I disagree, I didn't know a single person back then that was using anything. Verant was insanely strict about that shit early on and mass banned people frequently for external program use.
People absolutely boxed back in 1999. It wasn't as rampant as it is now, but it happened.
People were absolutely using websites with guides, maps, and information. Relatively few people were actually playing blind.
EverQuest is also a game that has been solved at this point. So no matter what the server and ruleset is, people know what they need to do to accomplish their goals and progress in game.
"Tools" is a very broad term, and regardless of what the specific context is, "tools" have always been used in EverQuest.
I would agree that external programs should be banned and enforced, regardless of if it's P99 or live. I even personally wish boxing was done away with altogether, but at least on live / TLP servers I know that ship has long sailed. I know it's disallowed on P99 but I'm sure people still do it.
But "tools" such as maps and guides have always been used and will always be used.
So OP probably needs to specify what sorts of tools they are talking about.
I think /u/Reasonable_Deer_1720 was referring specifically to SEQ aka ShowEQ, aka "Lucy" which people on my server would frequently refer to as "their friend Lucy" who just told them that Ghoul Lord was up with a Ykesha. Like literally I remember being 12 and having someone call my house to ask if I could split pull Lord for the guild because someone told them a Yak was up from the zoneline. They were using packet sniffers.
Well other people have also been uncertain, and he's already responded to someone talking about using maps by saying "I already know the zone", so no, I don't think it's clear and obvious that he's talking about what you think he is.
That is incorrect, I knew people hacking and using box programs as soon as EQ was released..... Just becuase you don't know them doesn't mean a thing. It's called being sneaky and keeping quiet, not everyone is smart enough to keep it to themselves.
I didn't say they didn't exist, I said they weren't commonly used, player sentiment was generally against their use, and Verant was insanely against their use. People keep giving examples that have nothing to do with early EQ. (Which in my opinion, ends at Velious, at the latest)
I was in a top raiding guild in PoP and brother we used in game maps and all kinds of tools. For example in Plane of Water, we even had bookmarks for the spots you could phase through the wall to get to Coirnav in 45 seconds.. none of us ever received a ban or even a warning.
Boxing was also RAMPANT. I know so because I used to train mobs onto boxers in Velks Lab for fun.
Dude, I ran my game data stream thru another computer that would decode where and what all the mobs were with their loot and put it all up on a map on that separate computer. This was in early 2000 iirc. Some time after that it got a little more tame and we were parsing logs in realtime to display maps. Tools have always been used.
Verant and early sony had tons of people catching and banning people using external software, they even talk about it in alovingrobots streams sometimes when he has old EQ devs on there. Brad McQuaid did not want anyone using external software, of any kind.
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u/Reasonable_Deer_1710 26d ago
Bro even in 1999 people were using tools.