Personal Log, Stardate: Free to Play

[Shiuna]

So, haven't played in several years, but thought I'd try out free to play. Below are a few impressions:

Logged in Shiuna, 75 Shaman on Tunare, got messages that 4 bags had been sent to me via the parcel service.

Look at my inventory, only 6 bag slots and just about all my equipment had a yellow background *sigh*.

Went to the bank, still 24 slots (yea!) but shared slots gone (boo!). Looked through my inventory....holy crap, I must have saved everything I ever looted. Did a housecleaning and freed up enough slots for the 4 extra bags.

The parcel delivery system was apparently added with Veil of Alaris: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts ... _id=181140

The guy in PoK is Caden Zharik. He's outside the small bank. Click on him and there's an extra tab for the parcel system. Click on the tab and recover your stuff!

Did some reading about equipment, and found that, for me, all the yellow equipment was caused by the augments. I agonized for a while, then discovered elegant defiant chain and elegant adept equipment. It was selling for 50-1500 plat in the bazaar and was far better than anything I was wearing, and mostly had the focus effects I needed. So, half the yellow stuff got replaced by defiant, and I just removed the augments from the rest. I think I picked up about 2000 hp from the exchange, and all the focuses go up to level 85.

http://lucy.allakhazam.com/itemlist.htm ... iant+chain
http://lucy.allakhazam.com/itemlist.htm ... gant+adept

Found out that Direwind Cliffs was the hot zone for level 75, so buffed up and headed out. Got to Sunderock Springs and found a bunch of dark blue mobs, so thought I'd stop and refresh my memory on combat mechanics.

All my spell sets were gone, as well as my customized hot key bars, so I stood around for a while looking at spell descriptions until things started coming back. As always, spell gems are a premium, 10 slots and 15 spells to mem. Then I discovered that there's a Gate AA now, which frees up a slot....and there's a Malos-class AA, freeing up another slot. They also added two more levels to Mnemonic Retention, but I can't get that until level 80, I think.

With hot zone exp + anniversary exp + lesson exp I was getting an AA every other kill on dark blues...having a blast!

Note to self: don't get used to the exp, it won't last forever.

Edit: You can buy extra inventory slots for your character for 250SC each. If you decide to do this, buy them one at a time. I bought 3 at once, and it only gave me one. I don't know if this was because of a quantity purchase bug or Silver is restricted to 8 slots.

Edit2: I got a couple of augs from trash mobs in Sunderock Springs already. Neither of them were prestige, so don't sweat the augments....really!

petrified bladefin eye: http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=80387
spring minerals: http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=51925

[Brohg]

That's a great experience so far, and really refreshing. I'm afraid mostly what we get to hear from folks returning is the whining dissatisfaction parts.

The only caveat to f2p I think you haven't really tackled yet is the cap on earned AA (1000 for Silver?). Hopefully you by the time you get to it you'll be having enough fun to throw down for a subscription again

[Shiuna]

Like the new thread title!

I was never a leading-edge player, usually 2-3 expansions behind the crowd, so ftp is perfect for me....especially since I have 3 accounts and inherited 3 more.

The only drawback I've found so far is that I can't sell in the bazaar, and that may be a blessing in disguise. I wasted too many hours managing a seller and a buyer. Gonna miss the plat, though.

Here's another feature that was added in the 3/16 update: they support subdirectories in the map directory.

So, make a new subdirectory in everquest/maps, then download and unzip the mapfiend maps into this new subdirectory. The next time you log in to your character, open the map window. There will be a dropdown box in the upper left corner that probably says "Default". Click it and select the new directory you created, and the game client will display maps from that directory first, then the regular maps directory if there's not one in the selected directory.

No more overlaid maps from a patch!

[Shiuna]

Today's patch helped some with the augment situation and unusable armor:

- Defiant augments are no longer prestige-flagged.
- Power sources should no longer cause armor to be unusable by Silver or Bronze players.

The defiant augments have been pretty cheap in bazaar, but I imagine there will be a price spike for a while until supply exceed demand again.

I picked this up for 20p today:

Elegant Defiant Nightstone: http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=50618

[Shiuna]

Got an email from SOE support, they gave me the two character inventory slots that I bought, so now have 10....yea!

