Was Qeynos really one of the first cities designed?

[BigPlays]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Respectfully, I can't tell if you're being serious or not. Because by comparison Qeynos is actually one of the most, if not the most, fleshed out starting areas out of all the original old world options.

There are a plethora of quests (some quite interesting lore-wise) through the area and the Karanas that give good exp at low levels. A very well-designed dungeon right on the doorstep, great faction lore and the catacombs are awesome, etc. No other area until FoB comes close.

The city itself seems fleshed out, but progression wise, the area seems unfinished. BB to Perma would only get you so far. The level difference between the hardest gobs and ice giants is huge. If you count revamped paw then maybe it would get you from 30-45.

FP > Nek > Lava - This gets you three dungeons, in one zone, that can take you from 15-50.

FP> Nro> Oasis > SRo> Swamp > Uguk > Lguk takes you from 1-50.

Qeynos > BB takes you to 15. Say you do Perma, that takes you to what? 35 tops?

If you want to run from Qeynos to any of the zones I mentioned near FP, you would need to go past FP to get to them.

Even if you go to Fay...you have CB > Unrest > MM will take you to 40. Then you can hit OOT to get 50.

Qeynos might be a polished city, but the areas around it are unfinished.

[Ooloo]

EQ was a pretty new thing, they were trying to one-up ultima online which is a fundamentally different game than EQ in basically every way, other than being fantasy based and multiplayer. So you do find a big hodgepodge of ideas in vanilla EQ. Like magic weapons. Seems like an interesting idea, but it didn't take long for basically every weapon worth having in the entire game to be magic by default, so it might as well not even be a mechanic in the first place.

They probably didn't consider any particular area finished or unfinished at launch, it was more like "okay I think we can ship this, let's see what happens".

[BigPlays]

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

EQ was a pretty new thing, they were trying to one-up ultima online which is a fundamentally different game than EQ in basically every way, other than being fantasy based and multiplayer. So you do find a big hodgepodge of ideas in vanilla EQ. Like magic weapons. Seems like an interesting idea, but it didn't take long for basically every weapon worth having in the entire game to be magic by default, so it might as well not even be a mechanic in the first place.

They probably didn't consider any particular area finished or unfinished at launch, it was more like "okay I think we can ship this, let's see what happens".

back then I do not think they had open beta tests which would explain a lot not having customer feedback. Decisions like nerfing the guise and removing something like the Rubicate armor never made sense to me...especially since the only piece of Ruby worth anything was the BP.

[Ooloo]

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

back then I do not think they had open beta tests which would explain a lot not having customer feedback. Decisions like nerfing the guise and removing something like the Rubicate armor never made sense to me...especially since the only piece of Ruby worth anything was the BP.

They did have a beta for the game prior to launch, but yeah they didn't really player test any of the individual ongoing patches. Those decisions were probably made by a small handful of people at verant\sony.

[Ekco]

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

back then I do not think they had open beta tests which would explain a lot not having customer feedback.

they had a couple beta phases and Brad would hold like townhall meetings on a IRC server answering questions n shit. the logs still exist.

[Zwieback]

the logs confirming u a RMTer also still exist.

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

they had a couple beta phases and Brad would hold like townhall meetings on a IRC server answering questions n shit. the logs still exist.

[Zuranthium]

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

back then I do not think they had open beta tests which would explain a lot not having customer feedback. Decisions like nerfing the guise and removing something like the Rubicate armor never made sense to me...especially since the only piece of Ruby worth anything was the BP.

Every piece of Rubicite was valuable, it was the highest armor in the game at the time. It got removed because so many classes could use it, creating complaints that there wasn't enough differentiation. They introduced the class-only quest armor to give each class a different look and so the plate classes could have higher armor than Rangers (who were considered overpowered at the time), with Warriors getting the highest AC set as an attempt to solidify them as the best tanks.

I think they should have left Rubicite in game and made it wearable only by plate classes, and added regen to the plate classes' quest breastplate.

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

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I wish faydark looked more like this (less dark, some bigger trees to stand out as landmarks).

It's wild how every forest pre-Kunark was ultra dark. Not a single normal looking forest zone anywhere. Definitely added a lot of danger and fear of getting lost to the game, but would have been nice to have a few more visible and beautiful forests.

[Danth]

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

It's wild how every forest pre-Kunark was ultra dark. Not a single normal looking forest zone anywhere. Definitely added a lot of danger and fear of getting lost to the game, but would have been nice to have a few more visible and beautiful forests.

Reflects the limited memory and low polygon counts permitted: If you load the "forest" zones without the distance fog, the trees are actually just tall trunks without tops. The darkness and short clip plane hides what isn't there and maintains the illusion. The expansion zones were built with greater, but not limitless, allowances for resource usage, hence the higher detail. Another visible example of the limits on rendering are city zones: Most of them are divided up into groups of a few buildings separated by caves or tall walls so as to not overwhelm 1990's era video cards. Kelethin was an exception, controlled in its case by use of an extremely short clip plane in Greater Faydark.

All of it, together, does have the effect for better and worse of giving Norrath a distinct "feel" all its own, unlike the newer game worlds designed without those limiting factors.

[Zuranthium]

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

All of it, together, does have the effect for better and worse of giving Norrath a distinct "feel" all its own, unlike the newer game worlds designed without those limiting factors.

True, limitations can breed creativity. It was definitely for the better overall. Everquest pre-Luclin reflects the artistic sensibility of pre-digital era media, and in some ways can be equated to being like a Monet painting, as compared to a modern high-def camera picture. It's often better when images aren't so sharp and crystal clear, it creates more mystery and nuance. EQ definitely has a certain 90's feel as well, compare it to 90's Magic the Gathering artwork for example.

Very tricky to design a game with the elements of visual magic that EQ had, while improving the overall level of graphics. There are definitely areas of improvement I'd hope for, but it's important not to make it too defined or too cartoony, and not lose the simultaneous sense of scope and confinement. I don't think I've seen any game pull that off. EQ, in its way, still remains the best at creating the feeling of stepping into a high-fantasy world.

[PabloEdvardo]

qeynos was what they developed as proof of concept for investors

once they got funded, they had to meet shipping deadlines, and you can see how the rest of the game (basically from then on) was rushed

I strongly believe it's a great example of why Pantheon will never be successful. While EQ has lots of failed ideas and unfinished work, it was the investor pressure to ship that ultimately got us the game. Given infinite time, devs will never ship (e.g. Star Citizen).