Views on The Estate of Unrest

[Ama]

Took my group a while but we managed to complete it or atleast I think so.

All I have to say is if this is what the Developers are going to be turning out in the near future I am hooked on Evercrack once more.

I won't spoil the zone for those that have not done it, but it was awesome seeing how everything was tied together.  The ending surprise was the best of all I must say and it deffinately threw me off guard.  Heck I even loved how you dissed our current botter problem with one event. 

Deffinately can't wait for your next big project like this one.

[Cusashorn]

BEST. ZONE. EVER.

Even with the graphical problem that prevented me from entering into the final room, Unrest is the best zone I've ever been in in this whole game. A GM contacted me about the graphical bugg issue after we completed the zone and I told him the problems. I also told him to tell the developers that Unrest was increadibly fun. Brilliant puzzles, not-too-hard-not-too-easy encounters, good loot (Class Hats and Chestpieces), and an excellent story and scripting.

[AbyssalSoul]

I don't mean to ask questions... but my group ran through this and it seems that the MT lost a chess piece, so we only ended up with 2 pawns.  Couldn't get a chess piece back either after he "lost it".  Any suggestions?

[Cusashorn]

Just as long as you haven't killed any names yet, you can zone out and start over.

[Deeply]

The person behind this zone and his team , put them in charge of development,

They KNOW what we want and how to do it with style.

Ive never really been that impressed by any of the new expansions or add-ons but this new zone !.

AWESOME!!! made me love the game all over again.

[Ama]

Deeply wrote:

The person behind this zone and his team , put them in charge of development,

They KNOW what we want and how to do it with style.

Ive never really been that impressed by any of the new expansions or add-ons but this new zone !.

AWESOME!!! made me love the game all over again.

As a bit of a spoiler I have to say I love the clones of the players.  They arn't just replicas either they have full suits of armor and our names.  Funniest thing was our tanks replica saying "LFG please Invite" which made me immediately blurb out "BOTTER!!!".  Finally I felt like I got some revenge on those people.

[Ellrin]

FANTASTIC. Amazing zone. A new benchmark in zone design has been set, oh and forget the haters itemization rocks in here. And I got a Dirge BP

[Iseabeil]

Amana wrote:

Deeply wrote:

The person behind this zone and his team , put them in charge of development,

They KNOW what we want and how to do it with style.

Ive never really been that impressed by any of the new expansions or add-ons but this new zone !.

AWESOME!!! made me love the game all over again.

As a bit of a spoiler I have to say I love the clones of the players.  They arn't just replicas either they have full suits of armor and our names.  Funniest thing was our tanks replica saying "LFG please Invite" which made me immediately blurb out "BOTTER!!!".  Finally I felt like I got some revenge on those people.

Heh, my favorite was seeing my (illusionist) clone smack our tank to pieces. Sure, Ill melee when soloin grey stuff, but seeing her there... ahh, Im jealous... can almost see it.. Wooe - Destroyer of Groupmates.

[Ama]

Iseabeil wrote:

Amana wrote:

Deeply wrote:

The person behind this zone and his team , put them in charge of development,

They KNOW what we want and how to do it with style.

Ive never really been that impressed by any of the new expansions or add-ons but this new zone !.

AWESOME!!! made me love the game all over again.

As a bit of a spoiler I have to say I love the clones of the players.  They arn't just replicas either they have full suits of armor and our names.  Funniest thing was our tanks replica saying "LFG please Invite" which made me immediately blurb out "BOTTER!!!".  Finally I felt like I got some revenge on those people.

Heh, my favorite was seeing my (illusionist) clone smack our tank to pieces. Sure, Ill melee when soloin grey stuff, but seeing her there... ahh, Im jealous... can almost see it.. Wooe - Destroyer of Groupmates.

I hope they do more stuff like the Old Hag in the zone.  That boss really rocked hard and it was fun as heck.

[Atmosphear1993]

Unrest is the type of zone that defines "next gen" mmorpg gameplay.  Its not a zone with mindless killing of trash mobs until you reach a named, rinse and repeat.  Instead, it is a fully dynamic zone in which the players must piece puzzles together to progress.  Everything you do in that zone has some sort of effect elsewhere.  This zone also surpasses Nek Castle in every way.  The legendary loot (from what I've seen) is also exceptional.  Every healer was clamoring over that ring the Gnome drops in my group and they are raid geared.

