Everquest Manual:Original

EverQuest Beta Manual – Phase 4 - 2/9/99

[DISCLAIMER: During the Beta, many of the functions and abilities 
listed here will change without notice.  Some will be added, some will 
be removed.  This document is designed to provide a high level overview 
of getting started to make your transition into the EverQuest testing 
environment as easy as possible.]

** About GMs **
We are starting to build up the Game Master (GM) infrastructure for 
EverQuest.  If you require assistance in-game, use the /petition <msg> 
command -- all GMs online will receive your message and you will be 
helped as soon as possible -- using the /tell command to solicit help 
from a GM is no longer legal.  Note that there are several kinds of GMs 
you might encounter in-game, but there are only two kinds responsible 
for helping testers -- GUIDES, and GM-Admin GMs.  Other GMs (coders, 
areas, etc.) are development team members and are not there to help you 
(sorry -- but they need to finish the game).  GUIDES are external (non-
Sony) GMs who are there to help you and answer questions, but their 
power is limited (meaning they will often refer you to a GM-Admin).  
Our plan is to have GM-Admins in-game most of the time, all week, but 
it may take some time for this coverage to become complete.

SOME IMPORTANT POLICIES:
-- NO reimbursals of lost items, money, or experience will be made 
(sorry, but this is a BETA).
-- Using the /tell command to solicit help from a GM is no longer legal 
use the /petition command.
-- Using 'safe' (i.e. areas where NPCs can't or won't go, even though 
it makes sense they could) is illegal.  Fighting NPCs, or using those 
areas to rest and heal, is not allowed.  An example would be areas near 
zone transition sections.  These problem areas are being fixed as 
quickly as possible, but in the meantime, testers caught abusing these 
areas won't be testers for long.  

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

Step 1 - Creating Your First Character

When you first enter the game, you will be prompted to create a new 
character. Your first decisions will be race, class, gender, stats, 
facial aspect and name.

The race chosen will define the classes available to you.  Certain 
races have advantages that are fairly obvious when you go cycling 
through the various combinations of race and class.  As you select a 
race, the picture changes, the classes available change, and the base 
stats change.  One of the differences between the characters is the use 
of infravision or ultravision... i.e. the ability to see in the dark.  
Humans, Erudites, and Barbarians do not have this ability, all other 
races do in some form or another.

The classes available vary with the race chosen.  Not all classes are 
available to every race.  Changing the class chosen changes the base 
stats of the character.  A brief description of each class is included 
in Appendix A below.

Gender is a personal preference and has no bearing on any aspect of the 
character beyond appearance.

Statistics are broken into two categories, primary and secondary.  The 
primary stats are the brighter colored stats that are the most 
important to the class chosen.  The secondary stats are the less bright 
ones that still effect your character, but are not as important to your 
class.  Once you've decided upon your race and class, you have a group 
of bonus points to spend, located at the top of your stats, to increase 
selected stats.  The stats can not be lowered beyond their initial 
values, but can be raised as high as desired.  It is recommended that 
the primary stats be focused on, as increasing those will be most 
beneficial to your character's profession.

A general view of the stats:

Strength:
This is the physical power of the character.  It determines how much 
the character can carry without being encumbered and is figured into 
the character's ability to do damage to an opponent in melee.

Stamina:	
This is your health and constitution.  It reflects your ability to 
perform strenuous tasks without becoming exhausted.  It is also used in 
calculating your hit points.

Agility:	
This is your physical dexterity and is used to determine your defensive 
abilities.  The higher your Agility, the less likely you are to be hit 
by melee combat.

Dexterity:	
This is your hand/eye coordination and is used in combat accuracy and 
spell casting capability.  This is used in calculating your missile 
combat skills and aids in determining if you are interrupted when you 
are hit while casting a spell.

Wisdom:		
This is willpower and faith and is used to determine the casting 
abilities of Shaman, Druids, Rangers, Clerics, and Paladins.  It is 
also involved in resisting magical spells that effect the mind.

Intelligence:	
This is intellect and is used to determine the casting abilities of 
Wizards, Enchanters, Magicians, Necromancers, Shadowknights, and Bards.

Charisma:	
This is a combination of the physical beauty and charm of the character 
and is used primarily to calculate how various NPC factions react to 
the character.  The higher the charisma, the less likely they will be 
adversely effected by actions that will lower the characters standing 
with a group, though this modification is very limited (i.e. a pretty 
and charming murderer is still a murderer).  Charisma also can cause 
merchants to alter their pricing to the character, again depending upon 
the character's standing in the merchant's faction.

Spending the bonus points is the one and only time that a character's 
stats change throughout the life of the character.  Certain spells and 
magical items may cause temporary changes to a character's stats, but 
these initial values will otherwise remain the character's permanent 
stats for their entire life.

Pressing the Face button allows the player to change the character's 
facial aspect, customizing the character's appearance somewhat.

The character's name must be suitable to a fantasy genre and not be a 
direct plagiarism of an existing literary character.  The best solution 
is to allow the character generator to create a name for the player, or 
for the player to create a name on their own instead of borrowing from 
an existing character.  Creating an offensive name or a name that is 
distracting or non-fantasy can result in the GM's changing the name or 
deleting the character with or without notifying the player. 

After selecting the above characteristics, the player will be prompted 
for a Deity. It is not required to pick a Deity, unless the character 
is of a religious profession (Cleric, Shaman, etc).  The choice of a 
Deity is an important one, as the character will have this Deity for 
the full of it's life, and that Deity brings with it certain faction 
assumptions.  For example, choosing Innoruuk, the Prince of Hate, will 
most certainly not make your character popular around the temple Rodcet 
Nife, the Prime Healer.  And, being human and choosing Innoruuk will 
not necessarily make you welcome in Neriak, the home of the Dark Elves.  
For further discussion on the Deities, it is best do research on them 
at www.everquest.com. 


Step 2 - Customizing Your Playing

After making a character and Entering the World, you will need to make 
yourself "comfortable".  You do this by adjusting your view and 
settings to give you the greatest amount of flexibility to your style 
of playing.


I.  VIEW- you arrive in EverQuest with a small viewscreen boxed in by 
utility keys, etc. They are mostly self-explanatory, but we will cover 
a couple of them here. 

