Fippyfest

Quite interesting and fun panel and great job, Fading! The new dragon NPC for the next expansion looks really cool.

That does sound a little bit better. Have only catched the name from the livestream as an audio.

Found it pretty boring in places, as I was only listening to it.

Info was very interesting and Fading was fab as always.

The first part until the break was the best. It became a bit boring after that. Lucy and Ryan were greatly blessed by Bristlebane, and I think also by Erollisi Marr ❤❤. Looking forward for their wedding in the wedding chappel. Fading did an excellent job, and was asking good and investigative questions.

I went back and watched it, good job all around, and good hosting Fading! I kind of half listened to EQII panel. And I like that the idea of "group with people" is still a focus of the devs about the game.

it was a great job. Thanks to all the devs and everyone at DB for doing this

Great job Fading .

That's a great idea in principle but not practical or realistic. Just shows that the devs are still out of touch with the current player base trends in 2024. Lots of people LFG for hours and hours before giving up in frustration. Others decided to box years ago to avoid sitting around doing nothing waiting for others to log in.

It's clear that they think TLP launch is how all servers are all the time for some weird reason.

I avoided posting about it but I was thinking that. Yes EverQuest is EverQuest, but putting your fingers in your ears going "la, la, la, people should group" while ignoring the state of the game with an almost contemptuous-sounding response to the question is not the way. EQ doesn't need to be Final Fantasy XIV which strives to make more and more content solo friendly (that with an active grouping system which quickly brings people together for missions). But I did raise my eyebrows to that, especially with the backdrop of the EQ2 map design segment showing clear planning for solo players.

Yes good to be proud of EQ's roots, but not to sound like part of the player base is looked down on with contempt. I'm not saying that's the case, of course, but the answer came across as a tad dismissive.

I loved the whole event overall though, and appreciate the insight on the development side of things. I wouldn't have even posted about that, if not for reading this reply.

Group with people = Boxing

Multiplayer groups are dead on live servers since SoD (mercs), and I think also on advanced TLP servers with losened and removed True Box. My last multiplayer group with six real players was around TBM in a DHHA. I am not even sure if none of them got boxed. So yeah, the devs are slightly out of touch with the reality on live servers, from my point of view. Bigger multiplayer groups are just not going to happen anymore, at least not on low populated servers. Maybe only for the latest expansion when everything is fresh, so up to may. The most common group seems to be the dual boxer with 2 PCs and 2 mercs.

I group with 4-5 other players on a regular basis and have for the most part since I returned in EoK. I know my experience isn't the norm, but the norm isn't my experience.

I watched all of FippyFest. I really appreciate the care and time that went into putting on the show. Fading did do a great job as others have said. My only complaint was that for the 25th anniversary I was expecting a lot of Lore and history and development stories from the past and past devs. It seemed pretty focused on the current state and the future. I suppose I cant be too upset but still I had it pictured differently in my head.

More inside stories from the early years would be interesting. How everything got created and by which devs, and what the purpose and idea behind it was. The RL parts are also pretty much a secret. I heard stories about parties in the house of the Butler's, that the devs slept under their tables in the cube offices, and that Brad bought a Ferrari with his first million. Crazy stuff was going on. Basically a book should be written about that with all the good, the ugly, and the bad, that does happen in the gaming industry.
I hope that it does not need a retired dev for being able to talk/write about all that.

Check out this guys youtube channel. He has done a ton of interviews with past developers for EQ. He was the producer for EQ during Planes of Power I believe.

https://www.youtube.com/@alovingrobot406/videos

Surprised no one is talking swag store.
People probably don't even know EQ has a swag store now.
https://darkpaw-games.myshopify.com/

I've been talking maps lately,
https://darkpaw-games.myshopify.com/products/everquest®-cloth-map-year-of-darkpaw-edition

cloth map I wonder if it's limited time since its cloth. They said at fippy the original designer did it. I was thinking that was hand everything and it was just that cloth map.

Thinking the ones in the store is computer printed one. Not sure what original designer did it means. Maybe they just did it and the others are copies is what that means.

Kind of cool how that person is still kicking.
No one asking around for their "can we your binder of all the old school sketches of zones"

I liked the picture of the zone, kinda interesting.

1:29:59 that gives dragon warrior vibe
1:34:19 I like that map

At 2:00:49 you can start seeing the fashion show, and see that schmexy dwarf that keeps showing up.

This is so. There are groups. But the implication that EQ is all about people grouping with people comes off as disingenuous when the game clearly has been supportive of boxing for many years. If they really wanted people to just group with people they wouldnt have made the /follow command.

I forgot about the swag store! I'll have to check that out.
Edit: I'm surprised there isn't Year of Darkpaw stuff.

There's also the fact they easily detect a certain type of boxing and disable it on true box servers. I'm not saying I support two mercenaries per player like the question asked, but the answer pretty much hand waved the entire swath of players it applies to.

I don't want to focus too much on it since I loved Fippy Fest overall and appreciated all of the developer perspectives. It just stood out to me too.

There *IS* Year of Darkpaw Stuff....

Year-of-Darkpaw-specific T Shirts for EQ and EQ2, Year of Darkpaw mouse/game pads, and a Year of Darkpaw Poster.

In addition, there are now the cloth maps.

There's also a specific EQ 25th anniversary poster (That isn't technically Year of Darkpaw)...

Add that to the multitude of other items and I'm actually quite pleased and impressed with their selection.

https://darkpaw-games.myshopify.com/

Oh Thanks Fading, Ya just made me place another order by putting that link there!