My Opinion on EQ expansions.

[Reiker]

If Ssra Temple isn't among your favorite MMO zones of all time you didn't raid and should probably stfu. Not to anyone in particular but just sayin'.

[zianlo1]

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

If Ssra Temple isn't among your favorite MMO zones of all time you didn't raid and should probably stfu. Not to anyone in particular but just sayin'.

In eq1, I didnt raid and I know I missed out on alot of the game =(

[Harrison]

SSRA was one of the best designed zones I ever got to raid.

VT was the worst, flat out, terrible.

[Seeatee]

Ssra is probably the 2nd best designed zone in all of EQ, I could spend weeks there at a time, loved that zone to death.

also, while probably a pretty unpopular opinion my personal favorite expansion is

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a big reason is Muramite Proving Grounds , that zone was near perfect, and IMO is the number 1 best designed zone in all of EQ. MPG was by far also my personal favorite zone , so many great camps, great rares, great loot, awesome layout, and the trials were a blast.

[Harrison]

I would have sex with that car. Twice.

[Omica]

Of all the crap that came after Velious, I really miss AAs, at least how they were at first. They were a way to customize and supplement my character and gave me a reason to go out there and xp again. As they are now on Live, it's as if your character really can't do much of anything unless you have like 1,000 AAs. That's no fun. I liked some of the Luclin content (ssra, etc.), but my computer back then just couldn't handle it.

[Danth]

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

So kunark was a 94 ford taurus and Velious was a ferarri 360?

The Taurus was a pretty decent car; that's no Taurus. That's a Tempo actually...I know because I crashed the Mercury version (Topaz) when I was a teenager. Ford built 'em from about '84 or so until '94. I Look back on that crash as a sort of community service, taking one of those pieces of garbage off the road. Nobody minded much, not even the car's owner. As noted, that car was an absolute piece of trash in every respect: small, uncomfortable, underpowered, equipped with an obsolete 3-speed transaxle, and curiously inefficient--for having a pitiful 96 horsepower, it only made a bit over 20 MPG. Rolling rubbish like that explains a lot about why the domestic builders found themselves in their current predicament.

Given that reality, the original poster's opinion of the early EQ expansions must be quite low! Not quite "Ford Festiva" low, perhaps, but low nonetheless.

My own take on Everquest expansions is that EQ got a little worse with each one. I liked the pre-expansion game best, then Kunark a little less, Velious a little less than that, and so forth. Eventually it declined enough that I no longer considered it worth paying for.

As a side note, that Mercury isn't the worst car I've driven, either; a distinction which belongs to a '78 Oldsmobile.

Danth

[Noselacri]

Luclin had some nice things, but it was the first and biggest step towards the downfall. I don't care about the updated graphics, it's not as if EQ could have kept going with the original graphics if it wanted to be competive with other games coming out. I can even get past the horrible and unfinished lore and how weird and un-EQish the zones and mobs were, though I still think Ssra was one of the best raids in the history of the game. AAs was a good concept, although I disliked the near-unlimited nature of it and prefer how they did it in EQ2. However, Luclin had two huge problems:

1) It was the first of many steps toward the utter removal of the sould of EQ. Nexus scions, the bazaar, basically the way it made the game world less real and meaningful. These two things alone did not have a huge impact on the game, but they went on and on with each expansion, adding PoK, assembly-line instanced dungeons in LDoN, maps and armor dye and completely unimpressive content in LoY, and eventually stated to produce expansions seemingly with a random content generator from GoD and onwards. It basically set in motion the progression toward the theme park style of MMORPG, the model that WoW has perfected because that game is meant to be that way, but the model that destroyed Everquest because it wasn't. EQ was about living in the world of Norrath, how the game world made sense (for a video game, anyway) and how every aspect of the game promoted community and socialization. Suddenly you could travel and trade without interaction, and while these two things alone had a relatively minor impact on the game at first, it slowly but surely impersonalized the game and changed the atmosphere for the worse.

2) Whoever came up with the bane weapons and key grinds needs to be drowned. That timesink was so obscenely ridiculous, so far beyond what a guild should have to go through to see the game's content, and had absolutely nothing to do with skill or diligence. Countless guilds stagnated and perished not because they weren't good enough for the content but because they couldn't get everyone to spend hundreds of hours acquiring access to it. It was absurd and completely unreasonable. Access to content should be limited by your ability to defeat it. If there should be a key/flag/attunement thing at all, it should be something that takes a reasonable amount of time and a guild effort, not endlessly camping trivial things for 0.1% drop rate shards and crap like that.

Other than those two things, Luclin did not kill EQ, it was just one of many steps in the wrong direction. And it wasn't the amazing act of brilliance and beauty that the first three eras were, it was merely decent.

[oldhead]

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

Personally I think the first 3 expantions were gold, and everything after that went down hill. I enjoyed Luclin for a few simple facts... The list goes on but you get the idea, would be great if p99 stopped on Luclin. :P

1. The bazaar made trade soooooooo much easier, rather than having to spend a lot of time in EC tunnels trying to buy and sell junk. Just leave your computer on over night and come back with your junk sold for you.
Any type of auction system will destroy what EC Tunnel is. it takes away skill to the economy and just makes it an easy search then undercut system.

2. The introduction of the AA system was amazing, really gave you something else to do in order for character improvement.
This is one thing I liked.. AA's fixed some class (ranger) and made some WAY over powered (wiz) done right it would have been great. Overall the AA's were a welcome addition once fixed.

3. Horses were a nice touch allowing for faster travel, and not having to sit down to meditate reducing mob agro when sat.
Trivialized SOW buffs. Didnt add anything

4. Character models were nice for the people that enjoyed them, and if you didn't just simply turn them off.
This is one of the worst things that came from Luclin. Horrible horrible models. Horrible animations.

5. A lot of great raid content like SSRA, and VT. Believe it or not I actually enjoyed the process of getting keyed for VT.
one of the most tedious things EQ ever had in it and you enjoyed it? This a troll attempt?

6. The Nexus was great, made travel easier but didn't overdue it like PoP's instant travel to anywhere.
Again trivialized porting classes and travel buffs. Easy is not Good. Easy is what ruined EQ. EZ is why you are here and not playing WoW.

[Seeatee]

horses really didnt trivialize sow, sure some were as fast as sow and some as fast as selos, but they were very situational, they took forever to speed up and slow down, 9 out of 10 people on fennin just used them for mana regen and being able to cast w/o sitting and standing constantly.