What about Barbarian settlers evolution ? [Archive]

View Full Version : What about Barbarian settlers evolution ?

Emlar_from_Halas

04-10-2009, 08:56 AM

With Halas being erased from Norrath, I was wondering where all Barbarians went to feel at home ? I cannot believe they can consider their village in Thudering Steppes as a new Halas. Much too warm in my opinion.When Far sea traders started talking about their first discoveries in Kunark, I was hopping that Teren's Grasp could be our new home. Nice snow everywhere, chilly winds; icy globlins were obsiously missing, but still the atmosphere was fresh enough to fulfill our feeling of nostalgy.Alas, no way to settle home in Teren's Grasp, not even a inn... <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" />And I tend to be quite frustrated because of that (probably not as much as Dwarfs discovering Kaladim invested by bugbears and goblins, but still).So, could it be possible that some adventurous Barbarian settlers managed to survive in Velious frozen zones, between Kromrif giants and Coldain dwarfs ? I'm pretty sure that if they did, they would offer hospitality to their exiled cousins.

Mary the Prophetess

04-10-2009, 11:17 AM

I am afraid I bear ill tidings. The lore suggests that during the Rending, most of the ice sheet covering Velious melted, which contributed to the world wide flooding.There may yet be some areas of Velious covered in ice, but I don't think it will be extensive.However, take heart! There is also news from a reliable source that Halas still remains on the face of Norrath! However, it's exact location (and current residents) remain undetermined.

Emlar_from_Halas

04-10-2009, 12:31 PM

Thanks a lot Mary <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" />I'm not sure it's gonna improve my patience for long, but at least you managed to reanimate some foolish hope I wasn't daring to keep any more.

Cusashorn

04-10-2009, 01:09 PM

The Barbarians adapted to other environments just like the humans do on a regular basis. Halas is not gone. It's nowhere near Everfrost anymore, but it's not gone. In fact, with the confirmation that there will be a new Good-Race only city suggests Halas as the most likely candidate... Too bad for the barbarians that they're a neutral race..

Emlar_from_Halas

04-10-2009, 02:57 PM

<cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite><blockquote>The Barbarians adapted to other environments just like the humans do on a regular basis. Halas is not gone. It's nowhere near Everfrost anymore, but it's not gone. In fact, with the confirmation that there will be a new Good-Race only city suggests Halas as the most likely candidate... Too bad for the barbarians that they're a neutral race..</blockquote>From an Halasian perspective Good and Evil don't have exactly the same meanings than for Humans. We are also enclined to consider law versus chaos aspects. Protecting your life or home might result in someone else Death. This is considered as an Evil act only if your behaviour is incompatible with The Tribunal sense of duty.As you said, we had to adapt to other environments, therefore, it's quite probable we had to adapt our way of thinking as well. The tolerance we may have had in the past for the drunkest elements of our kind may have been reconsidered a little bit ("no more vomit on Dwarves head"). Which I hope is enough to be considered as a "Good" behaviour from a human point of view <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" />.

Cusashorn

04-10-2009, 03:03 PM

no, I mean from a technical perspective in the game, The races are divided into Good, Neutral, and Evil. The new city will be, we assume, a Good-Race only city. High Elves, Wood Elves, Frogloks, Dwarves, and Halflings. The opposite of Neriak where only Ogres, Iksar, Dark Elves, Trolls, Arasai, and Ratonga can start.Barbarians and Humans are Neutral, so can only start in Qeynos, Freeport, or Gorowyn. Kelethin is Neutral-Good, because only races from Faydwer can start there, and a couple of them are neutral.If Halas is reintroduced, there is a possibility that barbarians will not be allowed to start there.

