Many of you are coming from the PC version of Everquest and are wondering what the differences are between the two versions.  Here is a small list of things you should know going in:

-- Food and Drink:  The concept of food and drink in EQOA is completely different than in EQ.  Instead of just providing substinance over time like in EQ, food and drink provide power and hit point regeneration between battles.  Basically, with food and drink you now will have very little downtime between battles.  There is no meditation necessary to regain mana, you gain it steadily as you play and at a faster rate when you consume a drink.  You also have to worry much less about conserving your power ahd hit points, since even if you are at zero at the end of a battle it is quite easy to regenerate back to full in a short time in order to get ready for the next battle.  This also changes the role of the healing classes.  Healers are not necessary to avoid downtime.  However, they are still needed to keep the party alice during the course of the battle.

-- World Setting:  This is more of a fun factor than a practical one, though it does affect some character selection.  EQOA is set approximately 500 years before the EQ time period.  This means that the Iksar, Ogres and Vah Shir have not yet been introduced into the world, the good elves are still one undivided race, and the Erudites have not yet made their voyage to Odus.  The fun factor is that many settings will be the same as what you are used to in EQ, but others will be very different.  Many of the classes are also different.  Don't base your perception of an area, race, class, etc. on what you would expect 500 years later in EQ.  Remember that a lot can happen in 500 years.

-- Stats:  This is a major change from EQ to EQOA.  Unlike EQ, you do not choose a single set of stats and then enhance them through items and spells.  instead, you get additional stat points every level that you can assign to the various stats.  Thus your stat point assignment becomes a critical part of character development.  In addition, the stats in EQOA, while having the same names, do not act in the same manner as in EQ.  Do not assume you know what the stats mean without reading up on the descriptions first, or, for example, you may find yourself loading up on wisdom for your cleric only to discover later on that wisdom actually has nothing to do with healing abilities, and it is in fact charisma that boosts a cleric's healing power.

-- Quests:  It is crucial that you do the quests in EQOA.  While you can skip over the quests in EQ and still develop your character, skipping the quests in EQOA will cost you in power, ability and experience.  First of all, the quests in EQOA provide significant experience and have excellent rewards.  Secondly, many of your class abilities and spells can only be gained through the quests.  And third, if you don't do the quests right from the start, you may find yourself far behind with difficulty to catch up.  So unlike EQ, you should make it a point to search out and complete as may quests as you can.

-- Death Penalty:  EQOA runs with the concept of Soul Binders.  You can bind yourself at just about every place where there are NPC's.  In fact, no class has the bind ability anymore, leaving that strictly to NPC interaction.  When you die, you do not lose a corpse, so there are no corpse runs in EQOA.  Instead, you teleport back to your bind point with all of your equipment intact.  During beta, you would lose some of the money you had on you, but not that in the bank.  I don't know if that is carried into the live version.  You also will never lose a level in EQOA.  Instead when you die you incur an experience penalty.  This is then gradually taken out as a percentage of the experience you get from each kill thereafter until you make up the difference.  Even then, you still gain experience, as the game only takes a percentage of the experience you gain from each kill, only you obviously gain it slower until you make up for the death penalty.  In addition, EQOA extends the ability to resurrect to Shamen and Druids, in addition to Clerics and Paladins.

-- Combat and Grouping:  Combat is significantly different in EQOA than in EQ.  It is more real time and more along the lines of a traditional console game.   Also, group sizes are a maximum of four rather than six, so you need to be more careful of the group dynamics.  While the traditional roles of tank, healer, caster, etc. are still useful in EQOA, the classes do not tend to sit as firmly in those roles as in the PC game.  I also found that Mobs react differently in EQOA.  They seem to have a higher degree of intellegence and are more likely to go back and get friends if they think they are in trouble.

-- Travelling:  One big change in EQOA is the increased ease in travelling around the world.  First off, every class gets a gate spell right from the start that lets you gate back to your bind point.  The spell is too slow to be able to save you in combat, but is quite useful in getting you to town fast when you want to buy or sell things.  Second, there are now coachmen in the game that let you travel between towns.  You need to initially make your way to a town by foot, but once you reach the town you can hail the town coachman and have yourself added to his list and from there on you can travel instantly to that town from any other stable.  This saves a lot of travel time.

-- Item Decay:  This is a completely new thing added to EQOA and one you need to know about or you will find yourself significantly weakened.  Your armor and weapons will now decay with use.  The items will never break and just disappear, but if they become too weakened, they will be rendered ineffective.  You should make it a point whenever you are in a town with a blacksmith to repair any weapons and armor you have to keep them as effective as possible.  This also adds a new dimension to an item.  The durability of an item is an important consideration in whether or not to use one item over another.  Some items may have better stats, but will decay rapidly, so you may prefer an item that has slightly lesser stats but is much more durable.