*Another* expansion???

[Cerpicio]

Anyone else getting sick of all the expansions? It just gets to be too much to keep track of after a while. I'm just now getting into some higher-level planes. I never did explore the LoY zones much. I've barely touched the AAs. And that's all with just one character class, not evening skimming the surface of all the other ones. Now they are adding even more zones, spells, recipes, and skills.

I like the epic feel of EQ, all the zones and stories/histories/quests, but after a while it gets to be too much. I got sick of UO after four years of playing because they kept adding in pointless crap; expansions for the sake of expansions.

"Hmm, it's been six months, guess we had better release a new expansion!"

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just getting worn out having played it so much. Maybe I just don't enough time to play as much as I'd like and I'm getting frustrated.

The new recipes intrigue me, but really, do we need another expansion to introduce them? Do we need even *more* zones to explore???



/sigh
-- C.

[sumamael]

Oh yes of course another expansion!

There are a lot of bored players out there with maxed AAs, full elemental gear who seen all zones and grabbed all items they wanted who are right now thinking leaving EQ out of the sheer boredom. This category is about 100 players per server, with 40 servers thats over 4000 people, considerable number.

Also there are a lot of players who reached their own limits and need new content for their own level, for example my guild been doing the same things for the last half a year.....something new and refreshing would be great.

[Verdandi]

Then of course there are the people who can't keep up and actually get less powerful the longer they play, compared to the general populace. I almost quit after PoP, when I became useless on raids within a couple weeks. That's a horrible feeling. I'm glad I stayed with it, but I think it's a mistake to think that only a handful of people feel that way. These folks just aren't nearly as likely to express their opinions publicly as the powergamers.

I also sometimes think the world is getting too big. I am staggered at the number of 65s who have never even seen Freeport, much less Qeynos.

The new stuff is fun and exciting, no doubt. Every expansion has brought things I adored. And of course the extra $30 every 6 months surely has something to do with it.

But there are definitely drawbacks as well.

[Cerpicio]

I'm working on a list of all the zones available in EQ. I used both EQAtlas and Allakhazam's for my information.

I counted things like Kaladim South and Kaladim North as two seperate zones. It also includes those two temporary zones (are they still around? Sol C and the one in Chardok?). It only counts the LDoN zones as one each for a total of five.

I'm working them into an HTML table to post. Right now they are just in an Access database.

So what's your guess? Or do you know for sure how many seperate zones there are? And how many of these zones have you been to, considering some of them require keys or at least flags.

I'll post my results soon. I was just curious how many I've been to. I think I'll make it a goal to visit as many as possible (the keyed ones will be tough).



-- C.

[sumamael]

I never counted but I have been to all zones except PoEarthB, PoTimeA, PoTimeB and CShome.

Playing around 4-6 hours a day for 3 years will get you to most places in EQ

[eniamn]

203 or with ldon 208. somewhere about that. pok did a lot to make people never need to see other zones. they go to the max exp places and skip all the others. paludal/highkeep/dl and go from 16-46 with 3 zones and pok to bank/sell. then they start ont eh planar rotation.

[Cantatus]

How many continents did the citizens of Norrath lose? They must be really forgetful or something...

I'm hoping the "hundreds of new tradeskill items" is 700+ and not 100-200 (although that'll be a pain to input to the database!).

[eniamn]

something near pop quality without as much rarity or flagging would be nice.

[Cerpicio]

I counted 185 total zones in EQ.

I've been to many with my enchanter, but I'm missing some of they keyed ones, like Howling Stones (aka Charsis) and Kerafym's Lair (aka Sleeper's Tomb).

I'll post that table soon and get some feedback on all the zones, to see if I somehow missed one. If I don't do it this weekend, then by the end of the year (I have a week off between Christmas and New Year's Day).


-- C.

[Marteeny]

Originally posted by eniamn
something near pop quality without as much rarity or flagging would be nice.

No thanks. That would basically crash the market. High end stuff should be rare, otherwise it becomes average and people will just cry for better.

I agree that the flags suck, as i will never see The Elemental planes, but making high end stuff less rare isn't going to help. It's not like you skill up off the high end stuff, so I say keep it rare, but available in zones everyone can access.

