Raid zones akin to VP, Kael, ToV, VT, PoTime, Tacvi, Anguish . . . Lots of events in a single zone. They don't even need to be complex. There was a magic in EQ where raiding actually meant raiding. You would storm the planes of the gods or a cavern of dragons. Now you just go up to an instance NPC and zone in to a scripted event that waits politely for you to engage it. For as much as I rip on Elidroth, CToV in Rain of Fear was one of the greatest accomplishments in modern EQ. My mid tier guild farmed it forever. Why? Because it was fun and a good source of loot, especially for recruits. We still host open raids on Xegony for it just about every week and have decent turnouts from the server population. I honestly don't mind raiding only one or two nights a week if it's something worthwhile. But these five raids in staggered progression isn't going to cut it. Even CoTF didn't do it for my guild, as we were burned out when we had only eight raids to do. Tower of Rot was received as a flop by us and we have only made maybe two serious attempts at it, primarily because nobody cared enough to try it by the time it was out. Same with the Argith Hiz raid.
I see this as good and bad. Good as it did not take time away from content, and Bad as it means what we got in content was best case content. What sort of thing could have been replace with the time took to create this?
Showing the current task element in a smaller window that can be always kept up sounds like a great idea. It reminds me a bit of the addition of a window in Landmark to show what your recipe required so you could look for stuff in the world without having to memorize what you were looking for. However... what about times when a task has several elements up? Do we expand that window? If we do, wouldn't it be just as bad as the regular task window if enough elements are open? If we only show one element to prevent that, which one? More inventory space is probably the most common request. No matter the form, tracking more information for each character can be risky. Think about how much more data we have to track if every character gets to hold just 10 more slots specifically for quest items. That said, I'll keep this idea in mind. It's come up before, it just hasn't percolated to the top yet. The idea of changing weapon types is interesting, but it often isn't fair. For example, if we make using two-handed weapons the best way to kill a thing, then a lot of classes don't have that option. Also, I'd wouldn't really see this as a feature, but as content. I am not well enough versed with item creation to offer an opinion on them. I would love to update PC graphics. We do, however, have Hero's Forge to help a bit. We could certainly use a huge UI overhaul. The time needed for that is tremendous, and so it often gets put aside for things that are less time consuming and just as impactful (or nearly so). This would include better macros and a combined UI for all the various instances and such. A
If I could have anything from you guys it would be an inside look at what it takes to do what you guys do, how many of you there actually are, and for someone to convince Smed to tell us what the bottom line for EQ is? Oh and for you all to bring back server population numbers
I have 90% of the DotA heroes memorized. Ain't no way I'm subjecting myself to that again with another AoS clone.
That's an unfair comparison, an illusion keyring is pretty much a special bag slot with a special bag in it. It doesn't require art time or balance or anything (the art time required to add the UI element should be minimal). It just requires code time, creating a zone is a big ordeal. Really though a dungeon maker would be a cool thing if they could make it work.
A dungeon maker or mission creator could be a big deal. There are a lot of very creative people that spend quite a bit of their time in the housing section of EQ, making interesting/amusing/good looking locations with that limited system. What could they come up with if they had the ability to design their own zone? This could be similar to Landmark, where if they made something substantial enough to work with, devs could use that project as a base with some of the work already done for them. Mission creation could be just as fun and useful. This is hearsay but the idea stands, I think... I have a friend who played D&D Online and spent most of their time diving into all the player created missions there. He said that there was quite a bit of junk or stuff that was too simple to be bothered with, but there were also many gems in the dirtpile and that the missions could be voted on to give you an idea of what might be worth the time to investigate. These are instances of players creating content for you, which is also fun for them, and allows them to leave their mark on the world. Characters, stories, and locations provided to you, work done for you. Even if you didn't utilize that stuff exactly the way it was given to you, you could look at what was voted up in popularity or which missions saw the most traffic, analyze why, and use that moving forward to produce your own content with greater success.
