I have a new fear

[scythic]

I think it would be interesting to consider the direction the game would have went without Sony takeover and Luclin.
Velious introduced these beautiful Load Armors and custom helms that got thrown away an expansion later with Luclin graphics. This was a theme with the game. Each expansion rendered parts of the game obsolete until they were no longer used. They threw away all of the work done on this content. I would love to see the devs try to interpret the direction of the game if it stayed true to it's original vision while preserving the spirit of the game and it's previous expansions.
New zones and Items should merely offer a choice to adventurers not be replacement to old content.

[Byrjun]

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

I remember one where you were a whisp. You had an intersecting hallway in the woods. Left righ and straight. Couldn't tell you how many times I did that instance... Bahh wasted moments I could have been doing good content.

I never did them but this sounds like a Monster Mission, not LDON.

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

I agree with the devs considering adding in custom content well after the release of velious, but keeping the the graphical quality of classic zones. Redesign some zones that were released with new newer graphics.

So, there was a program I knew of quite a few years ago that allowed you to design custom zones. I know SoD planned on using it to create custom zones, and their GM zone was custom (basically a flat grass area with a lake and a house). I don't think they ever added custom zones, so it can't be that easy. The SoD devs are pretty hardcore too (they even made their own MMO but it sorta failed).

[Daldaen]

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

Fast cast snare i was referring to was tangling weeds (spell). Archery mastery and endless quiver are exactly what im talking about. Awful. Just awful.

Made Trueshot discing top-tier DPS with minimal gear requirements. Making rangers probably the best DPS class for a raid. Minimal skill required, you don't take damage since archery can outrange most AEs, doesn't require you have every slot BIS, just a good bow.

Plus they weren't good enough to force you into the role once you got more AAs and gear, melee DPS outparsed bow when Trueshot ends (IE a majority of the time).

It was a great fix to the class that made them unique.

[Mistle]

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

Luclin never felt like EQ to me. It just felt off.

I love some aspects of PoP, like the Plane of Nightmare.

The thing is, Luclin was about half done when it was taken over by a different developer philosophy. You can see what Luclin was supposed to be like by examining its underused zones/lore and also examining EQ2, where the original dev philosophy went to. Luclin was supposed to be about the opposing views of Sanctus Seru and Katta Castellum. It was obviously envisioned as a new factional balance separate from "good vs evil" in vanilla and "dragons vs giants vs a few other people" in Velious.

Had that expansion been finished with that in mind, from a design point of view it probably would have been equal to or better than Velious (but from a play point of view, it wouldn't have even come close thanks to the absurd hp/armor/resists of the mobs in raid zones, turning VT and others into endurance slogs only the masochistic would enjoy, and Luclin was the start of full embracing of tiered stats on itemization, something that did a lot more damage to the game than is generally realized.)

But, it changed. Those people making it that way moved to EQ2 and put that fingerprint on that game instead (Freeport vs Qeynos). Sanctus Seru and Katta both became extremely underutilized (not helped by the fact both were nearly unplayable for many people at release thanks to being unoptimized). Many of the classical elements of the game were undercut by Shadowhaven and the belief that the game was "too hard for casuals". The concept of regional differentiation was lost with the Nexus and the exp fast track (especially Paludal).

Still, between Luclin and PoP the game's endgame had enough content for anyone. That was the second peak of EQ's time in the sun. LDoN was the sign of the lugnuts starting to go missing, an expansion that presented itself as a casual oriented content expansion, but actually was responsible for the far-themepark turn of the game, a precursor of what mmorpg players are stuck in today. The wheels fell off with GoD and pretty much everything from then on was dreck responsible for us pining for a project 1999 in the first place.

[iruinedyourday]

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

The thing is, Luclin was about half done when it was taken over by a different developer philosophy. You can see what Luclin was supposed to be like by examining its underused zones/lore and also examining EQ2, where the original dev philosophy went to. Luclin was supposed to be about the opposing views of Sanctus Seru and Katta Castellum. It was obviously envisioned as a new factional balance separate from "good vs evil" in vanilla and "dragons vs giants vs a few other people" in Velious.

