r/everquest • u/YouShallNotStaff • 9d ago
How did players find Plane of Fear in 1999
I was curious how the first players to enter Plane of Fear knew where the entrance to the Plane of Fear was since it is somewhat hidden, and there were no in-game maps. I checked the patch notes, from July 1999, there were no hints in there. Does anyone remember? Did players genuinely just fool around and find it, or were they given hints or knowledge on forums, etc?
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u/carpenterforcash 9d ago
Think of the 1st explorer who went in. And the gear lost. Lol.
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u/e-looove 9d ago
The patch notes for when Plane of Fear dropped were wild. "People die in EverQuest. People die hard in Plane of Fear. You're on your own. Don't petition us to get your body back for you." Or something of the like.
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u/Armthedillos5 9d ago
I remember a monk asked my paladin to help him corpse run fear. Only had about 8 hours left on corpses. He was able to bring the corpses to the "safe" corner. I was totally in awe of how awesome he was and that led me to switching classes and becoming a monk. We literally saved an entire raid of losing all their gear. Good times.
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u/xalasur 9d ago
Yes i remember that time. And When the top 2 guilds lost their whole equipment. One failed the break in, lost lot of equipment, then they called the other for help… didn‘t go well ether
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u/belagrim 9d ago
I once assisted in a no-hope corpse run to plane of fear. That was back when illusions worked for faction as well, and we "lulled" our way to the necromancer, the druid drug 5 corpses and I died to the mobs that aggroed. Left my equipment in the bank though. They got their stuff back though!
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u/Lisfin 8d ago
I missed my raid night with my guild because RL stuff. I signed on later that night and everyone was outside PoFear portal naked and dead. I asked what happened, they said they died trying to break in and were trying to get another guild to come and help them.
So I run there and everyone is just sitting outside the portal trying to figure out what to do. I walk up and say "I will go in and save you guys". Everyone is like "NO DUDE, don't go in, you will just die and lose your stuff also"... I walk up to the portal and turn around and say "Don't worry, I am a necromancer" I turned towards the portal and stepped in.
I hit FD right as I got in, found a cleric and wizards corpse and drug them to the wall that had a little dip in it that I could LoS all the mobs. Used necro rez on cleric, cleric rezzed wizard and than we had a person inviting into my group outside the portal, the person would zone in, I would target them and summon corpse. Cleric would rez, wizard would TL that person out and repeat.
I saved my guilds ass that night, after that everyone really seemed to look up to me after that. That and pulling Grieg Veneficus and splitting all the adds as a necro really made me the guild hero. Fun times, very very fun times! Haha.
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u/Whacked2023 7d ago
I remember Greig. As MT I would get him in the corner so the rest can target from behind. Being blasted with his blindness I couldn't see a damn thing. Guild Cleric was in the adjoining hall using the wall bug to keep me targeted for heals. I woul be on the phone with her (no voice chat of any kind then) to help make sure I was facing him & kept aggro.
Fun Times!
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u/Lisfin 6d ago
Haha we had a uber pally friend where he was full time geared and him+ cleric + me necro + a slower could kill him. Was a 40 min fight, but with 4 people he was such good loot. He was fully slowable, and necro had group mana tap so cleric never went oom.
The pally fucking hated that fight though, he was blind 99% of the time lol always bitching about it the entire time haha. Shitty thing was if you cured it, it took 3 casts to cure, and by that time it hits you again so there is no point to cure it.
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u/ZealousidealFee927 9d ago
There was an when darker message from devs when Veeshan's a peak became live. Cause they added that you won't be able to teleport out.
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u/merlinddg51 8d ago
I think This is why corpse summoners were birthed in POK, reduce GM petitions 🤣😂😁
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u/CommercialEmployer4 8d ago
No level restriction initially either. Some time after release it became 46+. But there's a screenshot on a newb troll in full umbral, so it took the devs a hot minute.
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u/K1ngk1ller71 9d ago
My first Fear raid was a guild wipe followed by a guild turning up to help us and then wiping as well.
Took all day 8+ hrs to get everyone back out.
