Live now, but I doubt it on P99. Having an EQ Live subscription, I've taken a huge break from P99 other than my occasional wanting to get on, and then having frustrations starting out because of that reason... its not simple. But I've decided to come back, my true EQEmu starting experience was when the Planes of Power client worked. I actually still have my PoP disks along with others like my gates of discord, I had a lot more but I lost them over time. But yes, I do have my Titanium disks.

Classes... that I'm not sure.

[fuark]

Originally Posted by Norello [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've been thinking about giving this game a try. There are a few things I'd like to know first to see if it right for me.

1. How difficult is it to find groups? Is there a healthy population at off-peak hours? I've been looking for a game where I would spend most of my time playing with others.

2. How sociable is the community? When playing most modern MMORPGs the communities feel rather antisocial compared to a decade ago.

3. How difficult and involved is the game-play? The last few MMOs I've tried have been simple, fast paced, and had little risk of failure which resulted in a boring experience.

4. What classes are most desired for groups? The last thing I want to do is end up investing time into a class that makes finding a group a challenge.

1. I think it depends on who you ask, but in my opinion it's not difficult. Less frequented zones like Kedge or the Hole will require you to bring your own group. I play JST time zone (i.e. extreme off hours) and I can always find something to group for. Just be proactive and you'll never have a problem.

2. Very social. EQ is first and foremost a group-based game. You have to group to do anything of value. Reputation matters in EQ.

3. It's not difficult per say, but there are a lot of mechanics that come with an older MMO that may make it seem difficult until you know the ins and outs of the game. EQ is high risk, high reward. There is a high risk of failure in many encounters and failure results in a not-negligible amount of lost time in the form of corpse recovery, money, and exp.

4. A number of classes fill this criteria, but almost no group or guild will turn down rogues, clerics, tanks, or enchanters.

[Norello]

Thank you for the responses. This sounds like it will be a great game for me. I'll get started as soon as I can get my hands on a legitimate copy of EQ Titanium Edition.

[Gavving]

Originally Posted by Norello [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've been thinking about giving this game a try. There are a few things I'd like to know first to see if it right for me.

1. How difficult is it to find groups? Is there a healthy population at off-peak hours? I've been looking for a game where I would spend most of my time playing with others.

2. How sociable is the community? When playing most modern MMORPGs the communities feel rather antisocial compared to a decade ago.

3. How difficult and involved is the game-play? The last few MMOs I've tried have been simple, fast paced, and had little risk of failure which resulted in a boring experience.

4. What classes are most desired for groups? The last thing I want to do is end up investing time into a class that makes finding a group a challenge.

I've just started playing here in the last few weeks... newbie levels the activity is high compared to live EQ. In live EQ getting a pickup group on Orc Hill in Gfay or Crushbone isn't happening.

I think this server is self selecting for those who like to socially interact when they game. Sure some are solo only, but classic EQ requires cooperation. Melees must get casters to give them a bind for example. You're not getting gear upgrades without groups in most cases, etc.

EQ Gameplay.... Well. Combat can be simple at early levels. Its generally a game of choosing your battles wisely and killing things before they kill you. I don't really know how classic EQ is going to compare to current games, they're different animals. Classic EQ is grindy and not afraid to punish you. Dieing has consequenses. You get to do a corpse run naked, and you lose XP. No other game today has the balls to enforce that.

Classes, I would recommend starting a few different ones. Pick one that's more solo friendly and one that's probably not. Play them both. In classic EQ the group friendly classes are hard to solo and harder to advance because of that. But I would think that once you get a guild and a group of friends, they'll welcome anyone who pulls their weight. A group of necros can be a deadly thing in my experience from the old days.