The yearly question: will this expac be cut n' paste?

No we are the same company as we were before then. Just a name change as far as it affected me. I would have had to present a demo reel to myself and I would have approved me !

One of the biggest points made in the debate of "Old/Original" models vs "New/Luclin" models is how many people that prefer the original do not like the animations of the new. I consider myself in that boat as well. New models look ok but I'm just not a fan of their animations. As a result many of us don't even see hero forge armor (They only work on new). It's a common debate in our guild, with several saying they'd use the new models if it had the animations of the old. Probably not possible at this point though

I do love that new Paineel Skeleton Visage, as everyone sees the old animations on that regardless of settings

If I see the old ones I think those look ugly, I like the new ones much better. I also would like a update on the new ones to even newer ones.

I like it when a game has a consistent artstyle. The current models(except the Drakkin) clashes visually with the newer expansions imo. We could use some updated models.

And yes the current animations are pretty bad!
Face stabbing bards, is a an example of the lousy animations...

I agree. The "new" (2001) models and animations are an improvement to the originals in many ways, but the animations on some races are just odd. My favorite race to play is High Elf, but they look like a stick is stuck up their rump when running, among other weird animations that have persisted for over 20 years.

I'm predicting a copy/paste of the lag with this expansion, though. In my opinion, they'll need to take a deep dive into the proc and overall bloat to lower the concurrent calculations to finally slay that beast.

That being said, I look forward to NoS, and I hope we enjoy the experience as much as the people making it hoped we would.

It was a "whichever comes first" set of options. This game has been so many developers I lost track years ago. The yearly question is has anything been done or is EQ still rotting on the vine. I have my answer: rotting on the vine it is. I have permanent accounts but I will not give you any more money until you fix the rot. I doubt I am alone.

Ya'll talking about animations now...

For the love of god, will one of the Devs please take like 5 seconds to fix the Z-Axis on the Qeynosian Strider. It's my favorite horse in the game and it looks incredibly stupid with a rider. How hard can it be to fix? Please fix it.

Edit: oh, wait, There are no gods. We murdered them.
For the love of the corpses of the false gods...

I'm not a fan of the Luclin models. I think I posted before that we were going to redo them all again around 2002. I have videos somewhere. They were more updates to the old models, kept their flavor but animated well.

The new models in Luclin were android-like and devoid of personality and amateurish. The stiff animations were even worse. I have a feeling that Kelly Flock is the person at SOE who was responsible for the imposition of the new models back then. Jeff Butler knows the truth. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The original models are amazing and in my opinion, are the signature EverQuest look that Darkpaw should be very proud of. They were brimming with a playful, hand-drawn, stylized high fantasy vibe. The animations were exceptional for their time.

If Darkpaw ever decides to make EverQuest 3 or EverQuest Beyond, they should seriously considering basing the art direction style on the original EQ released in 1999. Stylized graphics are the way to go, because unlike photo realistic graphics which are unoriginal and boring, they are future proof.

I just want blue hair as an option..

It's never too late!! Would love to see the videos of the redone old models.

Especially true for Iksar. I'm not sure why the slender lizards were replaced with granite boulders, but it certainly was a choice.

Considering the Vah Shir were introduced with the Luclin models maybe that's why in my opinion the non-Luclin Vah Shir models definitely aren't good to me. For the others possibly it's when I started, since by summer 2003 the Luclin models were long established.

Just don't look to the EQ2 kerra. Perhaps it's mean to say, but I thought those looked more like primates with a few feline features slapped on. The Vah Shir models in EQ1 look better. I'm not sure if the EQ2 models even changed. I have not played it for a long time.

I use original models. I hate the Luclin Models and refuse to even consider using them. I can deal with no enhancements but please don't remove the ability to use them.

If I win the Powerball, Darkpaw will be purchase by me and the first thing on my list will be removing the Luclin models and hiring staff to make the old ones work.

I just want a pet that does not look like a spectre. All i got was a rock.

I absolutely hate the Luclin models as well. Former EQ producer revealed that the Luclin models were created by inexperienced animators that were borrowed from another SOE game. I think the problem was that Flock and Smedley sent all the talented animators to EQ2, so EQ was left shorthanded.

Luclin, and the Luclin models, were launched several years before EQ2 was even announced. I sincerely doubt they had begun any development on EQ2 when Luclin was launched.

EG7, whose chairman of the board is now Jason Epstein... He still has the top spot along with CEO Ji Ham, also from Columbus Nova. The "sale" to EG7 was more like a takeover in the end.

Expac cut and paste sucks, my wizard has several, if not many spell lines that are not useful enough to EVER memorize (rains lures, low dmg nukes etc etc). Still it gets the same small upgrades in spells, damage increases and also gets the focus aa's for no good reason until the spell lines get at all viable. Been getting those for many many many years. WHY? It's a prime example of wasting development time.

Why not spend a little to fix the spell limitations/behaviours or the up the dmg so people will actually use the spells? Or remove them? I came from the monk thread, they have discs that need updating that have been the same for 10 years!!! That is 10 expacs. Berserkers are slowly moving down the dps ladde because of the design/mechanics of their dps (crit%-related). Timers are too long out of sync for no reason for several classes abilities. Devs need to look into and fix mechanics and design of the classes. Please fix this is a reductive manner, I dont need even more spam buttons to compensate for poor design.

Also on wizard, the randomness and procs that gives inconsistent (mostly too low) dps is killing their dps/viability, still wizards still get more spells to further randomize and make the dmg more uncontrollable, like thricewoven, wildscorch. This is sabotaging the wizards, kicking them when they are down.WHY?

On a different note, another thing they seem to cut and paste is the formula for mob HP which is way out of proportion. For example, trash mob from 20 til 40 million HP's?!? Seriously, I dont get double mana or double dmg to be able to kill like in the last expac. Game balance as well as class balance and also class vs class balance need a BIG looking into. New content is great. but I dont want more content to experience the same game problems in. I want more game problems solved! Then I can enjoy the content.

Please don't forumwarrior roast me on specifics, you know what I mean. Something needs to be done.