Future Content: A Letter from Director of Development Dave Georgeson

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by Piestro, Jan 31, 2014.

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  1. Toac New Member

    Does this mean that the servers will be down once a week (at most the most optimistic)? is there any chance of making the down times a mix of time zones rather than always 6am EST?
  2. Edrick Augur

    I'm part sick and part exhausted, I was wondering if someone could do a courtesy and answer this for me, because I'm knocked out by meds and not sure if I am getting it:

    Does this mean we're going back to expansions like the Veil of Alaris model again?
  3. idej Augur

    I really don't know what to say to this. If you are spread thin now, how do you expect to keep this promise? I'm not saying you can't do this. Maybe you guys had time to bank some content with the staggered release. I just think promising this huge increase in content is going to make people put a lot of unneeded pressure on the developers. I'd rather have them take their time with good content then to release garbage to meet their weekly quota.
    Gyurika Godofwar and Lily like this.
  4. Velric Journeyman

    I prefer the one big, good expansion a year approach. Give the developers time to work on something without meeting deadlines every week. I also don't want the servers down constantly for patching in new content, don't know if that would be the case or not.

    I also do not want levels handed to me as someone was suggesting earlier. I want to start at level 1 and grind my way up. Wasn't there a server where you started at a higher level with some aa's already? Maybe that's the best way to go to keep people that don't like the grind happy.

    I'm also a fan of the instanced zone's as some people earlier mentioned as far as the zone revamps go, that way you don't disrupt lower level players doing quests etc.

    Thanks for all your hard work, keep the EQ coming!
    Gyurika Godofwar and Yinla like this.
  5. Riou EQResource

    Rain of Fear was solid as a staggered release except for t4 being plain/ugly, CotF only bad because it didn't have the huge initial part.

    This release change sounds like the quarterly parts are going to be smaller to make way for this new weekly/monthly stuff (if they don't have resources to do big quarterly stuff then surely the new stuff will eat into the part releases)
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  6. Langya Augur

    Do what you want at this point.

    Your chances of pleasing most people are exactly zero. If you pander to raiders than casuals will complain. If you pander to casuals, raiders will claim you are killing EQ. If you release level driven content, people will say its too much/too little/too something. If you don't release a million AA, levels, etc to grind out ....or if you do. Damned if you do or don't because ultimately.....

    PEOPLE WILL COMPLAIN. ITS ALL THEY GODDAMN DO.

    That pretty much gives you creative license to do whatever you want so come up with something compelling and new. It might work or it might not. /shrug. At this point, does it really matter?
  7. Battleaxe Augur

    Ever since EQ went to staggered release and some special events and long quests and making group content more relevant to raiders the people I play with have been busier than any time in the past.

    So let me take this opportunity to thank SOE for staggered release, the shroud quest, the charm aug, the Stones of Power, the Epic ornamentaion quests, the collection achievements, HA's, etc.

    Before CoF I thought all of EQ's better days were behind it. I had no idea that EQ could still be as good as it has been for the last year or so.

    But hey, if SOE has to turn the page and tell us we should be excited about feature refinements and weekly events then that's surely the best product you can deliver now. Perhaps you could start with making chat work properly - after all you might (or might not given a compatible with consoles UI /shrug) want to know how to do that for "EQ" Next.
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  8. Ratbo Peep Augur

    The plea for "more levels" is for those who really don't understand the basic game mechanics.
    There are plenty of ways to add power besides the overly simplistic "leveling" model.
    Better stats can come through items, a few new (unity?) spells, a raise in stat caps, more ranks of AA, some new AA (passive please!!) etc etc. Level has very little to do with "power" and "ability". All level does, in the bigger picture, is obsolete all the previous good content faster - and discourage more people who feel they can "never get caught up" as it is. For no good reason.
    What we don't need is the dev's wasting precious time that could be put into real content into having to build 5 new levels, and another 5 levels worth of spells etc etc. The game suffers from too much MUDflation as it is now. There's a point where a character can be considered "built and done" - where exp means little - and the items and skills (both character and player) count the most in the "power" obtained. So long as they don't level the mobs out of sight - level means squat.
    Levels are "artificial content" - to feed the hamsters on the wheel". Those of us who know the wheel exists, can think of many ways besides the "trite leveling" to get new and better content, and more challenge and excitement in the game.

    -Rat
    Leerah, Geroblue, Toac and 1 other person like this.
  9. RangerGuy Augur

    Like going back to the model that worked for years if the content, AA and spells follow that vast release model again. Please make sure the large initial release is truly large . For grouper and raiders. Make sure it has tiers of difficulty for people who want easy and people who want hard. Make sure end zones and raids are behind some type of flagging or faction just don't make this time sink to drastic, it's just a delay tactic called progression.

    A release of 75% of an expansion late in the year works with another 25% release 6 months later. As long as gear, AA, spell and tuning is completed fully for the first release. Mix in decent fabled and other staggered stuff like hardcore heritage and your good. Instead of trying this constant flow.

