I just got an email from SOE stating that "Your EverQuest Macintosh Edition account has been activated" and you should please log in and use your free 30 days of play time.
Now granted I tried to activate EQ Mac over a year ago... I know SOE moves slowly. I never logged in to EQ Mac on Al'Kabor because despite my having a sub to EQ1, playing on EQ Mac requires a SEPARATE subscription@!!11!1... If I could /bonk the people at SOE just once it would be for this. Stupid! Let an EQ1 sub play on ANY server...
OK.. I know I digress. It is easy for me to get ranty these days. Here's what I'd like to ask:
Is there anyone who plays or has played EQMac and Fippy and can do a compare and contrast?
My limited experience on EQ Fippy tells me that the game is easier. Is it really or is it really just easier because I know what to do and where to go having played it 11 years ago?
(Please, no p1999 crap in this thread... please?)
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EQ Mac vs. FippyFollow
I was hoping real mac players would reply to you... but I'll do my best.
background: I did some heavy reading on the old ak abor boards a couple of years ago when I was very close to buying a Mac (sidenote: if TLP stalls out I may revisit this).
At the time, and from what I have read in other posts over the years here is what I understand:
Mac server:
-goes up to Planes of Power, not necessarily including patches/fixes that occurred before LoY came to PC servers.
-it is frozen in time, so features some of us have felt were around for ages are not there (shadowrest I don't think is there, obviously no augments, tutorial, charms, drogmors, tiny bank slots, ooc regen, and so on...)
-PoP raid % requirements are the original (harder to fill) ratio.
-last I heard the sleeper was still asleep
-there was at least one uber guild... think they were called <Temerity> ?
-there's some graphic bugs that have been on mac... forever
-experience and /con system should be original way
-spell brackets should be original every 4 levels you get some
-population is small but extremely dedicated (it's basically been developer abandoned for 7+ years)
-not sure if improved spells at lower levels were put onto Mac
-has baz in its original laggy form, but no tribute so should be lots of old gear for sale just because why vendor it if you have trader bag room?
------------------
Totally agree that my current eq1 sub should let me play on the Mac server
TLP (Fippy + Vulak) would probably be easier to group and level with right now, but you have access to amazing gear on Mac in contrast to TLP. Also, how many people will have low alts after all this time? So odds are the twink gear market there is low prices, you have way better xp camps (love it or hate it... paludal caverns is faster xp solo for most classes than similar "classic" zones.)
If you were going "pure" and soling to 50 in classic content I don't think the Mac server would feel that different than TLP does right now. Epic 1.0 would still be a decent accomplishment on Mac, whereas on TLP it will be a log-jam for a while at least (depending on how slow we vote to keep content going... I hope we don't rush it...).
Edit: grats on sage ding Samatman. I love clicking the green arrow and seeing that happen.
Also, earthshaker hasn't been nerfed... but not sure all the aa's required to shakerpage exist there either
-nothing has been revamped aside from the ancient revamps like Cazic Thule
-should be no Legends of Norrath...
Edited, Mar 9th 2011 6:37pm by snailish
background: I did some heavy reading on the old ak abor boards a couple of years ago when I was very close to buying a Mac (sidenote: if TLP stalls out I may revisit this).
At the time, and from what I have read in other posts over the years here is what I understand:
Mac server:
-goes up to Planes of Power, not necessarily including patches/fixes that occurred before LoY came to PC servers.
-it is frozen in time, so features some of us have felt were around for ages are not there (shadowrest I don't think is there, obviously no augments, tutorial, charms, drogmors, tiny bank slots, ooc regen, and so on...)
-PoP raid % requirements are the original (harder to fill) ratio.
-last I heard the sleeper was still asleep
-there was at least one uber guild... think they were called <Temerity> ?
-there's some graphic bugs that have been on mac... forever
-experience and /con system should be original way
-spell brackets should be original every 4 levels you get some
-population is small but extremely dedicated (it's basically been developer abandoned for 7+ years)
-not sure if improved spells at lower levels were put onto Mac
-has baz in its original laggy form, but no tribute so should be lots of old gear for sale just because why vendor it if you have trader bag room?
