Things we need to do to change the game...

Put an option in the game to go back to the old windows with no tabs.

So many times I send a tell to a new player and they just don't see it.

"I think it is confusing to have tabs, I think it is better to simply make default UI inclue separate Tells, Group, Main chat and Say windows.

you can always use tell windows that pop up when you get a tell ..
or make a new window and just use it for tells ..

thats what i do .. i have a seperate window that I use specifically for group/tells .. and sense I box most the time .. dont have to worry about other group members spamming my group chat box although sometimes i can be quite chatty all on my own

You can also disable tabs. I don't use tabs on my windows.

Are we starting a list? I’d like to reduce Halflings run speed by 35%. After eating two, I get a little sluggish and it’s hard to capture that third one for dessert

I totally have a window with a tab for tells. The tells tab is the default and I hide misc spam stuff behind it in the other tab.

I've got:
Main chat (say, group, raid, guild) + failure reports and spells worn off
Tells + Event message w/ spam tab (basically everything not mentioned)
My melee & spells inc w/ My melee & spells out w/ damage shields (3 tabs)
Guild chat channels w/ Loot + Faction + XP + random rolls tab
NPC spells (casting)
My spells (casting messages)
General Chat (if I'm in that channel) + "Other" + System msg + ooc/shout/auction w/ more junk tab

It's not 100% accurate to every filter, but it makes the important stuff front and center. I also flipped on HH:MM:SS timestamps for tells and main chat, for those times when I ended up replying to a message long in the past.

Oh, and definitely turned alerts off all tabs except the tells tab. (toggled on the DS tab if an event need DS's off)

I use traditional windows, no tabs. Couple of windows open. Important (/rsay /g /gu /tell event messages). One of lesser import (/rand, other messages of sorta interest I may want to see but I'm generally willing to let my parser read if I miss them). And one where all the battle spam goes, important, but no way in fear/hate I can actually read it, it's basically for parser consumption only.

I'd personally like to see more capabilities "farmed" out among classes/races.

For instance: Vanguard rogues had an ability to place a mob in stasis (mez) with an ability called Blackjack. Unlike the VG version of EQ's enchanter, this ability came at the cost of the rogue's DPS. They had to maintain themselves in "stasis" with the "mezzed" mob. Druids could mez, charm and paci animals and plant types. Wizzies could do similar to summoned/magical beings. Necro's to undead etc.. While some of that exists in EQ to an extent, it is severely limited or downright less than optimal (especially due to spell bar and AA limitations).

I merely used that as an example, but there are other abilities out there as well. Things like track and lockpick, which are tied to very few classes and have been brought up in multiple threads (especially since you can't illusion through old world doors now). Forage got farmed out to every class (to a lesser extent of course).

I know this will generate some level of hate.. because "my class should be special" but none of it should replace the capabilities of an individual class. It would be situational at best, and merely to provide rounded utility.




Another AWESOME part from VG, was that every healer could summon people to the group. You needed to be in a specific area and the healer needed to be out of combat. Simply, every group tends to have a healer... and it made getting replacements to groups SO much better in deep dungeon crawls.
Healers also could summon a"rez" orb that only worked on their class (CLR for CLR, SHM for SHM, etc..) and could be used only when out of combat. So if the healer in a group died, they could get "rezzed" back to their corpse.

From above, I can already hear the screams of mages. The healer summon was totally not like CoTH. You had to be at a dungeon entrance to get summoned, could only be summoned if both parties were out of combat, and only summoned within said dungeon. CoTH has vastly superior utility.




I'm also a huge fan of "auras' being made better.

Both VG and EQ had similarities there. EQ, I believe, has more potential versatility than VG's did... but VG's was definitely more potent. With minor exceptions, the EQ auras are lackluster. They're definitely not a prime deciding factor in group composition. One may argue the fact, but really, the few auras that end up in those groups are based more upon the classes who's abilities stack up than the aura effects. Adding more diversity here is something EQ could easily do. Every level increase doesn't' need a carbon copy of last expansion's aura with bigger numbers. Being able to select defensive auras or offensive auras or utility, etc.. That would enhance the game play as a whole. It's not all about raids, but groups too. Boost up the power of the auras so they're meaningful selections and add more options.


Deities.
OG EQ had deities being meaningful. Even through Velious, you could find Deity-specific items/quests. It would be nice to see this come back into play. Being an Innoruuk cleric SHOULD have differences to being a Lord MM Cleric, or Bert, or Karana or Brell, or CT, etc... Make these more pronounced, in their own lines of capabilities. Maybe CT/Inny/Bert would have a series of better/necro-esq damage spells. Sol Ro / Karana could have more wizardy aspects. LMM / Tibunal /RZ could be more tanky abilities. EMarr / Quellious could have aggro/peace capabilities. Tunare / Rodcet could have healing boosts. I'm not just talking clerics. I mean every class could get some form of "bonus" from being aligned with their deity.. an influence, if you would.

