Everquest, relive the story.
I don't know about you all but sometimes when I sit in Plane of Tactics pulling guys that hit for 475 I wonder to myself, 'what the happened to the good ole days?' So here's the new server idea:
The storyline is reset. The server starts off as being an old world only server. There are no new expansions, no Kunark, nothing past the original release- there is only the old Norrath. Firona Vie hasn't been kidnapped, the Icebreaker hasn't been created, and we haven't shot a cat to the moon. As people progress in levels they will defeat Nagafen, Vox, old Cazic, and learn about Bayle's corruption. When they defeat certain encounters, the storyline progresses. As an example once old Innoruuk, Cazic, Lord Nagafen and Lady Vox have been defeated, then Firona Vie becomes kidnapped and Kunark is available to explore.
Once Kunark is opened people can then advance to level 60, complete their epic quests, and find Firona Vie. After they defeat certain figures key to the kunark storyline (not necessarily every head boss of every zone) the story progresses and the gnomes create the Icebreaker and discover Velious.
Everquest has had an amazing storyline and at this point it's turning into the end of the world (literally). This would allow people to be able to experience the old zones and adventures without the latest expansions messing with the mix.
From the Verant point of view this would do a few things- entice older nostalgic players into becoming more active in Everquest and show how the game has been constantly added on from the existing product which will encourage them to purchase Everquest 2 when it is ready. I know it would do this for me at least.
If you would be interested in this sort of thing please email Verant at eqfeedback@soe.sony.com saying you would be interested in playing on a Everquest Classic Server.
Also when you send out this email please copy me at eq_classic_server@hotmail.com so I can keep record of all the positive responses.
Is this idea doing the 6 month rerun circuit now? Not to claim the status of a "real professional" in any one endeavor has been a small price to pay for the many benefits and pleasures of trespassing. ~Leo Lionni
3 month, Jhani, 3 month :P "Age and wisdom don't always go together, I've found. ... Some people just become stupid with more authority." -- Terry Pratchett
Didn't they already do this? The server would be fun for a few weeks, then everyone would log back on to there toons that can kill gods. Katsuo Muramasa | BLood of Ro | Profile
It sounds like a good idea at first but I think all you would see is a couple of large guilds having fun for a few months while to almost everyone else, about 95%, it is no more, no less than "a server that only runs Classic EQ". Quite soon the players in the guilds that were capable of advancing the storyline fast would start drifting back to the main servers and all progress would fizzle out so we would not see Kunark for years.
Even if the major guilds *did* manage to stick around and advance the story line that means that 95% of the players just get told one day 'Kunark is now available' which is no different from the way new zones appear on the main servers.
I think what I am trying to say is that *everyone* on the new server needs to somehow be a part of the evolving storyline in order to get anything out of the idea but in fact only a tiny percentage will be. It is like having an online recreation of the Battle Of Britain and saying 'Anyone who can play for 6 hours every day and belongs to a squadron of similar people' can fly fighters but everyone else can be civilians and watch from the ground and read what is happening in the papers'
It would be nice to have something that brings more interest back into EQ but I dont think this is it.
As far as everyone advancing the story... I can see that being done 1 or 2 ways.
1) xx% of the server must complete the content to unlock it.
2) Only those who complete the content can advance (ie like pop flagging, but with old world zones / mobs)
Venerable Kanaellars HatesSoul - 65 ArchonIf you are offended by anything I say, let me know. kanaellars@hotmail.com
they kinda did it with the discord server, except that they added in permadeath and pvp (what's the highest level person on that server anyways? 14?)
i'd like like a server set up like that, if only to be able to experience the content like it was way back in the day before i started playing eq (just after velious)
Why would i want this? nostalgia for an age of EQ that i missed is one, the other would probably to see if i could hack it in a non-mudflated eq is the other. besides, with eq servers, even if teh initial 10k people don't all stay, it'll still have a healthily large population over time. IF you build it, they will come, y'know?
There have been several 'newbie' servers, the new servers always get flooded with power gamers ruining any chance to have 'fun' the way you want..
It's not a bad idea, just no way to keep the hardcore gamers out really.
Well that and a lot of the old school everquest sounds good.. Until you play it.. Kinda like old ass nintendo games seem cool when you remember them, until you play them for 5 minutes.
I was thinking the same exact thing, and I would jump right onto that server if this ever actually happened. The best way to do it because it would keep everyone interested would be to make certain zones that progress the storyline locked. Then you get flagged for it by completeing a task and you can continue with the storyline. This would be AMAZING! pls pls pls do ittt!!!!
Step 1: Create a new toon.
Step 2: level the new toon in old world zones only.
Step 3 defeat old world dragons\gods and shout to yourself 'DING, I just unlocked Kunark!"
Step 4: zone into kunark and progress through that.
Rinse, repeat until you have successfuly defeated the whole game from start to finsh; from oldest expansion to newest expansion.
