A Plea For Qeynos

[msgnomer]

<p>Seeing the fate of Freeport, I'm making a plea for Qeynos.  PLEASE leave it alone.</p><p>No, I'm not horrified by the sprucing up of Freeport.  What disappoints me is that the city is now devoid of detailed and varied signs of life.  The weapons rack near the door of a house.  The many and varied shops.  The crafting guild workshops.  The city has been reduced to a guilded facade much in the manner of Thurgadin.  Nice to look at but nothing to see and explore beyond the fancy walls and lightposts.</p><p>It's a shame really.  While everyone has their own ideas.  I'd be praising Freeport now, if only they'd left the shops and little details.  The sprucing up is a logical change.  Those work gangs must have been doing something all these years, after all.  Making one big city is ok by me, but not at the expense of loss of city detail.  I could even be ok with instanced racial villages, if there was a repeatable quest that would allow anyone access to any of the suburbs.  Sadly not the case.</p><p>PLEASE don't give Qeynos the same simplifying  treatment.  It's the best zones in the game, IMO.  The richness of detail means you can travel through the city and always be seeing something you haven't noticed in awhile.  It's immersive.  There are shops with doors and details everywhere. </p><p>I'd love added details and a change here and there, but don't strip the city of it's richness in order to ...I'm still not sure what the reason is for wanting to change the two best cities in the game.  (Although the sprucing up of Freeport makes sense after all these years). </p><p>If you were to spruce up Qeynos, here what needs doing in my opinion:</p><p>(1) Get rid of the portalpark eyesore.  Since players can hop from one place to the next easily, I'd love to see the houses put in their proper zones.  If not, well, the Freeport solution is annoying as all getout, but better than the string of portals.</p><p>(2) Leave Qeynos proper substantially alone, except for getting rid of the zones IF it can be done without reducing the current level of detail.  I'd rather have several richly detailed zones than one big bland zone stripped of it's smaller details.</p><p>(3) Leave at least one crafting house.  Even in the suburbs, I can go in the crafting house and rarely be the only player.</p><p>(4) Retain the suburbs.  IF you are really itching to rennovate something, do it here!  Spruce up Greystone yard with stuff from New Halas and Thurgadin.  Add more tinkered contraptions to the Baubbleshire.  Ditto for the others.  Add new quests.  However, if you really have a bee in your bonnet to remove zones from the game, ...well, better here than removing the heart of Qeynos.</p><p>(5) Adding new additional quests to the city proper is good.  Adding new details is good.  The game now has so many new items since the game was first released that you could really upgrade the details in some of the shops.  Always bothered me the art shop had no art to buy in Qeynos.  Lots of food item for the bakery, etc.</p><p>(6) Adding apartment numbers to the various doors in the Lion's Mane Inn is good.  They are terrible for merchants now since patrons have to just keep trying doors until they find the right one.</p><p>Qeynos IS EQ2 to me.  It's the place in EQ2 that is home and I always have some of my characters based there and all of them return frequently.   Without it, I don't know that I'd feel at home in the game anymore. </p>

[Suprchik407]

<p>EVERYTHING I wanted to say but couldnt as eloquently. Well done and in FULL agreement.</p>

[Gedov]

<p>/signed</p>

[Lasai]

<p>I would agree.  And I expect just as much consideration as we got when we asked for slow mounts back.</p><p>If the abomination that is the new Freeport is any indication, the New Qeynos will have gingerbread houses, rainbow generators, bubble fountains, and bambi and friends frolicking in neon glow magical meadows.</p><p>Qeynos guard will be mounted on My Pretty Ponies, wearing armor inspired by the Pink Power Ranger, She Ra, and The Justice League.</p><p>This will properly project an aura of Happy Happy Joy Joy, Truth, and Justice.  Much like Lucan's CarnyTown reflects an image of.. giggle.. power.</p><p>I would imagine that the suburbs will become themed shopping malls, Animal Shelters, and Wellness Retreats.  Perhaps a Spa or two.</p>

[Elskidor]

<p>lol they are going to do it anyway. Should be obvious now that we don't have a say in just about anything.</p>

[Katz]

<p>I hope they listen to you.   That was a well thought out and presented post and I support your suggestions 100%.</p>

[Rainmare]

<p>I like new freeport completely. the weaponracks outside of homes never made any sense to me. why in the world would you leave a rack of weapons right outside your frontdoor, in a city where someone is likely to not only steal them, but use one to run you through as your leaving your house?</p><p>I also didn't notice a lot of changes to shops. seems like mostly they just got relocated. there are a bunch more tents/merchants in West Freeport...even Boomba has some new company. the one building by the dock that had 2 people it in now has like 7...and got completely opened up almost fleamarket style. more of the buildings in that little rontunda actually have a use now, so people go in that area rather then just running past it.</p><p>and the questlines explain some of those details as well. No one is allowed to carry weapons in Freeport without being 'authorized' by the militia...unless you blackmarket it or are willing to risk being arrested. so no one is keeping racks of weapons outside thier doors to give them a reason to be 'detained'.</p><p>as to the crafting instances...I don't know many people that ever use them to begin with, especially freeport's version with 7 floors up and down where the broker is at teh bottom and the writs are at the top. bleh. now it's more like qeynos' setup, with one main building that has all teh stations and such in it easily accessable. heck I don't even go to the qeynos subs anymore becuase everything I need is in North Qeynos, and my homes are in South Qeynos.</p><p>In freeport, the burbs are no longer safe pretty much. One is a rioting civil war, two of them are prisons/internment camps, one is building secret machines and woudl rather keep everyone out, and one is overrun by cristanos worshipping arasai performing an inqusition. not sure what's going on in Big Bend, but I bet nothing you'd want to move into.</p><p>if they do remove the Qeynos burbs...dunno what the story might be for it though. not like they are suddenly going to become 'unsafe'...but we'll wait and see. maybe it'll be a safety precaution from Lucan's armada or military incursion or something.</p>

