Honestly, with the content released to date, and even if you extrapolate what the final update will look like based on previous updates for CoTF... there's just no way that the lumpsum package is going to have been worth $39 or $89. SoE followed the same pricing schematics as previous expansions without supplying the value behind those pricing schematics. HoT and RoF Collector's editions were worth $89 at the end of the delivered content. I think it would be hard for any developer to come on here and list with specific references any viable reasons why CoTF has been valued at $89.99 for the Collector's Edition or even $39.99 for the standard edition. There's just nothing in CoTF that supports the prices to be that high for the content being delivered. THAT is why people are ultimately this angry with this expansion. CoTF should have been priced at $19 standard edition and $39 collector's edition. I think that might have put it along the lines of LoY? We would have paid less, and we would have known up front that the final product will be less even at the final update release. But you didn't do that. You charged full cover, and delivered far less than that. Again, even if we extrapolate the final product based on what's already been released... it's not going to be an expansion worth full cover price. All we're asking for is fair value for fair content. If the content is less, then don't price the expansion like it's a full expansion. Price it fairly!
For those that think the anniversary raid in PoW is too hard I say boo hoo cry me a river. Its the same thing casual players are dealing with on the permanent plane of war zone. Some people have brought up a good point about the amount of content and the price of the expansions. Maybe expansions should be costing $20.00 instead of $40.00 if the content is going to be reduced. The amount of content being released for May seems pretty inadequate especially if a new tier of gear isn't introduced (which seems unlikely to me). As also mentioned it seems pretty late in the game to be asking us what we want to see in the rest of CotF content.
The answer to both is a plan. And then updates as the plan changes. We expect to launch 1/2/4 T2 zones and raids in April/May. Non-rare drops will only be for x/y/z slots. Clearing all the raid(s) in the April/May launch 2/4/6/8 times will allow you to purchase a non-rare non-vis item with currency. Update: it's been pushed back to May (assuming it was intended to be April at some point). Update: there will only be one zone and raid, the 2nd zone and raid is expected to be released with the June patch. (assuming it was intended to be a 2 zone release). We expect to launch 1/2 T2 zones and raids in July. Non-rare drops will be for the slots not covered by the first two zones. Clearing all raid(s) in the July launch 1/2/3/4 times will allow you to purchase a non-rare non-vis T2A item with currency and 2/4/6/8 clears for a T2B non-rare non-vis item. We expect to launch a new expansion in November that will have 4/6/8 new zones and raids at launch.
Agree with axius... PoWar was a bonus content. the zone lore-design-mob graphic, geometry ( the non-buggy part) was already done years ago.
Oh yeah, forgot to provide constructive feedback: The release schedule. It's fine if it may change later on. But you definitely know what is planned and when. So tell us now. House of Thule 2.0. An expansion of that size, structure, quality and difficulty level.
This raid/zone is what we all needed. Time to put on the big boy pants and separate the men from the boys. If it's too hard, there's the CoTF/RoF zones to stroll through. While this raid is the most difficult thing that we have all seen in a long time, I don't think it's unbeatable. It's just going to take some patience, planning, strategy and some good old fashion elbow grease to take it down. Just like Quarm, Tunat, OMM, Triunity and so many others did when this game was "hard" ish.
4 zones per tier minimum .(and at least 4 raids a little harder then cotf tier 1 ) If plane of war took away resources .. First lower its difficulty between what it is now and cotf tier 1 . If it took away from content we paid for then it should not be inclusive and require 2 - 3 groups to finish it off, the rest of the expansion i can 3 box to start out and recruit 1 group instead of multiple groups to finish off everything. Plane of war should be no different .Tie it into tier 2 since now it will be one of 2 zones which most of us have to do to accomplish something. Fix the short term raid and extend it because it is going to take a few weeks just to beat it for most guilds silly for a non progression raid. (I didn't say make it as easy as most cotf raids) Upgrades that actually matter. AA that actually matter. Augments that are more then a 2 ac or less upgrade which leave you scratching your head at if it's even worth buying the distiller to use it. Better class balance. And again Upgrades that actually matter.
please for the love of god no more class balance. I would love it if they got ride of all class balancing crap. It makes the game to easy.
actually... we cannot expected HoT or VoA like expansion, content-Wise... there's not enough dev working on them to produce that much quality content.... so instead of 4 release in coTF, make it 8.. same amount of content per. ( since you can't refund 20 buck to everyone who bought it). that's about as probably as dev pumping out another VoA.
