Brenlo recently posted this on the EQ2 forums. It describes the new “Golden Path” which will help lead folks from zone to zone.
I have been poking around ingame and on the forums and have noticed a lot of confusion regarding the “Golden Path” and what exactly it is. People are looking for specific NPCs or quest lines, and finding themselves stuck. So I wanted to take a moment to clarify a little and talk about what it is currently and where it is headed.
The golden path is the first step in a larger revamp of our new player experience. We took a look at the starting areas, other than Qeynos and Freeport as we plan to move away from those, and reworked content so that it had a better flow. We wanted the quests in Darklight, Timorous and Greater Fay, to give you a better progression path. What you will find, is that if you start a new character, or jump into any of the quest hubs in those areas, is a more guided experience through content. We have hundreds of zones and for non veteran players, it can be intimidating trying to figure out where to go next. We wanted to remove that intimidation and give them a better play experience. So phase one is the “Golden Path” of content. A better progression of quests through various hubs starting in the three new player areas above. If you go to any of the zones listed in the update notes and start questing at one of the hubs, you are now on the “Golden Path!”
Phase two, which is following in the upcoming months, will introduce the Storyteller window (which is a much better name than Golden Path) which will link quest lines together in an interface, providing the visual representation of the golden path. We want players to understand why they may be collecting 10 oranges or killing 15 Goblin Scouts and show how that evolves into a larger story. The Storyteller System will move players along through content that we feel will give them a fun and exciting experience. While also engaging them in the world, the story and their character.
All sounds great. Except for this line, which I found hair-raising:
We took a look at the starting areas, other than Qeynos and Freeport as we plan to move away from those, and reworked content so that it had a better flow.
What does that mean? What is in store for Qeynos and Freeport?
I can’t believe they’d actually remove Qeynos and Freeport. I would suppose that it’s something more like leaving them to obsolescence, and perhaps removing their status as starting cities. Really, we’re just guessing at this point. “move away from” could mean quite a spectrum of things, but the fact that they were left out of the starting area improvements does suggest that they’re not considered worth fixing, which makes me sad.
Qeynos and Freeport have been neglected for years, alongside many of the older zones. It’s a bit of a sore point for me the way older content like Splitpaw is practically disowned, when with a bit of a tidy from time to time it could still be a vibrant part of the game. For instance, the boss loot in the Down Below still has no stats at all on it, and never has. I remember reporting that in the week after launch. Nevertheless, I still find that the original zones have far more depth to them than many of the newer ones. Places like Crushbone and Kaladim are very nice, but they are quickly consumed snacks compared with the questing feasts that are Stormhold or Nektropos, or even the Crypt of Betrayal.
There’s nothing wrong with the original cities that couldn’t be fixed by going through their sewers and surrounding areas and bringing the gear up to match the newer zones, and doing a little polishing. Maybe bring back all the quests that have been removed from them too.
If they really did do away with Qeynos and Freeport, I think that would be something of an NGE experience for some of us, especially if it was for so poor a reason as the newfangled streaming technology not working well with them, as has been suggested.
If they’re not streaming client friendly, simply don’t let people with the streaming client start there unless they’ve already downloaded the right zones. (Though I would have thought the average new player would have downloaded most of Qeynos by the time they had finished the Isle of Refuge for the first time.) Please don’t go throwing away places that we care about.
It’s almost as if the developers themselves believe that the game doesn’t start until you reach max level, and are trying to rush everyone there, and so don’t think the lower level content is all that important any more. I’m sure they don’t really think that, but the game does seem to becoming ever more that way. Not the best of ideas, because max level content is a rather small percentage of the game. It’s true that a lot of players do hang around at the level cap, but quite a lot of us don’t, and even most of those that are capped like to mentor down and explore the world sometimes.
I wish there was a Developer with the job of keeping older content viable. I’m not talking about zone revamps such as the recent Lavastorm one, though those are welcome. We just need someone to make sure that the loot and quest rewards are comparable to similar-levelled gear from later expansions, and that quests don’t get broken. That’s the real reason why the older zones aren’t popular.