[TheSpin]

<p>There are a few things I had fond memories of in freeport that are now gone.  The Inn and Tavern behind the militia house in WFP for one.  The hamlets are the other thing that I really want back.</p><p>However, Freeport was truly quite emply and I'm glad it got its facelift.  It's nearly impossible to guess as to what everyone's favorite locations would be to keep in town.  They kept armor by Ikthar in EFP, and they kept the pet merchant in West FP, those are two things I've seen mention of in the forums that people are happy they kept.</p><p>Overall I'm impressed with FP's facelift and think the tradeoff was worth it.  However, I know that Qeynos is simply not the same as FP because it's always been a pretty pleasant place to be.  I think Qeynos does not require a change in the basic 'feel' of the city, like Freeport did... It just needs more of an update.</p>

[Cusashorn]

They say you don't really know what you've got until it's gone. We no longer have Freeport, and all we can do is remember what we had, but we also now know what we're gonna get when Qeynos follows suit. Please don't take Qeynos away from us again.

[Mohee]

<p>They're dumbing down everything and there's nothing we can do to stop it.</p><p>I also remember them saying you'd be able to fly around the new zoneless cities. Yet we cant. But you can fly around the cavernous city of Thurgadin! Like that makes any sense........</p><p>If we all /feedback at once and flood them with it, we might have a chance of changing their minds (since obviously the forums doesn't ever do any good).</p><p>Our other option, get the majority to stop paying/playing EQ2. Then they'd buck up and listen <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p><p>But that'd never happen...</p>

[Ahlana]

<p>I will live with whatever decision they make. But I hope they follow through.</p><p>I love the new FP and have been in game since EQ2 started and before in EQ1.. and I LOVE the new FP.</p><p>I am anxiously waiting for the change to Qeynos.</p>

[Mizlek]

<p><cite>Rainmare@Oasis wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>as to the crafting instances...I don't know many people that ever use them to begin with, especially freeport's version with 7 floors up and down where the broker is at teh bottom and the writs are at the top. bleh. now it's more like qeynos' setup, with one main building that has all teh stations and such in it easily accessable. heck I don't even go to the qeynos subs anymore becuase everything I need is in North Qeynos, and my homes are in South Qeynos.</p></blockquote><p>I used the crafting instance in Temple Street every single day. Might have been the only one, but I was there. I don't care much about how convenient something is, but crafting in the suburb was convenient. House, Bank, Craft Hole, all within spitting distance of each other.</p><p>As for Qeynos. Freeport used to be my city of choice. I understand your concerns about what will happen to Qeynos. I hope it turns out better for you Qeynos folk than it did for us.</p><p>-Miz</p>

[CorpseGoddess]

<p>The new Freeport is amazing.  At the very least, no zoning is fantastic.  I'll have been playing this game for 6 years in February, and I felt like my first day the first time I was running through new Freeport.  It was amazing to run from North to South to East to West without stopping, to have that feeling of exploration, to wonder where *this* turn would take me next.</p><p>The old Freeport didn't have character--it was just the old Freeport.  THIS Freeport shouts Lucan's name to the rooftops.</p>

[Felshades]

<p><cite>Rainmare@Oasis wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I like new freeport completely. the weaponracks outside of homes never made any sense to me. why in the world would you leave a rack of weapons right outside your frontdoor, in a city where someone is likely to not only steal them, but use one to run you through as your leaving your house?</p><p>I also didn't notice a lot of changes to shops. seems like mostly they just got relocated. there are a bunch more tents/merchants in West Freeport...even Boomba has some new company. the one building by the dock that had 2 people it in now has like 7...and got completely opened up almost fleamarket style. more of the buildings in that little rontunda actually have a use now, so people go in that area rather then just running past it.</p><p>and the questlines explain some of those details as well. No one is allowed to carry weapons in Freeport without being 'authorized' by the militia...unless you blackmarket it or are willing to risk being arrested. so no one is keeping racks of weapons outside thier doors to give them a reason to be 'detained'.</p><p>as to the crafting instances...I don't know many people that ever use them to begin with, especially freeport's version with 7 floors up and down where the broker is at teh bottom and the writs are at the top. bleh. now it's more like qeynos' setup, with one main building that has all teh stations and such in it easily accessable. heck I don't even go to the qeynos subs anymore becuase everything I need is in North Qeynos, and my homes are in South Qeynos.</p><p>In freeport, the burbs are no longer safe pretty much. One is a rioting civil war, two of them are prisons/internment camps, one is building secret machines and woudl rather keep everyone out, and one is overrun by cristanos worshipping arasai performing an inqusition. not sure what's going on in Big Bend, but I bet nothing you'd want to move into.</p><p>if they do remove the Qeynos burbs...dunno what the story might be for it though. not like they are suddenly going to become 'unsafe'...but we'll wait and see. maybe it'll be a safety precaution from Lucan's armada or military incursion or something.</p></blockquote><p>This.</p><p>And 20 bucks says the reason they removed some of the smaller things, like the weapon racks outside the houses(chests I can see, some stuff you want to store outside.. but your weapons? Heck no..) were likely removed to improve framerate.</p><p>Not sure about you, but I'm running a GeForce 250 GTS with a gig of VRAM. Freeport is a slideshow and I don't have max settings. The entire city is a HUGE resource pig. It ran smoother before the revamp because the city was done in chunks. That's why there's things like the roundabout between the sections that everyone seems to hate.  That's why you can't fly.</p><p>My system isn't the best... but I pull 60 fps most everywhere BUT Freeport. As I said before, 20 bucks says a lot of the clutter was removed due to framerate concerns.</p>

