Do any Devs actually play this game anymore?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Mannhec, Oct 27, 2019.

  1. Lilura Augur

    No I used grind as a generic term. I meant actually play the game, not just use the beta to work out raid strategies and ignore everything else, which is largely what is going on, just like in every past beta. That's partly how Skyfire happened.
  2. Dahaman Augur

    Would you consider the pre-loaded EoK T2 group gear, etc. sufficient in quality/quantity for a Heroic Character?

    If so, of what level of heroic character? If not, what was missing?
  3. Mintalie Augur

    ^^^ all of this bears repeating.

    Lag causes terrible distress during raid encounters. For those who strive to be the very best they can be, to push their limits of improving their play, it becomes demoralizing to have everything set up perfectly, hit all your burns efficiently, burn a glyph, get all the buffs, etc., etc., etc., only to show up 15th on the parse because of lag.

    For me, personally, it's GMM1. Even turning off all logs and everything outside of the game, doing a /clearall, going /afk... no matter what I do, I lag to hell and DPS like crap.

    It's infuriating.
    Duder and Metanis like this.
  4. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    Have you logged into this year's beta or looked at the forums?

    Lots of feedback on quests, missions, gear, heroes forge feature along with all aspects of the game, which funnily enough includes raids, which is not the forum with the most posts.
    Warpeace and Gabrieles like this.
  5. enclee Augur

    Polish always take the longest and is more complicated than people expect. Have you never done any projects?
    MasterMagnus likes this.
  6. MasterMagnus The Oracle of AllHigh

    'The last 10% takes 90% of the time.'
    enclee likes this.
  7. Dzarn Developer

    Precisely the line of thinking and argument that is made by every passionate newer member of the game team. Now, 'proving' that argument then becomes the next challenge.

    We would need to be able to break down attrition numbers by cause which, given our resources, would most likely/have to be done primarily through survey on or near account cancellation/non-renewal. So the work involved with performing that survey would have to justify the results and historically the accuracy of surveys in scenarios like that lack the substantive accuracy that financial focused executive management expects to pass muster.

    Passionately agree with the community on this issue though and every opportunity our team has to eek out bits of time to improve efficiency we relish in it, but there's obviously a long road ahead of us there.


    Different human beings have different tolerances for what they will deem 'acceptable performance' in addition to the vastly different gameplay scenarios, system setups, and innumerable other variables that go into defining a human experience. It is my personal experience that the majority of the community sees a lot of room for improvement in the performance of our game.

    The success chance (whether you fall to the ground vs successfully feign) of any feign death spell is defined in its Base1 value, spell file diffs performed over any range of time will reveal any change to the success rate of spells.

    The success change of the feign death skill is calculated as a 1-100 roll with relevant skill values being defined by the following chart:
    Skill >= 200 - 98% success rate
    Skill >= 166 - 97% success rate
    Skill >= 133 - 96% success rate
    Skill >= 95 - 95% success rate
    Otherwise Skill = success rate

    The chance for a spell to break a successful feign death is a calculation based on your SPA 239 total vs a 1-100 roll; the value listed on the Monk AA line Stonewall aligns with the total of SPA 239 you will have. Resisted spells will not break feign death if your SPA total is >= 50.

    So while yes, your JBoots might feel slower, in order for a claim like this to merit investigation it typically needs something more substantive than feel. If you keep logs on then a comparative total of feign death attempts vs failures over long enough periods of time will either prove there has been no change or serve as an indicator that FD success rates should be investigated.


    The presentation of your opinions on gameplay is very reasonable but is greatly undercut by unnecessarily antagonistic additions and serves as a prime example why different members of the game team have different thresholds for engaging with the community.

    I've repeated the following mantras since joining the team as I believe they describe what it takes to be successful here:
    1. Remember everything all the time.
    2. Do better.

    I feel like we all benefit when applying these plans to our lives or at least applying them to how you choose to present your grievances to the people who can help solve them.



    Do you experience similar lag during 'The Sathir Line' raid? I've found the zone to be very unresponsive/laggy during that encounter but haven't been able to identify the source of the problem. If there's some commonality between the two events that is causing a problem we could explore what that might be.


    #BigTruth
    AcemoneyFV, Nennius, Yinla and 5 others like this.
  8. ZenMaster formless, shapeless

    Hi Dzarn,

    Could you let players cast old, classic model Skeleton and Spectre illusions and pets? Perhaps the 'Efreeti Death Mask' could cast classic Spectre illusion? Please...:D

    Thank you!
    Vexana_Lanys and Thunderkiks like this.
  9. Mintalie Augur

    That's not a raid I have done often, nor that I have done more than a handful of times. But it certainly bears investigating the correlation between which specific raids lag for specific players to look for commonalities (if I'm, in fact, understanding your reasoning here correctly).

