So what's there to do in Velious anyway?

[Clark]

I love Velious, but Luclin was the best.

[Yuda]

Great post t0lkien.

Is it possible for anything to appeal to the mass market without being mediocre, not necessarily relating to games, but that's what I had in mind.

[Swish]

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

I love Velious, but Luclin was the best.

(+) New playable race
(+) New playable class
(+) Some decent raid content
(+) New places to level
(+) Easier to travel around for non-porter classes.

(-) The bazaar kills the EC atmosphere.

...I'd take it if it was being offered.

[Pyrion]

Easy travel kills EQ atmospherer as well.

[Swish]

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

Easy travel kills EQ atmospherer as well.

If everyone was using the boats I'd agree... but the few times I have sat at any dock for a boat recently I'm usually the only one there, unless it's in Oasis.

The server has dozens of porters on at any given time, not hard to find one. People are shortcutting anyway so not sure what problem there'd be in using the Nexus to travel around for those who can't afford druid/wizard ports.

[t0lkien]

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

If everyone was using the boats I'd agree... but the few times I have sat at any dock for a boat recently I'm usually the only one there, unless it's in Oasis.

The server has dozens of porters on at any given time, not hard to find one. People are shortcutting anyway so not sure what problem there'd be in using the Nexus to travel around for those who can't afford druid/wizard ports.

Core class abilities being taken away from them and given to the open world reduces both the class, the community, the economy, and the ultimately the whole game. The same thing happened with mounts, and with so many other things post Luclin.

If you make a game easier, you make it less rewarding. You can't have one without the other. In the end you are really talking about different games - which is fine. But they are different games. And there are hundreds of those games already. Why do you want another one?

P.S. Getting ported by another player, or gathering the resources together to buy/make a potion to port empowers the systems that allow it. Clicking on a port stone does nothing except circumnavigate the game systems already there. It's counter-intuitive and damaging to value of the things in place already. If you want instant porting, level up a porting class, or the tradeskill that makes the potions, or acquire one of items that allows porting on a cooldown. Bam, you just played the game.

[myriverse]

Originally Posted by t0lkien [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Core class abilities being taken away from them and given to the open world reduces both the class, the community, the economy, and the ultimately the whole game. The same thing happened with mounts, and with so many other things post Luclin.

Everyone having easy access to ports enhanced the community feel of the game by making it easier for people to interact. Sure, teleporting is a core class ability, but it's not a very important one. Even before the easy access to ports, I seldom ever asked anyone for a port. In raid situations, ports tended to be provided. Otherwise, I took the boat or walked. So, it wasn't really hurting a single thing at all.

Originally Posted by t0lkien [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If you make a game easier, you make it less rewarding. You can't have one without the other. In the end you are really talking about different games - which is fine. But they are different games. And there are hundreds of those games already. Why do you want another one?

True, but teleports do not qualify as affecting game difficulty.

What teleports did was take a horrible, needless, disgusting timesink and throw it in the trash. Good freaking riddance. And this was even more true as the world had become more than twice as big as originally planned.

[Furinex]

I love exploration and immersion. Free ports for everyone breaks this for me. Why choose a travelish class if everyone can do it? I play a druid, I like being able to get around easily, cart friends all over the place and what have you. Do I still use the boat? Hell yes I do. I love the boat. I might be the only one who thinks like that but, I think the boats are a great feature, they make things seem epic in terms of travel. I remember the first time I took the boat from Faydwer to Freeport. I dont think I'll ever forget it, it just felt like... well an adventure! Even at higher levels, I still find myself exploring places I've never been to, places I've avoided on live for a long time, and opening myself up to more options. This has shown me gratification with Travel to and from. The idea of exploring my way around dungeons, or even open areas gives me a thrill. Although, Being able to zip right out is a great thing too. Its also nice to be able to Evacuate groups. Ive gotten re-invited to groups over and over again due to my fast reaction with Evacs. I generally have good timing. The interaction my class has given me with the server is one of the highest I could ask for. Even if it is getting bombarded with tells for ports, I have made quite a few powerful allies just by going out of my way to use my EQ-given abilities to help someone. Later, this will come to fruition, and it will be paid back I'm sure.

[fadetree]

Originally Posted by t0lkien [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Luclin was game breaking and ugly - visually and thematically. It had some good parts, but overall it was a negative. I loved SSrae as well. The path to VT was soul destroyingly tough, but simultaneously created some of the best online gaming moments of my life (not VT itself). Some of the items were also awesome - the Bard singing bonus gem which could be soloed if you were really smart about it; the insta-click invisibility cloak, and so many others. AA's were a good idea badly implemented and not thought through or understood, and completely messed up what went before them in class development. The Bazaar was a useful abomination that ritually slaughtered the quaint ingame economy and trade game, and preempted the AH and the RMAH. If you like all that, nice, you now have 100+ MMOs that are reskinned versions of the same game to play. Go to town.

Classic EQ, however, is a breath of fresh air compared to the mess Luclin+ created and which WoW logically engorged with mass market mediocrity, and which the entire industry aped mindlessly, rushing with drool flying from their mouths at the thought of the delicious gravy train that would follow....

And so now here we are playing a 14 year old game on a private server because everything else is fucking awful. GG Luclin.

QFT!

[Thulack]

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

I love exploration and immersion. Free ports for everyone breaks this for me. Why choose a travelish class if everyone can do it? I play a druid, I like being able to get around easily, cart friends all over the place and what have you. Do I still use the boat? Hell yes I do. I love the boat. I might be the only one who thinks like that but, I think the boats are a great feature, they make things seem epic in terms of travel. I remember the first time I took the boat from Faydwer to Freeport. I dont think I'll ever forget it, it just felt like... well an adventure! Even at higher levels, I still find myself exploring places I've never been to, places I've avoided on live for a long time, and opening myself up to more options. This has shown me gratification with Travel to and from. The idea of exploring my way around dungeons, or even open areas gives me a thrill. Although, Being able to zip right out is a great thing too. Its also nice to be able to Evacuate groups. Ive gotten re-invited to groups over and over again due to my fast reaction with Evacs. I generally have good timing. The interaction my class has given me with the server is one of the highest I could ask for. Even if it is getting bombarded with tells for ports, I have made quite a few powerful allies just by going out of my way to use my EQ-given abilities to help someone. Later, this will come to fruition, and it will be paid back I'm sure.

Taking the boat is a timesink. No real other way to put it.