Feedback Request: Stories and Characters in Empires of Kunark

That quest was awesome, the best one for sure. Seeing Lcea heroic leap at the giants and knock them down had me rolling. Defiantly more of this! It was unexpected and hilarious.

The end of the merc quest in FM was funny too. The one where the badger illusions you. When he goes to remove the illusion but instead changes you into something else and it said he was not good at magic yet made me lol as well. I looked like a plate tank as a monk. I liked the Illusion so much I kept them on for the rest of the quests in the zone. Nice little touch.

My favorite mob? That's was easily Masterchief Ram'See throwing burning oil in my face! I about lost it. Defiantly more of this! I'm a HUGE fan of out of game references. This was almost as good as helping La'See in "Timmy fell down the well" quest in TSS.

The NPC responses were great too as well as the titles under their names. More of this! Humor really makes it a lot more fun and rememberable.

No old seb :{

Building on earlier comments of large amounts of text for quests . . . I like reading the lore but sometimes in the heat of battle I can't even see the messages/they scroll by in the combat spam (ex. the lost chokidai quest mentioned a few times).

I would like it if the text from at least completed partisan quests could be auto-pushed to either the old storyline journal (that fell into disuse after DoN) or at least into the in-game notepad.

I'm a little bummed that a second expansion in a row I can't complete the group quests due to difficulty, but that's o.k. I guess. It just seems odd they are so much more difficult than all of the other quests. That wasn't the case before TBM (with rare exceptions). I assume there is storyline from beating these but I won't see it.

Overall I enjoyed the storyline working through each zone (I have just the last quest in the Laboratory to finish . . and all the group missions that I won't be completing). I liked Chardok the best, and Droga the least. The funny thing is, the thing that made the Chardok quests more fun/reasonable to me was something that would have solved the negative Droga perception for me (the portal clicky to get back to the fisherman . . . could have used something similar for the npc in FM that gave out the partisan quests).

It would also be nice if there was a real reason to get the group currency from the heroic adventures. I don't need to buy the bag from the vendor because all of my bags are the same size or larger, and the type 5 augments are such a small upgrade that I will be hard-pressed to farm currency for a few of those. There could be some faction/lore-related items for sale on there, perhaps (perhaps some limited charge items to get ported to key areas . . . or temporary faction boosts with some npcs to be able to navigate the t2 zones more easily).

I was really hoping to see some sort of quest weapon or even a type 5 aug with a proc to use on the golems and giants (bane damage) due to their crazy hit points. Perhaps an upgrade to the Crystal of Daylight (initially intended to work on undead but works on everything).

Oh last note, since I didn't see it mentioned. I thought that it was a nice idea to have the lead burynai and centaur be vendors to see a item to make the one quest go faster if you had sufficient faction . . . except there was no hint they were vendors. I must have spent about 20 minutes with each one trying to figure out what to say (the quest did say they could help . . . but not how), only to accidently right-click on one after I had already finished the quest.

1. What storylines do you care about/remember from the expansion? (What was happening, who was doing it, etc.)
None... given, I'm only up to Droga (but have done all group missions and SW+Chardok) all I got was another Peace and War generic story. It made sense since we saved the combine in TDS (kindof?) but it just felt empty.

2. What non-combat characters were most memorable?
Chardok gnome oasis hiding out hands down. That was seriously the most amazing thing I've had fun with in EQ.

3. What killable characters were most memorable?
The Lcea drachnids stand out because they were the most annoying and horrible mobs to deal with (especially considering a T1 zone). Fast repop, minimal CC, and location integral to hunter and progression. Very poor choice in mob abilities/immunities/characterization. So, memorable in a bad way.

4. Which storylines or characters are you expecting/want to to see again in the future?
Anything without FV vs. Lanys. That has been driven into the ground. If we get it again, FINISH it. What I've found enjoyable was interaction with the gods of Norrath (aka PoP). They shaped our world and I don't feel like we know enough about them yet or haven't finished invading the planes for greater glory as mortals.

5. What do you think of Tsaph Katta, Lcea Katta, and the New Combine in general?
Lcea was a badazz mostly thanks to the 'giant' partisan in SW. Why she is so awesome? I don't know and that's a plot hole. New combine is way too small to believe that they are the "Combine". Lcea should have been a huge hub zone. So, overall, negative view of the Combine at this point. They weren't engaging.

6. What was your favorite moment in the expansion? (Story content, not "I got sweet loot" or "It was too easy")
I haven't finished completely so I won't say I have a definitive moment but the first raid definitely left an impact on me. I felt like it was a true, intense battle that was worthy of my time (in real life) AKA it was enjoyable. Defeating Gore and all the tidbits in between was just perfect execution start to finish.

7. Anything else you want to tell us about stories and characters in EOK.
Lots of fun references and quests that weren't ABC as we've seen the past few expansions was refreshing. As for the story... I feel you picked the wrong places and wrong factions for a Kunark re-visit. You missed out on the Iksar, Old Seb (frogs), Charasis, Veeshan's Peak (dragons), etc.

When I think of Kunark that's what I go to. I think there could have been a much more cohesive story with those zones and characters but then again what do I know. I think a lot of people would be happy with an EOK 2.0 that added these aspects provided they were as well done as this expansion.

Can you buy expansion gift keys for EoK?