When the flood of new players arrives for the new player experience, they’re not going to know what is new content and what is old content. Everything will be equally shiny to them, so it is illogical to value the new over the old when it comes to taking care of it.
Hopefully we’ll soon get more detailed information as to what is in store for our homes.
 Maltheas was glad he'd taken that correspondence course with ACME. Another milestone for Maltheas. Varsoon the Undying is at the root of a great deal of Everquest lore, and Malth needed him dead for the Manastone and Glowing Black Stone heritage quests. Like Lord Maltus Everling, who is still a bit too powerful to defeat, he is the final boss in a Heroic dungeon, so I’ve been putting off dealing with him until today.
So it was that Maltheas, servant of Nife, did delve into the Ruins of Varsoon, bludgeoning his way past countless of Varsoon’s foul clay creations, and wretched undead slaves. Deeper he went, the stench of infamy all about, until he came to the entrance of the Chamber of Immortality, Varsoon’s lair. Steeling himself with a little nibble of some cheese left over from the raid on the Overlord’s office, he stepped within. Only by the grace of the Prime Healer could he hope to emerge with his whiskers intact.
Turns out he was far easier than Everling, as you only have to face him on his own at the end of a ring event. He’s probably personally as powerful as Everling, but unwisely chooses to fight alone. A foolish decision when facing RATONGA JUSTICE, and he has paid the price, and lost his suffix. I’m sure that’s the last Norrath will hear from Valdoartus Varsoon…
Woot woot! GU55 is going live today, and we’ve just received the patch notes.
The Golden Path is of particular interest to me. I’ll be visiting the newer newbie zones to see what has changed. It’s a bit odd, and a shame, that the original starting areas of Qeynos and Freeport continue to be neglected, but maybe that’ll come in a later update. In any case, Maltheas is going to be in a quest-feeding frenzy for a few days.
In other news, I was lucky enough to win a Collector’s Edition of Sentinel’s Fate yesterday from SOE’s twitter quiz. Thanks guys! It cheered me up no end, and I’m looking forward to investigating the tier 9 crafting content as a result.
Servers are expected up within the hour!
Update: US servers are up!
Continue reading Everquest 2 Game Update 55 and Sentinel’s Fate Patch Notes
With Sentinel’s Fate almost upon us, I figured it was time to check in with Maltheas, and the Extreme Questing Leaderboard! When last we checked the crazytable, it looked like this:
Everyone’s favourite Ratonga was sitting at 8th. Once again, the tables I use cover the level range from 1-59, as it starts getting silly to to compare level 38 Maltheas with folks who are approaching the level cap. Here is the table as of today:
Gah! Maltheas is still stuck at 8th, as while he has added 107 quests to his tally, everyone else has been just as busy. The team of Annya and Kirskax, being nearest his level, continue to be the ones to best measure against, and they have increased their lead by an impressive amount. Nevertheless, the race continues, and we’ll catch you up yet, guys!
GU55’s revamp of the Butcherblock Mountains, and Kaladim, will offer some new questing opportunities when Tuesday arrives, though those opportunities will be there for everyone on the table. Let the games *BONG* begin!
I was thinking about the story I bumped up from the depths earlier. I mentioned how when I run D&D, I try to treat every sentient being as an individual. This is probably my liberal philosophy speaking, but I can’t believe that any sentient mortal race is inherently evil. Their culture certainly might be, and individuals certainly are, but if they were born into a different culture, would they not turn out differently? Eitherway, good or evil, they are ends unto themselves, and not just swordfodder.
Of course, ideas like that work a lot better in a tabletop game than they would in MMOs, where we need a constant stream of beasties to beat up. We go forth, often for the flimsiest of quest dialogues, and kill gnolls, orcs, and dragons, simply for not being on the approved species list. Sure, sometimes they’re doing something that needs stopping, but a lot of the time they’re pretty much just standing around in their homes.
It is unreasonable behaviour for characters who would style themselves as good.
Take the case of Vrewwx.
