To address your example, this already exists in game, and has for years. All that has happened is 1) those who do farm the resources inflate prices to insane levels, 2) its farmed very rarely and usually for personal use. Some examples include: Before they were put on vedors at unlimited amounts Lemons, Limes, and Oranges for high end stat drinks. They were on a vendor in amounts of 1000, so on server reset people would camp out before hand, log in buy out the vendor and resell. Or try to force an instance with the vendor and do the same. This is in a zone which was current, AND you had to travel through to reach other current zones. Acrylia Ore, found off Grimlings in Acrylia Caverns, used for Smithing recipes, the gear it makes in itself is basically useless, but the recipes are useful for Artisan's Prize. Any level 65+ can rip through the AC with no issues, you can't fast travel to AC. Still not alot of traffic. Permafrost Crystals, brewing AP, found in Permafrost Caverns. Girplan Feathers, Korafax, used on a large number of arrow recipes fletching, AP. For something a bit more current, Mint, foraged in GoD zones, used in current Stat drinks. When the recipes were released in Beta, there was an immediate concern about this from, group AND raid players, no one wanted to go forage in GoD. No one thought that sounded like a fun time or particularly exciting. Requests for Mint to be placed on a Vendor were made. Mint was placed on a vendor. Although I do know of someone who spent 2 weeks having their forage toon farming Mint prior to it becoming Vendor purchased in order to sell it at very innflated prices. Bottom line, rare resources in upon themselves are going to have to result in almost gamebreaking items to encourage the kind of traffic you think will result.
Things Older EQ Did Better: 1. Not being immensely overbloated by features. There are so many hidden windows and features now that most players will never know about all of them. And players that do know about them do forget to use them as there are just to many. About half of those features are just feature creep and time sinks and could be removed without anybody really missing them. 2. Long med breaks. While it could be seen as a waste of time it had a few usefull purposes: Socialising via chat and making friends. Players do need breaks for RL stuff and regeneration without being a grinch for that the other players have to wait around. Long med breaks were an opportunity for doing RL stuff beside EQ. 3. Everything was slower including combat spam and more meaningful. 4. It was a more or less serious roleplay game and not a disney freak show (dress up game) like now.
You mean a new game that has not had any time to get new features added that are requested? Also original EQ was the king at time sinks with all the long and random respawn on mobs that you needed to camp for various things. People are not playing EQ to socialize during med breaks or take breaks while medding in order to do real life stuff. There is a reason that OOC regen got added in and that is because people got tired of sitting around waiting to recover mana/endurance. People want to play the game not sit around and talk while recovering. Not sure what this is supposed to mean but slower doesn't mean better and more meanigful You obviously didn't play back then because people didn't roleplay even on FV which was designated as a role play server.
Nothing about the QoL changes in EQ made it worse for wear. A definition of "Old EQ" would need to be stated. (At what point is it "Old EQ" and what point is it "New EQ"?) As someone who was able to speak with the creator, I can attest that EQ has lost the vision. This has nothing to do with travel times, roleplay, combat speed, combat mechanics, time sinks*,game features, etc.. Sites like Allakhazam, raidloot, and EQTraders, while outrageously useful helped "destroy" the vision. Poor management, rushed deadlines, and valuing stock margins over game quality helped "destroy" the vision. The vision, was that there was no singular route.. no "best way" to play. It was that you didn't feel like you would fall behind if you didn't take the path through CrushBone to Unrest, but that BlackBurrow, Runnyeye, Gorge of Xorbb, Splitpaw, etc.. were all viable options. It was that, yes, one area may ahve one item that is heavily sought after, but it wasn't concentrated. It was spread out across the world. It was that two players could engage in a gaming experience, never crossing paths, never going to the same places, and not feel that one is specifically superior than the other. The options were out there. There were equivalent, if