The first view you see is called "Windowed" and offers the best 
performance on slower machines.  In your upper left corner are your 
Options and Persona buttons.  Lower left has a rectangle of 6 empty 
buttons.  This is your Hot Button keypad.  It allows you to have this 
view and keep needed skill or function buttons readily available (more 
on this later).  The bottom center is your text box.  This window or 
box is where you interact with other players (by speaking), transact 
with NPCs, and receive information about monsters (such as keeping 
track of your combat).  On the upper right hand side is your vital 
signs (hit points (red bar), manna (blue bar) and stamina (yellow bar) 
) and below that is the space for your party member's vital signs.  On 
the right hand side are a series of menu buttons and below them are the 
menus that these buttons bring up.  

Press F10 once, and you should have a full-screen view with your Hot 
Button keypad in the bottom left hand corner, your text box is now 
translucent in the bottom center, and your vital signs top right 
corner. This is the "Half Screen" view.  It allows you to keep track of 
your vital signs and gives you a wider field of view, but can be a bit 
sluggish on slower machines.  In the upper left corner are 4 green 
numbers. The first is your "ping" time to the EQ servers, the second is 
packet loss out, the third is packet loss in, and the fourth is data 
throughput to the server.  When the 1st number goes up, your response 
time is slowed.  If the 2nd and 3rd numbers turn yellow and then red, 
be prepared, your connection could be in trouble (server down, ISP, 
etc.).  

Pressing F10 again gives you a full-screen view without any buttons, 
bars, or text. Press F10 once more and you're back to the "Windowed" 
view. 

Pressing the Options button allows you to customize your game settings. 
Here is a brief overview of the settings that can be adjusted:

General:  allows you to change the sound & music volume of the game.
Display:  allows you to change display specific to your monitor, as 
well as show PC and NPC names (see the /shownames command below). It 
also allows you to alter your 3dfx Glide settings if your graphics 
drivers are Glide3 3.0 compatible.

Chat Filter: allows you to turn on or off things in your text box that 
you do or do not want to see (such as /shouts and other peoples combat 
information).


II.   HOT BUTTON KEYPAD - the rectangle in the lower left of your 
screen (in the first 2 views) is a place to put skills or commands that 
you would like to use often.  To transfer buttons to the Hot Button 
Keypad, left click on the desired button and hold the button down.  A 
floating button will appear on top of your cursor. Move it to the 
desired position on the Hot Button Keypad, and left click again to 
secure it there.  Left clicking on the left and right arrows above the 
Hot Button Keypad will cycle through the 6 sets of buttons.  Pressing 
the numbers 1-6 will activate the buttons without clicking on them, and 
pressing Shift-1-6 will change through the different sets of buttons.

To remove a button from the Keypad, left click on it and hold to pick 
it up, move the button to the middle of your screen, then right click.  
The button will vanish.

A.   Two basic command buttons that are usually transferred there are 
the Sit/Stand button and the Run/Walk button.  From the "windowed" 
view, there are 3 of 4 buttons on the right hand side, Abilities, 
Combat, Main, and Socials.  If Main is on the list, press it.  This 
brings up the main menu.  Move the button labeled "Walk" to the Keypad.

B.   To do this for secondary combat skills, click on the Combat button 
in the middle right side of your screen.  The Combat skill buttons will 
appear to the right of the text box.  The two buttons in the bottom 
right corner of the screen are available for combat skill assignment.  
Right clicking on either of these buttons will bring up a list of your 
current available combat skills.  Which skills appear is dependant upon 
your Class.  To choose a skill to be assigned, left click on it.  This 
places that skill on that button. Then move it as above.  These 
assigned skills are used in combat by clicking on them during combat. 
Combat skills each have their own duration for re-use and the button 
will stay depressed until you can use the skill again. Some of these 
skills have a short duration of only a few moments, while others can 
remain depressed for as long as a full game day (there are 4 game days 
in a real day).

C.   To use various other non-combat skills, press the Abilities button 
on the center right of your "Windowed" view.  Assign skills to these 
buttons in the same way you do the combat skills.  Skills that are not 
listed in these areas are either not attainable by your current level 
or are practiced automatically by other means.

D.   Spells can also be copied from the Spell Button bar to a Hot 
Button Keypad in the same manner, allowing them to be used in the "Half 
Screen" view.  See the section on Magic below on how to memorize 
spells.

E.   The Persona button (the button that takes you to the 
inventory/skill screen) can also be dragged to your Hot Button Keypad.  
This allows the character's inventory to be brought up from the Keypad.

F.   Under the Socials menu, there are several pre-programmed text 
macros with some of the more commonly used commands.  These can be 
moved like the above buttons to the Hotkey Button Bar.  In addition, 
they can be reprogrammed to provide your own customized text macros.  
Right click on the button you want to program.  A typing box will 
appear in your text window; simply click on the top slot to rename the 
button, and type below it what you want your character to say, using 
the appropriate "/" commands (Appendix C below).  Click Done and 
Control click to move as above.


III.   TEXT BOX - Right click on the text that appears at the center 
bottom of your screen in the Windowed and Half Screen views.  This is 
your Language box and your Current Language should say Common tongue. 
If it says anything else, no one else except others who speak that 
language will understand you and will perceive your speech as 
gibberish.  Click on it to see what other languages (if any) you know.  
Then right click again to return to the text box.

To speak to another character that is near by, hit Enter or "/" and 
type your message.  You are automatically defaulted to /say, which 
means only people around you hear you.  In the language box, you can 
choose to default to Group, which means only people you are grouped 
with hear you, or default to Tell, which targets only a specific person 
to hear you. These allow you to set a default instead of typing /tell 
or /gsay before every line of text.  You can also default to speak Out 
of Character, or to default to speak only to members of your Guild.  


Step 3 - First Play Session

Now you have your character and are ready to play, but there are some 
basics that need to be covered.  How do you move around?  How do you 
buy things you need or interact with other players?  What is combat 
like?  If you are a spellcaster, how do you get spells?  It's a lot 
easier to begin playing if you don't have to worry about answering 
these questions, so they are provided here.

I.   NAVIGATION - Use your arrow keys on the keyboard to move your 
character around the world.  A more detailed listing of the keys that 
are used to move about are included in Appendix B below.

A.   Click the Run button on the bottom right of your screen (on the 
Main menu of your "Windowed" view or on your Hot Button Keypad if you 
put it there) to run and again to resume walking.  If you have a long 
way to go, you may want to Auto-Run.  To start this, press on the 
Forward arrow to run.  Then press and hold the Alt key.  Let up on the 
Forward arrow key, then the Alt key.  You are now running until you 
press either the Forward or Backward arrows.  You can adjust direction 
with the Right or Left arrow while still running.  