No doubt a dungeon creator would net us some very interesting things. Making such a thing, however, is another story. I honestly can't even imagine how we would do it. The effort needed has a high chance of not being worth the result. I could imagine that it would take our entire code team more than a year to make this a reality. A
For the record, I agree with doing *something* to get players to stop abusing level differentials by grinding 2+ expansion old content instead of accepting some risk by playing in current content. Players these days are terrible at the game generally speaking, because they don't bother actually *learning* how to deal with difficulty--it's just so much easier to mindlessly grind the fastest path to highest level and then go back and do content when you are overpowered. EXP, both level and AA has been way too easy to gain for way too long now. This is a one year expansion from what we understand, and 105 is the max level--so in my opinion it should take at *least* half of the expansion's lifetime to make max level--yes, I said it: it should take us 6 months to get to 105. And here's the reason; 2 months from now, everyone is going to be screaming about nothing to do, max levels, max aa, 5th account's 7th alt, yadda yadda...and that is what the devs mean when they say "the customer isn't always right"--because the average customer can't see past this week, much less the next 6 months.
It seems to me the biggest challenge is that NPC pathing. A more "simple" (obviously this isn't really simple) way of making it would be that you use the housing system, make a massive square house and the creator makes walls and everything using housing junk. You then make things like combat dummies that people can buy to go place but these combat dummies actually can fight. It would give people a fun place to explore with hostile mobs. I don't think there needs to be rewards other than fun. It would also increase Station cash sales as people would want to buy decorations for their dungeons. If they didn't offer real rewards other than experience then it could be pretty awesome and fun without having to worry too much about balance.
Couldn't I just keep my SK alt at level 100 and gear him up in full COTF raid gear and still PL people?
My opinion will probably differ from a lot, as I haven't played in 'modern' content in years. I play off and on, have been on test for years. I pay when I can (have been unemployed for a long while so paying is not always an option..Hopefully that changes soon and I can go gold). I love that I can play for free on EQ, and EQ has always had its place in my heart. Now, what I mean by I've never played in modern content in recent years? I'm sort of a completionist, I go through on my paladin/druid and play through the content. I started in SoD, did just about every achievement I could manage. I have 1 mob left to finish all the "Hunter" achievements, and I think a handful of quests (I wanna say about 5). I moved to Underfoot for a change of pace. (Why aren't there Hunter achievements in Underfoot, as a side note?! It seems strange.) Now, I won't say I'm a good player. I'm probably less than average. I have a lot of 'old' knowledge, but with my sporadic playing, half the time I'm relearning what my buttons do. So I enjoy getting extra levels and 'strength' to see the content. I don't really enjoy asking people to come run me through things, I like to figure it out on my own, even if I end up ramming my head into a mission for hours. Atm, I'm I think 85% into 95 on my duo. I imagine I'll hit 100 during HoT sometime. Personally, I find the exp nerf strange and unnecessary. Am I going to quit over it? Not really, I'm not even lvl 100 yet, and can't guarantee I'll be lvl 100 before my next break, whether it is caused by school, job, burnout, whatever. If that's the direction you're taking it in, I'd like to know the exact percentage of the exp cut. I don't pay attention to my exp bar all that often, it's just something that happens while I'm seeing content I missed. But I do admit I like hearing the dings. Means I might be able to push a little harder into things I wouldn't be able to do otherwise. I would like to know if this change is going to make it where, should I hit lvl 101 before/ during my RoF content runs, which is likely, how far can I reasonably expect to get ? Is the nerf going to take it from getting me to 105 to getting 20% of 101 in the same content? Is it going to let me get 103? I am willing to reserve judgment until I know for sure how bad it'll hurt me. I can't say I'm the average player by any means, I know most people burn through as fast as they can and then hit modern content. But because I play differently than the majority, does my viewpoint matter less? Personally I believe both sides are possibly overreacting. I can see the desire to have xp stay the same. I can almost understand why you'd want it different. If you don't like it, I completely understand and support voting with your wallet, I've done the same in the past with other games. I see the blatant insults being thrown around by the "Indifferent" or "supporting" crowd, and wonder why. Does it really hurt *you*, personally, if someone doesn't want to play in the new expansion? If they want to mess around in old zones? So you don't see the fun in it. There's a ton of different ways to play these games. Get over yourself. For me, wanting to play in old zones is not about "Wanting to race to max level and play in modern content". It's about seeing content I didn't see. My current characters are about a year old and not lvl 96 yet, so we aren't all trying to "rush" anything. So while Absor is here answering questions, if it isn't mentioned elsewhere (I haven't seen any percentages yet, personally) .. how harsh is the change? 25%? 50? 90? (and why aren't there Hunter achievements in underfoot? Because that's related, I swear!)
