Antonica and Commonlands

[nerrollus]

<p>Does anyone know if SOE is planning on revamping the old Antonica/Commonlands areas?</p><p>As it is, all the content in those areas is obsolete and completely skipped by any new characters except to go back for Heritage quests.</p><p>Kelethin, Gorowyn, Halas, and Neriak all spit you out after level 20, so it's on to Thunderingsteps, Nektulos Forest, or Butcherblock.  There's no real reason to go through any of the city zones, Antonica, or Commonlands. </p><p>I really liked Antonica when I was leveling up my first character ...  Would really like to see them revamp those starter areas and bring them more in line with the newer zones.  Maybe open up Freeport and Qeynos as starter areas again and funnel people through the citys and into Antonica/Commonlands?</p>

[Lortet]

<p>NO, no and again no.</p><p>There is a thread in the tips new players area of the forum titled "Avoid Old Zones" A similar original post resulted in a spectrum of answers. To "revamp" Antonica and CL could indeed make them more like the new zones - but not everyone likes the new zones - myself included.</p><p>Personally. I would rate CL about twice as good as the next best tier 2 zone, that being Antonica, then the others are just not what is all about for me. Lead by the nose, no trade rewards, don't step off the path - it's a bit like a guided tour rather than a game. Now even the loot has been made identical in each zone - meh!. I personally want to have to find things, not be directed to them. I HATE "consecutive "quest hubs. Even worse, you can't even skip a section as the new quests only become available if you have done the previous ones.</p><p>It's not that I want those new zones changed - if some people like them, fine they can have them, just don't make all zones the same!</p>

[Gozer]

<p>hmmm, I actually like the old zones better because more of the quest npcs have voice overs. To bad SOE had to remove a lot of them. I liked questing around dark light wood too because some of the NPC's were voiced, but now they have added new text to them and removed the old voice overs. All that hard work and have it removed on a whim like that is dishearting. I wish SOE would do the voice overs again instead we are stuck interacting with npcs with no voices or life in them. Thats my only complaint about eq2</p>

[MurFalad]

<p><cite>nerrollus wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Does anyone know if SOE is planning on revamping the old Antonica/Commonlands areas?</p><p>As it is, all the content in those areas is obsolete and completely skipped by any new characters except to go back for Heritage quests.</p></blockquote><p>Except I often skip the new zones, head to Castleview hamlet (since it has content for my race specially - Froglok) and then onto Oakmist forest/castle ruins/Caves and into Antonica for a bit.</p><p>Antonica is a breath of fresh air, because as good as those zones are they are quite small, whereas Antonica feels like the broad open world.</p><p>If they revamp it I hope they do something different to Halas, as while I like Halas it is entirely devoid of any danger, even wandering off the beaten path I cannot find anything dangerous (no elite bear at the back of a dark cave that gives that feeling of adventure).  So while the questing pace could be improved in Antonica, I think its doing a lot of things right still.</p><p>Maybe if they do a revamp they should make it for level 90+ in an expansion, so that newer players unless mentored down will see the updated zones?</p>

[MurFalad]

<p><cite>Trollora@Crushbone wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>hmmm, I actually like the old zones better because more of the quest npcs have voice overs. To bad SOE had to remove a lot of them. I liked questing around dark light wood too because some of the NPC's were voiced, but now they have added new text to them and removed the old voice overs. All that hard work and have it removed on a whim like that is dishearting. I wish SOE would do the voice overs again instead we are stuck interacting with npcs with no voices or life in them. Thats my only complaint about eq2</p></blockquote><p>I hope they don't lose any more of them too, the Froglok prospector and Gnome companion at the bottom of Blackburrow for example were excellently done. </p><p>A few voice overs here and there does bring the world to life.</p>

[Gozer]

<p><cite>MurFalad wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Trollora@Crushbone wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>hmmm, I actually like the old zones better because more of the quest npcs have voice overs. To bad SOE had to remove a lot of them. I liked questing around dark light wood too because some of the NPC's were voiced, but now they have added new text to them and removed the old voice overs. All that hard work and have it removed on a whim like that is dishearting. I wish SOE would do the voice overs again instead we are stuck interacting with npcs with no voices or life in them. Thats my only complaint about eq2</p></blockquote><p>I hope they don't lose any more of them too, the Froglok prospector and Gnome companion at the bottom of Blackburrow for example were excellently done. </p><p>A few voice overs here and there does bring the world to life.</p></blockquote><p>i completly couldnt agree more my froglok friend</p>

[nerrollus]

<p><cite>MurFalad wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>nerrollus wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Does anyone know if SOE is planning on revamping the old Antonica/Commonlands areas?</p><p>As it is, all the content in those areas is obsolete and completely skipped by any new characters except to go back for Heritage quests.</p></blockquote><p>Except I often skip the new zones, head to Castleview hamlet (since it has content for my race specially - Froglok) and then onto Oakmist forest/castle ruins/Caves and into Antonica for a bit.</p><p>Antonica is a breath of fresh air, because as good as those zones are they are quite small, whereas Antonica feels like the broad open world.</p><p>If they revamp it I hope they do something different to Halas, as while I like Halas it is entirely devoid of any danger, even wandering off the beaten path I cannot find anything dangerous (no elite bear at the back of a dark cave that gives that feeling of adventure).  So while the questing pace could be improved in Antonica, I think its doing a lot of things right still.</p><p>Maybe if they do a revamp they should make it for level 90+ in an expansion, so that newer players unless mentored down will see the updated zones?</p></blockquote><p>Yeah I really don't like Halas either ...  It's really small and nothing really going on.  I don't really like Darklight Woods either.  Not sure why, there's nothing in particular that makes me not like it. </p><p>Anyways, I really like the old zones.  I just wish they'd balance out the quest rewards to catch up with the current state of the game and allow us to start in Qeynos and Freeport again.</p>

[Vinyard]

<p>I'm a VERY huge fan of making CL/Antonica heroic again.</p><p>I think the players should have the option of grinding in overland zones, not dungeons. Questing can get really boring a second time around, and EXTREMELY boring the third time. Grinding is a great way to get to know those of your community, and make new friends.</p><p>So in short: Bring back heroic scarecrows</p>

[Shassia]

<p>I don't want to see CL or Antonica redone, either. I'm not a big fan of dumbed-down content, especially when perfectly good content is taken out altogether. The starting isles are gone (still not happy about that), many of the old voiceovers are gone, many quests have been needlessly moved or just taken out. The changes in Greater Faydark in particular just makes me scratch my head - I don't see the point of anything they did in the revamp for that zone.</p><p>Some of the simplifications over the years have made sense, the changes in tradeskilling come immediately to mind, along with consistent naming of spells between tiers. But please don't take out content. They would have been better served to leave everything in, but designate the newer starting areas as "standard" and the older areas as "challenging." Then let the players decide what they want.</p>

[Jovie]

<p>For anyone who suffers from alt syndrom, it tends to get old going through the new halas/timorous deep/darklightwoods/greater faydark line.</p><p>Anyone with a brain knows that they can create the character and move that character to whatever area they so desire.</p><p>So let's say you start your newbie in new halas. Just make your way to the bell, head to qeynos. get a starter hotel room in whichever area you choose and then go play in the newbie zones. There are still quests in all of them. Not as streamlined as the current paths, but they are there.</p>