I think it would be very interesting to start a new server from scratch. Heck, put the expansions on time-release, like the next one would be 6 months away. This server would have to start out with all the cool old world lewts too (manastone, bloodfrenzy, all the prenerfs).
Oh man remember how cool Castlevania II: Simon's Quest was? Have tried to play that game recently? I have and it wasn't what I remembered.
Unfortunately, it would be nearly impossible to actually re-live Everquest the way it was in the beginning. We all know too much about the game already, and for the things we don't know personally there's walkthroughs and spoilers and information all over the web about nearly any quest or item in the game.
I believe the nostalgia for the old world comes from those who were fortunate enough to play Everquest without knowing exactly how things "should" be done. Figuring out quests from the vague hints given by NPCs, exploring zones with no maps or prior knowledge of what they contain, roleplaying your character from a gut instinct rather than from a set class definition, teaming up with others to solve the puzzles of the game-- all of these things added interest and excitement to playing in the beginning.
The collective knowledge among the playerbase and on the internet would effectively kill the excitement of an Everquest Classic Server. I foresee it being a race to the top without much exploration or imagination. ::Emitpan fingers the silver ring she keeps deep within her pocket::
Emitpan Nimblethumbs
Redeemed Gnomish Assassin of Bristlebane
Well imo.. the progression idea is really more or less left to the realm of single player RPG's, living the story can be fun, but it's just impractical in an MMORPG, with the fact that everything just *pops* back into existence for the next guy or gal to farm.
So a storyline thing like that just would require far too much effort to make work I'd think, and the fact that all the lore is already known, so it's just kind of moot, everyone would just go farm the same places for the best gear till the next spot got opened up, and the whole concept would just be unlocking old areas you've already used/been to, instead of newer areas like PoP is for alot of people still.
They could port it to a console and make it smaller scale RPG, but as it stands, it's just something I highly doubt they'd even attempt to do.
A solution to the problem of there being too many spoilers and no mystery any more....Give each character a random 16 bit code (that gives over 65,000 combinations) and have as many quests as possible based on that key so that every person gets a slightly different quest.
It would take some careful planning to make sure the quests were balanced, you dont want one person being told to go kill a skeleton and another being told to go kill a Griffawn for their newbie armour
That is really a bit tongue in cheek, It would be quite hard to do.
What I would like to see is Everquest being based more on completing quests and less on how much money you or your Friends or Guild have. The best armour a person your level can wear and the best weapon you can use should be the result of a quest. You should not be able to buy equipment that is twice as effective as the quest rewards for your level and you should not even be able to use it if someone gives you an uber weapon. At the moment a new character is given a newbie armour quest and by the time he has done it all he is rich enough to replace most of it with better shop-bought stuff, and that is untwinked. Once he has done the newbie armour quest, if he bothers, he is rather cast adrift wondering what to do next. Sony started making moves in the right direction with the Vah Shir who get a series of linked quests that 'upgrade' their equipment as they go.
I am getting a bit off the subject there but maybe a new 'Classic' server could institute some sort of easily coded restriction on what equipment people can get, though having no Bazaar would be a big help
The alternative way to get everyone interested in the progression of the Server and opening up of levels rather than just the main guilds and their powerlevelled characters is to upgrade *every* persons level and combat skills on the server when major quests are completed or a critical mass of people reach a certain level. That sounds crazy but it means that rather than top-end players accellerating away from the majority of the server 'level-wise', everyone gets brought up to the higher level and has a chance of taking part in getting the server up to the next level. Obviously just having your level bumped up by ten does not make you as effective at fighting as the person that got there the hard way but a restriction on 'Ultra Expensive' weapons and more reliance on Epic weapons would at least help keep the DPS more even across the players.
Jeez! what have I been smoking to write that stack of craziness??
I don't think it nostalgia. When I started on Kane Bayle, it was fresh, and getting equipped, levelling up and being amongst a community at the same level was part of the experience. Stuff like tradeskills and quests were not obsolete. I do think there would be a demand for this judging by the number of threads I have seen before. However, I am not saying there would be no setbacks. I suggested ideas in the other thread but maybe was too idealistic and too gamechanging to be implemented.
When I was deployed on the USS Kentucky for 5 years....the one thing a few of us wanted is an instanced.. or LAN-usable... eq server. Something where you didn't have to have the thousands of people playing...just you and your friends could group your way as far as you want without worrying about anything else. I know that's a bit isolationist, but it'd be a hell of a lot more satisfying. /shrug.
a) there IS a LAN useable EQ server. Its called eq emulator and there's all kinds of modules available for it.
b) For everyone whining about how great the good old days were, go play Chinese EQ. Its Old World, Kunark, Velious, and LoY. No Luclin, no PoP. And for you isolationists, you don't have to talk to anyone, because they all speak Chinese anyway.
