[4DEVs] Make EQ

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Ekrei, Aug 21, 2019.

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  1. Ekrei New Member

    (Edit: LoL.. It censored the words "Great" and "Again" on my title.. Uhhh okay?)

    EQ has all the core gameplay aspects / features of most modern day MMO's. Hell EQ i'm sure created most of those modern day game-play aspects, the only thing EQ lacks is its 'presentation' of those features to the players.

    I know the Developers have a VOD on youtube I watched from I think it was from 2017 where they say that the GUI is a big priority because it is so outdated. Now the current GUI in my opinion isn't bad in the regards that it is so customize-able and flexible (perhaps too customize-able for new/returning players), however yes I do think it could use some improvements. Here's my idea's on GUI improvement.
    ----- When inspecting multiple items, instead of having them open completely new windows, have them open in 'tabs' inside of a singular inspect window.
    ----- Create an option to combine all bags into a singular window. When you have like 'tradeskill' bag, it would display inside that window with just like a highlight around the inventory-squares representing the bag(s) that space represents.
    ----- Questing - Allow a toggle-able option so only quests you have for the current zone you are in get listed in the quest tracker area.

    ----- Animations -----
    This aspect needs a complete overhaul which I think if done would not only make a-lot of players happy, it would appeal to a TON of older players to come back. The ability to actually see what your character is doing versus having to use our imagination is pretty much common practice / the standard in today's MMO market.

    I won't lie, when I came back I was semi-surprised to see that the core animation system hasn't been updated at all and the animations my character were showing were still the same animations being played back when I quit playing 15 years ago.

    I think an improved animation system, where it would actually depict what actions the characters are taking instead of having a model just stand there while it does 10 attacks in-between animations.. Or shoots 3 arrows out of its chest before it fires off the next one... I mean come-on guys.. I want to get immersed and seeing arrows spawn magically out of my chest while I stand there totally just breaks it...

    I also understand that there is no way you could design animations to keep up with the amount of combat output a player does, however that issue I think is fixable. A few tweaks I would do are to combine double-attack and triple-attack numbers into a singular number, and use a "*" in combat chat to depict that one-or-more of your attacks critically struck in that combo. That aspect would also help players to keep track of their damage in combat / how often they double & triple attack as it would slow down the speed upon which combat chat scrolls by.

    Not only that but the other day I purchased an illusion off the market and man I can say that I am NOT impressed in the least. The illusion I purchased only has movement, casting & melee animations... Like... Really.. It even uses the same melee animations as my character, so like how come it doesn't use my characters other animations? When I sit to med up in that form it just stands there.. I am considered sitting but the model just stands there idle... When doing a bow attack it does this animation which makes it look like its trying to throw the bow at the target versus pulling the string back and firing..... I can't figure out if I want to use that illusion or not because some of the animations with it are so cringe to look at but the model itself looks cool...

    ---- Jumping ----
    With an improved animation system I think it to be slightly imperative to improve upon the jumping system as well in order to create a fluid feeling when it comes to controlling your character. If jumping were to be improved upon and given a fluid natural feeling then you guys could start putting features into the game like platforming challenges.

    ---- Statistics / Power Creep ----
    There are multiple aspects to this which I would like to mention.

    I see that you guys adopted a exponential statistical system for the game and I am not sure if that was the original design concept for the game as originally. Exponential leveling systems do nothing other than make it hard AF to balance and render lower level content useless; Expotential systems are especially trash when the curve hits a point where the stats between single levels becomes so ridiculous the prior content poses no challenge. Do players really need to be so powerful that they can kill frost giants by breathing on them?

    Like I can remember back in the day where like, you were doing pretty good to have a fine steel long-sword. When like having any stats on an item was 1337. To me it all just felt more linear.

    Do players really need to deal millions of damage in 1 hit? Is that good game design? I would argue that NO it's not good game design. Is the dragon at the end of whatever raid you did at level 60 or 70 really that weak now that you can 1-shot it at 110? See what im trying to get at here?

    I think if you guys went back and adjusted the leveling / statistic curve on everything to a more linear model, (figure out an algorithm and apply it to everything in game, one programmer could kick out hundreds of adjustments a day) then I think it would have many beneficial aspects to the game as a whole.
    ---- Lower level content / zones would pose a threat again.
    ---- It would help with immersion.
    ---- Power-leveling wouldn't be so ridiculously easy to do anymore.
    ---- Old raid zones would be appealing to run again as the challenge to them would have returned for all level's of players. They would just be easier for the higher level players.
    ---- It would give you a chance to go through and adjust all the quest rewards to have the statistics on the items given be actually beneficial to the player versus doing a level 40 quests and getting a piece of gear which is still worse than the level 15 defiant that dropped for me days ago. It would give incentive for people to actually complete quests in game for more than just the experience part of the reward for finishing.

