people are going to flip out if they have to ....
And how many things have not been ruined by that mentality? That was one of the things that made them rewarding. World was huge, had to travel everywhere at normal speed unless there was a bard, teleporter, druid, shaman or sow potion around. Can still have the jboot quest. The crafting can be done by the people making potions. But if you want a permanent clicky that makes you less dependent on the community, then do the quest.
I have never understood the reason behind making the speed only dependent on yourself. As in everyone gets the same speed, at the same levels, with little need or benefit from any other person/class. You might as well just give everyone the speed bonuses for free and immediately then. It is just annoying to be "slow". In mmos now, people just run around on their X% increased speed mounts, and go about eachothers business. There is only one normal speed, and that is the max % speed you can get at that level. Up until you are level 10, you are slow, then a bit faster until 30, when you get a new mount skill and can go a bit faster again, then a new skill at 50, then again at... Everyone follows the same path, speed is simply a character attribute that grows as you level.
That never feels rewarding. It just increases enjoyment slightly every time, as you move faster through the world, but when you create a new character, you are back to being slow again.
In EQ it was constantly changing. Run at one speed, then someone cast a spell on you and you were faster, and very apprechiative of that. Speed was dynamic in EQ. Jboots were a rare item you could get with lots of work that aided some classes in making it a bit more static. But still there were much faster ways to travel. Catering to the masses tend to lead to everyone being the same. If EQN wants to go the "we are different" route, they need to go back to not catering to everyone, and dare make the world a bit more dynamic. Which they say they are trying to do. Crafted jboots are not dynamic.
Nobody expected you to have jboots in EQ, but if they are crafted you can be damned sure that people will bitch if you do not keep X speed after the level where you can obtain them. What, you do not have jboots? Noob!
I dunno. You are probably right. It is just so... boring.
