How to make leveling more interesting

[Velerin]

Dungeons are obviously so much more fun than outdoor zones but the bottom line is the way EQ was designed outdoor zones are almost always more efficient. CRs and death exp penalties all make for more risk, more challenge but it also makes people sit on zonelines and in outdoor zones.
I love classic eq but always thought the exp loss was just too much. It could easily be halved and still be a good challenge. You already have to do a naked CR, possibly dying again in the process. (i'm not asking it to be changed here, its not classic)
For pure leveling experience, OT is just better for 90% of people than say Sol B/Guk. As sad and boring as OT is, as more fun as Sol B/Guk are.

OT = safe place to med/rest/afk, constant single pulls as fast as you can kill them, wide range of mobs for different levels, low aggro range (pretty much will never get non-singles unless really sloppy), use any combo of people (solo, duo, trio), as long as you have jboots/sow no chance of death.

Sol B/Guk = need a decent group, time to set up, time to break initial camp, limited by spawns, low experience due to range of player lvls often (Need a tank..only tank available is 45 troll SK and everyone else is 38-42, well everyone's not getting much exp now) and of course chance for train/wipe, CR, exp loss, etc.

When eq live reduced exp loss and made CRs easier it actually made people explore dungeons a lot more often.