It’s the Year of Darkpaw AMA time!

Can you provide an update on Champion's Oath? This Paladin ability was to fill a similar role of the Shadow Knight ability, Reaver's Bargain and was first mentioned during Night of Shadows Beta, and then again during Laurion's Song Beta. Could you provide a timeline for when it will be introduced? Also maybe some background as to why it has been delayed? Thank you.

IMO grindy MMO's are going to become more passe ever year. For many people it becomes harder to justify the time investment.
Implication:

Is the 25th Anniversary server going to be more like Oakwynd in terms of bonuses?
Can we expect 25 Anni server to have realistically significant bonuses to Exp, Loot, Spawn timers, Rares, Race/Class combos available from Day 1 ?1?

Would this become a boiler plate for new TLP's that can be later rolled into the Anniversary server to preserve the player base and the longevity of the game?

Have the Devs considered a progressive spawn/ rare drop rate incremental with non-rare spawns.
That is each missed rare would increase the chance for the spawn to pop as the rare.

Why do lower level shaman buffs over-write higher level shaman buffs? It's the only class where this happens. My 124 rangers buffs won't stick if a 125 has cast the same buff on someone, but a level 90 shaman can over-write my 125 haste with one that doesn't last near as long.

Why is required level on prestige gear set to max level for a leveling expansion? For example in LS, I obtain loot that I can’t equip until I max the level.

Would it be possible to have some sort of in-game notification for the 'Adventurer' perk's experience bonus? (Ideally, a separate one that doesn't conflict with 'event' bonuses).

Will the 25th anniversary TLP be free trade? This is the most pressing issue near term for the community.

So much I'd like to ask!

1. Can we get a feedback/suggestion/request forum please? Currently you can open any forum and find someone posting for something to change. Many posts start with I don't know where to post this....

2. Can we scrap type 3 spell augs? The last few years these have not been in at launch. Adding them to the base damage of the spell/disc or AAs would give a whole bunch of items that do not need to be created or balanced.

3. Guild manager - Can we got a toggle to not include off line players who are in bazaar off line mode? Currently you can hide those who are truely not on line but not those who are in trader mode off line.

4. Guild Hall Anchors - Can we scrap all the individual anchors in the guild hall and just have 1 primary and 1 Secondary that can be ported to?

5. Fellowship Vitality - Can we get an overhaul of how Vitality is gained and distributed? Currently vitality is either off or on, meaning you are either receiving and giving or doing neither. Would it be possible to split the recieving and giving to 2 different settings? If I'm giving I don't want to be receiving and if I'm receiving I don't want to be giving.

6. Can we get the HAs fixed that were messed up years ago when the NPCs were updated to scale to higher levels than when they were introduced? Many of them were never returned to their original state when they were returned back to the levels of when they were introduced. Prathun started to fix them but sadly left before he completed the job.

7. Dranik instance named have been broken now for over a year, can we either get the named to spawn on instance creation or return them to spawning after x amount of mobs have been killed with the next respawn?

8. Vaniki - Can we get an NPC to delevel chars so lower level achievements can be completed with out spending hours dying over and over or having to create new chars? This is getting worse the more levels we gain.

9. Gear and Personas - Can we have a way of changing archtypes and classes on gear? The biggest issue is with quest gear from quests that are non repeatable. The other issue is storing the all the different classes items.

10. I am planing on creating personas on the next TLP but the biggest problem I see with them is the having to travel to a city to change persona. Guk and Unrest are a very long way to run to change class. Could we get something similar to campfires to work for a group in classic EQ? This would help with changing personas when the only open spots in groups are healers or tanks and your on a DPS.

11. Are there any plans to improve the storage of persona gear?

12. Can we get some new tradeskill recipes for some new bags? Bigger TS bags, bigger collectable boxes, new Quest bag and new gear bags (equipable/wearable items).

13. Can we get a Tradeskill recipe please for fish and chips? We have the fish, we have the batter and we have the potatoes.

14. Marketplace - Can we get the vaulted pet illusions, mounts, player illusions and clickies rotated out of the vault please? There are many vaulted items that haven't been seen in the marketplace for years. With this being the year of darkpaw it would be nice to see all items unvaulted and returned to the marketplace over the course of the year even if it is just for a month or so.

15. Year of Darkpaw and the 2024 TLP(s) - Would you consider adding the monthly items to the 2024 TLP(s) marketplace that they missed as the server hadn't opened yet. So new chars on the new server(s) will be able to obtain all the items from this special year?

16. Would you consider adding a keyring for weapon ornaments? I was disapointed to not be able to add weapon ormaments to the HF keyring

17. Would you consider adding a bank for collectables similar to the tradeskill bank? We get more and more each year in very large amounts.

18. With the introduction of all the guild hall teleportation items, is there a way to have a find function to enable players to find a destination without having to inspect where each one goes?

19. With personas not being able to get achievements the base char has already done, can we get EXP added to the merc quests in ToV - NoS please? As they were in previous expansions.

20. Saving the best till last. Will we ever be able to travel to Drinal? Norraths other moon

1. Any chance we could allow mercs into raids/DZ starting at say 8 expansions prior to current one? Would love to try and get some missing raid ach that I cant really try without a healer.

2. In raid manager on the second tab there is a place to save notes. Is there (if not all ready) a way to have these notes saved locally so any time im in a raid if those same players are in it, their current notes would be listed by it?

Are there any plans for specific class tuning to ever return?

