Quote:
Originally Posted by Sadre Spinegnawer
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And yes, this is all distant speculation: we shall all be living in Velious for more than a few years here lol. But it is still interesting speculation: what went wrong in Luclin and PoP, and can they be salvaged and redone, so that they don't essentially function as nerfs of classic eq?
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Luclin what went wrong:
Everything that shrunk and eliminated the old world. Nexus spires would be ok if the timers were longer and druids/wizards were instantly able to port up there. Using spires as a short cut from WC to EW was stupid. Maybe have one spire only (as mentioned before) OR make it so you can only port down to the same spire you came up with.
I hate trading in EC but Bazaar just wasn't classic no matter how you slice it. Changed the game entirely. Also lead to a lot more RMT plat/gold farming. Duping and other plat/item exploits crashed the economy too big time with the Bazaar. High end traders bought up the most valuable droppable stuff and completely hoarded it when stuff like that happened. I think face to face interactions in EC would help put a stop to this or at least help put the brakes on until the devs can fix (plus name and shame).
To an extent PC and some other exp zones. However, this is moreso a level stratification / server population issue than a ZEM problem. If there aren't enough low to mid level players they are going to have to flock to certain zones. I've been playing my high 20s rogue lately a bit more and population in HK and MM seems just about perfect. Usually can get a group but sometimes groups are full and sometimes there is no group at a camp at all. If there are plenty of low to mid level players you won't have to go to PC.
AAs to an extent. Mostly the implementation and the fact that they were doing XP over and over. Though Luclin AAs weren't too horrible (besides possible immersion stuff). The difference between a char with full AAs and a char with minimal but class defining AAs was not gigantic. But during later expansions the AA grind for raid (or even group) required stuff was absurd.
Lore stuff and graphics are subjective.
What Luclin did right:
Other than Bazaar and Nexus, the world was still large. Lots of old and new stuff to do. Go wherever you want. More to see. Lots of old and new raid content to gear up with. Mudflation was not really too bad much more than Velious anyway. Biggest change/issue might be all the FT gear.
Faction system with Katta and the other zones was interesting too.
What PoP did wrong:
Simple. PoK books, level cap, added AAs, lack of factions, massive mudflation, graveyards, HUBS and XP changes/ZEMs. With PoP there was utterly no reason to do anything in the old world other than low and mid levels and that was just grinding. Once you got past 50 just head to the planes and grind there. It didn't even make sense to level in older zones if you wanted to because XP was so much different. And sure you had hubs even in classic (such as East Commons) but it was silly that there was MGB c3 every 10 minutes.... that was within a 5 minute walk from where you were XPing. Really changed the game from sandbox to theme park IMO.
What PoP did right:
Raids/lore. At least the idea of taking on the gods.