I'll be visting Unrest alot I think.  If it wasn't for Unrest and the new Epic Quest line, I'd be spending more time in Vanguard.  I can only hope this will set the bar for future instances.  KoS and even the other EoF instances seem very basic and primative compared to Unrest.

[Tyr]

Cusashorn wrote:

BEST. ZONE. EVER.

Deeply wrote:

The person behind this zone and his team , put them in charge of development,

They KNOW what we want and how to do it with style.

Ive never really been that impressed by any of the new expansions or add-ons but this new zone !.

AWESOME!!! made me love the game all over again.

I have to second both of these quotes!  I went in this zone with a group of friends looking to recapture one of my favorite memories of eq2 I had in Nek Castle and with Unrest, the bar was raised even from Nek Castle... The emotions this zone creates are really diverse and the zone as a whole was very interesting.  We had girls jumpin in their chairs, lots of laughter, and even some confusion...  of course followed by more laughter! This is what all instances should be like!!!  More zones like this would definitely ensure eq2's continued success!  I know of at least one person that's planning on coming back to the game just for this zone alone.

[goboy]

I love the doppelgangers.  We gave the dev's some feedback on their communications.

My favorite moment was with a QA (venos) going through with us:

---

[Tue Feb 13 18:57:46 2007] You have killed Venos. [Tue Feb 13 18:57:54 2007] Jaly dances! [Tue Feb 13 18:57:55 2007] Kethaera sternly scolds Jaly! [Tue Feb 13 18:58:04 2007] aPC 30526 Venos:Venos/a says to the group,"Woo!!" [Tue Feb 13 18:58:09 2007] aPC 54097 Turtles:Turtles/a says to the group,"WOOHOO" [Tue Feb 13 18:58:09 2007] You say to the group,"[Removed for Content]" [Tue Feb 13 18:58:11 2007] aPC 210091 Huscar:Huscar/a says to the group,"he sure doesn't drop any good loot"

Wouldn't you know it, next doppleganger was...

[Tue Feb 13 18:58:21 2007] Venos hits Jaly for 99999999 slashing damage. [Tue Feb 13 18:58:21 2007] Venos has killed Jaly. [Tue Feb 13 18:58:25 2007] You say to the group,"[Removed for Content]" [Tue Feb 13 18:58:31 2007] aPC 30526 Venos:Venos/a says to the group,"Oh, oops" [[Tue Feb 13 18:58:48 2007] aPC 30526 Venos:Venos/a says, "Hrm, 99999999 slashing damage, your mit sucks Jaly"

[Osi]

While this isn't really a pickup group zone... yet, I did it with one, or started it at least.  Best moment overall.. We had a member continuously going LD (which was frustrating but okay) so he missed the first trip into the kitchen. We told him to go in and open the veggie cabinet. He got a little preturbed apparently his daughter was sitting on his lap when the zombies popped on his screen and she ran of screaming and crying... while not funny overall it was hilarious to hear him describe it. Great job by the designers.

[Occam]

Last night was the most fun I've had in EQ2 in a long time. I generally have a good time, but this zone is so well done that it's head and shoulders above the rest. What a blast! 

[Ama]

Occam wrote:

Last night was the most fun I've had in EQ2 in a long time. I generally have a good time, but this zone is so well done that it's head and shoulders above the rest. What a blast! 

Hopefully what they will do with another zone is implement it like The Estate of Unrest but do it like SWG's "The Village".  The Village of Aurilla had a kinda of cycle where every 3 weeks it would change in quests, activites, and all.  The most headed moment came at the 4th phase where you had to defend the village from an onslaught of attackers ranging from mild to epic. 

It would be awesome to see this done to a zone where it is a back and forth struggle between two entities.  Have to say I deffinately have a new favorite zone with this one.  My tank isn't decked out in ultimate fabled raid gear and yet this would probably prove challenging but not so much that it's impossible.

[Logan]

I couldn't agree more. BEST ZONE EVER. Not only the nostalgic layout but the freakin puzzles were great. Hands down the most enjoyable 5 hours Ive spent in eq2. I know that with a little time that groups will be ripping through in a couple hours or less once we all memorize what needs to be done. Please more like this. In fact forget about raiding. Get all those people working on zones like this so we can have more of them.

Rhys, Arkyst, Seef, Logann....Kithicor

[Cusashorn]

Amana wrote:

Occam wrote:

Last night was the most fun I've had in EQ2 in a long time. I generally have a good time, but this zone is so well done that it's head and shoulders above the rest. What a blast! 