Rashaak

04-10-2009, 04:09 PM

<cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite><blockquote>no, I mean from a technical perspective in the game, The races are divided into Good, Neutral, and Evil. The new city will be, we assume, a Good-Race only city. High Elves, Wood Elves, Frogloks, Dwarves, and Halflings. The opposite of Neriak where only Ogres, Iksar, Dark Elves, Trolls, Arasai, and Ratonga can start.Barbarians and Humans are Neutral, so can only start in Qeynos, Freeport, or Gorowyn. Kelethin is Neutral-Good, because only races from Faydwer can start there, and a couple of them are neutral.If Halas is reintroduced, there is a possibility that barbarians will not be allowed to start there.</blockquote>Your contradicting yourself a bit Cusa. Remember Qeynos is inherently a good aligned city and Barbarians can start there. So as long as the Barbarian is choosing a class that is considered Neutral or Good they could be able to start there. That is, if Halas is the new 'good' aligned city.My money is on Badger town! <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Mary the Prophetess

04-10-2009, 06:35 PM

Badgers? Badgers! We don't got to have no stinkin' Badgers!-- Sorry Humphery, I just couldn't resist.Seriously though, I simply cannot imagine that if they brought Halas back into the game as a starting city, that they would not allow Barbarians to start there. That just wouldn't be right.

Cusashorn

04-10-2009, 08:18 PM

<cite>Rashaak wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite><blockquote>no, I mean from a technical perspective in the game, The races are divided into Good, Neutral, and Evil. The new city will be, we assume, a Good-Race only city. High Elves, Wood Elves, Frogloks, Dwarves, and Halflings. The opposite of Neriak where only Ogres, Iksar, Dark Elves, Trolls, Arasai, and Ratonga can start.Barbarians and Humans are Neutral, so can only start in Qeynos, Freeport, or Gorowyn. Kelethin is Neutral-Good, because only races from Faydwer can start there, and a couple of them are neutral.If Halas is reintroduced, there is a possibility that barbarians will not be allowed to start there.</blockquote>Your contradicting yourself a bit Cusa. Remember Qeynos is inherently a good aligned city and Barbarians can start there. So as long as the Barbarian is choosing a class that is considered Neutral or Good they could be able to start there. That is, if Halas is the new 'good' aligned city.My money is on Badger town! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>How am I contradicting myself by stating that Barbarians and Humans can only start in QEYNOS, Freeport, or Gorowyn? THE RACES ARE CONSIDERED NEUTRAL. PERIOD. Those neutral races choose to be good or evil, but this game still classifies thier race as neutral no matter what.Neriak is, without any question, an evil city. Only the evil races can start there. Humans and Barbarians can be evil, but they can't start there. For the sake of Balance, the new good city has to be good-races only. Not neutral Barbarians.

Zabjade

04-11-2009, 12:32 AM

Kelethin is only mostly Good Neutral, with only the Queens personal guard being Aggro to Evils. If they add Halas they might make Kelethin Good only (all they have to do is beef up the guards and add aggro.)

Cusashorn

04-11-2009, 12:51 AM

No, what they need to make is a Good-Race only Pure Good city that only High Elves, Dwarves, Wood Elves, Frogloks, and Halflings can start in in order to balance out Neriak's own Evil-Race only Pure Evil qualities that it has.Kelethin is Neutral-Good, being a mix of good and neutral races who all originally lived on Faydwer to begin with.Gorowyn is a Neutral-Evil city, being a mix of all neutral races in the game + the Sarnaks.