[WeatherMan]

<p><cite>Mizlek wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Rainmare@Oasis wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>as to the crafting instances...I don't know many people that ever use them to begin with, especially freeport's version with 7 floors up and down where the broker is at teh bottom and the writs are at the top. bleh. now it's more like qeynos' setup, with one main building that has all teh stations and such in it easily accessable. heck I don't even go to the qeynos subs anymore becuase everything I need is in North Qeynos, and my homes are in South Qeynos.</p></blockquote><p>I used the crafting instance in Temple Street every single day. Might have been the only one, but I was there. I don't care much about how convenient something is, but crafting in the suburb was convenient. House, Bank, Craft Hole, all within spitting distance of each other.</p><p>As for Qeynos. Freeport used to be my city of choice. I understand your concerns about what will happen to Qeynos. I hope it turns out better for you Qeynos folk than it did for us.</p><p>-Miz</p></blockquote><p>There is still one last remaining classic tradeskill instance left, in West Freeport behind the Coalition of Tradesfolk building, to the left just before you hit the wall where the door to East Freeport used to be.  It's still there, able to be used...thank goodness.</p><p>My concern is that the one in North Qeynos, that used to be behind the Ironforge Estate, was removed, and that they will not take this into account.  I absolutely despise in-city crafting.  I do all my non-guild crafting work in the Baubbleshire tradeskill society (unguilded alts and so on).  There was a time when the village crafting societies were removed...and anyone who was there will remember that both Qeynos and Freeport were all but paralyzed by the in-city crafting generating brutal amounts of lag.  So they put them back in.  Problem fixed.</p><p>Domino isn't doing tradeskill stuff anymore.  Not sure if her duties preclude it, or she's lost interest.  Either way, Qeynosian tradeskill societies are hosed worse than Bob and Doug being forced to drink American beer if the Qeynos villages go the way of Freeport's districts.  If they return the North Qeynos instance, or drop one in the Elddar Grove, they'll head a lot of grief off, but I'm dubious as to whether they will.  The rush to 'improve' seems to be consuming them without looking back at the trusty vehicle that got them there.  Sort of makes me feel like Tevye the Russian milkman -  TRADITION!</p>

[CorpseGoddess]

<p><cite>WeatherMan wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Mizlek wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Rainmare@Oasis wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>as to the crafting instances...I don't know many people that ever use them to begin with, especially freeport's version with 7 floors up and down where the broker is at teh bottom and the writs are at the top. bleh. now it's more like qeynos' setup, with one main building that has all teh stations and such in it easily accessable. heck I don't even go to the qeynos subs anymore becuase everything I need is in North Qeynos, and my homes are in South Qeynos.</p></blockquote><p>I used the crafting instance in Temple Street every single day. Might have been the only one, but I was there. I don't care much about how convenient something is, but crafting in the suburb was convenient. House, Bank, Craft Hole, all within spitting distance of each other.</p><p>As for Qeynos. Freeport used to be my city of choice. I understand your concerns about what will happen to Qeynos. I hope it turns out better for you Qeynos folk than it did for us.</p><p>-Miz</p></blockquote><p>There is still one last remaining classic tradeskill instance left, in West Freeport behind the Coalition of Tradesfolk building, to the left just before you hit the wall where the door to East Freeport used to be.  It's still there, able to be used...thank goodness.</p><p>My concern is that the one in North Qeynos, that used to be behind the Ironforge Estate, was removed, and that they will not take this into account.  I absolutely despise in-city crafting.  I do all my non-guild crafting work in the Baubbleshire tradeskill society (unguilded alts and so on).  There was a time when the village crafting societies were removed...and anyone who was there will remember that both Qeynos and Freeport were all but paralyzed by the in-city crafting generating brutal amounts of lag.  So they put them back in.  Problem fixed.</p><p>Domino isn't doing tradeskill stuff anymore.  Not sure if her duties preclude it, or she's lost interest.  Either way, Qeynosian tradeskill societies are hosed worse than Bob and Doug being forced to drink American beer if the Qeynos villages go the way of Freeport's districts.  If they return the North Qeynos instance, or drop one in the Elddar Grove, they'll head a lot of grief off, but I'm dubious as to whether they will.  The rush to 'improve' seems to be consuming them without looking back at the trusty vehicle that got them there.  Sort of makes me feel like Tevye the Russian milkman -  TRADITION!</p></blockquote><p>Domino is no longer the Tradeskill Developer.  To my knowledge, we currently don't have one.  So it's not that she's "lost interest"--her job is a completely different one now, with a much larger scope.</p><p>Hopefully we'll get a new TS dev soon.</p>

[msgnomer]

<p>Don't want to get too off-topic from the Qeynos discussion, but FYI, there is still a tradeskill instance in North Qeynos at the Ironskill Exchange near the Claymore Plaza.  It's to the left of the front door of the building.  I use that one, and the ones in Baubbleshire, Willow Wood, and Graystone Yard.</p><p>Thanks for info on the remaining craft instance in Freeport.  I missed that.</p><p>Also, while I'm still missing the smaller details in Freeport that make a city seemed lived in, I agree the weapon rack might not have been the best example given the nature of Freeport.  However, in my favor, the rack was by a rather off-the-beaten-path front door.</p>

[Lasai]