Had that expansion been finished with that in mind, from a design point of view it probably would have been equal to or better than Velious (but from a play point of view, it wouldn't have even come close thanks to the absurd hp/armor/resists of the mobs in raid zones, turning VT and others into endurance slogs only the masochistic would enjoy, and Luclin was the start of full embracing of tiered stats on itemization, something that did a lot more damage to the game than is generally realized.)

But, it changed. Those people making it that way moved to EQ2 and put that fingerprint on that game instead (Freeport vs Qeynos). Sanctus Seru and Katta both became extremely underutilized (not helped by the fact both were nearly unplayable for many people at release thanks to being unoptimized). Many of the classical elements of the game were undercut by Shadowhaven and the belief that the game was "too hard for casuals". The concept of regional differentiation was lost with the Nexus and the exp fast track (especially Paludal).

Still, between Luclin and PoP the game's endgame had enough content for anyone. That was the second peak of EQ's time in the sun. LDoN was the sign of the lugnuts starting to go missing, an expansion that presented itself as a casual oriented content expansion, but actually was responsible for the far-themepark turn of the game, a precursor of what mmorpg players are stuck in today. The wheels fell off with GoD and pretty much everything from then on was dreck responsible for us pining for a project 1999 in the first place.

as a player I hated that the lore was taking me to the moon, when I cared more about the farmers in the karanas.

Wont somebody think about the farmers in the karanas!

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

[DarkwingDuck]

I'm sure you'll all be sick of it before that happens
Kunark has been out for yearsssss and velious will just ADD to the awesomeness which is EQ.. People have stuck it out with this amount of content, and Velious is SO much more.. So these people will be playing at least another 5 years+ years
Don't worry, be happy

[Rangerdown]

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

Made Trueshot discing top-tier DPS with minimal gear requirements. Making rangers probably the best DPS class for a raid. Minimal skill required, you don't take damage since archery can outrange most AEs, doesn't require you have every slot BIS, just a good bow.

Plus they weren't good enough to force you into the role once you got more AAs and gear, melee DPS outparsed bow when Trueshot ends (IE a majority of the time).

It was a great fix to the class that made them unique.

It was a gimmick that drew out the worst players in the game, and caused class balance problems for years. It was not a fix. It took something purely situational and made it "class defining", in the eyes of most of the player base. Name one other class that goes 60 levels and a few dozen AAs, and than suddenly changes into something entirely different. Those AAs arent game fixing. Theyre game breaking. They take everything great about the classic ranger and flush it down the toilet. Every other class gets unique AAs in the class tab, that makes them better at their every day stuff. Flurry AAs, and AE taunt for warriors, faster nukes for druids, dire charms for enchanters, bigger life taps, and leach touch for sk, etc... Luclin class AAs are spinning rims on other classes. Ranger luclin AAs are fucking clown shoes. Fuck luclin, fuck luclin class AAs, and fuck every Legolas / Legolis / Legolos / Legolovescocks that shit spawned on every server. I fucking hate that shit.

[Rangerdown]

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

Still, between Luclin and PoP the game's endgame had enough content for anyone. That was the second peak of EQ's time in the sun. LDoN was the sign of the lugnuts starting to go missing, an expansion that presented itself as a casual oriented content expansion, but actually was responsible for the far-themepark turn of the game, a precursor of what mmorpg players are stuck in today. The wheels fell off with GoD and pretty much everything from then on was dreck responsible for us pining for a project 1999 in the first place.

GoD gets way more hate than it deserves. At worst its PoP 2: God is dead. It has some of the best / most unique raids on live to this day. Most people just hated it because it was hard (and in some cases broken), but there hasnt been a challenge like that since.

[Secrets]

As far as I know, no, there's not supposed to be Luclin.

[Tankdan]

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

As far as I know, no, there's not supposed to be Luclin.

Velious has so much loot to strive for that it can last 8+ years. Look at Kunark right now, it's at how many years? And yet even the top guilds still need loot from VP badly (PD mostly), and the raiding scene is hotter than it's ever been.

Velious has 80-100 hitpoint/mana items for practically every slot for practically every class. The amount of raiding required compare to Kunark is pretty staggering. It will take such a long time to consume Velious.

With that said, eventually people will ask about custom content and Luclin. I don't think it's fair to say that "Devs said there won't be Luclin" because everybody's mindset will be so much different than it is right now in half a decades' time.