Favorite Zone ever?

[Rako]

Originally Posted by matmanx2

Wow so much nostalgia with this thread. I have nothing really new to add except to say it really makes me realize how good some of the early EQ dungeons and zones were. They felt dangerous, scary, organic and alive at times. Some of my favorites include: Howling Stones, The Hole, Guk (some of my best EQ memories were from Guk. Being an SK who could feign death break the King room made me pretty popular back in the day) Fear, Hate and most all of Velious.

Why do you think it is that EQ zones are so much more nostalgic than the others? Is it because it was basically the first 3d MMORPG? Was it because of better zone design?

I remember the first time I logged in as a Wood Elf in Kelethin a month or so after release because my friend recommended the game to me. My gamma on the shitty monitor I had wouldn't let me see very far so I would be wandering around the newbie bee/bat zone right next to the lift and get lost and would take me forever to find the lift again. My friend with his 25 druid would run off to Crushbone and bring me back rusty weapons and I thought, "WOW! when do I get to go to crushbone!"

For me, I will never forget that first week or so of playing EQ, it was like everything I had wanted after I had read LOTR.

[Neric]

Originally Posted by Reggie

LDoN was my biggest disappointment for an expansion. I was hoping for instanced Guk/Sebilis quality content. Boy was I in for a letdown.

LDoN was simply crap because it was alien to the whole concept of EQ dungeons. It was some generic modular cut&paste mini-dungeons that got simply added to the map, but didn't fit into the game. None of the dungeons were able to capture the theme and overall they were predictable, pretty boring and totally pointless.

People expected another gigantic structure below Guk and they got a bunch of rooms with frogloks. Mistmoore was not even in the castle, it was simply some tombs randomly spread out in Lesser Faydark. No need to talk about the other ones, because they had nothing to do with their zones either.

This was by far the worst expansion I could think of. The guy who came up with it deserves to be fired...or even worse!

Unfortunately a lot of WoW instances (especially in BC) remind me of LDoN, but at least there was a lot of room to improve and Blizzard did a pretty good job at that.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Originally Posted by Grizzlebeard

Let's try and keep the WoW instancing > all wankfest out the thread please.

Some people, like myself didn't mind the camp checks and actually enjoyed both the positive and negative aspects of sharing zones with other people as opposed to spending most of your time in the equivalent of a gaming oxygen tent. And, while it's your personal opinion, I struggle to understand how any person with a shred of a soul can have played EQ for any length of time and not look back on at least one zone with fond memories.

What the shit does this even mean? I said I prefered WoW encounter design but EQ zone design. I mean honestly, who are you even talking to? This is like double-fucking-standard city right here. You can coat yourself in peanut butter and jerk off to the sounds of lavastorm but I dare offer my opinion and you immediately sound the alert?

Goddamn son. Goooooddaaaaaaamn.

Anyways...

EQ did make some pretty extreme first impressions. The tons of 'useless' zones always struck me as odd yet familiar. Erud's Crossing and Toxx for example. If anybody can ever explain to me what the function of those zones was other then to prevent anybody who rolled Erudite to get past level 2 I'd like to know.

[Grizzlebeard]

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

What the shit does this even mean? I said I prefered WoW encounter design but EQ zone design.

The point I'm trying to make is the core reason many people have such amazing memories of EQ is simply because there was no instancing. The encounters with other players in a huge zone which sometimes proved helpful and other times downright fucking annoying. You helped people out, rezzed people who'd had a lousy pull, joined up to take down a named, shoot shit with people while camping a named even if you were both competing for it. Equally, you had fucking tards training you or your party, spawn campers, and overcampers of exp mobs. Point is, you actually interacted with other players on the server other than your guild mates and the odd PUG and a community formed. I personally don't feel that with WoW, the only real community is on the O-boards among the tards who chain post, "First!", "Rate the name / gear above you...", or some tired fucking Chuck Norris joke.

Now, I'm sure this topic has come up before and I'm equally sure you stated you weren't too bothered about that whole community aspect and if that's the case then I'm not going to be changing your opinions nor would I want to. Just, for me, and everyone of the friends who I played EQ with, the ability to interact with others outside your party, added an extra dimension to the zones.

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

Goddamn son. Goooooddaaaaaaamn.

Try not to sound like Grumpy Old Fart. He at least is older than me.

[Talenvor]

A few EQ zones came to mind when I read the thread title.

Unrest was badass and very scary when EQ was new. I lived in that zone forever.

I also lived Plane of Fear the first few times I went there. Raining blood = cool. After a few all night sessions there to get armor pieces the zone lost some of its allure, some.

For whatever reason I also loved Plane of Mischievous. Probably just because it was such a pain in the butt to get to (when it was placed in NToV). I remember, as a melee class,going around trying to buy one of those binding trinkets, that didn't drop in game anymore, so I could bind myself there.

