Newbie Zones: Ready for Launch?

[Lojik]

I know it's been mentioned before, but it really seems like the newbie zones are going to be practically unplayable at launch. Let's assume a population at the low end of estimates, 1000 players. You're probably looking at numbers something like ~350 on Faydwer, ~250 in Qeynos, ~200 in Freeport, ~150 in Oggok/Grobb, ~50 in Misty. Do you guys think GM's will add more mobs or have gms in different zones with /spawn command (I think someone mentioned they did this on some new servers on live.) If not, which zones do you think will be most able to handle the amount of players?

1) Freeport. Seems like a decent bet, as there are not one but two newbie yards. Dark elves will probably come here too, some will stay in nek. EC and Nro have some newbie stuff.

2) Qeynos. Probably going to be really awful. I think people will be attracted to this one with all the great newbie quests, but theres only one newbie yard, QH is relatively spaced out, and a lot of barbarian and erudite players will come here to hunt. Speaking of that....

3) Everfrost. Seems emptier of roaming gnolls and goblins than I remember on live, but we all know how reliable memory is. It's a tough start on blue for sure with hardly any level 1 roamers in those chasms. Maybe it won't be that bad on green since most mobs are level 2+ people can group and take them down, but still seems somewhat devoid of creatures to hunt.

4) Tox. Actually not as bad a newbie zone as you might think, but the current version on blue is littered with too many infected rats (75% of stuff north of the river maybe?) rather than stuff that drops armor/weapons. Seems to be a classic monster though so it's probably going to be like that at launch unless it gets fixed.

5) Misty. I don't know much about this zone, but since it's pretty much going to just be halflings here it might be a good bet. I am not familiar with mob density

6) Feerrott. Some camps here that are tough for single ogres to break, but should be doable with groups of ogres, so might not be that bad? Not sure if mob density is enough for peeps though, seems unlikely?

7) Innothule. I'm not sure there will be enough creatures here to hunt for the newbies, as you pretty much need to stay close to the wall. Unless some brave groups venture into the watery parts of the swamp, but there don't seem to be a high density of critters so I'm not sure it'd be worth it.

8) Gfay. I don't know shit about this place as a newbie zone, but it seems like a lot of people love it. How good is it going to be with 250+ (probably at a minimum) newbies looking to kill orcs. How is the monster density in this zone?

9) Steamfont. Also don't know shit about this zone, is there enough to hunt for 50 gnomes and some sprinkled wood/half/high elves that want to come here (maybe some dwarves?)

10) Butcher. Don't know much about this zone either but seems pretty spread out.

11) Neriak. Forest is ok I think, I'm assuming people will hunt the halflings on green. Probably a bunch gonna go to freeport.

What do you guys think?

[loramin]

I think the first few hours are going to be pure insanity, no matter what :)

But I think after that, we'll see it spill out all over the place. West Karana is full of stuff for low level players to level up on for instance. On Blue there's no reason to enter the zone until you're ready for Scarecrows or Bandits, but there's plenty of lower level animals no one even bothers to kill, because they can just go to Qeynos Hills/Everfrost (closer), or Blackburrow (has fangs) instead.

But if all those zones are full ... West Karana will be far from the only zone I think we'll be surprised to see low level people XPing in.

[Deathrydar]

Honestly, I am trying not to think about it. I am waiting to see what happens. After the outcry that happened here for something as simple as removing tab cycling targeting, I believe not as many people are actually after the classic experience and will stay on blue.

But, if it's crazy, then it's crazy. I am just going to soak it all in! :)

[pink grapefruit]

We survived wow classic launch; this will be fine too. Don't expect to make huge gains right from the start tho lol

[BlackBellamy]

It's going to be kill-stealing mania. No CSR is going to respond to /petition he took my moss snake.

[Baler]

Rogean has stated that the server can handle the load. ToV with 400+ people was a testament to that.

