Could the developers of this game include new player races such as orcs, half orcs, and dark dwarves in a future expansion? Also, could you make more lower-level content and spice up the older lower-level areas? You pretty much own the rights to first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. Take advantage of it.
The new patches are mostly meant to keep existing players busy. How about something to attract new players?
As a new player myself, I can't see how content would make it attract new players. I came to try it with 4 of my MMO friends and 2 already are done with it. One left because the UI and their 4k monitor was just not meshing. They was having really hard time with the scale of various windows. The other is done because he wouldn't be able to level up by himself, and they dont have a good levelsync for us to scale back down to him. I'm level 41, and my other friend is 42 still having fun but I hear that stops around level 70 and multiboxing is required. That will likely be the end for us since I don't think you should have to multibox to play a game. Not sure new content would make it better, I think they need systems that support new players (levelsync, UI fixes for modern PC's, no multibox requirement) We all tried EVE online as well and I'm seeing a very similar issue with EQ as EVE has. It's a niche player base, and to make up the difference in players they scale out multiboxing because getting and retaining new players might be difficult for their game. The game overall I think is actually pretty good so far. I'm not looking forward to the end of that fun, but I guess its coming at level 70. All in all, I think EQ needs systems to support player retention, and new players. There is tons of content and as a new player I already find it extremely overwhelming, you almost need an EQ guide to get setup and playing properly.
Yea EQ definatley needs a ui upgrade. For awhile i was using the upscale so i could see my inventory then a few patches ago everytime i log on i cant open my inventory bags unless i redo the ui everytime i logged on so i turned it off now everything is so small on my 4 k monitor. They take so long to do anything and if they do they screw it up.
Someone told you nonsense. I had grinded my way up to lvl 105 with an AllAccess rogue and a healer merc. Rogue is a very bad tank and one of the weakest solo classes. Weaker classes do just mean that the level process will take longer, but they can all be used. And starting at lvl 85 you can just level up any character in PoK or any other zone with /overseer. I am curious about your class choices and do hope that one of you picked a good tank class. At lvl 42 it is very easy to starting over. Boxing is not required when you already are a duo, but it can come in handy. You can cover all base roles with just two PCs and two mercs. The base roles are: Tank, healer, damage, crowd control. Hybrid classes can take over two roles. An example: Tank/DPS: Shadow Knight (PC) CC: Enchanter (PC) Healer: Cleric (merc) DPS: Rogue/Wizard (merc)
We will play till the fun runs out we have no interest in boxing. We are now level 54, we dont have a tank. One is enchanter, and I'm playing beastlord. I can appreciate the game, but forcing to re-roll or create a box this is just not interesting to us. The game was worth trying for 15$, but I doubt we will be members for another month. I can see EQ is a neat game but has limitations for new players. We will try our hand at FFXI next. We have found DCUO with our membership is actually pretty fun and doesn't seem to require any type of boxing.
BST + ENC is not the best duo to start with, but will get much stronger at about lvl 85, especially the pets. At least you seem to have some fun, but obviously not enough. Which limitations do you mean. and what is it that you do not like ? If you need any informations, you can check out my website, which also contains links to other usefull sites. EQ is very dependant on 3rd party websites and would have a big problem without them. Btw, have you tried to use mercenaries ? A tank merc (warrior) and a healer merc (cleric) would fit to your duo.
We have a tank / healer mercenary. As of right now the game is well paced, it's fun to explore new places. Whether it's the best duo or not is a problem new players shouldn't be able to create. The game should be fun, and right now it is. If there is a forced meta to adventure in EQ, either early or late game that's a design problem. I can see EQ is a neat game as I said earlier. It had to have been a real breakthrough in its time which is totally respectable. So far I would say our experience of EQ has been a positive one. I can see this game as a real passion for long term players who are invested in it. With a 15$ investment I'm just not invested, so I see some flaws that I think should be addressed before adding new content. Which is why I commented here to begin with. As I said, within a week 2 of our 4 player group already quit. Which hasn't happened since we tried Age of Conan. I think games having external resources is fine, but I can say we've tried to research some things with Everquest and found some very dated material. So it's not a very well documented game, at least not with recent articles and the content creator space is very lacking. I think it's safe to say EQ is not growing, and it's likely because it has problems keeping new players.
Of course there is no forced meta in EQ, it is just that some class combos do work much better than other ones. The game was designed for groups of 3-6 characters (players) and you should had seen the game before mercs got added. Many classes were not able to solo anything above a light blue or green con mob in the past. When somone picked a weak solo class it was doomed to go lfg or to restart with a stronger one. There definitely is a design weakness involved, and it is a wonder that the game made it to where it is now. I started with a rogue myself, which was the worst solo class, but it also was such a fun and rather easy class for groups. The rogue was typically the 4th, 5th or 6th wheel in a group, with not much to care about beside mashing the same few buttons over and over. The game has very good documentations, but you can only find them on 3rd party sites like ZAM, EQ Resource, Fanra's Wiki, and Bonzz's Paladin Site. SOE and DBG never cared about them beside printed handbooks, tool tips, and the small ingame help documentation, which were all made under SOE. You are right that the game has problems in keeping new players. The game design does require much pro-activity by it's players to search and find all the needed informations.
The dated material on 3rd party sites was likely made when that particular content was new. Just because it's dated doesn't invalidate it because, generally, once something is released there aren't a lot of changes made to it in successive years. 3rd party sites are primarily 'fan' run. They are not paid by the game company to keep up the sites and generally use volunteer editors (the few that had paid editors have since laid off those for EQ, EQ2, and many other older games). But, yes, the game company has very little documentation on the game or its functions. Some information is in the tutorials (Gloomingdeep Mine and Scalia, or something like that, in Plane of Knowledge, by the Loyalty Merchant and the stone to Crescent reach). However, there has been a lot added -after- either of those tutorials were made. The information from the game company is generally only in the Release Notes for each monthly patch/update and often it isn't all that clear in the single sentence in those notes. Each of the game companies running the game over the span of its time has had the same philosophy that players should "discover" things on their own or via other players (i.e. 3rd party sites) and not directly from the game company. This philosophy does make it harder for new players or returning players that have been gone a long time and had been one of my own pet peeves since my first character in EQ through the other games and back to EQ.
Which made some sense in the early years but then it turned into a lame excuse for a calculated business concept (working customer) that is relying on the free work of 3rd party sites and the players, to save money and increasing the revenue.
