Sony, you all did a great job on the revamping of Freeport and Qeynos! Now, I have been asking a lot of friends in game and also a few random players as means of a survey onto the idea I am about to present... For previous Eq1 players the nostalgia you get hearing the name Planes of Knowledge is really quite overwhelming in a positive way and just as an idea along with many other players who would surely back me up on this.. Bring back a revamped version of Planes of Knowledge (PoK) I was always one of those player sitting outside MB (Main bank) asking for level 45 SoW off Druids and that was so fun back in EQ1 and The massive nostalgia attack just thinking of an EQ2 version of PoK is unreal! First of all because its a neutral main zone where both alignments can meet, and also for low level guilds/guild less player they can find there way around Norrath A LOT easier! Come on Previous EQ1 players back me up here! Get Sony to at least think about this!
I'm not sure, there's already so few people in the regular cities as it is. A central city zone with portals everywhere, in addition to guild halls would all but kill any reason to go to your home city. TBH I kind of liked eq1 better before POK was introduced, it felt more epic and the world was bigger and more meaningful travel. Not like travel is difficult in eq2 mind you..
I would like to see a New Expansion that follow the Dwarfs of Kaladim. Maybe showing them retaking there Belove city or parts of it or showing us where King stormhammer lead his people to. Or how about when we look up in the Norrath sky at night we see the remains of luclin we all been there before so you can say we done that. But what about the Second moon above Norrath as far as I know No one has ever set foot on it
I am still waiting for the promised Siren's Grotto and the rest of Velious. Remember we were promised that these zones would be in Velious Part 2. What happened to that? I personally don't care much for the Ethermere storyline - I prefer they bring us Velious Part2 as promised.
I'm just ready for eq3 at this point with a big population. Or even just anything decent that's not mired in mediocrity.
I personally did not like PoK either. It completely killed all the cities. I remember going to Kelethin and having masses of people around, same with other cities. Just some cities like Kaladim and Rivervale didnt have that much of a population. Also travel became completely meaningless with PoK as you could get everywhere within a minute without using the old transport systems or a druid/wizard. I believe we should just get another pack of zones connected to Velious. What about a contested Sirens grotto and a contested Dragon necropolis. Those bring real nostalgic moments to me!
I actually liked PoK, I felt like it made the world more accessible to everyone. However, I don't see the need for it in EQ2 unless it was revamped to promote the social aspect of the game.
I didn't like PoK pretty much. I'm still neutral towards the raid progression and back-flagging of all raid members, but PoK definitely killed the size of the game. When I played EQ1 on the progression server, I really liked that PoK wasn't there at that time. The game felt huge again and travelling was meaningfull again. You thought twice of walking from Qeynos to Freeport - instead of just clicking on a portal stone. In EQ2 I don't even see any reason at all to have a kind of PoK. You can't share buffs anyways, like you did with KEI or SOW. And you have portals to go anywhere anyways, so what would be the point. To gather players? They will be in guildhalls anyways, so in the end the zone would just be completely empty.
PoP was the best expansion in the history of eq1. Well all except corivar, which I hope they never put in this game, god I hated that fight. Other than that it was a pretty epic expansion. I wish eq2 was more like eq1.
It's not really hard to travel without a guild anyway, not like the original EQ was before all the portals came in Theres a bell at every dock and if you need druid or wiz portals they are right down the beach in enchanted lands..
I'd love to have this expansion in EQ2, some of my best memories was from Plane of Fire, all the way up to Plane of Time.
I think PoP was the expansion that RUINED EQ1. 1. It made all of the other cities ghost towns. Having each race start in their own city, with things available to you that were not available to other races unless they worked REALLY hard on faction, gave race meaning and added a ton of flavor to the game. 2. It trivialized travel. One of the things that I remember most fondly was that it was an accomplishment to get to some areas. The world felt HUGE specifically because travel was something that you couldn't take lightly. 3. It ruined raiding. Before PoP creative tactics and solid gameplay were the name of the game, but in PoP raid mobs had so many HP that tactics alone wouldn't get the job done. The easiest way to take them down was to take 100+ people, so everything just became a zerg-fest. Even with the horrible lag from so many people zerging was still the best option. 4. It led to the collapse of guilds. Raiding guilds had to invite new members in an attempt to swell their numbers. More people = more personality clashes = more internal conflicts = guilds breaking up under the strain. I watched guild after guild fall apart, which led to... 5. It caused a rapid drop in server population as people quit the game in frustration. There were aspects of PoP that I really liked, but the overall impact to the game was devastating. People always complain every time an expansion is released for EQ2, but I find that so far I have always just given a sigh of relief, since I'm holding my breath in fear that it might be the PoP of EQ2 that ruins this game for good.
PoP killed EQ1 for me. I stopped playing midway through. As others have said, it completely destroyed the final vestiges of the feeling of a huge world by allowing instant teleportation anywhere. It's not needed in EQ2 because they've already killed the final vestiges of the feeling of a huge world with travel bells on every street corner and, if that's not enough, guild halls a button click away with travel bells, druid rings, wizard spires, etc. Why go to the trouble of making a huge world if you're just going to turn around and kill it. You might as well have a bunch of isolated standalone zones you reach from a lobby via menu. While there's a lot about the early days of both EQ1 and EQ2 which I didn't like, one thing I liked about both was that, when they first opened, the world felt huge (moreso in EQ1 since it wasn't divided into all it those stupid islands). Getting from point A to point B required planning and you weren't assured of making it if you were low level. Playing an Iksar soon after Kunark was great in that you were off in a whole seperate area and getting to the mainland was an accomplishment. I loved that and was sorry to see it go. In both games they then systematically started destroying that feeling of a huge world. When the last vestige was gone in EQ1 I lost all interest in playing. I've maintained some interest in EQ2 due to other things, but it would be better if travel weren't so easy.
I agree with Occam completely!!!! PoP ruined EQ1 for me for all the reasons he mentioned. I had three and half years invested in the game by then, but six months after PoP released, I quit the game and never went back. I still mourn the loss. Pre-PoP EQ was the best MMO I have ever played.
I remember it taking a long time to get anywhere and when I made an Iksar SK (Cazic Thule) I was always afraid I'd never make it or would lose my corpse or be attacked, something like that. There were moments of actual fear and that made it fun!
I honestly don't care about anyone outside of my own guild. That being said, guilds are, and have always been, an integral and intended part of EverQuest II. By remaining unguilded are you choosing to handicap yourself and should be prepared to accept the consequences for that choice. This is true of any gameplay decision.