    With linear its like, with baseline statistics & no items, a level 110 player would be twice as powerful as a level 55 player -- versus -- The exponential model which the 110 player is like 10,000x more powerful than the 55.

    ------ Questing ------
    I don't think you guys test some of the quests you make with a full group of players. I was doing a 'nymph wing' quest in DSH last night with 2 other players we had to collect wings for and my god... To get each of us those wings took us like 5 flipping hours... Each nymph has 2 wings... Logically you could get up to 2x wings per nymph, but for some reason they mostly drop 'fey' wings... And its like a 10% chance or something to drop them a nymph wing... That quest felt like such a chore to complete its not fun to think about... I led the expedition and I regret not just sitting at the farm and doing the kill quests because although it was cool to explore the zone at first.. 5 hours of running in a circle killing nymphs gets old...

    ----- Allow F2P players to choose start area ----
    Seriously please. I got into this subject pretty deeply in my guild chat with some others but starting returning players off in CR is way too overwhelming if you ask me. One of my buddies i've met told me all about how he hated CR for months when he first returned. I know for myself when I tried EQ again for the first time in 15 years 6 months prior, I seen CR and I just uninstalled and went over to P99 ... Starting zone is pretty ridiculous thing to put behind a pay-wall if you ask me and it drives returning players away....

    With all that said, I am around 3 weeks into playing EQ again and I must say that I think it's still by far the best MMO on the market and I like how the challenging aspect hasn't been removed from the game. I also think if some tweaks were done to the game you guys could honestly make it mainstream again. I think updating the animation system so its more fluid and responsive would be a big step towards that goal. Just look at how excited everyone is for classic WoW to release. Lets remind people that EQ is still around! Instead of mostly everyone speaking of EQ as if its dead and doesn't exist anymore. The best and longest lasting games are always designed with passion.

    Oh and I forgot to mention, don't underestimate the community! With an improved animation system I am pretty confident you could give a tool to the community for making custom animations which you could then include in the player studio portion of the game!
  2. code-zero Augur

    So wall of text:

    ---------Animation---------- I use stick figures regularly, there's much better things to be spending valuable dev time on that new animations

    ---------Jumping------------ whut?

    ---------Questing---------- Yeah, that's the way it works, not a problem, you need to realize that sometimes the RNG doesn't like you

    -------Allow F2P players to choose start areas----- nope, you want to pick you need to pay....besides CR is the best starting zone in the game hands down....and you uninstalled and went to P99??? You don't have much in the way of STA stats if you can't create in CR, run to the PoK book and head to the city of your choice and bind there if that's what you want to do....
    Yinla likes this.
  3. Ekrei New Member


    I agree with CR not being the best starting area. There is nothing nostalgic about CR, why do you think progression servers have the highest populations, its because people want to play the EQ they remember and by not allowing returning players to start in a place they remember destroys the nostalgic feeling they probably came back for. You're assuming when I started to play again I automatically knew the zone and how to get to PoK. For returning players coming back, there is nothing familiar about CR. That doesn't mean they can't 'highly recommend' CR in the character creation process..

    Yes correct, Jumping. To make it feel natural, fluid and responsive.

    Is there like something wrong with people exploring / experiencing the original zones from level 1 or something? Do you not want a better animated game? Is there something bad about the dev's improving some core aspects to the game?
  4. Act of Valor The Newest Member

    Great, another one of these threads again
    Coagagin likes this.
  5. Chyll New Member

    Yeah, the good old days and the old UI. So many things have changed since I started in early 2000. I remember running to locations a day in advance of a guild event because it was going to take me an hour to get there. Bronze armor made you a "god". 30 minutes after a death your corpse would go away, with your gear on it and you had to hope you got there fast enough.

    I miss the difficulty curve of those days and having to explore with no maps and you had to actually interact with the NPC's to find what you needed because they were not labeled with their store content floating above their head.