    The weekly or monthly content just sounds like trouble. Personally I would rather this time was spent working to address in game issues like broken classes, content, tuning, etc that come up and currently go unaddressed for way to long. Pushing many players away. This time can also be spent adding overall game improvements and features. Like online broker houses, intelligent ai, various other feature requests that have come up over the years but that take time, like fixing the universal chat system. Addressing balance issues and content issues in a timely manner will lead to a much better game over all instead of rushed weekly quests or content that can cause further issues as displayed by the problems quarter releases had as far as nothing truly being polished or tuned before release. Everything in a quarter release was rushed see class weapon issues, see current BP click issues, see spells being granted that serve little to no purpose outside of being placeholders so each class got their X amount in many cases. Rather then being tuned or adjusted to work for each class because there is actually time to do so.
    Gyurika Godofwar and Mozzarella like this.
  10. Battleaxe Augur

    Um I'll never play a non-level based progression sandbox version of EQ. Not ever.

    A weekly "call to arms"/Orcs are invading Misty Thicket....no thanks, I'd rather straighten out my sock drawer. IF T3 and T4 don't roll out when we'd expect them to and instead we're offered what was described with a /cough big release in November we're all likely to notice the slight of hand.

    Smaller than usual T1, resources working on HA's/Heroic Characters (everyone in current content, how exciting!)/widening the level range you can play with <- translation = making levels less material, players at max AA 75% of the time for 2 years, weekly special events - sounds like EQ Nextification to me. Not just a little, a lot.
    Geroblue and Mozzarella like this.
  11. Chronocide New Member

    I was a fairly hardcore player since Kunark. I always finished all the group level content, and had near max group gear especially for the last 8 expansions. I rarely raided as they were such a time sync that i was rarely rewarded for, basically i felt they were only worth it if you were in the most elite couple of guilds. Otherwise the raid gear was basically 1 step or equal to group gear. I have stopped playing on the day the CotF was released and won't return until i see what is going on with the next one. DO NOT RELEASE AN EXPANSION WITHOUT UPGRADING MY CHARACTERS POWER! RULE #1. No level increase, lame aa increases for SK, Shm and apparently many other classes( I have a 100 mag, wizard, ranger that i also box at times (5box). MERC AA's and gear???A good add on but i want my character to be more powerful. Not to watch a warrior tank have 50k more hps than a 100sk with 9k aa's and thousands of hours of playtime. Or a wizard merc on burn do more damage than basically anyone. The merc should be a supplement in case you cant find groups, not a SERIOUSLY viable alternative to looking. Even raid geared players can barely complete with the dps ones, and the merc clerics are better than 95% of the real ones. The power of my character being progressed is more important to me than some new zones. Focus on the core of the game which is keeping players interested in character development not just the world development around them. Thanks.
  12. Lupine546 New Member

    AMEN. Bring back the EQ i loved back in the day. When it was about the player not the merc.
    Mozzarella likes this.
  13. kammo Journeyman

    Well,for me i love tasks,quests,missions with rof and cotf it has been awesome,ido have to say that with rof it seems so many people want to be of top lvl now adays they power level up so fast,and with some guilds not being the biggest these toons are slacking the ability of gettin geared up good aa wise and i noticed some missions in rof are very tough for a basic group set-up,yes we dont want to see everything easy peasy but there is couple missions in just t2 rof that a basic group without right gear and aa`s is impossuble for them to accomplish but i love the xpacs the monthy and weekly stuff sounds great,i love anniversary time with all the tasks,missions and as a ffew have said already it would be nice to see a larger xpac part open and specially aa`s cause i noticed some are useless now cause higher content and they just dont work specially finishing blow and that is one crazy aa to max up just to get to higher teir zones and it dont work.well its to the future of eq we will see ,thnx
  14. Zantor Augur

    I do like the idea of revamping older zones, would love to see more chase items like the Ancient cloak of flames and Crested Mistmoore ring. Plus that would be a good way to drive down krono prices since would be more people buying and selling kronos to pay for them new chase items. Well as long as they are useful items. Maybe have them zones on the monthly basis, so every month is a new zone(s) and item to chase, that in itself would give casual and hardcore players a like something to look forward to and go after.
  15. Killswitch New Member

    I do not agree with that i at all. I play a level 100 sk with 11k aa, warriors should have more hp then shadowknights and the raid gear is way better then "basically 1 step above group gear" its about the heroic stats. As far as the "power" of your character its been very low for the past 3 expansions mostly its around 4k to 6k on parsers with that said and moving on i like these ideals although i think weekly is too much monthly would give a nice time frame to do new things. i have a life and i get to play on weekends mostly so if i needed to do something every week it would just feel like it was being pressured because i do try and keep up with everything current. CoTF tier B is worthless it took me and my group of friends 2 days to finish everything and get the conquest so now what do i do for the next 10 weeks before tier 2 comes out? also raid geared players do wayyyy more dps then mercs, i dont know what raid geared people you have been grouping with but they might need to learn some new tricks lol hell i parse 45 - 50k on burns on my sk and thats way more then a wizzy merc on burn on normal named mobs
  16. Sokon Augur

    The content release balance in RoF was good - a large amount at launch, with significant updates throughout the year. In CoTF we didn't get enough at the beginning and the first update has been insignificant.

