Chardok with max ally faction. Runnyeye as a lowbie. Actually I liked Kelethin the music there and in wakening lands re 2 of my fav..
I actually have to go with Neriak. Particularly if you go necromancer or shadowknight The dramatic evil music with the ghouls staring at you as you exit is awesome.
I agree with the Gfay statement. Was tradezone back in the day on Povar. Met may people there. The city was/is very well implemented in terms of lore. I also have to mention Thurgadin. Being a dwarf myself i loved visiting my snowy brothers. Walking down the bridge into the city, with all them crossbows aimed at me for defensive purposes. Was brilliant. Also one of the guards have my RL name, so that's an automatic win. I also spent a lot of time in highpass hold. The solitary placement of the keep made me wish i lived way bac kthen and had a keep like it. With less goblins.
Kaladim! In fact I loved all cities on fadwer apart from akanon. Probably as I remember my first journeys to crushbone as a young dorf and stopping off in felwith and kelethin only to be able to venture back home with my belts and pads. Loved exploring the mines and the mushroom farm and the music by vacto molunel.
Chardok as a city I was kos in and could level in. I could use sneak and use the banker and merchant. It was tons of fun playing around in there (even by myself, as I did a lot of soloing down inside there). Qeynos was my favorite "safe" city and starting city. I felt safer and more comfortable in that city than any other... except when your faction with the corrupt guards got bad enough that Lieutenant Dagarok started hunting you down, but I think just about every city had that one or two npcs you feared. Music in that area was also great. Other places I enjoyed were Surefall Glades and the campfire outside with the guards next to you and guard towers along the paths in the Karanas - Raining? Duck inside until it clears. The part about any city I miss though is exactly what Serriah_Test said. Those cities were alive and active. People all around, merchants coming and going with special wares, the Darkpaw clan shouting as they attacked the gates, npcs chatting with each other - joking, whispering, and other entertaining discussions, announcements by npcs in the city, there was a feeling of unknown, things weren't always simple and straightforward, and music was very lively and uplifting or just fitting for the environment - it created the mood for that area. Those things made it seem more "realistic". Another thing I just thought about the other day was how there were paths everywhere to different places; It made it feel as though places were traveled and inhabited. Now, for the most part, we just have static npcs sitting around offering quests and check boxes to fill and not much else - the sense of adventure, realism, and mystery has lessened significantly. And, I guess while I'm at it... old Freeport, please!
Qeynos for me, started my main in Freeport and ran with a bard all they way to qeynos around level 8 because heard was place to be was a scary long run back then, I always swore to get revenge on holly windstalker but never did go back and get her
Felwithe is the best I was always in love with that city. Its my idea of what a city should be. If I was a eq character in real life I would be a high elf and live there. I was really distressed at what happened by the eq2 timeline, and the fact that its a enemy zone. Having it as a upcoming bg in eq2 just rubs salt on the wounds. Its my fav zone as well as my fav city. Felwithe is a wonderful dream city full of noble, lovely high elves.
#1 - Qeynos - Even though my first character was a wood elf, I consider Qeynos my first starting city. The person that got my husband and myself started in this game played a human druid, so he helped us make that epic run to Qeynos so that we could all be on the same continent. I grew up playing in Qeynos Hills, Blackburrow, the venturing out little by little into the Karanas. Those are powerful memories that I cherish to this day. I revisited the city the other day after being away for a long long time, and I could still find my way around. #2 - Thurgadin - This city is where our guild hung out during our glory days. I remember logging on outside of the bank there and being guaranteed to immediately see someone to talk to and group with.
Qeynos hands down. Nostalgia there is like none other. When the new progression servers have opened, i always make my way to qeynos asap. I also nominate the old FV outpost and Thurgadin due to the amount of players frequenting those areas during their heyday. It was fun to see so many people from casuals to raiders doing things in the same city.
Kerran Town on the peaks of the Stoneburnt Mountains. A wonderful place for meditation - in line with an early Japanese theme (pre-Dragons of Norrath).
Kelethin and Neriak here. Kelethin was horrible for newbies, but you learned quick how to get around and not fall off. It'd be great if the Faydark got some sort of a texture update. Neriak was 3 zones and I think that turned off people because of zoning. Wouldn't mind seeing them combined into one zone and again a texture update. I like how Fourth Gate looks. Its got the original feel with updated textures.
Shar Vahl! Fantastic quests, loved the registration and tax line of quest and some great lore. And kitties are awesome...need to be able to be casters thou! I do like my nightdress from here too, sadly the little girl kitty was brutally murdered for it by a rogue so I could have it. Sanctus Seru is second, simply because of the death messages. Devs need to go back and expand on this fantastic expansion.
Cabilis for flavor and layout, I put effort into being able to run Iila around there mostly-safely, and every one of my alts that could be an iksar, is an iksar. While it's technically two zones, one of the zones is mostly useless. While Kelethin was my home city, it was entirely too hard for me to get back to for a large part of my EQ life. But it did give me an early love of levitate effects. So Rivervale was my home-base city for a while, despite being filled with halflings. Because it was easy to port to, well stocked, and compact. Misty was also my newbie area of choice until field of scale. Overall the best payoff for porting to any of the old world cities.
Freeport feels like a dirty ghost town, and strange besides. Totally doesn't feel like a town any sentient being would ever build. No streets, no houses, no residents, no commerce, no life, 100% mud. Complaint not isolated to Freeport, but it's the one that had the potential to benefit from a "recent" (within the last 15 years) redesign.