Also they are getting newer hardware.

I just hope people record green launch day

[Tenagra]

I'm still trying to guess what kind of numbers we will see for launch. I'm glad it's spaced out long enough away from the wow classic release as I'm starting to see some friends that play it hit 60 and will potentially return for green. My guess has been between 2-3k . Perhaps I'm overestimating p99s following. What did it look like for velious release ?

[Baler]

I'm still trying to guess what kind of numbers we will see for launch. I'm glad it's spaced out long enough away from the wow classic release as I'm starting to see some friends that play it hit 60 and will potentially return for green. My guess has been between 2-3k . Perhaps I'm overestimating p99s following. What did it look like for velious release ?

Velious peaked over 2k. I estimate green will be 3k+ for the launch

[DMN]

Is there grass on the field?

[AbstractVision]

Everfrost will probably be the least populated initially. Innothule and Feerrott will probably be very manageable. After that... its all downhill from there.

Assuming we have 2k people at launch, thats going to be several hundred players in each of the more popular races zones competing for kills.

[Lojik]

Rogean has stated that the server can handle the load. ToV with 400+ people was a testament to that.

I'm not doubting the servers ability to host 3000+ people, I'm talking about the content in newbie zones being able to be even close to playable.

[Baler]

I'm not doubting the servers ability to host 3000+ people, I'm talking about the content in newbie zones being able to be even close to playable.

It wont be. :)

[magusfire24]

The more the merrier! There are always out of the way places to go to kill stuff and will be nice to have lots on.

[Barantor]

I think the worst will be over by the time the weekend is through and it'll just be at a 'really busy' state for a few weeks after as people spread out and then folks start alts or have friends come in late.

I also think the newbie zones won't be the problem as much as the folks desperately wanting those high ZEM zones to level in and packing in there like sardines. Faydwer has 4 races potentially going to Crushbone after belts and ZEM and I have this sneaking suspicion that won't be as fast as just going to other areas to level to just kill more mobs quicker. The same could be said of Blackburrow.

We'll see though, there could be way more players than folks think.

[pink grapefruit]

I'm not doubting the servers ability to host 3000+ people, I'm talking about the content in newbie zones being able to be even close to playable.

Yeah, no. Just like classic wow the game will hardly be considered playable in the traditional sense for the first couple days. But it's not like it will be the end of the world, or the server. Level 1 chars will be camping the bindpoints of skeletons and working hard at KSing each other each time one spawns, and other such nonsense.

It'll be okay tho lol. I doubt the classic EQ playerbase will feel so entitled as to demand the devs fundamentally change the experience with instancing or increased spawn times to combat what is a very temporary problem.

[zaneosak]

I see Misty Thicket and Everfrost being the least populated newbie areas. I was thinking Qeynos because people won't want to be "so far away" but if everybody is in Qeynos, you're not far from anything. The Karana's last forever, you have Blackburrow for bonus ZEM, you have gnoll fang for mass XP questing.

I am starting in GFay most likely and already know it's gonna be batshit nuts, but hopefully some people will head over to BBM to even it out a bit. Gfay has a hefty XP bonus though for a newbie zone, it's quite nice in that regard.

[lordpazuzu]

3) Everfrost. Seems emptier of roaming gnolls and goblins than I remember on live, but we all know how reliable memory is. It's a tough start on blue for sure with hardly any level 1 roamers in those chasms. Maybe it won't be that bad on green since most mobs are level 2+ people can group and take them down, but still seems somewhat devoid of creatures to hunt.



No, there are definitely fewer level 1 mobs to kill than there were on live. Fewer everything really, except spiders. You're memory is correct. Back in the day there were bottlenecks in certain canyons where you would be fed a near constant supply of gnoll pups, goblins, polar bear cubs, etc. You'd be fighting on top of a pile of corpses from all the stuff being fed to you by the zone pathing. Now it's practically barren in the canyons.

