On Coldain Shawls and Solstice Earrings

Nightbringe1

Two of the more memorable quest lines in EQ, at least for me, were the Coldain Shawl and the Solstice Earing. Completion of these quests were massive undertaking. They involved mastery of all trade skills and considerable effort, both solo and group. The reward, a BiS item with a story behind it. You knew the person wearing these items earned them. As a dark elf, I also got bragging rights over a certain surly dwarf in my guild that I had been personally blessed by his god.

A key item here was mastery of all trade skills. Everquest allowed for significant horizontal development by allowing an individual character to progress in trade skills without placing any arbitrary limitations on what a character could learn. If you were willing to expend the time and resources, you could make nearly anything.

While I greatly prefer the tradeskill systems in EQ2, the game restricts character advancement to a single tradeskill, limiting the horizontal progression available to any given character. The Coldain Shawl and Solstice Earring quests in EQ2 are a very different things. Anyone willing to power level in a single tradeskill class and spend a few hours gathering resources can purchase (in game) the combines for the other tradeskills for a modest fee.

What I would like to see, and this is personal preference, is the following:

• Access to all trade skills on a single character (baring race/class specific tradeskills). Give me things I can develop on a character outside just level advancement.
• World spanning quests requiring significant investment in all aspects of character development.

Damage99

I hope we'll see items like this in Pantheon.  When you inspect someone and you see an item you know what they went through to get it and it makes it all the more special.

Elmberry

I 100% agree with OP. I also want challanging quests and that you can deal with all trade skills, not just a few like in most other MMOs, which feels very limiting and not so fun. If I have the spare time and passion why shouldn't I be able to learn many other tradeskills.

Tamanous

I can't remember any specifics mentioned for crafting but in general I like the direction they appear to be taking for everything: interdependence. This relates to classes as a well. They clearly have said they want classes dedicated to function (you can still devote some customization to other roles but not so far to trip over the toes of true specialists).

 

It appears it won't be a quest heavy game. They will be few in number but challenging and rewarding for what they are. This is indeed very old school. Even in Asheron's Call (my first mmo ... wasn't into EQ but if AC didn't exist I am sure I would have been) had few quests but the ones it had felt far more epic. Likely this was simply due to not being overwhelmed by quests. They simply added flavor text or were part of major story arcs (AC had monthly updates and main story arcs progressed constantly). Few quests means the game allows you to gain xp elsewhere in many ways instead of bound to questing paths which often then nerf any other method of progression.

 

Old school mmos were more about scope than quantity. Less was more because the game was so vast. You had reasons to venture out. Discovery is only as epic as it's rarity.

Niien

Originally posted by Tamanous

I can't remember any specifics mentioned for crafting but in general I like the direction they appear to be taking for everything: interdependence. This relates to classes as a well. They clearly have said they want classes dedicated to function (you can still devote some customization to other roles but not so far to trip over the toes of true specialists).

 

It appears it won't be a quest heavy game. They will be few in number but challenging and rewarding for what they are. This is indeed very old school. Even in Asheron's Call (my first mmo ... wasn't into EQ but if AC didn't exist I am sure I would have been) had few quests but the ones it had felt far more epic. Likely this was simply due to not being overwhelmed by quests. They simply added flavor text or were part of major story arcs (AC had monthly updates and main story arcs progressed constantly). Few quests means the game allows you to gain xp elsewhere in many ways instead of bound to questing paths which often then nerf any other method of progression.

 

Old school mmos were more about scope than quantity. Less was more because the game was so vast. You had reasons to venture out. Discovery is only as epic as it's rarity.

I you for reminding me of those AoC days lol....

I would complete agree here and I definitely remember playing AoC. Though I was too young to remember much about the story then. I was more into killing things and getting awesome armor and trying not to be ate by silver rats while on my way to a fort in the dire lands I think it was called lol... tons and tons of fun, awesome GM events...

Rattenmann

Originally posted by Nightbringe1

What I would like to see, and this is personal preference, is the following:

• Access to all trade skills on a single character (baring race/class specific tradeskills). Give me things I can develop on a character outside just level advancement.
• World spanning quests requiring significant investment in all aspects of character development.

I agree here.

Hate limits on tradeskills. Everyone should be able to max every skill with investment of enough time.

 

Make Tradeskills expensive, time consuming ect. Make it an accomplishment to reach max. But still make it possible, with even more investment, to get more then one skill to max. EQ did an awesome job there.