The Page Up and Page Down buttons will allow you to look up and down, 
and the Home key will center your view again.  

Holding down the Spacebar will allow your character to crouch, and 
releasing the Spacebar will allow you to jump.  To running broad jump, 
lightly tap the space bar while running.

B.   Swimming is pretty much the same as running. Use the arrow keys to 
move forward, back, right or left and the Page Up and Page Down to face 
up and down.  You will swim in the direction you are facing.  Remember 
to keep an eye on your air supply in the top left of your screen while 
submerged or you may find yourself in a watery grave. It's sometimes 
best to skim the surface while swimming. Tapping gently on the Page Up 
key while pressing your Forward arrow key will create a nice dog paddle 
effect and keep your head above water.  You can Auto-Swim using the 
same process as Auto-Run. 

C.   While moving about, you may want to change camera views.  You 
enter the world with a first-person view.  Pressing F9 will change your 
camera view.  You can view yourself from directly above, from behind, 
and from various angles.  There are 5 different possible views. The 
first view is 1st person, as if looking from the character's eyes.  The 
2nd is top down, from directly above the character's head.  The 3rd 
view is Chase Camera, which follows from behind and turns when the 
character does, looking over the character's shoulder.  The other two 
are static cameras that do not turn with the character but keep a 
constant position (facing east, etc).  

To adjust your view, you can hold down the ALT key and then use the 
arrow keys to move the camera to the right and left, and up and down.  
To zoom the camera in and out, use the 7 and 1 key, respectively, on 
your numeric keypad.  These settings will remain throughout a playing 
session, but will need to be reset after logging out and back in.


II.   STARTING EQUIPMENT - Your character starts with certain items, 
depending upon your character's profession.  To find out what you have, 
go to the "Windowed" view.  To view your inventory, click on either 
your Persona button on the left of your screen or the animated icon 
underneath it. A front view of your character appears in the upper 
right corner and underneath are the items you are carrying. To view all 
the equipment you are currently wearing, click on the front view of 
your character or click on the button above it.  Here is a basic 
outline of what these items are for. 

A.   Most characters start with 2 notes, and spellcasters will usually 
have a scroll of their basic beginning spell.  One note is a "tattered 
note-rolled up".  Right click on this to read it and find out the name 
of the NPC to give it to.  This is your first quest: to join your 
profession's guild.  

[Note: Some PC's do not start with this note, as their Guildmaster has 
not yet been added to the world.  Not having a note does not is not a 
disadvantage, as membership to your profession's Guild is not required 
to receive training]

Once you've read it, proceed to your guildhall, which may or may not be 
somewhere in the vicinity of your starting point.  To give the note to 
them, left click on the note, then release, and it will float with your 
cursor.  Click on the NPC to give it to them.  If you give this note to 
anyone other than who it's intended for, they will say "Thank You" and 
the note is irretrievable.  When you give the note to the correct NPC, 
you will receive a small amount of experience, and a usable item of 
some sort.  Put the item in your inventory, or on your person by 
dropping it on the picture of yourself in the upper right hand corner. 

B.   The second note is a PK note.  If you want to be able to fight 
other players, read this note and follow the instructions therein.  If 
you do not ever want to fight another player, click on the note, and 
move it to the Destroy button right above your inventory items.  Click 
there, and the PK note is gone forever.  Another option is to put it in 
the bank for possible future use.

C.   If you are a spellcaster, you will begin with a basic spell which 
you will need to scribe in your spellbook.  Other spells are also 
available to buy in or around your guildmaster.  See section VII below 
on Spells to find out more about preparing your spells for casting.

D.   When in the Guildhall, at first level, you have skill practice 
points and can train with the Master or other NPC members of your 
guild.  Double clicking on the guildmaster or trainer will bring up a 
Training Menu, with the skills available to you and their cost, if any.  
You can come back to train at any time, spending practice points you 
have earned by gaining levels.  To spend your points, highlight the 
skill desired on the left by clicking on it and click on the Practice 
button at the bottom left of the skills list.  

Some skills are labeled with a level number and cannot be practiced 
until you reach the level listed with that skill.  Once this level is 
reached, you will need to spend at least one practice on it to learn 
the basics.  

Your first few practices in your skills are free, but more advanced 
training will eventually require payment to the Trainer.  To view all 
of your skills and their rankings, click the animated icon or Persona 
button on the left of the screen and then the Skills button at the top 
left.  As you move about the world and fight, the skills you use will 
advance on their own, without training, as long as the basics of the 
skill are known.  The maximum a skill will rise on it's own is 
dependant upon your level.  As you advance in level, this "ceiling" 
will rise as well.  There is no "cap" or maximum total number of skills 
a character can have.  Each skill has it's own "ceiling", based solely 
upon the character's race/class/level.

E.   Most towns will have a bank or Vault where you can deposit money, 
make change, or store items you want to keep but don't want to carry. 
It is strongly recommended that you cache your starting weapon, once 
you get a better one.  It is not worth any money at any merchant, and 
it's always nice to have a back-up.  


III.   PC INTERACTION - Inspecting, Trading and Grouping

A.   To target another player, click on them.  You will see their name 
on the middle right of your screen with a red hit points bar behind 
their name.  Double clicking on the player will /consider them, telling 
you how difficult they would be for you to defeat, and will show you 
their Inventory if you are close enough to inspect them. Underneath the 
view of their character will be a brief player-generated description. 
To create your own description, press F9 to change to a view that you 
can see yourself, then inspect yourself by double clicking on you.  
Click on the box that will contain the text and start typing.  This 
text is visible to anyone that inspects you. 

B.   To trade with another player, click on the item you want to give 
to them in your inventory to pick it up, then click on the other 
character to "drop" it on them.  The Trade Menu will come up and you 
will be able to drop additional items for trade into one of the slots 
under your name.  To complete the trade, press the Trade button (your 
name will turn bright green on the trade screen).  The trade will be 
completed when the target player also ok's the trade.  You may also add 
other items to the trade, but if you do it will reset the trade switch 
and both members must ok the trade again.  If more items are traded 
than the recipient has empty slots (including within bags and 
backpacks), the excess items will fall to the ground at the recipient's 
feet and need to be retrieved.

