All, I have bounced around many of the new threads reading on a lot of issues. I do not want to rehash what is already out there. I am a number of expansions back by choice but was still excited about the release. I was hoping to get a few comments about the following: 1. What are some of the positives? Does the amount of content look pretty good? Are the quests and missions enjoyable minus the bugs of course? what are your thoughts related to the expansion as a whole? How is the art? Are the zone connections well placed? ...etc 2. Regarding future expansions and assuming resources remain the same, should we lower our release expectations being more elastic to bugs and such? To be honest, I bought four expansions for my accounts more on the feeling that if not enough money was made that this could be it. In the past I have made rough comments concerning the product released but have been a bit forgiving now. Would you continue to purchased expansions that have a similar amount of broken content? A concerned player, Rykard
The positives I have found in TBM is it has allotted me more time to play around in unfinished progression in TDS & CoTF. This is Truth. Whenever I have gone into Plane of Health, I instantly become overwhelmed with depression. Seriously, I try to amp myself up to get some stuff done and then I see the zone... This is Truth. However, the positives I have found in TBM is a lot of the great jokes that fly about how crappy it is and that everyone was duped, namely because its no joke. This is Truth. In the end, no one would have likely really criticized TBM this heavily had Daybreak been more transparent with its customer base saying, "hey, this next expansion will be small - there won't be too much to do with it, we are revamping some old zones, reusing some older geographical grids, we are going to experiment with some new evolving gear concepts that may not entirely work out right.", but as always - we are treated like children who have no idea what is really going on and get semi-flamed by a community manager for voicing our frustrations. Whether its intended or not, the general response was contentious and rather unpalatable. I was actually offended for the people who this was targeted at. At the end of the day however, I understand how it must really suck trying to explain the actions of others in which you have no control over. This is Truth.
I'll try and be optimistic and cover, IMO, the positive, and what *could* have been positive. Positive -Lots of raids -Very unique art direction for Demi-Life/Decay. I like spicing it up every so often -Large power increases to players via AA/Stats/augs -Good progression based rewards -All tasks/missions are group instead of the horrible "everyone get the solo task we have to farm 6X for each person" Potentially Positive -Evolving spells -Progression providing real benefits (zonewide debuff mitigation) -Armor system All of that said... each of those is almost completely discounted by horrible bugs/implementation/lack of logic. I won't get into why for each as it's all over these forums. The expansion HAD a lot of potential, I honestly believe that. However, a rushed development schedule, a subpar alpha beta, misleading information in the live stream (they basically played up huge features of the expansion and never delivered), and a certain developer who is so arrogant that he believes the playerbase has no clue about EQ led to an epic fail. For the future? Idunno. I think by March the expansion will be "working" in it's intended state and will be nice. However, everyone who has played in it since release will have a bitter taste in their mouth. Since they will be fixing TBM for months they've now already reduced development time for the next content release. And at this point I believe they won't make the mistake of claiming they're releasing an "expansion" again. So, /wave campaigns. Given the company transition is over, they've relocated offices, and no more devs decide to go fly planes I think we should only raise our expectations. Hopefully this newest TLP server will be the end of that garbage for a while. Anyone who says it didn't suck dev time from Live server development is delusional. What I think will actually happen is a gradual decrease in content every year until we're barebones. The team is too out of touch with all of the classes that they will not be able to produce sustainable content. Yes, they are stretched too thin but that is not our problem; that's on their end. If you can NOT deliver then don't act like it.
I have been having a hard time trying to come up with true positives with this expansion amidst all the negatives, but here goes: It's not TBS - i felt the progression wasn't nearly as boring and monotonous as TBS and we got a couple more real raids; They took some chances with new features and mechanics (this is also a negative though); I believe the devs the did best they could (at least most of them) with what they had; and They lowered the price for the base expansion. As far as the future is concerned, i just don't know. I am no longer all doom and gloomy about EQ's future, i don't think it's going to die soon - i am just resigned to the fact that it's not going to get any better and that it's just going to wither and decay away. I believe they are are going to continue to try pump out good expansions/content, or at least what they think is good content, but even if they do, there won't be enough of it. I don't think we should be more elastic towards bugs, i am so much more upset about the condition of the expansion; bugs, broken content, etc. than i am about the limited content. I know we weren't getting much new content when i bought it - that's on me, i just didn't expect that what we were getting would be so damned broken. I continue to play this game to support my friends and guild, because i want to play a game with them, not because EQ maintains some magical and mystical hold on me - if they suddenly decided to move to another game, i would ecstatically follow.
