Why SOE and Daybreak Ruined a perfecly good Ideal

[Tenlaar]

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

To me it was that medieval fantasy was enough. I didn't need space travel for even more fantasy.

They didn't make you sit on a spaceship flying through space to get to Luclin like you're taking a boat through OOT. It was magical portals that took you to magical places on another planet...have you never read a medieval fantasy series that involved magical travel to different worlds?

[Chortles Snort|eS]

yoU caN teLL whEn moNey triUmPHd OvEr SoUL

*big empty white zones*

[Mblake81]

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

I've never understood why a bunch of people who have no issue with lizard people are incensed by cat people...

Original EQ began to slide with Kunark. Perhaps one of the reasons lizards don't get shit on constantly is because the game still used to the original models for everyone, while lizards had their own custom model it was still classic. Their continent didn't require space travel teleportation to get to and the addition of automated systems (because a boat couldn't carry a noobie to the moon).

Cat people. Do you see any of us complaining about Kerrans or Kerra Isle? nope. Many of us think the race should have been there with a revamped city/noobie/dungeon zones. (stonebrunt does seem out of place in eq but that is a different topic)

Point is: When cats were introduced, we got the new controversial models. They were clunky, animated poorly, hacky and all around looked goofy af. They even killed the funny of trolls and ogres. EQ started to not look like EQ with Kunark and it progressed further each expansions. Velious Giants look nothing like Hill/Fire/Ice Giants. Not a new continent but a moon. Addition of teleporter automated systems for noobs, breaking a mechanic in the game that teleports were done by two classes that had put the time in to get them.

TL/DR: Cats don't get a fair shake because of what came with them. Lizards were awkward and so are the cats but a bunch of BS came with the cats. With each expansion EQ drifted away from EQ. It became a power gamer thing, at that point who cares if you have cats, frogs, faeries or turds with arms & legs. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[BlackBellamy]

Yeah, still though. IMO if Luclin was just a raid destination, that would have been setting appropriate. Like yeah go through portal but it's some super special thing and then you have to fight the moon god or something and then you come back. But to make it just another mode of travel cheapens the whole deal. So now we have transporters, do we?

It's funny because I came back on and off after I Luclin-quit, and I did like the following expansions - I thought PoP, LoY, and LDoN were pretty well done and added some good stuff. If they just never released Luclin I might have stuck around another couple of years.

[Danth]

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

I've never understood why a bunch of people who have no issue with lizard people are incensed by cat people...

The lizard people look basically like bipedal lizards. Kerrans look like cats, more or less. The "cat people" are just that: They look like humans wearing a cat suit. They're disgusting. Kerrans starting in Kerra Isle would've been fine, I think.

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There are signs for Velious (in Erudin, no less) and I think also Kunark in-game in the old world. Those areas were intended right from the beginning and obviously shelved due to time constraints only after the main world had been built and textured. If this mythical "jarsath" continent ever existed it must have been cut very early in development because such indicators for it didn't make it into the game. This would not be unusual or unexpected. If Kunark and/or Velious had made it into the original game they would have been presumably tuned with a level 50 cap in mind. That would've solved the old world's worst problem--insufficient content. Obviously since neither had been physically built they both would have looked much different than what we eventually got, if for no other reason than they would have been built according to original texture size and polygon count limitations and using older-style trees/etc. Interesting stuff to think about on a Sunday morning.

Danth

[Tenlaar]

Originally Posted by Mblake81 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Point is: When cats were introduced, we got the new controversial models. They were clunky, animated poorly, hacky and all around looked goofy af. They even killed the funny of trolls and ogres. EQ started to not look like EQ with Kunark and it progressed further each expansions.

Well you just sound like a crazy person because the updated character models were much better, I used them for as long as I could on P99, and the server would be better if I could still use them.

[Teppler]

Kunark really does feel like a different game that wasn’t originally planned. I think velious fits the trilogy once they went down the kunark path. I always felt luclin felt even more like a different game than kunark lore wise but the game raid wise was still going down same path. Idk of this makes sense.

[Mblake81]

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

Yeah, still though. IMO if Luclin was just a raid destination, that would have been setting appropriate. Like yeah go through portal but it's some super special thing and then you have to fight the moon god or something and then you come back. But to make it just another mode of travel cheapens the whole deal. So now we have transporters, do we?

It's funny because I came back on and off after I Luclin-quit, and I did like the following expansions - I thought PoP, LoY, and LDoN were pretty well done and added some good stuff. If they just never released Luclin I might have stuck around another couple of years.

At that point why even do a moon, you already have Alter-Planes which fit in with the high fantasy themes and were existing. There is no reason to do a moon.

Note: Might be because players were highly critical of anything that was not new in each expansion, probably pushed the dev team to make silly choices to please them.

I fully agree with the portals or requiring a druid/wizard to port you there. Druids should have been the only class to take others to Plane of Growth.. they didn't put that in because they would technically be traitors, I bet. They didn't have this worked out to fit the game, at this point they were on the expansion kick. But yeah I agree, they were on a mission to cheapen the game and the experience of it by making questionable choices work, not in the sense of the existing fantasy world but simple to work. We already have discussions about how RPG mechanics were stripped with each expansion to chase the power gamer fantasy of strictly raiding. (its why titanium sucks)

[Danth]

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

Well you just sound like a crazy person because the updated character models were much better, I used them for as long as I could on P99, and the server would be better if I could still use them.

Guess I'm crazy too because I've always thought, and still think, that the updated models were and are garbage hack-jobs unfit for retail sale. No accounting for taste though--each to his own.

Danth

[Danth]

(can't edit in RnF)

Why do a moon? Easy, and I don't fault 'em for it: They wanted more landmass, didn't want normal players running around the god-tier planes all the time, and didn't want to simply keep adding on more and more new somehow-indiscovered continents into the game world. Within the requirements of maintaining a somewhat plausible cover story for an expansion while not constantly repeating themselves, I can let that explanation pass.

Danth