The last time Maltheas had bumped into Vrewwx was Frostfell 2008, when he was sent into a castle of frost, which was not doing anyone any harm, to destroy a white dragon egg. Fortunately for Vrewwx, he managed to escape his egg before he could be murdered. He had not, so far as I am aware, committed any crimes while within his egg. The egg-squishing was a pre-emptive strike. This was a Christmas event, and we were cast in the role of King Herod!
This year Maltheas returned to the Icy Keep to cause further mayhem in the name of “investigation”. He found more than he bargained for. Vrewwx appeared, much grown in the span of twelve months, and gave Maltheas a piece of his mind.
 Maltheas is given food for thought by Vrewwx the Dragon That young dragon has far more wisdom than most of the Qeynosian questgivers. I really hope we don’t end up having to kill him. It is hard to argue with his accusation, though in our defence, the same beings that created him also did not really give us much option other than to solve our problems through hitting them til they stop moving. That’s the way of things in MMO, at least for now.
It’s hard sometimes, being a compulsive quester. You get asked to do all sorts of dubious deeds. Maltheas is lovely little fellow who serves the god of healing, trying desperately to atone for his own youthful crimes while briefly a member of the Bloodsabers. In the minds of Qeynosians, Ratonga are on the borderline between person and monster anyway, so he understands the situation of the gnolls a little better than most. If he could somehow bring about peace between Qeynos and Blackburrow, he would. My perfect world event would involve the players working together to bring such a peace about, and the reward would be playable gnolls. Of course, Blackburrow would then be classed as a mini starter village rather than a dungeon, but I hardly ever see anyone in there anyway these days. It’d send a nice message that a war does not have to last forever.
I know. I am such a carebear that I feel sorry for the NPCs.
There is apparently a lot more to EQ2’s GU55 and Sentinel’s Fate expansion than I expected that is going to affect those of us not at max level.
I’m particularly excited about the Butcherblock Mountains and Kaladim revamps. I hope there’s lots of lovely new quests waiting there for me. Tier 6 Kaladim has been retiered, down to a T4 heroic dungeon. That makes a lot of sense, with it being in the T3 Butcherblock zone. My only concern is that in the process quests might have been removed, beyond the reach of Maltheas for evermore!
A more immediately important change is that stats are being streamlined. Currently priestly damage spells are improved by intelligence. This will be changing to wisdom, which already governs our healing spells. Intelligence will become a bit of a pointless stat for a priest, which is going to mean that we’re going to have to look for a whole new wardrobe! It’ll be a bit of a pain in the short-run, but with one less stat to worry about, once we find new gear it’ll make us much more powerful than before. Maltheas has already started looking about for new equipment.
This is how the good folks from the beta server are describing the stat changes:
Fighters
* Strength (primary) – determines your max power, increases your damage (including spells if you have them), and determines how much you can carry.
* Agility – improves your chance to avoid melee attacks, adds a crit mit bonus.
* Wisdom – improves your resists against spell damage.
Mages
* Intelligence (primary) – determines your max power, and increases your damage, adds a crit mit bonus.
* Wisdom – improves your resists against spell damage.
* Agility – improves your chance to avoid melee attacks.
* Strength – determines how much you can carry.
Priests
* Wisdom (primary) – determines your max power, increases your damage (both spell and melee), and improves your resists against spell damage.
* Intelligence – adds a crit mit bonus.
* Agility – improves your chance to avoid melee attacks.
* Strength – determines how much you can carry.
Scouts
* Agility (primary) – determines your max power, increases your damage (including spells/poison if you have them), and improves your chance to avoid melee attacks (adds a crit mit bonus).
* Wisdom – improves your resists against spell damage.
* Strength – determines how much you can carry.
 Maltheas and the Cloak of Pie. I like pie. Pie is good. So is cake. Also pud.
We’ve all received this marvellous cloak (and 250 station cash) today for reaching the silver mark in the ConnecDing promotion. Just a few more thousand Facebook Everquest 2 fans, and we should get the gold reward, which involves a furniture item that allows pillow fights within your home. And whackiness ensued!
The cloak can summon a pie, which I believe is intended for throwing at people. Of course, Maltheas would never do such a thing, as wasting pie is against the teachings of Rodcet Nife. Especially cheese pie, which Maltheas insists is what his cloak depicts.
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