[Verityn]

I jumped on new servers whenever they came on line back before Kunark came out so I've had some experience on what to expect.

Back then you could simply just be hyper focused on getting exp and play through the night to get a head of the crowd. By the time people started coming back on in the morning I'd be level 12 to 15 in a full oasis group with the whole zone to ourselves. By the night though or the next morning Oasis would have 200+ people. By then we'd be the only group able to take on deepwater crocs and lockjaw or we'd move on another zone.

These days however a lot of people are probably going to be hyper focused and with way more knowledge than anyone had back then. It's going to be interesting.

[loramin]

Back in the day there were bottlenecks in certain canyons where you would be fed a near constant supply of gnoll pups, goblins, polar bear cubs, etc. You'd be fighting on top of a pile of corpses from all the stuff being fed to you by the zone pathing.

I haven't made a new Barbarian since I made Loramin here (half a decade ago), but I 100% remember it being like that on live. If it's not like that here it should be corrected ... but good luck finding classic evidence for spawn points of level 1 mobs :(

[Danth]

Can't wait to watch the pigpile that happens soon as people spot a decaying skeleton carrying a staff.

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

Everfrost is in rough shape for the reasons described. It could use some tinkering.

Nektulos stinks, but it was lousy in the original game too. Commons/Freeport is close.

Danth

[Aaramis]

I haven't made a new Barbarian since I made Loramin here (half a decade ago), but I 100% remember it being like that on live. If it's not like that here it should be corrected ... but good luck finding classic evidence for spawn points of level 1 mobs :(

Yep, most newbie zones were like that. I remember Nektulos "noob log" having half a dozen people fighting or meddling on it, and a near constant supply of mobs walking past.

Now you can have the zone to yourself and still wait a minute for a mob to walk by.

[ldgo86]

I can’t wait to see Gfay in the first hours. I’m just going to sit back and watch it play out. Maybe do some play by play in /ooc

[Fammaden]

So back in April I thought I saw quotes from a Q&A with Rogean that happened at the convention where green was first announced. And one aspect supposedly mentioned was dynamic spawn times for the launch population surge in newbie zones to potentially scale with the zone count. Not sure if that's still on the table. It wouldn't be strictly classic but neither will 3k+ people I'd say, and it is something that happened on EQ at some point later.

It really would ease some conflict if the newbie yard mobs were respawning immediately once a certain number of players was reached. After the newb zones you have more than one zone to pick from in your level range generally, so they could be more hands off outside of starting areas. For that first weekend at least, a dynamic respawn timer might be nice.

[lordpazuzu]

Can't wait to watch the pigpile that happens soon as people spot a decaying skeleton carrying a staff.

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



And once the chaos has subsided, the tears have flowed, and forty petitions sent, it'll be a worn great staff.

[Verityn]

So back in April I thought I saw quotes from a Q&A with Rogean that happened at the convention where green was first announced. And one aspect supposedly mentioned was dynamic spawn times for the launch population surge in newbie zones to potentially scale with the zone count. Not sure if that's still on the table. It wouldn't be strictly classic but neither will 3k+ people I'd say, and it is something that happened on EQ at some point later.

It really would ease some conflict if the newbie yard mobs were respawning immediately once a certain number of players was reached. After the newb zones you have more than one thing to pick in your level range generally so they could be more hands off outside of starting areas. For that first weekend at least, a dynamic respawn timer might be nice.

I wanted to lend some weight to the idea that dynamic spawning in newbie zones is actually sort of classic. Take it as hearsay if you will. According to two former GM's that I used to know they would sit it in the newbie zones and spawn mobs over and over. After learning this I realized there were times where a spawn was just going nuts with stacks of fire beetles in one spot that never ended. Once enough people were onto that spawn it would stop and move elsewhere. At the time I just thought the spawns were being funny since so many mobs were being killed.

