Norrathian Races & Building Collaboration

How much of the buildings in EQNext Norrath will be player built? Are there specific structures you have in mind that are more useful for us to build?

Thank you for letting us choose the race!

Start with both at the same time in different geographic areas. What I see happen alot is that when racial areas and races themselves are created on a burndown, the next race area or race in line seems to get a more detailed racial starting area - due to the lessons learned by the environmental teams and their ongoing comfort with the tools and building of areas. They get better and better at it basically... Look at something like VG, the differences between Thestra and Qalia were astounding - including different racial starting areas/geographic regions. (that is an extreme example, but I can point it out in any mmo I play)

I vote Dwarf for purely technical reasons. It's likely to have an earthier, heavier feel, which is going to be easier to nail down with simpler voxel building techniques. Meanwhile, the tools will (hopefully) get more refined, making it easier to tackle more intricate architecture (as I'd imagine Dark Elf architecture to be) later on.

Dark elves!!

I know I am going to be in the wee, wee minority here...
But you know what race I'd like a chance to design things for?

Orcs. Particularly the Crushbone Orcs. When I first played EverQuest for the very first time way back in the day, I got to say I saw charm in those blue skinned Orcs wanting to chop down the Elves' forest.
Or... if Hobgoblins could possibly be more of a thing in EverQuest Next than in EverQuest II, I'd like to see some new ideas floated for them. I think there is a lot of room for potential there.

But... I am guessing races that the designers up until now deserved inclusion as playable will ever be something players will be allowed to work on.

I'm with Nexys. We pretty much have everything in place to work on Dwarves. But honestly I'd rather wait till the volcanic biomes came out before working on Tier'dal. I know it's a lil cliche with original eq lore but still. I feel were doing a disservice to the dark elves at this stage.

Although, it would be cool to have lava in a dwarven forge, but this is just architecture. We can mimic lava. But the volcanic rocks and dark stones and warped, burnt trees etc., that I assume would come out of such biomes, would definately enhance the dark elf feel.

True. Wish if have read more and thought about it before answering. Dark elves will take more time. So yes doing dwarves first would be better.

Both Dwarves AND Dark Elves! Bah! The only two races I play...

Also too...WHAT are dark elves? We have no lore to substantiate the typical Dark Elf from EQ and EQ2 Lore. The Tier'Dal, as we know them so far, are as pale skinned as any other elf. Dwarf would be easier to build for at the moment, as nothing would show them to be anything else than standard dwarf-esque in their architecture.

Knowing the current Lore, "dark" elves could be tree dwellers...

Dwarves.

I am really excited to see the concept art and discuss the themes. It's like a sneak peak into Next.

I am sure people could come up with some amazing designs for both races, but I am going to throw down on the side of the dwarves. For reasons mentioned above, I think Landmark is in a state where building in a dwarven style would be easier and more representative of their architecture.

Hopefully the wipe for caves will happen before the contest begins. Wouldn't be fun moving claims in the middle of a contest.

Dark Elf!

My all time favorite race in all of the EQ Franchises.

I was trying to put together a lodge next to my neighbors, next week I'll be getting the trailblazer pack so I can get 4 of my friends to join me in this, kind of upset that I didn't know what it was until after I took the leap on the settlers pack but w/e.

Dark elf without a doubt! My dark elf soul lives in a dark elf house, doing dark elf things to all the inferior races. All hail Innoruuk!

I find this poll very interesting as both the Dwarf and Dark Elves are technically underground races. Dwarves were able to be above ground. But built magnificent cities underground. Their affinity for mining, gold and smiting and disposition made underground a natural place for them to want to build cities. EQ changed it so Dark Elves could survive outside in the daylight. The move was so popular even D&D eventually followed suit.

So with the new engine and the voxels. I am extremely excited for the underground race's cities. The new engine and the way the entire above ground and underground are used means the cities of the underground could actually be underground. With entire beginning areas and quest lines that actually start and end underground, where these races homes should be. There's no reason these areas can't take up the entire "middle earth/Norrath". Making for just as much adventure underground as above. EQN has the Dark Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Rat people and Orcs that are underground races. Goblins, Kobolds, and other NPC's are supposed to be underground also. There should be enough underground races to populate and quest such underground areas.

Think how cool it would be to be a human or other above ground race, to finally find the Dwarf, Orc, Gnome, or Dark Elf city. And then find out your starting area above ground, was actually above the starting area of this underground race? And that while you were adventuring above ground, they were adventuring in an area under you.