That's some hilarious dialog. Make sure if you haven't done it, that you have the best geared tank you know do the hails.

A. Iksar racial epic continuations.

B. A title for maxing Kunark factions.

C. Needs the Wayfarers, we haven't seen anything since Nadaria woke up joining the Combine.

D. Legendary Super Gnome, sort of like a Super Sayain only concentrated.

To sum this latest expansion up without going into all those questions: its an elitist expansion, geared to level 105 (highest in the game) with nothing (quests, mobs, tasks) for lower levels.

because 17 years of content geared at the lower levels is not enough, right? riiiiight?

1. What storylines do you care about/remember from the expansion? (What was happening, who was doing it, etc.)
I am ally to Scales of Veeshan and Claws of Veeshan and so on, so I hate killing dragons !!!!!!! *smile* So my first thought was when I saw Gore... nooo wayyyy. *grin*
2. What non-combat characters were most memorable?
The Burynai Pacifist with the flower in its hand, the poor lost chokidai, and the hidden guy and his camp.
3. What killable characters were most memorable?
The chokidai wardogs and friends in Laboratory and Chardok. I totaly forgot about them since I am, guess what, ally in Original Chardok. This bastards with removing invis and removing agro while pulling.
At least it was a small challenge again to pull and do not kill your group.
4. Which storylines or characters are you expecting/want to to see again in the future?
Ancients
5. What do you think of Tsaph Katta, Lcea Katta, and the New Combine in general?
No opinion really since I am a dragon friend and a woodelf and.......you know.
6. What was your favorite moment in the expansion? (Story content, not "I got sweet loot" or "It was too easy")
I did not complete everything yet, but for now I love the idea with the Ancients and the things happening there. Crazy guy from Freeport killstealing and running away with my loot. Well I had other guilds doing the same, but that is a different story . The wandering vendor and the greedy jerks etc.
7. Anything else you want to tell us about stories and characters in EOK.
Good:
I really like visiting the old dungeons. You need to pay a lot of attention, it is like in old days, sneaking, dying, hiding in a corner and it shows me how freaking long I play EQ when I have people around me who tell me they are in Chardok the first time.
Not so good, but still ok:
Where are the Iksars?
The faction thing in Scorched Woods. We have a stable group for years and had one friend starting on the totaly opposite faction. That was a little bit annoying for him. We had to do the faction double and twice, but hey we need thousands of AAs anyways this time.

Level cap has been 105 for 3+ expansions now. 3 years to get to 105 is pretty generous since they'll start you at 85 if you want.
And I'm pretty sure we had some 95 in quest instances with us, and I know we had them in non-instance groups.

Sorry everyone missed my point. I am not saying it is a bad expansion. Elitist means favoring, advocating, or restricted to an elite (like level 105). It is not a bad thing. I was merely trying to say in as few words as possible that there is nothing for level, say 50 to even try or/and do a tradeskill unless they want to buy the items at inflated prices. They sure cant farm them. Lower levels don't seem to be able to get all the collections or ANY missions/tasks on their own. As in TBM you could at least do an HA at level 75. When you pay $140 for something you hope to be able to do something in it. It has nothing to do with 17 years of other expansions or being able to get to 105 for the last 3. Some people are content to play at a lower level than most and don't give themselves heart attacks trying to beat the game or get the best item. But they would still like to be able to do something for that $140. I know there were some folks in chat that mentioned they wasted their money until they could get their characters leveled. So as they asked for opinions in this thread, I gave one.

I agree with some of what CatsPaws is saying in that, I came back less than a year ago after a really long break and my toons aren't max level. I'm not in a hurry to get them to max level, that's why I quit before. EQ became a job instead of entertainment so I won't be doing that again. If there is no content for lower than max level characters in an expansion, there is no reason to spend money to buy it. I didn't. DBG is leaving a lot of money on the table by not including at least some lower level content. That's all. No biggie to me, I have plenty of content to play through still, just a missed opportunity on DGB's part.

Leveling is hardly a job... getting best in slot gear and augs once you hit level 105, along with earning thousands upon thousands of AA is where the challenge starts to set in.

Yep that is my point exactly! Thank you. They have limited the appeal of the expansion.

I was in a high end raiding guild the last time and it was like a job to me. Work all day, jump in front of comp to eat while we buffed up and then raid until bedtime. I didn't say leveling was a job, I said Everquest felt like a job and it did to me. Now I play when I feel like it and don't put any added pressure on myself so leveling is not a concern. I do it my way.
No hard feelings, just stating the obvious. If you don't make content in an expansion for less than max level characters, then less than max level characters have no reason to buy the expansion. Pretty simple.

I agree that buying the expansion and not having a lvl 105 character makes no sense. So maybe really a good idea to get at least some content for other levels. But then you will have still have people that are not pleased. They add something for lvl 90 or 80 or 70 or 50? No matter what, someone will not have content to play, otherwise it must be a huge, huge expansion to please everyone. And that is hardly possible.

Close but not there characters can benefit from extra grouping options. Level 50 chars should hold off.

As for raiding, if you're curious to see fairly modern raids most servers seem to have a casual raid team who is at a minimum doing TBM. Possibly with some EOK mixed in.

Farewell, Augur! You made Everquest and Empires of Kunark that much more awesome. Hopefully, wherever you go next, they get to be just as lucky. Thank you, and we'll miss you!