C.   To group with another player, target them and hit the Invite 
button on the Main menu of the "Windowed" view.  If the player accepts 
your invitation, you will see the character's name and life gauge (red 
HP bar) appear in the party window on the center right of your screen. 
If another player invites you to join a group, the Invite button will 
change to say "Follow".  Clicking Follow will add you to that group.  
To leave a group, hit the Disband button.  If you are the leader of a 
group, you can selectively remove group members by clicking on the 
member's name in the party window screen and clicking on Disband.  If 
you target yourself or have no target and click Disband, the entire 
group will disband.

While grouped, any experience gained from any member of the group 
killing a monster is divided up among the party members, regardless of 
the amount of participation of those members.  If all of the characters 
are of the same level, then the experience points are divided up 
evenly.  If there is some disparity in the levels of the characters, 
then the higher level characters get a larger share than the lower 
level ones.  How the shares are determined is a complex calculation 
that will shift and alter throughout the course of the Beta.  The 
important thing to note is higher level characters get more experience 
points in a group than lower level ones.

Note on Grouping: To prevent "twinking", or higher level players 
carrying lower level players around and killing monsters for them to 
get experience from, there is a limit to the maximum distance in levels 
between the highest level player and the lowest level player in a 
group.  At the lower levels, (< 10th or so), that maximum is around 3.  
So if a 10th and a 7th level character are grouped, the 7th level will 
get some (but a lot less than the 10th will get) experience from 
monsters killed.  However, if a 6th and a 10th level character are 
grouped, the 6th will get little to no experience.  The pretense for 
this is because the lower level character is not experienced enough to 
even understand what the higher level character is doing.  As 
characters advance in levels, this maximum increases, so that a 35th 
and a 27th could adventure together and the 27th could still get 
experience.


IV.   NPC INTERACTION - Interaction

A.   To target any NPC, click on them.  Double clicking on Merchants 
will bring up the Merchant menu and Guildmasters will bring up the 
Training menu (see II.D above).  When in the Merchant menu, you may buy 
any equipment the Merchant offers in the left-hand menu, provided you 
have enough money for it and space in your inventory. To make a 
purchase, click on the item of interest and click the purchase button 
underneath.  

The price you are offered will be determined by many factors: How your 
race is viewed by that of the merchant, your charisma, your 
"reputation" based upon offenses you have committed.  For example, Dark 
Elves may be able to purchase items from a Human merchant, but the 
prices will be extremely high as there is no love lost between Humans 
and Dark Elves.

B.   To sell an item to the Merchant, (such as loot taken off monsters 
killed) click on it and then click the sell button underneath (if you 
agree to his price).

C.   Double clicking on any other NPC or monster will give you a very 
general assessment of its level of difficulty compared to you.  In the 
case of NPC's, these individuals may have information for you, or be 
involved in some form of quest.  Try to talk to them (using normal /say 
text) and see what they offer.  For monsters, the assessment can be 
done at a range to allow you to decide whether or not you want to 
engage it.  The text of the messages gives an indicator the relative 
danger of the monster and the color of the text represents the relative 
amount of experience points you will gain by killing it. For example, 
Green text indicates that no experience points will be gained, as the 
monster is too easy for the character to kill.


V. NPC INTERACTION - Alignments and Factions

A.	Norrath is a world full of NPCs, and many are important members 
of that world. Interacting with them will reveal the rich history of 
the world, including the many factions that exist. NPCs will typically 
belong to a faction, and that faction has both enemies and allies. If 
you do something for an NPC (a quest, perhaps), that act will typically 
raise your standing in their faction (as well as lower your standing in 
those factions opposed to the NPC's). Similarly, killing that NPC can 
dramatically affect your standing with that NPC's factions and other 
associated factions. 

B.	When you enter the world of EverQuest with a new character, he or 
she begins their journey with an initial faction standing -- these are 
determined by the character's race, class, and deity. This is very 
important to keep in mind -- for example, if you begin your life as a 
Human Shadowknight in the city of Qeynos, you shouldn't expect most of 
its citizens to treat you very well. In fact, several might attack you 
on sight. Qeynos, being a city primarily of 'good' alignment, doesn't 
react well to Shadow Knights, whom they consider 'evil'. Also, keep in 
mind that the world is dynamic -- some NPCs only appear during the 
night, or after certain events. It is important to be aware of this, in 
that an area might be safe to certain classes or races at times, yet 
unsafe at others. 

C.	After character creation, it is your character's deeds that 
modify his or her factions. It is important to keep in mind that 
alignments in EverQuest are relative, not absolute. Dark Elves do not 
view themselves as evil, whereas Wood Elves certainly believe they are. 
It would therefore be possible (albeit difficult) for a Troll to 
perform deeds and quests for the Humans (let's say, for example, the 
Qeynos Guards, which are a faction in and of themselves), and 
eventually gain their favor. And then, while almost every Troll would 
be attacked on sight by those guards, that Troll in particular wouldn't 
be.

D.	If a character is attacked by an NPC, it is typically due to one 
of two reasons: either that NPC is just inherently aggressive, or that 
NPC's factions are diametrically opposed to the character's. If it is 
because of the latter, the NPC (if capable of speech) should say why 
he, she, or it, is so upset. For example, an NPC Necromancer that hates 
Paladins should, upon encountering a Paladin, both attack him and 
mutter something like 'I hate those holier than thou Paladins!' It is 
important to pay attention to what the NPC says.

E.	If the player encounters an NPC and his or her character is not 
attacked, it is still possible to ascertain how that NPC feels about 
the character, based on factions. Double clicking on that NPC will 
display one of several sentences, each describing to what severity the 
NPC either hates you or likes you, or is indifferent (double clicking 
also reveals other information not related to factions -- please see 
section IV above).  After performing quests, or attacking various NPCs, 
it is very useful to double click on other NPCs to determine if your 
actions have changed the way they feel about your character.

F.	Determining if an NPC is a Key Member of Norrathean society or 
not is very important. Key Members almost always have proper names 
and/or titles, while non-key NPCs have more generic names. An example 
would be B'ranick Notai, a gnoll that is known to hang out in the 
vicinity of the Qeynos Hills. He is a Key Member, while another gnoll 
called perhaps 'a patrolling gnoll' or 'a gnoll scout' is not. 
Killing B'ranick will significantly affect your faction standings, 
while killing a non-key member will either affect your standings to a 
significantly lesser degree, or very often not at all.