Meirril

04-11-2009, 07:11 PM

<cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite><blockquote>No, what they need to make is a Good-Race only Pure Good city that only High Elves, Dwarves, Wood Elves, Frogloks, and Halflings can start in in order to balance out Neriak's own Evil-Race only Pure Evil qualities that it has.Kelethin is Neutral-Good, being a mix of good and neutral races who all originally lived on Faydwer to begin with.Gorowyn is a Neutral-Evil city, being a mix of all neutral races in the game + the Sarnaks.</blockquote>Just to point out, the dev team is NOT following good/evil racial allignments when assigning races to cities. They are following storyboard.Neriak has trolls, ogres and iksar because they were in the forign quarter when the city was closed. There were probably some humans as well, but their contingent would be much smaller than the other 3 "evil" races of that time. The Arrissi were a creation of Queen Thex's so naturally they are present. However, once Gorowyn is introduced as an "evil" city Sarnak are not introduced to othre "evil" cities, nor are other "evil" races allowed to start there. Why? Because Gorowyn's story takes precidence not "alignment".If Halas is re-introduced whatever the story behind the city is will take precidence and determine which races can start there. Even if Halas is seen as a "good" city it probably won't allow all good races. Lets just say its somewhere in the un-explored reaches of everfrost. If that is the case I can see Barbarians, Dwarves, humans, gnomes and a real streach to allow halflings to start there. However, I can't see "ice" elves starting in the tundra. Euradites would be peculuar. Fae would be very strange. They should be Kelethin only. The Ogers and trolls have always been swamp dwellers, which kinda indicates wet and warm weather. For either to start in the tundra strikes me as unlikely. Frogloks? Just say no to introducing a partially aquatic race to a cold weather enviroment.Anyways, what I'm saying is the story is more important than any alignment consideration. Who knows, you might have a "good" city where Ogres can be a start race. It really depends on the background story. I'm fairly certain if Highkeep was re-introduced as a starting city it would have all races/alignments allowed with the exception of the fae/arrissi due to their magical birthing and maybe Sarnak due to the limited existance of their race.

Cusashorn

04-11-2009, 08:15 PM

Then what's the storyboard for Humans, Kerrans, Barbarians, Erudites, Half Elves, and Gnomes starting in Gorowyn with the Sarnaks?Regardless of what the story board dictates, the new good city HAS TO ALLOW Frogloks and Halflings to start there. No exception. They're they only two races who cannot start anywhere else but Qeynos.

TheSpin

04-11-2009, 09:03 PM

Meirril

04-12-2009, 06:44 AM

<cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite><blockquote>Then what's the storyboard for Humans, Kerrans, Barbarians, Erudites, Half Elves, and Gnomes starting in Gorowyn with the Sarnaks?Regardless of what the story board dictates, the new good city HAS TO ALLOW Frogloks and Halflings to start there. No exception. They're they only two races who cannot start anywhere else but Qeynos.</blockquote>I think the storyboard for the nuetral types would be kinda 2 fold. First, its to reinforce the notion that the Gorowyn Sarnak are more neutral than evil. Being a Xenophobic race with no-outsiders allowed to start there would give a different impression than the one we have of a militaristic but tollerant junta than we do now.The second storyboard element is that these races are also the most accepting of the races on Norrath. Neither the evil or good races are seen as trusting folk when it comes to "the other side". By the very nature of being open and trusting, it also means your race is split between good and evil elements. Thus these races are the ones most acceptable to the Gorowyn Sarnak.And let me make sure I'm reading you right, your advocating mechanics over Lore? That seems a most shocking thing to hear from Cusa. Honestly, who cares if Halas is only a Barbarian starting city like in the old days? If someone wants to play a frog or a halfling they can start in Qeynos. What's wrong with Qeynos? Does it have old city stink or something?Now Rivervale...that would be an interesting starting city! (you get off the bed, you gain level 2! You cross the training room! You gain level 3!...You have discovered the Fool's Gold! You gain level 20!...You have discovered The Enchanted Lands! You gain level 30! New Player Combat Tutorial...)

Hikinami

04-12-2009, 07:20 AM

Cusa is not advocating mechanics over lore, just pointing out the obvious here based on what happened before because of mechanics. Gorowyn could not be a true neutral city because of the mechanics. Remember back when they stated they wanted a neutral city there was the big debate over if only certain classes could start there ect? Well because of mechanics the dev's couldnt do that so we got a "neutral" city in the lore but an evil city gameplay wise because Evil classes can start there. It is a neutral evil city from the mechanics standpoint in that the neutral races can start there and some evil but they will be an evil class. Its not over the lore or anything its just the way things are. If the storyboard and the lore dictated mechanics it would have been a class based city...but the game just cant code that way.All Cusa is saying that is if it is a true good city it will have only good races like Neriak AND good classes. And since barbarians are not in the little section of "Good" races they would not be able to start there.We don't know what the city is or anything like that yet...if it is Halas and barbarians start there it will have to be a neutral good city as far as mechanics go. Simple as that. I for one hope its not Halas and it is a polar to Neriak.And as for the OP: If you are on AB I'll send you some snowdrifts and goblin popsicles to make you feel at home <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

