Adding the Planes of Power in to the original trilogy

[Softcore PK]

I hope they add froglok race :P

[Diggles]

moderator said a bad word D:

[Kika Maslyaka]

yeah Stormlord is right, this is how and why thigns went that way.

The only way to preserve old content, is not to add better zones that compete with old ones. But they did it starting with Kunark - it gave you all new 1-50 content all over and it was better than the old world. AND it had a convenient hub city right in the middle of the continent, with any level zone just 1-2 zone lines away. Velious was a bit better, it only added competing zones from 35+, and was mostly high end/raid oriented. Then Luclin repeated Kunark pattern to even greater degree. PoP again followed velious approach etc.

The way I would do it, when adding new expansions:
-if I am adding new races/starting town, only add for that specific race newbie zones, and then merge them into existing world - think how WoW added Burning Crusade - Blood Elves and Dranei got personal 1-20 newbie zones, but rest of expansion zones were strictly 60+, so NONE of the old world content 20-60 has suffered from mudflation.

Another inherited problem with old EQ - too many starting zones - people already scattered around the world way to much, yet places where you actually go to XP, quickly run out of play room.

For example Qeynos-Blackburrow-Everfrost was a good combo. 2 newbie zones connect to a teen zone, where 2 races meet up. Bb was however painful small for all those people. West Karana on other hand was a gigantic waste of a land, it was same range as BB, but hardly anyone ever went there other than for medium pelts, and bandit farm.

Faydwer was badly designed on other hand: they stuck 3 starting zones onto tiny island, 2 of which were right next of each other, and only a single teen level dungeon (CB) even smaller than Blackburrow

Some of the problems, specially zone devaluations, EQ suffered from, lie in their inherited design, that wasn't thought through very well in the beginning

[Kika Maslyaka]

on the subject of mounts: the only thing required for the mounts, is to have new models enabled. Then you can sell mounts in Qeynos, rather than in bazaar.
This applies to both, horses and drogmors - you don't even need to enable LoY to get drogs, only Luclin (for models).
For more advance mounts like nightmare steed, warhorses, chimeras, draconic kirins etc, you need to use SoF+ client

[Softcore PK]

The devs aren't going to want to include luclin models.

[Pomaikai]

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

The devs aren't going to want to include luclin models.

They just weren't THAT bad. It's one of those things where you weigh the pro's vs con's. Personally, the pro's of mounts (Speed of travel and medding.) outweigh the con's of how a select few races look.

[Softcore PK]

Mounts made my bardspeed on live less cool and unique [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Pomaikai]

But see, it doesn't have to go down the same road that SOE took it. Rogean can do this like Chinese takeout. A little from column A, some from column B, and a helping from column C. He can create the world, the links between the various zones, moon, and planes any way he sees fit. He doesn't have to turn on the exp bonus for Paludal, or any other zone. He can revamp the old content using the newer high level versions of it that were later released, or even just parts of it. He can change the loot tables. He can adjust the loot. He can add in some Luclin zones, but tone down the power of the items. The possibilities are limited only by his imagination, the amount of time he has to devote to this, and the willingness of the playerbase to accept his vision. I just think that it's possible to expand beyond Velious while still retaining the "feel" of classic EQ. We don't have to maintain the look completely, and we don't have to exactly mirror SOE's decisions and timeline to the letter. I mean seriously, SOE did NOT release quests, content, or items broken on purpose. Someone just screwed up. There is zero reason that content on P1999 should be released broken on purpose. If something was fixed, or hell if Rogean can figure out how to fix something that SOE never got around to fixing, then by all means that content should be released bug free. Because that IS what Verant and SOE wanted and intended. They wanted stuff to work correctly, right from the start. They just didn't succeed in accomplishing their intended vision/task.

[Snaggles]

I'm a newbie to this shard but...

If we pick and choose content at our "greater" discretion, how can it still be called Project 1999? Isn't the intent to emulate the original game and the only two expansions worth their weight?

It's fairly obvious Sony had their heads up there asses with every expansion post Velious. Whatever good they accomplished was ridden with greater issues left unresolved. I still think just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Just my worthless .02 cents. Don't let my nostalgia (or how I remember it) ruin your fun though! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Korisek]

Why not, after Velious, just release the new classes and non-Drakken races that came in the later expansions?

Berserkers and beastlords were fun. Frogloks and Vah Shir offered a chance to play the original classes in different ways.

Hell, if the server admins want to, they could try turning another already-existing non-playable race in the game into a playable race, like gnolls, kobolds, or orcs. With the kobolds, you could repurpose the Warrens, attach that to a different area of Odus, and make it a newbie town/zone.

Addendum: I know that flies in the face of the Project 1999 ideal, but I do know the devs are also thinking about custom content for the game after Velious. Well-integrated custom races might garner the server some internet props. Also I want to be the gnoll shadowknight.