Favorite Zone ever?

[Kevincheese]

I think you have misunderstood the point of this thread, sir.

"BEST FARMING I EVAR SAW" does not make a good zone.

[Montag]

Just don't.
~Faille

[torrent495]

Elwynn Forest.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Originally Posted by Grizzlebeard

The point

Don't give a damn what your point is because it's old hat. Blah blah some people enjoyed camping. Yawnofuckingrama. Nobody gives a fuck, move on.

I was trying to say that I liked EQ zone design (pre luclin at least) but enjoyed the more dungeon crawl encounter feel that WoW zones provide and that a combination of the two would be a wet dream come true, yet you had to shit it up with your rampant EQ fanboyism faggotry.

Go away.

meaningful freedom

Translation: could exploit the shit out of without the devs caring.

Anyways...

One of the things I did like about EQ zone design was the "What the fuck is this thing?" aspect to a several landmarks that you'd occasionally bump into. Rathe mountains or whatever was full of them. It's just a shame that most of the stuff did in fact have no purpose and there was 90% useless landmass to 10% useable content in that game to ruin it.

WoW does a lot of this too. Only they tend to focus a quest or two around such things. The various monuments to heroes all over the game. If you actually get a chance, read the plaques in the Armory in Scarlet Monastary. Like 3 of them reference characters that left for Northrend. If they don't show up some how, I'm going to be pissed.

[Kuriin]

This thread is favorite zone. It doesn't specify to a certain game, so, people bitching about other people's favorite zones are fucking tools and you need to shut the fuck up.

[Bo Jackson]

UO:

Minoc Mines (just some amazing good times trade skilling and trying to not get killed)
Vesper
The Orc Fort
Destard

AC:

Arwic (before it was destroyed, such a ballsy yet forgotten move in the history of mmos)
Arwic Mines (most fun dungeon i think i have ever explored)
Disaster Maze
Sotiris
Lugian Citadel

Wow:

Duskwood (another vote for that, great quest zone and storyline. the underground catacombs at the graveyard were very sweet)
Elewynn Forest
Maraudon (once you get the staff to port in, the other parts are a pain in the ass)
Thunder Bluff (First major town I reached in the beta, felt so huge before I what the hell was going on. Native American theme and everything was epic. Was an amazing experience for an MMO.
The Naga Cave in Feralas. (My favorite grinding spot ever)
Stormwind (Great town for exploring)

[Kevincheese]

Originally Posted by Montag

FUCK YOU NIGGER

I'll see your nigger and raise you a

[etchazz]

EQ- velektor's lair- by far one of the most fun i've had playing a mmorpg, especially before the xp nerf when there was never anyone in there and exploring it for the first time was amazing. skating around like you were on a hockey rink and falling off sucked though.

also, sebilis because it was so big and you could do the crypt, king, kitchen and all the stuff up top. also, ae groups in the disco area was freaking awesome.

karnor's castle was also one of my favorites. and dragon necropolis.

also, for a lowbie area i liked befallen and unrest, even though they weren't really dungeons they were fun as hell.

[Ravensign]

Oasis of Marr

There was something about the music, the atmosphere of the desert, the spec tower that made me attached to it to start with. Part of it was that it was the first zone I ever saw, looking over a friends shoulder as he was kiting SG's and Spectres having just hit 30 odd something on his druid.

Throw in a very strong memory of transitioning a pug from derv camps to crocs because we though we were doing so well lol, mixed in with the scene of people of higher levels all waiting on the boat.

Literally crowds of people would wait on the boat, and intermix with the teen players, the trained Sand Giants, and the crazy desert madman and drybones skellies.

To me that zone, at that time, is the beating heart of why I play MMO's.

[Reggie]

Originally Posted by etchazz

also, for a lowbie area i liked befallen and unrest, even though they weren't really dungeons they were fun as hell.

Unrest was a dungeon sir! It even had a torture chamber man!

I know it rained there but it rained in Karnors too! Similar layouts as well, courtyard with trash, more assbeat as you got in deeper.

As far as the handcrafted feel I think the portrait of Najena on the wall in her zone is pretty slick, casting a heal I think, even though it's like 8-bit quality.

There are more Hieroglyphics in SolB as well. Although I can't remember what they were. The dragon heads you see before and over the arch to Naggy's Lair are the alpha model you see in the EQ '96 movie for a random note.

Yeah not sure how folks got butthurt over someone combining features from a game or two. I don't see an [EQ] in the title of this thread.

Clinton sez Chill Out. Let's listen to the man.