<p><cite>msgnomer wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Don't want to get too off-topic from the Qeynos discussion, but FYI, there is still a tradeskill instance in North Qeynos at the Ironskill Exchange near the Claymore Plaza.  It's to the left of the front door of the building.  I use that one, and the ones in Baubbleshire, Willow Wood, and Graystone Yard.</p><p>Thanks for info on the remaining craft instance in Freeport.  I missed that.</p><p>Also, while I'm still missing the smaller details in Freeport that make a city seemed lived in, I agree the weapon rack might not have been the best example given the nature of Freeport.  However, in my favor, the rack was by a rather off-the-beaten-path front door.</p></blockquote><p>A better example for me would Brushwhittle painting in a shop full of his paintings vs Brushwhittle standing under an awning with an easel and nothing else.  Gurb standing in his Armory surrounded by crafting stations and mounted weapons on the walls vs. Gurb standing out on the cobblestones with nothing but a forge.</p><p>May as well go the GW route and have nothing but NPCs standing in an open area, with nothing but a title over thier heads to indicate what they do.  It is pretty close already now in reality.</p><p>I'm pretty sad.  Losing SWG and Freeport within a week of each other.  I expected to come "home" to Freeport after seeing the end of SWG.. and now home isnt home anymore.</p>

[tigressb]

<p>I love the revamp to Freeport.  The questlines are amazing and for all the "prettying up" that was done to Freeport it feels like a much darker, evil place once you realize some of the shady things going on in the background.  Interrment camp in Beggar's Court, gnomes coming up with weapons of mass destruction, arasai torturing Thexians, Scale Yard now a prison..the list goes on and I've only experienced the scout questline.  It makes me *want* to bring my healers in to see what the priest line is, makes me want to bring my fighter, mage etc...and it's been a long time since I've actively wanted to see how quests turned out on different classes.  There is so much more lore and RP background now in Freeport.  The slums before were slums, you did the quests once for your crappy low level race item and then all there was was an inn room there.  I was very skeptical about the Freeport revamp because I've always played evil races and I was very attached to Freeport as it was, but I am very happy with the results.</p><p>I hope they do such a good job with the quests when they revamp Qeynos.  I don't have many good toons, but I'd still want to go through the quests.</p>

[Cocytus]

<p>I preferred the old Freeport to the new one, but the new one is ok visually/flavor-wise I guess....Problem is that I can't really run around in the city for more than a few minutes without crashing. So functionally, it's garbage to me.</p><p>Seriously, leave Qeynos alone. I like the way it is now, and I want it to stay that way. Both in flavor and in function. Remove all thoughts of revamping it. Spend your development time on something actually NEEDED rather than wasting and dumping time into something COMPLETELY unnecessary like facelifts for the best functioning cities in the game. There's a reason people preferred Qeynos/FP in general to the newer cities. Just ****ing leave it alone.</p>

[Lodrelhai]

<p>I actually like the Freeport revamp, and am looking forward to what happens with Qeynos.  I do hope they will keep the more natural feel of the city - large areas of lawn and trees in most zones, not to mention Elddar Grove.</p><p>But if I had to pick things I absolutely do not want to lose, I'd say Sgt. Quackers and his flock, and the momcat with kittens behind the barrels in Qeynos Harbor.</p>

[Celline-Layonaire]

<p><cite>Cocytus wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>...There's a reason people preferred Qeynos/FP in general to the newer cities. Just ****ing leave it alone.</p></blockquote><p>Qeynos 2.0 isn't even out yet. Clearly, however, you are thinking SOE will ruin Qeynos anyway. Right?</p><p>And yeah, I also wish there's a glimmer of hope left for Qeynos' fate. Not that I loathe Freeport 2.0, though <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </p>

[Finora]

<p>While I don't have the problem with Freeport that the OP does, I DO hope they do something slightly different with Qeynos.  I never liked the old Freeport, but I really do miss being able to just go into the little racial hamlets. The little flavor items around the city, I can't say I miss in FP but that's mostly because I didn't spend much time there.</p><p>Most of my characters over the years have been based out of Qeynos.  Qeynos isn't in as much structural disarray as Freeport was, everythng there is pretty solid & honestly properly bright & cheery while still majestic as it is. There's the occassional boarded over window that needs fixing but otherwise Qeynos just doesn't have the issues in my eyes that were a problem visually with Freeport.</p><p>I guess it might be dislike of change to something I'm used to but I'm really not looking forward to the prospect of completely losing the racial hamlets to pseudo dungeon instances =(.</p>

[Cuora]

<p>I really don't have a problem with the changes to Freeport.  I always thought the original city was drab and dingy, not a fun place to live.  I like the cosmetic changes to the outside of the buildings and love not having to zone into the city zones.  I moved my evil toons out of Freeport's suburbs as quickly as I could and used the crafting area in what was West Freeport for most of my crafting.  The crafting area is still in West Freeport and now has a banker and a broker, so I am happy there.  I miss the little shops near the stables but change happens.  The open air markets are more fitting to a port city anyway.  My only real beef with the new Freeport is losing the Seafury bucaneers' ship in the harbor, but I did beta and mentioned that and it was addressed (framerate if I remember correctly).  They had to remove it.  The ship added a touch of reality to the harbor.  As for Qeynos, I'm not sure what they would do.  Qeynos has always been charming with it's shops and houses.  I moved my Qeynos toons out of the suburbs also when I got my veteran reward Mistmoore Crags Estate, simply because it was easier for me to have them all recall to the same spot.  I use N. Qeynos and S. Qeynos most of the time anyway.  Maybe they will listen to some of the feedback from the Freeport changes and mot be so drastic with the changes to the suburbs of Qeynos.  They are much more pleasant places than Freeports.</p>

[Cuedywene]

