A lot of old EverQuest players, myself included, look back at the first days of that MMO with a certain bit of nostalgia that blinds us to the flaws in the game. EQ wasn’t the only MMO or even the first MMO, but it was the MMO that set the template for what the genre would become.
Leveling was tough. It was nearly impossible to level without a group, finding a group could take hours, and each level could take days of grouping (and looking for group). People even used to make forum art for their characters that would include their level, as it changed so slowly that it’d be no problem to keep current. It took me a year to hit level 50 with a character, though I did change mains a few months in.
I’ve been playing Monsters & Memories and Pantheon, games which try to bring both the good and the bad of EverQuest to the modern day. And it has convinced me that I don’t like slow leveling, and I don’t like looking for group.
Erenshor, the single player MMO simulator, solved that first problem. It’s full of simulated players (SimPlayers) who are totally available and want to group with you (even going so far as to stalk you if you’re playing an alt). They want to go wherever you want to go.
But the grind. The grind was real. Leveling in EQ is slow, and so is slow in Erenshor, too. I really liked the game, but the thought of logging in and grinding some dungeon for hours without even getting a level or any decent loot didn’t appeal. I put it aside and played other games.
Since I last played, BurgeeMedia solved the problem with their new “Server Admin Panel”. This little handy collection of switches and sliders lets you make the game easier or harder to suit your tastes. Want a minimap? You got it. Want to know who has quests? You can see that now. Want to know the exact level of your target? Here it is. Want to remove the XP penalty on death? Right here. Want faster XP? Faster running? Modify the DPS or health of enemies? Want more rare drops? Faster respawns? You can do all of these things.
I’m not greedy. I just pushed up the XP modifier to 5.0, and the rare drops to the max. I kept the NPCs as challenging as they were.
It made all the difference. Now I could break a spawn in a dungeon somewhere and set the tank pulling and I could get a level in less than an hour. And the loot would be decent; I and my group would be well equipped. And if that weren’t enough, I had a whole new group slot for a fifth member.
The original game had four party slots; one for each of the four classes, Paladin, Duelist, Druid and Arcanist. The addition of the Stormcaller ranger class created a need for extra party room in order to accommodate it. Unfortunately, no NPCs have leveled Stormcaller enough to get to grouping level, so I have been running with double druids. No complaints.
I did roll up a Stormcaller, twinked with the best stuff I had on hand. When I play her, Sim Players demand I get back on Moon Unit. When I am on Moon Unit, they wonder when Nenya will come out to play. It is important that my characters are well-liked, because at some point, there will be a chance to make a guild and invite NPCs to abandon their guilds and join mine. I’m not sure what will change. Perhaps a guild bank that I can store gear in for them, and they can put their old gear in when they upgrade. That would be nice. Right now they demand upgrades all the time, even if they’ve just gotten one for that slot, even if it wouldn’t make sense for them (a druid weapon without wisdom or mana? Why would you want this?) It would be nice if they gave back the gear they upgraded.
These are just the updates that really had an impact on my playing. There’s many more – zone updates, new zones, loads of graphical changes and fixes, loads more interactions with the Sim Players. Also more levels, stuff to do once you get to max level, updates to the storyline… and with these changes, there’s a chance I’ll manage to see it all.