[Fammaden]

I wanted to lend some weight to the idea that dynamic spawning in newbie zones is actually sort of classic. Take it as hearsay if you will. According to two former GM's that I used to know they would sit it in the newbie zones and spawn mobs over and over. After learning this I realized there were times where a spawn was just going nuts with stacks of fire beetles in one spot that never ended. Once enough people were onto that spawn it would stop and move elsewhere. At the time I just thought the spawns were being funny since so many mobs were being killed.

Good enough evidence for me, make it happen. We can all sit and kill our single soft instanced skeleton mob for five levels that first weekend. :P

[Vizax_Xaziv]

I'm guessing the 4k milestone will be hit EASILY during the first week of launch. Someone on my Classic WOW server was talking about it the other night.

There's a handful of relatively large Twitch Streamers (read 1000+ concurrent viewers daily) who've shown interest in Green as well.

[Vizax_Xaziv]

We survived wow classic launch; this will be fine too. Don't expect to make huge gains right from the start tho lol

Classic WOW uses a phasing mechanism to spread the population out based on player level, active quests etc.

That Westfall zone youre questing in, with 300 people, in just one of likely DOZENS of instances of that zone. Each Classic WOW server caps at 35,000 players (FULL on server select).

G99 will not even have dynamic noobie mob spawns let alone multiple phases of entire zones. The comparison is apples to cucumbers here.

[Verityn]

Classic WOW uses a phasing mechanism to spread the population out based on player level, active quests etc.

That Westfall zone youre questing in, with 300 people, in just one of likely DOZENS of instances of that zone. Each Classic WOW server caps at 35,000 players (FULL on server select).

G99 will not even have dynamic noobie mob spawns let alone multiple phases of entire zones. The comparison is apples to cucumbers here.

The last EQ live TLP server I was on had layering too. I remember Unrest being fully camped on all of it's layers and I want to say there were 25 to 50 layers.

[Chryorn]

I created a Troll SK yesterday. I was the only player in the swamp and I had to run around and search for mobs. It took a long time to reach level 3. Most of it spent running around, searching. At least I got 4 bone chips for the Rusty Two Handed Sword while still at level 1. But even at Level 3 I had only managed to get 1 tadpole flesh and no froglok meat. No chance to get the 2 tadpole flesh and 1 froglok meat for the Rusty Two Handed Battle Axe. Not enough fungus spores for even 1 patchwork armor quest either. It didn't help that Zimbittle was up as well. She and the roaming guard competed with me for the few mobs around. - And I even made it all the way to South Ro in hopes to find mobs. Frogs one level above me were much too hard though, with just 4 pieces of cloth or netted.

3 days ago I made an Ogre SK. Lots of running around in Feerrott as well, but at least there were more mobs around. Much better than the swamp. It was easy to get a set of cloth armor and lots of lizard meat for the weapons quests. Lizard tails for the armor quests were less common. But by level 4 I was fully clothed, most of it cloth, with 4 patchwork pieces and enough plat for a full set of Large Leather Armor from the vendor.

The week before that it was Rivervale. Halfling Cleric. No real newbie quests, not many mobs that even dropped a few copper or a silver. By level 3 I still hadn't managed to get enough coins for all the useful level 1 spells and had 2 pieces of cloth armor. It didn't help getting dressed that parts of the cloth armor dropped by the skeletons is not halfling wearable. But at least those 2 pieces were valuable, compared to the animal parts.

After Rivervale I tried a dwarf. Much better. By level 4 I had most of my level 5 spells and was fully dressed in patchwork and tattered. Much less frustrating than Misty Thicket. The Bone Chips quest helps a lot with that.

Of course my two test chars in Qeynos and Freeport had no problem at all to have lots of mobs around them all the time. Lots of armor and rusty weapon drops as well.

