The "how scared should we be at night" thread made me think of something else that really made EQ so great and was hoping for some input from brad and Kilsin etc on zone layout. (this has nothing to do with in game maps)
I am not sure if EQ zone layout was a happy accident, or a well thought out plan. The way the zones were connected in EQ seemed to promote seeing people of all levels in nearly every single zone. I started as a Dark Elf (Neriak) and I had THREE zones just in my starting city. (I loved that), but once I made it to Nektulos Forest to kill some mobs down at the noobie log, I started seeing Trolls and Humans etc. run past. Some of them had Dark Elf guards chasing them since there was no leash, just zone lines. These guys were lev 10+ and I got to see my first character dressed in Full Bronze! and he looked awesome. The Only reason I got to see these people was because they were headed to Lavastorm.
EQ was my first MMO. it was 1999. I still had dial up internet. I loved seeing these "high" level characters of all races run past me, or drive by buff me.
My point being, the reason I was able to see higher level characters (and other races) was because of the placement of the zones. Had Lavastorm, Najena, Sol A and Sol B not being placed where people HAD to go thru Nek forest, I may not have seen them for a long.
Later I noticed that to get to high level zones. everyone HAD to go thru ALL of the starting city noobie zones. To get to Rathe Mountains, you had to go thru Innothule AND Feerrott. To get to Black Burrow, I had to go thru Qeynos hills. For Permafrost, I had to go thru Everfrost peaks. For anyone to get to Lava, Sol A, Sol B, Najena (4 zones!) everyone HAD to go thru Nek forest. All of these areas were near Oggok, Grobb, Neriak, FP, Qeynos etc. It tied All the starting zones/noobie zones into required travel as a high level.
Remember, I was Dark Elf. I was KOS in most zones. To get to Docks, I had to go thru Freeport. I had to kill a LOT of orcs to not get killed in FP. and then, when I wanted to go to BB so I could make it to Unrest for the first time. I couldn't even take the boat to the dock. I had to jump off and swim ashore Way off to the south of BB docks.
it seems to me, that every zone was connected to another zone to insure people of all levels were visible everywhere. I know we have had some post about having high level mobs in low level zones. and yes, I want that too. but the zone layout in EQ 1 was clever. I just want to know. was it on purpose? or a happy accident?
Now for the Main Question. The map shown when you click The World on the pantheon site has names of stuff here and there, but I also noticed that Thronefast (which I understand is supposed to be One of the starting areas, is crammed up in a corner. Looks like there is no reason to go there after a certain level. and there doesn't appear to be any reason for multiple races to run thru it on their way to something. There isn't anything above it.
I seriously hope that Thronefast isn't a World of Warcraft - Dalaran, all races and classes are welcome, type city. The Only cities that should come somewhere close to "dalaran" is cities like Freeport. It wasn't friendly to ALL races, but it was lenient to a degree. I had to use the sewers to get to the docks on half the characters I made.
Faction is supposed to be a thing in Pantheon, right?
I remember people asking for Each and every race to have to their OWN starting city in Pantheon; Is that still the case? Will that happen? Is the 'old' pantheon map still relevant / set in stone?
Will Pantheon arrange zones so they are like EQ where you have to pass by or MUST go thru areas where you may be KOS by faction based guards to get to a desirable area?
I don't want to only be blocked by "atmospheres", that seems like a bland way to make people 'go round' .
Thoughts?
I wish I could remember how VG did things, but I only played that game for less than month before going back to EQ.
I do remember VG being empty and lifeless, that's about it.
Great post mate!
Lets hope that the zones are set out in a way that promotes this kind of multi crossover travel as you have pointed out. The devs have commented here and there that they want to give high level players lots of reasons to be seen in lower level zones so we know it is on their mind, it is good pointing out thronefast being up in the corner, but essentially all we need is a nice big diverse dungeon up there behind it to encourage lots of traffic up there from all levels and we know they are intersted in having massive dungeons with multiple levels of mobs around to engage in different depths and heights!
I would say the map is essentially complete as far as where major cities are located in the world but there are LOTS more things to add within those areas as the world is fleshed out further.
Maybe a dev will chime in on this thread and indicate if they are building the world with this feature is on their radar? :)
Really nice post! I do hope Pantheon will have zones placed as cleverly as EQ did, for all the reasons you posted. Traffic through low level zones, importans of faction etc.
-sorte.
Edit: Found this in the FAQ
4.6 Are races going to have specific factions at creation and will there be instances where an evil race character can’t run to a good city?
