I used to play the game a bit back in 2006, my last expansion being the Echoes of Faydwer. I reinstalled the game for nostalgic purposes and went in pretty confused. Why didn't I start on a boat? Why didn't I go to the Isle of Refuge in the beginning ? What happened to Qeynos, and more specifically, Starcrest Commune? I was excited to see all the old zones again but ended up really confused. If anyone wants to explain this to me, I would be very grateful.
Sure. About 3 years ago there was a revamp of the starting player experience. This eliminated Qeynos and Freeport as starting cities, turned them into quest hubs, revamped those zones and eliminated the starting villages around those cities and changed them into adventure zones. Now if you start the game you'll be in Kelethin, New Halas, Gorowin or Nerriak. All of these cities have a much better starting experience than the old zones do. Well, at least dev feels that way. If your really nostalgic for STarcrest Commune go visit Qeynos after level 30. You'll be able to get a quest to solve some problems there. Once.
The first character on an account has a choice of New Halas or Neriak as a starter city. Characters created after the first one have a choice of New Halas or Kelethin (good cities), or Gorowyn or Neriak (evil cities).
Oh boy here we go again. EQ2's story has evolved over time. Basically the era of refugees is long gone. The world has settled down since then as new civilizations have sprung up. Freeport and Qeynos are no longer the only last banner's of civilization struggling to maintain surviving. The lands surrounding them that once threatened them are now tamed. The Shattered Lands of Antonica have all been rediscovered for the most part and the rough seas have calmed themselves over time. Speaking of which, why do you mention the boat despite your last expansion being EoF? The boat sequence was taken out once KoS was released in Feb 06.
While the boat experience was taken out, the island was revamped and still used for several more years. And even at launch the boat ride was optional. If the OP stuck to 1 or 2 main characters made before the island revamp, and/or only made new ones in Kelethin or Neriak during their last year, they might never have realized the boat ride was gone. Coming back to the game after so long, it makes sense that they might want to start on the boat and isle again, as they were a very educational introduction to the game.
Yeah I'm heavily aware that the revamped Isle Of Refuge was around from Feb 2006 to May 2010. And how exactly is it educational to the game? Only thing I can I think of is the lore. Yet the lore surrounding both events are obsolete to the current events of EQ2. We're no longer in the days of gathering refuges to help strengthen the two last civilizations on Norrath from threats in the Shattered Lands *remnants of Antonica*. That's been done, those days are over.
The starter isle quests were clear and concise in teaching basic gameplay mechanics, walking new players through things like banking, mending, crafting, harvesting, mob cons, etc. The starter areas in Kelethin and Neriak were not nearly so educational early on. So yeah, someone coming back from a very, very long hiatus might well decide to start on the boat and Isle of Refuge for the straightforward recap of how things work.
I still feel that the island provides a quite good experience for new players. It just needed to be bridged better with the other content. Considering how many multiple revamps of New Halas, Kelethin, Darklight Wood, and Gorowyn there have been, I think another pass on the Isle of Refuge is not an unreasonable request. Which is more engaging for a new player? Being dumped on an ice sheet surrounded by little nondescript critters you're supposed to slay by the dozens -- or stepping off a ship and speaking to a strong, driven, voiced NPC, and then taking an active part in what feels like a cohesive story? I know a lot of work went into Halas, but I'm just not sure the geography will ever grab me like Qeynos, Kelethin (once I found my way around), and the Gorowyn islands.
Oh and I left out the crucial fix to make it work in the current Lore. Instead of washing up on shore after the Shattering, you are sent to the island as a young mage, priest, fighter, or scout as a training ground that all young adventurers are sent to. NPCs could be placed right there at the disembarkation point which speak about the virtues of Kelethin, Gorowyn, Halas, and Neriak should you choose to learn the ropes there instead.
I keep voice acting muted since generally voice acting in EQ2 sucked most in part due to the laughable scripts given to them. And if Isle Of Refuge were to be re-added with relevancy, then it needs to have a complete overhaul in aesthetics and a wider level range (perhaps add new areas to the surrounding Island). It always was the great mockery of EQ2 back in the early days. Last thing you want to do for trial runs of a game is showcase an island completely void of artistic merit. I think this old article from Gabe of Penny Arcade pretty much was spot on at the time (http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/02/15).
Odd how opinions can vary so much. "It always was the great mockery...." - to who? Had I started in 2005 in NH - would never have even got through the starter zone before I left. Never had an issue with the starter isles, either evil of good. Still shift to FP or Qeynos as soon as I start characters to this day. I don't mind others enjoying the new zones, just can't see why the CHOICE was taken away.