G.	EverQuest has a great deal of quests (and more and more are being 
added every day). It is very important to understand the faction 
system, as well as the concept of Key Members, if the player wishes to 
interact with the game's quest system. In addition to determining 
whether an NPC will attack a character, the faction system is also used 
to determine what, if any, quest information an NPC will give to a 
character. The best way to find quests is to interact with Key Members 
(a non-key member will rarely if ever reveal quest information). First 
target the NPC, and then communicate with them using the '/say' 
command. Perhaps your character encounters an NPC named Lisara who 
periodically says she is looking for a lost necklace. The player should 
target that NPC, and then enter '/say Lisara where is your necklace?' 
If you've said the right words, the NPC might respond and give you 
additional information regarding the necklace, leading you hopefully to 
taking part in its recovery (thereby solving the quest). Note that it 
is important that you include the NPC's first name in your sentence. 
Also remember that the NPC will consider your factions, and might give 
a different quest to different character, or perhaps no quest at all. 

H.	Understanding the faction system, and using the double click 
method of determining how an NPC feels about your character (or noting 
what the NPC says if it's attacking your character) is clearly and for 
obvious reasons an important part of playing EverQuest. If your play 
style is such that you enjoy quests and learning about the history and 
details behind the world of Norrath, then interacting with Key Members 
(NPCs with proper names and/or titles) is essential. And if your play 
style is more focussed on character advancement and combat, it is 
important that you avoid attacking or otherwise interfering with Key 
Members, in that doing so can drastically change your faction standings 
and significantly alter the way NPCs react to your character's presence 
(for example, doing something to upset the Guards of Qeynos could make 
it very difficult to enter the city, in that they might attack you on 
sight). 

VI.   EQUIPPING YOURSELF - Weapons, Armor & Clothing

A.   To pick up a piece of equipment you see, simply left click on it, 
then release.  To add it to your inventory, either click on to an 
inventory slot or just click on your player view window.  When using 
the player view window for adding equipment, the item will 
automatically be equipped on the appropriate body position if your 
character can use the selected item and that slot is empty.  When 
picking up something from the ground or while looting a body, you can 
right-click on it and it will automatically be placed into your 
inventory.

B.   To inspect any item, right click on it and hold the button down to 
bring up it's properties screen.  This can be done anywhere, including 
your inventory, a merchants inventory, in the trade window, etc.  The 
information available will include weight, classes/races that can use 
it, damage and speed, etc.  The amount of information gleaned will vary 
based upon where the item is (i.e. looking at someone else's inventory 
will give you less information than looking at your own.)

C.   If you're buying weapons or armor, you will need to equip yourself 
after purchasing, which means removing the item from an inventory slot 
and clicking on your character in the player view window to "put it 
on", so to speak.  Weapons, armor and clothing are all done this same 
way.  Before purchasing items, right-click on them and hold the button 
down to inspect them and make sure that they are wearable/usable by 
members of both your race and your class.  Wearable items come in 3 
sizes, Small, Medium, and Large, and certain races are limited to 
certain sized items.

D.   To use any consumable item (potions, liquor, etc), right-click on 
it. Caution must be used when consuming excessive amounts alcohol as 
the results may be random and somewhat erratic...similar to real life.

E.   Food and Water are an important part of your adventuring life.  If 
you do not have food and water, you will become thirsty and starve.  
Thirsty or starving characters do not regenerate stamina, health, or 
mana.  They move slower and are less effective in combat.  To prevent 
this, always have enough food and water in your inventory.  

Food comes in many forms: Rations, Iron Rations, Meat, Muffins, etc. 
and can be found in many ways.  It is purchasable from many types of 
vendors, can be fished for with the Fishing skill (assuming you have a 
fishing pole and bait), foraged for with the Foraging skill, or found 
as loot on some animals (in the form of meat).  

Water comes in Flasks of Water that can be purchased or found through 
foraging, and Globes of Water, which are summoned by casters for their 
use..  Contrary to some dwarven beliefs, Alcohol is not a substitute 
for water in EverQuest ;)

F.   Craft items are partially implemented and come in a variety of 
forms, but all have similar functions.  

An example of a Craft Item is a Sewing Kit.  To use a Sewing Kit, you 
must first buy one from a Leather Armor Merchant.  From this same 
merchant can be purchased various patterns for pieces of rough leather 
armor.  When hunting animals and looting them, Ruined Pelts will be 
found.  Place a Ruined Pelt and a Pattern into the Sewing Kit and press 
the Combine button.  A skill check will be made against the appropriate 
Craft Skill (Tailoring, in this case) and, if this check is successful, 
an item will be made, and the skill might also improve.  If the check 
fails, both the pattern and the hide will be lost.  Different animal 
pelts result in different sized items. Ruined wolf hides produce small 
sized items, ruined cat/lion hides produce medium sized, and ruined 
bear hides produce large sized item.

Experimentation is the key to this and other Craft items that may be 
found.


VII.   SPELLS - If you are capable of using spells, you will have a 
Spellbook symbol underneath the animated icon on the left center of 
your screen in the "Windowed" view.  Click on this icon and you will be 
brought into the Spellbook screen.  

A.   Scribing - All spell casters start with a single spell scroll in 
their inventory.  To scribe the scroll into your spellbook, click on 
the scroll to pick it up, then drop it onto one of the empty squares in 
your spell book.  The gauge on the bottom right of your spellbook 
screen is the time it takes to scribe the scroll.  

B.   Memorizing - Once you have the spell written in your book, you can 
memorize it for use by clicking on it to pick it up and clicking to 
drop it onto one of the 8 memory notches, which are the horseshoe 
shaped indentations on the left side of the spellbook screen.  The 
gauge on the bottom left of the spellbook screen is the time it takes 
to memorize the spell.  Once the spell is memorized, it appears as a 
"spell gem" in one of the horseshoe shaped notches.  The gems are color 
coded to give a general indication of the type of spell.  Here is the 
legend:

YELLOW:
The spell will be cast on you. 
RED:
The spell will be cast on who you have targeted. 
GREEN:
The spell is area effect, and will radiate out from who you have 
targeted. 
BLUE:
The spell has no range, and will radiate out from you. 
ORANGE:	
The spell is area effect, and will radiate out from who you have 
targeted. It will also effect everybody (usually for spells like Rain 
of Fire) 
PURPLE:
The spell is area effect, but will only affect people in your party. 