erimus

04-12-2009, 09:39 AM

Why couldnt they make Halas a completely "good" city. They have plenty of room to work with. All we know is that Halas is still around somewhere. For all we know it could have drifted south, or some type of climate change could have caused the snows to melt and the city to have a sort of tropical climate now. That would allow for reasons for frogloks to want to flock there. As far as the mechanics are concerned, why couldnt they allow only good barbarians to start in Halas, with neutral and evil classes getting the option of the other cities? They could say from a lore perspective that the city of Halas became unified under Marr, (also explaining frogloks) or something to that effect. Im just saying I wouldnt count it out. I see Halas before I see rivervale, unless they are revamping that whole continent as well to account for newbies.

Meirril

04-12-2009, 09:38 PM

I mentioned Rivervale as a joke. I seriously doubt that Rivervale will ever be "reclaimed" as a player city.Its too bad, I'd really like to live in a hobbit halfling hole.If the next player city is going to be "good" it doesn't necessaraly rule out Halas. I'd still contend that Halas would rule out certain "good" races. I really, really can't see Frogloks and Elves starting in Halas. Also most of the neutral races should be able to start there.I will rule out Odeus. With the little we understand about Quellthullians it sounds like they are the ones in charge of Euradin now. I could be reading this completely wrong...but I doubt it. The Quellthulians sound like a bunch of tools used by every power interested in planar/teleportation a neutral kinda faction. Neither truely devoted to Quellious nor Cazic but trying to skirt a middle balance for the good of both halves of the Euradite race so they could unite once again.I think there is a better chance of a "good" city in Velious. Thurgadin was populated by Brell worshiping Dwarves. Dwarves are a good only race. They were highly accepting of most races. While a few people chose to support the giants and went after dwarves/dragons in EQ1 most people choose to support the dwarves even if they went anti-dragon.With the big melt, its hard to say if Thurgadin would survive. Most of the city was made of Velium, but the cavern itself...wasn't it mostly ice? Its possible that it was all velium but its a bit hard to believe. The ice dwarves were also spread over 2 camps. There was the village in Crystal Caverns that survived the giant purge that most of the Thurgadin dwarves excaped from. The dwarves in Thurgadin believe all the dwarves in crystal carverns died.In either case, its more than possible that at least one enclave of dwarves survived the disasters that hit Velious and rebuilt. Its even possible that the dwarves of Kaladim relocated themselves to Velious to protect Brell's Vault. If so, you have a friendly good city available (well, maybe not in front of Brell's Valut but one of the offshoot villages that supplies the main fortress). It is also possible that large numbers of adventurers were trapped due to the spires suddenly ceasing to work. Some of the survivors could be refugees from Shadowhaven that managed to get to the Great Divide portal before it stopped working. Its more difficult for me to be convinced of a huge racially diverse mix being natural here like it was when Firona Vie and The Overthere combined for mutual protection and relocated to Teran's Grasp but you never know.Also there are 3 other possible "hosts" for a good city in Velious. The Icepaw Gnolls were friendly. If the ice started melting they would probably relocate to the islands just off Velious and continue their fishing lifestyle. With the influence of gnome pirates they could build a more settled town and welcome other castaways and rescue sailors washed up on their shores. The same is also possible for the Gnome Pirates (they wern't much in the way of Pirates, more or less just explorers that talked funny) to make a town in the same area for the same reasons.The last possible host for a "good" city would be the Othmir. I seriously doubt that the semi-aquatic Othmir would be horribly put off at the thought of Velious melting, except for effects on the fish population. They were friendly, slightly more advanced than the icepaws, and had a nice carabian beat...umm...lifestyle. Personally I've thought that Othmir would make a great player race. Mainly because I too want a fez. With them being aquatic they could move to anywhere along the coast of velious and remain as open and trusting as the last time I was hunting wyvern in the cobalt scar.Oh, and did I mention that Othmir were master brewers? Also great jewelers. Nice folk!