------------------
Totally agree that my current eq1 sub should let me play on the Mac server
TLP (Fippy + Vulak) would probably be easier to group and level with right now, but you have access to amazing gear on Mac in contrast to TLP. Also, how many people will have low alts after all this time? So odds are the twink gear market there is low prices, you have way better xp camps (love it or hate it... paludal caverns is faster xp solo for most classes than similar "classic" zones.)
If you were going "pure" and soling to 50 in classic content I don't think the Mac server would feel that different than TLP does right now. Epic 1.0 would still be a decent accomplishment on Mac, whereas on TLP it will be a log-jam for a while at least (depending on how slow we vote to keep content going... I hope we don't rush it...).
Edit: grats on sage ding Samatman. I love clicking the green arrow and seeing that happen.
Also, earthshaker hasn't been nerfed... but not sure all the aa's required to shakerpage exist there either
-nothing has been revamped aside from the ancient revamps like Cazic Thule
-should be no Legends of Norrath...
Edited, Mar 9th 2011 6:37pm by snailish
Thanks for the reply, and thanks for sage! I'd like to just take a moment to thank my mother, who gave me my tendency to rant, and to my father who taught me not to... Anyway....
Well SOE did activate me, and I was able to download and log in and make my first character. Of course the first thing you notice is that there is no one else around, but I expected that.
It's compelling to me just because it stops at PoP. This is definitely the best content (IMO) that SOE ever did. The original spell levels, original spell damage should make quite a difference in feel compared to Fippy. I guess it doesn't have a shared bank either - which is a massive change in how the game plays out.
I sadly won't get much chance to play it this weekend, but hopefully next week I'll be able to do level 1-5 for comparison sake (having just done that on Fippy). I'll report back if no one else from Al'kabor posts in the interim.
Well SOE did activate me, and I was able to download and log in and make my first character. Of course the first thing you notice is that there is no one else around, but I expected that.
It's compelling to me just because it stops at PoP. This is definitely the best content (IMO) that SOE ever did. The original spell levels, original spell damage should make quite a difference in feel compared to Fippy. I guess it doesn't have a shared bank either - which is a massive change in how the game plays out.
I sadly won't get much chance to play it this weekend, but hopefully next week I'll be able to do level 1-5 for comparison sake (having just done that on Fippy). I'll report back if no one else from Al'kabor posts in the interim.
Couple things I wish that Fippy had (which the Mac server does have) is the lack of revamped zones. I enjoyed old freeport, the old commonlands, and Oasis being it's own zone.
After having a chance to finally play on Al'Kabor, I was surprised by the extent of "Old School" that is missing from the current time locked progression servers. At the same time, I was of the opinion that some of the differences don't outweigh the benefits. Here's my list of impressions:
There was no 3rd person view, if there was it wasn't available by mouse wheel.
"a" = attack! OMG... good thing I was standing right where I spawned or I would have been dead. Is there anything more old school than this?
There is no mob con on the target window and there is no mob con target ring... you have to hit "c" every time!
There is no find and no shared bank. In fact the bank is 8 slots. I started a human monk in Qeynos, and having just done this in the last few weeks, figured... no problem. Wrong. It took me 5 minutes to find the GM I needed to hand my note to. That really took me down a notch. I thought I had this game figured out.
It didn't help that I couldn't see, and it was dark. I turned up gamma and just like it used to be everything washed out. That's not good either so you find a happy medium and equip that candle. The candle does almost nothing, but YOU NO TAKE CANDLE!
It rained. It rained some more. I thought I was having a bad RNG but that wasn't it. I can't see. It's dark, and it's raining. ALWAYS raining! I fiddled with the clip plane settings but rain just collapses your world view with mist and fog. It felt real and it made me feel wet.
It took me 43 minutes to skill up from 0 to 1 in Sense Heading. My compass was wild, and I couldn't see. You see where I'm going here...
I started with no bandages, no backpacks. In fact, as I killed and sold my loot, I started accumulating lots of... copper. After gaining 10 pounds of money, I found the bank and made it all plat. By the way, there is no auto-loot that I could find. Click each one and hope nothing attacks you while you are hunched over.
