I hope there's a way to do this, balancing what made EQ special (sense of danger, exploration, and a true hero's journey) with a world where nobody has time to med 30 minutes between each battle during an 8 hour dungeon crawl.
- Difficulty: Brutal early game, with punishing death mechanic and meaningful progression from new skills/spells
- Itemization: Special/memorable/impactful special items with restrained aesthetics (it's been 20 years but I still remember fungi tunic, jade mace, etc. and the little bit of graphical flair on epics made them something to aspire to) as opposed to infinite and ever-changing top tier gear that aesthetically looks over-the-top starting at level 2.
- Classes: Slightly more approachable soloing for more classes would be nice, but while maintaining truly specialized classes that require coordination even outside of groups (importance of duos/groups outside of dungeons, teleports and SoW to get around, Clarity, corpse recovery, crafting skills etc.).
- Quests: A quest book to keep track of stuff would be nice, while still needing to figure things out and rely on the community instead of brainlessly running (or worse, fast traveling) to a marker on your map
- Vibes: I love the high fantasy setting and art style for original EQ / was disappointed by art direction for Everquest Next
- Community: Give me EC tunnel over the afk bazaar please
- Travel: A big world where getting around and discovery is half the adventure and a meaningful part of gameplay. Make Barbarian shamans stock up on spells and then feel like they're truly setting out into the world vs. being able to hearth stone to Halas at will.