The article was poorly written. If you actually managed to read that article the author admits to playing WOW and not even trying EQ2 just basing their assumptions off someone else's rant about the visual appeal and then un installing the game. The article was a linkfest of other games used to traffic people away from the actual lack of substantive value in the article and on to other games in some effort to generate traffic/marketing share for advertising. Anyone equating WoW with great visual aesthetics has already lost all credibility in my book
Gabe and Tycho had always been renowned for their opinions Videogame industry and taking stabs at big corporate publishers. Though for the last couple of years they had sold out big time. Anyways, They had tried EQ2, they have a couple of earlier articles going back to 05 on this subject, even having two or so comics about EQ1 during 1999-2002.. However, I won't lie, Gabe has always been heavily biased on his views of Blizzard since the creation of the webcomic in 1999. Their base assumption of EQ2 in 06 however was spot on. Aside from Lavastorm, Freeport, Everfrost, and Commonlands, EQ2 didn't have much of a redeemable art style that made it stand out. Remember, this was back in 06 during the time of KoS's release, which SoE was trying to give away EQ2 to FilePlanet subscribers. I never understood this opinion. And it seems to be the great ire of various sections of the EQ2 community since the launch of both titles in 04. A turnaround question can be: Have you played WoW?. WoW, at the time, was a beautiful game in terms of its designs in creative environments, boss battles, events, and overall endgame. Not to mention, Warcraft 3 engine it was using, despite being pretty out of date at the time, it was incredibly flexible to things in. I'll admit, WoW was not my cup of tea either. My friends coerced me to play it during 05, since at the time EQ2 was so bugged riddened and laggy. So I got up to level 55-60 and then quit. For me, it had more to do with "pop culture" references plastered everywhere (something EQ2 tried to do during KoS/EoF), the character models, and lack of contested content. Average complaint here seems to be focused on its "cartooney" look, which I think is silly. I enjoy cartooney games (Wind Waker), there's nothing wrong with various forms of art in Videogames. Remember, a lot of the original WoW developers were all hardcore EQ1 raiders. Some of which belonged to LoS. When they were not designing WoW in the offices, they were raiding in EQ1 5 times a week They were hardcore MMO's. They lived and breathed it, and they knew what worked and what didn't. It was the same mindset that people like Brad Mcquaid and the EQ1 staff prior to its release went by. The notion of "We want to create a game that we personally can enjoy". Now take a look at the usual game update of today in EQ2, where the average buzzword or gimmick is forced into the game by the higher ups be it dungeon maker, goblin games, or advanced solo instance(here's looking at you Smedster). Where it feels like the developers don't play the same game as the playerbase does. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to bash EQ2. I just agree that there is a great lack of artistic value in the original content. Which is sad, especially if you take a look at the concept art used in the loading screen for Shattered Lands zones. There was a great deal of art never used ingame. The 100 different helmets, the various Bixie based weapons, the rock monsters and the rock castle for example. None of which were placed in game due to the incredibly restricted middleware engine that EQ2 uses, making it a chore to do anything. That was a shame, and I remember hoping I would encounter any of that type of stuff by the time I got out of Qeynos and into Antonica. To put this entire statement short: EQ2 could have had lot more potential then it did.
Yhea, I did try it shortly after it came out. A buddy of mine that played both let me roll a toon on his account. The game looked too cartoony for me - my current main complaint with EQN. I did not raid in the game so I will not pretend I know anything about the end game mechanics or anything after lvl 20 something. The graphics just bored the heck out of me. I decided early that it was not going to be the next Everquest so I continued to play EQ2 waiting on the rumored Vanguard to launch which many of us thought was going to be the next holy grail. As EQN does not seem to be visually worthy of the EQ title, even with some of the cool effects/ideas, I have decided to just build my own game: Now if I could just get a bunch of coders, graphic artists, and designers to work for me for free until launch or a cool 10 million for start up funding I have a pretty good handle, and about a 200 page manifesto, of what would be a kick *** pvp/e niche game designed for a population of around 150-200k hardcore pvp/e players. Not asking for much here just time and resources to build the perfect hardcore niche game
When your talking graphics between EQ2 and WoW its a mixed bag. WoW went with an older graphics engine but with very good (and heavily styalized) sprites. EQ2 went with a superior graphics engine (that assumed graphics cards and CPUs would grow in a different direction than they did) and inferior art assets (sorry guys). As time went on one remarkable things to say about EQ2 is that it doesn't look dated. You look at WoW after playing a bunch of modern FPS and other MMOs that just came out and you can tell its got an old graphics engine. EQ2 doesn't look bad at all (except for the lack of variety). EQNext is based off of the same engine that PS2 and Free Realms was made from. Hopefully it will be much easier to work with and we'll see a large variety of models, armor and weapons.
Just to add - since the Isle of Refuse is still in the game as part of the Prismatic Timeline - but not in the game as the starting zone - that part of the Timeline doesn't resonate quite as much. A new player doesn't get the sense of loss when going back to kill Darathar.
Just an aside FreeRelms does not use the ForgeLight engine, just PS2 and Now EQN. As for the look, IMO it looks really good, just stylized instead of Photo-realistic, and really if you think about it EQ1 was photo-realistic when it came out...and it does not look all that good, stylized for the most part holds up better over time then photo-realism.
