Future Content - Thoughts & Discussion

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Niskin, Apr 12, 2018.

  1. Niskin Clockwork Arguer

    I was thinking about the future of EQ, primarily the future of content, or more specifically of new expansions. I have come and gone over the years, missing some expansion releases and seeing others. There is content I've still never seen and things I don't know about entire expansions. Some things I've gone back to see, and others I haven't. That will be more relevant in the second part of the post, but first a couple questions.

    Do you think any future expansion packs will be based on new lore that is not connected to anything currently in game?

    If not, which expansion, race, god, or whatever, do you think they will base the next expansion on?

    For the second half, I wanted to detail some of the previously connected expansions. This is based on what I know, and I hope people can fill in the blanks or correct things where I have them wrong.

    Classic: The beginning, the origin of Antonica, Faydwer, and Odus. Also the planes (Hate, Fear, Air)

    Ruins of Kunark: Introduction of new continent, no previous ties.

    Scars of Velious: Introduction of new continent, no previous ties.

    Shadows of Luclin: Introduction of the moon, no previous ties.

    Planes of Power: Expansion based on the the planar concept, introduced all new planes. No direct tie back to any other expansion.

    Legacy of Ykesha: Introduction of new lore and lands

    Lost Dungeons of Norrath: Re-used classic world, I believe the lore was based on existing classic lore.

    Gates of Discord: Introduction of new lore and lands, is this a new continent? Where is Nedaria's Landing anyway?

    Omens of War: Introduction of new lore and lands.

    Dragons of Norrath: Is this the one that ties into Lavastorm? I know basically nothing about it.

    Depths of Darkhollow: Monster Missions? I think that was this one, I know nothing about it.

    Prophecy of Ro: Introduction of new lore and lands as far as I know.

    The Serpent's Spine: Introduction of new lore and lands across all level ranges.

    The Buried Sea: I know nothing about it

    Secrets of Faydwer: New lands, have only visited a little. Lots of gnomes and clockworks

    Seeds of Destruction: Lore based on history of EQ, ties back to Qeynos from classic.

    Underfoot: Brell Serilis and bug looking things. No idea, have visited but do not understand.

    House of Thule: An entire expansion that seems based off of Plane of Fear

    Veil of Alaris: Introduction of new lore and lands.

    Rain of Fear: VoA part 2? There is also some connection with Velious.

    Call of the Forsaken: Qeynos gets a shout out again, but also bixies from TSS and probably other stuff too.

    The Darkened Sea: Is this based off of The Buried Sea, lore-wise?

    The Broken Mirror: Introduction of new lore, lands expand the planar concept from PoP.

    Empires of Kunark: Re-envisioning of Kunark

    Ring of Scale: EoK Part 2

    Is there an expansion you'd like to see them revisit the content or lore from? Or one you think they likely will do that with?
  2. Sissruukk Rogue One

    I'd like to see AvP with Colonial Marines...wait, wrong game.

    I like the track they are going on with Kunark. I just think RoS was a hiccup with how they did it. But there is still so much left in Kunark to mess with...Warslik Woods, Karnor's, Old Seb, Lake of Ill Omen, Firiona Vie, Dreadlands, Nurga, etc. It would be great to see them finish that off.
    DruidCT likes this.
  3. fransisco Augur

    I'd love to see Luclin expanded upon
    Sumonerr_Tunare and Niskin like this.
  4. Gana Augur

    I would say Velious...

    I want an expansion accessible thru Dragon Necropolis, a new playable Ratonga race (I know, won't happen) with good rats and bad rats, all subterranean zones, opposing factions (like DoN) that culminates to see that rats are just experimented on gnomes that have been transfigured thru centuries of experimentation by a necromancer undead dragon. The city zone would be like ToV (also includes the newbie zone). The second progressive zone would be Western Wastes-esque with quest givers in the caves/on the ships. From there, have Siren's Grotto type zone (because everyone *loves* underwater zones) that is non-aggro to pass thru on dry land, but extremely hostile under water (and high level)...and wide aggro range on the peaceful mobs if they are disturbed (or just dense population). I would change the zone order from here to zone into an eastern wastes type zone that is the moderate level. That leads to 4 zones of higher end (Kael and ST as moderately high level "town" zone, with GD and Skyshrine {in place of Iceclad} type zones being high level). I would put Kael as the "good" moderately high level town, ST as the "evil" town which includes undead rats, gnomes and drakkin. I would have GD and Skyshrine as the high end zones (105+) along with SG under water. I would put a PoK book in ToV, direct access thru Dragon Necropolis into Siren's Grotto zone safe spot.

    All the zones are large enough that they can house a large variety of mobs as well as level ranges. Further expansion can come thru "blocked" zonelines to Thurg, Velks, WL, CS, etc (so could be a 2 phase expansion like EoK/RoS with no level increase). But, I am sure they are already working on the next title, so this is just having fun.