C.   Casting - To cast the spell, click on the intended target, then 
click on the spell icon in your memory slot (or on the Hotkey Button if 
it you moved it there).  A time gauge will appear in the upper lefthand 
corner of your screen, indicating the casting time.  If the caster is 
struck or moves during this time, the spell can be interrupted, causing 
it to fail.  The Channeling skill gives the caster a chance of 
recovering from such interruptions.  Many casting classes do not get 
this skill until later in their career, and the chance of success is 
VERY small at the lower skill levels..

Spells will cast successfully according to your skill in the 
appropriate skill area.  The better you get at the linked skill 
(Abjuration, Divination, Evocation, etc), the more successful your 
casting will be.  Failure to cast a spell results in a fizzle, which 
costs mana and produces no effect.

Once the spell is cast, it may or may not affect the target.  If the 
target is of a much higher level than the caster, or is especially 
resistant to magic, they may resist the spell.  Casting a spell upon 
someone, seeing it successfully complete, but seeing no effect means 
they resisted it.  The greater the distance in levels between the 
caster and the target, the greater the chance of resisting the spell 
each time it is cast.

To remove a spell from your memory, right click on it.  To determine 
what a memorized spell is, right click on the icon in the notch and 
hold the button down.  The Spell Properties box will appear in your 
text box.

D.   Meditating - Clicking the Meditate button in the bottom center of 
the Spellbook screen may speed up the scribing and memorizing process.  
This is a skill-based ability and will speed up scribing, memorizing, 
and mana regeneration as the Meditate skill rises.  The longer a person 
meditates, the faster things regenerate.  This represents a "deeper 
trance" and encourages players to meditate for longer periods instead 
of "quick hit" meditations.  While meditating, you can hear what's 
going around, but cannot speak or do anything else.  If the button will 
not remain pressed down, that means that the character does not yet 
have the meditate skill.


VIII.   COMBAT - To initiate combat, left click on what you want to 
attack to target it, then press the Z key (or whatever key you've 
assigned to that function).  This will put you into attack mode using 
the weapon in your right hand.  If there is a weapon in your left hand 
(many combat classes get the Dual Wield skill at higher levels), 
pressing the X key activates the attack mode for that weapon as well.

If you are out of range of your target you will be informed in the chat 
window.  You may move freely while engaged in combat, but you will only 
make effective attacks while facing your target and staying within 
attack range.  Your attack will automatically stop once your target is 
vanquished.  If you are attacked by another creature during combat, you 
must make sure that creature is targeted and again press the Z key in 
order to take up battle anew.  Most NPCs don't take being attacked very 
kindly and if you target someone while in combat mode they will turn on 
you.

In addition to weapon attacks, many classes get non-weapon attacks, 
such as Kick, Bash, Slam to name a few.  These cause damage in addition 
to the weapon attacks and require pressing the button for them each 
time an attack needs to be made instead of being automatic, like the 
weapon attacks.  Taunt is also a Combat skill that has an important 
role in protecting the more vulnerable casters in the party.  By 
targeting an opponent and using the Taunt skill, you attempt to enrage 
the monster to force them to focus upon you instead of upon another 
player.  This is a critical skill for keeping the unarmored spell 
casters alive in a group of adventurers.

IX.   REPORTING BUGS - Throughout your gameplay, you will discover 
graphics glitches, broken spells, and other such anomalies.  These 
issues need to be brought to the attention of the development team.  As 
you find them, you have two avenues of reporting them.

The first is the in-game mechanism that is monitored by the development 
team.  To use it, type /bug and type in the description of the problem 
in as much detail as possible.  If it can be duplicated, please 
indicate how. If it's location specific (a graphics problem, for 
example), please type /loc before entering the bug and include this 
information into the report.  Use the buttons at the bottom 
appropriately (crash vs. non-crash, duplicable vs. non).  Keep in mind 
that, while you are typing in the bug, your character will not fight or 
cast, so it is best done while sitting in a safe place. For more 
information please read ReportingBugs.txt.  Please do NOT give us 
feedback or comments with the /bug command -- use the /feedback command 
for this.

The other tool to use is the web-based Bug Database.  This database 
contains a list of the current bugs that have been found by testers and 
is also used by the development team.  When you find a bug, document as 
much about it as you can on paper and take the information to the Bug 
Board, located http://www.sonyinteractive.com/eqbugs/. NOTE: At this 
time, the Bug Board is only available to Phase 1 & 2 testers - until we 
can update the site, we cannot handle any more traffic.

It is imperative that the maximum amount of information be collected 
for each bug before it is reported.  Partial reports, conjecture, and 
opinions do not assist the development team.  The kinds of information 
that should be included in a Bug Report are location (both the zone 
name and the /loc info), levels and classes of PC's and NPC's that are 
involved, and detailed steps that can allow the development team to 
duplicate the bug in their labs, thereby allowing them to fix it more 
easily.

Before reporting a bug in the online Bug Database, please verify that 
the bug has not already been reported in the necessary category.  If 
the bug already exists, please read the existing bug report and only 
post a followup if you have additional information to provide.


X.   FEEDBACK - If you'd like to give us feedback regarding the game or 
to comment on something, please use the /feedback command.  This will 
bring up a screen identical in functionality to the /bug screen.  
Please only use /feedback for feedback and comments, and /bug for bugs.


APPENDIX A - CHARACTER CLASSES

I.   WARRIOR - Warriors are the masters of armed combat, in all its 
many forms. They are at home on the battlefield, and are trained to 
take punishment as much as dole it out, so their Hit Points are the 
highest of any class.

II.   CLERIC - The Cleric is a holy man endowed by his patron deity 
with the power to heal, and, to a lesser extent, call upon the wrath of 
his deity to smite his foes. Prayer is how the Cleric gains his 
ability.

III.   PALADIN - Paladins are the very picture of a holy knight, 
fighting for the cause of good in all aspects of life.  They share some 
of the power of a Cleric, and a good deal of the fighting ability of a 
Warrior, but have a few powers all their own.  Paladins have the innate 
ability to Lay on Hands.

IV.   RANGER - The Ranger is a meld between a Warrior and a Druid, 
sharing some of the skills of both.  They are at home in the outdoors.

V.   SHADOW KNIGHT - The dark reflection to the Paladin class, Shadow 
Knights derive all of their powers from the evil gods whom they serve.  
They are a meld of Warrior and Necromancer, and share some of their 
abilities and spells.  Shadow Knights have the innate ability to Harm 
Touch.

