Everquest

to all who once left EQ

I have decided, after spending years of thinking about this issue that is important to tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people, that many will return to a classic server to Velious. 

Perhaps the server should begin at Classic then open Kunark in six months and Velious in a year, but a sever that ends at Velious I think is what many, many people really want for varied reasons.  I think SOE should simply deliver it. 

I think a new start server with a good population and maybe more balanced classes so once you reach a certian level classes don't become unwanted. Or  enough new people that I could start over again and be able to get groups, I would guess right now it would be pretty dang hard to find groups on a consistent basis for a new or starting over player.

One of the main reasons I cannot justify returning to EQ1 is the exp loss and de leveling.

I stopped playing my main character at lv 65 with about 3 full bubs in.  IMO the exp loss was too much of a constant pain to gain back if a bad string of deaths occurred.  Not to mention on major raids in the planes you know multiple deaths are a given.

Losing a level and major spells that go along with that lv or abilities just ruins the experience for me.

I'm not saying there should little or no penalty but Daoc's approach to dying and the penalty is more acceptable to me.  You can lose a whole level of exp in Daoc if you died that many times in succession up to lv 40.  After 40 you can gain half a lv in exp and if you die after the half way mark you don't lost the first half of that lv but could lose the remaining exp if you completed say 4.5 of the remaining bubs of exp.

Lets face it it no easy leveling in Eq1 at least I found it more of a grind than current mmorpgs such as Daoc, Wow, even Eq2 I thought was easier with the quest rewards.

The biggest turn off in any rpg/mmorpg to me is the loss of a level gained.

I played a Dark Elf magician one of the very first class/race combos when Eq1 was first released with a lv 50 cap.

I returned a few times and rejoined old friends on 7th Hammer and got flagged for almost all of the pop zones but not Time itself.

If they changed the de-leveling aspect of EQ1 I'd problably try to hit the new lv cap and check out current game play.  Maby the hardcore fans of Eq1 love that aspect of the game and it feels more real for them.

I personally play solo or 2box 90% of the time in any mmorpg due to time constraints, I'm sure I'll get a reply about hailing a cleric to rez or 2boxing one etc.  Been there done that, its a turn off for me to lose a level of exp no matter what.

Never Take a level of experience away from a player but make the penalty of death reasonable and I think most players can or will accept that in a game.

1- New graphics and engine.

2- Raid-free server with all raid-loot enable in a way that is far more efficient and optimal then raiding is on the raiding server, so there are no debate that groupers are been shaft in anyway.

3- Many twists would be required, such as sidekicks, better travel powers, more character diversifications (not all chanters been the same, you should have to choose a specialisation, so you are better either with mana buffs, with haste buffs, with mez, with stuns or whatever, but needs distinctions)...not completely necessary, but most of these points would have to be in.

I don't think this will ever happen, so I am not going to whatch much EQ, but look forward to new titles.  Afterall BioWare is coming to town, and I am pretty sure their MMO would respect these 3 points.  Point 2 is not negociable, best groupers have to be groupers.  No arguing.  If you want to be good at grouping, then group.  Nothing else is acceptable.

Classic server up to Velious only, perhaps with maybe a few of the new zones added to the old world if they fit  and aren't unbalancing (I know nothing about them). Including Paineel and associated zones is an absolute must.

EQ rocked up till Luclin where it just seemed to lose focus and direction. Classic, Kunark and Velious are the glory days of EQ at it's finest. Nothing but a classic server up to Velious could make me come back. And I would.

Classic to Velonious expansion.

A revamp of the graphics engine (though not to drastically change the areas like they did to Freeport and the Commonlands), new solo content and endgame content that doesn't involve raiding, fun non-grind quests and of course a surge in the population. The population of EQ back in the old days was what made it fun. Despite PoP not being my favorite expansion, it was a blast seeing a bunch of people in one area, finding groups, working on tradeskills, or just kicking back and socializing. Man I miss those days.