Blue -- Custom Content Brainstorm

[uygi]

I have to say I think the purists are hypocrites. There are tremendous similarities between RoK/SoV and later expansions. Adding new level/skill caps, expanding the types of items (Kunark really got the +hp/mana items started, and it grew a lot in Velious), adding new raid content.

Velious changed the way raid content operates more than any other expansion in the first several years- went from 32k mobs to bazillion hp mobs. Kunark's early, cheap, common, low-cost items were often as good or better than anything that didn't drop from a god/dragon before. M2HS? Not much point once you have Kunark content.

I always believed that Nilbog was talking about the scifi cats on the moon, instancing and the mudlfation/hamster-wheel of AAs and bazaar being what the server was NOT about. I never thought it was a totally pure, cultlike adherence to everything being exactly up to day before Luclin. And the last updates before Luclin were handled by SOE as well and I think it shows in Greenmist, Stonebrunt etc.

[zodium]

not all changes are equal

I don't think I'm a hypocrite, I also quit shortly after they released Luclin in actual classic because I thought they changed the game in a fundamental and bad way.

tbh I think it's far more hypocritical to play on a server that's about recreating a specific and well-defined era of everquest while secretly pining and openly lobbying for something else.

[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.

[uygi]

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

not all changes are equal

I don't think I'm a hypocrite, I also quit shortly after they released Luclin in actual classic because I thought they changed the game in a fundamental and bad way.

tbh I think it's far more hypocritical to play on a server that's about recreating a specific and well-defined era of everquest while secretly pining and openly lobbying for something else.

I'm just saying, there isn't some black-and-white difference between everything that happened pre-Luclin and everything Luclin and later. Much of what changed later on were trends that started in Kunark and especially in Velious. I think there are big pieces of Luclin for sure that if they were re-tuned to not have AAs and maybe re-themed away from the scifi-cats-on-moon, weren't much of a departure from classic. How about Sanctus Seru? Mostly boils down to a big, pretty empty zone with some key shenanigans and a raid mob. Ssra temple wasn't a crazy departure from classic either, it had some similarity to Howling Stones and Sebilis IMO (forgive me if I'm way off, I'm remembering it from a long time ago).

The hypocrisy to me is rejecting anything post-Luclin launch for it's un-classicness, instead of evaluating it qualitatively. I think that, in another world, EQ could have had another expansion that would have fallen within the scope of P99 because it fit. Just like if Velious had gone in that bad direction, P99 might be only about going up through end of Kunark. This dogmatic insistence that one month, one day even, of EQ development was good, and every thing that comes after it is bad seems really shortsighted to me. Even if it was bad, it didn't have to be. Let's see if we can get that not-bad post-Velious thing?

[zodium]

you have the causality backwards though. people aren't rejecting post-Velious because "classicness" is an intrinsic good. there's no cult at work. people are rejecting post-Velious because it's a worse game with worse graphics, which is what gave rise to the concept of "classicness" as a good thing and thus provided the motivation for P99 in the first place! a server for "experimenting with could/should haves" would be truly pointless. blue as a living, perpetual but still as-classic-as-possible server is essential for the green cycle to avoid the trap UO classic emulators fell into.

and while it may be theoretically possible to create content that adheres to this spirit, there hasn't been any posted despite countless attempts. nor do I expect any will be. not even if Rogean bribed Brad with enough coke to come on board as a content designer, because even he doesn't have ~the Vision~ in mind anymore.

edit: velious is not luclin

[zodium]

i will say i'm a big fan of Rogean's plans to implement a quest to snooze the Sleeper, and I think otherwise plans to add ways to re-experience legacy content on Blue would be good. that's smart. blue would also be a fantastic server for experimenting with organizing classic GM events to make sure those go off smoothly and without giving the staff brain aids during Green cycles. but i'm sure that doesn't count as "custom content" to people pining for AAs and artisanally designed custom new zones.

[Quinas]

I wouldn't say I'm pining for anything but Green. This thread is just a thought experiment.

And while I think we could all agree that Luclin character models sucked, Nexus sucked, Cats on the Moon as lore sucked, I think you find differing schools of thought on SoL/PoP zone design and graphics, AAs, post-SoV raid mobs etc.

The trick is you'll never get people to agree on what aspect of SoL/PoP killed the classic game. For you, it seems like you hated everything about SoL and afterwards. I've read some people who think RoK killed the classic game too, and everything in between.

[Donkey Hotay]

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

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....M/LYgYe-jEnS4J

I picked up a quest from Priestess Caulria (I
believe) in Queynos to bring rabid animal parts to her. Basically she
casts a free cure disease if I bring her a wolf pelt, I get a free level
1 cleric spell for a diseased bear pelt, and if I bring her a fleshy orb
(that is occasionally found on the rabid animals) she says that's really
interesting and could explain why the rabies is around and tells me to
bring the fleshy orb to Lorme Trethadore in Freeport. I have searched
every (!) building I could see in freeport without finding Lorme
Trethadore (there is a Lorme Tredore in the academy of arcane science,
but I tried giving the orb to him and it doesn't work). Has anyone seen
this guy or is this another broken quest?

I would start with quests just like this one that litter this game and finish them.

[uygi]

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

people aren't rejecting post-Velious because "classicness" is an intrinsic good. there's no cult at work. people are rejecting post-Velious because it's a worse game with worse graphics, which is what gave rise to the concept of "classicness" as a good thing

I agree, but I feel like there are purists that just reject any new content. There has to be a way to make more. There wasn’t some cosmic balance of classic goodness that was exhausted in the year 2000, dooming future generations to a mudflated wasteland...

[Champion_Standing]

Monks for all races