Ok - what do I mean by "Wide?"
Well - one of my complaints with modern MMOs is that nothing ties you to a single avatar, and so you end up playing a zillion of them - AND - apart from a little starter area maybe being different, the path from 1 to max is largely the same. I've always thought of these games as being "Narrow."
By contrast, I always thought of EQ as "Wide." For example - I just pulled up the map in EQ and looked at the zone guide. There are 24 zones that are appropriate for some portion of level 40 to level 60. Some are 40 to 55, some are 45 to 60, etc... TWENTY FOUR. How many such zones would you find in a modern game that cover that range... 2? 4?
While I know that Pantheon cannot hope to be that "wide" out of the gate - I think planning for that type of a world is brilliant - as I think width of world is just one more thing that ultimately makes it all feel LIKE A WORLD... You aren't just on a set of rails through the game. It's not just "I'm level 24 , the next place I go is "The level 25 place." - No, it's much more: "Hey, I'm level 24... where can I go next... well, I can go here, or there, or over there, or even over there.... Hmmm, that one over there is much farther away, but it's got some stuff I need to do for my Rite of Passage, I think I'll travel there."
Just having that type of thought pattern enabled by the game makes the world feel better with you standing in one spot in the game thinking it through. It has the same impact in your mind as someone asked you "What's a good place to visit in upstate New York?" And in your mind you start thinking... hmmm... Niagara Falls, the finger lakes, maybe take one of the wine tours... it just FEELS big.
SOOO glad to hear that said in the Round Table.
Couldn't be more pleased with what I am hearing. Encouragement of emergent gameplay ..sounds likes the "living" game world I want to live in. Glad to hear about underwater environments, glad that hasn't been lost in the shuffle. I remember Kedge Keep in EQ, and the promise of the Kraken and inter-ship battles in VG (never happened but I haven't forgotten.)
Mob AI, am curious what that means...will they migrate? Am already trying to imagine an appropriate raid boss in my head. lol
I can't wait to help test...!!
Cana
Guessing mob AI is something like at night the goblins come out raid village sun comes up the goblins go back in their hole. Or big ol mean Ogres decide hey I want that land over there and go invade it. Then Huma mounts up after awhile a chases Said Ogres back to their home land. Definitely sounds interesting and new. Water will be very interesting seeing if you have los issues and setting up distances right will make a very interesting aspect to this game.
Creating a dynasty of characters is what gave everquest the most charm for me. Ive created tons of toons in everquest and all of them have their own set if lore. Take Ichybuttt my low lvl ogre warrior tunnel mule for instance, he always has bags of the finest wares and enjoys spending free time killing snakes at the mouth of the east commons tunnel. Or Littlebully my lvl 20 gnome shadowknight that i created on the rallos zek server who will pick a fight with everyone and anyone whenever fironia vie server is down. or Munge my lvl 100 ogre beastlord who is very lazy and just enjoys watching his bear maul mobs to shreds.
Having a wide range of content for all lvls is essential because i think most people play a wide range of characters. If your lvl 100 toons guild is not raiding that day likely you will be playing your lower lvl rouge collecting illusion masks. or perhaps you have a gnome alt and you are maxing tinkering so you can make and sell re-breathers to epic questing warriors. Or maybe you and your friends have an alt guild on rallos zek called GNOMERCY that consist of only gnomes. I think a dynasty system would be cool so that your characters storys could intertwine.
