EverQuest Producer's Letter July 2022

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by Angeliana, Jul 21, 2022.

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  1. Angeliana Senior Community Manager

    [IMG]
    Mergers, Death, Pride, and more!

    EverQuest is still going strong thanks to all of you! As we inch closer to another year older, we cannot help but reminisce about our years together. It is a wonderful past steeped in rich lore and fantasy, sweetened with friendships and love for the game we all hold dear. As we continue to grow our game family and strengthen the bonds that hold us together, we would like to let you all know that we appreciate you greatly and are thrilled you have chosen to continue your travels through Norrath with us.
    As most of you will recall, we shared our roadmap for the year in January. We received a great amount of feedback, and we thank you for that. In case you missed it, you can visit the original article at EQ Roadmap 2022. We have continued on-course, mostly, as well as remained working on smaller fixes and improvements. Read more in the links below.

    2022 Roadmap Update:
    • Coming up soon:
      • September:
        • Heroic Characters Update - New Heroic Characters will start at level 100.
        • Time-Locked Progression Server Expansion Unlocks Moved to Thursdays
      • October:
        • 2022's Expansion Beta + Preorder
        • New Content for Nights of the Dead
    One of the items listed in the previous Producer's Letters was the merging of Phinigel and Miragul to Vox. It was slated to have happened by June and was postponed. This delay was necessary to ensure the merger would go smoothly and to avoid possible issues which were imminent. Thank you for your patience and supportive words as we completed this merger.

    The deathstravaganza of the Death, Death, Death! Event started on July 20, 2022 and will be running until August 9, 2022. Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps and let the games begin! A quick reminder that this event is about you killing the most old-world bosses in the fastest time and not your own character's death.

    We also had some unlocks happen on July 20, 2022. Aradune and Rizlona servers unlocked The Serpent's Spine and Yelinak unlocked the Ruins of Kunark. On July 27, 2022, Mangler will unlock the Veil of Alaris. As noted above, TLP Expansion unlocks will be moved to Thursdays starting in September. This change is happening to avoid conflicts with patches on Wednesdays and expansion launches on Tuesdays.

    In other news, Darkpaw Games, as part of Daybreak Games' DE&I initiative, recently pledged a donation of $5,000 to The San Diego LGBT Community Center. One of the many projects this organization works on is helping to solve the housing crisis in San Diego.

    Later this year, in November, we'll be teaming up with Extra Life again to help improve kids' health. The official Extra Life Game Day is November 5, 2022, and we're planning some fun things for everyone, so be on the lookout for the announcement! If you would like to know more, please visit our Extra Life Announcement from 2021. Fun times, great games, excellent cause!

    [IMG]
    "What creatures will you encounter in the upcoming expansion?"

    That's still not all. We have more exciting news to share, so keep reading! The next expansion is coming along very well. Environments, characters, and much more have been completed already. We should have it ready for beta testing by October. Are you ready for adventure? We certainly hope you are; you never know what lurks beyond the shadows.


    Knight-y Night,
    Jenn Chan
    Head of Studio

    Be sure to follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Discord.
    Angeliana, Jul 21, 2022
    #1 Last edited by Angeliana, Jul 21, 2022
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  2. Sancus Augur

    I think what many live players are most concerned with in the roadmap were the "throughout the year" goals, namely:
    • Raid Zone Performance Improvements
    • Class Tuning and Balancing
    I know a lot of work has been done behind the scenes to improve raid zone performance; I hope that continues because lag is very much still with us.

    Class Tuning and Balancing has been really disappointing so far. This last patch had the first genuine class tuning improvements from the systems team that occurred this year; every preceding change was a bug fix or should have been in at launch (Type 3 augs and fixes to ToL spell/AA implementation are not class balancing). While the latest changes give me a little bit of hope, they did not address any of the large outstanding balance issues in the game today.

    While EQ has some class balance issues that have persisted for a long time, ToL made balance substantially worse. I don't know what the upcoming expansion has planned, but unless it is a radical departure from how classes have been handled in the last 8-ish years, "Class Tuning and Balancing" will very much have been a failure for 2022. It seems like this got crowded out by fluff deliverables like overseer and classic achievements, which are of relatively little value if the core gameplay experience has significant deficiencies.
    Sancus, Jul 21, 2022
    #2 Last edited by Sancus, Jul 21, 2022
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  3. Conq Augur

    THIS
    Conq, Jul 21, 2022
    #3
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  4. Marton Augur

    We are told 'there is no time to do this, no manpower to implement that, can't fix this' and it goes on for years, during betas and regular monthly patches ... but somehow, miraculously, there is time to add overseer, expand overseer, achievements.

    I realize there are players out there (how many?) that like these things.

    Personally, I would trade overseer for lag-free EQ.
    Marton, Jul 21, 2022
    #4 Last edited by Marton, Jul 21, 2022
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  5. Cadira Augur

    Oh, hey, if it hasn't been said yet please work on what we actually want:

    Class balance
    Raid zone lag

    Thanks!
    /Throws an Ikea chair across the room
    Cadira, Jul 21, 2022
    #5 Last edited by Cadira, Jul 21, 2022
    Fenthen, Metanis and -----Cinexa----- like this.

