This mainly is an EQ thing, unless you know of another game that did this.
What are your thoughts on adding a new zone but keep the orginal zones. For example in EQ we had 1 orginal zone, then another instanced zone added that was for the higher leveled players.
It gave you the feel of the zone but the creatures where bumped up.
I am completely ok with redoing the graphics engines, and revamping of zones to match the new graphics engines, but i am not ok with this
A. Making the orginal zone somewhere else in the world for players to explore again but with equal level creatures.
B. Ok with making orginal zone into an instanced version for quests, events etc.. but linked off the orginal zone. Forcing the player to run there to get this started. I am not in favor of recreating the orginal zone from 2 or more addons away in some town, city. I felt it made the game lazy and did not feel right.
Over all i just was not to impressed with the way that was handled. Lets make another Expansion and rehash the orginal loved zones. NO, that is not the way to do it. It is pure lazy and boring. Keep the orginal zones the way they are, and find a way for us to keep going back to them. Ever since the world POP was in gave excuses for the devs to rehash older content into newer expacs. Leaving out the orginal feel of the game.
Thoughts? This is how you want this game to feel like before we even get to the next expansions. How do you feel it was best handled by EQ 1 example.
Oh hot damn i forgot about those games, and kittik, you made a good point there.
No thanks here too, it is best to keep it orginal as much as possible.
When new graphics engines come out, and they rehash the whole zone to a new look? are you impressed? like South Ro was revamped to look totally different, giving not the same feel as the orginal?
I honestly loved that zone, but they did make it much bigger for more people to play in. Just after awhile the zone basically died too.
Also forgot, adding in links inside the orginal zone like higher lvl dungeon, or higher lvl linked zone off the orginal is ok with me... but for GAWD sakes rename the zone to something new not Q1, Q2, Q3
It drove me nuts.
Over all, it feels like lack of leadership of the teams and the way it was thought out. Remember customers do remember and everyone is not a dummy at coding either.
I'm totally for revamping a zone and if a story is written that a volcano erupted and a new part of this zone has been discovered and higher level mobs are back there. Cool. The original zone is for lowbies still but the "new" part of the zone is higher level. That way an intermingling of levels is introduced. Also if say, after the eruption, one of the higher level mobs is a zone wide wonderer. Haha, the lobbies would have to run for their lives while camping. Or beg a higher level to come take care of the Wanderer so they can camp in peace.
I am not in favor of instancing at all, for any reason except player housing where it is unreasonable to have houses everywhere.
Regarding zone "revamps", I'm OK with them in general but want the changes to be incremental. I do not like huge changes all at once. I actually asked the question a couple years back about upgrading graphics. Some updates would apply everywhere, while others do not. Say, you replace a rock texture in the engine and it applies to all rocks that use that texture, rather than having to go back and reapply it. I'm OK with small changes like that.
I'm not a fan of zone revamps. Not only is the content more of a novelty than anything, it also make the original zone lose some of its luster.
However, using an old zone as a gateway to a new zone sounds like a fantastic idea. It not only makes the world feel more alive via the newly discovered or hidden entrances, but it can bring together two populations of the game that don't often meet (low level and high level).
The level design for a zone like this is pretty important. If you have the entrance to a high level zone in a place that causes the high level players to run through the low level players' camps, then you're going to have issues.
In general, I like the idea of having to travel through a mix of zones to get places. It feels too convenient and unnatural to head into a whole "ecosystem" and have it all be conveniently the same relative power level.
Crazzie said:When new graphics engines come out, and they rehash the whole zone to a new look? are you impressed? like South Ro was revamped to look totally different, giving not the same feel as the orginal?
I honestly loved that zone, but they did make it much bigger for more people to play in. Just after awhile the zone basically died too.
Hated what they did there with commons and Ro. EC and WC became 1 small zone. N.Ro, Oasis and S.Ro all became 1 zone. Updating the graphics is fine but leave the zone layouts the same.
A positive 'zone change' was Kithcor Woods next to Rivervale, instead of 'changing' the zone, they just dropped in very high mobs that only came out after dark. With all the mandatory(good!) running you had to do in EQ old (vs. insta-teleporting everywhere later on, and in every new game ever made since), there were some real nail-biting moments watching the system clock while scampering madly on the side of the hill toward the zone line. And sometimes missing that Rivervale entrance. Eeek.
Epic.
bigdogchris said:I am not in favor of instancing at all, for any reason except player housing where it is unreasonable to have houses everywhere.
Regarding zone "revamps", I'm OK with them in general but want the changes to be incremental. I do not like huge changes all at once. I actually asked the question a couple years back about upgrading graphics. Some updates would apply everywhere, while others do not. Say, you replace a rock texture in the engine and it applies to all rocks that use that texture, rather than having to go back and reapply it. I'm OK with small changes like that.
Yeah, we are not fans either, we would rather a real lived in a bustling town with people who you get to know and create relationships with (good or bad) than instance and separate our community, so we will try to avoid it as much as possible.
unkpant said:...there were some real nail-biting moments watching the system clock while scampering madly on the side of the hill toward the zone line. And sometimes missing that Rivervale entrance. Eeek.
Epic.
Haha, oh man, I forgot stuff like this and how much it actually added to the game. It's the small seemingly insignificate things like these that make the game.