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EQII start locations
WillJones420
Member Posts: 263
in Everquest II
I've heard that EQ2 will only have two start locations in the entire world: Freeport and Qeynos. Different races will no longer have their own distinct starting cities. Is there any truth to this, and if there is can SOE really support all those starting players in just two areas?
Just a little concerned about this.
Comments
Indeed they can. Think of it as one BIG city. Because in some ways, it really is. They have 6 different areas in both Qeynos and Freeport.
To get a better understanding follow this link to see them all http://everquest2.station.sony.com/#locations
Races are split up into these 6 different sections, and i'm sure these sections are split up into zones (meaning if your in one area your internet connection won't have to worry with holding up all of Freeport/Qeynos players)
Hope that helps
NVidia - The way it is meant to be played
ATI - The way it really plays
Yes its true and yes I think they can support it.
From the sound of it Qeynos is like 17 zones in EQ2. The two major cities are amazingly huge. The Common lands, which was East and West Commons and some of the noobie areas in the original game is now like 6 kilometer squared with 4000 monsters according to one of the devs. That makes for some very large noobie areas (that being only one of them) with lots of creatures to fight.
Having all races be from those two cities is in my opinion one of the worst aspects of the new game though. With all the other races cities and culture gone, no racial features like ultravision, infravision, or regeneration, no racial factions other then good/Qeynos or bad/Freeport race really doesnt seem to matter much at all any more. Kinda gives the flavorless feel most other mmorpgs suffer from.
With all the concentration on those 2 cities though they should be quite a sight to see and full of scripted npc events.
If you want an official quote on how big the cities are in EQ2 here you have it:
"For those of you that used to get lost in Freeport prepare for some fun; Freeport will be bigger in EQ2 than the size of all cities in EQ1 combined"-Tucker Smedes
NVidia - The way it is meant to be played
ATI - The way it really plays
Yes i think its a good idea also. especially since its Good and a Evil city great for the RP factor. Also makes good for Team PvP servers. cant wait to see these 17 zone citys should be very impressive.
The cities are huge compared to their equivalent in EQ and the are de signed with lots of events and interesting places. For example I remember seeing something about npcs having things to do like for example you are in the city and see a girl running after a cat.. or a drunk dwarf... etc
There are evil, good, neutral and either races... That determines where you go when you start the game but according to moorgard you can change that once during the game.. allowing you to go to the other city.
In my opinion this adds to community..and since PVP hasnt even been discussed officialy I dont see any problems with this approach of 2 cities.
The Culture distinction between races, regardless of good or evil is still previlant and will exist within the cities. Also there will be racial features like ultravision, infravision, etc... for info on that refer to EQII homepage and you can see some by reading through race profiles. The whole concept of the races having to live together is intrigueing in many ways. The first question that comes to mind for me is what caused them to band together like this and to create oposing cities. Also what happend to there home towns? Obliterated, Plague, Curse, Natural disasters, Corruption, War, Greed...what happened? I think the key to all of this is wether they will be able to tie all this history over the past 500 years into the game and as well, will it be interesting enough to compel people to continue reading it and as well adventure through a storyline to find out the past and present storylines.
Now story line is mearly one aspect that this great division and cohesion brings into play. Sheer interaction between people will be much more elevated than the previous EQ and as well most mmo's out there. That has its ups and downs, but solves many problems for a player who is trying to find some place or person. understandably the size of the city will create ALOT of confusion, especially for add like me. I can already see myself wandering aimlessly through the cities constantly forgeting what I'm looking for.
This also create a very good starting point for pvp. You are able to focus your hatred more on one city and its people than a bunch of races. well, yes and no...
Anyway the gameplay factor will promote this, but the hardware factor may cause bumps. keep in mind that EQII is consentrateing alot on graphics and even if they limit many things to zones within the city, I'm pretty sure they are makeing the enviroment continuous. With thousands of people as well as Npcs running around that is alot of processing for home comps as well as servers. I wouldn't be suprised if lag is almost out of control for some people when they go into the city. but that falls on your own hardware. Wellllllll, I'm done with my rant, hope you read it all!
Your scathing wit and daring insight into the turbulent political crags of the internet are shining beacons of truth and purity for the slight remaining masses of visionless hypocriticial sheep who bleat at the thought of your glory
Yeah, I can agree with much of that DaShiz. I dont see it as a game buster or anything I just think it has more draw backs then benifits.
The original EQ really had an amazing level of community building and it did so with the large array of starting cities so I dont think bringing everyone to 2 cities is a necessity for that.
The history and culture of the unique races is one of the richest parts of the original game in my opinion. With a significant chunk of that culture gone it seems like a detracting element with few advantages.
I mean races like the Dark Elves that have been around for ages, hate other races, and are extremely isolationist and have always lived below ground would never move into Freeport. It just wouldnt happen. They would much more likely die off fighting to remain off in their underground cities. The same goes for many of the races. Do you think the universally hated Iksar would have been welcomed into town because they couldnt survive out in their old lands? It doesnt make much sense to me.
Having a clear good and evil with no other cities or factions also sets up an extremely black and white and fairly boring faction environment with little interaction or intrigue.
All that aside though I think they are working hard to maximize what benefits do come from having 2 centralized cities and setting up a world that will be fun to explore.