One key aspect about the above, would be that it shouldn't make one specific Deity/class combo superior than others. Since not all classes/races can choose from the full spectrum there would have to be concessions made. Simply, it would be pretty involved to map out a proper chart to ensure a specific race + class + deity combo doesn't become the standard which all are judged.
Warrior for instance:
Ogre can be RZ or CT
Barb can be RZ or Trib
DE can be RZ or Inny
Dwarf can be Brell
Gnome can be Bert, Brell, or RZ
Halfling can be Brell or RZ
Iksar can be CT
Troll can be Inny, CT, or RZ
Frogs can be LMM
Drakkin can be Veeshan*
WE can be Karana, RZ, or Tunare
Kitties are Agnostic

Human and Half-elf have a large selection.
* Drakkin, while solely Veeshan, could play into their Heritage choice

The simple thing would be to focus RZ and make that a fairly baseline mod. They might have tank-ish boosts and/or abilities. But would that make all warriors strive to worship RZ? Well make the others enticing. Being able to follow Karana may give the ability to call down lightning to stun your opponent. Brell may grant more fortitude or some creation aspect.. maybe doppleganger. LMM could grant holy vengance (similar to slay undead) and/or some form of health restoration. Inny/CT/Bert could have hate, debuff, better aggro, etc.. And the "bonus" wouldn't be across the board for every class either.

I'm just spitballing this one.. because it was an important aspect in EQ.. so much so that there was a PvP server dedicated to deity choices + deity-specific quests, gear, etc.. I think the gear thing ends up as a waste of DB space and quests are much more labor-intensive for their return... but tying them directly to bonuses for a class would be pretty interesting. The key part would be that the core capability of a class would not be outdone by a deity choice (for many reasons, especially choice limitations) They could, however, add supplemental bonuses. Let's just say RZ added no tank bonuses to the tank classes, but added a DPS-type bonus.

Imagine having the option to be "normal" and perform the duties of your class, or take some bonuses + negatives to embody the aspect of your deity? In the warrior example above, if a warrior was primarily tanking, they'd be in their default status. If they were off-tanking or non-assigned DPS... they could embody the aspect of their deity. Not only could this be useful in raids or groups, but there could be a "3rd" option which is tailored to soloing/moloing. So you'd have the "unmodified" version, a group/raid tailored aspect, and a solo/molo aspect. Unmodified would be the status quo, Aspect 1 would add unique power at the cost of your primary role, and Aspect 2 could add utility that was subpar to any other class but tailored to help your class soloing/moloing. (IDK, things like snare and slow can be obtained on many weapon procs.. everyone has an aggro drop ability now.. but I'm sure the community could come up with things that would help their class. Maybe something like 25-33% damage reduction for Wiz, but can run & cast!)


I better just leave it at that. This post is sure to incite enough wrath as it is.. just hopefully not the same wrath as the new "perks" garbage.

Add a feature to let players send feedback in once per quarter per paid account. Limit feedback to five words. My first entry:

Better follow and less lag

So basically you want EQ to be a different game...

Vanguard was a Mcquaid game right? He probably had some of those ideas for that never made it into EQ while he was around. Everquest is different game already from when we all started we just don't notice it as much since we are sitting so close to the flame.

Wyre I like your ideas don't let people get you down for thinking of new ideas!

I'm not sure, but if a new player gets a /tell, is there a "tip" to the player stating: "You have just received a tell, to reply to the tell from another player please hit 'R' or /tell player name ..."

If not, make needs to be put in place.

Why are my ending sentences in the area of Home>Forums>everquest>Discussion>The Veteran's Lounge on the bottom of the page?

Every mechanic or facet I wrote about exists in Everquest.

Other classes with similar abilities to another, with lesser potency? CHECK
Ability to summon characters? CHECK
Auras that give bonuses only while grouped? CHECK
Deity choice being meaningful? CHECK (at least in OG EQ)


I suppose, when they added Beastlords they made EverQuest a "new game" under your definition? Or when they gave TL's to Druids? How about Rezzes and rez clicks? Evolving items? Corpse summons in the lobby? Mercs? AoC's? Housing? Overseer? PoK stones? Ancohrs? Origin? Luck stat? At what point does adding or modifying the game stop being enhancement and become wanting "EQ to be a different game"?

That has to be one of the most obtuse responses possible.

You read your post again you want EQ to be VG. There is a reason EQ is still here and VG failed.

Classes have been watered down too much as it is without bluring the lines anymore. They need to balance the classes properly before they even think about farming out other classes abilities. Wizzys are hurting enough without people like you coming out with ideas to make them even worse. Drop dps even further than it already, is just so they can cast and move? Which they can already do by the way in the form of instant cast spells. What planet are you on?

As for auras not all classes get them.
I didn't realise warriors could be so many races.

What is OG?

think he means orginal game ie back when the game 1st came out. back then there where quest for stuff that had a req for following a special god in game. same with some gear/spells. But that has died out. nothing like that anymore in game. It be interesting if they added some things back.

Tie it into group crafted gear. Small quest line for each of the 8 visible armor slots. Almost like the newbie armor of old. Complete the quest to be able to equip crafted armor for specific slot. /shrug

on every new chacracter load in, the first thing I do is alt O and deselect tell windows. I hate popups while I'm about to click on something or in combat.
I set up a main window with 1 additional tab.

