New Everquest Progression Servers: Party in Neriak like it was 1999 (sort of)

Games
1

I know we have a few here that really enjoyed Everquest back in the day and I wanted to inform everyone of the new Progression Servers they just launched a week or two ago in case there was any interest either to play or to just read about and reminisce of old times.

Lots of info will mention Ragefire only as a server name, but they added a second server called Lockjaw a week ago that is the same ruleset and has a bit less pop and so far no queues like Ragefire has at times.

They start with just the initial zones that Everquest released with, with some changes as detailed below, and will roll out the expansions starting with Kunark every 3-6 months after that.

One unfortunate detail is that this server falls under their premium content which does require a subscription, but the standard $10 to $15 a month gets you access to the premium features of EQ, EQ2, PlanetSide2 and DC Universe Online.

Some pertinent links:

Early FAQ on Server rules:

Ragefire and Lockjaw now available announcement:

Post at launch on server details and differences from launch and live:

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/welcome-to-ragefire-info-and-faq.221506/&_ga=1.94578076.1287491595.1375785174

Some of the big ones that may bring more people back that want to experience the game again or for the first time:

No corpse runs (on death you automatically spawn back at your bind point with all of your gear and items intact).

Out of combat regen that significantly speeds up progress.

Double XP from release.

Instanced zones for some early zones and a means to instantly switch between them at will with a small (5 minute?) cooldown.

So far I know that Ultrazen and I are playing and I joined Oghier’s guild, The Old Timers Guild, and we have at least a handful playing so far. I believe Ultrazen joined a guild with well over 200 people so there is a fairly significant population at least this early on. They started with Ragefire and quickly had more people than they could handle and opened up Lockjaw just last week. Ultrazen and I are playing mainly on Lockjaw so far, I believe.

If there are any folks that either want to relive some of the old experiences and are looking for friends to group with or want some assistance in learning and seeing the game for the first time, I am offering my assistance in that as best I can either offering groups when I can or offering help on quests and answering questions. I hope to be playing for a while as this sort of game play still seems to suit me better than the modern attempts and with no corpse runs now and less time commitment due to that, I am really looking forward to doing this again.

Feel free to look me up as Kelan, the Dark Elf Enchanter, on Lockjaw. Hope a few of you give it a shot!

I figure we may either get a little activity here or it may fall off page one into oblivion, but I at least wanted to offer and let people know in case there was some interest :).

2

My wife and I played on the previous set of progression servers for awhile and it was a ton of fun. I do like how they changed all subs over to the all access pass too, pretty good deal if you have an interest in any of the games. Too many other games taking up our play time these days, but I’d really recommend it to anyone that has any interest.

3

I’ve thought of doing this. I miss old-EQ in a way. I’m just not sure it’s the game for me anymore.

4

Yeah, I can understand that. Feel free to give it a shot for a month. My wife and I are good at helping others out and like to explore and experience the different zones, quests, and experiences the game has to offer. We don’t chase the high end levels or loot, but find ways to still level up and get the occasional gear upgrade and try to have fun doing it.

EQ has plenty of things to do and work on if you don’t mind the actual game play. I am already looking up old zones and quests and factions to work on and am going to try to do trade skills this time around so plenty of things to work on in between helping others.

5

Hoo boy. I really wish I had not seen this thread. Or clicked on it. Or read it. Or went to any of the links posted. This is extremely tempting…EQ was my first graphical MMORPG and I loved it. When it went F2P, I took a half hour to find and reset my Sony login, saw that it still had some of my characters, logged one in and spent two hours figuring out controls again. It really IS Evercrack to me.

One question that I didn’t see an answer to…is there still an XP penalty upon death?

6

Yes, for level 6+ there is still experience loss on death, although I believe I heard some people in game saying it was reduced to not be as harsh. It could be that with experience being easier to come by now that the loss doesn’t sting as much either. I don’t have any hard facts on it, though.

7

Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but I just don’t get that classic EQ feel from the modern EQ servers. Too many mechanics and systems and zone revamps that take away from the vanilla-Kunark-Velious days. I started playing Project 1999 a couple weeks ago, and it feels a lot more like old-school EQ than the official time-locked progression servers to me. Give it a chance if Ragefire/Lockjaw don’t scratch the itch properly :)

8

I loved EQ so much… but the quality of life improvements from other games have made it difficult for me to go back. Unless you remember all of the various slash-commands, you can’t play a lot of the game. Unless the UI was improved since the last time I tried to go back, I’m not sure I could enjoy the game the way I used to.

9

I thought about trying Project 1999, but the difficulty at finding the Titanium version of EQ necessary to play it seemed like it could be a problem. I have all my original disks around somewhere, but it seemed like that could be a bit hard to figure out and you can’t have the patched version to play.