The differences between the newbie zones are huge, both in gear and cash drops. I had the most fun with the Ogre SK, despite the running around. The Troll was the most frustrating. Grobb has lots of newbie quests, it just was not possible to even find the mobs. Most kills were snakes. The poor Troll was thankful to find something to kill at all.
I was planning to start a Halfling Cleric on Green. I like the look of female Halflings in plate armor. But Misty turned out to be a bad place to start, even without competition. Not being able to afford even the basic spells is frustrating. My Halfling managed to loot a cracked staff. But it is the best weapon available for her, can't just sell it. The Ogre had no such problems. 4 lizard meat for Sword or Axe plus a few silver for sharpening stones took 15 minutes. The cracked staves he got went straight to the vendor. The Dwarf Cleric is not tempted to sell her cracked staff. Getting dressed and buying spells was no problem anyway. The Troll has heard of cracked staves, but believes them to be a myth.

[pink grapefruit]

Classic WOW uses a phasing mechanism to spread the population out based on player level, active quests etc.

That Westfall zone youre questing in, with 300 people, in just one of likely DOZENS of instances of that zone. Each Classic WOW server caps at 35,000 players (FULL on server select).

G99 will not even have dynamic noobie mob spawns let alone multiple phases of entire zones. The comparison is apples to cucumbers here.

35,000 pop w phasing seems comparable to 4,000ish w/o phasing. not sure what point ur tryina make here

[Lojik]

If there's a dearth of things to kill, would we see level 1 raids? Could they take down orcs in sro? Gnolls in bb?

[Baler]

/petition harrysacket stole my fire beetle and swore at me.

The names are going to be the best part.
trust me

[Vizax_Xaziv]

35,000 pop w phasing seems comparable to 4,000ish w/o phasing. not sure what point ur tryina make here

No. The WOW phasing uses an algorithm to move people around based on player levels, active quests, mobs needed etc.

It's not simply multiple instances of zones.

[Chryorn]

If there's a dearth of things to kill, would we see level 1 raids? Could they take down orcs in sro? Gnolls in bb?
We will probably see groups of level ones and twos trying to kill things they usually wouldn't try to escape the overcrowded newbie areas. But with the way level and skill points determine hits given and taken it will get a lot of those groups wiped. It is going to be lots of fun.

[Vizax_Xaziv]

We will probably see groups of level ones and twos trying to kill things they usually wouldn't try to escape the overcrowded newbie areas. But with the way level and skill points determine hits given and taken it will get a lot of those groups wiped. It is going to be lots of fun.

HEALING CLASSES are gonna be in EXTREMELY high demand on G99 starting right from level 1!

[pink grapefruit]

No. The WOW phasing uses an algorithm to move people around based on player levels, active quests, mobs needed etc.

It's not simply multiple instances of zones.

I still insist the two are comparable. My experience was standing at bind points with 3+ other people, all spamming our attack commands, as hundreds of other people ran around us chaotically.

What part of this do you imagine to be unlike day 1 of green? :)

[Deathrydar]

On the classic WoW launch, it was pure madness! There were so......many.....people....

Do you know how the smart ones got thru it?

We grouped.

That's how you are going to survive on green's launch!

[Chryorn]

HEALING CLASSES are gonna be in EXTREMELY high demand on G99 starting right from level 1!
Yes, we might see some interesting group compositions. 3 level 1 healers might be able to keep the level 1 tank alive against 1 skeleton. If they don't mess up on their Minor Healing chain.

[AegnorP99]

I've got a feeling it's going to be insane. I've half a mind to give it a few days before rolling up a character. But let's be real, I'll be there Day 1 like everyone else running around wildly looking for something, anything to kill.

[Jibartik]

I have nothing but my memory but my best friend and I that played EQ together played a troll, and I played a dark elf. I leveled in the dark elf area and he leveled in the troll area.