teddyboy4

04-14-2009, 04:38 PM

My personal hope for the new "Good" starting city? Felwithe.Almost all of my characters back in EQ were High Elves and thus called Felwithe home. It was a huge disapointment to find out what's been going on in Felwithe these past few hundred years, although the blow was lessened a bit when it came to light that the royal family didn't knowingly, or willingly make the city so paranoid and xenophobic, but rather that they came under the influence of Mayong and were somewhat hypnotized into doing these things. Indeed, the Loping Plains TSO zones made me quite happy, in that it was revealed that Thex's were actively railing against Mistmoores influence and trying to get control of their city, and people.I know it won't happen, but I would be absolutely elated if it turned out that the Thex's did get control of their city, and people back and undid all the harm that Mayong caused and that Felwithe was cleansed and became the new "Good" city. Like I said, I know it'll never happen, at least in-so-far that Felwithe will probably never be a habitable city in EQ2, but I can dream....I do hope that one day the Dev's decide they want to go back and have the players reclaim all the old racial starting cities from whatever corruption, invading forces, or whatever have taken them over...places like Felwithe, Kaladim, Ak'Anon, Rivervale, et all.I personally don't believe that Halas is going to be the upcoming "Good" city. Why? B/c as has been pointed out, Barbarians are inherently neutral, there are "good" Barbs, but there are also "evil" Barbs and they seem to have no problem tolerating each other so I can't see one faction kicking the other out. Especially b/c they would need ALL Barbarians just to survive, they wouldn't kick a large portion of their own people out just b/c they have different beliefs, especially when they need everyone to pitch in just to survive. Anything is possible, but I don't think it'll be Halas.My guess? I think the next expansion will have most of Norrath rediscovering the way to Odus and the new "good" city will be there, somewhere. My guess is that it will be Erudin. Now yes, the Erudites have managed to make peace amongst themselves, and found a way to coexist, but I think they may still live seperate from each other. The Cazicites may still live in Paineel, while the Quellians could still live in Erudin, with the Quelthulian Temple being somewhere in between. Heck, for all we know Erudin may have expanded signifigantly and now stretches from it's position in EQ, all the way to Paineel and the whole area is now one giant "metropolis", but each faction lives at each end of the city so that they are still seperate. Now that would be pretty damned cool IMO.Of course, the new "good" city could be somewhere we've never even heard of and on a landmass that hadn't been discovered in the time of EQ. I really hope that's not the case as it would be a step in the wrong direction, and too close to what the dev's were doing @ EQ2s release with the whole "radically different" Norrath with places no one ever heard of. But I think they have learned that many of EQ2s players enjoy rediscovering the old, lost areas of Norrath that we knew, and loved in EQ, and discovering the changes, and events that have reshaped them in the past couple hundred years.