Leveling from 1 to 2 took me 27 minutes. Of that time, 20 was spent remapping keys, setting up my hotkey bar and finding my way to where mobs were. I killed 7 rats and dinged 2. Seriously.
It took me another 30 min to ding 3, pretty much killing everything in my path. North Qeynos was subtly different. I suspect that mob numbers and levels have been changed but it's nothing I can put my finger on specifically. I had no competition at all, I was the only person below level 60 in Qeynos. I did have to run several times from even con mobs that were kicking my butt. I didn't have to do that on Fippy at that level. (If I had to guess, It felt like mobs and I had fewer hp, and the randomness of combat means that a few bad hits sends you running for your life.)
There are no maps. Not even when you are really lost and you hit that "m" key.
After my monumental journey to level 3, I headed to PoK. There were people there, and a GM! I quickly remapped the screenshot key and took one, cause that's not something I've seen in years. Very cool. From PoK, I ran myself into a brick wall where the bazaar should have been but isn't. I looked for my maps and realized I had to tough it out. So I dragged myself into depths of memory that haven't been used in 7 years and found the Nexus stone and made my way to the bazaar.
The old bazaar... yes. 12 traders. No lag. I smiled and opened the search dialog and quickly found a Shissar Warsword 6dmg 20dly for 20p. I almost had enough to buy it (I had 7 plat). I'm certain that by level 5 I can afford that and that's something that changes everything.
TL:DR or In summary:
This is old EQ. Everything that you glide through with maps and shared banks, weightless money and being able to see at night is gone. The exp curve is like it was, unlike the strangely exaggerated curves on the TLP servers. The world gets dark and it rains most of the time. I used to hate the rain... I would actually go do something else until it cleared up. I'm not sure it's as bad as it was originally, but it isn't anything like Fippy.
On the flip side, there is no one around. There are no level 1s, or level 5s, or level 25 people wandering about. I'd be surprised if there was anyone under level 60 so this would be a solo journey. But it's also original bazaar, and that means twink city. That's oddly compelling in a market strategy kind of way. You may be soloing your way to 60 but you're gonna have the best gear to get you there. Quite honestly, you'll need it too. No one is going to come do SolA with you, so you may as well grab that Centi Longsword and do it yourself.
It's like comparing apples to oranges.
I thought it would be easy to choose between TLP and EQMac but it isn't. Sure I won't find a group on AL'Kabor but it literally reeks of original EQ like nothing else does. I can work, earn plat, buy gear, and solo my way through it all (and that creates its own unique set of challenges) OR I can play Fippy and play something that seems like EQ used to be, but do it with people all around me (for better or worse).
It all depends on where your personal preferences lie. Fippy is pretty close to original but the little things do matter. What happens is the longer you play on Fippy, the less you notice that it isn't dark, you can move with the 8000 copper you looted, and you aren't scared.
Edit: Mar 17th 2011 xx:xx by Samatman: inappropriate apostrophes
Edited, Mar 17th 2011 11:45pm by Samatman
There was no 3rd person view, if there was it wasn't available by mouse wheel.
"a" = attack! OMG... good thing I was standing right where I spawned or I would have been dead. Is there anything more old school than this?
There is no mob con on the target window and there is no mob con target ring... you have to hit "c" every time!
There is no find and no shared bank. In fact the bank is 8 slots. I started a human monk in Qeynos, and having just done this in the last few weeks, figured... no problem. Wrong. It took me 5 minutes to find the GM I needed to hand my note to. That really took me down a notch. I thought I had this game figured out.
It didn't help that I couldn't see, and it was dark. I turned up gamma and just like it used to be everything washed out. That's not good either so you find a happy medium and equip that candle. The candle does almost nothing, but YOU NO TAKE CANDLE!
It rained. It rained some more. I thought I was having a bad RNG but that wasn't it. I can't see. It's dark, and it's raining. ALWAYS raining! I fiddled with the clip plane settings but rain just collapses your world view with mist and fog. It felt real and it made me feel wet.
It took me 43 minutes to skill up from 0 to 1 in Sense Heading. My compass was wild, and I couldn't see. You see where I'm going here...
