Congratulations... I think? I guess? Maybe?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Cicelee, Apr 18, 2013.

  1. EverChanter Augur

    I never implied that it wasn't work, you're reading what you want to at this point. Sure, there's work involved but it's from within a pre existing template which is MUCH LESS work the creating one from nothing. And all the "new" content requires the same amount of QA as revamping old zones does as well.

    Saving 10-15% of total resources has made the difference for many companies, especially if that's extra income to work on future projects.

    If you JUST want new content, that is fine. But it's not the only opinion out there, and any opinion is worth looking at.
  2. Kacman Augur

    My point was that they are doing exactly what you suggest. In RoF tier 1 has 3 of 4 zones that are redone existing zones. Tier 2 and 3 are all new. Counting tier 3 now, that is 3 out of 11 zones or 27% of the expansion.

    You are also dismissing the fact that they add free content for Anniversary, Living Legacy, holidays, etc...

    SoE has been reworking older zones for many years now but that does not seem to be good enough for many people.
    Tegila likes this.
  3. DeadLikeMe Journeyman

    As far as programming is concerned, creating new is easier. If you touch so much as one line of code in an existing program, you have to test to see if what you changed does what you want it to, and then you have to regression test EVERYTHING to make sure you didn't break what was working before. You also have to stick with the old way it was written cause you can't always insert a new way of doing things inside an old module and have no time to rewrite the code never mind retest EVERYTHING again. You can leave regression testing for the very end after all your changes, but it's not a good idea to find out in the 11th hour that you've seriously FUBARed other things and a change you were counting on can't be done.

    I think the ideas for these new raids were very nice. I have often tried to come up with new ideas for raids and can't. I hope to pay more attention next time and not worry so much about where to stand and what spells to cast. I'm a raider (wouldn't be caught dead in group gear) and we've lost some even before T3 came out due to the rumors of the number of raids, ease, and itemization, but I don't think it was a disaster. We need the greatest number of people happy with the game and if T3 has accomplished that then it is a success. Personally, I like the achievements and the collections.

    As far as having random fail mechanics, not a fan. Did sisters' event in Demi. No thanks. It's bad enough that there are raids where one person can screw it up for most/all. You can always make the raids harder: have everyone remove half their gear, go in without only druids for healing, or no beserkers/rogues, have just 1 tank.
    Marton likes this.
  4. EverChanter Augur

    Except, that's not what I'm suggesting...at all.
    There has been no new content aimed for anything but the end level gaming since TSS; everything in those older zones (with the exception of a few for epic, item reasons, or hotzones) are almost completely ignored now. It's come to the point that we now ask for easy levels, easy aa's, etc in order to get anyone returning or new to the game on par with where they games aim is. It's no secret that many people have alts, it's no secret that since F2P many people have returned to the game so why do we have such a big disconnect between what "is offered" to them and what "is made" for people in lower level ranges? It's a big gap to fill, and I'm sure many new players become discouraged over the fact that there's hundreds of zones that are completely empty.

    Sure, it's nice to revamp old zones for "end gaming playing" but that's not what I'm suggesting...at all.
  5. Fanra https://everquest.fanra.info

    Regardless of everyone busting on Elidroth, I think he is really just wishing that there were more Devs on the team that could do more. But the management of SOE will not hire more.

    Now, it might be very reasonable for SOE to not hire more people, as only they know the income steam. Or it could be that they should invest more in their flagship game. I don't know what goes on in the SOE boardroom. I wish they would allocate more resources to EQ, but we take what we get. For a 14 year old video game, we are lucky it is still running at all.
    -----Cinexa----- and Tarvas like this.
  6. Tegila Augur

    many people HATE when they redo old zones too look at all the ocmplaints about freeport, commonlands, etc. if you redo old stuff adn keep it that way (like splitpaw) instead of jsut using it to do a new version while keeping the old..you will make people very unhappy, you know the ones, that want to trade in the EC tunnels and med with their screen covered with theirspellbooks, the onest ht enjoy spending 3hours on a corpse run. at the same time, people complain when they redo old stuff bc they say theyre not working hard enough its nto new or original enough, and then theres the midddle of the road that appreciate the walk down memory lane while not burning the old photos of said memories.

    the game is still largely supported by "current" players, as in those in thel ast 2 expansions of content, not those that would ever make use of reworking old zones within their level ranges, nad if yo urework them to new level ranges and delete the old ones you'reasking for all kinds of trouble heh

    but yeah theve been recreatingcontent since SoD. see: Old Blackburrow, Field of Scale, Bloody Kithicor, Old Commonlands, City of Dranik (before it was ruined) Kurn's tower, Oceangreen(qeynos) hills etcetc, in underfoot you got no redone zones but look, Fippy lives again, as a raid!, House of Thule you got reworked feerrott, erudin, alkabor(etc) re-imagined miraguls etc etc, VoA..oh look alien planet all new stuff, and RoF..some total reworks, some..based on ideas. you got EW, Kael, CC. then for new ideas from old stuff..Xorbb, and now Chelsith. other things could be argued as reworks as well that maybe werent as recognizeable. but it's been done, A LOT over the last 5 years.
  7. Axxius Augur

    Elidroth SMASH in 3... 2... 1... :eek:
  8. Tegila Augur

    revamp them for hte people that arent paying for the game you mean? revamp them for the people taht dont exist? if hteo ld zones dont get used now for the levels theyre itneded for why waste time and money redoing them or making new ones when the bulk of the game will never use them bc, well, theyre way beyond the levels? also keep in mind that as i said bove, returnees etc always HATE when they redo old stuff. they want their OLD eq back.
  9. Reht The Dude abides...