AO - City of Tir opening week. No?

[Guzrog]

Originally Posted by Ravensign

Oasis of Marr

There was something about the music, the atmosphere of the desert, the spec tower that made me attached to it to start with. Part of it was that it was the first zone I ever saw, looking over a friends shoulder as he was kiting SG's and Spectres having just hit 30 odd something on his druid.

Throw in a very strong memory of transitioning a pug from derv camps to crocs because we though we were doing so well lol, mixed in with the scene of people of higher levels all waiting on the boat.

Literally crowds of people would wait on the boat, and intermix with the teen players, the trained Sand Giants, and the crazy desert madman and drybones skellies.

To me that zone, at that time, is the beating heart of why I play MMO's.

That music was on point. I can still on queue listen to it in my head, partially because I'm crazy, but partially because it rocked.

Unfortunately my first EQ experience was watching my friend kill cats on Kerra Isle (newbie Erudite wizard.) I gave him so much shit for killing stupid fucking cat people all day, we were big into FPS back then. I remember him running around the zone zooming in to look at derv camps and shit too lol. In the end, I succumbed to EQ after seeing a friend kite guards around FP on his gnome twink necro with SMR (still pre kunark.) I ended up playing way more EQ than my friend I was talking mad shit to, and we still laugh about the "cat people" to this day.

[Dice Rex]

Originally Posted by Reggie

One of the neat features from Unrest was that Wolf Form (why??) made you non-kos to the zone. As a druid, you could kill mobs on their bind point in the house, much to the amazement of someone that never saw the trick.

I remember holding down Bartender when he was an even con (lvl 25?) by harmonizing the room, hopping behind the bar; and the race was on to see who's hit points dropped first. Took damage shields, starting off with a long cast dot (not kos till first spell landed) and burning him down with nukes, maybe a swipe or 2 with a runed falchion. The rest of the room was easy once he was down.

Folks would hear this dog yelping and dying for literally 2 minutes and come in and say what the FUCK is going on in here? Then... Uhm, are you cheating or something?

The hook was in the nooks and crannies I tell yah.

Holy shit, dude, what a blast from the past. I can remember doing this exact same thing. I lol'd at the "folks would hear this dog yelping" - I can still hear that high pitch yelp.

So my favorites are all EQ1:

Unrest
Seb
Guk

[Lyenae]

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 world designers behind EQ knew what they were doing.

EQ had a convincing illusion of depth that made you imagine there was more there than there might have been. Sure, a lot of that depth didn't really have meaning (like the monuments in Rathe mtns), but no one knew that for sure. That's a veteran GM skill coming from an RPG. Let your players imagination do the work for you. EQ appealed to imagination, WoW appealed to WC3.

The zones in EQ felt more like little worlds instead of farming grounds, with their own little peculiarities, rules, spawns, areas, stories, etc...that triggered and fueled curiosity. Even though the purpose of each zone was to level you up and give you quests, it wasn't laid upon you thick like it was in WoW. EQ zones, at least the early ones, felt like they were designed as a world first, then slightly adapted to the players.

Other little things helped as well. The wide level range, mentioned earlier, was a part of it, at least for outdoor areas. You had the whole "return to the beginning" motif going on many times, whether it was passing to 'deeper' dungeons/camps, killing giants/guards in newbie areas, or seeing giant versions of newbie monsters in Plane of Sky. I only ever felt return to beginning in WoW was farming Scalebanes at Grim Batol, and it sucked because Wetlands is one of the shittier zones in WoW. The other time was farming Dust Devils for magic sand for PvP in Westfall.

Favorite zone ever?

There was a ton of choices in EQ, I'm stuck between OoT and EC.

[Ridah]

Ssraeshza Temple, the zone of pure ownage.

[etchazz]

Originally Posted by Ridah

Ssraeshza Temple, the zone of pure ownage.

ugh, i still have nightmares from that zone. getting there was a pain in the ass and farming the weapons for that zone (or weapon upgradres, i can't recall off hand, i just remember having to farm the shit out of that zone for some kind of weapon augment).

i have to admit, even though the zone itself was completely useless, the plane of sky was fucking brilliantly designed. fighting from isle to isle and the entire outer space feel of that zone was awesome. too bad the loot from the quests in that zone totally blew chunks. and talking to the insane halfling that would kill you instantly if you asked him that certain question was priceless, especially when you got newbie guild members to fall for it.

also, yelinak's lair (can't remember the actual name of the dungeon) was a ton of fun, and he was a fun fight. his mana drain ae was a true pain in the ass.