What did people dislike most about luclin?

[DiogenesThaDogg]

I thought it was such a fun expansion, and the reasons people generally give to me for not wanting luclin to be released seem to fall flat. The most commonly repeated complaints I hear involve the bazaar and the nexus; but I honestly don't see how the existence of p99auctions.com or dial a port are so far removed from what is offered by those zones.

Please help me to understand why luclin draws so much ire, whether it's the art style, the length of some raid encounters, the keying/bane weaponing, the quests, the storyline, AAs, etc.

[kitao]

Time sink for VT was one for me.

[Sorn]

The art style!

[Danth]

What did I dislike most about Luclin?

Originally Posted by Sorn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The art style!

That. Higher polygon counts may have been desired, but the new models, monsters and locations were so ugly that they defeated the purpose. I believe a much better approach would've involved maintaining the original art style but with higher polygon counts, rather than fundamentally altering the game's appearance. I hated even having to look at the "new and improved" graphics. I disliked numerous other things about that expansion--cats on the moon, mounts, alphabet soup monster names, class balancing turned into an endless grind, stat bloat, and other issues I don't care to list at the moment. However, the hideous appearance of everything definitely sits at the top of my most disliked list for Luclin.

I write the above as someone who believes Luclin had some good in it. As a whole, Luclin wasn't a hopeless concept. I believe a good expansion was in there, peeking out from behind the layers of trash, trying to get out--but never got the chance.

Danth

[Zekayy]

Originally Posted by Danth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What did I dislike most about Luclin?



That. Higher polygon counts may have been desired, but the new models, monsters and locations were so ugly that they defeated the purpose. I believe a much better approach would've involved maintaining the original art style but with higher polygon counts, rather than fundamentally altering the game's appearance. I hated even having to look at the "new and improved" graphics. I disliked numerous other things about that expansion--cats on the moon, mounts, alphabet soup monster names, class balancing turned into an endless grind, stat bloat, and other issues I don't care to list at the moment. However, the hideous appearance of everything definitely sits at the top of my most disliked list for Luclin.

I write the above as someone who believes Luclin had some good in it. As a whole, Luclin wasn't a hopeless concept. I believe a good expansion was in there, peeking out from behind the layers of trash, trying to get out--but never got the chance.

Danth

[utenan]

I disliked most expansions because they trivialized previous content - Pauladal Caverns being a good example as well as more and more crazy gear being added to the game.

I also dislike anything that detracts from relying on other people / taking out social aspects of the game. The nexus was the first step in regards to making port classes less important but the pok books really took it too far. The same goes for the bazaar - luclin was the first step towards making everything convenient instead of relying on others - which is kinda what makes eq special and I think that's why people draw the line at velious when discussing "classic" everquest.

I also hated the contrast of the graphics. It looked like a different game.

[Brut]

New graphics, the whole little green men space thing, the lore was balls.
Felt like we interrupting this medieval dragon fantasy game and playing some Star Trek instead.

Awful zone design too. Hallways with merbs in em. Yay.

[big_ole_jpn]

zone and general art style bad, new models were really bad, a lot of VT was phoned-in (20 of the top raid bosses in Luclin are recolored/sized-up blobs from Kunark with 1 basic aoe spell and too much HP).

overall a fantastic expansion though -- ranger becomes a playable class, raid scene is more fun than Velious even with VT. Emp is probably the best encounter in all of EQ.

people like to hate on it because it's the "beginning of the end", but as you can see from P99, parking an EQ server at Velious breaks the game. I have a lot more sympathy for the design decisions made in Luclin/PoP that I used to agree were shit after experiencing long term Velious.

[Maelstrom]

The character and npc graphics and animations were horrible, and lacked the same charm as the originals.

The Nexus was the beginning of the end for porters. It felt like an airport.

The Bazaar didn't bother me as much, as it was easier to grab what you wanted when you wanted it.

The zones and zone layouts were great though. Places like Katta Castellum, Fungus Grove, Twilight Sea and Ssraeshza Temple were great and I still poke my head around them on another server from time to time.

[Crom]

Originally Posted by Maelstrom [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The character and npc graphics and animations were horrible, and lacked the same charm as the originals.

The Nexus was the beginning of the end for porters. It felt like an airport.

The Bazaar didn't bother me as much, as it was easier to grab what you wanted when you wanted it.

The zones and zone layouts were great though. Places like Katta Castellum, Fungus Grove, Twilight Sea and Ssraeshza Temple were great and I still poke my head around them on another server from time to time.

/This