An alternate solution. A state of the art EQ1 experience

I have been thinking about this for a long time. With EverQuest 1 still this popular after so many years, it warrants a new state of the art experience.

This discussion is intended to talk about a development of EverQuest 1 with 2016 graphics... Basically the same game with a new state of the art graphic engine and a whole new visual experience (the geometry could remain the same ultimately as to not change the core gameplay)

This idea serves multiple purposes. I see people begging and pleading for a non-boxing non-third party game, if the graphics required state of the art computers to run on them, it would be increasing difficult to box successfully.

The EverQuest 1 game has seen revamps in the past, as all of you already know, the character models were changed in Luclin expansion & many zones from classic were completely changed and upgraded... Freeport is one of the best examples here.

There are many zones that still have 1997 graphics (pre-beta) such as Ak`anon & dagnors cauldron to name a couple. The graphics on these zones are such that it renders EverQuest 1 to show it's true out-dated style and grace.

What I and I am sure many others want to see is bigger more awesome versions of the gods & dragons with amazing details in dungeons that are already challenging & fun but with the graphics to go along with the fun.

I am not a MMORPG developer or software engineer so I am sure that something like this would require years of effort and likely hundreds of thousands of capital to create, and the licence from daybreak if daybreak were not the ones to actually attempt this.

I'd like to suggest a name of this project be project Immortality or P2015 or something along those lines

Anyone else ever thought about this?

I have thought about it and I would love to start a kickstarter for this with DGC's blessing of course. I am a software developer and I would so be on board for a project like this.

Here are remastered scenes from everquest
(sorry I don't remember who to give credit to or I would)

Hundreds of thousands? Try a couple orders of magnitude.

Of course, it will never happen for the following reasons:

• DGC hold their IP very tightly (worst than Nintendo)
• DGC has EQNext in the works. (Unfortunately, its nowhere near being like EQ)
• Finally, DGC would never back something that competes directly with Everquest.

But its fun to dream what could have been.

In my opinion, they should have focused on Everquest all these years instead of investing in a bunch of fail products:

• The Agency
• Free Realms
• The Matrix Online
• Star Wars: Galaxies
• And, countless other closed games...

Today, we have skeleton crew working on EQ that can't even enforce PnP Policy.

Oh, and don't get me started on the vaporware that EQNext has become. Your children's children might get to play EQNext lol

The screenshots above are amazing... almost looks like photoshopped images from the current game.. They look good but I am envisioning something cutting edge that will bleed even the best gaming rigs of resources... dreaming too big perhaps.. people love this game there is no denying it

Not photoshopped, 3DRipped and re-rended in 3d studio max.

I love those screenshots too. Fact is you're looking at $50 million to make it happen. EQ has hundreds of zones and top quality devs and artists aren't cheap.

not hundreds of zones. only those in basic eq would have to be redone. since the ideas are already there it's easier than doing from scratch. after that, then kunark can get remade easier than it originally was and so on. not 50 mil either..... graphics update has to happen eventually......

Who is to say they couldn't do this a couple of expansions at a time, somewhat like a progression server?

Although, it wouldn't actually be a progression server, and some of the controversial issues debated here no longer have full nostalgia as the driving force, so...the game could indeed start with Kunark, then launch Velious and Luclin together, etc.

Also, I would support not a purely graphical remaster, but making it slightly different...same classes, more races, change up the abilities a bit, maybe update the timeframe of Classic to be years later as envisioned in a later expansion. EQ's expansions do reflect a forward progression of time, but with specific exceptions, NPCs in earlier expansions don't generally reflect that. For example, maybe a new dragon(s) take residence in Sol B/Permafrost in recognition of the fact that Nagafen and Vox are dead a million times over; trolls have taken of Guk since adventurers slaughtered all the frogs, etc.

The licence or permission to use the games assets and copyrights would be a first logical step towards making this project a reality. If daybreak were to give permission, or at least in some capacity be willing to collaborate on it, work could in theory begin immediately.

