Blue -- Custom Content Brainstorm

[zodium]

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

Or pointless snark. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

For me it's more "use this non-classic zone as a basis, then add in classic mobs and potentially drops to flesh out the Old World based on original maps or lore".

how are you going to make the zone or mob art style classic when they completely revamped the game's graphics with luclin?

[Quinas]

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

how are you going to make the zone or mob art style classic when they completely revamped the game's graphics with luclin?

It's a fair point and why I said in a post above that doing this while maintaining art style, lore feel, drop balance etc will be the complex part, and why it will take months to do this. It's not "ready made content" by any stretch.

Some of the LDoN zones would just look odd so are non-starters, but the graphics overhaul was not a big quantum leap so some zones could fit within the classic feel.

Realistically any custom content will erode the purity of 'classic' - but with the Green cycle that becomes pretty irrelevant. The question will just be how far from classic do you want to go? Zones with slightly better graphics, but classic mobs and itemisation? Or as you say do we want to go to vampire romance paladins who can fly? I know which I'd choose.

[uygi]

There were always incremental changes to zone design/appearance. Kunark and Velious were both more graphically impressive. And like I said earlier, I suspect that textures could be edited/substituted or even just have their resolution lowered might do it.

[zodium]

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

Realistically any custom content will erode the purity of 'classic' - but with the Green cycle that becomes pretty irrelevant.

agreed on the former, not on the latter

imo there are a lot of Pantheon Green1.0 hypemans who are invested in that narrative because they've lost the passion for everquest and think green will reinvigorate it, and they want everyone on Blue to join them on Green by hook or by crook. but it won't. anyone who's played UO classic emus knows how this goes, those people will be gone again shortly as they hype themselves up for the next thing to project their childhoods onto when Green1.0 fails to do the trick.

green is the seasons server that soaks up people who play everquest competitively and who want a particular nostalgia fix. blue is the infinite timeline classic server for people who think everquest is a neat game in its totality, not just the competitive or character progression aspects. acting like either server is irrelevant or disposable will only make both servers worse.

[Quinas]

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

green is the seasons server that soaks up people who play everquest competitively and who want a particular nostalgia fix. blue is the infinite timeline classic server for people who think everquest is a neat game in its totality, not just the competitive or character progression aspects. acting like either server is irrelevant or disposable will only make both servers worse.

I sort of agree re the wave of certain people playing on Green who'll stay for a few months to "beat the game" for the fifteenth time. "Rogue servers" as they are obnoxiously called are the flavour of the year with WoW Classic. But I don't think either server is irrelevant. I just think that forcing Blue as a purist classic server is redundant when you have a more pure version of it in Green.

The main reasons to stay on Blue are:

• attachment to characters (which is fine I get that)
• no interest in the cyclical nature of Green
• an innate hatred of hyped things
• fear of overcrowding and a preference for lower pop servers; and/or
• preference for Kunark/Velious in the classic era

If you actually prefer classic EQ in as pure a form as exists right now, then you'd play on Green unless one of the above reasons applies to you. This isn't the hype train and I am not someone who floods into progression servers to no-life for meaningless achievements. The age of Blue and its progressive development have made its economy and feel very much un-classic.

So the question is - do you cater solely to people who have one or more of those reasons drawing them to stay on Blue, or do you have two distinct servers - one with a cyclical purist EQ Classic timeline, and another that allows the devs to experiment which "what ifs?" that don't ruin the feel of the game, a la SoL/PoP. You run the risk of losing people who feel one of the above bullet points but also want a purist experience.

But without this experimentation Blue becomes a museum of the development of P99, warts and all.