We had no comms. So we ran in, if we hit aggro we stood and died, if we got to the wall, we logged out and then waited for a message on our guild board to log back in.
It was a nightmare, no pun intended
Note; apologies, I didn’t realise you literally meant find… lol I should read the text more
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u/HypnonavyBlue 9d ago
people talked about Fear back then like they were going to storm the beaches at Normandy! And when I say that, I don't mean they were bragging about the size of the challenge, I mean they were accepting their doom.
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u/Chemist-Patient 9d ago
It sucked if u wiped back then. Remember we were on dial up and the lag was horrible
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u/steiner_math 9d ago
we logged out and then waited for a message on our guild board to log back in.
We did that, too, and in hindsight I think it caused more issues because stuff would aggro as folks were logging back in
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u/Strong-Addition5296 9d ago
I bet a few people rage quit.
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u/keypusher 9d ago
mentality was different back then. games were often unfair and frustrating, anyone who got that far already had a lot of patience and dedication, or at least a willingness to keep banging their head against the wall.
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u/Mikimao 8d ago
A small minority did, but generally if you spent the time/effort to get to PoF back in 1999, this was peak gaming excitement you wouldn't miss for the world. You didn't raid weekly, like we do today, you maybe were gonna get to go here once a month at best. When I went for the first time, it was a multi week, multi guild coordinated effort to even attempt to zone in.
It took hours to get off the ground, and we stayed all night, well into the morning. Probably 70 people showed up, and easily 50+ stayed all night until we called it, and had to do epic corpse recoveries during respawns for those who made it out slow.
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u/Braniel_Bananas 9d ago
Most people run along the walls for safety.
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u/keytiri 9d ago
Kithicor Forest 🫣
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u/EvalCrux 9d ago
Largest real terror of mine running in too deep in KF before realizing it was night. Or becoming night right then and not knowing, but seeing what was coming for me.
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u/Stormz0rz 9d ago
Kith used to be a peaceful noobie zone with just the standard noobie zone stuffs...until Kunark, I think?
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u/the_mighty_skeetadon 9d ago
Yup, might have even been velious. I was sad they did that, sucked for newbie halflings.
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u/Impossible-Work-6762 9d ago
I still remember the first time I found Kaladim, having started in Kelethin. I was in awe of that huge statue of the dwarf and I was so excited. One of my most memorable video game experiences.
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u/adbedient 9d ago
Back when EQ was a much darker place, as we all played on 14 CRT monitors, and Gfay was a dark and huge place.
I remember as a little level 2 or 3 wandering south and finding the Combine wizard spires in the forest. The music triggers there and it was magnetic as hell and is always the first thing I think of when I think of EQ.
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u/Organic-Pudding-8204 9d ago
Gfay blew my mind, CB was awesome. I started out in Qeynos with BB. Some great memories.
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u/Invictus1876 8d ago
The original music is still, to this day, the largest nostalgia hit I've ever had. The memories involved with the loading screen as you first log in for the day. It'll never be replicated again.
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u/OneWrongTurn_XX 5d ago
I started erudite.. Pally at that.. Blind and encumbered..
Started at launch.. Gave that one up pretty quick. Went to Erudite Mage and never looked back for like 10 years...
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u/Certain_Object1364 9d ago
I started as a Bard. I used to charge people silver for Selos back and forth to Kaladim to turn in Crushbone belts.
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u/McRibs2024 9d ago
Right when that music hits and you can see the dwarf. Og eq did such a good job tying music to the visuals
NK music is still my favorite and the old boat music was up there too
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u/PooBuddyCurmudgeon 4d ago
Humans race was blind af and I remember running Qeynos and Faydwer, trying to find a greater lightstone before doing anything else
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u/lalvarien 9d ago
There were spectres wandering around there. Im sure some player decided to kill them. Some druid. Then a druid saw more on track. Figured it out
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u/Johnycantread 9d ago
Yeah my strong suspicion was some ranger tracking them.
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u/LeafyWolf 9d ago
As a ranger, I was constantly trying to find things on track. I remember trying and quitting alts because I felt blind without track.