I started with no bandages, no backpacks. In fact, as I killed and sold my loot, I started accumulating lots of... copper. After gaining 10 pounds of money, I found the bank and made it all plat. By the way, there is no auto-loot that I could find. Click each one and hope nothing attacks you while you are hunched over.
Leveling from 1 to 2 took me 27 minutes. Of that time, 20 was spent remapping keys, setting up my hotkey bar and finding my way to where mobs were. I killed 7 rats and dinged 2. Seriously.
It took me another 30 min to ding 3, pretty much killing everything in my path. North Qeynos was subtly different. I suspect that mob numbers and levels have been changed but it's nothing I can put my finger on specifically. I had no competition at all, I was the only person below level 60 in Qeynos. I did have to run several times from even con mobs that were kicking my butt. I didn't have to do that on Fippy at that level. (If I had to guess, It felt like mobs and I had fewer hp, and the randomness of combat means that a few bad hits sends you running for your life.)
There are no maps. Not even when you are really lost and you hit that "m" key.
After my monumental journey to level 3, I headed to PoK. There were people there, and a GM! I quickly remapped the screenshot key and took one, cause that's not something I've seen in years. Very cool. From PoK, I ran myself into a brick wall where the bazaar should have been but isn't. I looked for my maps and realized I had to tough it out. So I dragged myself into depths of memory that haven't been used in 7 years and found the Nexus stone and made my way to the bazaar.
The old bazaar... yes. 12 traders. No lag. I smiled and opened the search dialog and quickly found a Shissar Warsword 6dmg 20dly for 20p. I almost had enough to buy it (I had 7 plat). I'm certain that by level 5 I can afford that and that's something that changes everything.
TL:DR or In summary:
This is old EQ. Everything that you glide through with maps and shared banks, weightless money and being able to see at night is gone. The exp curve is like it was, unlike the strangely exaggerated curves on the TLP servers. The world gets dark and it rains most of the time. I used to hate the rain... I would actually go do something else until it cleared up. I'm not sure it's as bad as it was originally, but it isn't anything like Fippy.
On the flip side, there is no one around. There are no level 1s, or level 5s, or level 25 people wandering about. I'd be surprised if there was anyone under level 60 so this would be a solo journey. But it's also original bazaar, and that means twink city. That's oddly compelling in a market strategy kind of way. You may be soloing your way to 60 but you're gonna have the best gear to get you there. Quite honestly, you'll need it too. No one is going to come do SolA with you, so you may as well grab that Centi Longsword and do it yourself.
It's like comparing apples to oranges.
I thought it would be easy to choose between TLP and EQMac but it isn't. Sure I won't find a group on AL'Kabor but it literally reeks of original EQ like nothing else does. I can work, earn plat, buy gear, and solo my way through it all (and that creates its own unique set of challenges) OR I can play Fippy and play something that seems like EQ used to be, but do it with people all around me (for better or worse).
It all depends on where your personal preferences lie. Fippy is pretty close to original but the little things do matter. What happens is the longer you play on Fippy, the less you notice that it isn't dark, you can move with the 8000 copper you looted, and you aren't scared.
Edit: Mar 17th 2011 xx:xx by Samatman: inappropriate apostrophes
Edited, Mar 17th 2011 11:45pm by Samatman
Sounds to me like Mac EQ would be ideal for a group of friends wanting to make new toons and be able to get any camp they want at lower levels.
A good deal of the fun of Fippy is grouping with "real people" at low levels so it sounds unless you bring along your own "real people" this is lost on EQ Mac.
A good deal of the fun of Fippy is grouping with "real people" at low levels so it sounds unless you bring along your own "real people" this is lost on EQ Mac.