Rashaak

04-14-2009, 06:48 PM

<cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Rashaak wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite><blockquote>no, I mean from a technical perspective in the game, The races are divided into Good, Neutral, and Evil. The new city will be, we assume, a Good-Race only city. High Elves, Wood Elves, Frogloks, Dwarves, and Halflings. The opposite of Neriak where only Ogres, Iksar, Dark Elves, Trolls, Arasai, and Ratonga can start.Barbarians and Humans are Neutral, so can only start in Qeynos, Freeport, or Gorowyn. Kelethin is Neutral-Good, because only races from Faydwer can start there, and a couple of them are neutral.If Halas is reintroduced, there is a possibility that barbarians will not be allowed to start there.</blockquote>Your contradicting yourself a bit Cusa. Remember Qeynos is inherently a good aligned city and Barbarians can start there. So as long as the Barbarian is choosing a class that is considered Neutral or Good they could be able to start there. That is, if Halas is the new 'good' aligned city.My money is on Badger town! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>How am I contradicting myself by stating that Barbarians and Humans can only start in QEYNOS, Freeport, or Gorowyn? THE RACES ARE CONSIDERED NEUTRAL. PERIOD. Those neutral races choose to be good or evil, but this game still classifies thier race as neutral no matter what.Neriak is, without any question, an evil city. Only the evil races can start there. Humans and Barbarians can be evil, but they can't start there. For the sake of Balance, the new good city has to be good-races only. Not neutral Barbarians.</blockquote>Yes, they are considered neutral and depending on what city you choose will determine if they start out as Evil or as Good. BUT, Halas is the main city of the Barbarians, even if Halas (which I seriously doubt will be the next good city btw) is the new city to be introduced, I doubt they would not let Barbarians start there, it is the native homeland, and you'd have a lot of p.o.'d peeps out there. It be just like not allowing Dark Elves to start in Neriak. Iksar are not allowed to start in Gorowyn simply because Iksar and Sarnak are mortal enemies.

Gisallo

04-14-2009, 10:21 PM

<cite>TheSpin wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite><blockquote>Then what's the storyboard for Humans, Kerrans, Barbarians, Erudites, Half Elves, and Gnomes starting in Gorowyn with the Sarnaks?Regardless of what the story board dictates, the new good city HAS TO ALLOW Frogloks and Halflings to start there. No exception. They're they only two races who cannot start anywhere else but Qeynos.</blockquote>This is exactly why I personally don't think Halas would be the next starting city.Anyone have a link to the references you are using to make these guesses?</blockquote>I'll hunt for it but Vahlen in an interview stated that halas is not lost and will be found sometime in the future, but wouldn't go much further into this issue.As for Cushahorn. I understand that neriak allows evil races only BUT it would make ZERO sense to have Halas return without the presence of the Barbarians and allowing them to start in the city. I think trying to achieve balance that much is simply getting lost in minutia. Halas would not be Halas without the barbarians, it would simply be another city in the ice unless it was a story hook like Kaladim where it was taken over by a hostile force and the Barbarians wish to retake their ancestral home, which makes little sense if it is a new good city Edit: Found the link<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=30&topic_id=186933#top">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...c_id=186933#top</a>Now clearly he does not say IT WILL be discovered. That being said in prior interviews much of the lore that the game is currently progressing on is from a blue print that Vahlen left behind. This is the only city I can find that is lore based and could be considered good that was mentioned by Vahlen as still being somwhere. Also remember the Halas that is rediscovered does NOT have to be the remains of the original Halas. The opriginal Halas was basically a place created by the Barbarians to A) give them a trading center to have contact with the rest of the world, and to give the orcs and Giants something to attack rather than go after the clans individually (they really aren't that bright those Rallosians <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /> ). As such Halas is very much a city of "home is where the heart is."Also with the current expansion they could dove tail the Void invasion VERY nicely. Perhaps Anashti decided to first strike against the world she was banished from during the chaos of the Rending, striking at a time she percieved as one of greater weakness and Halas was where she first struck. This could be the mysterious foe that Vahlen hints at in his writing. Just some ideas

Cusashorn

04-14-2009, 10:43 PM

He also mentioned that Halas had been reclaimed from it's devastation during the war. By who is unknown, but I would think he would hint towards the Barbarians reclaiming thier city if they did.Regardless... Halflings. Frogloks. Has to happen.