It would also be nice if say the Froglok's and the Iksar had underwater cities. I know GW2 did this with NPC's, but it would just take it to another level with PC cities and adventures. EQ wizards and mages had spells that allow underwater breathing so this would allow others to visit such cities. Without destroying EQ lore.

The beautiful part is I know EQN can do this. As the voxels can be dug into, and it should be more than easy to build layers of content. Above ground, underground, and in the water. Maybe they could have hidden areas, like in EQ. You might be fighting in a gnoll cave, then find a secret entrance that takes you to "middle norrath". Depending on which way you go, you could end up in any of the underground PC cities. I hope EQN takes advantage of it's ability to have layers using all areas for adventure. With PC cities in each later. Something like...

sky (Maybe as the Vah shur are alien to Norrath, and the Eurdites had to flee and are highly magical).
----------
above ground (Human, Barbarian,, Wood Elfs, Half Elf, Ogres, Trolls)
------------- ----------------- water (iksar, froglok)
under ground (Dwarf, Gnome, Dark Elf, Orcs, rat people)

Though I'm not sure about the player races for the sky layer. I do love the multi tiered approach. The sky could also have a Nexus, that is for shopping/selling, Guild halls, but does not destroy travel by making it too easy to get anywhere in Norrath. So maybe you can teleport there from a book in your home city. But you can't teleport to another's starting area through the Nexus. Only normal travel, or player spells like port, would allow you to get to other race's cities.

Amen to this Dex!

But first we need to know what you want built! we need artwork for the following:
Arenas
Barracks
Bars, Taverns, Inns
Bridges
Capitol Buildings
Castles
Chruch and Rligious Buildings
City Buildings
Docks & Ship Yards'
Flags
Forges
Gatehouses
Guild Headquarters
Horse Stables
Horse Tracks
Hospitals
Houses
Jousting Arenas
Keeps
Lodges
Magic Shops
Monoliths
Plazas
Pyramids
Schools and Acadmies
Settlements
Shops
Spires
Statues
Temples
Tents
Towers
Viaducts
Villiages
Walls
Warehouses
Wonders
Workshops or Siege Workshops
and all other types of midieval buildings

It does not matter what is built as long as it fits with lore and would be nice if we could get a sampling of all these types and more. From there our imagination is free to flow in so many ways you guys have never thought of even with your degrees, knowlege and schooling.

Seeing the Dwarf city be rebuilt will be interesting. Back in the day it appears EQ didn't have the abilities to build a proper Dwarf city. In fact most of the starting areas were little more than villages. When compared to most MMO's cities today. WOW stepped it up and built a better Dwarf city . Warhammer kept the same vibe. Hopefully EQN can build better starting areas. Cities we all want to return to.

A Moria (before it's fall) type capital city that resides deep inside a group of mountains. Is what a real Dwarf city should be like IMO.

It will be interesting to see how each city is handled. I am sure the players that love to build will follow the lore of these races and build a city true to the fans of each race's expectations. Even though I don't see EQN being a "quest hub" type of game. I do expect each starting city, to have a newbie quest area. EQ also had many other types of quest in each starting city. Qeynos had things like giving letters to lovers. Collecting taxes, giving muffins to guard Wenbie, etc. I look forward to those types of quests being in EQN also.

Hard call for me.

I know this is about buildings and aesthetics, but we need to iron out lore and visuals of the races first...

And to that...

I voted dwarf so I can get some input on making them varied and dynamic and not 'drunken Scottish people' that I see so often. Tired of negative stereotypes used as a model for a race. I didn't play enough EQ before but I think that was no used in EQ, but WoW is not the only source of that meme - and it needs to die. Dwarf has a lot more potential than that and ethnic stereotyping has no place in modern gaming.


But I dread the dark elf design and want to get in there too... because if EQ uses the 'they are dark because they sinned' line from D&D and US Slavery South... it'll be the end of all of this for me... I don't think they will use that... But you have to remain vigilant on this kind of stuff.

The first short story hinted that the Dark Elves might be heroic - but I've not read the stories since so I don't know if that's flipped yet. But either way its a race concept that concerns me a LOT because it was only added to D&D to push a real-world racist agenda (the 'non-biblical myth' they used to tell slaves to convince them that god made them black as punishment) into fantasy, and I'm hoping that legacy can be skipped here, which requires divorcing 'skin tone' from morality.

I'm expecting things will get 'complicated' when the dark elf design time comes up...