Sippin 115 DRU **** Firiona Vie ****Agnarr
FV: 115 WAR ENC CLE MAG WIZ SHD SHM Master Alchemist ROG Master Tinkerer & Poison-Maker
Master Artisan (300+) * Baker * Brewer * Fletcher * Jeweler * Potter * Researcher * Smith * Tailor
Agnarr: 65 DRU ENC SHD MAG CLE ROG WIZ BRD WAR
FV: 115 WAR ENC CLE MAG WIZ SHD SHM Master Alchemist ROG Master Tinkerer & Poison-Maker
Master Artisan (300+) * Baker * Brewer * Fletcher * Jeweler * Potter * Researcher * Smith * Tailor
Agnarr: 65 DRU ENC SHD MAG CLE ROG WIZ BRD WAR
Sippin wrote:
Sounds to me like Mac EQ would be ideal for a group of friends wanting to make new toons and be able to get any camp they want at lower levels.
A good deal of the fun of Fippy is grouping with "real people" at low levels so it sounds unless you bring along your own "real people" this is lost on EQ Mac.
A good deal of the fun of Fippy is grouping with "real people" at low levels so it sounds unless you bring along your own "real people" this is lost on EQ Mac.
Again, ,my sense of this is from forums not actually doing it... but the impression I had was that the EQ Mac community was very strong at end game. So that could be another factor. Lots of TLP people talking in groups about "quitting after Velious... PoP... once GoD comes, etc.".
The people on EQ Mac are anything but quitters at this point.
Scholar
35 posts
snailish wrote:
Again, ,my sense of this is from forums not actually doing it... but the impression I had was that the EQ Mac community was very strong at end game. So that could be another factor. Lots of TLP people talking in groups about "quitting after Velious... PoP... once GoD comes, etc.".
Frankly I'm willing to put money right now that any such talk is a lot of hogwash.
People who play maybe a few hours a week tops and haven't broken past level 20 or 30 have no idea what it's like at high level on Fippy. Good luck finding a camp not taken. There are so few raid targets that it's extremely congested. The problem is identical on Vulak, except to a much lesser degree given the noticably lower (but still very, very, very active!) population.
Kunark and Velious -need- to be voted in as soon as they're available. Oh don't get me wrong, I love the classic experience, but I'm pretty sure that in another month and a half or so when the Kunark vote comes up, I'll be chomping at the bit for more content.
As far as Planes of Power goes, I think people placed a lot of undue blame at the feet of that expansion. Some people were tired of EverQuest in general, and a lot of people realized that the MMO genre was becoming "popular." See, you can never recapture the exact feeling of '99 EverQuest no matter what ruleset you use. Back then it was a totally foreign experience to everyone. There had never been a 3D MMO like it before, and most people hadn't played Ultima Online or Meridian.
So people complained about the portal stones. Honestly I think that's a bit of a lump of **** and making a scapegoat of them, because frankly speaking the "world" got so bloody huge that getting groups or raids together would have taken AGES if they hadn't been employed. I'd taken the run from Freeport to Firiona Vie to Sebilis so often that it was nothing more than time I spent largely afk, invis and sow'd on my way to camp some twink gear with friends. After the 500th run (AFTER) it wasn't dangerous or exciting. It was just an annoying tedium.
Case in point: on Vulak the other night I ran from Splitpaw's entrance to HHK. That took like half an hour. HALF AN HOUR of doing nothing but putting on autorun and browsing 4chan or CNN news. I wasn't playing the game in any meaningful way. I wasn't experiencing some epic journey. It was basically just one ginormous "loading please wait."
Sure, one can gripe about things like flagging and all that, although that'll likely follow the looser, more current rules when PoP comes out. And no, I didn't care for the massive flagging via trials and all that in later expansions, especially when I play so many characters.
But.
In short, people who tire of the fundamental EverQuest experience will do so. But it won't be because of PoP. Maybe some people have pet peeves. But I sincerely doubt many of these people saying "I'll quit when (expansion x) comes out" will do so. And if they do quit I firmly believe it's because by that point they've burned out on the game, not because of the expansion itself.
Just my two copper.
Necro Warning: This post occurred more than thirty days after the prior, and may be a necropost.
4 posts
Samatman wrote:
Is there anyone who plays or has played EQMac and Fippy and can do a compare and contrast?
Played on Combine, Fippy and Al'Kabor, and currently heading back to AK.
EQMac has the better 'classic' experience. Who really likes new Freeport? Or the new Commonlands? As noted above, everything else: slow regen, old spell effects, etc., gives you the old school feeling.
