Additions to Hot Zones

Nodyin, an EverQuest developer, posted some information on additions made to the new hot zones. If you venture in to these zones, you will find new items, new named NPCs, as well as a new trick up NPCs' sleeves (think /yell for NPCs). As seen on EQLive: ================================================= I hope that everyone is enjoying the new Hot Zones released with the update this week. Now that the first players to hit the zones have had a few days to run through the content I wanted to discuss what some of you have already noticed, namely that there are some new items dropping in each of the Hot Zones. This is something that we've wanted to do for some time now. I very nearly was able to itemize the Hot Zones that went live when PoR came out but we just weren't able to complete the items before that set of zones went live. Rather than tack on the items partway through the Hot Zone period I decided to hold off until we released the next set of items. This is not by any means a complete re-itemization of these zones and does not mean they were "revamped" in any way. New items were simply added to the zones in a variety of ways that I will discuss below. The first and most obvious source of items in the new zones are the new named NPCs to be found in all of the Hot Zones. Some zones have more new named npcs than others but each zone should have at least one new npc. These NPCs have brand new drops that should be a bit more level appropriate for current day EverQuest than some of the items that might drop elsewhere in the zone and are older. The second source of items are global rare items. A number of the Hot Zones have new global rares. In some zones nearly any NPC can drop these items. In other zones the global rares are restricted by race so only certain types of NPCs drop these items. The final loot mechanism I used in the Hot Zones is something new I came up with for these zones - feedback is welcome! I did something I call the "Call for Help" mechanic. Basically it works like this.... Some (not all!) npcs in the Hot Zones will, during combat, realize they are in trouble and are not going to win. If they decide to call for help at this point a new NPC will spawn somewhere nearby. This NPC will be the same race as what you're fighting but will be just a little bit stronger. This new NPC will then run over and, well, start hitting you. Obviously a new NPC hitting you isn't fun so the up side to this is that the new NPC is a Named npc with loot that essentially spawned just for you and your group. The chance of this happening is about the same as the chance to get one of the global rare drops found in the Hot Zones. I'm hoping that this will add a bit of excitement and danger to normal experience grinding while offering a chance at some nice items in the process. I hope you all enjoy the items and the zones in this set of Hot Zones. - Nodyin

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It works
# Jun 17 2006 at 8:42 AM Rating: Decent
I had it work alot in Overthere got 4 differant items doing the war baird quest. The mob is even hard at 46 hits for 90s and has about 3k of hits. Its called Snarka Enforcer. I got some boots, an earring,a 2 handed axe and something else can't remeber. It takes a while for the mob to pop and its pretty cool. Thanks for the Hot zone extras and maybe next time you can double money drops and items as well as exp lol. RM would be awesome if HGs dropped 100pp a kill.
Crypt of Nadox?!
# Jun 16 2006 at 2:07 PM Rating: Decent
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Call for help seems to be modification on the chance to spawn a new mob on the death of the mob you are fighting in Crypt of Nadox for example.It scares me every time it happens!
My thoughts.
# Jun 16 2006 at 7:30 AM Rating: Decent
Lots of different kinds of players in EQ. At first glance, it seems to me that this could be a nice addition for those of us who like the adreneline rush and also play for looting; and had the good fortune to find a group. For those of us who like to take it play more, well, carefully,or were unable to find a group, seems an "unfortunate" idea. For me (I usually fall into the second catgory) this could be a problem for my Druid...if I am soloÃng will I have to take lower cons than I normally would...not play to capacity? When I want even more uncertainty, danger and excitement, I have always known how to find it ...

Guess time will tell.

BV



Edited, Fri Jun 16 13:02:07 2006
RE:Soloing
# Jun 16 2006 at 2:33 AM Rating: Decent
Notice the post say "for you and your group" obviously not for soloing.
Call for help
# Jun 15 2006 at 11:49 PM Rating: Decent
Can some one confirm that the "Call for help feature" is working? I spent almost 6 hours in Veksar today(first time I was able to xp in new hotzones due to RL) in the Golem area(not sure exactly of area but its where Behemeth spawns) and the room across from it(sorry first time I've ever really xpd in Veksar as I'm a SoL/PoP baby =) Anyways I had multiple NPC's call for help throughout my xp'ing there. I figured it was a normal feature of the zone until reading the post above. Anyways I don't remember seeing anything special drop except off the named that did spawn(a total of 3 times btw =/ ). So are these "special" summoned monsters actually dropping anything worth keeping or are the developers just trying to say they are dropping something good? As for zone wide rare loot we didn't get any so not sure what quality that loot is.
Soloing????
# Jun 15 2006 at 9:35 PM Rating: Default
Don't use more than one question mark, it makes you look bad.
Soloing????
# Jun 15 2006 at 9:19 PM Rating: Decent
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How does this help soloing???
Seems like if i am engaged against a foe that is equal or higher in level and i may get the kill but low on HP , am i gonna have to Zone or cause a train in order to save my own EXP? All the while losing exp for the incomplete initial pull, even tho i pulled safely to AVOID aggro??
Am i missing something?

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RE: Soloing????
# Jun 16 2006 at 7:34 AM Rating: Decent
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Safe pulling is not a game feature. Resourceful players invented it.
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RE: Soloing????
# Jun 15 2006 at 11:28 PM Rating: Decent
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well, somehow i don't think they were intending it to help soloers :) but you can always take off running right?
RE: Soloing????
# Jun 15 2006 at 9:29 PM Rating: Decent
If you mean by the NPC calling for help, it sounds like it will be pretty rare.
RE: Soloing????
# Jun 16 2006 at 11:28 AM Rating: Decent
I had it happen twice in overthere and got owned both times and once in emerald jungle which i actually killed. dropped a piercing 13/23 req 30 reco 35 war/rng/rog/brd. Not too bad.
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