I may not like this aspect but I do have very high hopes for the game as a whole.
That is a very good point, I think I understand you. The fact that it is pined down to 2 sides does restrict alot. With EQ there were many different hubs and unique civilizations, but I think another drive behind the 2 main cities is to make it a little more main stream so that it isnt so difficult for new people who are coming into the genre. EQ is a little overwhelming for someone who is new to the genre and doesnt really have some close freinds in game yet. Also, I dont think that all of the cities will be gone, some have to have prevailed, it may be that everyone starts there b/c it may be the start of your story to becomeing a hero. I wouldn't doubt that most of the other cities do exist, and there is still alot to be associated with each, I just think this is done more for a community purpose.
Your scathing wit and daring insight into the turbulent political crags of the internet are shining beacons of truth and purity for the slight remaining masses of visionless hypocriticial sheep who bleat at the thought of your glory
So wait, are you guys saying that outside of Freeport and Queyenos, there aren't any more cities? Like i know these 2 places are HUGE and split up into a vast amount of locations, but are there other cities or am i being misled! Any info on this would help, although maybe itd just be best for me to check out their web site? Thanks!
( 1:30 am, can't sleep, mmorpg.com fulfills all my needs! haha)
-Farseen-
" Faruka ! "
- Farseen
Current Game: Panzar
Keep in mind that the EverQuest 2 site says something like, "...the sealing of Neriak".
I just tried to load the site to get the exact quote and page but for some reason their site is loading the front page regardless of the link that I click.
Anyhow, the point here is that it seems like something has actually sealed the city. Without knowing anything about what's going on in the game world this can lead to some interesting speculation.
Sealed by a deity - did Innoruuk kick them out or did Tunare attack the city and some how seal it?
Did the cataclysm cause the collapse of the entire city?
Personally, "the sealing of" sounds to me like it was something more than the cataclysm that chased them out of their city.
I agree that they would prefer to stay to themselves but I can see them going to Freeport.
Consider that EQ2 takes place several hundred years after EQ1 and that the Dark Elves were already manipulating Freeport in the existing EQ1 story, and suddenly a secluded area of the "new" Freeport city doesn't seem terribly far fetched. The Dark Elves would all live as royalty with a city full of servants - or so they would see it as such.
The race that I can't rationalize is the Iksar. I agree completely with the other poster's comments and I don't believe for a moment that anyone would accept them simply because they wouldn't be able to survive on their own. A universal "good riddance!" would be a more realistic response.
They probably wrote up a quick explanation to get them into Freeport simply to make them fit into the game world. They couldn't ditch one of their playable races, after all, and SoE has never been particular about keeping to their own lore under any circumstances. Heh heh.
Oh well. I'll give it a go.
Anyhow! As I ramble completely off topic. Sorry about that.
I can see the races regaining their own cities after a certain ammount of time. Can the players regain them, or will we see them by way of expansion packs? The phraseology of, "the sealing of Neriak", is very suggestive... or perhaps my imagination is simply having fun again.
~Mysk
http://www.himysk.com/blog
I didnt mean to imply there are only 2 cities sorry about that. I believe some of the other cities will exist as well as new ones. The fate of the other cities like Neriak, Kelethin, Kaladim and such is completely unknown. Something happened to them to make the races abandon them and move to Freeport and Qeynos but nobody knows what yet.
The thing is there are only 2 starting cities and your character will always be based out of one of them. That was the topic I was trying to address.
As others have said I think this was done for a couple reasons. First to have everyone start close together so friends can play different races and still start together at least as long as they all play good or all evil.
The other reason, I think, is to have two central known areas and leave the rest of the world open for exploration.
There are goods and bads to this approach and I prefer the massive mire of factions and starting citiees of the original game but I think EQ2's version will be very well done as a lot of attention is being paid to detail.
Regardless of where people started, everyone ended up in the same place. Starting cities look barren compared to these locales.
In EQ, depending on server, it was either the East Commonlands tunnel or Greater Faydark. Upon the release of Luclin, it became the Nexus and The Bazaar. These days it's the Plane of Knowledge. If I run into Cabilis, there's maybe three people in the entire city, and all of them just started, or they're working on a quest and won't be there long.
In Final Fantasy XI, the central part of the game the first time you make level 20 is Jeuno. Ever since my monk, the first job I took, got to 20, I've been bound in Jeuno. I don't set my HP anywhere else, there's just no point. Sure there are missions for each city, but all you end up doing is accepting the mission then going to Jeuno and making a party for it.
Sadly, I'm going to miss Cabilis, and I never liked Freeport, but I'll get over it. At least we maintain a cultural block.
As for the iksar coming to Freeport. Lucan is still the ruler of Freeport. Lucan rules through fear. Lucan craves power, he wants more, he wants to hold all of Norrath in his grasp. The Iksar are a race ruled by fear. Iksar have been unyieldingly devoted to Cazic-Thule (they had no other option for diety selection). I can see them respecting a man like Lucan. Lucan on the other hand sees the iksar as power. Lucan would more than willingly embrace that power to bend in twist into his favor, and I wouldn't put it past him to strike fear into the other races living there to accept the Iksar or face his wrath.