A little background- I've been playing EQ since early May of 1999 (I have taken a few breaks here and there). I have been in a family guild a raid guild and a hardcore guild experiencing most of the downfalls and perks of each of the playing situations. With that said, I have some opinions and ideas (as most of us do). EQ live is a little out of date and control with a lot of the same over and over. It almost seems like DBG is trying to fix the game on the back end and that is one massive task that I believe isn't doable and it creates a lot of issues with the player base. I applaud the effort and I know the developers catch a lot of crap from the community including me. DBG has done a lot with TLP servers in attempts to keep EQ going and I respect all of those things. I would like to take this moment to say thank you for all of your efforts even though at times it doesn't feel that way. That happens with a group of people who love their game. What I would like to do is explain an idea for EQ that is new... but isn't... Before I go any further, I fully understand that what I am proposing isn't just a few mouse clicks and code adjusting, I know its a lot more than that but with the state of the game I believe EQ could be revived for well over a decade with this idea. The idea is to have the balance and vision in place at the start. EQ has been made and purchased over and over and everyone's vision is different. One of the biggest problems I see in EQ is the devaluation of old content that forces players to play at a pace that they might not want to play and losing the experience of what EQ "was" or falling far behind. TLP servers do help this some but its repeating the same mistakes the live game already has... So lets get down to it... Release the original EQ with the addition of a new POK and some changes. New POK- the new POK would have one zone with 2 instance zone entrances that connect directly. The Hall of Guilds and the Guild Neighborhood. Standing in the center of the zone would be an area with soul binders and corpse summoners along with a merchant for soul stones. To the North would be a library with all spells and tomes rk1, to the south would be class masters for training new skills, loyalty vendors and mercenary vendors, to the west would be the instance doors for guildhalls and neighborhoods and to the east would be all merchants, crafting and newly made broker and seller toons to end players being in the old bazaar and having to have toons online to sell(long overdue). With that said I would like to see 4 large guildhalls that are in static POK. These would be new as well and would change throughout the history of the game. These 4 guildhalls would be 1 NW, 1 NE, 1 SW, and 1 SE. These would be mirrors of the instanced guildhalls brought into the static zone for the top 4 raiding guilds to compete for by completing content. This would create competition and recognition within the community. Each new expansion would require the guilds to compete for the top 4 spots on the server. Anyone could come into the guild halls but not use any of the guild specific portals or merchants and an entrance to their neighborhood could be inside. A new "considered family" faction could be used to establish this. Outside of all of this along the walls would be a portal to every starting city. Playable races- Lets add a few. First, move the Iksar to North Ro, Vah Shir to Tox Forest and move the Drakkin to Paineel. You could add the brownie race with a starting city connected to Lesser Fay. Add the gnoll race with a starting city connected to Butcherblock. Add the orc race with a starting city connected to South Karana. Add the goblin race with a starting city connected to Innothule Swamp. Add a lizardman race with a starting city connected to East Commonlands. I think we have all wanted more starting races, obviously you dont have to do them all. I dont know how I would deal with the tutorial and mines of gloomingdeep but I am sure it could be used for all of the races that dont have a starting city in original EQ to save you a lot of work in creation. Levels and EXP- The new EQ would max at level 50 just like before but there would be a huge change in the game from that point forward. Each expansion would increase just 1 level. Red cons would be 3 levels higher making original EQ an even con at Luclin. This would make content viable for a much longer period of time and play at the pace they want. The AA's would begin at level 51 and since you have done so much work on AA's lately, condensing them should be close to complete at least on paper. AA's, skills and merc's would be the rest of the exp progression per expansion. Skills should take longer to learn. Start achievements at level one with quest completion, hunter, raids etc keeping in mind that you only have to do the quests at low level in your own starting city. Missions and Raids- Raids in the "new" EQ would be 36 man raids with an 18 man raid option and a 6 man mission with all of them instanced. 72/54 is too many and will never appeal to the modern game with number struggles. Lockout timers set to 6.5 days for 36, 2.5 for 18 and 6 hours for missions. Original EQ would have 9 raids outside Fear, Hate and Sky that are T1. Nag/Vox/Phinigel of course so we can add 6, do an Orc King raid in crushbone, a Cyclops raid in OOT, a Griffon raid in the Karanas, a Giant raid in the Karanas, Avatar of fear raid in CT and a Froglock King raid in Guk. I know that takes time but for a "new" game we are still way ahead of the curve as far as coding and testing. Fear and Hate zones need to be redone and linear with 3 bosses in each and use sky with 3 major encounters island hopping. This would be T2. The first 4 guilds to complete all raids at 36 people win the static guild halls in the new POK for an expansion until Kunark raids are complete. Gear would be progressive with the best group gear dropping in missions, a tier between group and raid in the 18 man missions and the best gear in 36 man raids of course. Each named mob can drop a rare mission item. Each mission can drop a super rare 18 man raid drop and 18 man raids can drop a super rare 36 man raid drop. Again, everything is instanced in these from the start. Raid make up is simple and balanced. 18 - 1 of each tank, melee and caster groups being the base with 36 man raids being 2 of each for build and tuning on a dev side. Crafting- I have crafted but I am not a huge crafter but it would be nice to see harvesting added into the game along with additions to crafting. Each named can drop an item, a piece of armor and a rare crafting item like a piece of ore etc that can be used by crafters to make an equivalent piece based on their skill for sale or use. Mission, 18 and 36 man raids can also drop a crafting items like ore to make equivalent items in crafting. I think this would make a lot of crafters happy. (Crafters input?) Spells/Buffs/Auras- All classes would have an aura to be beneficial to the group/raid. Warrior - 1 Reduce melee damage taken per hit Warrior - 1 Increase AC Paladin - Increase Parry/Block Shadowknight - Increase Riposte Cleric - 1 Reduce spell damage taken per hit Cleric - 1 Increase H/M/E regen Shaman - Increase H/M/E regen Berzerker - Increase melee damage per hit Rogue - Increase accuracy Monk - Increase critical hits chance Beastlord - Increase attack Bard - Increase haste/overhaste Druid - Increase H/M/E regen Wizard - Increase non melee damage per hit Mage - Reduce mana cost Necro - Reduce cast time Enchanter - Reduce resist chance Ranger - Increase non melee critical hits chance Each cast class should have 1 self buff, 1 group buff excluding levitation, group buffers should be able to TB or MGB that buff for raids and please stop with the duration garbage.... its so frustrating and I believe pointless. I have a lot of ideas in my mind and am more than happy to help but I think this could be tested on a TLP server and if enough like it, we could have a new EQ. Original EQ wouldn't be trivial for a while and each expansion could be tuned and instances added to make it work at just 1 level per expansion. You could also retune everything to level 20 for the original EQ and release an entire new game but I am sure it would take a lot more work. Thoughts?
If you're adding new playable races then..... Out of the new Inner Sanctum of Castle Mistmoore zone comes playable Vampires! Grandsired by their new deity, Mayong. From level 5 they proc a lifetap starting at 10x level and scaling to 70x level at 110. All stats and AC/HP/Mana/End reduced by 30% during daytime and increased by 25% during night. Bard level runspeed at night and massive penalty to fire resistance at all times.
The only thing they need to add to make Everquest perfect is to make it so Iksar can be berserkers. Why they can't be berserkers is a question that I cannot find an answer to. It just doesn't make any sense.
