The Pinnacle of Everquest (In your opinion)

[stormlord]

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

This. LDoN was great to have a good-old classic dungeon crawl where you generally don't know where you are going or the camps/named etc. Felt more explorish, until you learned each of the 5 maps per 5 areas.

I really don't get the hate on instancing, see every raid dispute and camp dispute ever. People on the internet don't play nice.

Well come on dudebro not everybody has to be the same. I don't like instancing, so you going to hang me? However, listen to me, I agree with you that LDONs were more explorish because they were lightly random - which also puts everyone on more equal footing. LDON's were also tailored for a single group, as opposed to the more chaotic situation where a dungeon is designed for 50+ people of varying level trying to do 6+ groups, even as some of them are soloing or doing god knows what. And of course not having to fight for spawns was popularly liked. This is why instances became so popular. They were the answer to the problems apparently plaguing the open world.

Hear me out. I can't tell you exactly why instancing turned/turns me off. I think it's because it feels so controlled. The open world is more unplanned, mostly because designers can't know for sure what other players are going to do. Players are the ultimate AI who'll use every tool available to manipulate the world and other players. Designers on their best days can only do so much to clamp down on what players do. And here is where the beauty occurs! In all this unplanned mess magic happens, and the magic happens because of the mystery of the human mind which still continues to defy complete explanation. Yes, other players can hurt us either through mechanics or words or their actions, but they can also inspire us and give us some of the most memorable moments we'll ever experience. And those moments will be completely unique to us. They were not created by designers. No money was spent. These magical moments occur on their own.

I just prefer to play in the open world. To ahve the chance to see someoen else when I'm adventuring. I want that possibility, even if I have to pay for it by experiencing some negative things. Note that as soon as a game adds instancing, more and more players will use it and the open world becomes less populated. Players get hooked on instancing because there's less adversity. Soon, the game designers will abandon the open world and spend their resources on instancing. This is why I do not trust even small amounts of instancing in an open world.

If 98 MMO's all have instancing, I want at least 2 which do not have any. I don't care if 50 of them have only a small amount of instancing. I want 1 or 2 which don't have any at all.

[Jimjam]

I started during early Kunark. I think I would have preferred before it was released; kunark seemed to expand a lot on aspects of the game I'm not as interested in (accumulation of amazing gear; old world stuff, especially weapons, all largely sucked and I think that was for the better).

[Grizzled]

Everquest never really had good expansions. The difference between EQ and other games was the ideas they came up with, however they usually failed at implementation of such ideas.

Kunark- kind of classic with new zones not much dramatically new. Progressive quests for the iksar race was a good concept. It was used again for coldain gear in velious, and pretty much was never seen again.

Velious- The expansion was based on the faction system. Pretty much was never used again. EQ's faction system adds a level of choice and consequences. New games dont have this.

Luclin- all around bad idea. From bazaar to 1 a month spawn for end game key piece. People who play elf sims and want to be a merchant, should not have the computer do it for them. AA was the only thing good to come from this expansion.

Planes- Perfect raid expansion with its progression. The pooh-poohed when they didnt make/revamp the old planes as part of the progression. Other aspects of the expansion not so much

LDON- gear upgrading was a cool aspect. However using a special currency and specific dungeons was a downside. They had plenty of unused zones in the game they could have used for such a thing. Or god forbid make the stuff cost plat and not a special currency. This would have controlled the inflation much better.

MISC- Evolving gear was a great idea, just too late in the timeline of EQ. Gave another reason to get out and group.

[mokfarg]

I wonder if over time Project 1999's player base have changed. I imagine the demise of the MAC EQ server has had an influence since it stopped at PoP. Those folks have probably reluctantly made a home here but wish for their old server back.

I remember when this server was first released a similar poll had completely different results. I recall Velious being the leader.

[stormlord]

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

I wonder if over time Project 1999's player base have changed. I imagine the demise of the MAC EQ server has had an influence since it stopped at PoP. Those folks have probably reluctantly made a home here but wish for their old server back.

I remember when this server was first released a similar poll had completely different results. I recall Velious being the leader.

Determining the pinnacle of Everquest is not the same thing as "Should p1999 go up to POP instead of Velious?" That's a whole different question. I much value p1999 up to Velious more than p1999 up to POP. It makes it far more .... distinctive. And yet if I have to determine the time when I think Everquest was at its peak and perhaps the most enjoyable for everybody, I'd answer POP.

A lot of people say it should include Ykesha for the map upgrade or OOW for the casual raiding or whatnot, but honeslty when I answered POP none of that was on my mind. Ykesha wasn't on my radar; map doesn't matter to me anyway. OOW and GOD are just weird to me and always felt.... the beginning of the time when everything hit like a truck. There was time early on in EQ when you didn't just get flattened like a pancake if you weren't a tank. It progressed to the point where only a few hits will kill you - like the past several years. What about LDON? I think the reason players liked it was because there wasn't as much camping in one place and also because they didn't have to compete over spawns with other players. And yet I still prefer the open world without the instances, despite the competition over spawns. I just seems more social. I understand though that there's a lot of camping in Everquest. I've never liked camping at a safe spot for hours either, but I don't think LDON is the solution I want in an open world.

I do think the first 20 or 25 levels in Everquest are a very good experience. I think it slowly deteriorates after that, as the game offers less and less and becomes more of a grind. Like one person here said, it was at its pinnacle when it wasn't a job. It was at its pinnacle for me when it was about joining pickup groups, making friends, finding new zones, delving into a dark dungeon, showing my ranger skills. It was at its worst when my mind was centered on "Ok I'm 69.2 and I want 70. My HP is X and I want Y. I need to grind X more hours in zone Z."

[Buhbuh]

PoP was by far the most immersive in raid content, strategy, etc. For PvE, it was amazing.

I'm a PvP guy, so when safe zones came in, I felt like it kind of hurt the essence of no safety. I'm of two minds though. Being able to actually afk in game was a nice thing, and the bazaar was pretty cool. It made the access to wares just way easier.

Some of the AA's made certain classes outrageous in PvP, though. Rangers with endless quiver and AM3 were gods, popped people for 900's non crit.

Ssra was an excellent zone, though.

[SCB]

PoP would stand on its own as one of the best multiplayer games ever made, and it's an expansion to one of the best multiplayer games ever made.

The only downside is that Luclin came out first. Had PoP's bosses and questlines been a natural extension of the EQ world, it would be universally loved and this server would count "classic" as Vanilla - PoP.

[Rararboker]

I'm just glad the devs of the project are adamant about not adding PoK books. Otherwise PoP was very interesting gameplay and lore wise. I always felt it was weird we only had access to Hate/Fear/Sky/Mischief/Growth. Why not all the other gods too?

PoP seemed to understand that confusion and fixed it. Otherwise I vote for Kunark/Velious.

[Ravager]

I like original EQ the best. Raising the level cap is just flat out stupid. Dragons should never be able to be soloed. I also don't care for an additional 30 zones per expansion. I think the expansions should have been at most 1 or 2 new zones to expand the world and the rest of the new content should have come in the form of quests and additional raid mobs that required strategy over numbers.

[Doors]

Velious was the best for me imo but PoP was easily their pinnacle.