When did Everquest start to really decline in quality of experience?

[jolanar]

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

For me it was when dungeons changed from this:


To this:


Everquest was a WORLD. Going into a dungeon was terrifying. You could get lost anywhere. It never cared if you were receiving a "fair challenge." You were entering a dangerous dungeon!

If you died, you may never find your body again. At some point it stopped being a world and turned into a playground where you go from room to room boss to boss.

One of the coolest things about the early dungeons was 3D level design. It took a lot of skill to craft such cool places. Later expansions just went fully 2D and boring. It's a shame.

I wonder how much of that had to do with in game maps being released. The maps were notoriously bad for zones with any verticality.

[foxchris509]

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

For me it was when dungeons changed from this:
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

To this:

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

Everquest was a WORLD. Going into a dungeon was terrifying. You could get lost anywhere. It never cared if you were receiving a "fair challenge." You were entering a dangerous dungeon!

If you died, you may never find your body again. At some point it stopped being a world and turned into a playground where you go from room to room boss to boss.

One of the coolest things about the early dungeons was 3D level design. It took a lot of skill to craft such cool places. Later expansions just went fully 2D and boring. It's a shame.

To be fair tho Tacvi is a raidzone not really a dungeon like lower guk.

[SantagarBrax]

I believe portions of Luclin began the nosedive, hence the exit of Brad and over 50 other personnel a week before it launched. On Xegony, we didn't care for the port stones and bazaar, and most players decided to stick with the old character models over the Luclin "upgrade".

However, the "Real Decline" started when they began releasing expansions closer and closer together with minimal content and not allowing the player base time to fully explore and immerse themselves within the expansions. The writing was on the wall, so to speak. The first being Legacy of Ykesha, then except for the Augments, LDoN was a terrible expansion. The Lore was sacrificed as well after PoP and GoD was so damn bugged for so long no one was able to appreciate it or thought of it in a positive light until OoW era after they fixed GoD, but by then it was too late.

OoW was the last expansion I played through and thought it was a good one. I quit playing shortly before the Prophecies of Ro as it was clear that SoE was following in the path of old school Atari: Quantity over Quality. This was a recipe for disaster in that players found little to no worthy content being released, repetition for the sake of it, instancing and further disengagement throughout the EQ worlds, and a lack of appreciation from the company towards their player base, let alone understanding the magic which made the game great from the get go.

Everything became dumbed down, dull, and repetitive.

EQ2 was something new and fun until it began dumbing down the game to follow the WoW model and they suffered mightily from it.

[Mistle]

What are live mobs up to in hp? Past a billion yet? How much does a typical rogue backstab for?

[bomaroast]

Omens of War (OoW) was the last good expansion. Epics 2.0 and a raid-progression that wasn't completely fudged the way Planes of Power was. It was like a victory lap. Things went downhill quickly afterwards. What comes to my mind is the expansion with all the dragons shortly after OoW. That's what killed it for me.

[Mblake81]

An observation I have read many times in DOOM communities. Something happened to level design when graphics engines got more powerful. You would think the opposite would have happened, like today we should be discussing some of the most complex, useable and overall beautiful works in level design.

You know what's cool, a dungeon like Permafrost where you have to click levers and such to open gates. That swing blade trap in SolA. Heads on pikes at the entrance to Befallen and a well that takes you straight to the bottom if you are dumb enough to fall in.

Something was also lost when games became focused on maps and specifically quest markers. You can toggle that stuff off but the game world is not setup for it. Everquest is a sweet spot in design and player involvement (with other players sharing knowledge).

[Ennewi]

The penetrable rock crevice leading into the Hole; whether intentional or not, it was a nice perk for small races and those able to shrink themselves. The shortcut dropdowns and zoneout pads in the Hole. The bookcase door leading to the basement of Unrest. The icy terrors in Permafrost, how with bad positioning and one knockback, players will get flung into the bear pits. NPCs that knockback/grav flux in Plane of Sky. An epic fight that requires group members submerge themselves in lava. Dragons spawning at or in the vicinity of Druid rings, which are still preferable to the Skyfire Wizard ring. All nice touches. It's easy to see the devs' minds at work and imagine them laughing as they built these zones that would later grief/reward players for being too curious or too careless. AE dispels were the cruelest though. Unforgivable.

[Mblake81]

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

The penetrable rock crevice leading into the Hole; whether intentional or not, it was a nice perk for small races and those able to shrink themselves. The shortcut dropdowns and zoneout pads in the Hole. The bookcase door leading to the basement of Unrest. The icy terrors in Permafrost, how with bad positioning and one knockback, players will get flung into the bear pits. NPCs that knockback/grav flux in Plane of Sky. An epic fight that requires group members submerge themselves in lava. Dragons spawning at or in the vicinity of Druid rings, which are still preferable to the Skyfire Wizard ring. All nice touches. It's easy to see the devs' minds at work and imagine them laughing as they built these zones that would later grief/reward players for being too curious or too careless. AE dispels were the cruelest though. Unforgivable.

This post makes me smile.

Welp, who's ready for some spit polished Unreal Engine mobile games? Raid: Shadow Legends. Millions of players.

[Bonethunder]

Everyone agrees gates, but they got it back at omens and kept it till seeds

then it was gone for good

[OuterChimp]

The penetrable .... crevice leading into the Hole....