Morara

What? You didn't glitch the warp zone in 1-2 so you could play -1?

Nilloda

i think underwater zones can be a great thing. One of my favorite things about eq1 was kedge keep and the immersian it added to the game. The amount of zone layout you're able to do with underwater is far beyond that of a regular zone, it gives you a much more trapped / in danger type feeling.

The problem imo is that eq2 just makes the water game way too unenjoyable, they need to sacrafice some realism to make this actually a game. Movement in water is too slow, too constricted, visability is horrible, graphics are just god awful, it's gotta be one of the most bland and annoying experiences of any game i've played.

WoW on the other hand has a great underwater system developed, you can see everything very clearly, you can move around very easily, and yet they still capture the good underwater elements as in fully directional zone progression, maze type feel, traped feeling, you still feel like you are underwater despite the sacraficed realism, ect.

eqoa also had some amazing underwater zones, quintashi and his drowning aoe was one of the more fun fights in the game.

soe is just lazy and wasted a potential element of the game with some bland crap that everyone steers away from.

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Aray

Nilloda makes a very good point, you could make a very cool story line for it aswell, just change the underwater mechanics..

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Morara

I hated underwater (or even on top of the water) stuff in EQOA. If you went tether cam (which most tanks did, since it allowed them to agro and turn around on a dime to run back), you had no useful dive/climb control. If you went follow, a lot of mobs (hello, Kratas) would own you before you got back to the raid. Even when you sat on top of the water or on a perch like the aforementioned Kratas scenario, or farming fish in IoD, or soloing sirens with a raging rhino, you had terrible targeting and visibility, as well as unwieldy control.

I'm willing to trade unique dungeons and encounters for mechanics I know work.

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Stoic

I dunno about the rest of you but I loved Kedge Keep. I enjoyed that zone immensly, might have been because I had water breathing but still enjoyed the zone alot. I might be weird I guess but most water zones are poorly designed and add nothing to the experiance. A well implimented zone would actually be alot of fun I think. The only reason for the water would simply be for the 360 degree movement through the zone. Thats what the devolpers seem to not understand. It isn't the fear of death that people enjoy these zones but because of the sheer ability to go up down left right side to side in all directions. Since we can't obviously go into space this is our only option for a fully fleshed out catacomb of fun.

Right now the devolpers focus on the linear dungeon style and that is cool and all but when you then give the players the option to go straight up to get to the next area or have to dive down a deep chasm to get down to uber mob #1 that adds a feeling of immersion (no pun intended). The idea is sound the implimentation is where it goes sour. All priests have a water breathing of some sort so unless you plan on going there with no healer you will never need to worry about water breathing unless its a defiler... but then again they can turn off their water breathing for a short time so everyone can swim to the next ledge turn it on and your good. The possibilities are quite varied!

Yes water zones in the past were crap, but I don't hear alot of people complaining about dungeon setups in EoF or their ability to create a great zone in EQ2. To date the only thing people really are angry about is the gameplay mechanics bugs. Zone setups and how things work people seem to like and there is a sense of challenge to it all too. So I don't see why an underwater zone has to instantly be a horrible dungeon. Imagine if the zone was layed out well, had tough enemies but rewarding loot from said enemies with unique effects that could only be obtained from said water zone. Special effects that can only be obtained from certain zones would be interesting. Lets say you are in kedge keep 2.0 and you kill mean nasty guy and you get these great boots that allowed you to walk in a water zone and ability to jump twice as high in water than without them. It would only be a water walking thing and people might not like wanting to carry around a pair of boots to be able to move around in the zone but thats just a perk item. Many other such items can be thought of and taken care of no problem. Imagination is all that needs to be implimented.

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Nilloda

dunno, i was a tank in eqoa and didn't have any of these problems, quintashi probably being the most difficult fight of them all, you were forced to be underwater where most other fights you could float up top. i guess it's just another type of movement you need to get use to because those problems you mentioned were non-existant for me.

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MysidiaDrakkenbane

You'll probably see a couple of zones completely under water. Raid zones? That I can't really speculate, although I'd love to see it.

A lot of the "old world" is under water due to Luclin's destruction. It wouldn't surprise me at all if a few of the zones we're able to fight in, are completely submerged.

I'd love for them to create Halas like this and maybe open it up in an adventure pack? I've posted this suggestion before and didn't really recieve that much attention with it.

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