Lavastorm needs some loving

[eqravenprince]

I think Lavastorm deserves a ZEM increase. Very underused zone, way better than Oasis.

[DeliciousHalflings]

Lavastorm sucks. Period. There's a reason why 20+ years later people still use the same 'hotspots' for leveling and other zones are practically empty. If you enjoy the zone, good on you, keep the mobs for yourself. Overall, between the need for levitate to have remotely efficient travel, no major landmarks to direct people other than 'X direction from rings', and a general ugliness, even with a ZEM I suspect most people would pass on Lavastorm in favor of a better zone.

[Keza]

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

Lavastorm sucks. Period. There's a reason why 20+ years later people still use the same 'hotspots' for leveling and other zones are practically empty. If you enjoy the zone, good on you, keep the mobs for yourself. Overall, between the need for levitate to have remotely efficient travel, no major landmarks to direct people other than 'X direction from rings', and a general ugliness, even with a ZEM I suspect most people would pass on Lavastorm in favor of a better zone.

There's a reason people still play WoW instead of FFXIV despite FF being superior in every way in regards to both being themepark MMORPGs. It's because that's what they do and they'll do it because they do it and they won't stop doing it because that's not what they do until they stop doing it which they never will. The reason people go to Oasis is because they do. They did in the past, they do now and they will in the future. They likely don't even know if the mobs in LS are easier or harder than Oasis. These kinds of people need alluring bait to be lured from their caves, like ZEM changes. That said, I don't think Lavastorm needs ZEM changes as it's already viable. It just needs people to actually go there instead of saying it's bad without having any idea what they're talking about.

The only plausible argument against LS would be the terrain hiding enemies. Otherwise it's a centrally located with a TP that makes it easily accessible with several similarly leveled zones connecting directly to it allowing you to go 1-max while barely moving from a city. As for landmarks, there are many, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. You can usually see one by climbing any random hill. Shadowmen rings, gypsy camps, goblin camps, Najena, Nek ZL, and the caldera. It's really simple to remember that the giant caldera is directly across the zone from the Nek ZL, rings are topleft, Najena is bottom right and Shadowmen are bottom left with nothing topright and camps in the middle. You always have a landmark.

I feel like people claiming LS is bad have never tried leveling in a truly bad zone. Anything with goblins is terrible. Tiny hallways, tons of adds, healing through walls, fleeing and massive wizard nukes. You need to make meta groups unless you have twinks/PLs to survive. You'd have to pay most people to exp in Dalnir. Fifteen minutes to get there with a port and knowing the path, trapped once you fall down and an NPC potentially guarding the exit that can obliterate max level players in an instant with an OPAF melee proc. Now that's a zone that wouldn't see groups traverse even with a ZEM buff.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

There's a reason people still play WoW instead of FFXIV despite FF being superior in every way in regards to both being themepark MMORPGs. It's because that's what they do and they'll do it because they do it and they won't stop doing it because that's not what they do until they stop doing it which they never will. The reason people go to Oasis is because they do. They did in the past, they do now and they will in the future. They likely don't even know if the mobs in LS are easier or harder than Oasis. These kinds of people need alluring bait to be lured from their caves, like ZEM changes. That said, I don't think Lavastorm needs ZEM changes as it's already viable. It just needs people to actually go there instead of saying it's bad without having any idea what they're talking about.

The only plausible argument against LS would be the terrain hiding enemies. Otherwise it's a centrally located with a TP that makes it easily accessible with several similarly leveled zones connecting directly to it allowing you to go 1-max while barely moving from a city. As for landmarks, there are many, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. You can usually see one by climbing any random hill. Shadowmen rings, gypsy camps, goblin camps, Najena, Nek ZL, and the caldera. It's really simple to remember that the giant caldera is directly across the zone from the Nek ZL, rings are topleft, Najena is bottom right and Shadowmen are bottom left with nothing topright and camps in the middle. You always have a landmark.

I feel like people claiming LS is bad have never tried leveling in a truly bad zone. Anything with goblins is terrible. Tiny hallways, tons of adds, healing through walls, fleeing and massive wizard nukes. You need to make meta groups unless you have twinks/PLs to survive. You'd have to pay most people to exp in Dalnir. Fifteen minutes to get there with a port and knowing the path, trapped once you fall down and an NPC potentially guarding the exit that can obliterate max level players in an instant with an OPAF melee proc. Now that's a zone that wouldn't see groups traverse even with a ZEM buff.

I leveled in Lavastorm and Najena on live. It is certainly do-able, and I don't remember it being bad. However, the reason why people leveled in Lavastorm on live was probably because it was easier to do a corpse run (can be bound in Neriak). People were probably more likely to pick race based on starting location as well, unlike P99. Ports were harder to come by back then, and a lack of game knowledge made traveling much more dangerous. Also, Oasis was more dangerous on live due to lag, viewing distance being reduced, and trains. You were much more likely to get killed by a Sand Giant or train.

On P99 that doesn't matter quite as much since ports are easy, game knowledge is prevalent, computers can play the game at max viewing distance, and many people are twinked. Oasis is generally easier to play in than Lavastorm on P99 because the only true obstacles are random Sand Giants, which are generally easy to see and avoid, and trains aren't really a thing in Oasis anymore.

