I was musing over how quiet some of the zones in Norrath are and reminiscing over how much fun was had when the Dev Team took our suggestions for the Progression Servers in EQ and made them a reality when an interesting and epic idea came to mind. This idea would involve players into an event that would be so epic in scale that it would take months to complete while not requiring too much programming from the Dev Team. I will leave the rewards for completing this epic quest timeline up to the Devs but I would recommend something on a very grand scale. (Much bigger than the 5,000,000 status of the Newsies Quest.) This Epic Quest Timeline would require players to create a brand new level one character to receive the quest. Once on the quest, that character could not be mentored or gain experience from collections. Experience potions would be of limited use because characters on this quest timeline would be unable to advance in levels without completing each step of the quest. This Epic Quest Timeline would require players to complete quest timelines in each zone in the game order to receive enough points or tokens to advance to the next set of zones. A character could earn single tokens or point rewards solo or receive a larger token or point reward for completing a group or raid instance in a particular zone. This would encourage grouping for those wishing to advance through the Epic Quest Timeline faster but would not make it impossible for those characters preferring solo play to participate as well. If the Dev Team wanted to make things more interesting, every single existing quest in each zone could be given a point or token value as a part of this Epic Quest Timeline. Rewards could be offered for purchase by players to encourage players to earn more tokens than the number needed to advance. The post below outlines how this Epic Quest Timeline would start.
An example of this Epic Quest Timeline would work as follows. A player would create a level one character in any starter zone and be given the opportunity to receive the Epic Quest Challenge. The character would receive points or tokens for completing each quest in the starter quest timeline, which would end with the character being level 20 at which point the character spend the points or tokens to receive the next Epic Timeline quest and advance to the next zone depending on alignment. For example, if a character started in the Darklight Woods, that character would work to complete all of the quests on the timeline to earn enough tokens to advance to the next level zone, Nektolus Forest. In Nektolus Forest, the character would either complete the signature quest timeline to earn the points to advance to the Butcherblock Mountains where he or she would encounter players of both alignments working to earn points. Once in the Butcherblock Mountains, the character would need to earn enough points or tokens to advance to either the Enchanted Lands or Zek. A character would be required to earn points or tokens from both zones to advance to the next set of zones. This progression would continue until a character will have adventured in every single zone in Norrath. While a character would have to suffer through being level locked if he or she reached max level for the zone, a player would also be guaranteed a reward of enough experience to be the minimum level for the next zone if he or she somehow managed to earn enough points or tokens to advance to the next zone without reaching the minimum level. The end result of this Epic Quest Timeline progression would result in the character being level 100 and with whatever awesome rewards the Dev Team could dream up.
While it would be interesting to include crafting as a part of this Epic Quest Timeline, since some players find that tedious, it might be better to include it only as an option to earn bonus tokens or points but only for the Tradeskill timeline quests included for that zone. The reasoning is that a player should not be able to craft his or her way through the Epic Quest Timeline without any adventuring. The whole point is to give players a reason to experience each and every zone in the game and visit as many instances as possible. I realize that I could simply create a level one character and do this as a solo experience without any Dev involvement. However, that would not encourage any other players to group with me in old zones and I cannot program the game to offer me an awesome reward package for completing this Epic Quest Timeline Challenge. This idea should be interesting to the Dev Team as it would be an excellent way to recycle existing content and would involve players in learning more of the old lore of the game, similar to the experience that EQ players had with the Progression Servers. It could spark a level of competition among us players to be the first ones to complete the challenge and if the number of players who logged in to receive the Newsies quest is any indication of how interested players are in large status rewards, the Dev Team could have a gold mine of an idea that would get lots of mileage.
This is a friggin awesome idea! Considering how much work I have seen some volunteer coders do on a certain emulator on their spare time, putting this together should be a cakewalk.
