Hmm now that I think of it, maybe you are right about the outdoor zones thing. I don't remember 100% (and i should double check), but in SK, when you pull aviaks from their tower, I am pretty sure that they follow the circular path down/up to get you to, instead of just magically poping up/down on the z axis. But in most cases, you don't see a mob move along rigid lines in an outdoor zone like you can easily see them do in a dungeon. I'll have to do some more testing on live to make sure though.
The node concept sounds like a great idea. Nodes can be laid all throughout a zone which defines where a mob can and can't go (the same way done in Unreal). These nodes automatically become interconnected depending on where the mob needs to go. And waypoints can be used the same way they are used now - to define a mobs spawn points and patrol route.
As for dev's leaving, i'm not really too concerned about that. Look at UO emulators. How many MMORPG's have been released since UO's creation? Yet there are still literally dozens of UO emulators out there that are still being worked on. I can't imagine eqemu grinding to a hault just because of WoW and EQ2 (which aren't all that great, anyway). Thanks for replying ranger
