How much of Kunark was leftover from the original release vs new development?

[hekk99]

There is a thread somewhere on the forums (maybe in the screenshots board if IIRC) that has a link to or old pictures of a gaming magazine spread on EQ.

The article was a promotion for the upcoming EQ release, and contained detailed descriptions of the races, classes, and had some quotes from Brad McQuaid. In it, McQuaid said that the world would consist of five continents: Odus, Antonica, Faydwer, Kunark, and Velious.

That would suggest, as others have said, that the world was conceptualized well before launch, though it seems that they couldn't finish everything they wanted by the original release.

I've wondered, too, about the differences between the Iksar and the lizardmen of Cazic Thule. Was that planned before release or was it something they went with due to time/budget restrictions at the time? Seems like it may have always been planned that way.

And yes, the Odus docks do advertise passage to Velious. I wonder why that never happened. May have made it too difficult for evil races to use the boat? And in Freeport, Lenka Stoutheart says her ship made the Kunark run in under two weeks (I think; as well as passage to Kunark being advertised on the docks--again, I wonder why it didn't materialize in Freeport).

I remember when Velious came out, the marketing (maybe even on the box) said it was an expansion focusing on higher level (35+) players. I wonder if that was always planned or if they decided that needed to be the case after 2 years of the game being out.