Flagged Zones and Locked Content

[Aslanna]

This forum needs more EQ news!

As I'm sure most of you are aware, backflagging has been a hot topic for EQ for quite a while now. The complex flagging mechanisms for older expansions can make it difficult for guilds that take on new people to experience the content they are wanting to do. With the sheer amount of content between Qeynos and Crystallos it can be extremely difficult for new players to catch up with their friends in any reasonable time frame.

So, in order to make it easier for players to access appropriate content we would like to make some changes to previous flags. All of the existing flags will stay in place, as will the various quest rewards that were additional benefits to their completion. However, the following zones will have an alternate entry criteria of a minimum level. It's important to know that either the previous key OR the new minimum level is required to enter the zone, not both.

Required Level 46

The Howling Stones
Old Sebilis
Cobalt Scar

Required Level 55

Veeshan's Peak
Vex Thal
Sleeper's Tomb
Locked areas of the Temple of Ssraeshza

Required level 57

Bastion of Thunder
Halls of Honor
The Temple of Marr
Tower of Solusek Ro
Drunder, The Fortress of Zek
Yxxta
Kod`taz

Required Level 60

Plane of Water
Plane of Air
Plane of Fire
Plane of Earth
Uqua
Ikkinz

Required Level 62

Plane of Time
Qvic
Inktu`Ta

Required Level 65

Txevu
Tacvi

[Ashur]

lol, thanks for the reminder of the shitty GoD zone names... man, what a great time to GTFO ---> that was.

Hard to believe they took the need for the quested key away from VP, VT, and Sleepers though.

[Aslanna]

lol, thanks for the reminder of the shitty GoD zone names... man, what a great time to GTFO ---> that was.

Hard to believe they took the need for the quested key away from VP, VT, and Sleepers though.

Yeha. And Sebilis. I mean wtf. It's killing two frogs! Howling Stones isn't that much harder. As in not at all!

And VP... I haven't been able to zone in since they redid it and changed the keying for it. Which I thought was a SLAP IN THE FACE! to all those who did the original key. So it would be nice to zone in again just to look around.

VT will be... Interesting.

GoD zones still suck. I'm fully flagged and I stay far away from there as I can. The best part about GoD was Abysmal Sea. I can't believe some people actually liked those zones. /shiver

[Canelek]

Although I understand to a certain extent....it just makes going back all the more not likely!

They may as well replace Rallos Zek flagging with collecting 50 bone chips and having a minimum level of 61...

[Aslanna]

Add 3 more expansions to the mix. As someone who worked for access to those areas I think it's lame!

- All keyed zones from the Ruins of Kunark, Scars of Velious, Shadows of Luclin, Planes of Power, Gates of Discord, Omens of War, Depths of Darkhollow, and Prophecy of Ro have had their key/flag requirements modified. All players that have obtained the key/flag will still be allowed entry into the zones, as will players that have met minimum level requirements for the zones. The minimum level requirements are as follows:

Required Level 46

The Howling Stones
Old Sebilis
Skyshrine

Required Level 55

Veeshan's Peak
Vex Thal
Locked areas of the Temple of Ssraeshza

Required level 57

Bastion of Thunder
Halls of Honor
The Temple of Marr
Tower of Solusek Ro
Drunder, The Fortress of Zek

Required Level 60

Plane of Water
Plane of Air
Plane of Fire
Plane of Earth
Ikkinz
Uqua
Yxtta
Kodtaz

Required Level 62

Plane of Time
Inktuta
Qvic

Required Level 65

Txevu
Tacvi

Required Level 68

Anquish

Required Level 70

Dreadspire
Demiplane of Blood

Required Level 72

Theater of Blood
Deathknell

[Siji]

As much as I hated GoD zones and as much time as I spent in those dumb ass Ikk trials it annoys me to see that people can just waltz in.. and as much time as I spent trying to get groups together for VT, VP, etc keys it's kind of annoying. But on the other hand, even had I gotten those keys I'd never have found anyone that would have wanted to go there (that could), so I can understand the change. It's probably not like the zones were being used anyway.