[Itek]

Antonica 53 ... been to all but nerdia's

Faydwer 15 ... been to all

Odus 9 ... been to all but Kerra Isle

Alternate Planes ... been to all 3 (Hate, Fear, Air)

===

Kunark 29 ... been to all but Veeshan's Peak, Howling Stones, Chardok-B **EDIT** I included Chardok-B in my list of haven't gone to, but not in the list of zones. **End EDIT**

===

Velious 19 ... been to all but Temple of Veeshan, Plane of Growth (they moved Mischief)

===

Luclin 28 ... been to all but Umbral Plains, Vex Thal

===

PoP 23 ... PoNb, HoHb, Tactics, Sol Ro, Fire, Earth, EarthB, Air, Water, TimeA, TimeB
(flagged for PoNb just never zoned in)

===

LoY 5 ... still haven't gone to Hate's Fury yet

===

LDoN 48 ... figure i've been to 39 or so of them but that's not really a consideration,
since they are all "cut and paste" content

===

Restricted Zones (cshome) ... former guide, i've been there

===

233 zones, I've been in all but 21 or so. Of those 21...

13 are keyed / flagged so i'm working on them
Nerdia's Landing is pure green to 65
Kerra Isle was pure green long ago
ToV / PoG have factions I cherish so I won't go there.
Umbral Plains, Chardok-B, Hate's Fury, and PoNb ... yeah I should go check these zones out.

Yeah I admit I'm a little frustrated with a new expansion so soon, but on the other hand they have been keeping the same pace for a while now.

EQ - March 1999
Kunark - April 2000
Velious - December 2000
Luclin - December 2001
PoP - October 2002
LoY - Febuary 2003
LDoN - September 2003

Major expansions have been taking a year. Minor expansions 6 months. (yes, Velious was a minor expansion, it had half the content of Kunark)

Plus side for me... perhaps a new expansion will allow those in "non-elemental" guilds a place to go while the "elemental / time" crowd continue to farm PoP-Tier 4 and LDoN raids to get good gear without needing to break up and join existing "raiding guilds" just to continue to advance.

My guilds got 30 to 60 good players at high levels. But we aren't all on at the same time and we certainly aren't very organized. Just getting the guild flagged for tactics, let alone following the whole flagging set to get to Sol Ro / Elemental, is just not going to happen. If gear 80 percent as good drops in the new expansion without needing a year of flagging to get to it... I'd be dancing in the streets.

[Saleani]

SolC and ChardokB are still in the game.

Zones I have not been to yet:
PoTime and a couple of elemental planes. PoMischief.
Not every possible LDoN dungeon (for example, the guk adventures I get assigned all seem to be the same map).

The number of zones in the game is around 235. Some maps

My opinion of why LoY is under-used has to do with the high hitpoints and extreme aggro from greens. Folks go there to get their quest spells, or tradeskill stuff, and that is it. ChardokB appears to be a reward to the folks who are non kos to sarnaks, no one else goes there. One of the zone-outs from SolC is broken, so you cannot escape unless you can gate or port out.

Boredom is a very significant issue. I don't have all my spells or AAs yet for either of my level 64-65 characters. I am sick and tired of going on the same old raids: the ones where the goal is the rare drop, and the common drops from the raid target rot. Frankly, it disturbs me that this stuff rots, since it would be a significant upgrade for many people (although those people are not in my guild). Half of the raid loot I recieved this year was stuff that was going to rot.
Well, my 8th shawl is better than this, ring is the rare item.
I don't have one, but they rot now, (warrior sword is the rare item, plate bp mold is highly desired, for now).
Every paladin in our guild has one of these (2hb and ornate pattern are the goal from this guy).
Everyone who can equip it, has one already.

Do I want to spend several weeks getting the pieces for my emperor and vt keys? Why? How often have I used my veeshan's peak key? Well, what do you know, the key goes on the /key ring. Really nice loot in vt? So? So we can watch more stuff rot? So we can upgrade the folks with FT5 shirts to FT8 shirts? Is this going to be like my PoSky quests where it takes 14 months to get my quest items for one quest? I'm rather tired of quests taking a year to get finished due to rare drops, rare mobs, or racing other people to get to the mob, or having to pay some farmer 60kpp for the last item I need.