<p>Please please please leave Qeynos alone.  You've already disabled it as a starting city and I'm fine with that. </p><p>Qeynos is my home and it is fine as is.  If non Qeynos people don't like it, fine, we don't want you there anyway. </p><p>If I couldn't visit Castleview Hamlet I would be so sad.  We don't need a Freeport revamp.  Please!?!?!?!?!</p>

[WeatherMan]

<p>The Qeynos 'revamp' is something I find myself dreading.  But it has shown me two very real gameplay-related truths, both relating to the Betrayal quests.</p><p>One, for Freeport-to-Qeynos: Hurry up, do all the new stuff that 'good' characters can't, do all the new content, and betray ASAP in a big freaking hurry.  Experience the 'old' Qeynos with all toons, as much as possible, while it is still there.  Sneak all your 'evil' toons into the villages for the Discovery updates and any quests they can.</p><p>Two, have your 'good' toons cool their jets.  Do all the current content now, yes, but after that, relax.  No betrayals until after the revamp.  Relax, chill out, get some AA's, have a beer (ya never know if Irontoe's East will go the way of the Blood Haze), and contemplate what a great shadowknight or necromancer you'll make.  After the Qeynos revamp, do all the new stuff.  Take your time, no hurry, Freeport ain't going anywhere.  Once you're all done with the 'new' Qeynos, then betrayal is an option, but don't be in a hurry to do it now.</p>

[Nashbry]

<p><cite>Cuedywene wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Please please please leave Qeynos alone.  You've already disabled it as a starting city and I'm fine with that. </p><p>Qeynos is my home and it is fine as is.  If non Qeynos people don't like it, fine, we don't want you there anyway. </p><p>If I couldn't visit Castleview Hamlet I would be so sad.  We don't need a Freeport revamp.  Please!?!?!?!?!</p></blockquote><p>Just want to say I love the new FP and I am anxiously awaiting the New Qeynos---not everybody is as nostalgic, nor does everyone feel the FP revamp was a bad thing.</p><p>Most of my characters are goodies and I hate using the city currently, it feels like a zone-fest every time I have to go there.</p><p>If certain events were held in all cities my time would be spent in Kelethin (I would never visit Qeynos) but Qeynos and FP have some proprietary holiday/event quests that can not be attained in other places.  Oh and Mercs only exist in these two cities as well.</p>

[Arbreth]

<p>My feelings for the "new" Freeport are mixed.  I love the no zoning, the colors the plantings, the NPCs that are not loitering in mobs.  Even the change in the guard patterns are not too horrible, still a pita though for goodies *grin*.</p><p>Do not like that the Haze and that row of shops were removed in West, though the balance of the new wharf marketplace is nice.  The no fly rule does not bother me so much.</p><p>HATE the removal of the racial areas as open zones.  Reopen these, I can live with the rest.</p><p>Please do not take away the villages in Qeynos.  Give back the districts in Freeport, leave them full of the stuff needed for the quests, but reopen these.</p>

[Nakaru-Nitepaw]

<p>I know it's probably set in stone that they will remove Qeynos's Hamlets but I can't think of any good reason storywise what would cause it, other then a fire breaking out or a gnoll invasion, but that kind of thing should not happen within the city. The good side's main home city is the one place of Norrath where you wouldn't expect doom and gloom to happen, even average thug behavior. Yea you can expect that in freeport based on it's written past. I do like the new Freeport, and I think it's closer to what they had originally planned for it in the alpha stage, but if the same fate befalls Qeynos it just wont have the sameeffect. If they do however, I hope the Qeynos Guard armor will remind us of the old armor used in EQ1. The gold helmet, the Qeynos Crest on the chest piece, exc. THAT would be nice.</p>

[Armawk]

<p>regardless of the overall scheme,  I cannot see any good reason why one should not be able to enter the suburbs when not on a quest.. </p>

[resiler]

<p>+1, /signed, etc</p><p>I think the Freeport revamp is great (though the suburbs should have been retained or fully incorporated), and the remaking is in line with the story of Lucan's return, but Qeynos is beautiful as-is so major cosmetic changes or modernization would spoil its vibe.  Also, give the mounted guards new mounts with nerfed run-speed... their charging around is really not in keeping with the peace of the city. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[grimesie]

<p>/signed.</p>

[Zehl_Ice-Fire]

<p>I love the new Freeport. It feels evil and richer instead of the broken down slums. How could all these years of our pillaging NOT have paid off to gild it? I like the new EFP broker area, though it could use a bank (unless I missed it), I know the broker/bank in SFP is around the corner, but I feel like EFP should be a more inviting "hang out" area than SFP. I do wish they would have left the little towns even though I rarely went in them. I do miss the city I first refugeed to, Longshadow.</p><p>Every broker should have a banker & selling merchant next to it, many do have that setup now which is nice, a few don't.</p>

[WeatherMan]