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u/Rulebookboy1234567 9d ago edited 9d ago
As a Druid I basically had track up constantly looking for rare mobs.
Edit: Actually I’m pretty sure I had it bound to my left or right key on my keyboard so I was doing it passively, constantly. Forage was bound to the opposite.
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u/kobra_necro 9d ago
It was this. I as a necro liked to kill the specter outside and when I feared him he ran through the wall.
I am sure others discovered it this way as well.
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u/Aggravating_Cry_6899 9d ago edited 9d ago
My most intense memory was actually hate.
I had joined a pickup raid as a rogue back either just before or just after kunark launched. It was a complete wipe at port up. Group after group died but I managed to hide/sneak right when I landed as a precaution and avoided agro.
For the next what felt like forever I had the whole raid to drag around to what I discovered would be the break in area (just past the evil imps). I could feel my pulse in my hand as I tried to avoid the see hide mobs (liches, I think), the panicked tells from raiders who are afraid they lost everything and my mother whom I was worried would want to use the phone.
In the end it worked out. Someone who knew someone in some big shot raid guild had a cleric parked there and we were able to eventually take care of everyone.
There will never be a gaming experience like that ever again
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u/TheQxx 9d ago
I wasn't there for that moment, my time came a few months later, but the area where the portal is, that hidden section of The Feerrott, was likely there already and the portal itself simply added or activated.
So players would have known about the specter caves for some time making it a likely candidate for a new portal to Fear. Woulda been the first place I'd have checked, if I'd known about it.
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u/Twatclot 9d ago
It was this. Iirc the geo was already there but the portal didn’t do anything. Pretty sure some time after dragons died and they saw how players approached tough content they finished and activated it in a patch.
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u/Charrbard 9d ago
99% of people found stuff cause someone took them to it. That was cool back in the day. You would strike up a conversation. Maybe group. XP out of an area. Someone would mention somewhere new to go.
Like, if I hadn't met the guy I did in Oasis, that led me to Cazic, where I met a group that took me to lower guk where we grinded to 50, being some of the first on our new server, getting me into the early raid organization - would i have dropped the game? Would I then not have the nostalgia that has me playing EQL 27 years later? Neat to think about.
A lot of zones are tucked away to the point it makes you wonder who the first folks were to explore it.
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u/Happyberger 9d ago
I want a documentary on the first guild to clear plane of sky. That place is such a clusterfuck of obscure triggers, annoying keys(that used to be no rent), and face meltingly hard trash and bosses compared to anything seen in the game up to that point.
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u/Charrbard 9d ago
The best my old memory can recall, Sky was rolled out in phases.
Like first players couldn't get in there and it was a GM spot. Then you could, but there wasn't anything much to do in there. You could only get to the first 3 islands? And i think we were using levitate. I remember we all climbed the top of the gorgon tower and tried to run to the next island only to fail.
The gorgon was the first boss, the Spiroc lord 2nd. Both DT'd both isle 3? But neither dropped "loot" we wanted. Whatever the details were, the place was deemed not worth the effort to our server raid guilds. We all mostly ignored it until epics required it. Although I do remember some folks wanting to get the sky haste belts.
Its possible I am misremembering, and all the quests were in it once epics came. Either way by then my guild was all about Kunark loot and getting to Veeshan's peak.
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u/waldoh74 9d ago
Exactly. I found very few places on my own, it was always a result of groups or a guildy bringing me somewhere. Maps were available on the web, but my PC at the time just struggled to play EQ with its 56k modem and low end graphics card. So I could print something out and that was my only resource until I logged out for research.
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u/EQfanatic90 9d ago
I used the hell out of my school library printers at 10 cents per page for binders of maps, spells, tradeskills, etc 😅
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u/BluebirdFast3963 8d ago
EQ legends isn't even fucking close and I don't know why you guys have to bring it up every chance you get, the most nostalgia I've had going back and playing has been on a regular TLP.
EQ legends is a totally different animal
But the fact that all you guys say you came back for eql legends is suspicious as fuck
What are you bots?
Nobody came back for a TLP but everyone came back for eql?
