POLL: what EQ really needsFollow

Funny poll... funny in the sense of "strange." Options 1 and 2 are hardly mutually exclusive and they're enormously different in magnitude...despite its name ironically EQ isn't all that dependent on quests for success---not nowadays and probably never was. I'm sure there are some broken quests in the game but I can't remember running into any in a LONG time and even when I did I doubt it ever pissed me off enough that it would have had a significant impact on whether or not I continued playing.

Revamping old zones would make a LOT of sense. In fact, it seems rather obvious given that the constant lament of almost everyone---noobies, returnees and old-timers alike---is that far too many zones are always empty and essentially useless. I mean I kinda like just to roam zones with my druid for ole-time sake and it gets to the point where I feel like I'm playing a solo game on my own PC, or using that old program that somehow designed to allow you to explore zones off-line.

It doesn't take Albert Einstein to ask this simple question: WHAT'S THE POINT OF HAVING DOZENS OF ZONES THAT NEVER GET USED???

This is what I find so frustrating about hot zones... their intention is noble, to give people an incentive to play in the same zone and thereby encourage grouping. But the effect is often more to give rebirth to the worst problem of the old days when these lower-level zones were crowded: excessive population leading to lack of good camps, training, disputes, etc.

A zone should not be the basis of "hot XP". It should be the GROUP. If a group consists of 6 RL players then all should get the best XP available, regardless of the zone. Add a merc or 2 and that should drop... somewhat. Heck, if there was a way to tell, I'd say lower the XP bonus as well if some of the toons in the group are boxed. And I say this as someone who does box toons. IMO the survival of this game requires reviving the best of the social aspects of the game.

Yeah, I know there's already a modest XP bonus for grouping. But nobody factors that in over hot zones. Make the grouping bonus the best available in the game. And maybe do what they used to do: assign XP bonus % to EVERY zone, based on its current level of use and maybe factor in also how hard the zone is to reach. I mean these days at least half the players of appropriate level can't find their way to great zones like RSS! Let's face reality and give them a little incentive to run the risks and actually LEARN how to get around dangerous zones without dying too many times.


So.... um... I vote for OTHER. :)




Edited, Jul 20th 2009 10:22am by Sippin

We need #1, badly IMO.

Old quests need to have the rewards upgaded. There are so many under used zones with very interesting quests that no one would do because the rewards are junk compared to defiant. You dont have to revamp all the old zones, just go and upgrade the task/quest rewards. Plane of Mischief, for instance, its great xp and alot of fun to explore with good quests but the rewards are out dated.

Also, do more complete zone revamps such as BB was, but leave them in game. Or take it a step further and add new zones to old classic's. The rumored 8th floor of ToFS, a Chardok C or a Sol D, maybe a deepest Guk.

What EQ Really Needs:

1) New PC models, with better animations and more options for customization via various features (e.g., face, hair, etc.) and more options for armor sets/looks.

2) Complete revamp of the UI, including window consolidation (combine all task, quest and adventure windows. Migrate all instances onto the same system and make them easily scalabe (i.e., LDoN).

3) Revamp of the quest journal. Give me the journal in EQ2; sortable by quests with an elements in the zone I'm in. Move most old world quests, over to the new quest journal. Virtual updates, where I don't have to actually loot the item in order to get a quest update.

I don't know. Pandora's box has already been opened on this game and there really isn't any going back IMO.

I truly think that the spirit of this game is long dead. Not just plain old dead but laying on the freeway for a few days being run over by cars and semi's dead. It saddens me because it was so good there for a while.

Easy fix #1: validate past accomplishments of significance.

Example: coldain prayer shawl. It doesn't need another impossible stage right off the bat (people already did the hard work for it one way or the other). Put a lost coldain dwarf somewhere in SoD. You hand him your finished shawl and he upgrades it to be a desirable level 85 shoulder item.

Then: Add an impossible stage to make it the elite shoulder item for casters in the game again, based out of the newer content with intelligent tie-ins to the old.


You don't need to do this for alot of things, just the iconic items from the early years.


Easy fix #2: Proper revamps of old zones.

Example: Plane of Fear. Put a goofy summoning room in Paineel where disciples of Cazic Thule hang around and assist you in summoning the particular named you need for you Epic 1.0 drop (and like the alternate method with that druid dragon it only drops the epic piece for the required class).

As in, don't break any quests to their intended level by making fear level 80 with the 1.0 loot table. Put some of the mobs in the Feeroot or Temple of Cazic Thule if need be, since storywise that is logical to develop.

Then: Make fear scary again. Train wrecks of guilds that aren't uber and organized. Make it legendary and worthwhile. Make it a place few dare enter again.

As #1, not that many that need to be done. But 70% of the current 1-50 zones could be redistributed 55-90+ without hurting the ability to do lots 1-50.

I can understand your attitude here, if you are someone who can only play an hour here or there. But surely you understand that excessive "dumbing down" of the game's challenges is going ultimately, at the risk of making a lame analogy, throw out the baby with the bathwater.

I mean some of the challenge of the game is supposed to be making dangerous runs to good camp spots.

There are purists already who think campfires were too big a concession to the WoW crowd, altho they are pretty limited, as you mention, plus only work for people actually in your fellowship, which eliminates "casual pickups."

My thinking is that at lower levels (say below 60) there are no camps that take as long as 20 minutes to get to. At higher levels there are ways to shorten the running time, such as friends with Call of the Hero, wizzy and druid TL-to-binds, stealth modes of movement for rogues, bards, monks and others, etc.

Ironically, most WoW players DO spend a lot of time running around. In many ways it's easier to get around in EQ than in WoW... evidence is the huge number of ports spells for druids and wizzies, not to mention the books, the Nexus, etc., etc.