So many good memories playing this tutorial I borrowed from a friend before I got my own copy of the game. I remember playing the demo whenever the live servers went down too. I really should try out some of the classic EQ emulated servers out there.
I love everything about it, the aesthetics, the world… its nice to play as a way to hang out with friends with how chill it is. Check out Project 1999, people are nice and theres a fair chance someone will give you some hand-me-down gear. (Dont play a pure caster solo, spell research is suffering)
Norrath is super cool I will say. I have fond memories of the game and playing around in the lowbie zones.
every now and then ill go back and just wander around old zones i never got to really see, or boot up p99 and just go around the cities and look.
I played around a bit on live a couple years back and did some tours of the old cities, very nostalgic.
I wanted to play a cool Iksar but also not be stuck in Kunark, so I did a lot of grinding in some noob zones after hitching a ride to the old world. It sort of worked, especially when I could start turning in Crushbone belts and Legionnaire pads for more faction standing, but EQ1 had a startling number of weird mysterious micro factions like “that fisherman over there who still absolutely hates you and will wreck your shit” even then.
EQ2’s “betrayal” system, even the rather difficult initial version and its lengthy quest series, was a lot more bearable there, but as a funny legacy bug, my particular Qeynos-aligned Iksar would still set off guards aggro lines like “For the glory of Qeynos!” but they couldn’t actually attack me, just wave their weapons, same with guard dogs barking at me. I made it a roleplaying quirk that they kept assuming the Iksar wandering around freaked them out and they would assume the worst until they got closer and my character just took it as another microaggression.
All guards are aggro.
I need to give EQ 2 another shot. I didn’t like it as much as 1 when I did try it back in the mid aughts.
