Shard of Love and the fate of Erollisi Marr

Rainmare@Oasis wrote:

Fair enough, though i was just going by what people had told me (if he comes back we all die, then again the pantheon might want us to think that). Either way, it seems this is leading to a climax, and what happens after this will be "new" (hopefully)

From my own view on lore of powerful god magics and stuff, if a god actually dies, wouldn't that mean their plane would fall apart and disolve? The fact the plane still exists, tells me that erolissi is possibly still alive but not able to tend to her plane because of whatever happened to her. From stories i read on ancient greek gods and mythology, their planes usually reflect how they feel. if they are in a bad mood, their plane will feel it. The ground may shake, buildings crumble, exc...

Eschia@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Actually having shards of a plane show up indicates that the diety in question is having trouble maintaining their own plane of existance and they have lost control over that section. All of the dieties did this at the beginning of the 500 years between EQ1 and EQ2 in an attempt to "fix" things.
Having a shard show up isn't a good or bad indication. Having it replay the dieties defeat over and over again...yeah.
Also the planes are linked more to the ideal they represent than the diety itself. When Rodcet Knife was installed as the new Prime Healer he probably didn't have to reform a new Plane of Health, but rather probably had to work on eliminating the undead influence the prior diety had created. He also probably tailored section of it to reflect his own desires. The plane probably wouldn't of changed without his direct attention and action.
Also it might be possible for one diety to directly challenge another diety and subvert a portion of that god's plane to add to their own. Possibly even severing its "physical" link with the rest of the plane.

Okay, all right ... it's fine we, as the characters, are being lied to, manipulated, pushed one way to another, and all ... just for the sake of the story if such.
Yes, it is a game where we are going out and kill creatures and sentient beings for the purpose of experience advancement.
Only thing is ... there is a little bit in myself that would like there to be a little bit of sunlight (or whatever) in these doom-and-gloom thing that are going all around us. Current plot is a major doom-and-gloom over last few years since the Fate of Norrath started and the Void's portion not going to end until after next year and after that, it'll be more of we've been experiencing since then.
So even if it's the return of Erollisi to be that ray of light, it will be fine and good, which was this is about after all.

Eandiil@Lucan DLere wrote:

You mean how VP was a complete waste of a raid zone? It wasn't even a good idea or a novel concept, it's just a wasted space. How about they actually make real raid progressions for once? You know, how you do a zone and then move to the next, and then after you complete the second you move on to the third, which maybe there's like two raid zones for the third tier! and then you know, do an even harder tier of zones, not just bosses. The entire freaking zone is harder than the last tiers' boss mobs.

I know it's such a hard concept for them to wrap their heads around, but I still have faith maybe they won't completely flub an entire expansion's raid progression for the third time in a row. Also the concept of trash being, trash...

WTB NOT CLEARING TRASH FOR 3 HOURS TO GET TO AN HOUR OF NAMED CONTENT, PRE FIRST-KILLS. HEREGO THREE HOURS OF CLEARING TRASH FOR 20 MINUTES OF NAMED KILLING THE NEXT RUN. FFS, did people forget what trash is? It shouldn't even be a chance to parse because the mobs should go down within 30 seconds, every tier. Trash was always meant to be an annoyance, but moreso stuff you had to clear to make sure it was down and wouldn't aggro your named pull. Never were trash mobs in raid content meant to be sought after for any reason other than getting them out of the way, certainly not for loot (SoH... die in a fire plskthx).

Get rid of easy mode 2010!

