I can't tell if you are critiquing EQ for not opening up older content, or those begging for it. The same people cry that current content and infrastructure isn't getting enough attention - and then cry that 16-year old stuff doesn't get revisited, purely 'cuz they don't want to farm a key. Where is your priority? Focus on changing ancient content you can get past with usually minimal effort, or addressing current needs?
Shockingly, Rogues and Bards don't want to spend hours helping someone else camp mobs that were beyond trivial 40 levels ago. Is it reasonable to expect people to level a bard on a 2nd account so they can open a single locked door in a 15 year old zone in order to finish their epic 2.0? Because I spent an extra week or so doing this just to open a door.
You are correct - although I do use this trick on Phinigel to get a good pet for myself as a necro. Would still like to be able to get through the damned door though
Wow, you're right. I was in VT the day after this patch went live and was able to agro mobs (unintentially) and bypass multiple locked doors. I was there yesterday to check this out and I wasn't able to do that anymore. Weird ... really weird. Either I was having some kind of luck or they stealth nerfed this as well ... I'm guessing the latter because agro'd mobs opening doors was typical before this patch. I'm sorry but having a locked door be a feature of a MMORPG should not outlive it's intended use. This should have been fixed much like all flagging/keying/progression opens up after the expansion is considered "old" content.
Locked doors that can only be opened by two classes is a really stupid mechanic if you think about it.
I've been able to open the Sebilis firepot door and some locked doors in Infected Paw by aggroing mobs that path through and open the door. However...both of these spots already had roamers that would occasionally open the doors on their own.
I suspect it depends on the type of door and the pathing. If there is a roamer who passes through it, the door is "flagged" to allow npcs to open it. Other doors might be flagged to not allow npcs to open them (like doors in ssra)
Fixing the bug was a good idea. Fixing this content so it is accessible on live servers is the next step. When on progression does lockpicking cease to be an in-era mechanic? Flag a new "lockpicking" AA to that era, as was done with foraging to open up that ability to other classes. If the answer is never, then the AA would need to be slightly more complicated: Lockpicking rank 1 allows you to level this skill to 200, but only works on doors up to Kunark era. AA would be flagged as GoD or something era (live gets it right away, maintains progression). Rank 2 would handle Velious locks, Rank 3 Luclin and so on.
You don't need a bard or rogue to help you farm pieces for your 2.0 epic. You only need them to open the door for you, then it's up to you to farm for it. If you're in a decent guild, then I'm sure someone would take a couple minutes to open it. And if you're unguilded, or in a sucky guild, they pay someone to come and unlock it for you. Once you're inside, stay inside until you're done. It would be neat though to have an AA to open lock picking for everyone, but then those classes that have the AA, should have their skill capped. That way locked doors can have a difficulty level attached to them. So a level 80 door cannot be opened by someone with a 70 skill. Then new locked doors could potentially be added in expansions, so that more current content would have higher level locks, and lower content locks would eventually become accessible by everyone with the AA and proper skill level.
even simple adds to the game like those hallways in Najena just screaming for another chunk of zone to be added. Great place for some modern locked doors, maybe even some of which tier one of the new AA would allow you to pick. Najena would be a great level 10-30 & 100+ zone... yeah.
The Progression servers have negatively affected the real servers since the original Combine and Sleeper ones. As for the locked doors issue, another problem that this creates is that now you're going to need either a porter in your group, gate potion, or other clicky for each of the Plane of Time Phase 1 & 2 rooms. You used to be able to illusion trick through the door and get ported to the graveyard but not that is not possible. The Seb Crypt key quest should be fixed, the rogue/bard only locks should be given a way for higher level players to get through them without needing a rogue or bard; such as being over level XX for this zone means you can use your strength to overcome the door's lock. This is different from chests and such.
Agreed, great suggestions Xianzu. Having a level offset for a lockpick skill requirement should be a thing. And you're correct about doing PoTime, that will be really annoying. You can currently get stuck with no way out.