Hopefully what they will do with another zone is implement it like The Estate of Unrest but do it like SWG's "The Village".  The Village of Aurilla had a kinda of cycle where every 3 weeks it would change in quests, activites, and all.  The most headed moment came at the 4th phase where you had to defend the village from an onslaught of attackers ranging from mild to epic. 

It would be awesome to see this done to a zone where it is a back and forth struggle between two entities.  Have to say I deffinately have a new favorite zone with this one.  My tank isn't decked out in ultimate fabled raid gear and yet this would probably prove challenging but not so much that it's impossible.

Well, while not exactly the way you're describing, in EQlive there was a zone on Luclin named Hollowshade Moor. Players would be able to "Persuade" one of three opposing groups into attacking another to try and take control of the territory. Grimlings (these aggresive, freakish humanoids with opposable digits on thier feet) vs. Owlbears vs. Sonic Wolves (bat wolves). There was no faction involved, they were aggressive to everyone, but if you took out one side's named leader, one of the other two would try to take over that side. If you helped take out their defenses, the invaders would take over. If one side took over all three territories, the vah shir in thier outpost would retreat back into the city of Shar Vahl for thier own safety, while a big named spawned in the outpost.

[Cadaveria]

I definitely enjoyed my short visit there, and expect to be returning rather often. I thought the graphics for the zone were great! I had quite a few "oh wow" moments, and I hardly made it past the bartender.

The dev team responsible definitely needs a big pat on the back for this one. They deserve a SoE sponsored Pizza Party

[Ama]

Cadaveria@Befallen wrote:

I definitely enjoyed my short visit there, and expect to be returning rather often. I thought the graphics for the zone were great! I had quite a few "oh wow" moments, and I hardly made it past the bartender.

The dev team responsible definitely needs a big pat on the back for this one. They deserve a SoE sponsored Pizza Party

Ok ok, here's a cookie devs GJ:

[FinalHolmes]

A truly beautiful zone, well done to all who were involved.

[Cadaveria]

That cookie was clearly intended for me, not the devs.

That's one heck of a cookie...

[Ama]

Cadaveria@Befallen wrote:

That cookie was clearly intended for me, not the devs.

That's one heck of a cookie...

*Smacks Cadaveria's Hands*

No the cookie is for the devs not you.  You should have seen the oven I had to use to bake that thing in. 

[TuinalOfTheNexus]

The puzzles were good, logical and interesting.

The atmosphere in the zone is good too.

My only complaints;

1) It's a shame they didn't try to extend the EQ1 version much; rather it's a very faithful replica. Whilst it was nostalgic, it also made the trip through a bit predictable.

2) Maybe it's personal taste, but the encounters seemed too easy for a full group. They still seem to be making mobs with low damage output and masses of hitpoints, which make for boring and easy fights. I'd rather see the stuff in there with 1/2 the hp and hitting 2x as hard. Our only deaths were on the Hag, and even then we managed to recover and kill her.

3) The item-based approach to puzzles with items that don't respawn and are harvestable by only one person, whilst not a problem on this visit, is something I can really see being annoying in pickup groups if someone decides to leave / LD.

Other than that it's a great zone, and a shame they don't add more stuff like this via adventure packs.

[panther55]

I'm going to have to say I loved this zone. Especially the Hag and Screwloose(The crazy gnome?) think that was his name. Was dissapointed there weren't a few more fights like this but love the puzzles and the zone in general. Also the fabled cloaks in there are amazing. Got the caster one when running through on my ranger. Have to get me one of those for my warden.

[Draken Korin]

That zone is the best yet-To the guys that designed it-top marks!!!!! I can't think of one bad thing to say about it other than I cant get back in for a few hours. The Poltergeist reference had us all laughing our heads off-I died 11 times in there as we worked it all out and the smile didn't leave my face the whole time.

10/10  !!!!!!!!

[Varg_MM]

I enjoyed pretty much everything except the 4th wall breaking. Some people are going to find that 'funny' but a lot of people will also be irritated by it. For my group, the groans of dismay started with the first line. It wasn't needed and it didn't really fit. Overall though, there's a lot of really good content here, I've been impressed with a lot of the single group content encounters in EoF. I'm curious if it's the same dev who was responsible for the end boss of courts of innovation that crafted screwless and the hag, because if it is you need to pay him more. That's far and away some of the most entertaining and well done content I've seen.