Otherwise, yeah there are a few things that are better with each version with the progression servers perhaps having a bit more modern feel to them, but they also take away a few of the old annoying things too, I believe. If I could play both, though, I would look you up and try it too sometime. What is the best way to acquire the version of EQ necessary to play there today?

The UI has improved quite a bit actually on the Progressive Servers, I think. You can also get a list of available slash command in game, but I hear what you are saying too.

10

Yeah, I wanted to try Project 1999 (especially since they’re adding Velious later this year I think), but I no longer have my Titanium disc set and don’t want to wade into the morass of torrenting. Unless I can find a direct download link somehow, the official TLP servers have to suffice for me.

11

DE Necro>all

12

I understand why they can’t allow F2P on the progression servers but it’s still a bummer. Paying $15/mo for a game with 15+ year old aesthetics (graphics and gameplay wise) is nuts. If they won’t unlock the next expansion (Kunark?) for another 6 months then you’re paying $90 for a game experience that is over 15 years in the past. I don’t see how they can sustain their business model when it’s almost purely based on nostalgia.

13

These posts sum up my feelings about this. The last time I tried to go back I just couldn’t take it. I missed the conveniences of more modern games. To pay $15 a month for it? No thanks. I realize you get access to other games, but who can play 4 MMOs at once?

14

Well, I actually don’t think these servers are their own idea, but based on feedback from players over the years, wanting a legacy server.

15

You misspelled Iksar.

Actually it probably doesn’t even matter now, with out-of-combat regen. Kinda weird; I used to know the game very well, but I haven’t played in over 11 years. It’s shocking to read about the changes, although I imagine some of them were implemented a long time ago.

16

I still login to EQ. I started playing again in Nov 2013 and took my 59 naked Velious ranger to high 70s by playing, and then to 85 with the free upgrade that came (85 + aa, full kit, bags, money) before putting him mostly on hold again. I pop in every now and then because I’ve still not seen the content unlocked my boost to 85. When I replayed in 2013 i was focused on nostalgia/exploring as you could gain a level in power hour once a day so the grind had gone completely.

The guy who still played in my original guild (yes, didnt stop from 99) is Ukranian and although was logging on regulary up until the civil war started, and he hasnt for ages now :/ Ive not spoken to him since the Crimea invasion.

Without the mercs and all the stuff from current EQ which enabled a level in an hours even at 75 I’m not sure I’d want to play a progression server.

17

Quick update for anyone interested:

My wife and I got up to level 24 on our main characters, me on my enchanter and her on her magician. We have been mostly delving into dungeons and taking them on alone so far and playing with guildmates when we can. If you are actively working on getting experience, it really is much faster and levels even now don’t seem to take more than an hour or two to complete. We also have a few alts that we play in the level 6-10 range or so.

I finished up the Stein of Moggok quest about 5 times so far now to get items for friends and guildmates. In all my years playing at release that was one quest I never did try before :).

It seems the Temple of Solusek Ro quests are in so we are starting to work on those now. We have been spending a lot more time hunting in Upper Guk, which I never really did back in the day, and that is a pretty neat place with lots of places to kill stuff and some decent items for their level like the bracelets off the Scryer. There are also some additional stats/augmentations in the TLP servers and these bracers speed up spells by 15% (lower ones at least), which is a nice addition. We also started poking around in Najena and got the first couple keys and kill Bonecracker a bunch of times like we used to do in the old days. He only dropped his whip once, but we were disappointed to see he wasn’t actually wielding it this time like he used to. Still, it is a pretty good magic weapon that we gave to a warrior guildmate.

The population still seems to be pretty healthy. Yesterday around dinner time there were 3 instances of Unrest open with about 25-30 people in each and there is a lot of activity with people trading and selling items and getting all the way up on trade skills to make more gear and items available. One thing that is strange is they do have the Krono active on the server, which is an item you can purchase for about $17 and can use to barter with or sell for platinum to other players in game. They gradually go up in price, but they are worth about 1000 plat right now with high end items like Golden Efreeti Boots going for up to 2 Krono, lol, or even some guy looking for 4 Krono for a FBSS yesterday. It is a strange new EQ in some ways, that is for sure :).

We are still having a lot of fun, though, so that is all that matters. Look me up if you have any questions or want some lowbie jewelry, or even a stein if you have an Int caster, heheh. It looks like we may be sticking with it for a while.

18

I’ll be, my old account still works.

(ok, “I’ll be, I can REMEMBER my old account and password”)

19

I think Day Break might have an issue with their logo.

20

Heh, interesting.

I was fortunate to still have my passwords handy and saw they still had my @home email in there before I updated it. Now that was an old one.