Gisallo

04-19-2009, 05:53 PM

<cite>Cusashorn wrote:</cite><blockquote>He also mentioned that Halas had been reclaimed from it's devastation during the war. By who is unknown, but I would think he would hint towards the Barbarians reclaiming thier city if they did.Regardless... Halflings. Frogloks. Has to happen.</blockquote>Well I think he is saying its the Halasian's. He mentions A) that it with stood the bad things and that "the Halasian's that survived..." Seems to me thats saying the Halasians are there, just that for whatever reason they appear to have isolated themselves, or have been isolated from the environment. Doesn't mean of course that others are not there as well, but I see no where in the stuff that he has said that even vaguely indicates the place was abandoned and then inhabited by someone else. I understand that you feel that there needs to be a "pure" good city in the game, but from everything I have read and the tact that all of the cities except Neriak have taken, I would say tis a good bet if it is Halas there would be Halasians. If there aren't any its just another city...its not Halas.

Meirril

04-20-2009, 08:26 PM

There is another lore-based "city" that could be considered good. Early in EQ2's development they had plans for a city named ...umm... named... Marsbrook? Mars-something. Story goes that the design of the village was made but after several itterations the graphics load for it was larger than they were allowing for. The Lore for the village was kept as part of the background information of the world but the zones themselves were dropped. It was suppose to be a support village for Befallen back in the old days and had a sect of knights devoted to Erollisi.Another possability is that we just had some members of the Sisterhood of Erollisi show up from the ocean of tears. They had a small village on a larger island back in EQ1. That village could of been fortified and have become a full on starting area/town since the rending. Traditionally the sisterhood has had very little to do with outsiders, especially men, but with the rending its possible that they could of taken in survivors. One certainly couldn't argue against the Sisterhood being good aligned. They could very easily explain the racial makeup for the good races. It would be difficult to explain why none of the neutral races are included as Antonia was raised by the sisterhood. I also believe there were humans as well as elves in the sisterhood but I could be mistaken about that.

Gisallo

04-20-2009, 09:05 PM

<cite>Meirril wrote:</cite><blockquote>There is another lore-based "city" that could be considered good. Early in EQ2's development they had plans for a city named ...umm... named... Marsbrook? Mars-something. Story goes that the design of the village was made but after several itterations the graphics load for it was larger than they were allowing for. The Lore for the village was kept as part of the background information of the world but the zones themselves were dropped. It was suppose to be a support village for Befallen back in the old days and had a sect of knights devoted to Erollisi.Another possability is that we just had some members of the Sisterhood of Erollisi show up from the ocean of tears. They had a small village on a larger island back in EQ1. That village could of been fortified and have become a full on starting area/town since the rending. Traditionally the sisterhood has had very little to do with outsiders, especially men, but with the rending its possible that they could of taken in survivors. One certainly couldn't argue against the Sisterhood being good aligned. They could very easily explain the racial makeup for the good races. It would be difficult to explain why none of the neutral races are included as Antonia was raised by the sisterhood. I also believe there were humans as well as elves in the sisterhood but I could be mistaken about that.</blockquote>I am banking on Halas not only beause it is lore based but because its the only one any dev has actually come out and said is still out there to be found. These others may be out there too BUT they are a bit more obscure than Halas (obviously) and no dev has mentioned them as being out there to be found. Its the two in conjuction with ech other that have me thinking as I do.

bigbaldpapa

06-18-2009, 05:37 PM

I will dig this thread up out of pure hope. I do hope that Halas is discovered, is a player city and is as frozen as it was hundreds of years ago. If they bring Halas back in some other part of the world all thawed out I would consider that blasphemy and I am not sure how I would take that!

Thorindil

06-22-2009, 11:23 AM

What if they make Halas a sort of opposite to Gorowyn- remember, who's to say that the Barbarians didn't team up with another race and continue existing in Halas. This way you could have a new good race mechanics wise, though they would no doubt be considered neutral lore wise (sort of like the Sarnaks), with neutral races being allowed to start there as well, which would include Barbarians.Being new to eq2, I won't speculate what that new race would be, but it's just my 2 pennies worth.Also, I have a few reasons to back this up:Firstly, balancing races to have an equal number on both sides is probably more important than having a new all good city, and as there are currently 7 "evil" races, SOE's priority is no doubt to have 7 "good" races.Secondly, having Halas as an all good city wouldn't work out from a lore-perspective, at least not in my eyes anyway. The only reason you get Wood Elves and Frogloks in Qeynos is because they had nowhere else to go, but would a Froglok or Wood Elf really consider moving to a wintry landscape? And as for High Elves? They probably already detest living among "lesser" races as it is, so what would make a High Elf move to Halas, a place mainly consisting of barbarians, who in their eyes are probably seen as nothing more than brutes.Of course, the new city probably isn't Halas, but as I said earlier, I'm just giving my two pennies worth.

