What is this Golden Path?

Powers wrote:

Well said!

I for one am happy to see the plan for the 'story teller' instead of going to NPC 3 to collect 7 roots and a gator hide for no real reason, as trival as it may seem having a reason to do something is important for some folks. I like the fact that it blends an element of role play (nothing against role players just not one meself) into the game when your leveling your toon. I'm getting the feeling we will be seeing a sense of 'reason to quest' instead of questing being a means (solely) to the end game.
Wrath Of A Tyrant, has shown us that something is in the works for both Freeport and Qeynos, while I'm sure that (for nothing else) game content that F and Q will be around in some form, I'm glad that we can see some evolution from these two powerful cities. After 5 years of play and seeing the exact same thing every single day, creates for me a want to avoid these same old tired areas. The very fact that EQ2 is in a state of evolution is a great thing for the players that have been around for a good deal of time. I'm one of those that believe if you've put in at least a year you've done your time and paid your dues, so you can come aboard with us old timers from beta and opening day .
I've been on the brink of burn out many a time in 5 years of play, what has been keeping me in game as of late are the revamps and expansions. The tough thing being both a completionist as well as a hardcore alt-a-holic is that I will burn a zone out (25 alts and 3 accounts I tend to play areas over and over). So bravo to the devs for keeping an eye on the older zones and giving them a GOOD reason to be revisited. A bigger bravo for the story teller to make going back all worth it. When the Achievement system started (remember completionist) I went oh great, more crap I have to do. I'm still going oh great more crap to do, but now it will at least have a link to the world and maybe provide a bit more entertainment to those 5,000 or so fed ex quests we all just love to do.

Since I worked my way through Gorowyn, I can comment a bit on the Golden Path.
First off, it can be a bit confusing on finding the people as some pop up after a certain level. But I can tell you there is one on Chtkori Island, 2 in Mok Rent, and one in Gorowyn itself that I found. There is some buggyness to the feathers and books showing up when you finish a task which I /bugged.
As for BBM ... holy cow.
Many of the NPCs are now situated either on the docks (as when you fly from Gorowyn you land there instead of that ramp) and more NPCs when you go up the stone ramp towards the gryphon tower. They removed the quest to use the tower though, which can save time I think.
I am so intrigued about finding more on this pirate booty quest (I have to be level 32 to start it >< ). Taking a break now and going through Neriak to see what Path I can find there.
I know you are still doing work on it, but looking good so far!

Sounds like....

DIABLO II

Well, I found no new paths in the Neriak area, though I did notice as a citizen of Gorowyn, I could not take ANY of the quests in Neriak (besides teleporter, citizenship change and writs) so I don't know what is up with that.
As for GFay ... new mount station areas, more quests (so look around!) ... some are buggy so can't really see everything yet.
Not bad!

The OP made "Golden Path" sound as attractive as eating golden snow.
"a better progression path" - I don't want one path. I want many different paths so that I can play many alts and get a different experience each time. Qeynos and Freeport do that well with their racial advisors. SF does it badly with very little choice of what quests to do. I have 5 toons at level 80. I don't want to do the same set of quests with all of them.
"a more guided experience through content" - it does need to be any more guided than it already is. The freedom to make my own choices is important. Quest hubs are already somewhat overdone.
"The Storyteller System will move players along through content that we feel will give them a fun and exciting experience." - That sounds horrible. I can make my own decisions as to what is fun. I know there is a lot of variation. For example some people might find battlegrounds fun, but it has no appeal to me. I don't want to pushed along what some designer thinks is the most fun path. It will almost certainly not be the most fun for me. Sure have a guided path for those that want it, but make sure there are plenty of other obvious options for those that do not. Note that what is fun for me depends partly on my mood. One of the things I have liked about EQ2 is that there have been options available to suit many moods.

I would expect all of this to be optional, so I can't imagine anyone being forced into linear game play if they don't wish to be. I chronomaged my mian and took her to BBM to see what the path was all about. What I found were Ironforge NPCs in the same place I was, the docks and griffon tower area, which completely made sense. The quests then show you the way to each of the next hubs, logical and helpful for anyone wanted to know where to go next. And trust me, read the level1 chat channel and there is constant questions on where to go next.
Talk to that pirate standing there and you get told what level you need to best experience the next zone, and which zone it is. Helpful again if you want to know the next level up after BBM might be SF.
I can't imagine Qeynos and Freeport will disappear. After all, where would the elves, half elves and humans start. Kelethin and Halas will not be logical replacements and we are not hearing about any elven starting cities. As for Freeport, I haven't heard anything about a ogre or troll home, have you? And they could keep on destroying that city, giving themselves a nice excuse for a revamp. I'm going to assume something along those lines.