The troll area was like "the place to be" for a noobie. You would get a full set of mesh there leveling (or was it woven?) it was a leather graphic for a caster... We had started over a lot together, and did lan parties on weekends and he would just be like you're wrong, you're wrong, everytime I tried to level anywhere but the swamp. I finally listened and went to the swamp, Id think "man he is right this is the spot!" and got a full inventory of leather graphic armor for my darkelf necro by the time I got him to level 8 there and went back for spells, proudly I wore that armor through the oasis, I remember that trip!!

That armor stuff sold for like a gold+ each!

Id always go to the swamp to level noobies from then on..You made hand over fist plat leveling in that area as a noobie just killing froggies.

I tried bringing a character there because of my memories when I started playing p99 and was like, what the heck this area is the worst! there is nothing to kill but like 2 tads!

Like loramin says, we likely will never prove this one, but idk... I suspect some things may have changed since the old days with regards to some of these noobie zones.

Cant prove it, but my suspicion is now stuck in my brain.

Edit: Or it could have just been that classic effect "46 froglock tads with one AoE!" (http://www.wtfman.com/mcd/mayjunejuly.htm)or maybe that guy litreally did kill 46 froglock tads? I just dont know now....

[Deathrydar]

I remember back in the beta in 2009, there were not enough MOBs in each starting zone. I only knew Freeport like the back of my hand, so only Freeport was fixed as a GM gave me the powers to create MOB paths as he added MOBs to the zone.

Over the years, it seems that some other zones were fixed, but the MOB count in Innothule and Feerrott are way too low. More should be added ASAP, definitely before Green's launch!

[cd288]

I know it's been mentioned before, but it really seems like the newbie zones are going to be practically unplayable at launch. Let's assume a population at the low end of estimates, 1000 players. You're probably looking at numbers something like ~350 on Faydwer, ~250 in Qeynos, ~200 in Freeport, ~150 in Oggok/Grobb, ~50 in Misty. Do you guys think GM's will add more mobs or have gms in different zones with /spawn command (I think someone mentioned they did this on some new servers on live.) If not, which zones do you think will be most able to handle the amount of players?

1) Freeport. Seems like a decent bet, as there are not one but two newbie yards. Dark elves will probably come here too, some will stay in nek. EC and Nro have some newbie stuff.

2) Qeynos. Probably going to be really awful. I think people will be attracted to this one with all the great newbie quests, but theres only one newbie yard, QH is relatively spaced out, and a lot of barbarian and erudite players will come here to hunt. Speaking of that....

3) Everfrost. Seems emptier of roaming gnolls and goblins than I remember on live, but we all know how reliable memory is. It's a tough start on blue for sure with hardly any level 1 roamers in those chasms. Maybe it won't be that bad on green since most mobs are level 2+ people can group and take them down, but still seems somewhat devoid of creatures to hunt.

4) Tox. Actually not as bad a newbie zone as you might think, but the current version on blue is littered with too many infected rats (75% of stuff north of the river maybe?) rather than stuff that drops armor/weapons. Seems to be a classic monster though so it's probably going to be like that at launch unless it gets fixed.

5) Misty. I don't know much about this zone, but since it's pretty much going to just be halflings here it might be a good bet. I am not familiar with mob density

6) Feerrott. Some camps here that are tough for single ogres to break, but should be doable with groups of ogres, so might not be that bad? Not sure if mob density is enough for peeps though, seems unlikely?

7) Innothule. I'm not sure there will be enough creatures here to hunt for the newbies, as you pretty much need to stay close to the wall. Unless some brave groups venture into the watery parts of the swamp, but there don't seem to be a high density of critters so I'm not sure it'd be worth it.

8) Gfay. I don't know shit about this place as a newbie zone, but it seems like a lot of people love it. How good is it going to be with 250+ (probably at a minimum) newbies looking to kill orcs. How is the monster density in this zone?

9) Steamfont. Also don't know shit about this zone, is there enough to hunt for 50 gnomes and some sprinkled wood/half/high elves that want to come here (maybe some dwarves?)