Yes. While there are some nuances to faction and alignment adjustment, evil races such as the Ogre, Skar, and Dark Myr will have a hard time getting close to good race cities. This is not set in stone, however, as you can adjust your faction and alignment through your actions in the game world.
Well what you describe depended on where you were born .
At launch my character was born in Qeynos and this place was not at all like what you describe for Nektulous . Qeynos is in the middle of nowhere and there was no reason to go through . The only popular location was Blackburrow but it was a very low dungeon that you left around 15 . The only races I met during my first ~ 10 levels were human, erudites and barbarians . No high levels - we were all below 15 . The nearest teleport was in North Karana so that at the beginning I actually even ignored that teleports were possible . Around 15 I did this horribly dangerous naked run Qeynos-Freeport and never looked back . Already about 1 year after launch Qeynos became a ghost town .
Erudin was even worse - you just did your newbie quests and left Erudin for Qeynos and Blackburrow .
So actually I think that the EQ's devs didn't think about designing the zone connections to maximize the class/race/level diversity . It was just a lucky accident that Freeport was such an important Norrath's hub so that the zones near Freeport like Nektulous were maximally frequented what is also true in a lesser way for Butcherblock . Later on having the boats to Kunark in Oasis made this "Freeport-centrism" even stronger .
However I agree about the principle . Finding a way for high levels to return home has certainly an added value for the game, impresses the newbies and increases the usefulness of "newbie" zones . Now we shouldn't exagerate this usefulness - after a certain time every MMO becomes so top heavy that there are actually no newbies anymore and the initial "WOW !" effect generated by the diversity is no more there .
Deadshade said:Well what you describe depended on where you were born .
At launch my character was born in Qeynos and this place was not at all like what you describe for Nektulous . Qeynos is in the middle of nowhere and there was no reason to go through . The only popular location was Blackburrow but it was a very low dungeon that you left around 15 . The only races I met during my first ~ 10 levels were human, erudites and barbarians . No high levels - we were all below 15 . The nearest teleport was in North Karana so that at the beginning I actually even ignored that teleports were possible . Around 15 I did this horribly dangerous naked run Qeynos-Freeport and never looked back . Already about 1 year after launch Qeynos became a ghost town .
Erudin was even worse - you just did your newbie quests and left Erudin for Qeynos and Blackburrow .
So actually I think that the EQ's devs didn't think about designing the zone connections to maximize the class/race/level diversity . It was just a lucky accident that Freeport was such an important Norrath's hub so that the zones near Freeport like Nektulous were maximally frequented what is also true in a lesser way for Butcherblock . Later on having the boats to Kunark in Oasis made this "Freeport-centrism" even stronger .
However I agree about the principle . Finding a way for high levels to return home has certainly an added value for the game, impresses the newbies and increases the usefulness of "newbie" zones . Now we shouldn't exagerate this usefulness - after a certain time every MMO becomes so top heavy that there are actually no newbies anymore and the initial "WOW !" effect generated by the diversity is no more there .
It's of course just speculation on my part, but it seems to me that Western Antonica/Odus maybe were never quite finished. Like you said, there was basically nothing in that area of the world for someone over about level 20 other than Permafrost. I say this as someone whose first character to reach level 3 was an Erudite, so I have a strong nostalgic connection to that area of the world. It didn't seem all that well designed to me, then throw in the massive mostly empty zones separating it from the rest of the world (the Karanas). It was definitely the least well-designed area of classic EQ by a long shot, in my opinion.
There are many ways to strongly encourage characters to return to their home city. (daily quests, faction, faction merchants, banking, weekly tasks, diplomacy, overarching world plot mechanics, zone plot mechanics, PC guild housing, personal housing, NPC guilds, consumable resupply, harvesting, agriculture, dynamic encounter difficulty, etc)
The real question is, is that a design goal? It may not be. It might be. We don't know, they haven't said.
RIFT, for the first few years, had only two cities. And they were very tiny, but everyone was in them. EQ2 pretty much had qeynos and freeport and that was it, to start with. All the races were in one or the other.
I don't envy the Visionary Realms team, given they appear to be creating unique racial starting areas. Not only is it a lot more work, in every game I've played (so far?) that has unique racial starting cities, inevitably they turn into ghost towns. It does fit in with the lore of Terminus, though.
Warhammer Online had only a few starting areas, a few for each "side" of their conflict mechanic. Some races shared.