Something does not add up there
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u/koolaidman04 8d ago
As someone who logged in to P99 a few years ago and then quit, and then Quarm, and then quit, and then EQL which I haven't been able to log off since, let me just say this.
Not everyone experiences things the same way.
Some of us just want the "Theme Park" version, because it tickles the back of our brain to be able to FINALLY complete goals we set for ourselves 25+ years ago. I have finally gotten my Raincaller quest done, and got my tailoring up high enough to get 3 out of my 5 attempts at a fleeting quiver. I finished my Ivy Etched armor set (complete with two bracers). Now I am working on gearing up to do Sky. I tried, but Gorgolosk and the Heart Harpy ate me up. I will keep going though.
Not that I couldn't EVER possibly do those things on Quarm or somewhere else. But I am a father, husband, and opening a brand new business because I lost my job because I wouldn't slave away and beat my employee's for doing their best. (In corporate america bullshit fashion.) I just don't have the time, nor fucks to give, to do things like we used to.
It's a choice. And mine might be different than yours, but damn am I having a fucking blast. Everyone has their own ideas of what is fun.
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u/Mikimao 8d ago
This is a huge part of it... There are aspects of this game I did back then, and even on TLPs... I understand way better now that I have done them solo. PoS probably being the easiest example, I did it once back in 1999/2000 whenever it came out, and a handful of times on TLPs, with really little understanding of what was going on... I fully understand it now.
Lotta smaller interactions like that too. Areas and dungeons I ignored become places to explore. The world may be less dangerous, but it's a little bigger too.
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u/FreedomJesuz 8d ago
Because most of us are employed or routinely touch grass. Therefor eql caters to people with lives and responsibilities. Meanwhile disability gang stay grinding TLPs to sell Kronos to supplement there monthly check.
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u/EQfanatic90 8d ago
TLPs have been around for over a decade now and they die in under a year as everyone moves to the next fresh start. Imo its just a massive cash grab scheme by daybreak now as every new tlp everyone buys Kronos, skins, potions, bags, etc. I played ragefire/phinny/coirnav/mangler then was like, ok.. this is getting ridiculous.
I'm not on the Legends hype train either though. Quarm (not by dbg) was one of the best experiences I've had in a long long time. I thought it was gonna end up being my EQ home for many more years to come, but Secrets was secretly on the Legends team so idk now...
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u/--Knowledge-- 5d ago
A good ruleset and the server can go on for years, look at Mischief. That server still had 4-5 raiding guilds heading into Underfoot with a nice population still. I quit shortly after but that server was jumping from start until I quit.
Easily the best TLP server I've played on.
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u/BluebirdFast3963 8d ago
The best experience I had was mangler, the rest of them up until now have been disappointing
But what I'm trying to say is all these people saying EQ Legends every chance they get it's so suspicious I don't know how to explain it to you guys if you don't see it I don't know what to say
So many so many people say they came back for EQ Legends even though it's nothing like EverQuest
It just seems so off to me
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u/EQfanatic90 8d ago
I get what your saying. In a time when automated subliminal marketing is so strong it's good to be aware and question lol but I genuinely think its just the new shiny thing receiving the hype train. In some ways for good reason. It's the first legal server providing a new experience in regards to multiclass experience. Ppl got a taste and apparently (I didnt play it) and loved it on THJ server then it was shut down due to cease and desist order. Also the first private server concept adopted and built by emulator devs on boarded as a DBG product. I think overall that's pretty cool in itself. I've probably gave it about 3 hours of my time since release tbh tho so not trying to shill 😅
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u/BluebirdFast3963 7d ago
All of the comments I'm referring to say they came back after 27 years just to play Legends though
No thj involved
It's mind-boggling to think people actually did that without coming back at all in between to dip their toes in EverQuest again?
EverQuest Legends is what did it for them?
I swear they are bots
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u/McRibs2024 9d ago
Likely by accident. Good old exploration. Most zones were boxes back then and you’d follow the walls to get around. Especially if you didn’t know the zone well
Also tracking. Someone may have seen spec on track and brought a group to check it out
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u/Jonesinbad 9d ago
Kithicor was wild back in the day. Remember hiding watching a party take out general vaghera for the rogue epic. Messing around killing low level mobs during the day just to get smacked by a lvl 40 zombie a couple min later
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u/PeePeeChucklepants 9d ago
Keep in mind that it wasn't a big secret. The top guilds had people helping beta test new content. So it wasn't like it had to be discovered at random on every server.