Points of interest would likely include, but would not be limited to

• New User Interface (EverQuest1 current UI out of the box isn't user friendly at all)
• New Character Models for all Races
• New Zone Graphics for all Zones
• New Spell particle graphics for all spells (and varying colors for spell lines, not just copy/paste particles for spells anymore)
• New graphics for every item in the game as well as visual graphics for every item in the game... a Mithril quill will look like a quill and not a dagger etc..

I am not suggesting to make any major changes to the core game or the game play. While the dragons gods and phini could have different names and their lairs could very easily be scaled much much larger, these things wouldn't alter the game or the game play

Somewhere the DBG CFO is laughing. You guys realize developing a modern video game takes a hundred million plus, right? Revamping 500 or so zones . . . <boggle>

I like the idea of "better" graphics. Doesnt have to be 2015 graphics for me, tho.

If they could revamp all old zones graphicwise to the state of the current ones ingame TDS for example, Argin Hiz from Cotf or even revamped FP look nice enough. Then add shadows..not those crappily implemented ones that are live atm, but nicely done shadows.

Those two things alone would keep me happy for another 10 years, and wouldnt cost a billion - id guess.

I'm only suggesting that the re-invisioning of the game be for classic at the beginning for obvious reasons. Doing 15 years of content at launch would be impossible.

All of the data for the game exists, that is the easy part. The graphics is likely the expensive part. The implementation and logistical effort would take a company to run the show, it's unknown that daybreak would be willing to get involved though

Try and imagine as I do for a moment

The flowing black silk sash in this incarnation would be black, it would be silk and it would be flowing... something very eye candy to see on anyone wearing it (maybe even sparkle a little)

Don't even get me started on the re-imagining of the epic weapons. The epic 1.0s while taking months to accomplish, would be the absolute most amazing things that you have ever witnessed on your computer screen. Eye candy that is mind blowing...

I'd like a new game that has EQ1 (classic/kunark) style graphics with just tons of content. It should be easy to crank out gobs and gobs of content in that "style".

We're all old enough to realize that graphics are not what make a game, hence why we're all still here playing on these TLPs...

To be fair, creating artwork is only part of the cost of developing an MMO. And with the basic models already done, I would think that an artist has a leg up. Its not like they need to create concept art and model from scratch.

On the other hand, please remember this is the game where people were upset when the stick figure character models were removed following an April Fools prank. When there are 8 unmezed mobs in camp you aren't looking closely at textures.

Please remake the original EQ with all the original game features.
1. All new textures and artwork for zones.
2. New sounds and sound effects.
3. New character, NPC, mob animations.
4. New character, item, NPC and mob models.
5. New spell effect art and animations.

Use the unreal engine and remake the original game and the EP's for Everquest, do the above and people would flood back to the game. Perhaps DBG can make a poll thread and ask people if they would be interested, if they would subscribe and if they would refer friends. Maybe even a kick starter campaign?

None of that cartoonish looking stuff that WoW and EQNext has, make the game gritty with a realistic and tough feel / look. Perhaps mobs would scream "you b@stard" or other insults at you as they drip blood from a wound! Slap a rated M label on it and BAM!!! Kick butt game!

Devs feel free to pass this on to upper management.

Imagine this in game as an ogre!

I want to put something into perspective. We have one of the most amazing games ever made here. Unfortunately the technology has passed us by. The following video is intended to illustrate what a major game has done over the past until present. The mario video shows 30 years of graphical upgrades. Our EverQuest 1 Engine is probably somewhere between super nintendo and nintento 64 which is decades old now.





What we want is not a new game but graphics that the game deserves

10k players on a TLP most of which do not actually want the original classic game. See hundreds of pages about instances, people who love to box, etc.

DBG will never get investors to back a remake of classic EQ. Best cast would be a modern version of it aka EQNext and even that has started to seem questionable of it ever sees the light of day.

Also, all the data exist? Ahahahaha.

You don't take 15 year old legacy code and slap on a new graphics engine.

Everything would need to be redone. Every single part of the game.

Classic EQ will be shut down aka Star Wars Galaxy or sold off to someone with even less money than DBG before another major graphic revamp happens.

I believe EQ2 was meant to do this but it ended up looking like vomit because they used their own engine.