I came to live from P99 recently, and noticed something very interesting as I have not followed the 20+ expansions: the old starting zones don't really seem to be a hub of activity anymore. In fact, you start out in a mine and then go to crescent reach. Well, that's how I understand it now anyway. I quite liked Qeynos myself. The killing field in front of me populated by skeletons and gnolls, bats and rats. Now qeynos is just kinda there, serving as a reminder of what once was. Now before you get upset and accuse me of saying what I liked is what you should like, ready assured that isn't the case. I am simply trying to understand why some of these zones, especially Qeynos, have fallen aside? If I had to hazard a guess, it would be that they wanted to keep the game fresh and shake things up. That's fine of course. I just get nostalgic seeing old Qeynos as a ghost town.
It was explained to me like this by a wise guildie: The Mines that you start in is a tutorial, which introduces the game to brand new players and also helps returnees understand all of the new features added over the years. It actually works quite well and helped me become reacquainted with the game after leaving back in '02. Secondly, Crescent Reach was decided to be a central hub for all new players leaving the Mines as a way to filter new players into the same starting area post-tutorial. After years of having a declining user base, scattering newly graduated characters all over the world to their race's original starting city just didn't make sense. This reasoning could be complete hogwash, but it sounds logical to me.
Tbh, when i started back in 01(or 02?), as an iksar I wasn't really enjoying my first few hours in Cabilis(I loved Field of Bone though), some of the original starting cities can be quite confusing and maze-like(especially without an ingame map!), when you are also learning the new controls(don't attack the guildmaster etc.). Gloomingdeep Mines and Crescent Reach are a lot more newbie friendly(and therefore better starting zones) than some of the original cities. The original cities was, however, an excellent way of introducing you to the race specific lore, instead of the more generic tutorial. Its all about giving a more gentle introduction.
Purely conjecture but I wouldn't be surprised if they playtested a group of a target demographic who had never played EQ, had them load up in a starting zone and recorded their response. I know my first gameplay experience in EQ involved Kelethin, a default display configuration that made the world too dark to see anything and a fall to my death. In today's wealth of online games you really can't have a first experience that bad. In addition to that, EQ has had a lot of feature creep over the years that deserves a gentle introduction. When I made my warrior the game was pretty much limited to killing some wolves and sitting down. Now new characters are thrust into a sea of UI-complexity hell. As an aside, I generally dislike attention grabbing intros to games where you start out and are expected to do something IMMEDIATELY. There's usually no failing condition, even if it's Mass Effect 3 and earth is exploding, but I still want to tell everyone around me to calm down because I've got to set my gamma and mouse sensitivities before we save everyone's lives.
The starting zones were NOT changed, and thats the problem. You can start in the old starting zones but they suck compared to gloomingdeep. The old zones are pretty much as they have always been, except no one goes there.
Guessing server population - when I started in '99 there was enough to keep the ~10 starting zones busy. Now CR is almost deserted, let alone anywhere else (on AB anyway). Nothing to stop you unticking the tutorial box and going to Qeynos though at level 1 - I did for my last toons and had a great time working through Blackburrow
Common newbie areas became a thing long ago, before mercenaries, accelerated rest etc. In old game you really needed to form groups if you were not a solo-friendly class like druid or necro. And population of original zones became way too sparse to reliably find groups, so SOE took measures to throw new arrivals together. Originally it was hot zones, easily reached via PoK books. Ironically enough, with mercs and all, anyone can easily solo the starting areas, and DB can just add the basic tutorial functionality to original starting places NPCs. I just took a couple toons through Gloomingdeep: nobody really bothers to group in there.
The original game was severely throttled. Mind set at the time was people would play to level 50, the maximum when the game was introduced, and quit. As it turned out, people didn't like spending weeks in tight box killing rats and bats to gain a level as much as heroic adventures. Factions were very much part of this and 'you've lost a level' was a common refrain when you happened to find an NPC who didn't like you. Yes, Qeynos is OK now, but even it has changed. You get defiant gear drops and everything loves you. Was a time when when everything hated you. You would walk the Qeynos Hills and be relentlessly attacked. If Tovax didn't kill you Holly would: You've lost a level. I'd repost something from that time period but some people have gotten upset with it so...
some were changed due to story line. Others some might of been changed to test new graphics and they put them in the game if they liked them.
Thanks everyone for your kind and helpful replies. Your answers actually make a lot of sense, and I can see why they would consolidate new players into a central area to enhance the experience. Also I do admit I did find the Gloomingdeep NPC tutorials refreshing because there was quite a lot of new content and systems in place, that without them it would feel even more overwhelming. In all honesty, it sounds like nothing is keeping me away from going to Qeynos, but will I miss out on anything besides other players if I go and slay some mobs for a few levels?
Gear from the tutorial that you can only get there. When the TLPs launch they always start in the original zone, the tutorial is a PoP addition.
This. I think the player base is too small, so they tried to funnel all new starting players into as small of area as possible. If you really like the original starting zones you can change your starting location.
Honestly if you can find other players at that level to group with and are eager to group I don't think they will really care if they are killing in Qeynos, CR or any zone as long as they have a group. Obviously everyone has that nostalgic zone that they would love to go to but my guess is they would trade that for a warm body by their side instead of a cold merc.
No one has mentioned the Freeport revamp? Oh if you remember the old Freeport your in for a HUGE system shock! - Coa
I was shocked a couple months back when I first saw the "new" Freeport. I seriously thought my memory was screwed up some how, but then I googled it lol.
Theres literally no reason at all to start anywhere other than the Drakkin zone. That will easily get you to 17/18. Then just go next door and hit blightfire moors till 40ish. Then move one zone over to Bixie Hive till 46ish. Why go anywhere else? They just revamped a bunch of dead zones no one ever uses so who cares?
Changing the starting zones into one zone was the worst mistake they ever made with EQ. It's what caused me to quit the game for so long. It turned what was meant to be an RPG into something not even worth my time. The atmosphere of the original zones was/is great and the atmosphere is the reason I play EQ for the most part. When you take all that away and put all new characters in one zone which happens to be one of the worst in the game, it only makes the first part of your character experience simplistic and dull. Every time you started a new char it was in the SAME ZONE doing the SAME THINGS over and over. That means the whole appeal of creating new characters is gone. When I roll a dark elf necro for example i expect my experience from lvl 1-30 or so to be very different and in another part of the world than when i create a halfling paladin for example. Now that we have progression servers, and best of all Agnarr i'm back to play EQ the rpg. If they didnt make these changes i wouldnt be subscribing and i'd be on p99.
Said it before and I'll say it again: If they had more than one "Hero's Journey" quest path, a lot of the complaints about starting zones would go away. Say one tailored for evil classes, and one for "good" race/class combos emphasizing building useful factions for progression. The TSS progression line is good for what it is, but it's also very neutral.