Developers Creed: "We the few, have done so much, with so little, for so long - That we can now do anything with nothing." Yes - I feel for you guys. But the hype and delivery, have to start to resemble each other a bit more. I would not mind one bit if the next expansion saw a 6 month delay, to allow this expansion to fork over $40 worth of content first. Suggestion: Offer a short duration "2 for 1 sale" on CotF for our secondary (FTP/Silver) accounts. You'll likely sell more Rank II spell unlockers, once those "utility toons" and "buff bots" hit 96. -Rat PS: We'd like to you be up front and transparent about what kind of resources EQ really has and is expecting to have?? -Rat
What I would like to see is SOE live up to is this and stop making excuses. Keep your word! There has been more then enough talk on what we would like to see in an expansion. If you don't know by now what your customers want in CoTF and coming expansions then either your not reading the forums or your just blowing smoke.; "Hail, Fellow Norrathians! We’d like to talk to you about how we’re delivering new adventures and new features into your worlds in both EQ and EQII. We’ve listened to you on the forums, across social media, and face-to-face at our many events. There have been some common topics that come up about the things you like and don’t like with what we’ve been doing, and we’re using that information to customize our new direction. Our approach so far: ·Up until now, we’ve been focusing on major content releases all year round in both games.oEssentially we have planned four big updates a year, with one of those updates being super-sized as the expansion.oPlus, bunches of little updates scattered throughout the year.Your reaction to that approach: ·Mostly “meh”. The quarterly updates were high quality and cool, but not big enough to really feel expansion-ish. Plus, casual players often fell behind and felt disconnected from their friends.·Generally negative on the consequence that had on expansion sizes. Because we were releasing large chunks of content quarterly, the expansion got compressed into a shorter time schedule, which meant that its features had to fit within a shorter cycle also. We were often able to create many, many hours of gameplay in those expansions, but that didn’t really substitute for the feeling of sheer zone quantity. (And zones take a loooong time to make, so they were a natural victim of the shorter expansion schedule.)oNOTE: This was a “good intentions” change. Lots of content spread around the year seemed like a really good idea. It even seemed that it was at first as players got excited with the big pushes. The negatives didn’t start to show until we’d been doing it for a year or so. So how are we fixing that? Basically, we’ve decided to release regular improvements every week, then every month we’ll push something cool to you. Beyond that, we’re focusing the rest of our efforts into making great expansions! Here’s a bit more detail: ·What sorts of things will come out weekly?oThese will be things like straight-up feature refinements, holiday events, short adventures, or pretty much anything that doesn’t merit being in the expansion or being a big monthly highlight. But something of this sort comes every week.·What sorts of things will you deliver monthly?oEach month, we’re going to do something interesting and fun, like aging a cool existing dungeon up to end-game levels and itemization, or adding a series of quests for players to find and explore. Maybe even a new zone sweeper or random world event, or that sort of thing. Something new and fun to experience with friends and guildies.·How will this impact the quality of the expansion?oWe’re putting a huge emphasis on how important the expansion pack is to you. The feedback on that has been almost universal. “Make Our Expansion Matter.” So that’s what we intend to do.·Is SOE locked into this schedule? Do we mean EVERY week and EVERY month?oAnswer: Yes, we mean it. We’re going to work hard to make it happen regularly and dependably. We like this new strategy as a whole. The EQ and EQII team Producers (Thom and Holly) have created detailed schedules of how the rhythm of this stuff will play out across the coming months. And my reaction, as a player of these games, is that it all sounds pretty fantastic. Again, this doesn’t reduce the amount of content we’re delivering to you. The EQ and EQII dev teams are robust in size and are constantly overhauling tools so that higher quality content can be created in even less time, so we can deliver even more. They work tirelessly throughout the year making our Norraths better because we (the dev teams and SOE) all love these worlds. But what do you think? Does this sound like fun to you too? ·Weekly and monthly improvements and adventures·Major focus on the annual expansion content and story Let us know! Thanks! Dave Georgeson Director of Development EverQuest Franchise :
Honestly at this point I want to see transparency. I want this game to become public, the way it should always have been. EQ1's continued existence rests on the playerbase you have now. It's the players who maintain six accounts. It's the players who change money into SC every day to get stuff for their babies. This ain't a growing concern, here. It's a game with a dedicated playerbase that cannot be replaced. I want a reason for those guys to trust you again. Everquest's future as an intellectual property rests on maintaining relationships with those people, because when EQN hits, there are gonna be a lot of voices out there saying "No." "No, don't trust Sony with your money and your time. No, don't trust the development team. They lie and they cheat and they have no shame about either one." And without other voices being enthusiastic about the products, that's going to be SOE's reputation. SOE isn't Paradox or Valve; they can't just crap something out and have it embraced like it's wonderful. And SOE sure as ain't gonna have Vanguard and CoH players coming out of the woodwork to praise them. This is basically it for you guys, Give us a reason to stick around and not hate you. Turn on the server numbers again. Tell us who's doing what. Write some freakin' blog posts or something. Give us a schedule of updates. Listen to the damn players. They understand the game better than you do anyway; they may not understand the nuts and bolts, but they know what happens when it gets up on two wheels. Edit: Originally written by Dave: More than anything else I want a reason to read this and not think you're lying.
EQ lost a top player that has been around since '99 today. I already received a refund on the year of all access I subscribed to. I'd be okay with playing again once I felt that honesty between EQ and its player-base could be achieved.
The simple answer ...Where's the beef? I don't expect a "triple bacon cheese burger" out of EQ these days but it would be nice to order the Jr. bacon cheeseburger and actually get the beef on it. Right now, I feel like I've been given a bun and mayo in CoF. The announcement that staggered small releases makes me feel like the mayo is just being spread around the bun and the promised beef is still in the pasture. It's hard to stay excided about a game when there isn't any significant amount of new content. You can take down all 8 raids in CoF in a day or two. That includes 4 raids that are 3.5 months old and another 4 raids that are 7 months old. Doing the same thing for 7 straight months doesn't result in fun or excitement. It makes for a stale game that becomes a chore to log on and definitely not entertainment. Dedication to friends and family keep some people coming back but that relationship is being stressed and can't last forever. We need some content that is fresh. Fresh doesn't necessarily have to be new. The NToV revamp definitely wasn't new but it was something people hadn't done in a long time. It provided something different for people to do than the "same old stuff". Find some old school zones/raids, instance them, spice them up a bit. Leverage what you already have. That combined with some new events would go a long ways to improving the amount of content.
House of thule type of expansions were perfect. Cotf is below it in difficulty with long drawn out quests that amount to 1/4 the content. Raids that are difficult in the wrong ways and easy in the wrong ways. Class power completely out of sync . Upgrades that you can only see by parsing for 4 hours . Nothing really special at least rof had class weapons even though they should of been announced from the beginning of rof and continued (with some balance changes) through to at least cotf tier 2.
