Monday, March 28, 2011

Out with the old..

This weekend saw little play online. What I did do though was pretty productive. I managed to get my chest piece from Velious public quests and am now pretty much setup so I can start to run instances in the new expansion. When I can gather the motivation that is. At the moment I am pretty apathetic about it. I completed the final ‘portal to the past’ on Voltaan as the fabled waist item that drops is awesome. The fighter one dropped but Sjlverwolf won it this time. No worries there, nice to see guildies getting kitted and I’m sure it will drop again for me at some point. One thing though, I’m not sure how long these events will go on for, so I may be running out of time to get the item. Guess we’ll just have to see.

With the Everquest franchise being 12 years old now and with some stimulation to reminisce from my Brother who posted a great run down of his fave 12 memories from EQ, I have decided to resurrect the old/new comparison posts I used to run about EQ/EQ2 zones. I’m going to start off with a post I made originally for my old blog for a couple of reasons. One, because it sets the mood all nice so you folks know what to expect when I do a post like these and because I’m lazy and it’s lunch hour at work so time is of the essence.

Feerrott (Originally posted here, on my old blog - Nov 8th 2007

Feerrott - Old and New
The Feerrott. Even the name creates an aura of dark mystery. Without even visiting the place you have an image of a stinky jungle/swamp. Not surprising really when most of us read the title as Fear- Rott.

It’s time for the zone review again. Over at SoE they have invited the community to once again give their guides and comments on the selected area. As usual, I am going to travel back in time (you told me you had lost that ability! – Ed) and give my impressions, memories of the old EQ original zone and compare it to the new.

The Feerrott was one of those zones that I rarely visited simply for its own content. It was a corridor to get to Cazic Thule and Rathe…a place to dodge bouncers. I guess I did spend a bit of time there hitting the temples (huts) around the Cazic entrance trying to get the Ravenscale Armour that used to drop of the mobs there as a rare. Lizardscale was the common drop. That was probably the most time spent in the zone to be honest, and that was to help a friend out. So what do I remember about the zone?

After being spoilt with nice open zones like the Commons, the Deserts, Mountains etc etc…I must say I was pretty scared every time I was required to run across The Feerrott, because of the enclosed dark and dingy feel. I really did feel (originally) that I was running round a jungle and yes until I hit the river I was usually hopelessly lost. I would even go as far as to say before I got my navigation down, I felt pretty claustrophobic in this zone as a noob. Kinda the same feeling I got when negotiating Kithicor. That was one reason why I felt a little apprehensive whilst running around The Feerrott but mainly it was because of the Bouncers. Until I had met them, I don’t think I had met a meaner, faster, tougher mob and the worst of them all was indeed Bouncer Hurd (as suggested in EQAtlas). I have to say it really was a pleasure to give him a right bashing in EQ2’s Feerrott whilst doing the Stein of Moggok HQ. Revenge did indeed taste sweet.

So yet again another zone that really was pretty much a by word for ‘I’m omw’. Another zone I spent most time in when I was travelling to somewhere else. That has happened a fair bit now, with the zones SoE want reviewed. When I think back at the ‘old’ zone, it didn’t really mean that much to me. Maybe soon they will ask for a zone that correlates to an old EQ zone that I have plenty of play-time in.

What does strike me looking at the maps and comparing them, is again how small the old zone is compared to the new, and the HUGE amount of extra content the new zone holds. Not only that they have turned it in to a much more demanding, visceral, sensual, mob / quest full zone, but they have made it a place to visit in itself. I hunted in the new Feerrott before I went to Cazic Thule . I actually used the zone for some HQ’s and quests. The first time I entered The ‘old’ Feerrott was to travel through to get to Rathe (can’t for the life of me recall why!! I was way too low). It seems the new one may as well be a completely new zone and kin to its older brother in name only. Nowadays I hardly ever visit The Feerrott, more due to being too high level than anything else.

I can tell you one thing though..even though the new zone is far and away superior…I still hate them both. Too cramped you see…I hate being enclosed. Gimme an open plain or a desert any day!

Be well.

3 comments:

  1. Good post mate! I never used to spend much time in the original Feerott either, and agree the new version is much better. The one thing the old version did better was instill a sense of fear - the new version is a little easy to navigate and travel through.

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  2. Keep It COMING!!!! This is good reading~

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  3. Thanks guys :)

    Oh, Mere...apologies, I forgot to link you post I referenced..all fixed now.

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