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View Full Version : The true frailty of Planes of Power!


EZ_Ulkaur
10-30-02, 04:02 PM
These are mere rantings from an evil troll warrior of Rallos Zek. Take them for what you will.

When I first zoned into Plane of Knowledge, I thought "Hey, this is cool that they have an evil, neutral and good side to this plane. I wondered what evil I could wreak in the new planes. Now I see I'm just meant to be some inane librarian's errand boy.

Well, after about a week of playing, I am coming to realize there is no frickin reason for this, as the quests that have been handed out are handed out not because you're a bloodthirsty shadowknight craving the souls of the innocent, not because you are a beautiful enchantress beguiling others to her will, not even because you are a tree-hugging druid looking to set some kind of balance.

The only requirements I'm seeing for quests are that your "skill_01" is at a certain level, or you've done the planar guide quest(why anyone in the good side would even talk to me on day one is a sham), or that your level is "THIS BIG!!" Like someone has to give you a quest or shove a flag up your..well, just because you're 61, 62, or even friggin 65.

What happened to making a good plane the evils could rape and pillage to go with Disease, Nightmares, Torment, etc?

The plane of innovation should be a bane to all druids everywhere, yet most of the loot i've seen drop can be worn by druids. Well, this could be a good thing, as if they are your bane, of course your main benefit would be derived from destroying the infernal machines, and bring balance back to nature. I'm just glad it hasn't started raining there yet.

The plaguebringers and worshippers of Bertoxxulous should be revelling in finding and being able to access the plane of their God, hoping for some deity-given quest to help spread disease and plague throughout the planes. But no, we get mobs that scowl at us and want to kill us all. Lame. We also get flagged to kill the god of the disease-ridden plane. So much for a need to even have a religion.

The plane of Nightmares is a well done zone, but still evil characters so far have need only to go there to kill for quests to give to someone in some zone that refuses to get off their ass and go FIGHT and get it for themselves. Honestly I feel dirty having to kill evil stuff alongside good people sometimes. I wish there was a tier 1 planar zone that actually could let me take out frustrations on some goody goody high elves, or dwarves, or a race of gnomes, not just some freaked out gnome in PoI. But for some reason, when VI puts in a zone with good creatures in it, the put in a killer faction hit to make it less worthwile for the good people to kill there. Again, no balance.

I have not seen much of PoJ, so I will reserve opinionating it til I can see it for myself.

When Velious came out and people kicked and screamed about faction in Plane of Growth, people were saying it was stupid for Verant to put in a zone that would only anger powergamers who wanted loot and not to have to deal with the consequences of their actions. So they put in a whole expansion which so far caters only to the powergamer, and not to the roleplayer.

Planes of Power was touted as having an "archquest" that spanned the entire realms of Everquest. So far the only game I'm seeing played is "Capture the Flag."

If I'm missing something here please let me know.

EZ_Shariin
10-31-02, 12:49 PM
You're complaining that NPCs only give certain quests if you have the necessary requirements (level, completion of previous quests, etc)? Please go back to the Old World and look around - there have *always* been level-related quests, and chained quests. Flags just make it so you don't have to carry notes from one NPC to another, or cart around a backpack full of heads, or hand in a previously quested item for proof you've completed the quest, or various faction-level subquests, or...

For the first time ever, Verant has released an expansion with an actual focus on Story. Or perhaps, this is just the first time they've been successful. The "storyline" in Kunark was in the digging up of ancient history - much of it sold in books in Cabilis. SOV introduced factions, but apart from the notable 10th ring war, the whole dwarf-giant-dragon thing was just a "watch your faction" balancing act. SOL had scraps of backstory, but it was all very disconnected.

In POP, the storyline is central - you can't get *anywhere* without exposure to it. Let's face it - there isn't much difference between "good" and "evil" in EQ anyhow. That's not what EQ's about, and that's not what POP is about.
Shariin Shadowblade House of Kindred Assassin

EZ_Jordanon Purethought
10-31-02, 09:52 PM
The concept of "Good", "Neutral", and "Bad" are not the same in the ethreal world as they are in the tangible world. Read the lore given to us by just about all the NPC's in the new expansion. They constantly speak of choosing a "side" of the coming war between the mortals and the gods. It seems, even an evil nasty troll can be sided with the "good" alliance of the gods based on his actions in the planes. Although, I have very limited knowledge on the lore at this time, it appears it is a story line unfolding daily. Jordanon Purethought
Seven Dreams Guild
Phantasmist
Lanys T`vyl Server

EZ_AsturiasAurora
11-08-02, 04:12 PM
From a true Roleplaying point of view, yes, the Planes have a lot wrong with them. On some of the new servers, specifically Legends and the like, is it the same issue or did they instate actual roleplaying quests? I'm not sure. I'm on the ancient Fennin Ro server and lie a lot of others, good and evil have kinda blurred over the years into something that holds absolutley no consequence other than getting your DE butt kicked walkin' by the pallies in North Freeport.