It's a slap in the face, but not much to really care about.. especially if you don't play anymore!

[Aslanna]

The 'slap in the face' was a bit of a joke actually. People who follow the soe forums would have got it!

[Bagar-]

People still play EQ?

[Aslanna]

They do!

[miir]

The 'slap in the face' was a bit of a joke actually. People who follow the soe forums would have got it!

Hehe, I got it.

[Ashur]

I don't care. They removed some time sinks for older content so people could experience it. Awesome.

When I started playing EQ2 I found that many zones had access quests that were also no longer required. This was good because there weren't people who cared about them because they did it like 40 levels and two years ago.

[Boogahz]

When I started playing EQ2 I found that many zones had access quests that were also no longer required. This was good because there weren't people who cared about them because they did it like 40 levels and two years ago.

I finally broke down and did the Everfrost access quest since it couldn't be deleted from the quest journal ><

[Ashur]

I ran into a few of those!

[Aslanna]

It's funny they acknowledge they are timesinks yet continue to implement them. They do nothing but annoy people. Obviously keying and flagging is put in place to slow down the top-end guilds. But does that really work? Not really. It's a speedbump at most. No reason not to have it open especially since just about everything is instanced these days. Just have it open from the get-go and (most) everyone is happy. Or at the most have a key that can be completed solo. If a guild can't handle the content they'll discover it soon enough.

[miir]

Other than in the original EQ2, the number of access quests or flagging has been very limited.

[Ashur]

Although I must admit, having the whole zone for your guild alone ruled in PoP when certain zones were best for fast exp and spells. I remember in the zone that led to Mith Marr's cathouse it was solo/duo paradise down in those building basements and camps were called in guildchat rather than ooc/shout

The big thing that I've noticed about EQ2/WoW over EQ is how easy it is to quest. There's none of this spamming random NPCs with clues looking for a hint to see if they're someone you need. They have a big glowing flag over their head and get straight to the point.

Then

Target "a Farmer"
"What about a spear"
"What about a weapon"
"What about a mystic"
NPC says "Ahhh, I used to be a Mystic, Mystic Ashur they called me, but I gave it up to farm this piece of crappy land surrounded by level 65 MOBs. I remember I had a [cudgel] of incredible power.
"What cudgel"
"Tell me about the cudgel"
NPC says "Yes it was a mighty tool, the Cudgel of Incredible Power, but alas, it was lost"
"Where did you lose it?"
"Where was it lost"
"Tell me about lost"
NPC says "I lost it someplace I used to visit."

Now

Click "Mystic Ashur"
"Ahhh, I used to be a Mystic, Mystic Ashur they called me, but I gave it up to farm this piece of crappy land surrounded by level 65 MOBs. I remember I had a cudgel of incredible power. I left it in the barn over the hill, but there's probably a big mean dog named Killer guarding it."

Accept Quest?
Reward
Cudgel of Incredible Power

Miir - I noticed that. I was surprised that Kunark wasn't rife with them.

[Aslanna]

Other than in the original EQ2, the number of access quests or flagging has been very limited.

I was mainly referring to EQ1 as I have no clue what's going on in the EQ2 world. Access quests and flagging still seems to be a big part of the raid content. For example to get to the (raiding) end-zone you have to kill Meldrath. Who only drops 6 key parts per win. There's no point to that other than to artifically limit progress. 6 keys every 5 days x ~ 60 people = 50 days just before you can move on to try new content. Not like guilds wouldn't be farming him anyway but still no point in creating a bottleneck like that.

[Clatis]

i kinda miss eq, anyone still play?

[Xatrei]

Lately, I don't have time to even if I wanted to. I still log on every blue moon to say hi to people I know that are still playing, but those folks are getting to be increasingly rare. That's about it, though.

[Aslanna]

I do!

[Noysyrump]

I dont even remember what server Veeshan turned into....

[Funkmasterr]

I dont even remember what server Veeshan turned into....