<p><cite>Arbreth wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>HATE the removal of the racial areas as open zones.  Reopen these, I can live with the rest.<p>Please do not take away the villages in Qeynos.  Give back the districts in Freeport, leave them full of the stuff needed for the quests, but reopen these.</p></blockquote><p>I think this is the crux of the issue, right here.</p><p>Losing the Blood Haze and the merchant shops near the stables was a dumb idea, but on that can be chalked up to the Overlord not actually giving a doodoo about his people.  Eminent domain laws have produced far more idiotic results in the real world, after all.  Same goes for the tent on the EFP docks.  Ugh.  Just...ugh.</p><p>The no-fly restriction...well, as cool as that'd be to fly in-city, they couldn't make it work.  Okay, fair enough, I'll take them at their word on that.  The lag on a ground mount is punishing enough that it's easy to believe, and I have an excellent system.</p><p>The new paint job...ugh.  It could have been done the way it was in Alpha (those pics someone posted didn't look bad at all), but they went the Azeroth route.  Okay, fine - no one said the universe wasn't going to barf on someone's esthetic ability.  I'm not happy with the Freakazoid-Meets-Woodstock color scheme, but going back and changing it to something that actually looks majestic, dominating, and powerful is likely too much work.  I'll live with it...not that I have much choice, obviously.</p><p>But removing the districts was an exercise in pointlessness, and an idea that was, at best, poorly thought out.  If we use the example of Longshadow, Christanos has her inquisition in there 24/7, and the Overlord is letting her do it.</p><p>Really?  Why?  Why let someone you don't trust at all just walk into a city district and make it inaccessible to longtime residents and loyal subjects?  Is it so difficult to believe that the access bell and the Graveyard door could permit both normal access (perhaps leaving the NFP door sealed off to normal access), plus an instanced version where Neriak has crept in and is doing their dastardly deeds under the cover of darkness (and under the Overlord's nose)?  Maybe leave a few corpses and some debris out in the open in the non-instanced version to reflect this?</p><p>The reasons for removing the districts were...poorly thought out.  I can only cringe at the thought of what they'll be justifying for walling off Qeynos's villages.</p>

[Leawyn]

<p><cite>WeatherMan wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>The new paint job...ugh.  It could have been done the way it was in Alpha (those pics someone posted didn't look bad at all), but they went the Azeroth route.  Okay, fine - no one said the universe wasn't going to barf on someone's esthetic ability.  I'm not happy with the Freakazoid-Meets-Woodstock color scheme, but going back and changing it to something that actually looks majestic, dominating, and powerful is likely too much work.  I'll live with it...not that I have much choice, obviously.</p></blockquote><p>I couldn't agree more. The over use of gold gilding EVERYWHERE just makes it look like thrift store cast offs than some super powerful dictator flexing his might. I just don't see Lucan as the "dress me up in shiney gold" type of guy. I always liked the old feel of FP and think they could have rebuilt without turning everything into a gleaming pile of cheap jewelry. It might just be my computer but 90% of Freeport just looks like the same old Freeport with new shiney gold wrapping, so the gold roofs and stair railings look odd against the still-dirty looking cobblestones and concrete stairs.</p>

[Absyntheea]

<p>Honestly.. I kind of like Qeynos just The way it is. I mean, if they removed the zone lines for the main part of the city, that would be cool.. but don't kill the 'burbs PLEASE! Especially Willow Wood and Baubbleshire..</p>

[Mohee]

<p>/signed</p><p>I agree , leave Qeynos alone.</p><p>But I think we all know this won't happen. $oE doesn't care what their players want if its not a new item they could add to the marketplace.</p><p>Qeynos change is happening wether we like it or not. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/c30b4198e0907b23b8246bdd52aa1c3c.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Sometimes it feels like they're purposely trying to drive out all the old players that have been around for years and years, and make way for the childish newbs coming in from other games asking for EQ2 to be easier than slicing a hot knife through already melted butter.</p>

[kelvmor]

<p><cite>Mohee wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>/signed</p><p>I agree , leave Qeynos alone.</p><p>But I think we all know this won't happen. $oE doesn't care what their players want if its not a new item they could add to the marketplace.</p><p>Qeynos change is happening wether we like it or not. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/c30b4198e0907b23b8246bdd52aa1c3c.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Sometimes it feels like they're purposely trying to drive out all the old players that have been around for years and years, and make way for the childish newbs coming in from other games asking for EQ2 to be easier than slicing a hot knife through already melted butter.</p></blockquote><p>Actually, Freeport was revamped because a lot of players asked for it, IIRC.</p>

[Iskandar]

<p><cite>Ugreth@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Actually, Freeport was revamped because a lot of players asked for it, IIRC.</blockquote><p>Yep. And don't forget Gorowyn, which has had two revamps now, all as a result of nothing but player feedback. And the teleporters were added to Kelethin because of player feedback. As was the North Freeport teleporter in the old version of the zone. And the travel bell in Fens -- heck, the whole travel bell revamp was because of player feedback!</p><p>The "they don't listen to us" and "they don't care what their players want" arguments are empty, because it's pretty obvious to some of us who have been here for a while that they <strong>DO</strong> listen to player feedback, and they <strong>DO</strong> make changes based upon what <strong>WE</strong> ask for -- especially when we provide <strong>detailed</strong> and <strong>constructive</strong> feedback for them to work with. That doesn't mean that they're going to be able to accomodate every single wish tho, or sit and chat with you 1-on-1 for hours on end about what you personally want... that whole "massive multiplayer" thing tends to draw some pretty divergent opinions on what should or shouldn't be, and sometimes they just have to roll with what is the most feasible to do or the most popular.</p>

[Marnus]

<p>Personally, I think the new Freeport is amazing. All my evil characters had their housing in either Neriak or Gorowyn, because the old Freeport was such a dump. The only thing i wish they had done differently was maybe introduced new housing, that reflects the changes on the outside. I must have been in the old freeport at the wrong times, because everytime i went there, the place was a ghost town, with the exception of the one part where the banker and broker were across from each other by the docks. I dont think i ever, in all the years i played eq2, saw another living soul in those crafting instances in freeport-probably because of the poor design, having to run up and down the stairs between the broker, wholesaler, etc and the crafting station you needed. I am disappointed as well that we could not fly in the city, as it was one of the major "selling" points when they first talked about the revamp. I understand why they couldnt do it, but it was still disappointing. I look forward to the Qeynos revamp, and hope they have a good storyline to go with it<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Marnus]