Personally, if it wasn't for the 'trash drops' in SoH...I know several people that would have never even set foot in that zone. they'd have made sure to be 'absent' those raid days, becuase the few items of loot the named dropped they wanted (or could use) were so insanely rare as to be nearly pointless. (for us, this would be things like the Hood of dark dealings, marrowsong, priest shield, rune etched helm)
and you obviously either never played EQ1...or never set foot in Vex Thall for trash. not only in Vex Thall was all the trash like Palace...but all the trash when it died spawned a shade so every trash mob you had to actually kill twice.
VP was like it was in EQ1 for it's general layout. and do tell why do you think it was wasted space? the travel between the dragons and such? the fact you had to clear a wing at a time? what?
okay...really now. the entire zone is harder then the last tier's boss. so...tell me. how would you like to make Levi trash harder/more complicated the Venril, for example.
Or lets see..Gynok has mana drains, dispells, deathtouch...so you want the trash in say..Palace, to be harder then Gynok. so you want Trash that can be nastier then a mob that DTs?
or heck...how about this. lets say Xebnok is the final boss in tombs, as he stands. you know what kills most raid attempts on him? 2 things. Tank iresistable/incurable charm...and the instant raid wipe from not killing adds fast enough.
so by your logic...that would mean the palace trash (the next Tier up general zone wise) would need to be able to have a raid wiping fail script and at least probably a tanker iresistabe/incurable charm.

of course right after that, it's trash should be trash...nto last longer then 30 seconds. then the whole zone obviously isn't tougher then the previous tier boss, is it.

Charming@Mistmoore wrote:

I know it is such a hard concept to wrap raiders heads around but, 5% of the population is NOT going to get even 25% of the total cost of an expainsion... that is called bad economics. So you have choice go in to carbon copy zones, where the Raid zone litterally is the exsact same zone as some other group zone, just with differant MoBs, or you can get totally unque zones that the devs figure out some what to allow a larger percentage of the population into it and give them the ablity to defeat it... enter the new Selectable difficulty system coming soon to most if not all future raids.
This SHOULD allow, True progression(just not in differant zones), the ablity for more people to complete the zone, and not only give bragging rights to the top end raiders, but give the lower end raider a glimps of why they deserve those rights.
The way it will work is by some Lore means you will select what or how to fight a creature, and based on your selection the indivisual fights will be Easy/Normal/Hard, with loot tables comserate with the difficulty.
For exsample, say they do this with Naggy, For easy mode you might say challange him to a fair battle, Naggy just laughs at you and sends his Giant servant in to fight you and backs off... For Normal Mode, I don't know say you just attack him head on and don't even try to talk to him... this time the Giant servent steps in to protect Naggy, and every so offten Naggy lends a hand... for Hard mode say you insult Naggy's Mom, that gets him to attack you himself, with the assistance of the Giant Servent. All 3 modes would beat the zone, but only the ones who fought on Hard mode can say they beat Naggy.

I just wanted to chime in... Even though my character is evil, I do hope that Erollisi makes it out okay at some point in EQ2's future and we can see a pretty version of the plane. Aurelis doesn't care much for prettiness, but egads, I'm so tired of dreary, ugly zones. Oakmyst Forest is my favorite zone. I just claim Aure is "keeping an eye on Qeynos" or something. d: I absolutely dread going to Moors because it's so... ... dreadful. Then again, the Faydwer expansion added some pretty zones, but they give me a headache to navigate. *lol* I just want sunshine, bright green grass -- things made of prettiness (e.g., pink butterflies with hearts for wings, little heart tornadoes, bright happy canaries...)!
I'm an embarrassment to my poor necro girly.

as far as looks on places like the Moors....there's really only so much you can do to try and make a swamp look 'pretty' and still be a swamp.
My hope is that the Shard of Love will have a romantic park/lakeside getaway feel to it...even hough some buildies are obviously damaged.
I however, don't want to see buterflies with heart shaped pink wings, tenderheart carebears, heart tornadoes or things like that.
gotta remember that Erollisi is also Goddess of the Hunt. so I'll expect stags, does, grizzly bears, things of that nature.

Rainmare@Oasis wrote:

hehe - I was exaggerating out of desperation. Though I would like to see those butterflies.