Vanguard had starting villages which were kind of laughable, really, when you consider them as racial homelands, for some races. They were seriously tiny. It's like... all of them, came from 5 crude buildings? Whaaaat? That's barely enough for one extended family, never mind an entire race.
When you look at the racial starting area for Halflings in the LOTRO (The Shire) it's huge. There are dozens of houses, and conceptually, you can believe that it supports dozens of families.
It's been discussed before on these forums, but generally seen as negative; All zones can be used at all levels. You can even overlay a dynamic difficulty system, per encounter, that each group could use/enable if they desired, or not. Again, doesn't appear to be a design goal from what they've said, but there are solutions, they're just new/innovative, as a result, might be a hard sell to the target demographic.
Some people assume that racial starting areas will be significant hubs and need things to attract higher level characters back. It is possible that this is the way it will work but it doesn't need to be.
As most of us agree the starting area is important - it immerses new players (if done well) and gets us to want to keep playing. The good ones let us know much of the background of our race and give us things we want to do to help our race, our clan, our family, our town, or something else other than having the sole motivation being "xp and phat lewt". But this isn't necessarily the same dynamic as a major (or even minor) city with (possibly) crafting areas, visitors from other races, things for much higher levels to do etc.
Almost surely the main racial ....call it a hub .... will be accessible from the starting area and easy to get to. So e.g. a level 3 can get there without excessive risk. But I see no reason whatsoever that at birth at level 1 the new character can't be outside the hub and guided to go there after absorbing some racial background in a less ...cosmopolitan ....locale.
I have played a lot of MMOs. It is very rare for characters to actually start in a major hub. Too busy, too many distractions, too hard to help the new player focus on one or two paths that immerse them in the game and the lore. It is considered entirely sufficient for the new character to be guided to a major hub after the basic immersion.
We mostly want old school so citing examples of how games created after 1999 work isn't necessarily persuasive. But a lot of things commonly done in the industry weren't done because a 20-sider came up twelve - they had good reasons. If the reasons are inconsistent with our basic tenets - to the nine hells with them! But we ignore them at our peril if our worldview is more simply "1999 good - after 1999 bad". Each common design feature in the larger world of MMOs should be considered with the question "Is it consistent with our guiding principles?" "Does it work well to encourage new players to stay?" Not just new players that played MMOs decades ago but new players that didn't but like what they hear of our approach.
Starting life in a hub may well be the best approach but let us keep an open mind to the possibility that it may NOT be the best approach.
It's a question of whether you design around the world or the players.
The cities of early EQ felt like they corresponded to the racial lore, and the world around them fit with that. When the Plane of Knowledge was added, it didn't change the lore of those cities, but it certainly changed the feeling of the world. Race just didn't matter as much any more. It was a convenience for the players at the expense of the lore of the world. There's no question I saw a lot more people in PoK then I ever saw in any of the major cities. But it also had a huge impact on the world environment itself.
Later games adopted this principle pretty heavily. To the point where it didn't matter how many "zones" your world had because everyone only played in the 5 most popular at the time. The world became a "funnel" that was built around bringing players together and focusing more on events and activities rather than a living, breathing world. There were attempts to compensate for this, such as "hot-zones"; but in the end, if you build around the players the world will suffer for it.
There are definite advantages to each and I'm not naive of the downsides of "world focus". However, early-EQ felt like I was playing in a world even though there were fewer people to group with. Later-EQ felt much more like a "theme-park"... find your group and choose a ride. Personally, I prefer to play in a world rather than take a ride.
vjek said:There are many ways to strongly encourage characters to return to their home city. (daily quests, faction, faction merchants, banking, weekly tasks, diplomacy, overarching world plot mechanics, zone plot mechanics, PC guild housing, personal housing, NPC guilds, consumable resupply, harvesting, agriculture, dynamic encounter difficulty, etc)
The real question is, is that a design goal? It may not be. It might be. We don't know, they haven't said.
They actually have stated several times this is a design goal. They don't want to go through the trouble of designing racial starting cities and have them end up as ghost towns. They are planning them with reasons for higher levels to continually come back. So I'm not sure where you got that from.
vjek said:It's been discussed before on these forums, but generally seen as negative; All zones can be used at all levels. You can even overlay a dynamic difficulty system, per encounter, that each group could use/enable if they desired, or not. Again, doesn't appear to be a design goal from what they've said, but there are solutions, they're just new/innovative, as a result, might be a hard sell to the target demographic.
Direct copy paste from the FAQ.
What is being done to make the world feel alive?