<p><cite>Iskandar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Ugreth@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Actually, Freeport was revamped because a lot of players asked for it, IIRC.</blockquote><p>Yep. And don't forget Gorowyn, which has had two revamps now, all as a result of nothing but player feedback. And the teleporters were added to Kelethin because of player feedback. As was the North Freeport teleporter in the old version of the zone. And the travel bell in Fens -- heck, the whole travel bell revamp was because of player feedback!</p><p>The "they don't listen to us" and "they don't care what their players want" arguments are empty, because it's pretty obvious to some of us who have been here for a while that they <strong>DO</strong> listen to player feedback, and they <strong>DO</strong> make changes based upon what <strong>WE</strong> ask for -- especially when we provide <strong>detailed</strong> and <strong>constructive</strong> feedback for them to work with. That doesn't mean that they're going to be able to accomodate every single wish tho, or sit and chat with you 1-on-1 for hours on end about what you personally want... that whole "massive multiplayer" thing tends to draw some pretty divergent opinions on what should or shouldn't be, and sometimes they just have to roll with what is the most feasible to do or the most popular.</p></blockquote><p>Well said<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Lasai]

<p><cite>Ugreth@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Mohee wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>/signed</p><p>I agree , leave Qeynos alone.</p><p>But I think we all know this won't happen. $oE doesn't care what their players want if its not a new item they could add to the marketplace.</p><p>Qeynos change is happening wether we like it or not. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/c30b4198e0907b23b8246bdd52aa1c3c.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Sometimes it feels like they're purposely trying to drive out all the old players that have been around for years and years, and make way for the childish newbs coming in from other games asking for EQ2 to be easier than slicing a hot knife through already melted butter.</p></blockquote><p>Actually, Freeport was revamped because a lot of players asked for it, IIRC.</p></blockquote><p>Links?  Because I do not recall this.   I cannot recall any hue and cry to do what they did, nor a single instance of Anyone asking that the suburbs be removed from access.</p><p>Players asking for less zoning/less dirt doesnt equal asking for draconian eviction from homes/suburbs they have had for years.. in zones that are not effected by the new zoneless area.</p><p>Right now, from what I am seeing the opposition to losing the Qeynos suburbs is strong and definate... and I will predict that we will lose them regardless.  I have yet to see a single post in favor of closing the Qeynos suburbs.</p><p>This management unilaterally decides, then does.  It is like the morning smokejumper woke up and decreed that every single ground mount in game goes at 130%.  Nobody asked for that either.</p><p>Conversely.. many many many posted, bugged, did feedback on the last TS itemization to no avail.. and we still have green goblin items.   Listening isn't thier strong suit in most cases.</p>

[Nakaru-Nitepaw]

<p>I do recall for several years people requesting the zone borders be taken down, but never a revamp. However I barely used the old freeport. I had 1 evil toon who was freeportian. The rest were nerian. Since the revamp I've moved more of them in. Of course like I said before, if they revamp Qeynos they better give us a really good reason why they have to shut down the hamlets, otherwise leave them up. Gnoll invasions and arson woudln't be viable. Gnolls are so week and should be too scared of Qeynos by this late in the game. I mean look at us. Level 90 adventurers, 95 guards roaming about, order. Fire would make better sense but I don't think such bad things should happen within the walls of a good city. What I believe should happen is they should go ahead with a instanced version of all the hamlets, but still keep the regular ones available, and give us back the regular ones in freeport. I sort of expected big plans for freeport the day the citadel fell. However I thought there would be a reconstruction event like with the druid/wizard ports. Would have been cool to see that.</p>

[LaeliaJS]

<p>I love the new Freeport, but I really wish the racial neighborhoods would come back.  They can be separate zones; they don't have to be merged into the main part of Freeport.  And they can stay slummy.</p>

[CorpseGoddess]

<p>I guess I'm in the minority (at least here on the forums), because I love the new Freeport--all of it.  I hadn't spent time in any of the boroughs in years, and now I've been in and out of them more in the last month collectively since...I don't know when.  I love the look and feel of the city, I love not zoning, and I love the fact that Freeport finally feels like the city Lucan WOULD and SHOULD have.</p><p>But then again, I like change.  I'm not resistant to it.  I understand nostalgia, and people liking the way things were, but really--keeping things exactly the same as they were for 7 years?  It gets stale.  This game is about adventure.  Where's the sense of exploration?  Of doing new things?  I personally think it's fantastic that the devs picked Freeport up and shook it around, and took the bold step of making the boroughs dynamic instances.  And I, for one, am looking forward to the same treatment with Qeynos.</p>

[Lortet]

<p>I personally don't like the Freeport changes - changing the central 4 zones wouldn't have worried me as I didn't actually go there much - stuck to the burbs. Trouble is they removed the burbs and forced me into the area I didn't like and now like even less. Lag fest, ctd about every fourth time I zone in - which includes zoning out of my room. </p><p>Effectively my favorite city has been wrecked, and my number 2 is next on the list.....</p><p>nb I never have suffered from slow zoning so the merge to a single zone has become a negative owing to the lag and ctds. (not suffered anywhere else btw) </p>

[Felshades]

<p><cite>Hykaree@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I personally don't like the Freeport changes - changing the central 4 zones wouldn't have worried me as I didn't actually go there much - stuck to the burbs. Trouble is they removed the burbs and forced me into the area I didn't like and now like even less. Lag fest, ctd about every fourth time I zone in - which includes zoning out of my room. </p><p>Effectively my favorite city has been wrecked, and my number 2 is next on the list.....</p><p>nb I never have suffered from slow zoning so the merge to a single zone has become a negative owing to the lag and ctds. (not suffered anywhere else btw) </p></blockquote><p>If you're crashing to desktop when you zone into the new freeport, it has nothing to do with the zone and more to do with your end.</p><p>I load into freeport faster than I do my own guild hall(T2, SQ) while dual boxing even, and have yet to crash.</p>