Graymane-Dunedain wrote:

I still intend to hang around Freeport and Qeynos with my alts. In fact one just started "Kill 10 Rats" lol And Lucan has yet to return so I opt for the hope that something will be done for them.
Either way there is, in my opinion, a good story progression for both places. And you can pick up the Golden Path in BB. Maybe Nek and TS will be changed too. I don't know I haven't looked around there to much lately if things have changed.

Kiara Stated in another post that they will not be getting rid of whats there already, at least that's my take on what was said, Brenlo made some comments that were not the best choice of words.
Does that mean that Quest rewards in the Qeynos and Freeport starter hubs will be brought up to the same standards as the rest of the starter zones/quest hubs, or will they continue to be ignored?
I for one would like to see some love given to the old world content vs abandoning the content that is there. The overland zones could use a little danger added back to them, not a lot, but a little.

It would be awesome to get some kind of official response on this panic that is building about Qeynos and Freeport... Brenlo?

Ooh oh!
The Erudites finally get the Nexus chamber opened, only to unleash a devilish volatile void-infested gnomi-magicha thingie.. The DVV-IGM takes off into the sky, pops out of Ultera, goes into search and destroy mode, splits and smashes into outer Freeport and Qeynos, devastating the newb areas completely because they have the "highest known concentration of young innocence" (cough) but leaving the central cities intact.. And thus begins the rebuilding...
I can totally see that happening!
Sorry, my imagination ran off with me.. I love the Golden path, and I'm really looking forward to the Storyteller.

A big thumbs up from me!
I took my 80 troub (mentored to 65 then to 70 once we hit PoA) out with my brothers 60 warden to start the new quests in TT, he got 5 lvl's before we ended the night after we got our cloud mounts (I used chonomage and he joined me after I'd been out a while so he was not getting mentored exp from me) And before I finished the BS / BM quests my troub was 82 and had a couple AA's out of it!
I remember doing KoS back in the day and the endless searching and asking friends if they knew where more quests were... I spent way too much time just grinding in SoS for exp. The new quests are amazing and I know everyone new to the game or been around for years like me, will find it much more enjoyable in KoS at least! (haven't check any other zones yet)

Want a better newb experience? Give people a reason to group at lower levels. How many lower level characters go lfg all day and dont find anyone? It's an MMO peopel dont want to solo till 60's or greater, golden path or not, New players come thinking they will find other players to group with and meet. In general this does not happen for most new players. Instances at lower levels would help. The revamp of Kaladim is a great idea, we need more such things. Do like in eq1 did, make some of the newb instances hot zones with better exp and switch them around. All-in-all people need a reason to group.

The golden path is a very nice idea, well done SOE.
However I would like to see some more work going into the new Sentinels Fate zones immediately and adding sufficient solo content to allow a character to get to level 90. I can not understand why this has not been done. I would like the people at SOE to understand that not everyone is able to group often enough to progress their characters due to circumstances. My circumstances being looking after a young daughter every day all day, when it is impossible to group as it is not fair on the people I am grouping with for constant afk's, or my daughter as I am trying to share attention between game and her. Therefore I do NOT group when I have her, only solo quest. In addition I raid 3 nights a week after daughter in bed, therefore leaving only 2 nights of remaining 4, as other 2 nights I am socialising with the world (family and friends).

Brenlo wrote:

Are you going to clarify any of this or are we going to fumble around with our own guesses and misconcpetions?What do you mean by move away from Freeport/Qeynos? Last time something like this was said, Freeport lost early quests that helped define the city. From how this reads, you're talking removing the fun of burning people alive when you start the game. The overall concept sounds sound but parts like that are signs you may be going to far with it and it'd be good to know what's really going on before we get too worked up on our own.

how do you know when u are on the golden path. I have a toon in the TD starting area.

Carnak@Lucan DLere wrote:

There's nothing special to indicate you are on it. It's just a series of zones that have extremely tight content.

http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/The_Golden_Path

So it's not a path at all?
It's more or less a general grouping of quest giving npc's?
I have to admit I was a little excited hearing about a 'path' that would dictate a clear line of progression from start to
end-game....And a little disappointed to discover that it wasn't actually a path at all. I think 'Golden Grouping of NPC's'
would be a slightly more accurate description.
Why church it up? Putting frosting on a turd (no matter how delicious that frosting might be) doesn't make it a cupcake.

It was mentioned in a podcast and the community grasped that phrase and won't let it go! Reading Brenlo's post, I'm inclined to think it was what it was called in the dev workroom and it kinda stuck.
If you get to Butcherblock Mountains there is a new signature quest that does rather hold your hand up through the 70's

Still waiting for an official response to the whole Qeynos/Freeport confusion.

C'mon, guys!