Should there be multiple starting areas?

I thought the same thing Raidjinn. I once had that warm fuzzy feeling right before a Roundtable Response too. Now I just feel like I'm doing the walk of shame after watching them.

Already had ideas on how multiple starting zones could work from a multitude of perspectives, but, knowing me, wrote a small novel. So links attached (Click the upwards arrow in gray box), read at ur leisure.

The struggle

I like the idea of cities based on race. It sets a tone and backdrop for an avatar's race. Especially since EQN is less about alts I think multiple starting zones are less needed and a good focus put on these cites will add flavor to the game - especially if your character is given a reason to go there because of their race. Having the all cities as places where all characters go for multiple reasons is efficient and lessens the probability of a dead city or starting zone.

After SOE Live, the devs said the info drip was going to be very Landmark-focused until Landmark was released.

So...maybe we'll get something at E3?

I myself am just tired of devs getting cold feet and then reeling it back into the same dumbed down design decisions over and over with every MMO. It's become a routine, see the potential in a game, see the unique things they propose in development, watch it all get drowned out by the devs slowly catering to typical mechanisms. You look at games like Tera Online, AMAZING combat feel, same typical grind. Yes it was a korean MMO that was only localized for the west as a second tier priority, but the game did poorly everywhere, because it brought back the same generic leveling quest grind system and there are plenty of those to go around. Rift Online, GW2, SWTOR, etc etc these games could have been much more successful if they just took some risks, instead they are multi million dollar projects that use the same shared pool of ez-mode mechanics.

Will EQN be played? It is free-to-play, it has a pretty well-known name attached to it, and if they make it ez mode it should be played, could it be so much bigger than what they intend if they just thought outside the box a little more? YES

The first high budget MMO to deviate from the path and take the right kinds of risks is going to change the entire genre. Much like WoW did for its time (for better or worse is a matter of opinion)

Interesting response.

Yeah, blah blah blah, they are ignoring the results, all that. Buuuuut. They have a point, and they are being honest.

So a tutorial level is (I guess) ok with me. As they said, you have to teach people how to play, and you don't want to build 7-9 different tutorials for each race. OK. But if we're "going there" it would be nice to have the ability to skip the tutorial and start in your racial city. I am so tired of the "jailbreak tutorial" or similar gheyness, only force me to do it a maximum of once.

The main thing to take away is that they ARE probably going with the racial cities which is great!

Yes I will help you build Kelethin and Felwithe in Landmark : )

God, I hope so. And I hope it's pretty well along on the signs of a release this year. But......I doubt it

hmm this would be fun.. what if character creation was part of the tutorial.. what if you started the game as a spirit, and had to choose a body, and then choose a home city, and then a class, skills, movements, cloths, ect. learning as you go.. and then once its all together, bam you start in your home city.. no fuss no muss, and everyone is happy. and heck the tutorially stuff could even be just an optional video that can be played at anytime.. there is no need to go into great detail right off of the bat..

Sounds like the devs got a pretty good handle on the information conveyed within this thread.

Im just wondering is the option to skip the tutorial going to be available? And if done , will there be some crucial player progression that is missed out on?

It would be nice if the content in the tutorial could be dynamic. But then that does make it harder to accomplish its main point of teaching players how to interact and navigate the game ... which is most always about the user interface.
So I completely see the need to make it static.

Players then being able to build their ancestral homes is an awesome Idea. The devs just need to keep a watch on them so as to not create an imbalance in the game ... I could see that becoming a method of griefing or exploiting.

Im not sure why some people are so dead set against a single area to accomplish the game world introduction.
But instead of coming up with a whole bunch of what not to do , they should atleast give some alternative ways to accomplish things. Its hard to glean constructive ideas out of all negative input.

When everyone starts in one area you are just a bunch of zerglings hatching out into the world, an MMORPG should look to give players an identity and a way to differentiate from one another from the get go, within practicality.

There should be different starting areas. I know it's a lot of work, but that work can be cut down a little depending on the number of races you have in the game (EQ2 had far too many and far too many classes for that mater) but maybe have one for the highelves and wood elves, one for the humans and half elves, one for the dark elves. You get idea. if not that route. You could start it off almost like SWTOR did and have 4 starting areas and have different classes or races share that starting area (i think different races sharing them would be better). and then go back to the model you had in EQ2 where each race lived near a central hub city. But instead of making it kind of bland like in EQ2. maybe pull the smaller townships away from qenos for instants give a little travel time. that way, the towns can be a little bigger and wont be influenced by the conjoining towns as much as they were in EQ2. does that make sense?

Those are the key words in your statement. Are you suggesting this starting area is going to be responsible for more than even 5% of a players game experience within even a couple weeks?