I haven't got the expansion, but I saw a positive thing (I guess my experience with the new expansion thus far to be 100% positive). I ran across Quellious in PoT a couple of days ago in the meditation building and she looked cool. Was different art than when she appears during anniversary tasks (wonder if they'll replace the old task Quellious image with the new image?) Thought it looked cool. So that's a positive experience from TBM for me.
Positives- 1. Really like the life/decay switching and clicking between the two. Something different. 2. Life/Decay zone is expansive and large. Up and down zone geometry is great and adds depth to it. 3. Art design in Life/Decay is very neat, Day of the Dead feel to it 4. Dichomotric spells that improve upon progression which makes doing content meaningful and worthwhile (when it gets fixed) 5. Lots of raids. Means we never have to do Arx again. 6. Raid spell drops can be used on TDS spells. Which means we never have to do Arx again. 7. Zone debuffs in last two zones which can be removed doing progression, making progression meaningful and worthwhile. Those are the ones off the top of my head. The negative list is obviously a LOT lengthier and longer. I hold hope that upcoming future patches within the next 60 days fix most of the negatives on this list...
Not to poke at you Cicelee but honestly the best thing is probably the art work and music when I accidentally had the volume on. There is just so much wrong with this "expansion" the list could go forever. Maybe next week they will roll out a good sized patch that actually fixes major portions of the TBM expansion, Armor, Augs, Spell progression, items tagged as no trade on FV so on and so on. There is zero way that can be a positive unless it actually gets fixed, unless positive is hay the checks in the mail and you keep waiting. They were told those spells were Fubared day one of beta and they didn't do squat until the very last week of beta. I guess so considering you basically got 1 spell and you have to buy it and MAYBE some day it will evolve. is nice they included plenty of spells to back fill everyone and their alts though.
I know, I know. Then 3 weeks non stop TLP complaints and wanting a vote, then a revote and then a revote of the revote.
I really like the new zones, graphic wise. The biggest thing for me is having a larger number of raids to go play with. Thanks!
a link to the past....haven't thought about that game forever! good catch Cloud! Yeah the switching between zones is pretty neat. Not a new concept at all, but new to EQ. What I really want is Dzarn, Augur, and Absor to be locked in a server room with a bunch of red bulls for 48 hours. I bet they can crank out 5 new awesome expansions with 10 zones each, 20 raids, spells , AAs and epic quests....if they weren't interrupted and slowed down by politics.
All, I am short on reply time today but wanted to thank all of you for your replies. There are some interesting and entertaining responses. Thank you, Rykard
The positive for the remaining player base is simply that it continues. I've spoken to a lot of ppl over the years, and some openly admitted they would have no idea how to fill the gap that Eq leaves when it's all over. Everyone who can't handle what Eq has become already left, and everyone who is still there will buy anything. And i really mean anything...this game is solely about habits, and the people and friends you made by now. They could release 1 zone (one) that is nothing but open space with a few bushes and put 10 raid mobs in it, and the raidguild population would all buy it. Period.
First off, that was tongue in cheek. Second, not buying any more expansions doesn't mean quitting. And third, many players do leave every year, so quit lying to yourself.
Their best remaining resource is the playerbase. Give players more tools to create content. That should free up a lot of dev time to focus on class design, itemization and features. Working closer with the community on class issues will result in happier players. There's a wealth of passion and knowledge here that wants to see this game thrive for years to come. Use it.
Honestly if they allowed the player-base to make gear/items/spells etc and then they simply "filtered" out the good ones and allowed to actually create content it'd be a huge burden off their shoulders, player made content for players is one of the best things to ever happen to games (see Skyrim, Civ5, etc) - I just doubt they would ever come off the resources we'd need from their side.
Positive: 1. Art (For that one zone) 2. Music 3. This expac may have finally killed my addiction to EQ allowing me to leave my room and live a somewhat normal life 4. Umbrellas Expectations for the future: Half a new zone, 2 quests, and walking canes. Still good music though. Players making content = nude mods. So many nudes. I will, however, accept our new naked vah shir overlords