    The only thing about the content aspect and release times in RoF that I did not like was how close CoTF launched to that of RoF T4, you guys probably could have held the CoTF launch back a few months so the players got to utilize that RoF update to it's extent, and also have a decent amount of CoTF content on launch. This made it obvious that playable content and release times did not match arbitrary scheduling requirements(1 expac per year) you were holding yourself to.

    Don't make it so obvious you just want to sell the next if a new timeline makes sense. I for 1 would be willing to wait for more content, but when we do wait then have a ton pushed at us at once we do not have time to enjoy, well that kinda sucks.
    Kandykiss and Mozzarella like this.
  17. Trigglex New Member

    Hi, one thing you need to consider is the little guys. I for one am tired of all new content being for upper level toons. What happens then is, existing players start new characters and then just PL them to 100 within a day or so, sometimes within a span of hours. Now don't get me wrong, if thats how the want to learn to not play, it's up to them. Here is the issue, the few people that are trying to play their characters are having to compete for zone space with a ultra-toon and a group of AFK tools. There would be less of that going on if there would be some new spells for 20th or 30th level people, new zones tailored to those levels, ect. People would be more likely to play their characters through those lower levels. I mean really, if you only make new stuff for 100th level characters then noone will want a charcter thats not 100th level. Also, stop already with every new toon being forced to start in Cresent Reach. The tutorial is a good idea, but I should be able to chose my races home city. The last few new toons i've started, I can skip the tutorial if i wanted to but had no choice of starting cities. Maybe that was because of my race/class choice, I don't know.
    You have an incredible game here and I have enjoyed it since it's birth.
    Thank You,
    Trigglex Bimp, of Quellious
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  18. Edrick Augur

    I'm happy that you guys are trying something different and are asking for opinions, so I will give you mine.

    Staggered release has been hit and miss. With ROF, it was mostly a hit, except the last content release, which was the same extremely bland 3 zones with the same textures that were not distinguishable. Shadows of Fear had a couple cool zones, but that was only two zones, as it has been said - that is not enough. The beginning of Rain of Fear was great, there were lots of zones, you did an excellent job with the Velious theme (I hope you do that in the future with Kunark or even classic zones.)

    With CoTF, it was unacceptable. We're halfway through the expansion, and we have two regular zones, and two zones for heroic adventures. It is pitiful. This makes me think the staggered release model is fundamentally broken, and should be scrapped. ROF release had 20ish raids. COTF release had 4. ROF release had 10 or more? zones at least, COTF had two full zones, and two zones just for herioc adventures. That is awful. For some perspective, Planes of Power (I realize Everquest had a much bigger budget, audience, and developers during that time) had 53 raids.

    As for your current proposal. You said people didn't like the micro content, and it sounds like your solution is to push out even more microcontent, with weekly and monthly releases. My gut reaction to this is bad. This will take away resources from a fully fledged expansion like Veil of Alaris (where beating the expansion, raid wise, took two months, not two hours.) Monthly content sounds doable. Weekly? Not so much. I'm afraid you will run out of ideas, and we will be seeing very bland weekly content in short order. I would scrap the weekly content, experiment with the monthly content, and absolutely, absolutely release full expansions again. Veil of Alaris was great. So were many expansions before that.

    I do not want another CoTF in Everquest ever again. Everquest is an amazing game, it has an amazing team of developers that care about the game, I know Everquest can do better than that.

    Thank you for reading.
    Imrahil, Yinla, RagePaw and 1 other person like this.
  19. Rainbowdash Augur



    YES! More original zones and npc/item graphics revamped to modern stats/difficulty? So long as they don't replace the originals I love this kinda stuff

    I still stand by my belief that the most successful zone revamps would be the original versions of zones that have been graphically revamped. Oasis, Freeport, Kerra Isle, Steamfont, Misty Thicket etc. With other zone revamps, of course it's amazingly fun, and nostalgic. But you can go back and visit the low level version of that zone anytime. With revamps of the changed zones it's not only got the nostalgic feel of old zones in modern content, but it's zones we haven't been able to see in years.

    Oh and when you do things like that, return the npc models to the original versions to! Orcs, Kobolds, Spiders, etc. The race models are as big a part of the nostalgia as the zones!

    All in all I think this new approach could be neat. I'm excited to see when it will officially start and how it all pans out. :)
  20. Slipps New Member

    This wouldn't be a terrible idea, but given Sonys history on having a patch to fix a patch. Weekly will turn into 3 times a week and the servers will never be up. I agree maybe start with monthly releases and see if you can get those right first.
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