10) Butcher. Don't know much about this zone either but seems pretty spread out.

11) Neriak. Forest is ok I think, I'm assuming people will hunt the halflings on green. Probably a bunch gonna go to freeport.

What do you guys think?


I'm really confused by your comments on FP and Qeynos. Why would a Dark Elf who is KOS to some people in FP come to FP to level in its newbie yard? A lot of them will be okay with the guards, but having to trek all the way down through the tunnels to get to vendors who will sell to you? Not being able to bank in North FP? It simply doesn't make sense for a Dark Elf to go to FP until they've accrued several levels and they're ready to start leveling in EC or N Ro. Not to mention that Nektulos is a phenomenal newbie zone with a great progression of content through the first several levels.

As for Qeynos, the newbie yard is pretty big there. Why would Barbarians go there? Everfrost has some great early level quests that you can do to get decent starter gear and then you can go straight to Blackburrow. Honestly, if I created a character in Qeynos I'd probably try and get to Everfrost instead of the other way around. I guess some Erudites might go to Qeynos at level 1, but why? While not great, Toxx isn't awful either. Not to mention, an evil Erudite (i.e. Necromancers) won't be able to get to Qeynos on their own until they get Gather Shadows at level 8.

[soronil]

I still insist the two are comparable.
What part of this do you imagine to be unlike day 1 of green? :)

On the classic WoW launch, it was pure madness! There were so......many.....people....
That's how you are going to survive on green's launch!

You guys can't compare WoW to EQ.

Wow has so much technology to make sure that things are smooth
1. Multiple servers. People spread out. character creation lockslock at high pop
2. Log in queue. IF the server is full, you can't log on, even if you have a char.
3. Multiple instances of zones. As many instances as they need to get more reasonable zone desnity
4. Cross realm zones. A zone is too empty? Ok, now several servers are on the same instance of that zone.
5. Dynamic respawns. Mobs dying faster? Spawn more frequently
6. Instanced dungeons. Once you get high enough for the newbie dungeons, you can run them non stop, never have to worry about competing for mob spawns again.

That's just the technology i know about off the top of my head. I'm sure there is more.

p99 has none of that. If you thought you "survived" wow classic launch, good luck here buddy.

[soronil]

I'm really confused by your comments on FP and Qeynos. Why would a Dark Elf who is KOS to some people in FP come to FP to level in its newbie yard? A lot of them will be okay with the guards, but having to trek all the way down through the tunnels to get to vendors who will sell to you? Not being able to bank in North FP? It simply doesn't make sense for a Dark Elf to go to FP until they've accrued several levels and they're ready to start leveling in EC or N Ro. Not to mention that Nektulos is a phenomenal newbie zone with a great progression of content through the first several levels.

it's only a few minutes away from neriak. And you can kill mobs all the way.

Toxx has low levels spawns all the way to WC. It will be quite natural for people to spread out from neriak and eventually zone into WC if they can't find mobs in Toxx. On blue, people flock to WC to be near buffs / where they came to get their twink gear from their other char. So again kind of natural for people to gravitate towards DC. Not to mention the undead in befallen will be a popular spot once you get to level 4+

P.S there are quests that gets an agnostic DE to apprehensive with the merhcants in 20-30 minutes. Will also get you from level 1 to level 2.

[Lojik]

I'm really confused by your comments on FP and Qeynos. Why would a Dark Elf who is KOS to some people in FP come to FP to level in its newbie yard? A lot of them will be okay with the guards, but having to trek all the way down through the tunnels to get to vendors who will sell to you? Not being able to bank in North FP? It simply doesn't make sense for a Dark Elf to go to FP until they've accrued several levels and they're ready to start leveling in EC or N Ro. Not to mention that Nektulos is a phenomenal newbie zone with a great progression of content through the first several levels.

