[prc018100]

Originally Posted by Zuranthium [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Instanced content is awful.

Instanced zones are something that should be used for PvP only - specific battlegrounds and such for 4v4 battles, 6v6 battles, 8v8, etc. They of course will not be used here on p99, but I'm just talking about game design in general. This works for PvP because it's a separate game type (different from world PvP, obviously).

For PvE, instanced zones take away from the realism of the world, they take away from interacting with other players, and they take away from people exploring. Why go try to find an area that isn't being hunted in when you can always just have your own area? That's not a real MMORPG. It's just an MMO.

Now, THAT said, I'd love to see a classic-era custom content server a couple years down the road (with some different game mechanics than EQ too). It would have all of the zones that appear on the classic EQ world map, but weren't actually put into EQ during classic. There's a ton of them:

Abysmal Sea (I envision it as the largest zone in the game with a series of boats each stopping at a different island and you needing to travel to the other side of each dangerous island on foot -- eventually the zone would connect from the "west" side of the world over to the Akanon area), The Grand Plateau, Stonebrunt Mountains, The Vasty Deep, The Barren Cost, The Buried Sea, Broken Skull Rock, some kind of outdoor zone south of Qeynos, Jaggedpine Forest, The Northlands, The Hatchland, The Dead Hills, Winter's Deep, Lake Neriuss, some kind of outdoor zone south of outdoor zone southwest of West Commonlands (would connect to the bottom part of North Ro), The Loping Plains, Wayunder Lake, Hills of Shade, Elizerain Lake (should be the zone inbetween Steamfont Mountains and Greater Faydark), Dragonscale Hills.

Plus there are tons of other zones you could add that would fit into the classic world - The Warrens, a dungeon or two underneath Nektulos Forest, a dungeon underneath Neriak, Plane of Shadow (accessed from the very top of Tower of Frozen Shadow), a dungeon underneath Kaladim that would connect to another dungeon which connects to Lesser Faydark, a dungeon underneath Mistmoore Castle, a Minotaur dungeon over in Steamfont, a dungeon underneath Akanon, Veksar underneath Lake of Ill Omen. Tons of things could be added. Plus you can improve zones that are rather dead with more content - like The Emerald Jungle or Dagnor's Cauldron.

Also, speaking of the Norrath map, it still really annoys me where Lesser Faydark was placed in the game. The west zone-out of Greater Faydark should go to Lesser Faydark and then Lesser Faydark should connect to Butcherblock. Grrrr.

There is another private server called Shards of Dalaya that basically did everything you describe. It took all of the classic zones + many others and made a new world full of custom spawns, quests, etc. I played on it for a while and really enjoyed it. Totally confused the heck outa me coming to play in p1999 though as some of the newbie zones are high level etc. The community is pretty great too and they have AA's and something called tomes to keep you playing post 65 (the level cap last i played). The only downside to the server is that it is impossible for a casual player to catch the current players with a new char and they allow you to box 2 chars which I found to be tedious. You don't have to box, but it's hard for my OCD side to level solo when I could be leveling 2 chars at the same time. They also implemented a feature that allows you to lock your characters items so you can give info to your guild / friends and they can play your char without worrying they will delete or remove your gear. So, some of the really high level chars allow other guilds to use their chars to help progress.