We love the idea of bringing back a wide level range of content in the same zone. While some areas in a zone may be for low levels, other areas may contain higher level content. We want high and low level players to occupy the same spaces, encounter each other in their travels, and inspire players to reach higher levels. So again, this is a stated design goal. It may not be for every single zone in game, but it's a goal of their's to do it as much as possible from what was said on stream.
Once they release specifics, great. Until then, it's speculation and theorycrafting. They refuse to be specific, so I refuse to believe them, so far. :)
Having level 1-20 static content (or two tiers of static content) in one zone isn't what I'm referring to. That's already been done, even in EQ1. Having open world static trainable level 1-9 and level 41-49 content in a racial starting area? I can see how that would cause more problems than solve them, but I've been wrong before.
I'm referring to an innovative/new mechanic whereby, if desired, optionally, not required, per group, per encounter, a group leader could optionally turn on/off dynamic encounter difficulty, anywhere in the game, and content would scale up to the level of the group, and still provide XP & drop Environment related loot. This keeps all zones relevent, provided Environment related loot is required forever.
However, most people just see it (wrongly) as Oblivion level scaling (which was incredibly broken) and ignore any attempts at innovation.
It's not like static two-tiered zones won't work, it's just not new or innovative. I don't personally see it as a draw to keep level 50 players coming back to their racial starting cities. Again, lots of options, just none enumerated to date.
vjek said:I'm referring to an innovative/new mechanic whereby, if desired, optionally, not required, per group, per encounter, a group leader could optionally turn on/off dynamic encounter difficulty, anywhere in the game, and content would scale up to the level of the group, and still provide XP & drop Environment related loot.
I understand what you're saying, recognize that it's innovative, appreciate your suggestion, and vehemently oppose its inclusion in Pantheon.
Thanks for sharing this Naim! I had never seen the zone layout and it brought back some memories and brought new light to some of my personal gaming experiences.
As for the layout, I would like to make particular note of where Kithicor is located. It is a necessary passage between the two sections of Antonica. I can't imagine that its design as a fearsome forest was a happy coincidence for the devs back in the day. This seems like the kind of diagram that exists somewhere on a VR dev's desk right now, or at least I hope that it is.
Also, just take note of the overall world circuit and how few options you have to get to certain places. When looking at the MMO maps of other games that I've played there is a distinct difference. The other games have zones actually fit a world map with minimal gaps or overlap. This makes for a beautiful looking world map, but isn't necessarily sound game design. In other MMOs zone A -> zone B can be done with 3+ paths. In Antonica the one place where you can choose how to go from A -> B is in the center Rivervale loop. This leads to funneling players, leads to remembering paths by repetition, and makes travel part of the "what am I going to do today" equation, all of which is wonderful in my opinion.
The impact of world design does tie in closely to returning to old content or old areas, but that is highly tied up in the specifics of VR's features. The success or failure of the progeny system (and other systems) will likely have a huge impact on whether or not the world truly lives or simply exists. As vjek correctly pointed out, we don't have specifics even though much of what we're discussing is already determined, so all we can do is wait see.
Shai said:I understand what you're saying, recognize that it's innovative, appreciate your suggestion, and vehemently oppose its inclusion in Pantheon.
hehe, yep, that's the typical response on these forums to anything innovative, this idea inclusive.
The problem remains, though, how to keep zones forever relevant to max level characters? The idea I've proposed does that. I look forward to discussing similar ideas. :)
Shai said:vjek said:I'm referring to an innovative/new mechanic whereby, if desired, optionally, not required, per group, per encounter, a group leader could optionally turn on/off dynamic encounter difficulty, anywhere in the game, and content would scale up to the level of the group, and still provide XP & drop Environment related loot.I understand what you're saying, recognize that it's innovative, appreciate your suggestion, and vehemently oppose its inclusion in Pantheon.
Wow. Please, no lol. That turns the entire feel from being a "world" to being a "game".
@vjek
I find if highly unlikely that zone upscaling or mob upscaling will be part of Pantheon.
They already have a system that scales you down to the mobs level making the content challenging again, I don't see them making something where everything is scaled up to your level. It creates way to many problems with balancing zone difficulty, because they would need to balance them for all levels.
i feel like the reason starting cities remained relevant was because i Had to go back each level to buy "most" of my spells (others may only be sold in Other areas)
I just hate POK type cities. I liked the way Neriak had glowing symbols and a very dark elf theme to enrich the fact that i Wanted to be dark elf. (i'm actually very sad dark elf didn't make it into pantheon... i know...doesn't fit the lore... blah blah... i still want to be dark elf ;p )
if i remember correctly, faction also dictated prices, another reason to go home.
