Disappointed in Skyshrine

As a ventran of the original Everquest, I have to say I'm disappointed in the latest update called "Skyshrine." For those that remember and for those who do not, in Everquest 1, Skyshrine was a 7 story metropolis inhabited by Lord Yelnik. It was so big that the hallways could fit 2 full sized dragon side-by-side. Skyshrine was truly a city for the dragons and after the Sleeper was awakened, more and more dragons inhabited Skyshrine. I remember taking full raiding parties into this city and spending hours dungeon crawling all 7 levels to get to the top teir where Lord Yelnik awaited us. It was Awesome!
I'm not sure what the developers had in mind calling this latest "city" Skyshrine as it resembles NOTHING like the original. Was it in their heads that they wanted to continue with DoV and the next logical step was Skyshrine? Considering what they died with Kael-Drakkel and Thurgadin I had high hopes for Skyshrine. Kael and Thurgadin are incredible recreations of the original. To me Skyshrine seems to be rushed, under-developed and quite unsatisfying. Maybe there will be a new update that will allow us to go into the full city of Skyshrine as it is supposed to look..who knows?
For future updates, whether or not the developers will complete the DoV storyline, there are four more zones that are not yet part of EQ 2. They are:
- Colbalt Scars - The original home of the Othmir linked directly to Skyshrine.
- Siren's Grotto - Home of the nasty Siren's
- Western Wastes - You thought the Eastern Wastes were nasty with Giants everywhere? Try a zone equally as bit inhabited by dragons!
- Temple of Veeshan - Ancestral home to the Dragons. This enormous Temple had three zones. The Halls of Testing which allowed adventurers to hunt freely without fear of faction lost as they pitted their nerve and bravery against the biggest of wurms and drakes. The West Wing where people who were allied with the dragons could venture freely without fear of attack. Finally the north side where the Guardians of Veeshan reside. Dragons that do not accept ANY in their midst who are not of dragonkind. Adventures needed to have enormous raids to even contemplate entering here and challenging the dragons themselves on their own sacred ground. Dragons with names like, Ymmeln, Dozekar The Cursed, Grozzmel and of course Lord Vulak were names to fear and only the greatest of adventurers ever exited this place alive.

I hope the developers bring in these four zones to DoV 3 and do them all justice, hell I'd even be willing to pay for a full expansion if they did it right. Imagine the instance, solo and group you could have in the Halls of Testing. The full raid zones of the Guardians of Veeshan. I shudder to think how it could be but alas, I am worried it will only be a pipe dream.

To their credit, I did notice the other night when looking straight up in the middle of SS that the ceiling is VERY far up. I wondered to myself when I would be able to adventure up there. In addition to your complaints, I find Skyshrine disappointing because: Run UD. Get head. Rinse. Repeat. Occasional HM group and the accursed random tell, "hey man can you help me with my contested/CD/Lyc/DP updates?!"

With the original Skyshrine it was so large you literally have 12 groups in there and never see another group. I'm hoping they will continue the expansion. This current one is interesting don't get me wrong, I love the Merc aspect and I'm sure you'll see it expand in future expansions and updates for content of Soloing. I forgot to add two more zones in Velious that I wish they would add as well:
- Plane of Growth - Tunare's realm!
- Plane of Mischief - Sure it wasn't really a raid zone but it was fun with all it's puzzles and tricks you had to figure out AND it was only accessible through the Temple of Veeshan!

I guess my point is if you are going to call something "Skyshrine" don't make it a one level, 3 segmented zone.. sheesh call it something else like Outer Skyshrine or something

Oh How could i forget Dragon Necropolis too!

Vaague wrote:

do you seriously expect developers here to look at a zone from EQ that they want to port here in EQ2 and make them so similar that it is bland? You also have the remeber with the spilt in the timeline can also affect places as well as charaters anyway who's to say shrine is a one-level city? jsut because you can currently only see and access one level doesn't make it a one level city.
Also remeber that the citizens of said city can fly meaning the high ceiling is basically like footpaths to them they could fly up to a second level or a level halfway between floors accessed high up on a wall.

You are correct, there could be more levels in the future and that is fine, but i'm not holding my breath. While I agree that there should be some difference between the older EQ1 days and the zones in EQ2 timeline, I really think in this particular expansion they just threw a bunch of stuff together that focused more around the solo instances and mercs than actual content. Skyshrine is one of those infamous places like Kael, Thurgadin and Temple of Veeshan. It was so important in DoV because that was where you turned in all your dragon faction items.

