Please lets Revamp Qeynos and Freeport!

Game came out in 2004, it is 2009, if the in game clock has been running at 72 mins for a day and the Norrath Year is not too disimilar to an Earth Year in terms of number of days, then at 20 times real life speed, it has almost been 100 Norrath years come November 2009.
Look at real world cities, even in a decade their sky lines change dramatically especially if they are thriving hubs of life, of which, Freeport and Qeynos is no exception.
I agree with the OP in general, plus make Freeport beautiful but intimidating/sinister at the same time, right now its just dreary, there are plenty of examples in the real world where vicious nasty cultures through out the ages have managed to come up with some good architecture.
That said I'd like for both cities to merge all the suburbs and four main central zones into one mega zone, that includes the quest areas like peat bog, caves, the sprawl, sunken city etc. I'd still suggest keeping a couple of the tradeskill instances when doing the merge, no need for six of them, they all look the same apart from the npc's.
Then the two main cities would be on par with the likes of Kelethin sans the bothersome topgraphy, may want to put mount points like you have loping plains as it is a fairly big area to navigate if were to all be merged into one big zone and it would not be out of place in a city to have taxi/bus services!
Freeport tinker monorail in '09! j/k

With all of the outside threats, I would't mind seeing a Freeport Embassy in Qeynos and a Qeynos one in Freeport. On the surface it is to handle trade, Freeport Beef for Qeynos Crops, and also to address issues such as the void etc.

Set it up, so that the outside the gate guards are nonaggro (They have their orders) but those inside are aggro. this can also be uses for Spy/currior missions breaking into another city to deliver a note.....

Starack wrote:

True, except the in-game clock/calendar is completely fluff / useless
I disagree with merging the adventure zones into one large one *with* the cities. Them (and the 'hoods) are ok, just need some updated dialog. It's really the main city zones that could use merging, since they're already mostly empty and getting around requires a good bit of zoning, even with the bells.

P.S. Can Maj'Dul get updated as well to meet the standards of the other cities in the way of ammenities and such?

reading the gripes about FP and Q just make me all the more happy that i live in Neriak and my alts are in Kelethin... though my alts see about as much play time as a woman stands up to go to the bathroom.

This (revamp) should be done. I'd say make a lot more interesting nooks, crannies, roof paths (ladders/planks/jumps/skyscrapers), and seamless exteriors/interiors with map-based quest triggers that offer novel rewards, such as global or residential pets, particle effects, totem/remedy consolidating pouches, or unique frog/rat mounts that travel at 55%. Seamless interiors/exteriors would translate to more usable doors and inside space.

Luinne@Kithicor wrote:

What makes you think Neriak gets off scott free (BTW the houses are in line for a revamp) I miss the Blind Fish and the Strip club from EQ1. It's all Vamp Bars now! :þ

It always did strike me as odd that the burrows never seemed to get any better. I remember a quest that had you speak to a ship builder in Qeynos Harbor, he said something along the lines of the city simply pays him to not make ships. Perhaps that lumber could be put to better use?
EDIT: I found the quest Her People

That sounds wierd.
Too bad they can't treat the "ship" being built as a progresive non aggro attackable Mob that is rooted (unable to pivot either) or a Node that is not harvestable.

Kaisha@Permafrost wrote:

the statue still talks about deseise because the voice actor is no longer available

* I would like to see abit more paint on the buildings in Freeport..and the trees to get leaves again. Freeports layout is great...alot more fun to run around in than Qeynos.

* I would like Qeynos harbour to get ships coming in and out...small and big boats.
* I would like mailmen comming to each mailbox and collect the mail in the cities..so you dont have to zone each time.
* I want to see Lucan and Antonia walk the streets abit more.
* Make all cities into ONE BIG place...like greater faydark...Kylong Plains.
* Put a small boatride into the canal by the bells in the smaller cities..so you can go on a small ride watching the city parts...abit like riding the big ship between butcherblock and round and around. or similar to the small trains you can take a ride on in places like Gran Canaria
* Put usefull bells in Eldar Grove..and also Inns.
* Please make Nathan spankable atleast *extra imoprtant*
* Give the option to OPEN all doors..there are far to many locked doors.
* Give the merchants in the cities more use..sell more furnitures..atleast elm and maple items...abit like in the old days. T1 and T2 carpenter stuff...and T1 and T2 clothings...more fancy items are made by player-carpenters.
* Create a Bakery ... one day in the month they sell their special bread..made for adventurers....( cant be made by players )...tankbread...healerbread...and so on. Max 20 loafs / player = 1 stack...duration 30 min. NO TRADE !!

I would like it if they somewhat condensed the existing zones while opening up instancing earlier on when zones get crowded with more than say 40 people. Right now we have these huge....absolutely massive zones that take long to load yet the majority of the zone is simply not used at all, it just makes for more busywork/fruitless running about and unneeded loading. I mean do we really need multiple npc vendors in the various zones that sell the exact same things that will never be bought by players? I've long since moved out of the original cities in favor of Gorowyn, I mean it is smaller, and still has everything one would need for a functioning city. No need to run from zone to zone for even the simplest thing.

Verrie77 wrote:

I did read on the ZAM developer chat logs that Brenlo and the team said about making the cities into an adventure zone, really not sure if they were serious here as they joked about destroying them, but it sounds like something could happen with them.
Me personally I'd like to see some way of joining up each of the cities with the outlying villages, then as they say adding in more to do in the zones, making them feel more seamless would be an instant improvement to them, right now they are very beautiful to me, yet a bit neglected. Expanding the world map and adding paths to the various hamlets would really add in something special to the zones.
I guess the downside to redoing them is that you end up replacing the old content when you could alternatively spend the same sort of time creating completely brand new content. I'd say though balanced against that seeing that the cities now do very little for new players anyway then it would be good in a future update to improve them and make them relevant content without actually expanding the game world physically.

Zabjade wrote:

This is something I'd like to see, I'd happily put up with another 20-30 seconds wait transporting around if it meant having a ship sailing in to jump on, the bells as they are work but feel too functional.
I actually could even put up with a longer wait really, especially for bigger journeys.

MurFalad wrote:

It's a joke. Having the cities be actual adventuring zones would not only be silly but would require moving a huge amount of content.

Alot of ideas here seem to go off into another world of MMO's. So ill add some more.
I would like to see changes in seasons. Trees leaves change color, weather being more dynamic, PC interaction with the enviroment instead of just standing around. Isle of Mara type PC's running around etc. Sinking sands carpets that fly off to a Dervish ship in the distance. Boats on the docks and loading screens showing travel your npc or the ship traveling.

At some point they removed a lot of fluff npc's from the cities to improve laggyness. With Guild Halls they could now be put back to compensate for the fact that there are no players in the cities anymore.

Since launch I have wished for a less shabby place to spend my time, it really is quite dreary.
Seeing it revamped and polished would really make me happy, especailly if it is a world event for us to participate in.
But even if it is just a remoldeling that the devs do I would welcome it.

I know I would like to see more snow drifts come Frostfell up until E-Day. They can even use the flora graphics from Everfrost (mini-snow drifts) and add in the wet look from rain and a little fog.