Maybe there shouldn't be a tutorial at all ... just an online manual to read. But how many potential customers do you think that would lose them. Its a well known fact that hands on experience is the easiest way to convey knowledge that translates into a usable skill set.

Plus its not like they can't or won't expand the tutorial content after launch.

The video sounded like they are definitely seriously considering having different racial area's that will be dynamic and player built (ancestral homes) But for logistics ... it makes no sense to tie those in with a tutorial hand holding process.
Plus why wouldn't they make it possible to just turn the tutorial tools/messages off?

Since there has to be a tutorial these days (/sarcasm), make it a simple optional tutorial. No quests, no "You are the chosen one" storyline - just a simple out of character tutorial on basic movement and UI controls showing character pane, quest tabs, inventory space, etc. Don't give us any rewards from completing it - make it simple, make it quick, make it totally optional.

Then allow us to choose a starter town based on racial ancestry. If we choose to help Qeynos rebuild, then we can start there (all races should be represented to accommodate lore) or if race specific, journey there and help build the city. If we would rather adventure near home, we can do that too. Maybe the dwarves are working to rebuild Kaladim? Perhaps some factions of races have been able to hide over the centuries, eagerly awaiting the return of the combine forces.

Unless I have been reading it wrong all along, wouldn't this fit in line with the adaptive AI? Shouldn't storybricks make it easier to have multiple starting areas as main racial cities? We won't out level starting areas as in traditional MMORPG's with Horizontal progression, and the LFG tool wouldn't need to be as complex either (if it was going to match us based on player preferences, choosing a race and a home puts us into like minded areas from the start.)

Put the development effort into making the starting cities worth coming back to time and time again - just like in real life, we tend to go home for many reasons. Make the hand holding minimal. If there needs to be a tutorial, make it simple and effective. We should want to go back to home cities - not tutorials.

Is it impractical to have multiple starting locations for players in an MMORPG persistent world? SOE is a business, they just need to figure out where along the line they wanna be, do they wanna be mcdonalds? Do they wanna be applebee's? Do they wanna be a top notch restaurant? I don't expect them to make a game that satisfies 100 very specific players, that isn't a good business plan. I do HOPE they don't try to make another mcdonalds mmorpg.

Music. The answer is music.
You want to set the tone of an area?
You want to create an emotional bond based on past experience, one that comes up every time you visit?
You want to have an experience that you can only get while in that town?
The solution you are looking for is music. I cant stress this enough how much music can become a tie to emotions; it's like a time capsule, one that can encapsulate all the experiences we had while there in a single piece of music.
Please give these unique places, and any others possible, the unique zone music they deserve. It will instantly make them special. None of this "we made one song that was pretty good now we are gonna use it for everything" nonsense I see in virtually every mmo on the market today. Music is the most undervalued feature in the whole genre.

Music is the least focused on aspect of MMORPG's now. Players want to have VC enabled, be listening to their MPEG's or watching a twitch video in the background - how many players actually play with game music volume turned up?

I for one do though. I love the music in the original EQ2 - its beautiful and majestic. I can only hope they create a majestic, stoic and brooding piece for Kaladim - but I won't hold my breath

I am somewhat glad to see this round table response. After a few previous responses where the popular votes were completely dismissed, I am glad to see an important point like this one has been received.

As a old day 1 EverQuest player, I really dislike how so many newer MMOs take the easy road and just start all characters in the same little area. As an old EQ player, my mentality has always been that an MMO should include a lot of playable races, and at least 80% of them should have their own hometown to start in. This really bugged me about EQ2's world design. Qeynos for the good races and Freeport for the evil races? Do we really need to be that simplistic and black & white about it?

Something important is lost when you build a game in that way. Just like in the race/class topic, I have to insist that a playable race needs to be more than just a cosmetic choice. They NEED to have their own distinct elements to gameplay. Racial starting cities, class limitations and meaningful stat differences are what gave EQ the most distinct and meaningful races in any MMO.

I was disappointed when I learned that in EQN we would all be starting out in Qeynos and would slowly have to build up the other cities over years of play. I really don't want to live in Qeynos again. If I am an Elf, I want to live in Felwithe from day one. If I am a Dark Elf, I want to live in Neriak from the start, not spend the first few years of the game's life living in a human town. I don't want every random race in the game pariticipating in the construction of an Elf city. That kind of task should belong to the people who live there. I can't imagine Elves helping to construct Halas, and following the barbarian standards of building design.

Not only do I want racial cities, I want racial cities that are sized FOR that race. I don't want to see Gnome or Halfling houses designed with Ogres in mind with massive doorways to accommodate anyone who might wander in. Maybe the local inn, but not every single house and shop. Likewise, I don't want to see an Ogre village with tinny little gnome friendly stairs. Little races should need to jump to climb the steps of a large race.

We need racial cities, and we need them to feel like it's made for THAT race.

This. So much this.