Hi would love to try to start a new character on a server where it was possible to have armor and weapons and mounts that leveled with me and possibly finding something like stones or other items that could be melted down and put on as extra stats on the gear. and possibly also trying a server where Everquest was upgraded to the newest form of grafik. Ronni Lindkvist Warrior in training on Vox Server
One of the things I like about Everquest (EQ) is the ability to twink low level alts with many high level items. It gives you a sense of feeling overpowered even for a brief moment especially knowing that later on you won't feel so overpowered when mobs start to hit like a ton of bricks. Though there are many high level items to twink an alt with there are many more items with level restrictions which means you will have to eventually work at getting better gear. I think that is a good balance. WOW on the other hand does offer these heirlooms that level with you. To me that is boring because it takes away all the options of twinking a toon your way for some cookie cutter version. You never get the sense of being overpowered (gear wise). The only reason low level toons feel overpowered in WOW is because of the changes they make to the game after each new expansion. When Pandaria was the latest expansion it took time to level through all the content, but when the next expansion came out I out leveled Pandaria in one zone; not because my toons had great gear but because they made it easier. I would be concerned if DBG did what you are saying because they might couple it with level-locking all the other gear. At that point I would close down my four accounts because EQ would not be as fun anymore. I like the idea of some kind of graphics update, but it would have to be as true to core EQ as much as possible so that anyone playing it would not feel like they are playing a totally different game. Personally, I think EQ would look great using the graphic engine LOTRO uses even though that one is out dated and suffering from a 32 bit client. All that is out of the question though because the resources required to do such things are just not there. Another good enhancement would be to allow player made sound packs. You can then change the sound effects in the game to something different if you like. For instance, you could replace the typical grunt sound when getting hit or the sound when you die with a more realistic sound of your choosing. The same could be done to the sound of spell casting or explosions too. Can you imagine the possibilities? Of course such things would need to have standards (length, bits, etc.) to be compatible to the game. DBG could maintain tight controls on sound packs by requiring them to be submitted for testing and approval. Only the good ones that meet their approval would then be made available in the marketplace for players to purchase.
Evolving weapons and armor are in the game, not really a mechanic that is used all that much. Balancing these things with progression servers in mind could get tricky, however: -the old "newbie" armor quests could be made evolving. They'd just need to be era-gated for that evolving to kick in (so somewhere around Prophecy of Ro they could get a second stage making them comparable to that era level 50 gear, then that level group-quality level 70 gear. Then you'd probably need to revisit this by SoD and TBM to account for the level ups). Kind of a neat idea, but maybe redundant in a world flooded with defiant gear drops. -evolving mounts is an interesting idea. Could do that with familiars too. Something like the mount levels when it has been in use for 1000 experience messages or something. Augments exist from LDoN expansion forward, and account for a huge part of the itemization work that is done every expansion (for better or worse). These are "stones you add to your armor to improve the stats" The graphics in the game post-TSS are actually pretty good. Yes the character models have a dated look, but compared to what we saw as the direction with EQNext (Thundercats = Vah Shir) I am happy with the blocky old models. If you turn all of the graphic options on (grass, shadows, etc.) because your machine and internet can handle it the game looks fine. Modern illusions from the marketplace have pretty fancy graphics as well (but often lack the old animations). TLDR: don't hold your breath for a graphics revamp.
I like the idea that a banded set of armor while useful at level 1, would still be viable armor at level 105. Maybe there should be guidelines about what a piece of armors ac should be dependent on what archtype/material and slot it goes in. Such as saying average ac for a breastplate at level 60 should be 100 ac, and an exceptionial breastplate should be 150 or 200ac, and a poor quality should be 50ac or less. Then using a banded breastplate at level 1, leveling up to 60 it should be 100ac, but because its been used, because it was lower level, it only gives 50ac and is now poor quality. So to get a 100ac breastplate at level 60 you would need fine plate or better. Just an idea, maybe it could go both ways. Maybe you gain skill using a weapon as you level up so it doesn't lose apparent power and may gain power vs a brand new level 60 drop you find later than you aren't used to using.
EQ is not build up upon people having the same items most of their life. It is build up as people increase in levels, they should go out and get some better items. And if you want items where ac/hps increase, you can use item where recommended items are higher than what you presently are, and as your level increases, it becomes better, even that it starts out bad, since it is really build up on that you level X.
The pretty much entire point of the game is constantly getting better gear. Camping tough named thst yield drops. Running quests that have item rewards. Doing progression for access to content thst yields better items. Tradeskilling so you can make better items. If your gear just auto-evolved, what would be left? XP grind? And if evolved gear was inferior to same level dropped/quested/crafted, people would ditch their old stuff anyway, and the whole evolving stuff would be a huge waste of effort. Updated graphics would be nice, especially older zones.