As for Qeynos, the newbie yard is pretty big there. Why would Barbarians go there? Everfrost has some great early level quests that you can do to get decent starter gear and then you can go straight to Blackburrow. Honestly, if I created a character in Qeynos I'd probably try and get to Everfrost instead of the other way around. I guess some Erudites might go to Qeynos at level 1, but why? While not great, Toxx isn't awful either. Not to mention, an evil Erudite (i.e. Necromancers) won't be able to get to Qeynos on their own until they get Gather Shadows at level 8.

/shrug I guess everyone has a different opinion, but at least on this server Everfrost is very low on mob density, tox somewhat, nektulos maybe a little better? I think part of the problem is that when people come to p99 blue, they only experience the low level bit for a few hours then move on, so no one really pays attention to if the classic mechanics/spawns are right, and it's an extremely unclassic (and usually fast) experience (no one to compete with spawns, people will usually just straight up give you plat and items even if you don't ask.) As a result places with (at least it sure as hell seems like to me) lower mob density than on live "feel" classic, because at most there's 1 or 2 other lowbies in the zone with you, when in reality on live this was supporting much more than that...obviously not the hundreds we'll probably see. I really think unless they address several zones and their low mob density it's going to be really bad in places like everfrost, tox, possibly nektulos, and people will either quit or travel outside those zones.

As far as Neriak to freeport, a good portion of dark elf classes are not kos, and while they can't vendor in efp they can possibly vendor in commons. I highly suspect DE to be a popular class at launch and thus Nektulos forest to be overburdened. FP again has TWO newbie yards with lots of spawns, in nro it's basically like a mini newbie yard and ec a bit as well.

PS has anyone leveled a good erudite 1-4 in tox forest in the last couple of months? Ugh those rats everywhere.

[Deathrydar]

I think part of the problem is that when people come to p99 blue, they only experience the low level bit for a few hours then move on, so no one really pays attention to if the classic mechanics/spawns are right,.

This goes deeper than you think. When I started here back in beta, I realized that very little to none of the lower level zones were tested in beta. Nearly everyone was level 60 and no one cared.

I was offered an insta-60 as well, but I turned it down because I wanted to test the lower level stuff. As stated in my previous post in this thread, there were a lot of things that were not right in all of the Freeport zones, East Commons, and North Ro. That being said, I only had time to test that area, so I am sure that the other areas were probably never really tested in beta back in 2009 and remain unfinished.

[Hoppkins_Wytchfinder]

Yup stick near the EC zone in. Zoning is kind of like running to the guards anyway.

Same on the Nro zone. SOunds a good plan to me as long as your careful.

I would say most people stick near the guards and dont go more than 3/4 of the way into the newbie area. The part near the EC/Nro zones is probably pretty underused.

[Chryorn]

The run to Freeport is attactive for Dark Elves because the loot is much better there. All these skeletons and pawns with their cloth armor that is DE wearable. The skeleton population in Nektulous was much lower and the mobs more spread out as well. Especially East Freeport yard was attractive because Murissa Sandwhisper was standing right at the zone line in North Ro.

[magusfire24]

I was going to be a mage on Green . It might be a good idea to be a Erudite than to have a less trafficked newbie area. Plus never been a Erudite. Rule all with the big forehead!

[Verityn]

I highly suspect DE to be a popular class at launch and thus Nektulos forest to be overburdened.

Maybe this green server will be different, but for whatever reason people love making elves of all kinds and then never really getting very far with them. Whether it was the few new live servers pre-kunark I was on or the TLP servers Gfay and Nek were jammed packed with players. When I played a dark elf wizard I felt obligated to run to the commons/freeport just so I could get past level 3. The same with gfay where I'd run to Butcherblock.

[Snagglepuss]

The sea of corpses is going to be hilarious, especially in G’Fay where that cent patrols between Felwithe and the Kelethin newb area. It’ll look like Sky Isle 1!

[BlackBellamy]

Sgt. Slate is going to be furious! Time to die, a newbie DE Cleric!