I just hoped good zone layout would keep people going back home or would force them back thru noobie areas and not because a lev 45 mentored down to help a friend demolish mobs at 3x the rate - power leveling. Mentoring always works this way and i don't see that changing in pantheon.
Naim said:i'm actually very sad dark elf didn't make it into pantheon... i know...doesn't fit the lore...
Was there ever any discussion about Dark Elves not fitting the lore? Are we talking about the same lore even? The lore where rando species from wherever pop into existence whenever with no apparent rhyme or reason? How could anything not fit into that?
Have they said whether or not your home city is going to be the place where you sacrifice items for long term buffs? Or is that potentially a number of different locations? Seems like making it your starting city would be a good reason to return there at a reasonable rate.
Shai said:Naim said:i'm actually very sad dark elf didn't make it into pantheon... i know...doesn't fit the lore...Was there ever any discussion about Dark Elves not fitting the lore? Are we talking about the same lore even? The lore where rando species from wherever pop into existence whenever with no apparent rhyme or reason? How could anything not fit into that?
I am not a Lore guy so I have No idea what the lore is about in pantheon. The Reason I wanted to be dark elf in EQ was because I had just finished reading the Drizzt Do'Urden books before I started EQ. My clerics name was Zacknafeinn (had to spell it wrong to get it...)
I also found it funny that I was a dark elf cleric and named zacknafeinn since Zaknafein (in the books) hated Clerics ;p
I tried to read some Lore in Pantheon. it put me to sleep .
Are you saying that Pantheon lore is bad? lol i didn't read very much, so I don't know.
vjek said:Once they release specifics, great. Until then, it's speculation and theorycrafting. They refuse to be specific, so I refuse to believe them, so far. :)
Having level 1-20 static content (or two tiers of static content) in one zone isn't what I'm referring to. That's already been done, even in EQ1. Having open world static trainable level 1-9 and level 41-49 content in a racial starting area? I can see how that would cause more problems than solve them, but I've been wrong before.
I'm referring to an innovative/new mechanic whereby, if desired, optionally, not required, per group, per encounter, a group leader could optionally turn on/off dynamic encounter difficulty, anywhere in the game, and content would scale up to the level of the group, and still provide XP & drop Environment related loot. This keeps all zones relevent, provided Environment related loot is required forever.
However, most people just see it (wrongly) as Oblivion level scaling (which was incredibly broken) and ignore any attempts at innovation.
It's not like static two-tiered zones won't work, it's just not new or innovative. I don't personally see it as a draw to keep level 50 players coming back to their racial starting cities. Again, lots of options, just none enumerated to date.
I am not sure if you followed what I meant in the original post. I am not looking for Noobie areas to also contain lev 20 or 40 mobs in the same zone. Although, Eq did pull this off very well by putting Spetres and Sand Giants in Oasis right next to people lev 10 kill crocs and orcs.
I am talking about placing higher level zones right IN the path of Home cities. Nek forest had Lava storm at the North end of the zone. IN lavastrom, you also had a 3 dungeons: Nejena, Sol A and Sol B. Anyone who wanted to go to ANY of those 4 zones, HAD TO, no choice, go thru Nek Forest ( dark elf Noobie area) to get there.
People who wanted to go to Upper Guk, or lower Guk (high level area) HAD TO, no choice, go thru Innothule swamp (Troll Noobie area) etc etc.
I went back to Neriak level after level after level because my spells ( most of them, not all ) were sold in Neriak 3rd gate. I knew exactly where all the vendors were since it was my starting city. I just don't want PoK cities. I don't want to go to some generic "hub" that has generic vendors, over and over. I LIKED going to Neriak. It was Beautiful. By far the best looking Home City in all of EverQuest.
(side note) I also do not want scaling mobs. I never played the game you mentioned but they did that in GW2 and now they are doing it in WoW. It just seems to water down content. but I also understand Why you like it. (it's not terrible in WoW)
But I also HATE the Mentoring thing pantheon is GOING to do... I like my games like EQ. This zone is for this level. Wanna join with your lev 5 friend and you are level 50, make a Alt to hang with your friend. But, too many people Cry over that, so we will trivialized content for lev 5 friends by Mentoring like EQ2 had, and it will be a Plow session since the scaling never works, the mentored person will demolish mobs are 3x the rate of a non mentored character. wait and see. I know they "say" it won't happen, but it will.
