First off if you don't know what Shards of dalaya is... check them out here.

http://www.shardsofdalaya.com/

They are FREE EVERQUEST. The system requirements are from 1999. So if you have an old ass computer this is for you!

I loved EQ so much I went to try them... be WARNED. If you were a Hardcore gamer... don't bother. Let me explain.

The maps are different, the creatures are different, and you must start in Qeynos. But that's just the beginning.

The NPC's are different, the mobs are different, spells are different, you can use GM commands (to a degree), and you cannot access the whole world. I had forgotten how slow paced and hard the game can be when you first start. This isn't something you want to take on unless you have a group of friends you can play with.

So lets start from the beginning for my review.

You create your character and no matter what class combination you choose you will spawn in Qeynos. Qeynos was, and still is the most horrible and worthless city on the face of Norrath. In this game's case, Dalaya. Do NOT start this game without a map.

You appear in a room and your default controls are disgustingly bad. They don't give you a guide with how to change your controls. Luckily i remembered... ALT+O is king. Once you finish with that you'll notice that the windows are similar to WoW's. You first spawn in the "dream world". Speak with the first set of ghosts you find and you'll be warped to another location.

Continue on the path and enter into the giant Arena. Speak with the First, Second, Third and Last to get your gear and items and then you'll spawn in Qeynos. So if the dreamworld wasn't confusing and stupid... wait until you see Qeynos.

Now, if you were planning to /ooc for some help... you'll notice a message popping up... where you have to agree to terms and conditions to even USE /ooc. This isn't a big deal and I can understand it. It's still a hassle.

Now... your adventure begins... to find you way out of the fucking city. I had to bust out my map book. Finally I got out of the city and saw enemy creatures (mobs). I attacked a snake... it conned (letter C on your keyboard by default) and it conned white. This means it's lvl 1.

I had forgotten that snakes can kick you. Don't ask me how it's one of the funny things about Everquest. So anyway... I cast... fizzle...cast...fizzle...repeat. I died to a snake. I never cast the spell successfully... but I did melee it down to like 5%.

Respawn back in the mages guild... sigh... run back. Attack again... this time I kill it. woot! Looted. Killed another and another etc. Then I make the mistake of attacking a white con (even level) bug. It used me for toilet paper.

You were critted for 15pts of damage. It's a LVL 1 BUG! How the hell is it critting? I'm still laughing as I had forgotten how hard this game was when I played compared to WoW. I also wished my enchanter pet was available before lvl 4. But I did make a discovery. You can use GM commands. Now you should know I used to be a Guide in EQ way back in the day... and this was before they didn't allow guides to use commands.

You can bind yourself, port yourself, and if you know the right commands, get yourself in trouble. Like I did. I was exploring my old commands, mind you not using anything like /kill or stuff. GM_Wiz appears. Wiz is one of the creators of the game and he asks me why I'm using these commands. I said I was told that we could use certain commands and since I couldn't find the list of what we could use I was going through my old Manual of commands.

I'm told not to do that nor to share them as they are still figuring out how to prevent others from using them. Apparantly all new users are created as guides to be able to bind themselves and port themselves. The bad side is that they can still use other commands. Making food/water, pointing in the direction of a selected player etc. Things that aren't game detremental.

So I have a nice talk with him about the differences between the game. He's more than happy to talk with a fellow EQ enthusiast. My biggest interest was the end game in his version. Unfortunately he said that there wasn't too much. The dragons were working fine because they act like normal mobs but the triggered events weren't working at all. In fact... 99% of the quests you find in Everquest aren't in EQ.

I asked about the Dain Ring and he said that the same problem is happening. Triggered events aren't working unless they recreate them from scratch. They also don't want to piss off sony too much by copying the quests and events. So that said... they don't exist.

I also asked him about a few problems I had hardware wise with the game. I have 2gb of RAM... why can I not use the advanced models? "Because we aren't allowed to use them". Well sonova bitch. The newer models released around Luclin were FAR better than the originals. That was a huge downer for me.

I asked what about jboots? And he said they were like they originally were. A drop! Wooohooo! But the quest is there too just different.

There was a bit more talk but in the end EQ: Shards of Dalaya isn't for me yet. Not until they fix those major things. The events are the most important part of me I guess. I also don't have anyone to play with.

Please post any comments about this game. If you've played I'd LOVE to hear about your experience.

5/5/2006 2:36:35 PM

so this is ... any xpansion for WoW?

5/5/2006 2:37:23 PM

So nerd, can you define your life without using a word refering to your computer?

5/5/2006 8:07:00 PM

Sure. I work on my car (1998 Toyota Celica GT). I ran it in an autocross just this past weekend. Though I should have to post this since half the pictures in your gallery are "nerd" related.

5/5/2006 11:07:10 PM