The problem with Lavastorm is the mob level range is in a bit of a weird spot. Oasis and the Ro's can occupy you from early teens until early 20s. Lavastorm peters out sooner than early 20s if memory serves, and then you have to run elsewhere anyway. Leveling from 1-30 doesn't take that long if you know what you are doing, so the leveling progression in the desert is better anyway. You could go into Najena after Lavastorm peters out, but it is more dangerous.

[Keza]

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

I leveled in Lavastorm and Najena on live. It is certainly do-able, and I don't remember it being bad. However, the reason why people leveled in Lavastorm on live was probably because it was easier to do a corpse run (can be bound in Neriak). People were probably more likely to pick race based on starting location as well, unlike P99. Ports were harder to come by back then, and a lack of game knowledge made traveling much more dangerous. Also, Oasis was more dangerous on live due to lag, viewing distance being reduced, and trains. You were much more likely to get killed by a Sand Giant or train.

On P99 that doesn't matter quite as much since ports are easy, game knowledge is prevalent, computers can play the game at max viewing distance, and many people are twinked. Oasis is generally easier to play in than Lavastorm on P99 because the only true obstacles are random Sand Giants, which are generally easy to see and avoid, and trains aren't really a thing in Oasis anymore.

The problem with Lavastorm is the mob level range is in a bit of a weird spot. Oasis and the Ro's can occupy you from early teens until early 20s. Lavastorm peters out sooner than early 20s if memory serves, and then you have to run elsewhere anyway. Leveling from 1-30 doesn't take that long if you know what you are doing, so the leveling progression in the desert is better anyway. You could go into Najena after Lavastorm peters out, but it is more dangerous.

Generally speaking I agree. Oasis is better, but do you think LS needs a ZEM buff? Oasis is slightly better and basically next door. If one is overcrowded, isn't the other fine? I consider this a "well, shit, this is camped. Guess I'll go somewhere else" scenario, but the OP's argument is more like "well, shit, this is camped. The staff better make this other zone better so that I'm not left out." Zones aren't equal and it's first come first serve. Even if the game were rebalanced - even if the ZEMs were changed - there's always gonna be a meta. If LS becomes OP we'll see posts demanding Oasis be buffed. (*Just to mention on OP, since my claim might seem confusing, they appear to make a lot of 1-line threads that seem to bait argument. Their intent doesn't seem to be beneficial to the server and in this case it's contradictory to their own statement. If it's better than Oasis it doesn't need a ZEM buff.)

I would say game knowledge should make LS all the better on P99 specifically. Oasis is technically easier because gators don't aggro and you have better lines of sight, but if you know where to stand in LS you're fine. There's not as many trains on p99 but p2 and the orcs were generally safe on live so it's not too much more dangerous than LS - and the mobs trained on you in LS aren't level 35. The problem is if everyone goes there then there's overcrowding. This was the case on live and on P99, especially on the XP highway zones like Oasis. Such was what caused Teal to exist, even though I think it was a kneejerk reaction because there are alternatives like LS. Lag is hard to quantify, but it did exist. I'd also add that a lot of leeches (on live and P99) go to Oasis just for the buffs at docks which causes overcrowding. It's another thing that's hard to quantify, but I've never been asked for buffs at the LS rings on live or P99 whereas waiting for a boat gives players an excuse to beg and has happened to me often.

The level range issue is true, but the travel distance from LS to Oasis isn't anything to comment about. Unlike a game like FFXI where people leveled in and departed a zone at a fixed rate (e.g. Valkurm Dunes is 10-20, Qufim Island is 20-25, (insert 3-12+ hours doing an airship key quest) Yuhtunga Jungle is 25-30, etc) people on EQ easily flitter around to wherever makes sense depending on the circumstance. If we're to disregard unpopulated dungeons like Najena and Befallen that are definitely "needing some loving," then we're still left with the reality than Uguk is populated and maybe 6~ minutes further from Lavastorm compared to Oasis, with both zones capable of getting you to Uguk's level range. If anything I say this is a reason to buff Najena and Befallen.

ZEM is one of those things that I think staff can easily play with without outraging too many people, so I think it's a very valid argument. Someone else mentioned a lot of Kunark zones had ZEM negatives. LoIO was one of those and I spent tons of time there on live, as well as FM/OT/DL. The reason is because other people were there so I could find a group. It had nothing to do with ZEM, difficulty or loot (not that I comprehended ZEM at the time). This is why I say LS would be fine if people merely went there, but no one does. Dalnir is seriously shit though. Seriously.

[eqravenprince]

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

(*Just to mention on OP, since my claim might seem confusing, they appear to make a lot of 1-line threads that seem to bait argument. Their intent doesn't seem to be beneficial to the server and in this case it's contradictory to their own statement. If it's better than Oasis it doesn't need a ZEM buff.)

I do like to bait discussions not arguments. However, boosting zem to Lavastorm would be no different than how the devs boosted Gorge. No one went there, so they boosted it. It's as simple as that.

[Ooloo]

Not to mention the pants-shitting lavastorm explosion noise, which after 20 years I still always forget about and it scares the shit out of me every time

[DeliciousHalflings]

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

Not to mention the pants-shitting lavastorm explosion noise, which after 20 years I still always forget about and it scares the shit out of me every time

Omg I forgot about that! That, too!

[Ooloo]

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

Omg I forgot about that! That, too!

what? why is one of your 14 posts that?

[DeliciousHalflings]

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

what? why is one of your 14 posts that?

It's 16 now, and clearly because I was agreeing with you about how awful the random 'volcano' explosion is while running through LS.