I found myself in Greater Fay and Misty Thicket for a bit last night, and was immediately smacked in the face by the horrid old models for wolves (I think it was a wolf, or some sort of hideously mutated creature calling itself that) and skeletons. I realize that these are back for the nostalgia trip servers, but when are the newer, better models returning on normal, non progression servers?
NEVAR! Old models = best models. Also I know Ella Foodcrafter is your waifu but Misty Thicket is bad.
Hopefully they will return soon. Imho they should limit nostalgia-driven downgrades to TLP-servers or atleast make it optional... Old models in remade zones like steamfont mountains just looks weird and out of place. We already have the option of only having old water in old zones, and new water in new and remade zones. Why not extend that option to mobs and npcs too?
Prophecy of Ro is a great time in the progression timeline to turn all the "new" on, if one era mark is needed. -It's past a point where the hardcore nostalgia is still a sell -many big revamps occur by then anyways -turning off the old models builds future sell into future progression servers anyways. The more stuff that is new/different on live is actually better for this salespitch.
Nostalgia only goes so far. The newer wolf and skeleton models are vastly superior to the 1999 wolf models that are in place now, and it's not really arguable. Go look at them yourself, I think you're probably misremembering your wolf and skeleton models.
Yes. By flagging all old model revamps to occur as of Prophecy of Ro (or whenever) on progression you would force live to have all the new stuff. As they continue revamping models this set point would make sense, as live servers would always have the newest & shiniest and there is no real reason to spread out the revamping of critters across numerous expacs (i.e., a new Kunark Rhino model & Cockatrice model for the next expac would be all those types of creatures in the live game for example). The only exception would be when the revamps hit npc models past prophecy of ro, assuming that ever happens.
The original Freeport will not be back, that much you can bank on. There are a lot of new stuff (e.g., Arcstone zone line) that are not available in the old.
I can probably agree that some of the mob models are better with newer ones, but the newer character models (luclin) are god awful and always have been. They are some of the worst character models I have ever seen in any game I have ever played. The animations are even worse. The original PC models at least have some charm and solid animations for the most part, which I why I have always preferred them.
This has nothing to do with PC models. This has to do with things like: orcs skeletons spiders snakes beetles etc For some dumb reason they took us back a 10-15 years graphically for "nostalgia". Makes it that much harder to get people to want to play when they first log in and see super intendo graphics.
Old zones will have old models, "new" zones will have the newer models. I think that is an okay compromise. It's nice to be era appropriate. There are a lot better things to worry about.
EverQuest is too old to make a strong "graphics will bring new players" argument. The dominant strategy is to play up the nostalgia factor. The classic models cater to the nostalgia crowd: (1) older people (who played EQ 15 years ago and want to relive the glory days) and (2) young people who are curious. Daybreak recognizes nostalgia as good-dominant strategy since they promote reliving the glory days on social media and resurrecting Velious Armor Textures through "Heritage Crates." Maybe classic EQ can be considered art, like Picasso, with a sort of cult following. (Who said SuperNintendo was bad when Nintendo is resurrecting it to acclaim Sept 2017? https://www.nintendo.com/super-nes-classic) If people want superior graphics, they will play EQ2 or WoW. (EQ2 players already recognize EQ1 as graphically inferior no matter what era of models). However, graphically superior games in Daybreak's portfolio like Vanguard and EQ2 have and continue to struggle. Vanguard's graphics were amazing but graphics couldn't save that game. EQ2 has just announced a new round of server transfers and merge (EQ2's Stormhold server merging into AB). https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...ords-from-the-tribunal-kanders-candor.580426/ In contrast, Minecraft, which can be considered horrible in terms of graphics, is still immensely popular. Perhaps, it is dressage wolves and blood-stained skeletons that will keep EQ1 alive.
SuperNintendo is coming back Sept 2017 to high acclaim! https://www.nintendo.com/en_CA/super-nes-classic
Progression servers not going passed PoR should have the original Freeport. It seems daft to have the newer zone when it will never be used for the purpose it was created. Failing that can we change Freeport permanently to the Freeport in the Wizard Epic Retelling,
