Increase Sales With Two Words

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Pawtato, May 10, 2020.

  1. Sokki Still Won't Buff You!!

    I'm sure finding new Dev's that can work with EQ's ancient code is easier said than done. Even if they did manage to hire a couple more devs that could work with it, I'm sure there would still be a decent learning curve before they would be up to speed and be profitable working on it. It's definitely doable but whether or not they actually want to invest the time and money bringing more people in is another topic.
  2. Maedhros High King

    And yet, they managed to balance all of those things not once, not twice but with at least 3 different epics.
    Paladins actually have had 7 special/epic weapons over the history of EQ.
    Soulfire, Fiery Avenger, Fiery Defender, Natures Defender, Redemption, Nightbane and the ROF class weapon.
    Unfortunately 6 of those happened in the first 5 years of EQ, and only 1 has happened in the last 16 years, and on top of that, the most recent one was replaced 1 expansion later and had no special clicky to give it any long term usefulness.
    Its pretty impressive that you think the draw of epics is merely nostalgia.
    I suppose the 5 or 6 classes that still use their epics only click them for nostalgia sake, no real tangible effect on game play.
    Epics were the result of solo/group/raid effort and they would need to be again.
    Casual's that don't raid would not be able to get them right away. They would need to wait until a few years of expansions relegates the old content easier. This is no different than it ever was in the past.
  3. baider Elder

    who remembers when epic 1.0 were live and current, I mean upon launching them and then 2.0?

    It took a LONG time for 1.0s to be something floating around, 2.0s were a little bit better but still only top guilds were completing Anguish enough to hand out many epics every week.

    I like the idea if they make it another questline with a few bottlenecks where you literally need rotations of people sitting in line for multi-day spawns. Some servers had serverwide agreed rotations on naggy/vox/talendor/severilous/gore just for the scales.
  4. Gherig Addicted since Aug 1st, 1998

    We all know what would happen ... we would get sellers like WoW has for AOTC.

    "Selling Epic 3.0 Raid credits -- 100 Krono per credit"
    Xyphen likes this.
  5. Thoxsel Djess' Pet Warrior

    I'd love epics, maybe there can be a 50/50 split on the work and after two years the epics could launch. (Essentially best of both worlds but spread out more.) Sure we'd have a smaller expansion meanwhile, but it's not like they last long anyway on their current size... Alternatively, start a fund for epics and have people donate - if we hit milestones, work can begin. Or sell more t-shirts and merch and find it that way, set it aside for epics! (Could even make them epic themed!)
    Maedhros likes this.
  6. Stephen51 Augur

    I would turn this on it's head and rather than new epic quests, you would tie in to progression achievements an upgrade to the epic. No development of new quests, no quest npcs, drops, tie ins with new expansion story, just on completion of progression of the expansion you got an upgrade to your epic. Updated stats and if required an upgrade to effects (for instance some classes effect has been degrading ever since OOW whereas others are (nearly) as relevant as when they were released.

    I don't need you to tie up masses of resources and reduce quest/gear/zone development to receive an upgrade to my epic. You can just tie it into the expansion progression.

    Just reward each class with an item - such as "An epic enhancement (TOV)" and you would combine it in a forge with your current epic - no fail combine. In that way those without their epic could go back and do it without losing out. Personally I'd say any level of epic could be combined with the enhancement to create that level of epic. It's a bit of a shortcut, but it would save the headache for both developers and players.

    You would argue that it isn't "Epic" enough (I am guessing) and I would agree - but to benefit the player will have already done their epic quest, this would just be an upgrade.
  7. SmoochyOfWolfington Augur


    Assuming I am understanding your comment, I guess I would be one of the naïve ones. In fact how many emulators do just that? Capture that nostalgia? You could argue people play on emulators because they are too cheap to buy the main game, but now that the main game is free that is no longer an issue. It is simply because they prefer to play a certain way.