    If you/they want to do more stuff for the lower levels, it should start with changing hot zones more than once every couple of years.
    Marton, Ronak, Axxius and 2 others like this.
  10. Kacman Augur

    Hot zones should be redone every quarter or 3 months. That should be enough to satisfy the lower levels and give them "new" content, even if it is existing content.

    HZs are not being maintained the way they should be.
    Tegila likes this.
  11. Tarvas Redwall of Coirnav, now Drinal

    Actually, he looks like he being pretty factual about state of the player base given the obscene amount of whining that happens on this board about how easy crap would be to implement. This is as appealing as some in the stands whining about a pro ball player who having difficulty hitting a hundred mile an hour fast ball, but have never done it themselves.
  12. Arakash Journeyman

    I think there are valid arguments against this logic. One could say that ever since EQ began to embrace this philosophy it has dropped substantially in popularity. The 1% content was always the carrot on the stick for EQ. And EQ was the best at providing it. It was their forte.The guilds who worked at experiencing that 1% provided the envy, and thus the competition, all games need. Unsuccessful players whined that they couldn't experience the content in a reasonable time but now folks whine because they experience it too fast. The balance I know the devs are looking for is very difficult to find and EQ did it better the old way.
    But EQ embraced to a certain extent the WoW formula and who could blame them for that? First person shooters in the guise of a mmo sell well. Forced immersion is a thing of the past and maybe even the concept of a mmo is over (the sandbox thing i.e EVE Online with swords seems interesting though).
    The old EQ is dead because it just doesn't seem to sell but does that need to be the case? I don't think the ADD generation can even conceive why folks like me still try to do ALL the content and don't mind if takes a while. I don't need to beat the game in an hour or a week or a month. I actually like playing the game and I always liked the sense that I may never wake the Sleeper but that I could keep trying. It was what EQ did better than anyone else when they based the game around the 1%.
  13. EverChanter Augur

    There's a BIG difference between redoing old zones to bring back playability and revamping like with Freeport. I think that was done for a more condensed feel, but there's other ways to make them useful. The game becomes less and less about "the fantasy MMO experience" and more about the "log in at 8pm and be ready for raid invites" and it pushes more into that realm every year. Things like housing have been a big boon to the "side experience", why not use older zones to integrate this? Having hundreds of empty zones (some possibly non existent to some newer players) is bad. There SHOULD be a reason to ago east experience every zone (hello immersion?)

    Every year for the past 5-6 has been the same thing; nothing for anyone lower then the max and everything for those above it. There are exceptions, but not nearly enough to balance.
  14. Tegila Augur

    well one issue is if you take the old zones say lvl 30ish and you bring in a bunch of lvl 90-100's to say do quests for tradeskills or housign etc for some new thing htey must have, you're not helping the lower players in theose zones, you're bringing in a huge amount of possible trains since many dont worry about getting aggro running through old gray zones that cant hurt htem, and being that those zones arent usually all that busy, dont even think about there being other people there. it just invites trouble. the best way they could add content for everyone is to create a new race with new zones from 1 to 100 last time they did that was TSS and now how many lowbie zones get used that arent part of TSS?
  15. Redwinger_Xev Lorekeeper

    What is your purpose here, just to create hostility?
  16. Kelefane Augur

    We actually received 6.
  17. Axxius Augur

    Umm... have you read this whole thread? The 'hostile' post wasn't mine.
  18. Rtugok Developer

    If I was afraid to touch any of the old code I would never get anything done! :) Sometimes you're correct, and it's easier to write something in line with what's already there, but in many cases I've been able to revamp the code in certain areas to be more efficient, and to use a model that is extensible and friendly to future enhancements. Sometimes old things just need rewriting.
    Mykaylla, Cakvala, Tarvas and 3 others like this.
  19. Pirlo Augur

    Well said Kathy

    Axxius, do you really think there would be a difference in SoF if we could not bank AAs OR just do a nice group farming insane XP with lessons on, etc etc and get those 200 or so AA in a weekend?

    I bought all my AAs and new spells in the 1st 30 minutes SoF went live. I was like a fat kid eating cake having a blast.
    Like Kathylynn said, now we can focus on the good stuff, blowing stuff up ;)
  20. Ronak Augur

    As a fat kid without any cake, I am now sad.
    Straahdx and Pirlo like this.