Doesn't matter, there is another massive thread on the mentoring subject. I hate it. and nothing will change that. it's also the sole reason I haven't pledged. if I won the lottery tomorrow, I would pay Brad to remove mentoring. Please don't let the side note, side track the original thread.
Zone placement, that's what its all about. I shouldn't need "daily quests" to have a reason to go back home. I hope there is no such thing as Dailies in Pantheon. If I want dailies, and mobs that match my level, I will just forget pantheon and continue playing WoW.
Another great idea for a topic! I like these topics where we talk about game functions we liked and how they potentially could relate to Pantheon.
Deadshade said:At launch my character was born in Qeynos and this place was not at all like what you describe for Nektulous . Qeynos is in the middle of nowhere and there was no reason to go through . The only popular location was Blackburrow but it was a very low dungeon that you left around 15 . The only races I met during my first ~ 10 levels were human, erudites and barbarians . No high levels - we were all below 15 . The nearest teleport was in North Karana so that at the beginning I actually even ignored that teleports were possible . Around 15 I did this horribly dangerous naked run Qeynos-Freeport and never looked back . Already about 1 year after launch Qeynos became a ghost town .
Erudin was even worse - you just did your newbie quests and left Erudin for Qeynos and Blackburrow .
You got my mind turning on this one, Deadshade ... and I think you slightly contradicted yourself about Qeynos but you also made a valid point concerning the timeline. In the first year or so of the game, you did have to go through Qeynos to get to Erudin. You had to take a boat to get there from the Qeynos docks. But considering your other statement, I think it was about a year or so into the game where the boats started becoming obsolete, so I think that's true too.
And you have a good point about Erudin itself ... It was a great concept, but because it was so very small, there wasn't much of a reason for low-mid level characters and above to stick around and be interesting to newbies (like what the OP was talking about ... darn forums ... because I hit quote, I can't scroll back up and see who started this conversation! Ack!).
Back to the original point, I'm 100 percent with you ... I loved the EQ concept that zones near starting cities would have multiple levels of content. And you're exactly right about that feeling of seeing a person in full bronze for the first time and wanting to be that person! But Deadshade made me think of something else too. As the game grew, mid-level and above characters didn't need to stay close to home to find content their level. There was Velious .. there was Luclin! There were the Planes of Power! There were exotic locales that an adventurer could make a name for themselves! (Or, in non rp-speak, they could go to a new zone that wasn't the same zones they'd been playing in for two years.)
I think in the beginning of Pantheon, we'll see a lot of comingling of different level toons near starting citites because that's where the content will be. And, when Pantheon is successful, it'll expand and there will be other places for people to go.
So maybe the answer is to have some sort of incentive to go back to your starting city. Even seeing a high-level character walk by can be cool for a newbie. Maybe you have to buy at least one of your spells in your starting city. Or any starting city -- or something of the sort.
Doford said: I was just watching this. https://youtu.be/sBqgxq-uYfQ at 8:49 he said only one starting area. Is this still planned? Multiple starting was huge in eq. Really brought the world alive
No, that was a video from Jan 2014, please be careful to check video dates and content before posting as old information like that is not accurate at all. We have answered the starting area question many times, all races get their own unique starting areas. :)
Kilsin said:Doford said: I was just watching this. https://youtu.be/sBqgxq-uYfQ at 8:49 he said only one starting area. Is this still planned? Multiple starting was huge in eq. Really brought the world aliveNo, that was a video from Jan 2014, please be careful to check video dates and content before posting as old information like that is not accurate at all. We have answered the starting area question many times, all races get their own unique starting areas. :)
whew, Thank you kilsin! I could have sworn you guys said unique starting areas, but dofords post had me worried that i misunderstood.
Unique starting areas Rock!
Erudin eventually came around and it was quite possible to stay in Erudin and progress to higher levels for later there was the Warrens, Kerra Isle, Eruds Crossing that had a microcosm of a variety of monsters in a small area then back to Erudin for Stonebrunt mountains and then Paineel. Some gaps in levels as far as dungeon layout but conceivable.
Kind of Like Qeynos: yes blackburrow was the destination point, but if you then went to Halas- you could conceivably level to 50 and never leave Halas with Permafrost caverns. Let alone surefall glade- which then lead to the secret- I forget the name- the clicky gem leading to where the good gnolls were.
As far as design it made sense and I would like to see a similar design but with more intermediary zones as mentioned like Nek forest.