/oldvoice on "Why... back in my daaaayyyy!"

[Xorshaik]

Kids these days!!! Moaning and crying about how many times they have to click... boo-itty-freaking-hoo~

Why, back in the day, we made this thing called banded because we hoped some day to be able to make fine plate, or maybe even dye it for bards that couldn't do the uber quest for Lambent... And when we sold it, we had to use a channel called /auction... standing around repeating ourselves over and over in the tunnel in east commonlands, waiting for someone to buy! (perhaps also amazing is the fact that they did!)

And in order to make these things, we had to combine them in a forge.. To do this, we had to click on our stacks (or maybe in some cases things didn't stack in those days) and slide a bar until we had the right quantity. And once everything was in the forge, we were SOL if we made a mistake. Sorry, try again, you get nothing!

And in order to get buy our ingredients, we probably had to kill stuff that dropped coinage. Then we had to change zones multiple times to get everything we need...

We thought that having a book open in our inventory would improve our meager chances at success or skill raises, we wouldn't even imagine having anything that gives skill % bonusses, I don't even think we knew what stats to raise for the best chance of skill raises, or if we'd have noticed a difference.

AND WE LIKED IT!! (Well, okay, that part probably isn't true... But I just think things are pretty easy these days)

[Xenephex]

Fine plate:

High keep to buy MQ ore (non-stackable)

Out to High Pass to make MQ Sheets (better have a sow).

Back to High Keep to put the MQ sheets in the bank.

Repeat till bank slots full.

Then head to East Freeport and buy molds.

North Freeport for access to bank and forge together.

Do your combines.

Back to High Keep.

------------

And don't forget that if you put the wrong ingredients in the container (like a stack of paddings instead of one) - they poofed.

------------

I have done 250 brewing in the past on another character. It was cheap and relatively easy since you could do it all in the same room in Halas. Relatively easy.

I've been working on skilling it up again and it is so bizarrely easy now with the new interface that I don't know why everyone on every server isn't at least a 248 brewer. You don't even have to keep track of how many stacks of everything you have.

The new interface is amazing.

[Ndaara]

and don't forget you could have only 2 bags open at a time. i really loved that one!

[Maevenniia]

That slider bar was eeeeeeevil!

And remember when you could forget stuff in a World container, and it didn't pop back into your inventory when you closed it?

[Fesser]

Hehe, leaving stuff in the forage or loom to switch it between characters before the shared bank slots was a personal favorite of mine! Of course dropping coin on the ground and hoping no one got it first or giving it to a friend and hoping he/she didn't ninja log on ya. Ahh, back in the day...

[Doomspark Deathfire]

Anyone else remember running from Freeport to Qeynos? My little level 7 bard once got paid ten platinum (a fortune!) to join a group of level 20's and sing Selo's Accelerando for them all the way across Antonica. One of them even bought me a drum!

Remember doing the mail quests for the bards? They're a joke these days. Back then, I did them regularly to get enough cash to feed my tradeskill habit (back when sheets of metal didn't stack, back when banded took you to 175, and bronze armor was the best non-magical available for tanks).

I remember the infamous DNC, that would eat everything. And I remember when putting a stack of items counted as ONE. I was so happy when they added CTRL-click and SHIFT-click.

/ramble

[Melinia]

One that will top them all .....

Remember when we only had 8 bank slots and NO shared bank slots...

[Bobaten]

My all time favorite still:
Patch message from May 8, 2001

- You can now move items around inside containers that are in the bank.

Actually, just read through the patch highlights on Allakhazam. There are tons of little things listed there that I remember being thrilled to see at the time (how did I EVER survive before right click looting?).

[Fox the Clever]

Ah yes, I remember how much "fun" tradeskills were in the past. Especially the part where there was no such thing as a recipe display appearing when you went to use a tradeskill container of any type. Back then, you had to manually move each and every item into the tradeskill container in order to make your attempt (I have a particulary "fond" memory of that in regards to misty thicket picnics). It said something about tradeskills in EverQuest when one of the more popular smithing guides during that time was subtitled "Smithing: Clicking Your Way to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome".

Tradeskill supply vendors scattered hither and yonder. Very carefully planning a run from Freeport to Qeynos in order to obtain tradeskill supplies is a thing I remember doing; heck, I even did the mail runs from Freeport - Highpass Keep - Qeynos because, hey, I was going that way anyway, and it was free money.

The annoying bank interface, where you couldn't open up your bags while they were in the bank, only when they were on your person.