Fucklin.. err, Luclin (I think). Still one of the dumbest moves in EQ history.

[Xatrei]

The server mergers were necessary, and were a big boon to the remaining EQ population. Rolling Veeshan into Luclin, however, was all kinds of dumb. Now a few years later, it doesn't seem to be as big of a deal or all that important, though.

[Funkmasterr]

The server mergers were necessary, and were a big boon to the remaining EQ population. Rolling Veeshan into Luclin, however, was all kinds of dumb. Now a few years later, it doesn't seem to be as big of a deal or all that important, though.

Right, just that Veeshan was the older and much more well known server.

This thing with the flags is cool, I always wanted to see a few of those crazy zones but never wanted to waste the time on the keys.

[Xatrei]

Right, just that Veeshan was the older and much more well known server.

Yeah, I agree that the name should have remained Veeshan. It's strange to me that Saryrn managed to keep its name through the mergers.

[Siji]

If memory serves, they based the name decisions based on player votes.. so more of Luclin players were still active I'm guessing at the time..

[Aslanna]

If memory serves, they based the name decisions based on player votes.. so more of Luclin players were still active I'm guessing at the time..

Not originally. With the big stink then they decided to go to votes. However that seemed rigged to me. None of the name selections were overturned by votes. In every case supposedly the name they had originally went with was the winner. I call shenanigans on that really.

[Ashur]

As an IT guy, I'd wager the younger servers were on newer hardware... a no brainer.

[Truant]

As an IT guy, I'd wager the younger servers were on newer hardware... a no brainer.

We're talking about server names, not the actual hardware.

Since you're an IT guy, how hard would it be to rename the newer hardware to have the older name when you pull the plug on the old hardware?

[Funkmasterr]

As an IT guy, I'd wager the younger servers were on newer hardware... a no brainer.

We're talking about server names, not the actual hardware.

Since you're an IT guy, how hard would it be to rename the newer hardware to have the older name when you pull the plug on the old hardware?

That's what I thought when I read it, too.

[Ashur]

It depends. Sometimes it can be a right royal pain in the ass. Especially when you're considering that an EQ "server" is probably a collection of application (Zone and Chat) servers and supporting databases. They're probably all given some name convention that includes the EQ server name.

Especially if it's in a hosted environment and there are any third parties involved.

Certainly it could be done, but I think they took the "easy path" and just went with the newer servers.

[Canelek]

I suppose they could 'waterfall' their newer hardware, and in meantime slightly upgrade deprecated servers. I would go the new route as well, even at the double cost, considering they most likely will need C&R HW. Server name switches are easier--just DNS/WINS afaik.

[Momopi]

I just play everquest emulator and its pretty fun

[Carnon-Veeshan]

As an IT guy, I'd wager the younger servers were on newer hardware... a no brainer.

fuck, im in the US Navy as a IT, and i do not know shit about computers... just because you took a few classes on A+ dont mean your a expert.

[Ashur]

As an IT guy, I'd wager the younger servers were on newer hardware... a no brainer.

fuck, im in the US Navy as a IT, and i do not know shit about computers... just because you took a few classes on A+ dont mean your a expert.

I manage initiatives to expand, upgrade, retire and migrate large unix-based server farms with distributed applications with upwards of 50K users. This is kind of my area of specialty, Mr 3-posts asshat, so you can check your attitude.

[Spang]

This Carnon person is a real winner!

[Carnon-Veeshan]

As an IT guy, I'd wager the younger servers were on newer hardware... a no brainer.

fuck, im in the US Navy as a IT, and i do not know shit about computers... just because you took a few classes on A+ dont mean your a expert.

I manage initiatives to expand, upgrade, retire and migrate large unix-based server farms with distributed applications with upwards of 50K users. This is kind of my area of specialty, Mr 3-posts asshat, so you can check your attitude.

haha i can feel the love already..

[Canelek]

Hehe yeah, there are a few of us who 'dabble' with technology around here...


jackass