Adding the Planes of Power in to the original trilogy

[falkun]

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

My thread has been pooped on.

Sorry, I will go back on topic.

I know you edited your first post to reflect changes recently, but you still list PoTime as located in the Sleeper's tomb. The culmination of PoP has nothing to do with the Sleeper. I agree with your other post that I think PoTime would better fit in around the Hole in Paineel. If anyone can find the "plane of all planes", it would be through a tear during a magical battle fought by the erudites. They have always been touted as the race with the highest magical affinity.

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

How would you guys go about the discovery of the first portals? (Justice, Disease, Innovation, Nightmare).

Who would make the most sense to spill the beans? Which deity or character would have the most to gain by showing mortals the way to the planes of power and influence?

Not that I know that much about erudite lore, but assuming PoTime does get moved to the hole, why not put a scholarly erudite as the "initiator" (anyone know one individual?) that would want to explore this planar rip?

He shouldn't be an inherently evil doer, just an inquisitive researcher. This would keep with the theme of the excluded PoK.

Side note: Browsing over the Wiz epic, there are no notable erudites in there for a leader. Maybe the erudite wizard GM? How about the leader of Erudin?

This plane of time investigator could then send out this new faction trying to discern a way for a mortal to pass through this rip. This faction would have small camps (or even single person) of informants throughout the planes and possibly at their entrances. When a planar boss dies, instead of instituting the nebulous "planar projections" to hail for your flag, you interact with the "head <investigator faction> agent" for that zone. As a players soul slowly becomes attuned to all the frequencies of the planes they would eventually be able to safely enter the rip in Paineel and enter the PoTime. This would also create the faction that would work for the turn in of Ornate and Elemental armors (*1). This isn't as complicated as Velious, but it would be a lot of custom work while Velious already has the plan laid out.

You could also have some interesting interaction between this investigating faction and the local sham/cleric guilds around planes. Maybe the local denizens do not like the outsiders questioning their god's nearby presence/plane. Maybe as you figure out the secrets of a plane (read: progress through it by killing bosses/minibosses/otherwise earning flags), you help this investigating faction smooth over relations with the locals. One area I could see this working is in PoJustice (which I believe you want at the Halas Shaman Guild). As you earn the different PoJ trial flags, you could improve your faction with the Halas Shaman, maybe even to the point where an Ogre, Troll, or Iksar shaman could buy spells there. Ya, the rest of Halas may still hate the Ogre/Troll/Iksar, but they wouldn't have to go across the continent to buy spells anymore.

Let me mull this over, see if I can find anything else to add to it (and if anyone else wants to take this idea and run, feel free).

(*1) Edit: As I think about this, this would provide a HUGE boon in importance of toxxulia forest wizard port. Put the ornate/elemental armor turn in people in Erudin. Evil erudites will have a much easier time leaving the continent with all the high levels taxing on/off the island for turnins. And this will make Odus important prior to PoTime.

[guineapig]

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

I know you edited your first post to reflect changes recently, but you still list PoTime as located in the Sleeper's tomb. The culmination of PoP has nothing to do with the Sleeper. I agree with your other post that I think PoTime would better fit in around the Hole in Paineel. If anyone can find the "plane of all planes", it would be through a tear during a magical battle fought by the erudites. They have always been touted as the race with the highest magical affinity.

Nice catch. Edited the OP again.

I do agree with you. Originially I just figured Sleepers Tomb because it was kind of the original "end game" of EQ in a sense so I figured it would be appropriate. But I totally agree with your line of thinking regarding The Hole and the Erudites.

And I guess this would be the location of the zoneline:

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[falkun]

I have to admit, I wasn't seeing PoTime as a zone at the bottom of the Hole. With the "planar tear due to the battle of Paineel", I feel that PoTime should be closer to the actual battle. I'm thinking something like the Live version of PoDisease where you just FALL in. You zone into Paineel, and instead of avoiding the MASSIVE HOLE IN ODUS, you dive right in. Either you are attuned and you zone properly, or you are not and well...we all know what happens when planar discontinuities occur.

