Change ratings...

[Draggar]

OK, so some of us have been on EQ for a long time, I''ve been on it over 3 years, before Kunark.

We've all seen many changes in the game, some bad, some good.

Here is what I rate some of the more significant changes (well, significant to me), these are purely by opinion, and feel free to add opinions.

Lets start with the expansions;

Kunark - B
First expansion - new race to play, primarily an evil continent. Great zones from 1 and up, including some zones that you an go from 1 to the 30s in without ever leaving.

Velious - A
Great continent to group or solo from your 30s and up. Good loot, new tradeskills, new race, but its unplayable. Choose which faction you want and which ones you don't want. Ally with giants or dwarves, your choice. Lots of orc killing, too.

Luclin - C-
I don't like Luclin that much, it would have scored much lower if it wasn't for the bazaar and acrylia. All zones are a huge resource hog on my computer, very choppy even at minimal settings. Fir loot, but great opprotunities with tradeskills and a new playable race. The Nexus was also a huge plus for this.

The Warrens- B+
Free expansion which later turned out to the the gateway to Ykesha. Not bad, good low level experience, loot could be better. But it was free

Plains of Power- A
PoK. 'nuff said. Get anywhere quickly, easily and mostly safely. Access to most tradeskill items, and recently I've gained access to the plains, which I think are great also.

Legacy of Ykesha - A-
I've played very little of it, but there have been some great items that I've gotten, plus the new charm slot AND expanded bank slots.

Lost Dungeons of Norrath - A+
Great experience, great loot for the levels, plus augmentations and the new point system to get upgrdes without spending your hard(ly) earned platinum.

[Draggar]

Zones;

The Nexus and Bazaar - A+
I love the bazaar for buying AND selling. The Nexus became the best way to travel around.

Plain of Knowledge - A-
Access to everything and everywhere. So many people its very choppy for me

Plain of Tranquility- A
Great place to hang out, no high traffic, only 45+ allowed. No newbies chain hailing you.

Field of Bone and Lake of Ill Omen - A++
IMOHO - the best newbie zones in the game.


OK, off to gametime, maybe I'll add more tomorrow. :-)

[eniamn]

just a side note. you can go from 1 to 30 in everfrost pretty well too and has dang nice loot on mammoths. problem with ldon camp there is most higher levels kill the mammoths but still great exp/loot for the level when you can get it.

Luclin. i hate the bazaar. use it as much as i can stand. just go to check prices for what i'm selling every now and then. i do find some of the luclin zones interesting though. B- Luclin.

PoP has Pok and gets automatic A+ for tradeskilling. dont like shadow haven but PoK rules. takes a lot of money from porters but i can live with that.

Kunark still haven't been there much. NR

Velious get an A+ for tradeskilling, quests, fun and definetly scenery. just full of pretty zones and mobs so far.

[Cerpicio]

The Warrens weren't part of the original release?! I never knew that. I started playing just before Luclin and I remember going to the Warrens with a group of friends (though we may not have gone there till after Luclin was released, I don't remember the exact timing).

But I thought Stoneburnt was an original zone and you can't get there without going through the Warrens. The port to Stoneburnt was a recent addition though.

Jaggedpine Forest was a free, extra zone, wasn't it? Not an original, but not part of an expansion? Same goes for the brand new zone just off of JPF?


-- C.

[Cantatus]

Solusek Ro's Temple (off of Lavastorm), Plane of Hate, Plane of Sky, Paineel, The Hole, Warrens, Stonebrunt, Jaggedpine, and Nadaria's Landing were all added free after release (in that order).

[eniamn]

thought jp was before sb but yeah that list is right. can't think of any extras. hate was revamped.

not sure about temple of cazic. hard to remember if new or revamed anymore hehe.

[Dunthor Warsmith]

Plane of hate was a free "optional download zone" to start with, but yes it is also among the revamped zones. A lot of places have been revamped, to one degree or another. The Accursed Temple of Cazic Thule zone is actually on its third version right now I believe

Surefall is another free zone, that Cantatus forgot Before Jaggedpine (naturally) but I forget beyond that.

[Verdandi]

Surefall has always been available. It is a starting city for (I think) human and half elf rangers and druids. I had a friend who was in beta and played a ranger starting in Surefall as his beta character. So I'm quite sure (hee hee) it's always been there.

As for ratings, let's see...

Kunark: (A-) It flowed very logically from the old world. The boat system was time consuming even as boats go, but had a whole lotta class. My primary complaint is that the spell drops are *still* too rare for some spells.

Velious: (A) Love it love it love it. I would prefer not to have to choose between dragons and giants but the armor quests and all center around that and I can't think of a way to improve it without losing the Velious feel.