I do kinda wish they'd put actual good/evil/neutral quests in the game. As an evil character, your whole purpose in life is to bring about chaos, destruction or whatever wets your whistle, and actually piss off the goodie-two-shoes. I kinda like taking my usual neutral Gnome rogue (not good or bad) up into PoG and pissing off Tunare just because while I may not be an evil race or class, I'm not a good race or class either.

Kunark expanded on the racial differences that came up with the Dark Elves/Trolls/Ogres from the original release by adding a new hated race that had very little options for moving around due to how hard it was to enter any other city other than Cabilis. Still though, it was handled nicely with the ability to raise even the toughest factions with various quests.

Velious took the whole concept of Factions and kinda tossed it around like a salad. One minute you're friendly with the dorfs, then after a few kills in defense of your life and even they hate you while the obscure dragons decided for once not to eat you with ketchup. Still, players found a way around even that mess to the point of turning it into a science of juggling in order to get what armor pieces they wanted from where.

Luclin's factions aren't even hardly discernable other than Katta Castellum and Sanctus Seru. Other than that, every mob up there in Luclin seems to be either flat indifferent or ready to kill you anyway, faction or no faction.

It would have been nice to see PoP bring about the genuine roleplaying quests that you would expect from actually seeing/being with your god in his/her/its own plane of existence. I mean, if they can start a ring war in GD between the giants and the dorfs that essentially resets itself after 2 hours no matter what side wins, why can't they do that with PoD? Give some quest that allows players following Bertoxxulous to spread a disease down onto the Karanas (like the mini storyline tried to do a couple years ago) and if they succeed, everyone gets poisoned or you need an eb item to walk thru the Karanas for a couple hours til it resets.

I'm not saying they completely disregarded factions there; there's too much of the planes not even seen yet, even by the 'uber' guilds. Maybe if we're lucky something will come out of those nethermost planes to appease the RP'ers out there.

Asturias Aurora - 55 Master Monk
Ventagge Wyldfyre - 51 Everlost Ranger
Coins Malone - 51 "Garden Tool" Rogue

EZ_Lucas V
11-09-02, 02:29 PM
People RP in Everquest? I.... I'm at a loss of words.....

(pardon the sarcasm)

I tried, really, I did. But when 70% of your peers are l33t speaking powergamers and the other 29.9% are casual OOC conversationalists, it's rather hard to stay dedicated to roleplaying...

EZ_farmatyr1
11-18-02, 01:58 AM
I nominate Shariin Verant's #1 Fanboy.

Umm...don't you get it? His complaint was that there is *no* story in POP. There's no story, it's just flags and "bring me this this and this". Velious has story, Kunark too. Luclin has so many stories I can't quite sort them out, but I'm sure they're there.

Points:

1. rewards in POP don't have anything to do with what you do to get them. Oh, look, I gather some weird crap from foraging and low level mobs in the old world, so I get a ring with spell haste on it. Then I go kill any mobs in POP enough times to get a parchment which can be turned in to whichever guildmaster I want for the appropriate class spell. How about sending rangers and druids to the plain of disease, sending shadowknights and necros to the plane of justice to kill mobs that make sense to get thier spells?

2. there is no faction in POP. oh, but Verant explained this by saying that POK was some magic land where everyone lived together in harmony. In other words, we're too lazy to figure out how faction should work, and make sure that no one is disadvantaged, or to make different quests for good and for evil.

EZ_Aveen Lucenthawk
11-19-02, 11:30 AM
Oh Ulkiepoo (I only call him this cause he's really a sweet troll, couldn't harm an innocent butterfly sort of guy )

Don't be so hard that the plane of knowlege is a peaceful place. I know you're a big ol' troll who likes mahem above all else but that city is well guarded. It even has ghettos!

There are quite a few places so far that I have seen where you are going to need to have faction and even belive in the right god (Mithanial Marr, be saved, follow the lightbringer!).

As for a storyline, I have started to pick up on one already. But, as all good books go, it may not be truely evident until the last page...
Aveen Lucenthawk
Half Elven Warlord of 61 Battles
LLTS!
Tarew Marr