Lordsmarch Palace feedback

[Angelus_dead]

I'll return later with additional minor tidbits about the public zone containing the new Droaam quests, but first let's just talk about one minor aspect.

The Harbor-Palace Tunnel
Why is this there? What's the game-design need to have a direct connection between a level 2 zone and a level 12 zone?

We don't want level 3 newbies coming out of Waterworks and wasting their time going to Palace. Level 12 players have minimal need to come to Harbor- and if they do want to be there it's probably to hit the mail, bank, airship, or Inspiration Quarter, none of which is rapidly accessible from down in that canyon. To reach palace you just enter the market and hang a left, so why have an extra path?

How does it look? Neither doorway looks like it actually goes to a tunnel; the harbor side appears as if someone sunk a middle-class house into the cliff face. This game has many tunnel entries, but they don't look like this.

Is it mentally plausible? If you own a palace and you find an old tunnel leading through weird caves to another part of town, do you (A) collapse it with dynamite, (B) hide it for an emergency escape known only to you, (C) hang up a sign so the dockworkers, foreigners, kobolds, and other rabble can stroll directly from sewage-central into your courtyard? People should know what kind of stuff is down in Stormreach tunnels- are you sure you want that coming right into your rich sanctuary?

Is it spatially plausible? If there was a tunnel from Harbor to Palace, it would be on the opposite side of the chasm. This tunnel entrance is on the wrong side of the air gap. When players use this tunnel entry, it doesn't feel like they're aiming in the direction of the Lordsmarch Palace.

[Zorack00]

I choose C...

[Memnir]

The Harbor-Palace Tunnel
Why is this there? What's the game-design need to have a direct connection between a level 2 zone and a level 12 zone?

I was thinking/hoping it'd be a story point somewhere along the line of the new quests. Part of the Droaam Invasion, or some such. I gather that it is not (haven't completed the chain yet) - and that leaves me with many of the same questions A_D mentioned.

[Elmaster_Thay]

The Harbor-Palace Tunnel
Why is this there? What's the game-design need to have a direct connection between a level 2 zone and a level 12 zone?

We don't want level 3 newbies coming out of Waterworks and wasting their time going to Palace....

A character needs to be level 9 to use the door.

[velish_mal]

it was addressed in u8, where a quest in lordsmarch needed to be done in the harbor, and people could always use a shortcut from the conveniently level 12 quest line, to the level 12 quest invasion...