    TL;DR - Velious.
    Zhaunil_AB likes this.
  5. Niskin Clockwork Arguer


    That's definitely one I'd like too. I know there are Shissar in Katta: Deluge in TDS, but don't know the lore on any connection back to earlier Shissar. Since I don't know anything about TBS and I don't know if TDS is connected to TBS, I don't know if there are any connections to Luclin there already.

    It would be cool if they did a couple expansions based on Luclin, maybe one on the above-ground areas and one on the below-ground areas.
  6. TenkenTurtle Elder

    Velious is definitely one of my favorites. But I like the idea of tying old content to new content. Kind of how they used the Prayer Shawl quest to span over 3 expansions.
  7. Niskin Clockwork Arguer

    One other thought to add is that I'd love an expansion like House of Thule, but based on the Plane of Hate instead of the Plane of Fear.
  8. Sissruukk Rogue One

    Faydwer....

    The Gnomes have been working and tinkering away at some monstrosity inside Ak'Anon. They finally bring it to life, but it gets corrupted by the Gnomish followers of Bertox, and lays waste to Ak'Anon, breaking out into the Steamfont Mountains. What Gnomes don't die in the initial onslaught of the mechanical monstrosity's devastation are forced to flee. Most head to the nearest ally city, Kelethin.

    However, the mechanical monstrosity and the evil aligned gnomes are busy building more mechanized entities to create an army. This army then invades on two fronts, one toward Dragonscale Hills, the other into Lesser Faydark. From LFay, the mechanical army marches on both Felwithe and Kelethin with speed and ferocity. Kelethin falls relatively fast, as the tree structures are destroyed, bringing down the city. Felwithe holds out longer, but eventually most evacuate, leaving a rear guard in place in hopes of holding the city gate long enough to get everyone out, as well as any precious tomes and other articles of arcane knowledge and history. The High Elves evacuate through means of teleportation, as their only other way out of the city is being besieged by the mechanical army.

    Elves from Kelethin, and the gnome refugees from Ak'Anon make their way to Butcherblock, where the dwarves have been busy setting up a defensive network at the pass from Greater Faydark into Butcherblock. They have also been busy reinforcing their city. Gnomes, for the most part, are welcome at Kaladim. Wood Elves have been offered refuge as well, but preferring not to be stuck underground when the assault comes their way, the elves head to Antonica, though they do leave a contingent of forces behind to help with defense of Butcherblock.

    Felwithe finally falls, and the mechanical army and the gnomish followers of Bertox assault the Dwarven lines at the GFay/Butcherblock pass. The Dwarves and their Gnomish and Elvish allies get pushed back, but muster their forces at the crossroads, digging in.
    =+=+=+=+

    New xpac could be after these event occur and the goal is to retake Faydwer, beating back the mechanical army, with raids up to and including taking out the final mechanical monstrosity.
    snailish likes this.
  9. Boze TLP complaint factory

    Yeah I would say Velious, except they already redid a lot of that content recently. House of Thule is one of the most creative expacs imho, and I'd love to see another that gets that heady and weird.
    Venaki and Niskin like this.
  10. Fohpo Augur

    I liked DoN and Omens, and personally I haven't had a lot of problems with EoK or RoS being rehashed from Kunark. I may be in the camp that believe EoK and RoS could have been released as one larger expansion, but I think the content has been pretty solid given the smaller dev team. I'm not a fan of TBM solely because of the mirror zone mechanic being stupidly tedious for little reason (again, personal feeling) and irritating as a boxer. Velious would be awesome too, but I fear that seeing some of it in RoF (I think?) may prevent us from seeing it again soon.
  11. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    I would like to see a new Plane of Sky.

    The Sphinxes and Efreeti have suddenly changed. Signalling the awakening of an ancient power.
    Boze likes this.
  12. fransisco Augur

    While really interesting, it'd kinda suck to lose 3 starting cities (And everything involved in basically every faydwer zone).
  13. Sissruukk Rogue One

    Well, you'd roll it out like Kunark...you'd have old Kunark, which still has Cabilis and such. But then a "future" or "alternate" Faydwer where this stuff happened.
    fransisco likes this.
  14. eqgamer Augur

    Really, I just want a badass clickie
  15. Aurastrider Augur

    TDS is linked to TBS or at least brothers island is and the fact that you can get to the actual TBS zone from tempest. BI is basically monkey island from TBS zone with a couple minor changes and well Katta is a copy past but the new one significantly smaller with a couple minor changes also.

