EQ3 Panel - a question not asked

[danille]

<p>I have been playing EQ since Luclin and have become very attached to my ingame character.  It is almost 10 years of my life and I have a social structure with hundreds of ingame friends. All those friends have the same attachment to their characters.</p><p>In a perfect world, when the new version of Everquest launches, players from EQ and EQ2 would be able to zone into the new game, an expansion of lets say 30-40 zones and explore the game for the first time together using their existing characters.</p><p>I understand the technological coding issues of taking an 11 year old game like EQ may make it expensive or impossible, but I am sure that with all the top notch talent at SOE that something could be conceived. </p><p>Perhaps the players in each game (EQ and EQ2) could have a process where in their prespective games subscribers could go though prequests, missions and raids/flags that would advance their characters to a common transfer threshold that would allow things to mesh.</p><p>Level, class, race, diety, weapons, armor, all of the attributes that make up a character could be changed (with some changes stored) by completing quests to get a player ready for the "launch date."</p><p>Entire guilds could complete the quests, missions or raids together and as they complete the path to EQNext raid flag their characters would be modified by gaining new abilities, weapons ect. They could do it as a team eventually getting to the point where they have enough members flagged to "zone" into the new game for the very first time.</p><p>One the player zoned in from EQ to EQnext for the first time all of the stored changes would go live but would be less of a shock to the player. </p><p>That being said, brand new players could join the game however the normal process would be, preserving the new player entry experience into the game that SoE would like a new Norrathian to feel.</p>

[ryan6957]

<p>People wanted this with EQ1 to EQ2 also.  I was one of those that had plated EQ for 5 years when eq2 came out and I went through EQ1 withdrawls for a while, flipping back and forth between the two games.  However, to do this just does not fit.  EQ1 and EQ2's settings were 500 years apart, thus really effecting the lore to be able to do this.  EQNext is not even a prequel or a sequel to EQ; its a re-imagining in a completly different "alternate dimension" so it makes even less sense now lore wise to be able to copy over.</p><p>Lore reasons aside, it would be a HUGE undertaking to transfer the thousands and thousands of items from eq1 and eq2 to EQnext.  Plus, the point is that its a new game and a lot of time will be spent in making it last as long as possible to keep us busy until it's expansion (if they are smart that is).  So if you transfered a max level character with all your current gear then there would be very little to do. </p><p>I understand where you are coming from because we surely do get attatched to our in-game characters but it would never happen.</p>

[danille]

<p>I understand. IMHO the aspect of not provding a transition from EQ1 - EQ2 is the main reason why there are still two seperate games and that EQ2 never reached the level of success that the community and SOE had wished.</p><p>BTW. I have a level 89 character on EQ2, mistmoore. She has the exact same first and last name as my main on EQ. They are both highelves and one is a mage and the other a conjurer.</p><p>I'm a mage its what I do, but you know what..... because there was no transition and no other way for my friends to make the transition over to the other game those that did change games went to a bunch of different servers and we all got seperated.</p><p>The vast majority of my friends stayed on EQ because of this. If I had to guess 80% stayed on EQ or went to WoW, or some other game. 20% went to EQ2 but got all seperated because of different servers.</p><p>I keep asking my friends and close guildmates to come to EQ2 and try it out but they having too much fun with the social structure in EQ and we are having fun grouping, raiding and soloing there too.</p><p>Now I do belong to a guild in EQ2 but i just joined a few months ago and basically soloed in eq2 from 1-88 prior to joining my first guild.</p><p>IMHO failure we need to overcome is the social dynamic and attachment to a character and that character's friends. That is truly the heart and soul of people who have played for 11 years with the same people.</p>

[Mekii]

<p>Instead of being able to move your EQ / EQ 2 char to the new game a simplier solution may be that if you have a char of a certain level in 1 game you can automatically start a char at a higher level in the new game. Say a lvl level 85 EQ player (current max lvl) could start at lvl 30 group geared in the new game relative to a max lvl being 55 at release?</p><p>It would still take some effort but probably easier to flag an account for this ability than to actually transfer a char to a new game that wouldn't operate the same way. And of course give current players char naming priority. Maybe open the char creation 1-2 weeks before the actual game launch.</p>

[SKru]

<p>I would be happy if they let you transfer subscriptions to the new game from EQ.  I will give it a try when it comes out, but I just bought 2 years of EQ, and it would be a waste of money if I couldn't use it for what I call EQ3.</p>

[ryan6957]

<p><cite>SKrule wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I would be happy if they let you transfer subscriptions to the new game from EQ.  I will give it a try when it comes out, but I just bought 2 years of EQ, and it would be a waste of money if I couldn't use it for what I call EQ3.</p></blockquote><p>Probably wont have to worry about that subscription.  EQnext will most likely not even be released for atleast 2 more years.  Just dont buy any more yearly subscriptions after its up <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Murfalad]

<p><cite>danille wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>The vast majority of my friends stayed on EQ because of this. If I had to guess 80% stayed on EQ or went to WoW, or some other game. 20% went to EQ2 but got all seperated because of different servers.</p></blockquote><p>Its a shame then that the idea of a shard server was shot down by Smedley, having such a server that tried to keep people together based on their virtual server would be great for the population, the seperate servers thing doesn't do much for me.</p>

[SG_01]

<p>So, you want to skip content, or would you not mind being reset to level 1 for the EQNext game? What I could see working (technically) is this:</p><ul><li>Log into EQNext, get a chance to import your character from EQ1/EQ2</li><li>During import it takes defaults from the old game, such as name, race, class, appearance, and gives you a chance to fine-tune these.</li><li>Perhaps it gives some additional bonuses, such as in-game items, titles, exp bonus, etc.</li><li>Characters may be linked through games in some way, affecting one another somehow, maybe unlocking quests in the game from the old game. </li><li>If possible suggest a server based on your EQ1/2 server and have the name reserved for you there (might still be troublesome if multiple origins are directed at a single target server).</li><li>Perhaps a similar system for guilds (when the guild leader creates their character), and link guild chat.</li><li>Maybe the origin character can be "logged in" through something like the chat system of the launcher and tells be redirected.</li></ul><p>Any further than this would be unfeasible or undesirable. Why not start from your old level? Because you would miss a big part of the game, and with the possible changes between games you would start with a class you know nearly nothing about at max level. Do you want to be an "ebay"-like player?</p><p>I can agree that some attachment may be nice, but just "zoning" into another game seems like a weird way to do so.</p>

[Kela]

<p>One major problem with a transition in the new EQ game, would be the fact that it is in a truly paralle world, and not an Alternate future. As such any and everything going on in EQ1 and EQ2 would have no effect on it, while at the same time it could be Lucian De'lure that is a Chapion of Righousness, and not a Fallen Palladin, while Feona Via is corrupted by Hate and become a Dark Elf in all but form. I am not saying that they are going with the whole Mirror, Mirror thing, but it is possable.</p>