Blue -- Custom Content Brainstorm

[Baler]

rooted tov raid mobs

[Izmael]

I foresee only one reasonable way to add custom content to Blue without altering its core essence and raison d'être, which is EQ Classic-Velious at museum quality.

That only way is PvP. But make it optional - and rewarding. Here's how:

- Create a level 65 warrior mob with 32k HP.
- Give him a very large loot table of maybe 200 items, including AoN, CoF, FBSS, Yak...Basically some nice stuff and some obsolete but still fun stuff (why: because it will add to the fun. Getting double AoN would mean 1 in 200x200 = 1 in a 40,000 chance).
- Make him drop 4 items from this loot table at each kill
- Make him spawn every 30 hours or so, in the center of the Arena and root him there
- Make it clear that PvP is allowed in Arena as a means of competition for the loot dropping mob.

Watch people suddenly starting to get interest in EQ PvP, guilds form, fun dynamics take shape at the Arena.

PvP adds an extra dimension to EQ. And there will never be need for any other custom content on Blue, as this will be enough to keep a lot of people busy and competing. But those who don't want to - don't have to, just stay out of the Arena.

[3d_glasses]

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

I foresee only one reasonable way to add custom content to Blue without altering its core essence and raison d'être, which is EQ Classic-Velious at museum quality.

That only way is PvP. But make it optional - and rewarding. Here's how:

- Create a level 65 warrior mob with 32k HP.
- Give him a very large loot table of maybe 200 items, including AoN, CoF, FBSS, Yak...Basically some nice stuff and some obsolete but still fun stuff (why: because it will add to the fun. Getting double AoN would mean 1 in 200x200 = 1 in a 40,000 chance).
- Make him drop 4 items from this loot table at each kill
- Make him spawn every 30 hours or so, in the center of the Arena and root him there
- Make it clear that PvP is allowed in Arena as a means of competition for the loot dropping mob.

Watch people suddenly starting to get interest in EQ PvP, guilds form, fun dynamics take shape at the Arena.

PvP adds an extra dimension to EQ. And there will never be need for any other custom content on Blue, as this will be enough to keep a lot of people busy and competing. But those who don't want to - don't have to, just stay out of the Arena.

I like /guildwar

[kaizersoze]

instanced raids in the planes, VP, ST, NToV etc so people don't need to sock for hours / days of their lives and if they just cant hack the fight they need to farm up [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[heazels]

Plane of Power without cats on the moon

[uygi]

I have to say I think the purists are hypocrites. There are tremendous similarities between RoK/SoV and later expansions. Adding new level/skill caps, expanding the types of items (Kunark really got the +hp/mana items started, and it grew a lot in Velious), adding new raid content.

Velious changed the way raid content operates more than any other expansion in the first several years- went from 32k mobs to bazillion hp mobs. Kunark's early, cheap, common, low-cost items were often as good or better than anything that didn't drop from a god/dragon before. M2HS? Not much point once you have Kunark content.

I always believed that Nilbog was talking about the scifi cats on the moon, instancing and the mudlfation/hamster-wheel of AAs and bazaar being what the server was NOT about. I never thought it was a totally pure, cultlike adherence to everything being exactly up to day before Luclin. And the last updates before Luclin were handled by SOE as well and I think it shows in Greenmist, Stonebrunt etc.

[zodium]

not all changes are equal

I don't think I'm a hypocrite, I also quit shortly after they released Luclin in actual classic because I thought they changed the game in a fundamental and bad way.

tbh I think it's far more hypocritical to play on a server that's about recreating a specific and well-defined era of everquest while secretly pining and openly lobbying for something else.

[uygi]

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

not all changes are equal

I don't think I'm a hypocrite, I also quit shortly after they released Luclin in actual classic because I thought they changed the game in a fundamental and bad way.

tbh I think it's far more hypocritical to play on a server that's about recreating a specific and well-defined era of everquest while secretly pining and openly lobbying for something else.

I'm just saying, there isn't some black-and-white difference between everything that happened pre-Luclin and everything Luclin and later. Much of what changed later on were trends that started in Kunark and especially in Velious. I think there are big pieces of Luclin for sure that if they were re-tuned to not have AAs and maybe re-themed away from the scifi-cats-on-moon, weren't much of a departure from classic. How about Sanctus Seru? Mostly boils down to a big, pretty empty zone with some key shenanigans and a raid mob. Ssra temple wasn't a crazy departure from classic either, it had some similarity to Howling Stones and Sebilis IMO (forgive me if I'm way off, I'm remembering it from a long time ago).

The hypocrisy to me is rejecting anything post-Luclin launch for it's un-classicness, instead of evaluating it qualitatively. I think that, in another world, EQ could have had another expansion that would have fallen within the scope of P99 because it fit. Just like if Velious had gone in that bad direction, P99 might be only about going up through end of Kunark. This dogmatic insistence that one month, one day even, of EQ development was good, and every thing that comes after it is bad seems really shortsighted to me. Even if it was bad, it didn't have to be. Let's see if we can get that not-bad post-Velious thing?

[zodium]

you have the causality backwards though. people aren't rejecting post-Velious because "classicness" is an intrinsic good. there's no cult at work. people are rejecting post-Velious because it's a worse game with worse graphics, which is what gave rise to the concept of "classicness" as a good thing and thus provided the motivation for P99 in the first place! a server for "experimenting with could/should haves" would be truly pointless. blue as a living, perpetual but still as-classic-as-possible server is essential for the green cycle to avoid the trap UO classic emulators fell into.

and while it may be theoretically possible to create content that adheres to this spirit, there hasn't been any posted despite countless attempts. nor do I expect any will be. not even if Rogean bribed Brad with enough coke to come on board as a content designer, because even he doesn't have ~the Vision~ in mind anymore.

edit: velious is not luclin

[uygi]

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

people aren't rejecting post-Velious because "classicness" is an intrinsic good. there's no cult at work. people are rejecting post-Velious because it's a worse game with worse graphics, which is what gave rise to the concept of "classicness" as a good thing

I agree, but I feel like there are purists that just reject any new content. There has to be a way to make more. There wasn’t some cosmic balance of classic goodness that was exhausted in the year 2000, dooming future generations to a mudflated wasteland...