The lore has been getting darker for quite a while... and if you ask me, the void invasion represents almost the deepest part of the 'night' that Norrath is going through. The fate of Norrath as whole will be inextricably tied with the fate of Odus this next expansion... I have a feeling that Sentinel's Fate is going to wrap up the Void storyline and sort of represent the climax, or the deepest part of the night (to keep the metaphor going). I have a feeling it's going to be a situation where the lore has Norrath at a tipping point with the player's actions (ie the lore for the expansion / zone progressions) tip the scale back towards the light.
As for Erollisi Marr and the Shard of Love... I have a feeling she is gone; probably not "dead," but at least somehow incapacitated or imprisoned. I think the Shard of Love itself will be sort of a battlefield that tells her tale (of her imprisonment or whatever it may be). It'll likely be a heroic zone (Did Cronyn say that at Fan Faire? I thought one of the Devs did but there was so much it kind of blends together), and I hope it's chock full of lore and not just the usual grind.
I echo some of the earlier comments in this thread about some of the zones (especially raid zones!) being grinds and having little lore. For it's size, I wish VP was more than just killables. Yeah, you have Trakanon with the prophecy of Ellizerain and that whole lore arc, but in VP itself there is pretty much nada. I'd like to see some of the new raid zones they put in have more lore to them... Ward of Elements was a small start in that direction perhaps, at least there is an obvious progression and you have Najena giving you little 'hints' along the way (although I think the projections should change once the mob is dead... its kind of silly to have her 'speaking' to you about something you've already killed, unless it was somehow a recording).

Lord_Ebon wrote:

E-Day back in February revealed that Innoruuk is responsible for whatever happened to her, but she is not dead.
I hope the devs realize that this will be the first time that the Plane of Love and possibly Erollisi Marr (except for her old plane of Mischief puppet) will be put into Everquest. We as players will be exploring it for the first time ever. I think that alone means that it should be a zone where anyone can access. If it's a raid zone, I'm gonna be pissed. If it's a heroic zone, I'm gonna be pissed because more than likely they will make it too hard for Monks to tank, and you will need your mythical epic to stand half a chance.. Just like Kor'Sha. Still waiting to go into that zone for the first time.

Cusashorn wrote:

If its just people seeing it and walk around there is no reason they cannot have a single up zone for it related to some sort of quest, kind of like how you could go into EH while doing the growth diety quest. It sucks you can't get into a group doing Korsha but maybe instead of tanking it you can join a group in a support role, or perhaps you can just get someone to let you in the cleared instance so you can walk around and enjoy.

Agreed. One thing I think they could use a lot more often (to satisfy folks love of lore) would be to make the zones at least partially progressable without killing anything. IE make the mobs in the zone non-KoS, but require that you kill them or they add on the nameds so that players still have to kill them. Like Evernight Abbey, where you 'become' a vampire at the end... only make a whole zone on that premise so folks can at least get in and take a look.

if Erollisi was in charge, I'd agree. but she's not. so I imagine the forces of Hate or Betrayal or what have you are in there as enemies/fortification.
gotta remember Mith Marr has probably sent aid to his sister, or tried getting to her himself. or her other allies. so there's gotta be something there stopping them from freeing Erollisi.
but it would be nice to have a solo/group/raid version with different rewards for doing the different versions.

New Deity is incoming with GU53, Erollisi Marr, as well as new zone, The Shard of Love.-This was info from first days of ff.
Also, devs told that we'll have 2 x4 raid zonez before expansion and one of it will be in GU53.
So, imo, SoL is raid zone and we'll free\rescuire Erollisi, first guild to clear bla bla bla will unlock her etc

Arabani wrote:

Even I wouldn't jump to such a conclusion like that.

Arabani wrote:

The only word I remember of new dieties at FanFaire was "no." I admit I don't recall if this was in answer specifically to Sentinel's Fate or for all time between now and Sentinel's Fate, but I don't expect a new diety any time soon.
The 4x raid zone coming with GU53 is Miragul's Plane of Shard.

edit: realized my language was a bit offensive...

miragul's 'plane of shard'? wtf?
if miragul is still alive (so to speak) in lich form, he's hardly one that has his own 'plane'. he's not a deity...or even has anything that says he ascended to such.
he corrupted the Eternal Prism to use as a phylactery, sure. So I can imagine a raid zone to finish what we started in purging him from it. but I seriously doubt the prism is a Plane unto itself.

miragul's body might be around as a lich, but his soul went and accended. the zones in EF seem like left overs as well.
and its planier shard. i think. not plane of