On the other hand - the presence of the PoK books makes travel decidely not old-school. The progression guild gets around it by forbidding travel via PoK books. So while it is a better classic, it still isn't 100% classic.
Necro Warning: This post occurred more than thirty days after the prior, and may be a necropost.
If it wasn't so expensive to get get a mac that could run the game I bet that would be a neat server to play on on. Only problem I could easily see is most players are probably max level now since there hasn't been any new content for so many years. With no OOC regen, mercs, defiant gear I imagine it would be like the old days where very few classes can solo.
Hi
4 posts
fronglo wrote:
If it wasn't so expensive to get get a mac that could run the game I bet that would be a neat server to play on on. Only problem I could easily see is most players are probably max level now since there hasn't been any new content for so many years. With no OOC regen, mercs, defiant gear I imagine it would be like the old days where very few classes can solo.
Pricewise you can just (a) make a partition on your drive and make a hackintosh in that partition (directions on interwebs or (b) it's only about $120 (including shipping) for an eMac 1.42ghz that can run the game and another $20 to get it up to 2GB from ebay/crucial. Remember that the EQMac code was written for PPC (G4/G5) so it actually runs best on either the older G4/G5s or the most recent Intel machines (note the new port to Lion won't be finished until the end of the year (est. Dec 2011) so buying a new machine with Lion is the wrong way to go). Just check out G4/G5s on craigslist or ebay.
As for soloing - yep: Necros and Druids rule for soloing at the low levels. So its either box or try to get your buddy to join with you. I will say people continue to run alts and there is a small trickle of new players (looks like 3-4 people started in the past two weeks) - so you can find a group mid-levels, but you have to work on it - no using LFG. Most important thing is you need to autojoin the /alliance channel (serverwide/allplayers) and prospectively organize groups on EQMac. You're almost certain to get some twink gear if you join alliance and just say hi and tell the world you're new to EQMac.
With respect to content, what's really interesting is that there is some 'new' old content on EQMac. The planes are different versions than on the pc (e.g. the Rathe council is different and harder than the Rathe on PC). No guild has broken into Time yet, so nobody's sure what version of Quarm is there and etc.
Additionally, the server has started to collectively raid the old Inner Acrylia caverns which were revamped on the PC. Back in the day only one uberguild heavily raided this area before the revamp. They've even found some loot that's not on Allakhazam (a drop from Gnorgtarg).
http://www.eqmac.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=10619
In any event if anyone is interested in starting a new toons - three of us are restarting on labor day weekedn with the express purpose of leveling and visiting the old Plane of Mischief and checking out the Sleeper (and maybe even joining some of the open raids) - so you'll have to solo to your teens, but if you start in the next two to three weeks there will be some people you can group with while leveling.
Edited, Aug 30th 2011 1:18pm by tdewey
Edited, Aug 30th 2011 1:46pm by tdewey
Big thanks to everyone posting the details on EQ Mac in this thread.
Al'Kabor has always interested me, mostly due to the fact that it's frozen in time in the exact era of the game I first played. It really is a shame the subscriptions aren't linked between it and the rest of EQ, and that getting an activated account isn't a completely simple/instant process.
Al'Kabor has always interested me, mostly due to the fact that it's frozen in time in the exact era of the game I first played. It really is a shame the subscriptions aren't linked between it and the rest of EQ, and that getting an activated account isn't a completely simple/instant process.
4 posts
/agree about the sub linking. If you want both you gotta go Station Access :(
Easiest way to get a key is just open a ticket with SOE customer support asking for the 14-day free trial subscription to EQMac - takes a day or so. If you do decide to play: EQMac.com has lots of info for the new player and help for running the Mac version.
And don't forget to bind sense heading to the "W" or the up-arrow key ;-)
Easiest way to get a key is just open a ticket with SOE customer support asking for the 14-day free trial subscription to EQMac - takes a day or so. If you do decide to play: EQMac.com has lots of info for the new player and help for running the Mac version.
And don't forget to bind sense heading to the "W" or the up-arrow key ;-)
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