Luclin: (B+) I agree that it's much too laggy, although it's definitely gorgeous. I'm still not satisfied with some things about the new models but other features more than make up for it. I love the atmosphere in these zones. Katta is broodingly gorgeous. Knowing the lore of Sanctus Seru makes the hairs on my neck stand up when I'm there.

PoP: (B) I like the idea in theory. Once again it has fabulous atmosphere and utility. Some really fun challenges. But I hate the fact that in practice it creates places that a casual player can NEVER see, no matter how much play time they eventually put in. Being made a permanently second class citizen here because I choose a casual play schedule really hurts.

Ykesha: (A) Really well done. I was mostly beyond the target levels at release but it certainly seems popular with the folks in that range.

LDoN: (A+) There are things I'd change of course, but in general it's a great experience. It competently addresses several big concerns people had had.

[Madrel]

Kunark - C originally, B currently.

The first of the expansions. Originally a real PITA, as everyone & their brothers was doing the LoIO - FM - OT - DL exp grind. These days, much less crowded. Lots of quests are found here.

Velious - B

More new zones, but nothing for the new player. Some decent quests (most notably the Coldain Shawl). Good place for those of level 30+ to hunt.

Luclin - D

This was the worst of the expansions IMHO. The downtime following its launch is the stuff of legends. The zones are poorly designed and very laggy to this day. Content - it gave us the Vah Shir and the Beastlord, which is good. It gave us the Spires which was good. It gave us the Bazaar which has destroyed the economy on the majority of servers. It gave us Paludal Caverns which allows people to get into their mid-to-high 20's before really learning how to play their characters.

Warrens - B

Good loot for the INTENDED levels. Fast exp with a group that knows what they're doing. Empty on most servers, as that level range has gone to Paludal.

Planes of Power - C

PoK has done away with much of the thrill of exploring the world. I think this is a bad thing. I still remember my first trip from Qeynos to Freeport as a level 6 bard, doing the mail quests. It was a rite of passage for a lot of us old timers. On the other hand, PoK gave us a centralized place to do virtually everything, plus access to the planes.

Ykesha - B-

I've got limited time in this expansion, but it doesn't seem to offer a lot in terms of zones and content. It *is* worth getting for the Guild Management tool, the map function, and the extra bank slots though.

Lost Dungeons - B+

This expansion made it possible to get decent experience and loot without worrying about problems caused by other players. It introduced augmentations - a very nice thing. It forced people to learn how to work together and coordinate what they're doing, which is a very good lesson to learn. LDON does make it harder to find a group elsewhere though.

[Sanna]

Hm. I R Noob. I started playing just barely over a year ago (has it been that long???), POP was new, Aid Grimel (esp the party platter) was sooo unsolved, and there were only 8 bank spaces. How on earth did anyone survive with only 8 bank spaces? I was there for a while and I can't even remember.


Original: I played on the downloaded .exe with no expansions for about a month. On Sullon. How I managed to do it... I forget. My 'world' consisted of Freeport - boat - Butcherblock - GFay - DagCauld - Unrest. I bought Gold (Kun, Vel, Luc, Pop) as a late Christmas gift.

Didn't set foot on Kun or Vel till... late 30s at least. Property of Sullon; if I had, I'd have died. /shrug. I like Velious, I can deal with the 'choose your own faction' route. Yay for Coldain shawl. ^_^ (what was 'new unplayable race'? Coldain dwarves?)

Kunark I play in on other servers. I like it. Visually, it's got this feel to it that reminds me of my grandmother's farm (Overthere in mind atm). Kinda... Wild-West-y. The mobs are sufficiently 'ugly' so you don't feel 'bad' about killing them, without having the ... floppy anatomy of certain female models in Loy. /shudder.

Luclin I like for bazaar, nexus, spires, and because my computer and connection can handle the zones. I actually, for some odd reason, can get worse lag in Field of Bone than I do in Luclin zones (Marus Seru is gorgeous) or Jaggedpine. /shrug. Kitties... I like the Kitties. I like RL kitties and I like the way the EQ Kitties run. Beastlords rock, too.

Pop.... ask me about Pop when Tinkbang gets there. Iroke will never see it properly. (PS: Zerg raids suck.) I love Pok. I'm always finding new things in there, and I've had the zone for nearly a year now. (Did you ever bother to look kinda up on the evil side? The tops of the walls are chipped away, eroded. I just never noticed that before.... and practicing Safe Fall and Bind Wound off the bridges from the library is FUN! Neeeerrooooom SMACK! hehehhe. )

Loy. I love this. UGLY mobs in the zones, but bank space. bank space. bank space! Tradeskillers freaking dream come true. Zones are decent too, even though I think I've only really xped in Nadox and a tiny bit in Gunthak. Again, property of Sullon /shrug.

LDoN. Haven't bought, haven't regretted. I'll wait for a few more expansions to come out, and then get 2 or more in whatever $30 version they put out.


My 2c. ^_^

-- Sanna