Oddly enough, pathing wouldn't be an issue. You would be using zones we've already made, so pathing would be already done. It's more about the fact that there is a lot of data that has to be generated to make an adventure. Setting it up so that this could be done with little to no experience and so that this data could be stored on our servers, recognized by them as viable content and spinning it up on the zone are more challenging. A
I played EQ2 for almost 8 years and just quit playing about 4 months ago to come back to Everquest (I originally played from about 2000 to 2006). They have this exact thing and it scrolls. Talk to some of their devs if you want to know how to do it.
Seems changes to HAs and XP are having little to no effect on impeding leveling 101+. Several 105 and 104s already!
Again, they have this in EQ2. Ask their devs if you can borrow their code! Edit: They even sell stuff to use in it on the SC store so it makes them money!
Out of curiosity since you answering questions today, can having too many spots result in a char taking longer to fully load zoning? I've noticed that my main, decked out w/ 10 36 slotters, can take longer to zone, and can have deflated hp values for a moment upon zoning in as well. Other chars on this account had no issue, and other boxes of similar level no issue, just this guy.
This change doesn't hurt the higher end players, it hurts the mid tier some, the low tier a lot, and the social people that enjoyed HA's because there wasn't the harsh mechanics in it, so they could get to know their fellow players. Most high end or very prepared people have 10 tasks etc saved up. I know I have 10 tasks because I am 100% xp and aa on my SK, and have 12 glyphs, and a couple collections saved. The change also does effect me because I usually only really play in CoTF and will do that and TDS as it dies down from the raiding guilds getting their progression done. I also only run HA's to help others or my box's and that is rare. My group usually consists of 5 or 6 real people and we run missions that already have a lockout, but are quick and good xp for the time it takes to do them, which is most of the CoTF missions.
If making a good game is the way to make the most people happy, then make a good game. Quit swinging the nerf bat around. Fix pathing so that pulling the mob closest to you doesn't make it run back through 2 levels or rooms full of other mobs before bringing the resulting train to you. Fix caster and healer mercs so that they actually stay close to you when casting/healing instead of falling off ledges or into holes. Make lev actually work on mercs. Fix wizzy mercs so that they keep up with a moving group even if someone has agro and make sure they'll cast on a mob no matter how many HP it has. Make sure that zones have enough mobs in them to support a multitude of groups. Make zone BIG enough to support the mobs needed to support a multitude of groups. Make quest NPC's see invis. (This one might just be MY preference lol) Give us more blocked buffs slots. Make walls and floors function as spell barriers again so that an AE doesn't agro mobs below or above the caster. Fix Line of Sight. A single blade of grass blocking a giant's big toe shouldn't mean we can't see the giant that's standing in front of us or that a fairy floating in mid-air can't be seen because of a pebble on the ground below it. Fix hit range. If we can't hit a mob, it shouldn't be able to hit US either. Stop making raid encounters require an hour or more to clear to the main boss. That's not fun, it's tedious and annoying. Fix mob strikethrough. There are any number of things that can be done to make EQ better. Instead of clobbering players with the nerf bat constantly, fix game mechanics that are broken and, in many cases, HAVE been broken for years.
I suppose I'd like to offer some pushback to the idea that these developers offer excellent engagement. Valve, for example, is famous for being a black box. Their developers don't engage. What they do do is get things right. Dota 2 had a moderately stale metagame. Patch 6.82 came out and completely revitalized the game. Some people were a touch upset at one of the changes. The experience AE changes that upset people were adjusted three times in a week. People complained about skating and acceleration in CSGO. A patch came out and greatly improved the situation. Purple generally were thrilled. That, basically, is the difference. Valve doesn't really engage, but there's clear evidence that they're listening. Meanwhile, as far as talking to you it often seems like a shouting match. There's lots of back and forth but damn you aren't listening.
