*Another* expansion???

[Shaman Arriana]

You can get a very precise number of zones in eq by going into your EQ directory with DOS, and typing "dir *_chr.s3d". Every zone has a file with that extension on it.

327 is the correct answer. That counts each of the LDoN dungeon variations as a seperate zone.

[Sanna]

Syphan
Just consider yourself lucky that there are no new levels

Yet.

-- Sanna
really fears the day the level 75 PKers are allowed to camp the books in Gfay. /sigh.

[Itek]

Originally posted by Shaman Arriana
You can get a very precise number of zones in eq by going into your EQ directory with DOS, and typing "dir *_chr.s3d". Every zone has a file with that extension on it.

327 is the correct answer. That counts each of the LDoN dungeon variations as a seperate zone.

Um. No.

You see there are NON-Zone *_chr.s3d files.

box_chr.s3d
brl_chr.s3d
bvk_chr.s3d
cpt_chr.s3d

and the list goes on and on and on...

Originally I was very angry about this post, but I've decided that Shaman didn't realize that their post makes me sound like an idiot.

Itek: There's 232 zones, by my count, and I've been to most of them, both as a player and a guide.
Shaman: Itek's high. c:>dir says there are 327 zones.

I -highly- doubt I missed nearly -100- zones Shaman. Thinking back I might have missed ChardokB. I remember thinking about it when I was remembering SolC for the Antonica continent. I might have spaced it off when counting Kunark. (I did remember Veksar though.)

**Begin EDIT**
Yes, I missed ChardokB. I updated the old post to reflect that. There are 233 zones.

To find them search for *_obj.s3d not *_chr.s3d

This shows 262 files. 29 of them are duplicate / add-on files.

1 blackburrow-2
2 chardok-2 (NOTE: this is CHARDOK_2 ... CHARDOKB is a seperate file so it is counted as a zone while Chardok_2_obj.s3d is an add-on to chardok_obj.s3d)
3 eastwastes-2
4 everfrost-2
5 global
6 groob-2
7 guktop-2
8 gunthak-2
9 hateplaneB (this is the LIVE hateplane, but there's only one hateplane so I counted the B as the duplicate)
10 hole-2
11 iceclad-2
12 innothule-2
13 kael-2
14 lfaydark-2
15 load
16 load2
17 necropolis-2
18 nro-2
19 oasis-2
20 qrg-2 (surefall glade 2)
21 skyshrine-2
22 sleeper-2
23 sro-2
24 stonebrunt-2
25 tak-d-2
26 templeveeshan-2
27 tutorial
28 wakening-2
29 westwastes-2

So unless you count "global" or "load" as zones.... there's 233 now, and 20 more coming, if nothing changes between now and Gates going live.

ACK!! I missed one somewhere. I don't have CSHome on my computer. (I had a hard drive crash last week and had to completely reinstall, and I haven't been a guide for a while so I didn't, obviously, re-download cshome files.) So there's 234 zones including cshome, 233 player zones.

[Faeadari]

My one big complaint about pop is that to get to higher places one had to basically have a ton of people to zerg a mob with.

At least with Loy and Ldon could get better gear/ etc. with only one group.

[Pojodan]

There is gear for the gap between Bazaar and PoP.
It's called Velious->Luclin.

The main trouble is this:

When Kunark debuted there was only a few guilds that could raid the big targets. Without much competition, everyone that could upgrade got upgraded before the masses came rolling through.

When Velious debuted there was only a few guilds that could raid the big targets. Without much competition, everyone that could upgrade got upgraded before the masses came rolling through.

When Luclin debuted..... etc etc etc.

The progression from 0-Time was designed around those that had already been progressing as the expansions came out.

Now, however, you try to create a new guild withg new characters and it's gonna be at least a year if not 2 before you can even begin to flirt with the idea of getting flagged towards Time due to the large number of -other- guilds working on old content as well as uber guilds farming items for sale/twinks/fun.


Right now, IMHO, the best option available is to do entirely LDoN adventures since a set of the 1492 gear w/ good augs is of tier 3 PoP quality. The trouble there is that you're looking at 3-4k points for each peice of gear @ 23 slots to fill = ~ 75k points or 1500 successful adventures @ lvl 65

So, while newbies are getting it easy these days with tips windows, target indicators, quest guides, etc etc, the push to uberdom is a long, hard struggle unless they got friends in high places.

[Sylphan]

If you think Velious/Luclin gear is better than bazaar gear you haven't been shopping much the last six months, or your server is very different than mine. The bazaar is dominated by castoffs from elemental guilds in PoP (especially tradeskill items), some Ornate molds, and sometimes LDoN or a few special older items. Anything less quickly gravitates to the 10k price point or lower. Mudflation in PoP was so extreme (plus PoP has more tradable items than NToV, VT, and ST combined) that the PoP bazaar junk is superior to raid gear from earlier expansions.

Take me as an example... my main character is an enchanter with FT15, every level 4 focus effect he could want, 280 INT and 2500 unbuffed HP (over 5k raid buffed). It's almost all from the bazaar (or EC, back before the bazaar opened), at a total cost of at least 500k... plus some quest items and the free augments looted during LDoN adventures. You just can't get stats like that from NToV and Akheva, it's impossible. He's raided Kunark/Velious/Luclin an average of twice a week for the last two years, and the only two items he still uses are the ones from recent raids in PoInnovation.

BTW, Vex Thal, Sleeper's Tomb, and LDoN hard hold plenty of upgrades but those are the keyed zones, the ones that pre-elemental guilds generally can't (or won't) reach. So they don't count as zones that pre-elemental guilds can raid.

[Marteeny]

BTW, Vex Thal, Sleeper's Tomb, and LDoN hard hold plenty of upgrades but those are the keyed zones, the ones that pre-elemental guilds generally can't (or won't) reach. So they don't count.

And the elemantal planes aren't keyed (flagged)? And they can be reached by most people? That makes no sense to me.

[Twistagain]

I believe the point of that comment was that the only upgrades in Velious/Luclin to bazaar-sellable items come from keyed zones...which make it all the more tempting to, instead, just save the money and buy bazaar sellables.