Meirril

06-22-2009, 09:14 PM

<cite>Thorindil@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Firstly, balancing races to have an equal number on both sides is probably more important than having a new all good city, and as there are currently 7 "evil" races, SOE's priority is no doubt to have 7 "good" races.</blockquote>Why would balancing the number of "good" vs "evil" races matter? Especially to Lore junkies? We should want internally consistant, story driven content. We shouldn't be asking for mechanically inclined "balanced" content that satisfies some kind of OCD need for mirrored development of the game. I want a good story, period. I don't want some lame thrown together excuse for catoring to the player's demands.Class balance? Sure. That effects how the game is played. Item balancing? Sure, again how the game is played. Number of good races/starting cities? I've herd the arguments, and quite frankly I am less than convinced. My guild on AB takes in a lot of new recruits. I can assure you that the are more "good" aligned races/classes joining than "evil". As a guild, we honestly don't care what class or race or city you come from. Players seem to choose good old Qeynos just as often as the newer and sexxier Nerriak or Gorowin combined.Its a history and lore forum. If you want to visit Halas, go out to Everfrost and start swimming around the goblin area. You'll find what remains under the water with a bunch of ghosts. Yeah, there could be a new Halas. I'd welcome it. But whatever the new Halas is...its new.I just hope they remember how to make kilts when and if we ever rediscover Halas.

Cusashorn

06-22-2009, 09:39 PM

<cite>Meirril wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Thorindil@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>Firstly, balancing races to have an equal number on both sides is probably more important than having a new all good city, and as there are currently 7 "evil" races, SOE's priority is no doubt to have 7 "good" races.</blockquote>Why would balancing the number of "good" vs "evil" races matter? Especially to Lore junkies? We should want internally consistant, story driven content. We shouldn't be asking for mechanically inclined "balanced" content that satisfies some kind of OCD need for mirrored development of the game. I want a good story, period. I don't want some lame thrown together excuse for catoring to the player's demands.Class balance? Sure. That effects how the game is played. Item balancing? Sure, again how the game is played. Number of good races/starting cities? I've herd the arguments, and quite frankly I am less than convinced. My guild on AB takes in a lot of new recruits. I can assure you that the are more "good" aligned races/classes joining than "evil". As a guild, we honestly don't care what class or race or city you come from. Players seem to choose good old Qeynos just as often as the newer and sexxier Nerriak or Gorowin combined.Its a history and lore forum. If you want to visit Halas, go out to Everfrost and start swimming around the goblin area. You'll find what remains under the water with a bunch of ghosts. Yeah, there could be a new Halas. I'd welcome it. But whatever the new Halas is...its new.I just hope they remember how to make kilts when and if we ever rediscover Halas.</blockquote>THAT'S NOT THE REMNANTS OF HALAS DOWN THERE! Vhalen told us it isn't, and the doesn't say it is either.

KniteShayd

06-23-2009, 04:32 AM

The good alignment always gets the shaft. So it wouldn't surprise me that a New Halas would start only Barbs, Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes (They got to they Overrealm, why not New Halas?), and Erudites (Quellthulians are everywhere).That's my guess New Halas, Good Only, Guarded like Neriak.Gorowyn and Kelethin have same city mechanics, and so do FP and Qeynos. So balance-wise New Halas would match Neriak.I'm sure the devs can create lore to make it work and be good only. Return to Marr's Teaching and being lawful good, blaming non-good Barbs for what happened and making Marr "punish" themby leaving and thusly destroying Halas for not being devout followers..., blah,blah, blah...