I remember Skyshrine as an annoying-huge, mostly-wasted zone with a bunch of filler NPCs, a few minor quests, and exactly one valuable contested raid target (Yelinak). Velious era was the height of EQ1 (in my opinion) and I don't think I ever saw anybody go into Skyshrine except to kill Yelinak. Most of that zone was a waste of art assets.
EQ1 had a bunch of massive zones with almost nothing of note in them. EQ2 decided to avoid that pitfall by making zones with very high content density, thereby ensuring that everything they bothered to put in the zone actually gets used. There is no reason to create a zone that takes 30min to run through if the only thing people spend any time doing in that zone is running through it.
Now, I agree that Skyshrine didn't introduce nearly enough content to make up for all the content the items from Skyshrine rendered obsolete, but that is really more of an itemization problem than a zone problem. Skyshrine would have been a perfectly good addition to Velious if it were actually an addition, not a replacement.
At least Skyshrine is made up of mostly new art assets. We've had entire expansions like Kingdom of Sky, wherein all the overland areas are merely recolored sections of existing zones, and every dungeon uses the same two layouts.

Oh man I remember when KOS came out and there was an uproar of threads about how the recycled art assets from DoF, Feerott ect.

Speaking of Skyshrine. You have to remember, we're in a Post-Apocalyptic Norrath. Skyshrine was probably rebuilt since Velious was the third most damaged continent with the majority of its icy continent melted away along with half of the continent being lifted up. Yelnak fled since then to Thurgadin. Out of the four crusader dragons from the original SS, only two survive, one being Grendish who you fight in the HM challenge of Dozekar. The other being faithful to Yelnak. Literally no reason to make it bigger then it actually is. And you're forgetting the underdepths which make up of 3 levels as well, that's part of skyshrine.
Sirens Grotto- Will mostly likely be part of an overland zone merged with Colbalt Scar or an instance zone. Probably will be a set like TOFS/Kael/Rime instances were with DoV launch. And since the western half of Velious has been lifted up into the skies, it's probable that its completely different.
Colbalt Scar - It was too small in EQ1 with not much to do compared to the other overland zones. My best guess is that it will probably merged with either Western Wastes, Siren's Grotto, or possibly both just as the remains of Iceclad Ocean was with Great Divide. I wouldn't be surprised though if the remains are called Colbalt Cliffs due to the western half of velious being risen into the skies.
Temple of Veeshan - Majority of its known names in EQ1 act as the front of the invading force of SS such as Arreken Skyward, Dargarn, Ikitar The Venom, Malteor Flamecaller, Theldek The Stinger. Others like Lord Vyemm have already met their demise in Kingdom of Sky. And then there's Lady Mirenilla who's an NPC in Witherlands who's part of the solo quest timeline. Whatever is the case, Temple of Veeshan is now the main HQ of Kerafyrm.
Western Wastes: Honvar is now located in Witherlands as an X2 raid mob. Harla Dar was part of the Cult of the Awakened who was killed in Kingdom of Sky expansion. WW will probably will be a merged overland zone along with Colbalt Scar.
Woushi - If you're new to eq2, and wonder where Woushi is, well he's been dead for quite a while, he moved to Faydwer and was end game back during Echoes of Faydwer.
Plane Of Growth: Most likely will appear in Lesser Faydark then in Wakening Lands now since the flower of growth has moved there.
Plane of Mischief: I have no clue, probably a raid zone in the near distant future.

Whatever this guspansion was, it has no resemblance what so ever to skyshrine. I don't know what it is exactly, but it for sure isn't the skyshrine I know.

Ulrichvon wrote:

Again, Skyshrine was most likely destroyed during the render/shattering (age of Cataclysm). What you see now is likely the rebuilt Skyshrine.

I loved Skyshrine in SoV. It was one of the best places to grind Giant faction by killing the dragons. Also because it was so huge it was hardly ever contested. Was there wasted space? Yes, I will accept that .. I mean the maze was a complete waste of time, but also remember when it came out mounts were just starting in the game so it took a long time to get anywhere.

I agree also that Colbalt Scar, Siren's Grotto and Western Wastes will probably be one giant zone, which is fine with me, altho if there was really a waste of space it was Siren's grotto. I think i EXP'd in there once and only ventured in there a couple times for quest items and to be called from one end to the other when we were travelling to Western Wastes. I had a perma character set on the far end to call raid folks from one end to another. HEH.

Halo of G4 wrote:

Which is a conveniant excuse any time something is greatly downsized in EQ2.