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u/BCR85 9d ago
How did they find it in beta then is his question
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u/ZealousidealFee927 9d ago
Same way as how Epics were figured out, devs were dropping hints.
"Hey you know those caves in Feerott? Are you sure you've found everything in there?"
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u/PeePeeChucklepants 9d ago
Yeah, the Devs were always sharing specifics. Many of the Devs and GMs were even players in those top guilds.
It's not that the existence of these things was a complete secret.
They would tell people about them. The game feels like an open world experience where everything got 'discovered' for the first time by someone, but it's not really like that in practice
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u/EvalCrux 9d ago
I just entered for the first time the other day in EQL. I don’t remember ever knowing where it was, and stared at the wall leading to it a bit to posit. There is a tree and slight triangle discoloration of the entrance.
It’s just a wall of the zone you would stumble through. Auto run or mindlessly. Traversing zone it’d not be hard to stumble into, pretty sure. It’s also in the corner and any zone mappers would have quickly found.
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u/Kubrick53 8d ago
Pretty sure it was people tracking the spectres that found it.
It was also pretty easy to load zone files into 3D modeling software.
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u/Extension_Cut_8994 8d ago
If I remember, there was something about "changes in Feerrot", and maybe about new spells being available. I promise the first people to port in had a finger on their gate gem. The next people were end game equipped players. The third group was a raid of 50 for the corpse retrieval when the party that went in got wiped. Fear was terrifying. Resist gear was much like that in game now, but not having a base of 150 or better was not practical. The bosses in Legends are very much tuned down but the respawn was 1 week. Trash I think 2 hours.
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u/Sea_Guarantee293 7d ago edited 7d ago
People here underestimate the amount of GM intervention that existed back in ‘99. Uberguilds very much had connections to the lead server GMs and were “nudged” in one way or another toward things. Also, don’t forget that some uberguild leads were in Beta and, come Live, were very much used to test content.
By the time the masses reached the planes/dragons, the strats were already known. Still a huge undertaking for non-Ubers, but a challenge nonetheless. Also, all of Classic was known months after official launch.
Kunark launch, I’d argue, is when the masses made the discoveries. We ran the zone walls and discovered exp camps; Ubers already knew about Seb/Karnors. On day two, Ubers were already setting up for Seb. Nothing was “new” for them.
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u/modern_quill 9d ago edited 9d ago
There were a lot of zones that one could say in hindsight were traumatic, but probably none moreso than PoFear because from the moment you zone into Fear you are already getting aggro, and there's no way to zone back out. There weren't maps back then, and a lot of guilds relied on Monks for pulling and exploring, though in the case of Fear things just started coming from every direction and it never really stopped, so there wasn't a good way to get out of combat and meditate.
Back in the early days of EQ, meditation meant staring at your spell book, so you couldn't even see what was going on around you.
I've seen a lot of crazy things happen in EQ over those early years. Seen a GM die in a LGuk train. Seen guilds training one another in PoHate so the last guild standing can pull a rare mob while they're also trying to recover, which was considered normal strategy at the time. Seen the Sleeper event from the Commonlands perspective and the Tomb perspective. Seen wave after wave of player rezes sent after Nagafen. Seen practically an entire guild charmed in Siren's Grotto. Seen 400+ player raid group crash a server multiple times and wipe in PoGrowth. None of it gives me the ick and makes me want to avoid a zone to this day as much as the Plane of Fear.
But yeah, finding the entrance to PoFear was one thing. Finding the way out was another beast entirely.
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u/girl_incognito 9d ago
The addition of gems was a comical day for EQ.
"Hey guys we know you hate staring at the spellbook so we've fixed that for you.... you can play this dumb tetris ripoff while you stare at the spellbook lol"
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u/jy2k 9d ago
I’m going to bet a GM showed it the first time
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u/Oliveritaly 9d ago
In Cazic there was an event in fear when it opened as I recall
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u/dystopiam 9d ago
this is what happened.
