Adding the Planes of Power in to the original trilogy

[guineapig]

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

I strongly dislike increasing the level cap to 65. If this was done it needs to be done in a way that keeps the old dungeons relevant and not trivialized like they will be at level 65. I would suggest rebalancing the PoP encounters to level 60. Every time people leveled up in EQ1, old dungeons got left behind. Every time they didn't increase levels for a new expansion, the old dungeons were kept in use as a gearing tool for the new ones, which is a good thing. The additional AAs and gear will bring with it plenty of new power to the players as it is.

This is fairly sound logic. There is also a school of thought however, that having a nice spread of dungeon levels means that you can level up inside one without having to deal with higher level players ganging every mob from you, but then again by the end of Velious there will already be plenty of dungeons to choose from. for 50-60.

I guess my main issue with not increasing the level cap to 65 in this little theoretical discussion is the shear amount of coding work that would have to be involved with completely changing every single PoP zone, every AA ability, every piece of gear, etc. We're talking about a bit of cuting and pasting of zonelines and moving some NPCs out of PoK. What you're talking about is a complete overhaul of all PoP items and mechanics (since the expansion took the level cap increase in to account for nearly everything). That could take a very long time to basically customize an entire expansion. The play-testing and tuning alone could take many months and tons of man hours.

Don't get me wrong, I completely understand what you're saying and agree with you to a certain extent.

[falkun]

I'd almost want to go the other way: Tune it so the 1st tier planes are tuned for L58-60 characters instead of L46+, and then tune everything else for 60+, with the EPs tuned up to 65. Also, this may have already been the way things were done, and without Luclin gear, there may not be that much of an issue for tuning. As guineapig said, by the time Velious is stale there will be plenty of content for 50-60. What would extend the life of this "custom PoP" would be making it more like raid zones in the beginning and throughout the expansion.

Ya, some people will blow through levels shirking gear until max level, but this will allow guilds to progress from original planes to Kunark to Velious to PoP in a more linear fashion I feel.

/discuss

[Odeseus]

For the sake of the sheer amount of work involved, I'd keep the levels as is. My big question to those who do not want the level incease: Are those 5 levels going to be so bad? I mean, Kunark added 10 levels and no one is leaving angry rants about how it is killing off the old world.

I'd get behind this project, but we're still talking literal years and years down the road. Nice to think about but I wouldn't go nuts over it til at least Velious is out [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[guineapig]

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

I'd get behind this project, but we're still talking literal years and years down the road. Nice to think about but I wouldn't go nuts over it til at least Velious is out [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yeah totally.

My only goal is to farm you guys for opinions and ideas and eventually make a map of Norrath with all these ideas in place. So far people have provided some great lore that has definitely corrected me and/or swayed my decision on certain zone location options.

The way I see it is, if this idea really gets fine tuned, written up and archived, anyone in the emu community could eventually implement this, be it this server or some other one.

But yes, these are just ideas... a brain exercise, nothing more.

[Kika Maslyaka]

trivialization didn't started with PoP - it started with Kunark.
It was Kunark that made half of the game obsolite.
It was with Kunark that lev 35 mobs started droping items than in classic droped from 50+ mobs
Verant should have kept the progression identical to vanila expansion and only put better items on mobs in 50-60 range
With velious it got even worse
So level cap itself has no effect on trivialization - loot distribution does
In this sence PoP was the best expansion ever, cuase it was mostly 60+ content and didn't step on on previosu expansion toes as much as Luclin and Kunark did

And yes this happens in each and every MOO that makes loot in each next expansion even more accesseable than in the previous one - its a market thing to get casual players to pay for something they don't really need

[Rifter]

The level cap has to go up at some point. Kunark, Velious, Luclin, all capped at 60. I thought that was crazy at the time, at least Luclin introduced AAs. Part of the reason I love MMOs is the "carrot on a stick" mentality. You are never done advancing your character for long.

[guineapig]

So a little more on lore. I was trying to find out a little more on how the PoP storyline begins and it's all quite wordy and pretty vague at certain points. Basically I was trying to find out if there was any point to all the planes being accessible from the Plane of Tranquility instead of the old world zones:

http://everquestlore.wikia.com/wiki/...Power,_Part_II

Basically, the only relevant part is at the very end:

"Now go and prepare. Soon the morning mists will lift to reveal the portals to a new age. The Age of Balance is nearly upon us."

With this, the elder walks from the large room and allows it to return to being an infirmary for the casualties of the new age.

The Book and the Pedestal

The night slowly pulls its face from Norrath, leaving only the dewy residue of its dark kiss. Creatures scurry to find a shady resting place to wait out the day, and the inhabitants of all the cities of man awaken. It will be hours yet before these cities become fully aware of their newest landmarks, the portals in the form of stone pedestals that litter the face of Norrath’s landscape.

Most days begin, fade, and end, all part of the slow blur that makes up the common life. Sometimes a clear path will present itself and lead its follower astray from that common life. This path comes to its traveler in a variety of forms: the magic in a child's first book; the promise of a couple’s first glance; the hero's first step into the dank mouth of some forgotten cave. All these things can break the blurry cycle of the day and yield adventure.

This morning will present to the citizens a new path, a path in the form of a portal--a path that will forever change their lives.

Basically you can keep all the lore and just drop the dumb part about pedestals with books on them, which I always felt was a cheap and cheesy solution to get everyone to start using PoK as a hub. It never made any sense. So just leave those 2 paragraphs out of the lore and voila!

[Kika Maslyaka]

you can keep Pok in with following adjustments:
-req level 46 to enter
-make its citizens to start off KOS to everyone, at like -2000 points [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
And then those who really want that as hub - they will have shit load of factioning to do =)
-keep the books that lead to PoK, but remove those that go down to Norath [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] (hence ist accessable from anywhere, but cannot be used as a transporatation system anymore)

[guineapig]

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

you can keep Pok in with following adjustments:
-req level 46 to enter
-make its citizens to start off KOS to everyone, at like -2000 points [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
And then those who really want that as hub - they will have shit load of factioning to do =)
-keep the books that lead to PoK, but remove those that go down to Norath [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] (hence ist accessable from anywhere, but cannot be used as a transporatation system anymore)

So a zone that doesn't help with transportation and the NPCs (which can't be killed) are all KoS?
Make it easy to get to but impossible to leave unless there happens to be a druid or wizard there?
(A wizard or druid that wasn't already killed by the tons of invincible roaming KoS NPCs that is).
That sounds like a really bad idea, just my opinion. Makes more sense for it to simply not exist.

[Kika Maslyaka]

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

So a zone that doesn't help with transportation and the NPCs (which can't be killed) are all KoS?
Make it easy to get to but impossible to leave unless there happens to be a druid or wizard there?
(A wizard or druid that wasn't already killed by the tons of invincible roaming KoS NPCs that is).
That sounds like a really bad idea, just my opinion. Makes more sense for it to simply not exist.

why npcs can't be killed???
just cuase its a set as non combat zone?
you do know it takes about 3 seconds to remove that flag?
this is still will be quest zone, you just have to work on your faction - think about this as new Kael.
And there are gate potions sold on vendor [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]