  6. Exekute New Member

    What about the anti-cheat stuff? "The program that shall not be named" is still alive and well on Live AND TLP servers.
    Exekute, Jul 21, 2022
    #6

  7. Symbius Augur

    Kind of disappointing that

    "Throughout the Year:

    • Raid Zone Performance Improvements
    • Class Tuning and Balancing
    Was no where to be seen this time.
    The classes are a complete disaster as far as balance goes and the Lag is just as bad as it has been for years now.
    Yet, nothing is mentioned about those two key issues with the game. You have all failed miserably in both areas.
    Symbius, Jul 21, 2022
    #7
    Fenthen likes this.

  8. MyShadower All-natural Intelligence

    That batweiler though...not fluffy.
    MyShadower, Jul 21, 2022
    #8

  9. Tucoh Augur

    Glad to see the increased attention to removing cheating in the game.

    Disappointed that class balancing and reducing lag has taken a back seat. Here's to hoping this is addressed before the next expansion.
    Tucoh, Jul 21, 2022
    #9
    Fenthen, -----Cinexa----- and Hobitses like this.

  10. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    Thank you for your continued support of the game.

    The little things are not overlooked or taken for granted. Server stability, lag improvements, patch times, and prompt bug fixes over the last year are major changes.

    I look forward to the improvements as the year progresses.

    Wishing you and the team a great summer.

    P.S. Where are the duck mounts? Ttobey the legend teased.
    Benito, Jul 21, 2022
    #10 Last edited by Benito, Jul 21, 2022

  11. Oakenblade Former ForumQuest Champion

    Indeed, this.
    Oakenblade, Jul 21, 2022
    #11
    Fenthen, Vanac, Metanis and 1 other person like this.

  12. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    The fact that the responses so far in this thread are focused on class balancing over server crashes or extended downtimes is probably a good thing. No 2017-2020 vibes. :p
    Benito, Jul 21, 2022
    #12

  13. Zolav Augur

    Still Looking for that

    *Class Balancing and Tuning*

    Well said Sancus. Thank you for nailing what a fair share of the community is REALLY looking for.
    Zolav, Jul 21, 2022
    #13
    Fenthen, Metanis, -----Cinexa----- and 2 others like this.

  14. Paladin Augur

    RE:
    2022 Roadmap:
    January:
    Community Resource Council Application Relaunch - Your chance to help advise on the future of EverQuest.
    Never happened.
    Paladin, Jul 21, 2022
    #14
    Fenthen, Metanis, -----Cinexa----- and 1 other person like this.

  15. Angeliana Senior Community Manager

    We hope to have some news very soon regarding the CRC.
    Angeliana, Jul 21, 2022
    #15

  16. ~Mills~ Augur

    As many have echo'd class balance and lag are the big issues that are not seeing much headway based on current in game settings.

    With that said I feel Intelligent Class balance needs to be added to that statement. Since a lot of folks want balance but also blindly compare multiple target levels to single target values like its apples to apples. Single target comparisons are off and need fixing but its not as big a mountain as many buy into by constantly looking at multiple targets for some and comparing it to others who can only really single target. Hopefully the devs understand this and factor it in to much required adjustments. Reducing add hps or the number of events with multiple targets, etc without breaking game play thats been around longer then almost the entire dev team.
    ~Mills~, Jul 21, 2022
    #16
    Fenthen likes this.

  17. Highwizard Augur

    Can your team please take a look at the wizard and melee classes to see what can be done to fix our dps in sustained fights. Heck even burn fights I get my doors blown off. 100% care more about class balancing than anything else in the game right now, dont get me wrong im ready for the next expansion and will stick around for it. Please balance the classes
    Highwizard, Jul 21, 2022
    #17
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  18. dwish Augur

    This. I don't see raid zone performance even mentioned in the roadmap, which is by far the biggest issue plaguing the game currently, at least on live servers. The game is essentially broken for a good chunk of the player base.

    I understand this is more of a "long-term" problem that doesn't have an immediate fix, but the raiding game is already bleeding players (at least on my server) and there doesn't seem to be even a hope for a fix in the near future. Some classes are heavily affected by raid zone lag, with main features of the class essentially not working at all. How excited would you be to log into raids and realize you are going to be down 30-40% DPS from the get go because the game isn't working right? At times, we'll go 2-3 weeks where every instance we get is broken. This really isn't acceptable.
    dwish, Jul 21, 2022
    #18

  19. Angeliana Senior Community Manager

    We put in the work-power and time to stop the cheats, but please remember that even while we are busy stopping it, those who make cheating programs are busy changing them to keep them viable. It is a hard fought battle we are constantly fighting.
    Angeliana, Jul 21, 2022
    #19
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  20. Skrab East Cabilis #1 Realtor

    Can we get new shirts my 20 year Anniversary one is getting faded.
    Skrab, Jul 21, 2022
    #20
    loristevenss and jeskola like this.
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