All The Trees Of The Field Will Clap Their Hands: EverQuest

When I went to log into EverQuest yesterday evening the servers were down for an update. I popped in to the forums to read the patch notes and this line jumped out at me:

"Treants in classic zones have reverted to their classic appearance."

It's a short, simple sentence but it raises a surprising number of questions, like which zones, exactly, are we calling "classic" these days? Just the ones from the original release, like in "WoW Classic" or "Core Tyria"?  Or is it the supposed "golden age of classic EverQuest", by which we could be talking about anything up to and including Planes of Power?

I'm not sure there even were any treants in Kunark or Velious or Luclin. Actually, I'm pretty sure there weren't, so I guess it's a moot point. And what exactly was a treant's "classic appearance", anyway? Blowed if I know. It must have been easily fifteen years since they changed it. I tried to remember what they used to look like but I came up blank.

Then there's the semantic value. If something's looked a certain way for more than three-quarters of its existence, isn't that its "classic appearance"? Whatever it looked like before may be its original appearance, but "classic"? I'm not convinced.

The biggest question, though, has to be "Why?" Did anyone care? Have there been complaints? Is there some kind of Treant Classic Appearance Committee that's been lobbying for a rollback ever since the fateful Day of Change?

It's not the first time this has happened, either. I remember being equally surprised a while back - maybe it was last year or the year before - when I saw a similar patch message about wolves. I think it was wolves. It might have been rats.

Whatever it was, they reverted too. I wasn't playing much at the time so I didn't follow it up although I have a vague memory of going to Velious to take a look. In which case it was probably wolves. Not many rats in Velious. Ratmen, yes. Rats, not so much.

As soon as the servers came up the first thing I did was log in my Druid. She spends most of her time hanging out with the other druids at the North Karana druid ring, just a short run from the South Karana bridge. I ran her down there and over  the river then carried on, past the centaur village, down to the old two-spawn back in the hills.

Time was when you'd need to join a list for that. Those treants had a life expectancy measured in seconds. Now they live out their days in peace, creaking and groaning in the wind. And they do indeed look like they did back when I first saw them. I remember now.

It's a very cartoonish look. I didn't realize at the time. On a 15" CRT monitor they came across as considerably more threatening, especially when they came lumbering towards you, waving their branches. Now they just look comical.

So that's the classic look. With that itch scratched, naturally I started to wonder what the non-classic look used to be. I thought I remembered but I wasn't sure. You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, right?

I could think of a few places to check. I took my Beastlord on a quick trip to Plane of Nightmare. I'd felled my share of walking trees there, for sure, and been killed by them. But no, those trees always had their own model. They still do. I guess it's another kind of "classic". 

Over in Blightfire Moors, a zone from 2006's The Serpent's Spine, I found treants with a familiar
look. I think that's the one that's just been reverted but I can't say I'm a hundred per cent certain. I kind of wish we'd had some warning. I'd have taken a few screenshots, just for the record. It's not as if it matters but it would have been nice all the same.

There was something else in the patch notes, too. Try this one on for size:

"Painting: Tassel's Tavern when placed in housing should now correctly teleport you to the tavern in classic North Freeport."

Say what, now?

I had to look this one up. It took a bit of research but apparently there are teleport paintings in EverQuest just like there are in EQII. They come from racial "Heritage Crates". You can buy those in the cash shop. 

If you collect all of them (I think there are four) you can get an Achievement called "Human Art Collector". That gives you yet another painting, Tassel's Tavern, which will teleport you to the inn of the same name... in old North Freeport.

That's right. Not the reviled, revisionist nightmare everyone hates and shuns but an instanced version of the much-missed, original North Freeport zone. Or perhaps we should say the "classic" version.

As many people have already asked, if we can go to an instanced version, why can't we just have the classic version back for good? I mean, you just did it with the treants...

It's all getting a bit Philip K. Dick for me. I think I'm going to go and have a lie down.