[Ama]

TuinalOfTheNexus wrote:

2) Maybe it's personal taste, but the encounters seemed too easy for a full group. They still seem to be making mobs with low damage output and masses of hitpoints, which make for boring and easy fights. I'd rather see the stuff in there with 1/2 the hp and hitting 2x as hard. Our only deaths were on the Hag, and even then we managed to recover and kill her.

Actually I found it quite difficult even with our setup for our group.  We went through 1 healer and some dps, but the zone did prove rather challenging. 

Our basic layout was 1 guardian, 1 monk, 1 bruiser and 1 warden (me).  The last two spots got changed out a couple of times.  The Hag was a bit of trouble but not too much trouble.  I have to say if we got more than 1-2 groups of 3 monsters on our tank we were in trouble. 

A tank with fully decked out raid gear may find this easy and the same can be said if you have ultimate damaging wizards/mages/scouts.  However if you have a pretty near semi-raid gear decked out group it will still prove challenging. 

[Axxon]

I could not agree more.  This is the best zone I have seen in EQ2 by far.  Everything from the access progression, to the look and feel, to the clones, to the jail cell thing (you know what I mean).  All of it.  Just...awesome.  Someone deserves a raise.

Eventually, someone will come into this thread and say we're all crazy and the zone sucks.  You know it will happen.  So, preemptively, I will just say that any such people are on crack and should be summarily ignored. 

Best.  Zone.  Evar.

[Murchik]

TuinalOfTheNexus wrote:

The puzzles were good, logical and interesting.

The atmosphere in the zone is good too.

My only complaints;

1) It's a shame they didn't try to extend the EQ1 version much; rather it's a very faithful replica. Whilst it was nostalgic, it also made the trip through a bit predictable.

2) Maybe it's personal taste, but the encounters seemed too easy for a full group. They still seem to be making mobs with low damage output and masses of hitpoints, which make for boring and easy fights. I'd rather see the stuff in there with 1/2 the hp and hitting 2x as hard. Our only deaths were on the Hag, and even then we managed to recover and kill her.

3) The item-based approach to puzzles with items that don't respawn and are harvestable by only one person, whilst not a problem on this visit, is something I can really see being annoying in pickup groups if someone decides to leave / LD.

Other than that it's a great zone, and a shame they don't add more stuff like this via adventure packs.

That's what happened to us last night.  We were going through the zone slowly, and one of the guys picked up some chess pieces without telling anyone what he was doing.  Then we got to the step of getting to game room and he went LD.  Needless to say, we couldnt get the gnome, so we cleared what we could get to and left.

Would like this to be reconsidered as a group flag or items have to respawn.  We were doing just fine with 5 of us, or could have brought in one more, but without pieces we were screwed.

[Ama]

Murchik wrote:

TuinalOfTheNexus wrote:

The puzzles were good, logical and interesting.

The atmosphere in the zone is good too.

My only complaints;

1) It's a shame they didn't try to extend the EQ1 version much; rather it's a very faithful replica. Whilst it was nostalgic, it also made the trip through a bit predictable.

2) Maybe it's personal taste, but the encounters seemed too easy for a full group. They still seem to be making mobs with low damage output and masses of hitpoints, which make for boring and easy fights. I'd rather see the stuff in there with 1/2 the hp and hitting 2x as hard. Our only deaths were on the Hag, and even then we managed to recover and kill her.

3) The item-based approach to puzzles with items that don't respawn and are harvestable by only one person, whilst not a problem on this visit, is something I can really see being annoying in pickup groups if someone decides to leave / LD.

Other than that it's a great zone, and a shame they don't add more stuff like this via adventure packs.

That's what happened to us last night.  We were going through the zone slowly, and one of the guys picked up some chess pieces without telling anyone what he was doing.  Then we got to the step of getting to game room and he went LD.  Needless to say, we couldnt get the gnome, so we cleared what we could get to and left.

Would like this to be reconsidered as a group flag or items have to respawn.  We were doing just fine with 5 of us, or could have brought in one more, but without pieces we were screwed.

I kinda see that as a problem yet don't if you have your settings done right.  My chat settings are done so that I know who picks up what in the zone. 

A group I was in yesterday ran into trouble where the bartender didn't spawn after we cleared out the bar.  This could be due to the fact a person picked up a chess piece from the goblet before it was time.  However I would need to test that to validate it.