This is a type of need that applies to all classes, but I am specifically talking about Rangers. It has been 7 years (possibly longer) since there was any dev interaction OR reaction on the topic of Rangers. There have been countless hours on the player end poured into trying to help this class in particular, whether it be through ideas or data points. The class degradation of abilities throughout the last decade peaked 5 years ago, at this point several of our abilities are just hotbar fillers because their intended purpose has not been serviceable in YEARS. While I am glad that classes who have been needing help are finally receiving it, those classes arguably have had issues for less time than certain others. Those certain others can't even get any communication, much less any actual changes. Whether they be QoL or strictly power based doesn't seem to matter.

Why is there no communication with players about class tuning/balance?
Why is there no answer for years, almost a decade on certain class inquiries?
Why are lots of abilities linearly upgraded into a state of uselessness instead of % based if the dev time isn't there to tune them?
Why do certain "favored" classes continue to receive large power boosts and others remain nearly flat going into a new expansion?
Why does resource management only apply to 3 classes in the game?
What is class "balance" to Darkpaw?

Has there been any serious consideration for adding content to, or building upon, the original iteration of the game?

With the resurgence and growing popularity of "classic" versions of other games getting spiritual successor content that keeps in line with the older pace and style, there is nothing I would want more than to re-experience the original trilogy. The Kunark Archeology quests were so cool, and I could only imagine if a bigger scope of changes were made across Classic/Kunark/Velious that made it really fresh.

Can we please get a mass overseer conversion added and is there any plans for a baz marketplace in the future?

Is there a way we can have the Character transfer to other accounts we own again ?

How does the studio intend to address the significant loss of personal that occurred during LS development. Will all positions be filled? Will additional personal be added?

Will there ever be a premium server with daily GM/GUIDE run events with fruitful rewards again? That was my best Everquest experience over all the years . Having a GM as a dragon chase us across 4 zones was amazing.

Thanks very much to agreeing to have an AMA for the players. Got a few questions for yall.

1.Can you give an overview of the studio org chart? I see a lot of confusion by players asking developers customer service questions, and I think it would be useful to see reporting lines and approximate FTE numbers allocated to the different roles.

2.Does anyone at the company play Everquest currently? If so, what’s the average amount of time spent playing for different roles from the above question? And how is that allocated between live vs TLP, soloing vs grouping vs raiding vs other activities like tradeskills?

3.Between the period when a TLP is brand new and when mercs are introduced, the new character experience is pretty bad. This is likely why people resorted to rat ears and more recently red wine quests. Have any of you tried to level a fresh character without outside assistance between the time periods I mentioned above? How did it go? How long did it take you to get to maximum level?

4.There seem to be a huge number of versions of the game that need to be supported simultaneously (live + all the different TLP rulesets) versus the developer team to do that. Do the developers think they are adequately resourced?

5.There’s a meme of “fixed for the next TLP” which seems to come from your development timeline with monthly patches to fix things being a bit slow for them to be relevant for the current TLP where the issue exists, as they typically move to the next era in 8 to 12 weeks. Two recent examples that come to mind are corruption cures on Vaniki and Legacy bonus for AA on Oakwynd. What are your thoughts about this and the responsiveness in your model when things don’t go as intended?

6.The TS guild depot was listed on the timeline for 2023. Is there a new anticipated release schedule? What features do you anticipate it having?

7.Use of third party programs that violate your TOS is pretty widespread. Do you view your current level of enforcement against those accounts as being about the right amount that you want, more than you want, or less than you want?

8.Can you give some roadmap for Vaniki’s end of life? It was mentioned there would be new achievements for later expansions, but overall is it intended to remain as somewhere those achievements can be done, or will it be merged into live (approximate timeframe if so)?

9.What would like to do in the future to increase player retention and attract new players?

Are we ever going get some new house items added to the game and can they be for game play, not just Marketplace or loot box?

Currently the only new house items each year are the Expansion bundle (1 painting and 1-2 travel items), weapon slot items, travel items in the heritage loot box (with an exceedingly low chance to get one), pets or travel items for expansion achievements. Not counting weapon slot items, this amounts to less than a dozen placeable items added per year. EQ2 gets more new house items added per quarter that aren't Marketplace or from a loot box but are added into the game attainable by regular game play.

Could we get some new house item tradeskill recipes added to the game?

New recipes could be for the same items currently in-game just with a different colour scheme than the current, such as a different colour than burgady for the items with a "cloth" inset. New mounted heads would be fab, too (though hopefully not quite as rare a drop). Other current house items with a different colour would be nice, too, such as the Simple Pillow,

Could we get mannequins or dressable NPCs for houses?

This could even allow additional use of Hero's Forge armor other than just stuffing it into storage.

Can we get early game armor appearances as HF ornaments such as Oracle Robe, Cryosilk Robe, and other armor items that aren't the 'plain' appearance of the stat armor that's only tinted by level? (Tradeskill recipes for them would be fabulous, but even Marketplace only would be nice)

Can we get the ability to use Pristmatic Dye or something like it to change the colour of HF items (even if it's a Marketplace item)?

There are a number of marketplace items that have since been removed and have yet to be cycled back in, can the Year of Darkpaw be the year alot of these old cosmetics come back up for sale?

Are there plans to remove true box from Agnarr?

Would you consider player solutions to dealing with bots? Current process seems ineffective

Additionally, could you please streamline bot reporting? Something wholly in game would be preferred

Can we get a breakdown of how the inflation on oakwynd only equates to 0.22%?