    As far as new content not linked to older content it is doubtful we will see this and if we do I can only imagine the amount of content will be lacking. Maybe I am wrong in thinking that doing a revamp of an older zone is less time consuming than creating an entirely new zone but I assume it has to be. Since dev time is limited it only makes sense that they will continue to reuse old zones for current content. We started seeing this "recycling" of content in SOD (2008) with blackburrow and maybe even earlier than this so its doubtful this will change. I am personally in favor of this as long as it means they can give us more content even if its new old content.
    Corwyhn Lionheart likes this.
  16. snailish Augur

    I think it is better to permanently remove and change stuff on live.

    Several expacs of warfronts into Norrath causing the fall of many starter cities is ideal... reuse the city geometry to make new raid zones. Muster the races in the few holdouts that remain.

    GoD could be completely reused, as in wiped over. Maybe the orcs form a federation and overrun it.

    This allows the old versions to be only on progression, and live keeps moving forward. Creates progression replayability and nostalgia so that progression continues to pay for game development. Reusing geometry means more zones in the expac vs. new from scratch. There are lots of places in old zones to add in the new zone or entrance to a new zone as well.

    I still want a Hogwart's Easter egg zone off one of the unfinished halls in Najena, "The Magician's Dormitory" or such.

    ---

    A third Kunark revisited expac would be fine to fully flesh it out.

    I'd hold Velious for later and skip ahead to either Luclin or OoW.

    No new continents.
  17. Zadune Journeyman

    Things I'd like to see, in no particular order:

    -A third (and final) Kunark remake with Nurga, Karnor and Sebilis (plus whatever outdoor zones lead to them) - Trakanon gets final boss status

    -Maybe two expansions of Velious remake, one tops out at Sleeper's Tomb and the other tops out at ToV - High Priest Kildrukaun and Vulak'Aerr are the final bosses

    -A conclusion to the Muramite storyline. Actually, this is easily my most-wanted of the three. Let's find out who the real mastermind of Discord is, and if it's simply chaos/discord itself as has been speculated on here, let's fight more of the "spear-tips" of the wave like Brekt and Mata. Just a whole bunch of major boss fights, maybe bring back those two as well, and do something with Mindshear and the Thing's Eye.
  18. Zhaunil_AB Augur

    oookay, yes. many possible hooks there.

    But
    *groans* Don't they ever learn?
    Most definitely no. Been there, done that.
    A whole expansion (SoF) based on a mad gnome. More lore based on more mad gnomes.
    Not to mention Maelin.
    Gnomes are the root of all evil - i say let them have it and be done with them!

    Hell, no!
    At most a handful of gnomes are welcome anywhere outside of Ack-anon; and for the refugees, one would have to ensure that they're all of the same gender so that they don't breed but die out as they should've long ago!
    I want to raze Ack-anon, not save it!
    (Ack-anon = the unnamed city that makes me throw up when i only hear about it!)

    I've lived to experience the escape of the frogs, and that followed a similar script and was bad enough.
    I felt for the Trolls that were driven from their homes so much i made a char to help in the defense...
    No more refugees! Refugees are NOT welcome, and that's not just the dwarf speaking but also the player...
  19. Gnomeland Augur

    Given the way the setting has been established over the years, there is no way to introduce new narratives that are completely disconnected from existing game history. Even The Broken Mirror, which was the most original expansion in terms of story, built off of existing concepts like the Plane of Disease. A setting that has already revealed its most significant gods, factions, and powers cannot simply abandon them.

    With that said, there are aspects of the setting, even from classic, that have not been explored as well as others:
    • Miragul, the most famous necromancer in the game, and the guy who was said to have combined the different schools of magic into one ultimate school. Again, the original plot for Miragul seemed like it was leading up to big , and the fact that Miragul was trapped by his own attempt at immortality, seemed like it was inevitable before he would find a way back, more powerful than ever. Yet, the whole line was abandoned in favor of joke characters like Meldrath. How Meldrath could be the main villain for an entire expansion, while all Miragul got was one small area in House of Thule, is beyond me.
    • Najena. It's not necessary for every villain to come back, but one would think Najena would be among those who did. She was, after all, the head of a significant cult with many members, would've been well known among older players, and you could also create a story linking her with other dark elf villains like Opal Darkbriar about a hidden cult spread across Norrath. Wasted potential, in my opinion.
    • Grimlings. I always liked grimlings and their story with Khati Shah. They're one of the more unique factions in the game and I always thought there should've been more development of their conflict with the Shissar and the Vah Shir.
    I think any one of these could be further developed into an expansion concept that is new and different, while still being connected to the setting and people's past experiences. So yeah, I think there are still many opportunities for new stories and developments, even without going beyond what's already in the game.
  20. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    Luclin - Need more kitties!

    Personally I'd rather go somewhere new, really want to find out what is on Norrath's other moon. Do they have kitties too? Could be a new starting city for Vah Shir, with some new vah shir classes. :) Maybe even be evil kitties - kitty shadow knights, kitty necro!

    Either way Norrath needs more kitties!