    If they had just one True Classic server it would do them good. Take out all the fancy modern doohickeys they put in there, reinstate corpse runs, take the races and classes back to how they were with real bonuses and penalties and make every class needed and unique and people will come. Just one server. See how it goes. The progression servers are just a hint of what it was like. Some of us want Classic how it really was. I'd pay for that and I am sure many others would as well. Some left purely on the basis that they did not like where EQ was going. There is a good chance they may come back if it was reinstated, if it can even be reinstated.
  8. Eldrian Augur

    New epic quests would be nice and would not necessarily have to be resource hogs to implement. Just make 1 epic quest line that applies to all classes. The end item from this quest is then combined with a class specific mold to create the epic.
  9. Sabrefist- Journeyman


    This. Open a Go Fund Me type thing for new epics. If you hit the goal, hire people and get it done. Open it to the community, outsource it, whatever. Gotta be a way to make it happen.
    Leezard likes this.
  10. Tanise Elder


    I'd pay $60 on 6 accounts, for epics + content. But it would have to be done like oow with an "groupable" version, and a raid version. While I've been back for a year, and playing a ton, I'm still not sure I want to or can put in the time that raiding requires.
  11. Andarriel Everquest player since 2000


    or they could just put the epics in marketplace?

    Andarriel
  12. Leezard New Member


    Agree.

    In the era of COVID-19, thousands of business are dying, The ones who continue to live, are creative and flexible.

    You (Dark Paw Games) have an incredible fan base of creative people here on these forums who would be more than willing to develop content for you, for Everquest, for all of us.

    Outsource to the masses. Combined, we can create new worlds.

    I challenge you to find a way.
  13. skattabrainz Augur

    40 for new epics? Heck I'll pay 50 and continuously sub 2 accounts for that. The epics are some of the best work ever done in MMOs. I would want to achieve multiples of them.

    I bet this would also invigorate the live servers as well.

    Please do this
  14. Zelena Journeyman

    How about making a quest where the "epic" weapons in the Rain of Fear expansion can be turned into augs like you did with the coldain shawl with Brell Serilis? I don't know how the other class weapons were but the rogues was nice.

    To be more specific the aug would just have the "Proc" of the weapon and maybe some stats. Just an idea.


    Zel
  15. RangerDave Lorekeeper


    Personally, yes, I would absolutely pay full freight for an expansion that was centered on new epic quest lines instead of new zones and tied most of the new items, spells, AAs, etc. into those quest lines. However, I don't see how epic quests could possibly be that time consuming from a development perspective. A full expansion these days has probably hundreds of new NPCs, hundreds of new items, dozens of new spells and AAs, and dozens of new quests (counting minor ones), etc. plus all the new zones and overall expansion lore. How could 16 new quest lines, even lengthy epic quests, be as work-intensive as all that? Also, presumably there could and would be a lot of overlap with the rest of the expansion assets - e.g., just have epic quest items drop off of significant NPCs/mobs that are being added for the expansion anyway. I know I'm massively oversimplifying this, but apart from adding a few quest-specific NPCs to convey the storylines and a few unique turn-in items, as well as designing the epic rewards themselves, of course, I can't really think of much in the way of quest-specific in-game assets that would be required. Most of the work, it seems to me, would be in the writing and quest design, with much of the in-game assets simply being piggybacked onto stuff that was already part of the expansion anyway.

    Now, having said all that, I really have no idea what the heck I'm talking about, so I'm honestly curious to hear what I'm missing that makes epic quests such a big drain on development resources.
  16. Xyphen Maximum Augur

    Yeah, I think the emulators (especially P99) capture it well. I just don't think the good ol' days can be translated into the current platform. I would pay a lot more for a carbon copy server of 2000's EverQuest than I would for a new epic.

    My point was that I don't think solving an epic today would be as fulfilling as it was 16+ years ago. The new task system literally gives you the step-by-step breakdown of everything you have to do. I recall the most epic part of epics being the crowd-sourced class communities pooling notes on forums.

    If DPG released an "Epic 3.0" expansion, people would be paying a fee for a grocery list of things to do to get a BIS weapon. Everyone would have their new toy in a week then be bored for another year.

    Here's my honest guess:

    16 epics, 16 story-lines, 16 new "epic worthy" weapon graphics. 4-5 raids per epic. Each epic mob needs to be scripted and itemized. Assuming you're not just killing a bunch of naked humans, they also probably need models/animations.