AA awsomeness:

- Gate - frees up spell slot
- Malosinete - frees up spell slot

Uber AA awsomeness:

- Reduced refresh on VP
- Spirit Walk

Future AA awsomeness, as soon as my posse catches up with me:

- More reduced refresh, increased duration on VP
- Second level of Malosinete
- 2 more spell slots
- More dot crit percent

Question: If I get a rank 2 spell drop, can I mem it anyway, understanding that it will only be effective at rank 1?

[Lenil]

Not sure I'd worry about this very early:

- Second level of Malosinete

Play a while and see if your dot's are getting resisted a lot. This AA does not do disease so it doesn't help with VP sticking.

[Grizlor]

I picked up the malo AA and put 3 points in hastened VP. Also maxed my DoT AAs for my level (79 so far). I've been killing crocs in loping plains. Once I finish with school and have more free time, I'll probably subscribe for a month or two to bang out the AAs that aren't fluff but have a heavy point requirement (I'm looking at you, 300 AAs worth of CA and CS)

Really wish I hadn't wasted AAs on all those resist ones during POP when I had nothing else to buy

Edit: How hard would it be to finish my BIC aug? I'm on the inktu'ta part, and I hear you unfortunately need 16 people to do the stonemite event, but is the rest pretty much one groupable?

[Shiuna]

The malo AA is a great addition to my arsenal. Not only is it only 1 mana point to cast and has a -200 resist adjust, but I can fit it in while the spell gems are refreshing. It's not our best debuff, but it's good enough.

I went ahead and bought 6 levels of hastened VP. It takes a little getting used to because I can't judge how much time I have left by watching the VP button. It has changed my game somewhat, because now I can pre-pull and park the next mob while the previous one is ticking down to zero. Now I need those bigger mass cannibalize levels!

[Elric]

Great to hear that you're having fun!

[Shiuna]

[Shiuna]

OK, if it's been a LONG time since you've played, here are some very simple quests you can do to get your feet wet. Go to PoK and find Secalna Galnor. She's near the Crescent Reach stone, or use the find function.

She has 15 quests that will introduce some of the newer features of the game:

Parcel Merchants - introduces you to the parcel system by making you find and talk to the parcel merchant in PoK. While you're there, pick up your bags.
Using the Marketplace - shows you how to buy stuff from the Marketplace, you get a free experience potion for your effort.
Tribute - tells you about tribute and tribute masters.
Fellowships - tells you how to set up a fellowship - I haven't created a fellowship yet, but I think if you're multiboxing you probably want to do this. (So, is a fellowship as awesome as it sounds?)
Extended Target Window - she tells you how to use it.
Power Sources - she tells you about power sources.
Loyalty - introduces you to loyalty and the loyalty vendor. She sells things for loyalty crowns, like for 4 crowns and for 864 crowns.
Mercenaries for Hire - shows you how to hire and use a mercenary.
Alternate Advancement - sends you to someone who tells you about AAs.
Guilds & the Guild Lobby - take a tour of the guild lobby.
The Bazaar: Tricks of the Trade - tour the bazaar, reward is
Auras - sends you to someone to find out about auras.
Housing - sends you to the housing lady, reward is
Claims - she describes the claims window.
Disciplines - she talks about disciplines.

Sometimes the text shows up as pop-up windows, and sometimes it shows up in the chat window, so don't think the NPCs are ignoring you.

[Shiuna]

[Shiuna]

I noticed that there's an unlocker for rank 2 spells in the marketplace now, 750 SC per character. As far as I can tell, it unlocks all rank 2 spells. It doesn't say, but presumably it will allow a silver or bronze character to cast rank 2 spells, also. I wonder if it will also unlock rank 2 spells that you had already memmed from before?

[Brohg]

it will. I don't remember which date, but one of the F2P Q&As included how scribed rk2s just go dormant if subscription lapses

[varutia]

Existing rank 2 and 3 spells should become available for you to use if you already scribed them in the spellbook when you subscribe, at least that is what the F2P faq said.

Aside from all the shitty ldon or similiar quality crappy augs locking people's gear out, most of F2P limitation is fairly reasonable in my personal view.

[WaringMcMarrin]

If you are free or silver spells that you have scribed at rk2 or rk3 will cast as if they where rk1 and you are unable to scribe new rk2 or rk3 spells. If you are free or silver and buy the rk2 unlocker then all your rk2 and rk3 spells will cast as if they where rk2 and you can now scribe rk2 spells but are still unable to scribe rk3 spells.