Was Qeynos really one of the first cities designed?

[cd288]

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

Fishbone earring. Glowing black stone. Peggy cloak. Runed oak bow. Invis rings.

Kunark and Velious loot bumped these down the list in terms of demand, but just looking at the classic continents, the zones immediately surrounding the two cities, Qeynos offers more valuable drops.

Rabid pelts are another reliable source of xp/coin, on top of bandit sashes and lightstones, and there are consistently more willowisps in NK and QHills than EC and WC, leaving Erud's Xing out of the conversation which also has thin boned wands and resist earrings.

I was speaking specifically to his comment on NK and WK but yes I agree with you in general

[Ennewi]

Not directly related to that point, but it is sort of odd that there is no North/South Commons or East/West Desert of Ro, though East Ro would just be Timorous Deep. The lack of each did keep the two coasts from feeling samey at least. Stranger still that there's no South Freeport, or East/West Qeynos.

[Zuranthium]

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

back then I do not think they had open beta tests which would explain a lot not having customer feedback. Decisions like nerfing the guise and removing something like the Rubicate armor never made sense to me...especially since the only piece of Ruby worth anything was the BP.

Every piece of Rubicite was valuable, it was the highest armor in the game at the time. It got removed because so many classes could use it, creating complaints that there wasn't enough differentiation. They introduced the class-only quest armor to give each class a different look and so the plate classes could have higher armor than Rangers (who were considered overpowered at the time), with Warriors getting the highest AC set as an attempt to solidify them as the best tanks.

I think they should have left Rubicite in game and made it wearable only by plate classes, and added regen to the plate classes' quest breastplate.

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

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

I wish faydark looked more like this (less dark, some bigger trees to stand out as landmarks).

It's wild how every forest pre-Kunark was ultra dark. Not a single normal looking forest zone anywhere. Definitely added a lot of danger and fear of getting lost to the game, but would have been nice to have a few more visible and beautiful forests.

[Danth]

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

It's wild how every forest pre-Kunark was ultra dark. Not a single normal looking forest zone anywhere. Definitely added a lot of danger and fear of getting lost to the game, but would have been nice to have a few more visible and beautiful forests.

Reflects the limited memory and low polygon counts permitted: If you load the "forest" zones without the distance fog, the trees are actually just tall trunks without tops. The darkness and short clip plane hides what isn't there and maintains the illusion. The expansion zones were built with greater, but not limitless, allowances for resource usage, hence the higher detail. Another visible example of the limits on rendering are city zones: Most of them are divided up into groups of a few buildings separated by caves or tall walls so as to not overwhelm 1990's era video cards. Kelethin was an exception, controlled in its case by use of an extremely short clip plane in Greater Faydark.

All of it, together, does have the effect for better and worse of giving Norrath a distinct "feel" all its own, unlike the newer game worlds designed without those limiting factors.

[Zuranthium]

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

All of it, together, does have the effect for better and worse of giving Norrath a distinct "feel" all its own, unlike the newer game worlds designed without those limiting factors.

True, limitations can breed creativity. It was definitely for the better overall. Everquest pre-Luclin reflects the artistic sensibility of pre-digital era media, and in some ways can be equated to being like a Monet painting, as compared to a modern high-def camera picture. It's often better when images aren't so sharp and crystal clear, it creates more mystery and nuance. EQ definitely has a certain 90's feel as well, compare it to 90's Magic the Gathering artwork for example.

Very tricky to design a game with the elements of visual magic that EQ had, while improving the overall level of graphics. There are definitely areas of improvement I'd hope for, but it's important not to make it too defined or too cartoony, and not lose the simultaneous sense of scope and confinement. I don't think I've seen any game pull that off. EQ, in its way, still remains the best at creating the feeling of stepping into a high-fantasy world.

[Ciderpress]

I vaguely remember sony saying something pre-kunark about how they couldn't roll out any new graphics other than tinting\palette swaps because it would be a violation of the EULA, and some users wouldn't be able to upgrade due to the limitations of their hardware yet they were paying subscribers. Then I think they got some lawyers involved and realized oh nah we totally can. But don't quote me on that.

The class armor quests are one of my most favorite things about classic, it was a huge injection of content, organically created in response to the feedback of the playerbase. And it made rubi rare and cool to have.

[Swish]

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

I vaguely remember sony saying something pre-kunark about how they couldn't roll out any new graphics other than tinting\palette swaps because it would be a violation of the EULA, and some users wouldn't be able to upgrade due to the limitations of their hardware yet they were paying subscribers. Then I think they got some lawyers involved and realized oh nah we totally can. But don't quote me on that.

Just as an aside, they then went all in with EQ2 which not many existing PCs at launch could run versus WoW which would run on the most burnt out old laptop [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Reiwa]

Quay pronounced 'k' herein

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As the ship pulled away from the quay

[Duik]

Circular quay is a ferry dock in sydney yes. Circular "Key" defo as Reiwa says.

[Duik]

Another song by the band Australian Crawl has the line
As the Manly ferry, makes it's way to circular quay as well.