[guineapig]

Brilliant. So technically the zoneline to PoTime would be from Paineel and NOT The Hole, correct?

I'm assuming by doing this via a PoTime flag the player would still be able to visit The Hole by using the door.

[falkun]

From my memory, the only way to get into the hole safely WAS to either have the key for the rock or that wierd duck/stand swimming thing you could do. That would be unaffected. From the map of Paineel, after zoning in from Toxx, you would just fall into "The Pit" on the south side of the cliff there, instead of going to the East for the newbie area/The Hole. That hole would be where the "PoTime Planar rift/tear" would be located. You simply fall into it.

[guineapig]

Right, that's what I figured you meant.

But technically jumping down would zone you in to the Hole as well, albeit dead. So I assume the game treats it as 2 seperate zone-lines in which case there is no complex coding required.

[falkun]

By complex coding I was thinking of the "interested erudite faction" (I really should come up with a name). Coding how local guilds interact with your flagging through their precious god's zone. Coding dynamic interactions between the IEF (see above) and the local guilds (I guess I'm thinking of WoW's phasing (God I hated that, so I should probably stamp out that idea now)).

Also would have to create and place the NPCs for this IEF, as well as changing the coding replacing planar projections with specific individuals in the IEF for flagging purposes.

Stuff like that. I really am not a game designer, so I have no idea how this is all accomplished behind the scenes.

[falkun]

There is an issue with adding PoP zones to home cities instead of locations away from home cities. Everyone agrees that PoK - a central hub that allows you to get to all the old zones and the new zones swiftly - was a bad idea. The problem is that a form of PoK existed in classic and still does on this server: the TD Firepots.

Yes, binders will have to keep their TD firepot bind (which is useless in Velious) for an expansion cycle, but they will be rewarded in their efforts when PoP is released attached to the old world.

However, I think the problem here is not the PoP zone locations, you have done great work in spreading them out appropriately. The problem is in the existence and the (albiet removed/nerfed) bindable nature of the firepots in TD. If the pots are to be left in, I feel everyone should not be allowed to bind there, and if you are currently bound there, you will find your bind spot moved. You can still use the Firepots, but you have to run there like everyone else.

[falkun]

Since this topic came up again, I linked this post to that discussion. Also, now that I'm revisiting this topic some months later, I think you should relocate planes so you do not have to go through Classic planes to get to Powers planes.

The reasons for this:
PoNightmare is a T1 zone, and those L51ish can EXP in that plane. Why make a great plane inaccessible by requiring a raid force to get through it (who would want to raid Fear just to get to an EXP zone in PoN). Alternatives like PoJ, PoI, and PoD would be so much easier to get to for EXPing.

Also, putting PoAir at the top of PoSky would suck. You are basically requiring anyone that wants to do PoAir to maintain key corpses for Isle1-7, that's a pain in the ass of a task.

Finally, requiring port stones (for Hate/Sky) to get to Air and Torment is an added hoop when PoStorms, Valor, and possibly even CoDecay (T2, like Torment) are better exp zones on the same tier and PoEarth, Fire, and Water are easier to access than Air would be. Air would literally be one of the hardest zones to get to in the game due to the stone + keys required.

I would suggest:

Cazic Thule
* Plane of Nightmare
- Lair of Terris Thule

West Freeport Arcane Scientists Guild Hall (FP Caster Guild Hall)
* Eryslai, the Kingdom of Wind

Neriak Third Gate - Temple of Innoruuk
* Plane of Torment

[Felwithemagi]

Thread necro. Implement a bazaar/AH, as per Luclin. Despite it's implementation of having to stay afk and logged in, it was the single best feature post classic. Hands down. Remove all the portals, neutral cities, AA's, mounts, and the subsequent whining in this thread about such and such. That one feature added the most benefit and game improvement over any other.