    The thing I miss most, as petty as it seems, is the lack of percentages on everything. Today, almost every stat and related progress bars are marked with that percentage nonsense. I don't want to know that I only have 20% of my life left, everything used to be measured in bubbles and colors. 20% life left was 1 bubble and that was the response you got when you asked how much more experience was needed. Not percent this or that, it was called out. I only have 3 blues left to level, or I have a yellow left, and everyone knew how much that was, there was no percentage needed. I would like to see a way to turn those percentages off without having to load a custom UI to do it. Yeah, I know it is a minor thing, but it is one of the things connected to the nostalgia for me.

    The devs do excellent work and have kept this game, that introduced me to the RPG world all those years ago, a working monument to gaming history. EQ has set the standard and so many have tried to copy it or its ideals into so many other games.
  6. Fire_Wiz New Member

  7. Cicelee Augur

    You ever listen to a teacher or a public speaker, and it is so monotonously boring that you find yourself dozing off?

    I made it to paragraph three...
    code-zero likes this.
  8. Ekrei New Member


    Meant to say I agree that CR is the best starting area.
    code-zero and Yinla like this.
  9. Ekrei New Member


    @Act of Valor - Yes, it's another post posing some idea's. Is that a bad thing? Sorry man its just when I am playing this game and looking at it, I just see a TON of potential for it which I don't think they're tapping into.

    @Cicelee - Yes I have, and i'm sorry you didn't find the content of my post entertaining enough to help you with your sleeping issue.

    @Chyll - Yeah, it is pretty amazing that they still have servers running and are producing content isn't it. Very true as you say a monument to gaming history. Coming back to this game and experiencing it again really just made me see everything as a 'hidden gem with so much potential' and I can only imagine they don't have a very high profit margin to work with but I think they could change that around with a few updates to the 'presentation' of the game itself and some marketing to remind people that the game isn't dead, its very much still alive and just as fun now as it was back then.

    @Forum-People: You might want to stop attacking all the new people that come to these forums and taking what they post personally. I have made what 2x posts so far and my ideas have generated so much negativity its just like, dafuq, why so mad?.

    I didn't sit here and write my post because I don't care about the game. It's in all honesty the complete opposite. Being that I have like 8 years of game development experience and have over 10 years experience programming. I am bringing my idea's up because I think they are entirely possible. You all act like it would be a bad thing if more players would return to Norrath. Like its a bad thing if some non-gameplay effecting systems were to be updated -versus- happy that the game would be improved as a whole.

    Do you not want improvements?

    The Developers commented that it's a living game and they said they do read the forums and engage here with the players. So there, all-be-it i could have phrased my original post quite a bit better but hey, just giving some feedback. Do with it as you will.
  10. code-zero Augur

    Nothing in the OP would be an improvement.

    Sure, maybe better animation or a smoother jump might be nice but they aren't at all essential for good game play.

    At the end the poster admitted that he couldn't be bothered to even play for free. If you can't be bothered to make the minimal effort required to travel to another zone there will always be another excuse to "delete the game and go back to P99"
  11. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    They altered your title because your not supposed to have political references in the forums.

    Your also not supposed to make repeated posts about the same thing - I thought many of your sentence structures sounded familiar and looking about I found this

    https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...es-and-discussions.259101/page-4#post-3813522

    Did you just cut and copy or actually type them all out again - I don't mean to sound harsh but based on the responses from your last posting I feel this additional post is just trying to stir things up.
  12. Tucoh Augur

    1. I'm a big fan of aggregated information, you probably should've posted this here: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/wishes-for-the-next-expansion.258266/unread

    2. Anyone else saw the title and thought it was an attempt to get DBG to give more developers to work on EQ?

    3. I agree with your sentiment on making old zones pose a threat + give rewards to end-game players. I'd love it if they improved their hardcore heritage toolset to the point where it was easy to kick out a new HH zone every few months even if the itemization for it was just the current expansion.
  13. Sobmre Augur

    DBG is a sinking ship, our only real hope is it fails and is picked up by some bigger studio, perhaps amazon games or what ever. just imagine if eq was included with amazon prime...........
  14. code-zero Augur

    I'm pretty sure that should some angel swoop in to pick up EQ properties that they'd be uninterested in remaking it to fit the vision of some guys posting on forums
  15. dreamweaver Community Manager

    As Tucoh and CatsPaws have pointed out, there is a thread for posts similar to this and you have already posted it once already. Since I'd prefer people don't come and respond in a similar fashion to your original post this thread will be locked.

    thank you for your time everyone.

    -dw
    Act of Valor, Duder and code-zero like this.
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