[rangoth]

EQ: VP, Fear, and Sky all for the ohhh shit unknown element if anything went wrong, also the first time I really had to team up with buddies and proove that we kick ass. The PoP theme was really cool too though I know that's a touchy topic, and I did love Inktua or whatever it's spelt, that had some neat encounters.
For normal dungeons: Veksar, Sebilis, Charsis(Howling Stones), ToFS, Chardok, Guk, Droga/Nurga, Unrest, Befallen

WoW: Nagrand, BRD, Deadmines, Wailing Caverns, Sunken Temple...wow in general had some really pretty outdoor zones, it shows most in the swamps and stuff.

In general I am sick and tired of laval/desert zones.

Vanguard: The new unrest haunted house place...forget the name but it's awesome, The DE area newbie cave that had houses up on wooden planks and shit(was a mini dungeon), Shawala Rock(sp?), and a few other dungeons.
VG did have some badass dungeons, anything with an elevator in it can blow me though since they were still bugged last I checked(update anyone?). There was also a japanese garden dungeon I forget the name of that is for level 10's and shit on Kojan.

[Venjenz]

Originally Posted by Grizzlebeard

I personally don't feel that with WoW, the only real community is on the O-boards among the tards who chain post, "First!", "Rate the name / gear above you...", or some tired fucking Chuck Norris joke.

Not to derail totally, but good call on the O-boards thing.

Is it me, or has lulz, lawl, and kekeke become as common on the WoW boards as a, an, and the?

Reading anything on those boards is like mental Ipicac.

[wow]hey evryone lulz wat is teh best spec lawl for retardin 2v2 kekeke lawl.[/wow]

Every fucking post reads the same with that shit. Sorry, needed to rant that one.

Back to fave zones....

Paineel was a cool starting city. The skellie band was pimp.

[Twobit Whore]

That was part of the April Fool's joke they did...

[Venjenz]

Originally Posted by Twobit Whore

That was part of the April Fool's joke they did...

I know about the April fools joke, but in general, it really has become a lot more common to see that manner of wording. I get tells in game that have that nonsense in them.

I mean, a well timed lawl has its place, but the texting nation seems to have infected the already diseased Internet with further rot.

[Antoine]

Originally Posted by Grizzlebeard

Point is, you actually interacted with other players on the server other than your guild mates and the odd PUG and a community formed. I personally don't feel that with WoW, the only real community is on the O-boards among the tards who chain post, "First!", "Rate the name / gear above you...", or some tired fucking Chuck Norris joke.

Now, I'm sure this topic has come up before and I'm equally sure you stated you weren't too bothered about that whole community aspect and if that's the case then I'm not going to be changing your opinions nor would I want to. Just, for me, and everyone of the friends who I played EQ with, the ability to interact with others outside your party, added an extra dimension to the zones.

You're doing it wrong. I know and interact with most of the relevant people on my server.

[Reggie]

Originally Posted by Antoine

You're doing it wrong. I know and interact with most of the relevant people on my server.

That is not doing it right. The server specific drama would have never come up.

Page 8 would have never happened, and that is merely a flash in the pan. Fuck half the flavor came from all the socially inept shooting themselves in the foot over and over, in game and on the boards.

Then you had the sluts that would drive 4 states to get laid. It can go on and on.

Brell sucked for in-game wide firsts but the combination of all the retards, the normal folks, and the old school players that wanted to try the 'unofficial RP server' was a recipe for comedy gold.

[kidgamer]

Zul Gurub
Azshara
STV

[kasey]

Originally Posted by Rakorake

Why do you think it is that EQ zones are so much more nostalgic than the others? Is it because it was basically the first 3d MMORPG? Was it because of better zone design?

The zone design of such zones like sebilis and velketors temple of veeshan Karnors (basically all of kunark all of velius) was nothing short of excellent. Karnors was brutal with its trains, and the fact you actually had meaningful freedom in this game ment on you could do really crazy stuff.

i will put the rest of the anecdotes on ice until i am non drunk but the bottomline is many of the negative aspects of everquest were actually positive aspects if you looked closer.

[Arden]

Originally Posted by TOOL

Somewhere in that dungeon, there's a drawing on a wall of the goblins' plan to kill Nagafen.

I remember seeing that drawing some time after LDoN and thinking "This one single drawing took more imagination and creativity than all the dungeons in LDoN combined."

All the old school EQ dungeons were full of little details like that drawing that made the zones come to life, that's just the one I remember the most vividly because it helped me realize how far downhill EQ had gone.

Amen to this. There was such a "hand-crafted" feeling in so many of those old dungeons that simply couldn't be replicated with the "auto-generated" style so many later dungeons had (and still have). So many of those old zones felt as if they were laid out brick by brick, stone by stone in a much slower and more painstaking process than latter examples, which felt somewhat "empty" by comparison.

It's the difference between a machine made piece of furniture versus a hand-made piece of furniture created by a master craftsman. Yes, the machine can make furniture faster, and probably more consistently than the craftsman, but the hand-made furniture is more valuable and somehow more endearing not despite its minor flaws and inconsistencies, but because of them.

[Montag]

SMC Cave in SWG could take a character from 0 skillpoints to full combat template in under 3 hours, and for that it holds a special place in my heart.

Felwood in WoW has always been a favorite zone of mine, used to farm there all the time pre-TBC off those demons up north. Demonic runes + tubers/NDB, and a chance to drop felcloth. Plus the mobs were squishy.