not equal means to better your character, regardless of where you chose to explore. That doesn't mean having 7 "copies" of an FBSS spread about, but that an FBSS wasn't the only worn haste item. It didn't mean every quest resulted in an equal equivalent piece of gear, but that some places had a piece that was better than a comparable quest elsewhere. Raiding really took its toll on EQ. I would venture to say it really first struck in Velious/Luclin, but the death grip was PoP. The concept of a one-stop-shop for all BiS items was absolutely everything that the vision stood against. As raiding became a linear path of flagging and unlocks, so too did the casual game follow. No longer was a player going to various zones to acquire specific items or complete quests for a reward. Everything funneled into an "end game" zone. This bred even more time sinks with no rewards other than to get into the next level/area. All items came from the final zone or two, because it wasn't "worth" spending time in the lower tiers. The ability to pump out streamlined content is much more efficient and cost effective than spreading out across an expansion. This meant less staff, higher profits, better stock behavior, etc.. This idea of "new EQ" vs "old EQ" can vary wildly depending on your point of view. Raiders, most definitely, prefer not having to traverse the world on a given raid night, but it was never the intent to it and get everything from one spot. Casuals will be casuals regardless. The community hasn't died, but there is no more "unknown" like there was at the turn of the century. I can tell you right now.. I don't have to "find" anything in the 2023 expansion when it comes. The best items will come from the end zone(s) and the top raid content. Even if there was a one-off item here or there, it will be reported within a week of launch and made known on numerous websites. No exploring, just fill in search criteria on a webpage form. The worst thing to happen to EQ, was that all the goodies got put in a single pinata. There's no finding an obscure quest for an amazing item. There's certainly nothing in the group game, aside from augments, that is worthy of a raider's time.. Just get those progression achievements for heroic AA boosts and zone access and be done with it. A large part of this follows the lack of overall content, more drawback from corporations who care more about their shareholders than their customers and employees. I write this, even though the past several expansions could not avoid this fate. They could not follow the vision because how do you do that with such limited content? The model is broken. There are plenty of ways to address it.. but at the end of the day, it is going to come back to the shareholders wanting that stock price to go up, not what is best for the game. The cycle must be broken. EQ isn't "lost" it has just lost its way. They can bring back the magic and mysticism of "old EQ" but only if the people who could care less what we write on the forums actually took notice. Only if they cared more about the product than the profits. *Time sinks as in just waiting for something to happen or taking a long amount of time. Invested time is/was meaningful. That is not to confuse it with the limitations of the older programming, game engine, and status of the internet at the time.
People are complaing about slow exp when grinding and you think going back to long med breaks is going to help?
This discussion is a prime example of why the devs absolutely cannot just listen to vocal players. It would drive the game into the ground.
No, I just mentioned a point that EQ did better in the past in my opinion. Most players won't agree with me. FTP mercs can still extend the med time which is ok to me. The fast regen mode is a bit to fast imo and I think that the mana regen back in the days was a bit to slow. It is not something to worry about. I just wanted to add more aspects because many plaxers are focused to much on single details which don't have to be negative when being able to see more details. Great post Wyre, but to be realistic, that magic is lost forever imo. It was a time and experience that won't return that soon in any game and maybe even never. The web has changed, the situation has changed, people have changed, and so their wisdom and consciousness. I am curious about whom the creator is that you talked to as EQ had several creators; Brad ?
No, they can't listen to all vocal players. If they had listened to some vocal people back like 15 years ago and fixed healing for non-Clerics I wouldn't have quit out of spite when they finally did fix it... when they added mercs.