[Jalen]

<p>The important issue about Freeport is all the bars that were removed. </p><p>Lucan's obviously a tyrant, I mean two bars were removed from West Freeport alone! </p>

[adolf102]

<p>Well I support the plea but after:</p><p>- screwing up mechanis by "attribute refinement" in <span > Destiny of Velious -<em> that made mechanics confusing, broken and unintresting (and SOE said no SWG Combat Revamp anymore heh...)</em></span></p><p>- fast travel - <em> that did shrink the world and removed excitment of exploration</em></p><p>- introducing stupid leapers and jumpers - <em>that made whole mount progression pointless and further did shrink the world </em></p><p>- removeing brilliant  Isle of Refuge with "better" starting zones</p><p>I have very little fate that anyone at SOE will listen.</p>

[Foretold]

<p>I love the new Freeport, so much easier to move around in.  But I have to agree that removing the suburbs was a BAD decision.  I'm all for a Qeynos revamp if the suburbs survive.  They give the city a real sense of depth.</p>

[Nakaru-Nitepaw]

<p><cite>Foretold@Unrest_old wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I love the new Freeport, so much easier to move around in.  But I have to agree that removing the suburbs was a BAD decision.  I'm all for a Qeynos revamp if the suburbs survive.  They give the city a real sense of depth.</p></blockquote><p>Indeed. That's why I propose they bring back the Freeport hoods, and make it so that if you're on one of the quests to go to the instanced versions, when you click the door to go to the hood, you'll get a instance selection window like what happens if you go to a dungeon that has multiple instances in the same door. If not on a quest you zone right into the regular zone. Same goes for the Qeynos revamp. This way they can make instances while not removing the real ones. Just because a zone isn't being used by a whole bunch of people doesn't mean it needs to go. Same goes for the Island of Refuge. Rather the zone is used in game or not we still have the zone data saved locally, if we've had our game since before it was deactivated, so why not have it used?</p>

[Lasai]

<p><cite>Felshades wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Hykaree@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I personally don't like the Freeport changes - changing the central 4 zones wouldn't have worried me as I didn't actually go there much - stuck to the burbs. Trouble is they removed the burbs and forced me into the area I didn't like and now like even less. Lag fest, ctd about every fourth time I zone in - which includes zoning out of my room. </p><p>Effectively my favorite city has been wrecked, and my number 2 is next on the list.....</p><p>nb I never have suffered from slow zoning so the merge to a single zone has become a negative owing to the lag and ctds. (not suffered anywhere else btw) </p></blockquote><p>If you're crashing to desktop when you zone into the new freeport, it has nothing to do with the zone and more to do with your end.</p><p>I load into freeport faster than I do my own guild hall(T2, SQ) while dual boxing even, and have yet to crash.</p></blockquote><p>Sick of hearing this crap.  Check the tech forums.  Consider yourself lucky, and curb your arrogance towards blaming it on others systems.</p><p>"it has nothing to do with the zone"  Really? Again, look at the tech forums, look at the complaints from many, many people and stop stating absolutes when YOU don't have a clue whether is or is not zone related.</p><p>The Memory Application crash has been in this game 5 years and affected a LOT of people when Neriak came in, in the same way.</p>

[Suprchik407]

<p><cite>Lasai wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Felshades wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Hykaree@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I personally don't like the Freeport changes - changing the central 4 zones wouldn't have worried me as I didn't actually go there much - stuck to the burbs. Trouble is they removed the burbs and forced me into the area I didn't like and now like even less. Lag fest, ctd about every fourth time I zone in - which includes zoning out of my room. </p><p>Effectively my favorite city has been wrecked, and my number 2 is next on the list.....</p><p>nb I never have suffered from slow zoning so the merge to a single zone has become a negative owing to the lag and ctds. (not suffered anywhere else btw) </p></blockquote><p>If you're crashing to desktop when you zone into the new freeport, it has nothing to do with the zone and more to do with your end.</p><p>I load into freeport faster than I do my own guild hall(T2, SQ) while dual boxing even, and have yet to crash.</p></blockquote><p>Sick of hearing this crap.  Check the tech forums.  Consider yourself lucky, and curb your arrogance towards blaming it on others systems.</p><p>"it has nothing to do with the zone"  Really? Again, look at the tech forums, look at the complaints from many, many people and stop stating absolutes when YOU don't have a clue whether is or is not zone related.</p><p>The Memory Application crash has been in this game 5 years and affected a LOT of people when Neriak came in, in the same way.</p></blockquote><p>Im having the sanme issues as Hykaree and like Lasai wrote, the CTD memory error was happening to me also when Neriak came out and not before. My work around for Neriak isnt working in Freeport and the crashing is one thing but extra annoying and new problem for me is screen freezing upon loading in to Freeport, usually from the bell, sometimes from my house.</p><p>Freezes never happened to me before and Ive been getting nothing but crashes and freezes since latest update.</p>

[Cocytus]

<p><span >You know these revamps make me such a cynic I honestly hope I will have quit EQ2 before Qeynos is revamped, just so I don't see it. Kind of sad, really :/</span></p>

[Zabjade]

<p><cite>Jalen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>The important issue about Freeport is all the bars that were removed. </p><p>Lucan's obviously a tyrant, I mean two bars were removed from West Freeport alone! </p></blockquote><p><span style="color: #00cc00;">It's to reduce hiding places for Spy dwarves! </span></p>