VI.   DRUID - A Druid is the complete master of his domain: the 
outdoors.  He is a friend to all flora and fauna and due to this, 
animals rarely ever attack him unless first attacked by the Druid.  
They are Clerical spellcasters whose focus are all things natural, 
allowing them to call upon the forces of nature for their aid and 
defense.  They share some woodland skills with their Ranger brothers, 
but are much more limited to their choice of equipment. 

VII.   MONK - Monks are dedicated to the pursuit of honing their bodies 
into a pure weapon, shunning nearly all weapons and most forms of 
armor.  They are very religious as well, and the gods are known to 
bless them not by prayers and spells, but by magically enhancing their 
attacks.

VIII.   BARD - The Bard's stock-in-trade is his ability to play songs. 
His songs are actually spells of a sort, and their magical affects last 
as long as the Bard continues to sing and play the correct instrument.  
They have some passing knowledge of the Warrior ways (mainly for self-
defense), but their main focus is always their art, and so they will 
never be as skillful as Warriors.

IX.   ROGUE - Rogues are the secretive, mysterious class of Norrath,.  
Some say they are assassins, others say that they are nothing but 
common thieves, but the truth lies somewhere in the shadows between, 
for they are capable of both.  They are quite skilled with many 
weapons, but they cannot stand toe to toe with a Warrior, preferring to 
make the kill by a sudden attack from behind, at which they are 
extremely skilled. They would rather not be discovered at all or if 
they are, not be there when opponent's blows land. The shadier skills 
of picking locks and stealing are also their forte.

X.   SHAMAN - Similar to the Cleric, but are more of a tribal witch 
doctor, the Shaman are typically found amongst the more primitive 
races.  Their primary focus is the healing of Clerical renown, but they 
also employ a variety of augmentation and offensive spells. 

XI.   NECROMANCER - These are the dark brotherhood of the arcane arts, 
dabbling in death.  Through evil spiritually based spells, they are 
able to animate dead bodies and skeletons to do their bidding, as well 
as having spells which leach life from their victims. 

XII.   WIZARD -  Wizards are the master seekers of knowledge, and their 
talents and spells focus on this goal.  They use powerful spells to not 
only see things from afar, but to transport them there as well.  This 
thirst for arcane knowledge has also made them the true masters of the 
strongest form of defense: offensive spells of pure destruction. In 
their ability to do magical damage, they have no rival. 

XIII.   MAGICIAN - Magicians are the summoner of the arcane arts, and 
wield the power to call forth everything from a loaf of bread to a huge 
Fire Elemental to fight for them.  While not as adept at offensive 
spells as Wizards, Magicians still wield considerable power in this 
area as well.

XIV.   ENCHANTER - The primary focus of this art can be summed up by 
the name of the arcane order to which it belongs: Enchantment. Their 
spells are crafted to enchant people, places, and things allowing them 
to charm beings and make them fight for their new master, or magically 
enhance the capabilities of a sword.  They have some proficiency in 
offensive spells, but cannot match a Wizard's skill.


APPENDIX B - KEYBOARD COMMANDS

To begin with, your keyboard will have the following commands pre-
programmed.  To change these from the default, go to the "Windowed" 
view, and click the Options button in the top left corner.  From the 
choices available, pick Keyboard.  Click on the function you want to 
customize, and press the key you wish to change it to.

Keyboard Commands

Character Movement

Numpad 8 - Move Forward 
Numpad 2 - Move Back 
Numpad 4 - Move Left 
Numpad 6 - Move Right 
Right Control Key – Strafe (in conjunction with left and right movement 
keys)
Space Bar - Jump 
Num Lock - Auto Run Toggle 

Alternate Movement Keys 
Up Arrow – Forward
Down Arrow – Backward 
Left Arrow – Left
Right Arrow - Right

Camera Controls

F9 - Camera Toggle 
F10 - Full/Partial Screen Toggle 
F11 - Toggle Lag Meter 
F12 - Toggle Mouse Look 
Numpad 9 – Pitch up
Numpad 3 – Pitch Down
Numpad 7 – Zoom In
Numpad 1 – Zoom Out
Home Key – Center View
Right Alt Key + Movement Keys – Pan Camera

Alternate Camera Controls
Page Up – Pitch Up
Page Down – Pitch Down
Insert – Zoom In
Delete – Zoom Out

Hot box Commands

The hotkey banks contain six slots, all of which are activated by using 
the 1-6 keys, or by left-clicking on the desired slot with the mouse.  
To place a skill, spell, combat, ability or social action into a hotkey 
slot, center the mouse icon over the desired key then press and hold 
the left mouse button for approximately 2 seconds.  The selected button 
will appear on the mouse icon, which may then be dragged over an empty 
hotkey and placed by left-clicking over the desired slot.

Change Hotkey bank – Shift + 1-6 keys

Targeting

F1 – Self
F2 - Party Member 1 
F3 - Party Member 2 
F4 - Party Member 3 
F5 - Party Member 4 
F6 - Party Member 5 
F7 - Nearest PC 
F8 - Nearest NPC
Esc - Cancel Target


Combat

A - Auto-attack
C – Consider
D – Duck/Crouch
I – Inventory
T – Tell
H – Hail


Chat Commands

Enter – Toggle Chat bar On/Off
Shift + Up Arrow – Chat History Forward
Shift + Down – Chat History Back
Shift + Left – Cursor Left
Shift + Right – Cursor Right
Shift + Delete – Delete a line of text
Shift + Insert – Replace Line of text
Shift + Home – Places the cursor at the beginning of the chat line.
Shift + End – Places cursor at the end of the chat line.
Shift + Page Up – Scroll text window up.
Shift + Page Down – Scroll text window down.