Buying and selling tradeskill goods in the East Commonlands tunnel, the unofficial bazaar of the day (/auction Banded mail for sale, meet me at the first torch).

Transfers of items and money between characters consisting of taking my characters into the most remote corner of the Freeport sewers and dropping said items/money there, so that nobody else would come along and take them when I was logging off and logging back on again. (Side note: Remember how you could actually drop coins on the ground back then? Do you also remember the obnoxious enchanters who would drop a platinum piece on the ground in a busy area, cast minor illusion and turn themselves into a platinum piece, pick up the real platinum piece, and then wait for the suckers to come along and try to pick the disguised enchanter off the ground?).

Baking, brewing, and pottery were all but useless skills. All food lasted the same time and provided no statistics, brewing was the same (and could easily be purchased from NPC vendors for melees who desired a strength boost), and practically all pottery made items could be made via the smithing skill. Fletching was good, as arrows and bows made by fletchers were far superior that the stock bows and arrows that the NPC vendors sold. Tailoring was only useful if you character was skilled enough to make Wu's Fighting Gloves - monks loved those things! Alchemy was a good money maker, since everybody wanted spirit of wolf and gate potions. However, it was simutaneously the biggest money loser as well, since back in those days the costs of those blasted herbs would break your bank account unless you had the financial backing of your guild. Smithing was great, as banded armor always sold. Then there was jewelcrafting, the queen mother of tradeskills. EVERYBODY wanted those awesome statistic boosting magical jewelry pieces!

In short, the "good old days" of EverQuest were anything but. They were just old, and NOT good. I wouldn't trade the versatility and ease of use of tradeskills (not to mention the quick travel times) of today's Norrath for all the platinum pieces in the game universe.

[Wyvernwill]

Ya know, this horrible as some of those things were... in a way, I almost prefer that to what we have now... a bunch of people flooding the market with goods because tradeskills are too easy to do now days. *shrugs* Make people work at things, 8 clicks at a time instead of two, and you'll see who's really in it to be in it. Besides, I actually get horribly bored doing tradeskills when all I do is click Combine, Auto Inventory, Combine, Auto Inventory, etc. You don't even feel like you are tradeskilling, just button mashing.

I do also kind of miss the old days when you were new to the game and death seemed to loom everywhere. Wether the Guildmaster you just accidently hit A while targeting, or the rat that's eyes up your pinky toes.

Now days, running around, I almost don't ever feel even close to at risk unless I travel half a dozen zones and look for something large to taunt.

All things considered, the changes were great and for the best... I guess I just get nostalgic somedays.

[Xenephex]

Ya know, this horrible as some of those things were... in a way, I almost prefer that to what we have now... a bunch of people flooding the market with goods because tradeskills are too easy to do now days. *shrugs* Make people work at things, 8 clicks at a time instead of two, and you'll see who's really in it to be in it.

I agree. From a personal stand point it is a whole lot easier now and I welcome the changes, but the trade-off is that in the 'old' days, if you did get to a high level in a tradeskill, it was a significantly bigger accomplishment; plus the competition was pretty slim.

I started on Tunare and I very clearly remember being in 'FayMart' one night and hearing someone ooc - "Looking for 200+ skill tailor". I ooc'ed "well, at least you're on the right server." Because at that time there was only one 200+ tailor serverwide and she was on Tunare (and we all know who that was ).

[Ilona]

And remember when you could forget stuff in a World container, and it didn't pop back into your inventory when you closed it?

I wish this were still the case.
Putting things in containers temporarily (eg filling up the kiln and pottery wheel with smithing molds so I didn't have to keep zoning) was such a timesaver for me!

[Flatley]

I remember doing the Trueshot Bow Quest and having to take the boat back and forth to get the Nuts in OOT. At least I was able to get my foraging up.

[Pootle]

The thing i remember (and miss) is when tradeskills were not popular. It was very hard to raise them, and there was no real reward. The only tradeskillers on the server were the few of us who did it for the pure love of it.

I remember when i got my shawl, 2nd one on the server....
I remember running into people who would say "i know you, you're that tradeskiller i see on eqtraders"
or
"remember me, you gave me some tailored armor when i was a noob" (used to hand out items in Misty Thicket when i was skilling in Rivervale, or swap them for spiderling silks)

Traveling to Halas to sell banded armor to the Barbarians, as a halfling on a PVP server..... pretty scary!

Lots of fond memories!

[Cantatus]

I really shouldn't have opened this thread. The night terrors are going to come back. Am I going to have to go through another couple years of intensive psychiatric help again?