I do not think skyshrine was destroyed in the cataclysm. Check out what Yelinak says in the fallen swords quest line.
While I like the current skyshrine, I agree that it should be called something else. This is a city for humanoids, not dragons. Perhaps it is the droag foreign quarter, to draw a parallel with Neriak. It is also too small for a contested zone, mostly due to being so compact. I like how parts are compacted into a small area, but the whole thing is compacted, and it's perhaps a bit much to do that and expect the zone to support multiple groups. Sanctum of Scaleborn felt much bigger, although it probably had fewer mobs and fewer named.

Ulrichvon wrote:

Then go back to playing EQ1 if you don't like it. The size of Skyshrine was big enough for the content distributed for the zones (including UD). I rather not have to grind through trash in giant bland generic halls over and over just to kill a few names.
You can call it a 'conveniant excuse', but this isn't a new idea, it's been around since the start of EQ2. Most of Norrath was destroyed during the Age of Cataclysm. Take a look at Sol Eye, Does that look anywhere close to EQ1's? Or how about Runnyeye, Blackburrow, or Permafrost? Blackburrow and Runnyeye were completely destroyed. Qeynos and Freeport were rebuilt (North Freeport in EQ1 is now the graveyard in Freeports yards). Skyshrine, among many of the lands of EQ2 are no different. Infact, the way the lore put it out at the beginning, it's a suprise how intact Velious is.

Enrico@Permafrost wrote:

Actually, the city's architecture shows it was made for droags, drakes, wyverns ect, or rather the servants of the dragons. Droags are as 'foreign' as drakes or wurms. They act as the primary force for all dragon factions. The Underdepths is where Yelnak along with his crusaders use to reside, that is the primary dragon esque part of Skyshrine. The large hallways including the giant tunnel system shows that. But of course you don't see any of the dragon crusaders because two of them are dead, and the other two are fighting at the bottom. And then Dozekar swoops right in that large cavern tunnel by the time you reach the end of UD.

I like what they did with Unrest

I'd enjoy seeing more stuff like that when creating zones from EQ1 to EQ2. Similar, but a little different, with gorgeous new graphics.

Mohee wrote:

If I didn't have to repeat the quests / puzzles in there in subsequent visits I would whole-heartedly agree with you.
Nek Castle, the first time thru is still IMO one of the best experiences in eq2. However, zones like this have much less replay enjoyment and have a very high cost of development.

Are you making things up or do you actually know a 'high cost development' was put into Nek Castle? It was a small castle with quest access inside.
I made something like that in a group project for NWN2 years back in a games and simulation class in college...

well lets clear up a few misconceptions and some stated facts lorewise we have.
1. the city we are in, in this gu setup, is NOT skyshrine. it's Dracur. this is the city for the servants of the dragons that reside in Skyshrine, that has been cut off from them due to a still ongoing battle in the dragon city itself.
2. Dozekar was the Hall of Testing endboss. his Curse was to be murdered by lesser beings and then rezzed by the dragon priests for the rest of time, as dragons are apparently true immortals as far as time is concerned. (it's also all but flat out stated that Doze is Kera's dad.)
3. the Western Wastes is gone. destroyed. Kerafyrm sacked ToV, and then had his dragons destory the western wastes to help prevent Skyshrine from attempting to contest his claim. it's mentioned inteh book the loss of the western wastes, that you get during the access quest line. it also states that many of Skyshrine's defenders and young were killed in the collapse of that part of the continent.
4. Grendish did betray the Crusaders, the only dragons, as a group, that Kera had any real concern over dealing with. two are dead, one is critically wounded last we heard. I don't think they sya if she escaped and Grendish comes back to help deal with us, or if Grendish finished her off.
5. the Underdepths MAY be in skyshrine itself, at lower levels of the area. Dozekar is the dragon leading the Skyshrine assault...or it maybe Dozekar is enjoying the spoils of the all but complete conquest of Dracur and the Underdepths is part of that city.
the Upheaval seems to be Dragon work, as well as the 'corruption' of the Withered lands...the dragons doing both to keep Kael at bay...considering it's warmachine apparently grew exponentially stronger once Tunare's influence was taken from the wakening lands.
so we probably will see Skyshrine itself at some point. as well as the cobalt scar and sirens grotto. but WW and probably the dragon necropolis are gone. and ToV will probably reamain out of our reach until the final showdown with Kerafyrm.
the Bloom of Growth in the emerald halls died. the same necro that requested woushi's heart destroyed it. in fact the heritage quest for the druid sword in DoV is about finding a seed and giving Fironia the means to grow a new Bloom. so we may as of yet see a link into PoG...wherever Fironia decides to plant it.
considering were Mischief was, and who runs ToV now, if we do see PoM it probably won't be for a long while yet...unless Bristlebane moves the gateway.

Ah thanks Rainmare for clearing that up. I guess that clears up everything with WW hahaha.