Other Commands

"-" on the numerical keypad – screenshot(the bmp file will be written 
to the EverQuest directory).
U – Use Center

APPENDIX C - / COMMANDS
	
/shout - text is seen across entire zone
/tell (player name) - text is seen by named player anywhere in the game
/ignore (player name) - turns off all text from that player
/bug or /b - takes you to a bug-reporting screen
/feedback - takes you to the feedback/comments screen
/shownames (ON or OFF) - turns on or off visible names above PC's and 
NPC's heads.  Red names are PvP, Blue names are -PvP
/gsay or /g - text is seen by all in your group
/consider (con) - gives vital statistics of a targeted PC or NPC
/consent (player name) - gives player permission to loot your corpse
/d - challenges targeted PC to a duel - to accept, they type /d with 
you targeted as well. Duel is in effect until one "dies" (is knocked 
unconscious) or flees the zone
/ooc - allows you to say something as yourself, not as your character, 
heard throughout the zone
/anon or /a - Makes you Anonymous in /who and /who all, preventing 
other players from seeing your class, level, and current location.
/loc - gives the location in numeric coordinates (essential for 
location-based bug reports) of the current target.  If nothing is 
targeted, it gives your coordinates.
/time - gives you the time of day in Norrath
/played - gives you the birthdate & hours played w/ your character
/split # # # # - splits a defined amount of money with your group: 
plat, gold, silver, & copper respectively...i.e. /split 4 3 2 0 splits 
4 plat, 3 gold, 2 silver, and 0 copper with the rest of the group.  All 
numbers must be present, use 0 for coins to not be split.
/autosplit - automatically splits any loot you get with the rest of 
your part.  Each member must do this to split all loot evenly (this 
feature is currently disabled, but will be reactivated prior to 
commercial release).
/assist - if you target a player who is engaged in combat, the /assist 
command will automatically target for you whoever that player is 
fighting at the moment -- this can be very useful in heavy combat.  To 
be most effective, it is best to set this as a Social (see IV.F above)
/em (text) or : (text) - emotes the text.  Some emotes have animations 
associated with them, most do not.  Other Emotes include:

/wave - waves at the targeted individual
/cry - cries
/nod - nods
/panic - screams in panic
/bow - bows to the targeted individual
/cheer - cheers
/rofl - roll on the floor laughing

/pet <command> - gives orders to a charmed or summoned pet.  Sample pet 
commands:

/pet guard here - tells the pet to guard its current location.
/pet guard me - tells the pet to attack anyone that attacks it's 
master, or that it's master attacks.
/pet follow me - tells the pet to follow you, but ends when you cross a 
zone line.
/pet attack <target> - tells the pet to attack the designated target.
/pet back off - tells the pet to stop its attack.
/pet as you were - returns the pet to neutral, belaying all prior 
orders.

/who - lists all player characters in your zone
/who all - lists all player characters in the world

[Note: /who and /who all are also usable with masks to look for certain 
players or classes online.  For example:

/who wiz all - generates a list of all Wizards online in all zones
/who ae all - generates a list of all characters whose names begin with 
Ae
/who gm all - generates a list of all the GM's that are online

Please also note that the GM's are grouped into differing types.
GM-Admins are Sony Administrators that can answer your questions and 
resolve issues.
GM-Coders and GM-Areas are Sony developers and artists that are 
resolving game issues and are not available for questions.
GUIDES are fellow testers that are there to answer gameplay questions, 
but have no "powers".]


APPENDIX D - Use of the Chat Screen and Chat Channels

Names in red in the player list are 989 Staff personal
Names proceeded by 989- are official Technical Support staff.
Names in blue are official non-staff Guides.

Private Messages
You can send a private message to another player, unseen by anyone 
else. Type a '/' and the player's name and then your message.

E.g.: To type a private message to Fred, type:

/Fred Hello Fred!

Emoticons
You can send emoticons (means of expressing actions without 
"speaking".)
Type a ':' before your message.

E.g.:	if your name is Fred and you type   :laughs out loud
Appears as:    Fred laughs out loud.

"Pound" Commands

#goto <handle>
Go to wherever channel/game player <handle> is in.
 
#ignore
Lists all the players you are ignoring

#ignore <handle>
Start ignoring a player

#make
Make your own Chat Channel

#myip
Reports YOUR IP address

#pagehelp
Pages all staff on the system, if you require help.

#priv
Find out your Privilege Status Level

#report
Report bad language/behavior/harrassment

#channel allow <handle>
Allow player <handle> access to this channel.

#channel kick <handle>
Bar player <handle> from this channel. Unbar using #allow

#squelch
Alias for #ignore

#tell on/off
Ignore private messages (tell) using #tell off
Turn them on again using #tell on

#unignore <handle>
Stop ignoring a player

#unsquelch
Alias for #unignore

#whereis <handle
Find out what channel/game player <handle> is in.

Section III.  Known Spell Bugs

In an effort to alleviate some of the painful spell purchases and 
/petitions, I am posting (and will continue to post) a list of spells 
that do not work, or that have the bugs associated with them. 

-- Geoffrey Z.


BUGGED SPELLS


CLERIC (up to spell circle 6 / Level 24)

Sense Magic – No additional information on some items
Halo of Light – Does not work


DRUID (up to spell circle 6 / Level 24)

Sense Magic – No additional information on some items
Dance of the Fireflies – Does not work
Starshine – Does not work
Halo of Light – Does not work
Wind Strike – Creatures are not marked as "Flying" yet, so the spell 
does not work
Wind Blast – See Above
Forest – Occasionally has bugs & does not change you to a tree / back 
to normal


SHAMAN (up to spell circle 6 / Level 24)

Sense Magic – No additional information on some items


NECROMANCER (up to Rank 7 / Level 24)

Coldlight – Does not work
Sense Magic – No additional information on some items
Corpse Bomb – Does not work
Grim Aura – Does not work
Vampiric Touch – Does not Work


WIZARD (up to Rank 7 / Level 24)

Sense Magic – No additional information on some items
Fade – Does not work
Halo of Light – Does not work


MAGICIAN (up to Rank 7 / Level 24)

Sense Magic – No additional information on some items
Summon Wisp – Does not work
Summon Heatstone – Heatstone does not work
Summon Coldstone – Coldstone does not work


ENCHANTER (up to Rank 7 / Level 24)

Sense Magic – No additional information on some items
Pendril's Animation – Does not work
Enchantment of Light – Does not work
Mircyl's Animation – Does not work
Eye of Confusion – Does not work
Sentinel – Does not work
Enchamtment of Brillince – Does not work

ISSUE OF NOTE

When you initially get a spell, do not expect it to be noticeably more 
effective then the spell you have been practicing for the past few 
levels.  Each spell takes time to 'grow in to' – as you gain experience 
your higher levels spells will fizzle less and have a greater effect.


SPELL ISSUES

Pet commands still need some work
Spell Specialization has not yet been implemented – don't worry if your 
specialization has no effect (yet)