god, i love debate
First off, thank you for itemizing your post. It makes it MUCH easier to reply.
-less zone loads when game grow bigger
If you cannot support a full spread of players, then you didn't plan correctly. One zone can easily support 20 levels of play. That's only four mandatory zones, plus two towns. Six zones are needed and the rest are gravy for the sake of variety.
*guess what, if a zone loads 20lvl, its a junk zone, with less zones in mind to start with, you can expand better accodingly
-better zone connections(suit for pvp or pve as well as story lines)
Zone connections have nothing to do with levels. It's simply a graphical link that suspends disbelief. Hence, in WR the Kerra Isle entrance can be linked to Unrest.
*you are right, but mines are pre-made based on the eqlive which would require less brain storm to screw up
-classes have different use instead of tank/healer/caster
A level 30 group will have the druid/shaman healing unless a cleric is present. A level 1 group (or any group for that matter) has the same dynamic. The differences are more apparent at higher spell levels, but it doesn't affect the abilities of each individual. All that is affected is what you NEED (ie, a cleric and a warrior) and this should never come up in a properly balanced server.
*sorry, no, how can a cleric snare? he slow?, a warrior heals? LoH? HT? abilities of a class are learn from experience(lvl) which higher lvl will have less struggle to build the class(there is only one path for a class anyways) at lower lvl you only need a dru/shm or clr for heals(lvl1 to 20ish) where as your lvl goes up, cleric is the the only class that can heal properly(unless you are 30 in a camp of 20s...), i said before, either you will need months of time to have everything sketch, or it will never be made, WR is no different from EQlive if you look closely, only few additions spells which helps or useless, some of them breaks the class quite abit too(all spells within the period of a debuff will crit innate on a mage?...)
-less trouble on modifying the game
If you resort to cheap fixes to cover up the fact that you were too lazy to balance classes or create decent content, then you might as well just add in the # commands. The only people the server will attract will want those.
*no, its different, zero #command, everything past the char creation will be legit, only different is that you will have a unique class of your choice that doesn't over lap others too much at the start, like a lvl1 mnk/war, etc.. low lvl game is a slaughter fest and you can't change too much from it, you can't raid a mob for 2mins at low end, caster will oom, tanks are dying, raid wipe, not even waves of mobs, lack of abilities of lowbies on a raid mob will be a zerg raid, tell me how much different is WR(or make one up w/ examples) than EQ at lvl 1 to 10?
-doesn't waste as much time
I've gone through 1-11 and 1-15 on the WR, and I sure as heck don't consider it a waste of time. It was fun because the admin made it fun. It probably would be a waste if the designer got lazy.
is there anything changed other than slaughtering trash mindlessly? i don't see how it is different, rats, bats, snake? same thing, bandits? orc? same thing, changing the names/zone lvl, etc are good idea, which you will need to do so for any legit server anyways
-the game DOES change from 1 to 30...
So far the only reasoned offered for this change involve the phrase "But on EQLive..."
Fundamentally the game never changes. That's up to the server. I'm sure we'll eventually see a few servers totally tuned for solo play. We'll also see servers set up to be group-only from level 1 onwards.
paladins are paladin, not a war/clr combo, sk is sk, not a war/nec combo, but what lvl1 to 20 or whatever lvl tells me is that pal is a war/clr and sk is war/nec, etc etc
Paladins, SKs, and especially Rangers can affect agro control in a very powerful way. They also add staple spells (Snare) that help the group. They can do this at every level. Once again, it's up to the admin(s) to make sure that every classes is wanted in a group.[/i]
*the difference is the skill you acquired that you should have as a pal/sk/rng/mnk/rog/....
those times are waste of time, there is no character development during those period, melees are melees, not tank/dps class/CC class, casters are casters, not nec/enc/wiz/mag, etc etc
a lvl 20 default should have gotten something like full leather(dru/mnk/bst) banded(shm/rng/rog) plated(pal/sk/war/clr) and robe classes, tune the stats all you like, if you want solo game, make it /shrug
i am not requesting for full suit of VT armors at lvlx0, i just want an armor that suit my need to at least protect myself and with the skills that i should have for my class, say.. 20 with plate, 30 with ro, 40 with ro w/ haste 50 in dw armor w/ better haste, 60 in full set SS/kael, as well as the spells that define my class, like heals, stun, buff for paly, sow buff ds for rng, as well as skills, like track, hide/sneak, flying kick(skills for monks are total BS before FK...), war get ripotes, etc etc(pal is not a LoHable war, either as 1heal cleric at lvl 1 to 10), those shady lvls can be skip at once instead of going back again
i use pal b/c i have a 63 in eqlive, i can use a monk or war or wiz or sk if you like, all are 50+ and a 60, lowbie guild though, only few hours a day(3-)
ohoh, mentioning time.. not everyone has the time to play hours a day