An EQ clone with updated graphics would do well, Pantheon is so far off the mark that it is an insult to claim that it is developed in the spirit of EQ. I haven't played Pantheon but I've watched enough of it on stream to get the feeling that they designed the classes with a specific ideal on how it should be played and then built the world around that. A core of what makes EQ great is that it truly is a unique world that players are thrown into for better or worse, any rag-tag group of people of any classes can get together and interact with the world in a meaningful way.
Some things I think EQ does great or that I would add to a new version of EQ.
-- The way that EQ gives data of the world around you and what you are doing in it is bar none the best, the UI of course could use updating and more options to tailor the way you want to read the data hell you can still have your floating text spam as an option but for godsakes let the player customize his MUD windows, allowing seamless and organized display of combat, magic and environment data is what tickles my brain with EQ.
--Combat should not be busy work, it should be tactical. Watching a fight in Pantheon looks exhausting and unrewarding, constantly needing to counter this and counter that, of course there is a time and a place but it shouldn't feel like a damn job just to fight a single monster. EQ does a great job in that the challenge comes from setting up the fight, manipulating the environment and awareness of your surroundings. With modern NPC AI and other things this opens up a huge option of challenges to poise.
--The world must be an adventure and it must be a risk to adventure, EQ nailed this on the head AND they even came up with the fantastic idea of self-built maps before brewall did the tedious and meticulous job of making the maps for you to download into your folder and then instead of looking around your surroundings you watched the cursor on the map move to where you wanted to go, before that the maps were fucking BLANK. I think that is a great idea, or even some Diablo 2 esque map where the fog of war lifts and your map begins filling out but for gods sake do not include the players location, maybe as like a Ranger ability to every once in awhile update 'your last known position'.
--The world and its inhabitants should feel ripe for manipulation with unique gameplay, you should be able to achieve noteworthy objectives unconventionally. Fear kiting, agro kiting, root rotting, charm killing and more! The game should not punish you for not having the holy trinity of group makeup and of course reward the opportunities to do so!
I could go on but EQ really is the greatest still to this day but imagine what it could be with updated monster AI and more intricate class mechanics.
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