EverQuest Producer’s Letter October 2022

And players should be pushing back this beta about these things while raids, spells, AA and items are being designed. We all know the beta server doesn't lag anything like live so.....

• Push back on base pop in raid zones.
• Push back on event design in terms of the number of adds spawning and if they path verses just statically spawn. I know this might make a less engaging raid but at least we can actually play them properly for the next year. The event being more fun the first few attempts is dwarfed by another year of big performance loss due to raid lag from 25 sweeping mobs or adds that pop and run across a zone to the raid that don't work properly or just further bog down performance.
• Push back on more pets or procs being added via spells, aa or items. Fight for less with more power or other avenues with equal gains.

Did you see that sword Jenn is holding in the photo?!

The communication from this year's roadmap is greatly appreciated by many of us, and goes a long way to alleviating *some* frustration with long-existing issues, knowing that you're aware of them and at least intending to address them in time.

A little more consistency and follow through with your updates would likewise be appreciated.

Please, keep us posted on things as they continue in progress on your end of things. This game is desperately overdue for adjustments to the user interface, to make it at all playable for less technical or newer players, particularly in 4k/8k desktop environments. Recently you added some more hotbars to the default - is that the extent of your "overhaul??" What's going on?

I make manual edits as little as possible to make the UI actually usable for myself, but it's a tedious and ongoing process as patch updates "improve" components by breaking any customizations in place. Playtesting components in stages as you code is valuable but where is the feedback or refinement? What is the plan? It's very clear that the devs who DO play EQ are very savvy about navigating its quirks, when is the last time any of your staff sat down with a fresh installation and tried to play this game with the provided client and interface??

Every passing year holding our breaths that you'll address something is hard enough, but to dangle acknowledgement and intent to do so but never follow through has made it, to my mind, harder to endure.

You don't get more agents for having all agents. You get more agents for being higher level in that area. Starting from scratch, it's not a bad deal. Being max level with all agents.. all but the top 3 rewards were useless. And that's OK. Not every reward for something has to be targeted towards the top.

Absor had a nerfbat, Jenn wields a sword.

Really makes you think, doesn't it....

For the people that are overly excited about this expansion I hope you get what you are looking for. In the real world when someone comes out and says there are not going to be spoilers,, it usually means that you are going to get less. Than what you got last year. As in a smaller expansion. Hopefully not but let’s be real.

I would be surprised if the new expansion was smaller than last year. Didn't they hire a bunch of new devs last year?

Time will tell. So far there is not a lot of info to go by, not even screenshots. A few zone names has been leaked, but we don't know if that is all the zones...

There are 8 zones so it can't really be smaller then the last couple

The EQ 2022 Roadmap that's been up for most the year already said: "Beyond 2022: New UI Engine". However, I'd love a sneak peak or some kind of new details about it, like -> does anyone know if they are still using XML for it? Hopefully it's intelligently optimized and much easier for users to tweak and customize (an in-game or standalone editor with real-time-preview would be amazing).

Personally, I'm most excited about the future visual improvements to the game, and am dying to know more details on what could be coming or what's even possible! Regardless of such a future either being too far away or too limited in scope, I'd LOVE to see the door opened for users to mod the graphics client-side. Lighting systems, animations, etc. We've seen other games' communities really flourish with the possibilities of user mods and artwork (aka Free Development, wink wink), like Skyrim and Minecraft for example. So while only being a visual aspect, I really think this would engage and excite a lot of current players, former players, and anyone with an eye for artwork/code. Perhaps this could even lead to some player solutions for lag. - I'd at least appreciate a Dev's thoughts on the possibility of this anyway.

All I care about the UI is that they completely overhaul the text filters setup. Trying to manage that and figuring out what text is under what filters etc. is one of the most painful tasks in all of EQ imo. That and give the ability to copy/paste socials so if you need to add a line to a macro you don't need to rewrite everything that comes after it.

Ok so, "Did you see that sword that Jenn was wielding"?!

if it so hard to fix eq... why not build it again from the ground up and copy /transpose old toons data base?

"Night of Shadows"? Sounds like "The Long Night" from GoT season 8... I hope it's not so dark in the UI we can't see anything

That would also be a lot of work as well and very likely an unprofitable idea.

Be prepared to up your gamma, at least one of the zones used is pitch black in Luclin.

how much was all the fixes over the past 10 years

thanks for the effort

Not comparable in the slightest as there is a massive amount of work needed to develop and launch a new game especially if it is designed to continue off an existing game. Sure there has been a lot of work over the past 10 years but that is in small chunks that can all be turned around and released. Developing a new version of EQ would take several years, a lot of manpower and money and who knows if people would migrate over to it.

You guys really need to hire a top marketing team. You need to hype new content/expansions and build up the hype to the preorder/release to get people interested. Its marketing 101.

Nope, you guys are in California, she cant buy a Gas Powered car, so its a simple choice -- 2023 Audi RS e-tron GT.