I do ALL> to it, the repeat Spells>all and melee>all as ALL doesn't actually mean ALL apparently.

Then I open 4 or 5 new windows. the first one is /gu /rs /g. the second one is /tell. The 3rd one is /say /zone /emote /auc /shout /ooc. The additional window or 2 I move skills and chat channels,

On the main window with 1 tab, I go to the tab and move anything that parses me. DoTs DDs melee, crits, flurries etc. anything that still goes to main / 1 is spam. If I want to watch something, such as misses, etc, I know where to find them and move them over. Each window is 7 lines of text visible, arranged along the base of my UI with /chatf =3. Unobtrusive and easy to read. Takes up very little screen area. before tabs it was the same thing, then minimize the spam window and set it behind main /1.

No. I don't want EQ to be VG. Vanguard had WAY more differences. I picked a few that matched up with facets of EQ.

Vanguard's failure had nothing to do with the races/classes/spells/mechanics etc... but whatever.

That's an absolute absurdity. If the classes are "balanced" then why pick any one over another aside from lore/aesthetics? You slam watering them down, but then you want them as equals? One or the other.

So you didn't read through that and cherry-picked something to be upset over? You just gloss over the part where you can flip from mode to mode. You also failed to address the part where I said it should be discussed by those who play the classes and that the whole post was merely to provide examples.

So let's skip wizzies, since you feel attacked by it and go to rangers. Let rangers have a ranged damage "stance" and a melee damage "stance" As such, they could gain a large bonus to one type of damage over another, based on specific roles at a given time. As long as there was enough cooldown between swapping, (preventing stance dance) it could allow for more versatility among the ranger class.

I know not all classes get auras. Some got traps, some got nothing (and they'll like it) That doesn't mean it can't change.

Every race can be warrior except High Elf and Erudite. It has always been that way.

OG = Original Gangster, yet has evolved to a slang meaning authentic, old-school, true to the original, etc..



I see you have no retort about all of the other changes made to EQ since Verant failed and SOE took over.. or when SOE failed and DBG took over, or DBG splintering to DPG and being later acquired by EG7. Nothing about the new races, classes, skills, abilities, AA's, UI additions..All of those MAJOR changes to Everquest remained Everquest.. but bolstering a few abilities to make them useful makes it a different game? Adding functionality to classes to make them more robust and/or enhancing the game experience makes it cease to be EQ? Yeah, let's not talk about giving EVERY CLASS a 10-min CD port to their home city or Campfires to port from anywhere in the game to your friends, but god forbid clerics/shaman/druids can summon players from the ZI to an active group....

@Wyre - I’ve got nothing against your ideas personally. I know it’s just kind of QoL improvements from your standpoint. But Yinla brings up some good points.

What your changes would do would cause homogenization. And that’s a no no. If all the priest classes for example, had all the same perks, your min-maxers would find out which one produces the best numbers, and that would negate any reason to play the other two.

Classes need to have their own uniqueness and reason to be brought. If all melee toons had the ability to pick locks, then rogues would be useless. You just take the highest DPS melee toon to the raid to open the door to the bosses room

So like I said, I know it’s just QoL changes you’re wanting to make, but overall, those kinds of changes are bad in MMO settings

But I'm not saying to give them all the same perks? Aside from the healer-summon thing.

As is, the min-max thing happens in every MMO. You use Warriors or SK's or Pallies to tank specific things (raid-wise) because one is better at that job than the other. Your shaman aren't primary healers for the main tank.. because they aren't as good as a cleric in that role. That sort of stuff isn't/wouldn't change.

If all melee toons could pick locks, would rogues be useless? Do they all have to have the same skill/cap? I play a halfling and I can sneak, does that put my toon on the same level as a rogue sneaking?

I think you're painting with too wide of a brush, simply because I painted with a wide brush. In my defense, it did so to present a broad generalization of concept. It is meant to be more fine tuned than it is being presented. Ultimately, it would take more than one single person making some decision. Sure, I could put in all sorts of work, but why would I go that far when the first retort is: "So basically you want EQ to be a different game..." ?

I knew that posting any sort of conceptual change to the forums is basically a death sentence. The major forum warriors have a notion that EQ is "their" game and anything they don't approve of is rubbish... but look at all the changes EQ has gone through since the Verant Era through the SOE era, to where we are today...

Calm down. No one is trying to condemn you or crucify you. But you’re stripping flavor from classes.

Call of the Hero is a mage perk. Just because it’s in the game doesn’t mean it should be available to everyone simply because another game did it.

CotH is a mage thing.
Ports are a Druid/Wizzy thing
Shamans get Alchemy.
Rangers get Headshot

I mean I remember making a Druid back in the day and advertising taxi services. That’s how I made my money. Porting people around. It was a perk to that class. It’s not a bad thing for classes to have their own special perks. Again, I understand the QoL desire But some things should be left alone. Or, have a more precise reasoning.