LDON

[Zuranthium]

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 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.

[phacemeltar]

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.

sounds fun. i always thought the idea of an emulator trying to improve the original idea as exciting. sony folded under the WoW pressure and really dropped the ball on great potential.

thats why i brought up LDON. i think randomly generated dungeons with random loots could really be done well, but LDON itself was boring.. just 3 or 4 mobs per room, and a lame boss at the end. traps were worthless, and tbh the loot wasnt even very good.

also, just because theres an instanced dungeon does not mean another group couldnt go in behind you. would just mean that the dungeon path is randomly generated on entry, and that there is a time limit until it closes. you gota free your mind from blizzard's crapfest

[Kika Maslyaka]

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

thats why i brought up LDON. i think randomly generated dungeons with random loots could really be done well, but LDON itself was boring.. just 3 or 4 mobs per room, and a lame boss at the end. traps were worthless, and tbh the loot wasnt even very good.

also, just because theres an instanced dungeon does not mean another group couldnt go in behind you. would just mean that the dungeon path is randomly generated on entry, and that there is a time limit until it closes. you gota free your mind from blizzard's crapfest

anything randomly generated will not be much higher quality than LDON - to be generated based on some coded in principle, means that these zones would not have any character, and be very very similar - yep thats exactly what LDON was:
3-4 mobs per room, occasional boss, etc.

The only good side about LDON was easy group finding in a highly bloated world (at that point), and accumulation of gear via tedious grind but guaranteed reward, instead of hopping for chances for random boss drops that were camped 24/7.

As far as what to do after 60 - raise lev cap, and add custom content in spirit of classic.

P.S. AAs sucked - it was nothing but long ass mandatory grind to bring up your char to mandatory standard of being viable for high end raiding. Specially for tanks. High end content in turn was tuned with idea that person have grinded like 3/4 of all possible AAs allready, with clear intention to keep people grinding and paying.
AAs would have worked if they were similar to current WoW talents: you get LIMITED points and very limited options you can choose from - then you could really customize your character.

[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.

[Kika Maslyaka]

Originally Posted by prc018100 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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.

Shards have the same problem modern EQ Live has - 95% of players are at lev cap doing uber raids.
They started out good, but they never really gave anything to a casual/solo player to do when they hit lev cap.
If a new player starts today - you will fun time getting to max lev, but then you will get stuck - there is no one to raid with at lowest tier raids, and to get to the high end, you will need a whole guild to hand-hold you trough like 15 tiers of content keying and gearing you for 6 months before you can raid what they are raiding now.
Unless you join a game with 17 others new players - you pretty much will play solo and then quit.