    I believe DPG's artists/devs are allocated a certain amount of time for certain things, and the feasibility of anything is whether or not it fits into that bucket.
  17. Koveras Elder

    Because it'll be something that would actually attract old school players and newcomers alike to EverQuest, keeping the interest of the players is really essential. In fact, attracting newcomes is exactly what EverQuest needs in order for the franchise to thrive, not just bring back old players.

    For that is exactly to why that the more I kept thinking about it, I can safely say that Epic 3.0 is utterly overdue. Considering the fact it's been over 15 years prior to the post since Epic 2.0 Weapons where introduced.

    Even through some people aren't into the idea of doing Epic Quest, to actually do one from beginning to end dose indeed being the big flavor. Its as if you really are accomplishing something, and once you finally accomplish the Epic Quest means you truly do deserve to earn your way (even doing Epic 1.0 Quests to this day still allows the player oneself to earn the way).

    Its what really can forge a bond with such people. And in the case of Epic 3.0, a group version and a raid version should exist. Furthermore, even if the player oneself finishes up the group version and decides to do the raid version for any reason, the player oneself would in fact have to repeat parts of the Epic Quest with raid difficulty (solo parts of the Epic 3.0 Quests should grant access to both versions) in order to upgrade to the raid version (even the group versions should still pose a challenge that make it feel like you really did accomplished something)

    Because doing an Epic Quest makes it feel like your really in the story. Not just yourself but others helping you as well. And when you help others on there Epic Quest, it still makes you feel like your really part of the story on there Epic Quests as well. Which is something that really stands out within the EverQuest game.

    If we ever get anymore unique bonuses to finishing up the older Epic Quests for any reason, the only thing I can think of is Epic AA Abilities (Lady Carolline of Thex should serve as the Quest Giver for Epic AA Abilities) which are only be obtained after finishing up any of the Epic Quests (Epic 1.0 for 1.0 Abilities while Epic 2.0 for 2.0 Abilities), they not only mimic the effects of the very Abilities on Epic Weapons but also make them a bit stronger through AA ranks even after as you don't have to use the old Epic Weapons (Epic 2.5 Aug AAs will boost the attributes of any weapon and shield in the case of the Cleric 2.5 Aug AA in the same way it boosts the Epic 2.0 Weapons)

    Another reason to why the Epic Weapons are so unique when Epic 2.0s where first introduced is the ability to have a type 4 augmentation among with a type 8 augmentation all at once, that's another reason to why Epic 2.0 set itself apart from all the other weapons (among with the hidden type 30 slot for Epic 2.5 augmentations). So if Epic 3.0 where to happen, the group version would have two type 4 slots and its raid version would have an additional an type 8 slot from thereafter.

    But I think the most important reason to why Epic Weapons are so unique is the lore behind them and why they came to be in the first place.

    As far as I'm concerned, I have no reason to ask you to do so in this case because the way you summed everything up is solid as is.
  18. RangerDave Lorekeeper

    I agree that nothing today can recapture the sense of discovery for those of us who were around when Epics 1.0 were still being solved - not least because the whole concept of an MMORPG was itself a pretty new thing at that point - but to be fair, once the quests were solved, online walkthroughs from places like Alla's and the class forums were available to provide more or less the same step-by-step breakdown the task system provides today. That said, if they ever do Epics 3.0, they should definitely exclude it from the task system or at least make the step-by-step instructions super vague if either of those options are possible.


    For sure on the quest story-lines and weapon design and graphics, but I do think most if not all of the "epic mobs" could/would just be mobs they'd be adding to the game anyway. With previous Epics, they just added epic-related drops to the new expansion mobs and even some previously existing mobs.
    Xyphen likes this.
  19. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.


    They aren't required to use the modern quest system, and there is plenty of scope to use the methods prior epic quests took to retain the community involvement required to solve them if they wanted to go that route they can, it's probably a more involved, customised & work-heavy approach but it's certainly still a choice they can take.
    Even if they did they can still hide the step descriptions behind pre-requisite hails etc. that need to be discovered.
  20. Tuco Augur

    https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/how-long-did-epics-take-to-solve.244114/