I sure would like to do something new. At least LDoN gives that option, although no guild on my server has completed an LDoN raid. I hope the new expansion will have some new places to go, and that the quests won't be broken for 3+ years like some kunark quests. Or nerfed to futility like the chardokB ones.

[eniamn]

near pop not ele. a bow something not so rare as nightmarewood even but has stats for not nature woman worshippers or big and sloshy. doesn't even have to be as good as nightmarewood.

something after ldon and before tae ewe maybe acrylia level but loved the idea for ldon armor and different tempers. none of which are that hard to get for a forager but cost me 100pp in bazaar. i wait until i can find for 50pp but still.

some decent player made weapons and shields that aren't black acrylia or tae ewe. who used their combine acrylia temper on a weapon instead of armor? nothing amazing but a few stats, magic and maybe a 1/2 delay ration.

something around 220 level tailor that isn't acrylia but has class restrictions on it. finally get druid only tailored items that were missing in velious.

pop like baking for brewers to make drinks with. please no liquified misty thicket picnics.

something like ele silk stuff for casters besides ice silk from veliuos. granted loy robes did a lot but i want to craft some decent legs and sleeves. (i know ornate sleeves but come on not everyone has 40k for them.)

researched one shot items that take mana vials. the warrior has a one shot potion of ice comet or something. maybe make multi charge items for some spells and increase casting time a lot. no insta click ch potion.

shaman made rez potion. alchemy just got a lot more useful.

nothing pop level easy but tradeskilled items are far behind mudflation. dont catch up to mudflation but dont get laughed at. centi longswords for 2k and i can't make anything close except tae ewe and black acrylia. can't use them on my tradeskill item only twink warrior though.

mob drops that are almost as good as the real loot but made with tradeskills for variety. dragon drops war only bp but also hide that can be made into plate almost as good for all plate class or decent for leather classes.

just some thoughts.

edit maybe some bigger things for multiple kills. red dragon scales and white dragon scales make bp that rock but put them together in and make a prismatic bp that is even better. would be like trashing two ele gods to get time god common loot item. trash two (or mor) time gods and get super uber item. everyone gears up in good stuff and drops and then when they farm again and nobody can use it gets bagged and later turned into an upgrade and current stuff can be given to others in guild. everything makes a very nice item on its own but can be combined to make better.

[Sylphan]

I know there's a lot to keep up with. Just consider yourself lucky that there are no new levels -- at least there's a modicum of restraint. And there is a need for the expansion actually, in the gap between elemental planes and pre-elemental.

It's hard to schedule a raid for a specific target. I can count on my fingers the number of raidable mobs in Kunark/Velious/Luclin/Ykesha that are alive more than one third of the time... and LDoN raids are definitely intended for elemental and time guilds. That leaves PoP, PoP, or maybe PoP, which gets a bit monotonous, and by the way many of those PoP mobs get killed every three days too. If the new instanced zones are good, that could give many guilds something to do that's actually schedulable.

There's a corresponding gap in equipment between elemental and bazaar gear. It's a huge gap with nothing halfway in between. There are surprisingly many guilds out there that have no intention of going to elemental planes (or other keyed or flagged zones) and thus have no way to improve most gear beyond bazaar quality. A new level 50+ expansion might allow for progression for those folks who don't plan to go to the elemental planes.

Yes, I can predict it now. I figure the new expansion will fit right in with POP, but with instances instead of flags.

Oh, and regards tradeskills... I figure one new metal, and that's about it. It will be forged into one set each of cloth/leather/chain/plate in size small/medium/large, plus combinable with each of the 30 or so gems in jewelry... and probably made into arrowheads as well. Tada... hundreds of recipes by adding just one new metal. You can't expect much more than that... there's not much chance this expansion will have as many recipes as PoP.

[Niellya]

Anyone else getting sick of all the expansions?

Absolutely not !