Three expansions behind curent content, keep existing loot table, add +1 item from a globalized loot table of all legacy expansions of appropriate level and difficulty / tier. Maintain the usual, This mob drops it's own loot item only for three most recent expansions. For me, I really like that the only place to get Dwarven Workboots is go kill the guy wearing them roleplay. It's a D&D thing. >but< Killing the same string of mobs for 20+ years, it'd be nice to see some surprises and also bring unusual items to lower level players. You know, Fun!
The original EverQuest had non-existent to terrible itemization in most of the lower to mid-level dungeons. For example: Blackburrow has one AGI earring, and two STR and STA necks. Most of the Crushbone loot is quest loot: Shiny Brass Shield and Bracer of Battle and some other useless garbage or the Dwarven Ringmail Tunic which drops off the highest level mob in the zone level 20 Emp. Crush.. Befallen is a horror show with bad loot and mobs that heal through walls and awful loot. Unrest is actually okay but the itemization is imbalanced with no weapon drops. Any dev could have easily rectified this 23 years and properly itemized these zones, but they did not. Either they can't find the professionalism to play their own newbie game, they simply don't care, or were too busy pandering to raiders. I think EverQuest should implement a universal loot system similar to Defiant system where every NPC has a rare chance to drop tradable loot that is level appropriate. I would not have to be as good as the Defiant gear but something that fills in the many gaps that that the first 3 expansions created.
Defiant loot is a disgrace that trivializes the whole game 1-85. Old loot was mostly fine as it was. It gave you a reason to actually go out and explore new places to find better gear on your way up.
Nothing over-dramatic about this post at all. A "get off my lawn" would've been a nice cherry on top though.
What's the point? You level so fast at those levels and a lot just jump to level 85. It's mot really worth the dev time for how little it will be used.
You should be thankfull for the many Fine Steel and Bronze weapon drops there which were the T2 gear back in the days. Rusty weapons were T1. Also the Charred Dagger, Ebon Dagger, Pugius, Gladius and the Battle Axe do drop there. Agree. It made most gear up to level 70 obsolete but it is nice to have as twink gear for those that want to level fast, which is the majority of the players. Sadly it is about a must have feature for new players on the live servers as the bazaar could not close this gap and the leveling process is that fast now which is intended by game design.
That was largely the point of it, it was a catch-up mechanic, Heroic Characters superseded it. Well TLP kinda upset that whole point of view since the content is relevent again there. The only really solid argument against redoing early era itemisation is that it screws with the nostalgia die hards, even if some redoing of the itemisation could rectify some serious class imbalances, i.e. Rogues Same thing could be said for retroactively adding some of the class tools from later class development, like especially for Warriors who are basically a crippled class until they get more aggro tools.
Except for that whole, new returning players can't be mad eto slog through 20+ years of legacy content at a 1:1 time to expansion ratio or they'de never catch endgame and maybe buy the next expansion. Saying defiants ruin the game is head in the sand @ this. Like, they didn't DEVELOP catch up mechanich in a vacuum, did they? Like, they serve a purpose. Imagine how many MORE 3rd party botters this wouls generalt to PL people.
Defiant loot wasn't implemented to help people play the game. It was created to help people catch up and level quickly. Yes, to partially trivialize while still giving people enough time to actually learn how to play.
I understand why defiant loot was put into the game. I just wish there was some solution that made normal loot worth something.
TLPs prior to Secrets of Faydwer. By SoF the slog to top end is unbearable at a 1:1 uptake. The real issue becomes the lack of players to group content with, necessitating Mercs, Defiants, Heroics and even with that, it's outlavel the conent, then go back and beat it when it's trivial, like how most people do epic 1.5s anymore. NO in era groups on any live server.
Levels 1 – 99 Remove all dropped items that are not quest, armor, weapon or trade skill items. Increase cash drops accordingly. Cash weighs nothing, auto loots and splits. This ignores forage and ground spawns. Rebalance defiant weapons and armor across levels 1-99 filling in any gaps. Replace armor and weapon drops with these new revised defiant items. This includes visible and non-visible armor/jewelry. These should be sellable to vendors. Vendors would sell the same items. You would only be able to see/purchase what you could equip and use. As a newb hunting in a newb zone, there should be equality in drops. Create racially or other flavored versions of the defiant items with slightly better graphics to replace quest rewards. This, coin and XP would make the quest worth doing. I hate having bags of useless or non-stackable crap that I’m just going to sell ASAP (thanks for the vet vendors). Adjust stats on trade skill generated weapons and armor which should be better than defiant with flashy graphics. Same again for raid items. I don’t raid and have no problem with the raid rewards being superior and more flashy. Basically you have your general stuff. Superior stuff made by master craftsmen. And finally, the cream of the crop. Basically, everything is going to be magic in order to hit those newb zone skeletons. All the weapons and visible armor (including shields) should take visual augments. Augments should be zone wide drops with (1 uncommon armor/jewelry and 1 rare weapon aug) per zone. Visible Armor and weapon appearance augments should be uncommon drops off specific MOBs. Use the achievement system to give boost in XP when completing series of (related) quests in the old world zones. Add kill quest to old zones like “Kill one of each type of Orc”, “Kill one of each type of Fairie/Pixie” to G-fay. Perhaps Include Orcs that can only be found in Crushbone and Fae from Lesser-fay. Others to look into: group and raid coin, forage items, ground spawns.
I recall first encountering defiant gear in game and my guildies an I almost unanimously thought that it was great and were always stocking the guild bank with it to help new members, low level alts and the characters of family members gear up. Hating on defiant is pretty elitist
While the original EverQuest was a ground-breaking masterpiece in so many ways, it was still full of serious flaws. Uneven, shoddy, and non-existent itemization is one of the biggest flaws to this day. The next biggest flaw would be outdoor zones that are sparsely and poorly populated that have the effect of funneling players into a handful dungeons. The fact that these flaws still exist in 2022 tells me that the devs do not play their own game with any degree of regularity and in particular have no idea what the EQ newbie experience is really like. This attitude reveals something else about EG7: they have no interest in bringing new players to EQ, instead they want to continue to milk existing players.
What you're describing is what makes EQ, well, EQ. The old "that's classic" saying. I could see maybe an "Everquest Remix" TLP that revisits the classic zones with updated mobs and loot tables, in fact they started to head that direction a tiny bit with Mischief. I think it would be a fun twist to have a reimagined Classic/Kunark/Velious, but that would take considerable dev time to implement all the changes (especially stuff like new mob pathing for mobs if they really want to make it all new). The reason Mischief was only rare mob loot is because it was a (fairly) quick change to make compared to a full revamp. I'd love to see a remix of the first trio of expansions, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