The issue however is not the system but its implementation. Any good idea poorly implemented with be bad. Instead of looking how EQ did it unsuccessfully lets look how other games did it successfully. Since am familiar with then I will use Old School Runescape and EvE as an example. Old School Runescape creates a large world and bustling economy. Runescape litters its world with many different areas that have valuable items and controls their value by increasing the scarcity though things like drop rates and progression requirements or the danger by things like the environment or monsters. Certain players choose to engage in a line of progression that allows them to reach these areas and they make a living by bringing these items from these hard to reach areas to the market where all players can then have access to them. To be fair Old School Runescape uses an abundance of fast travel and gates their world rather by the vast number lines of progression through its robust quest system. EvE Online uses its large world to create "regions" areas where some resources are found but not others. Travel in EvE is time consuming thus it incentivizes players to take advantage of the content near them. This means however they need other players to supply their area with resources that are not native. Certain players take advantage of this and travel becomes the main content for them. They look up the prices of goods in the area and comparing it with other areas. When there is a large enough discrepancy they take advantage and transport resources from point A to point B to make a profit. Their gameplay loop is enhanced as they have to figure out safe ways to transport their good and the more dangerous areas often have a higher payout as you risk more attempting to travel there. While EQ is not designed to replicate these systems exactly it could look to them for inspiration. specific zones could be made that are difficult to traverse but lead to isolated areas that have no other way to be accessed. These areas could be home to rare and valuable trade skilling materials to make powerful consumables. Player would perhaps form harvesting groups where they harvest these rare materials then work together to track across the dangerous terrain. Over time they could expand on this system giving these harvesting areas their own progression and large scale events. One of the coolest things I remember about EvE was the mining operations. It was like a raid except the whole goal was just to harvest resources. Players had their various roles whether it was transport, mining or security and the whole goal was to gather as much stuff as you could while watching out for various random dangers.
The only things "old" eq did better is have little/no competition and have a huge staff (like GMs assigned to servers). The things people keep listing like slow travel, vastness of the world, sense of wonder, fear of loss, actual socialize, those are all irrelevant. You cannot put the genie back in the bottle. You keep chasing a 23 year old dragon, stop it. How you felt in 1999 isnt relevant now. You will never have the same feelings about a video game and that is ok. That's what memories are for. Stop thinking those feelings are going to come back if we remove fast travel. It's the same people who dump on mercs. Mercs are the result of a negative gameplay loop back then. If you were not a cleric main back in 2008, your negative opinion on mercs does not matter. You also don't want the game to be harder. The boomer audience for EQ can barely handle the light speed reaction of 10 seconds to avoid AEs or emote. In fact, I would actually propose that a lot of problems with the games lack of growth and/or certain QoLs are due to some of the old guard hanging on to old precepts. Everyone needs to let the past go.
Heck, I remember that pronouncement in 2001 when I started playing the game. I wouldn't be surprised if it was said even before then, too. EQ2 as declared "dead" before it launched and pretty much has been declared "dead" multiple times since when that hasn't been true in the least. Both have also been declared to be "in their last throes" but some players (or usually non-players) who don't like thus and so or who feel entitled to something that wasn't ever a part of the game. I've even heard the same about WoW even from its first year. Established game companies do not release new expansions even if only once a year for dead games.
The 10 minute run across several zones to get to areas of xpacs like Kunark, Velious, GoD, OoW is awful and kills the idea of re-rolling on new TLPs for me. There is nothing "fun" or "engaging" about running to DN or ToV, zig zaging through MPG, or getting stuck on the 15th tree on the way to Chardok
I started playing in October of 2000. There were folks who gave the game a year to live then. And when I suggested a level 100 I was called an idiot. They were wrong and the naysayers today also are wrong. This game has a lot of life left in it. And that doesn't mean that it might have to evolve a lot to survive. On the other hand, the doomsayers of the world will just keep churning out doom and gloom. Doom sells. https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/295cb135-2a7a-4019-9130-c0ab1aef6e57
How certain members of the Archon/Exemplar group strove to maintain that unhealthy status quo. The dated paradigms needed to adapt and change, which meant narrowing the chasm that existed in healing potential. I can remember certain Clerics trying to have me push their agendas to the devs to keep it that way, and I remain thankful to being able to appreciate the bigger picture, as did several of the devs in the end. It's a shame how long it took.
I remember my friend you got me into EQ telling me it was impossible to go over 100. The coding wouldn't allow it according to him. Well, he was wrong.