    If so, there are certainly the number crunchers on here (hi Sancus!) that could illuminate us on this issue.
  10. Narlee Scholar

    I play the game regularly. my evolvers are done, and I am working on an artisan prize as well. In addition I do raid a couple times each week.

    didn't read thread though!
    Leigo, Petalonyx, Tucoh and 12 others like this.
  11. Dahaman Augur

    I said "not hard", not "fast". I can see the confusion though. Apologies.


    What do you see about the "polishing" that would take as long as it would to add a whole new zone?
  12. Dahaman Augur

    That is all too true.

    The hardest part about the last 10% typically isn't the work itself, it's defining what that last 10% actually is in order for everyone to be happy with it. And then, pinning that down to stop inevitable scope growth!
  13. VandilIzer Augur


    Making sure everything runs smoothly, has no major loopholes or issues. Making sure interaction between every NPC, PC, Quest, Mission etc is fluid and doesn't cause irreparable damage etc. Those are all "polish" things, and I am certain there are tons more. The zone design and layout can be more or less thrown together at the start so you have a zone and things in place, then you work on the details. Anything with design works better when you start large and get things outlined then work your way to the detailed things.
  14. enclee Augur

    I also said polish is dismissed as trivial, when in actuality it’s some of the more difficult work to a project. Even something as simple as building a tabletop requires a high level of skill to do the finish work. The polish really determines the success of a project.

    Who knows what work it takes to get it done, because we don’t even know what tools they have.
  15. Dahaman Augur


    Coming up with a rough definition of the work (to make a level 100 heroic character) was the purpose of the mental exercise. My curiosity is somewhat misplaced on the forums at times. It's probably good to end that discussion here.

    Thanks all!
  16. enclee Augur

    I understand what you’re getting at and I’ve run into the same roadblock. On paper it seems simple, adjust character level to 100, auto grant takes care of AAs, and make some all/all items to equip them or add it to a vendor and add some spell/disc vendors. Ask players for a UI and hot button template for that class. It all seems so simple.
  17. Mannhec Lorekeeper

    Dudes, I did not mean to open a gallon of worms. I just asked a question (maybe in bad form), DZ answered this and I get it - we are busy...
    "This is an interesting case of perception framing the scenario.
    The statement that 'nerfs regularly coincide with the end of an expansion cycle' indicates that a person's perception of a period of time within EverQuest can be measured in 'expansion blocks'. That's a perfectly reasonable premise and way to look at your playtime in a live-evolving environment of 20+ years."
    RE:I have not responded to this thread because of that, good answer.. BTW I have been EQ since 2k.
  18. Vumad Cape Wearer


    Can put some context on your questions? The background for your motivation for asking. I'm getting a hard read here. I don't know if you are asking me a rhetorical question, being sarcastic or if you actually are unsure / want my opinion about the beta buff and heroics.



    In my perfect world heroics would come from beta formats and be available at every level that is available in beta, 10-15 levels below the current cap. The most current heroic being the current price with each outdated heroic being a small step down in price. So something like...
    lvl 100 - 3500 DBC ( the current cost)
    95 - 3200 DBC (or some appropriate price)
    90 - 2900 DBC
    85 - 2600 DBC

    Or some variation there of.

    I don't think the price should go up. Since the quality of the heroics has decreased as a by-product of the increasing level caps, the new product should replace the old product but I don't see why the old product shouldn't be available at a progressive discount, as I suggested above.

    As for if I think the pre-loaded EoK T2 is sufficient, yes, but remember that was on a L110 beta buff. I'm not sure what comes on the 90, 95 or 100 characters. But yes, given that my ranger leveled through TBL with mostly Cohort's and Velazul's gear, until getting TBL gear, it is sufficient, although tank classes will struggle without farming RoS while they level.

    The big part about my being happy with the beta armor is that the work is potentially mostly done. I would want the devs to spend minimal time on the heroics and invest their time elsewhere (my vote is merc balance improvements). I think just making them L100 (after ToV release) with the same mounts and items as L85, but with level matched beta armor and augs and the auto grant AA would be sufficient to make the players wanting an upgrade to buy them. I think the sweet spot for profits is improving sales by returning the quality of the product to its original intent while controlling costs by utilizing the already completed beta work.
  19. Zalamyr Augur

    Even if we don't always agree, this is why we love Dzarn.
  20. chronicler Augur

    For me personally the most hated thing during last 6 months has been when you introduced tabs, It brought the most lag into the game ever.

    I still hate it, and imo, they all that should be rolled back, so we do not have tabs. I cannot see a use for it at all.

    It has made it needed to put more into spam windows, compared to what it was.

    I also have problem with finding out to which window goes something to if i accidently closes down to. First i reopen window and then trying to remember what did i have in that window and then try to set filters to it.

    Prior to tabs, if i had something in window 3, i could relative easy find it out now it is harder. And something is not in anything and i have to set filters to make it visible. Example my my melee hits was not in any windows.

    To measure lag, prior i had 50 as normal, when tabs came it went to 80, now it is to arond 55, but only thanks to filters.