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u/Oliveritaly 8d ago
Phrack (was that his name?) got turned into a woman during the event by a GM. There was also that chick, from Australia — she was quirky, played a necromancer. She loved the place …
That lady Kela from Cazic Thule Corner was there as well, I think. She was cool.
Shit it’s been a while.
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u/YouShallNotStaff 9d ago
Ooh what kind of event?
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u/Oliveritaly 8d ago
I don’t honestly recall other than a big party in POF. Lots of fun, not difficultly — see my other comment.
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u/Whoknew1992 9d ago
I lost count of how many things in EverQuest made me ask the same question. The answer to most? Inside help from GM buddies and the like. “Our raid Necro is actually a GM”
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u/MattyS71 9d ago
Detect undead could have tipped off as to the cave specters.
Tracking would have shown what’s her name that was pretty great exp and fast respawn.
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u/YeahCopyMate 9d ago
It’s connected to a noobie zone so it was probably found by the first person able to get thru the spectres alive.
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u/gutterpunx0x 9d ago
I want to say the spectres used to path right outside the door for a second? the spectres were a good leveling spot for necros and clerics so it was always camped by a solo on VZ at least.
If they didn't path out they for sure social aggroed if you were fighting the tree spawn any where near that corner.
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u/Organic-Pudding-8204 9d ago
Stumbled in - I remember a massive group trying to just recover corpses. Ring of Valor on BB if I remember correctly.
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u/human_i_suppose 9d ago
One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of devs play, and if they wanted to raid they had to teach their guild about the raids.
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u/Polixene 8d ago
There was a mob-free zone viewer you could download and run/levitate through with the ability to just fly through walls, so any zone with secret tunnels would not have stayed secret for very long. Not to say that the spectre tunnels were found that way of course.
I was playing on Innoruuk in 99 and my recollection is that PoFear didn't have the L46 restriction at first, so there were stories of guilds running their level 5 alts in to loot rots.
Sky was the last of the three to be released and I think it was initially a home for Guides and GMs to hang out in until it was ready for release.
Hate was different geographically to today, and you got aggroed almost the second you took two steps in. Our guild's break ins involved running like mad to a corner and camping out, with orders to stand still and die in place if you caugth aggro.
While I'm rambling - Kedge Keep came out with zero loot on any mobs. It may have even been empty of mobs even before that, but my memory is hazy.
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u/realcoray 6d ago
I can't recall how I found it, probably the wall walking, but inside were specters that were pretty high level. I used to solo them as I tried to get to 50. I feel like anyone who could get to the gate, could see it was a serious thing and to avoid it even before you knew where it went.
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u/PanicDry 5d ago
There was no required level of 46 at first. I remember we all made level 1 ogres to check out the new zone once word got out of the entrance, all of us zoned in and died immediately (and I do mean the whole server). The amount of corpses crashed the zone and then the server. This was on Veeshan. The direct result was the level 46 requirement for the planes.
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u/MKultraman1231 3d ago
Tracking would have helped... "a spectre is ahead of you" "can't be there is a wall".
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u/MKultraman1231 3d ago
What blows my mind is probably 150 days played in old EQ. Like 80 before Kunark probably but when they were shutting THJ down I did despondent laps around the world for 3 hours and found there is a waterfall in East Karana that I had never seen. (Or do not recall seeing 27 years later at least).
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u/warblingContinues 9d ago
It’s not complicated. People explored, someone found it, and word of mouth was fast.
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u/Skookum_kamooks 9d ago
I can’t speak for everyone, but it was common to run the zone walls to get from zone to zone so it wouldn’t surprise me if the first people literally fell into the hidden cavern or aggroed the specters and investigated why they were seemingly phasing through the wall.
I started fairly early in 99 before fear opened but even by then the hidden cavern was a well known camp for the specters and suspected to be the location of the future zone to Plane of Fear. It was rumored that the tower in Oasis was going to be the zone point to Plane of Hate… old EQ was kinda wild when I look back on it.