Great idea Mardy & I would personally love this feature along with the old beta rewards, expansion claims & such in the Marketplace. I feel like they've always failed to utilize the Marketplace properly and worry too much about what the 5 or 10 purists think versus the customers willing to pay for these features.
While I fully understand where you are coming from - but hey ... isn't right what you describe what a game like EverQuest is (was?) about? Being in a world and having to explore, finding your way, getting heartbeat going up because you don't know what might be around the next corner? Not that every single character has access to a limited teleport item to New Tanaan with the Book of Knowlege that comes with the Gift of Legacies Lost claim, already. (And hopefully one got to find more and different ways to get back to PoK by the time the book's charges are used up. *grin*) I truly hope this is NOT the way you want EQ to take ("don't know how - let's sell them something") - like others said I also would expect our "Person in charge" to be a bit more knowledgeable about the game they are supposed to lead on.
Don't confuse her while she is in deep thought on other ways she can devise to delay the opening of a TLP.
Seriously? More input than you expected? How out of touch are you guys? What I don't understand is why you guys are against hundreds of new subs. That may be low balling it. Because that is what you will get when the TLP's are opened. BTW Holly, use your 'Throne of Heroes' AA. I'm sure you have it.
That's not fair to Holly. What Holly has done these past few weeks, was to create brand new characters in EQ and tried to see the game from a new player/returnee's perspective. This is what is missing from the current dev team. Like I said, Piestro used to do this back when he worked for SOE. New perspective is what this game needs. You can't view Everquest as an age old EQ veteran and expect everybody else just jumping into the game after being gone for sometimes 10+ years, to really know what the heck is going on. Ask people you say? I've seen the responses people get in general chat, too many troll responses these days, people get discouraged to even ask questions. That's if they even get a response at all. EQ isn't the same EQ, it hasn't been for quite a long time now. There's really no need to make things more difficult if someone simply just want to get to where the hub is. PoK is the hub of this game, it's likely never going to change. I see no problem at all giving new players the option to get to PoK. Just because we used to walk up the snowy hill blind folded, doesn't mean 16 years later other should do the same. Things change, people's lifestyles change, people's expectations change, the MMO genre certainly have changed. I for one appreciate Holly's fresh look at the game, as a returnee because she used to be a player but haven't played EQ1 in a very long time. She's the type of gamer EQ1 has to attract, believe it or not. EQ1 isn't going to attract new age gamers. It has to reach back to ex-EQ players and pull them back somehow. The game has to appeal to ex-EQ players in a welcoming, inclusive way. Otherwise people will just say f it and move on. Auto AA grant was a great move by the devs, because AA's were cited so often as to why returnees leave because they couldn't stand the boring grind for hundreds and thousands of AA's just to catch up. I'm sure EQ vets likely didn't support this idea, but it was needed for the sake of this game, it was needed in order to attract more ex-EQ players to come back.
Someone clearly didn't use those 3rd party websites she was praising in the twitch stream... http://fanra.wikia.com/wiki/Teleportation_items We already have long recast delay gate items. If you're going to make us pay for something, make it somewhat good. If I want to gate, I can get the so-so item in game for free. If I want to awesome-gate I can buy the item in the marketplace... that should be the logic. Then again, if you can con people into paying for something they can get for free already, I guess that's a good business strategy. I'd love for beta rewards / merc skins to be available in the Market as well. I'd say limit it from a few expansions back though so people who just got the beta rewards can feel special for a bit. And yeah... those LON loot cards. Have you seen how much people will pay for those? Sure, if you sell them officially people will complain about the price but you'll still see 100 new brownies sitting in the buff pile in POK even at $50+ a pop. I love reading all the TLP conspiracy theorist posts. Be happy you're getting one at all. ps. Holly, if you can't find your way out of the BST guild download some better maps. They have a website for that. You know... why don't you actually make a sticky post somewhere with these useful links since you recognize them as legitimate and integral to success in EQ? Put it in "The Newbie Zone" forum area.
They said it live... there's no way they can back out of that one. I mean... it was one of the only things they actually gave a solid answer on. I'd expect it as part of the anniversary release at some point or right after (May/June-ish). We've waited this long, couple more months will go fast.
If getting to PoK was a problem for someone new or some returning player then simply add a quest reward (clicky port to PoK) from the tutorial and/or the NPC next to the loyalty vendor in PoK that has all the tutorial quests.
But but but... that would be free! I can't wait to see how much this PoK clicky is going to actually cost. Oh, Holly- hurry up and level so you can see what we really need at the top end- then we can get a Pillars of Alra clicky, Brother's Island clicky, Arx Mentis clicky, clicky to the HA dailies NPC in EWK, etc. in the marketplace! I'm sure I'm forgetting some other locations that would actually make sense (POK does not at this point in the game).
Has no one mentioned the find button? Zone connection to Shadeweaver, pop. Maybe we need zone connection to nearest pok book, wait, now there's a pot for that, oh the twisted cynicism. If they can't stand the boring grind then EQ probably still isn't the game for them, but who'd beat up on an optimist (paid employees not included). Yes please, as someone who has major commitment issues this is an extremely annoying missing feature.
I beg to differ she asked for suggestions and these are things players have asked for. Instead of criticizing how about offering solutions. You become part of the problem with the way you respond. Try..... Although I disagree with Mithicus's idea about new classes in the game at this stage, maybe we can try opening class options to already established races.
I'm against a portal to PoK item. How about something that requires tradeskilling or questing for each use like Vial of Velium Vapors, etc. And so what if you are lost in your home city - use the map system. It's time to stop dumbing down the game for lazy people As far as the SC store, I would like to buy an SC item that lets me place old zone/in-game items into my slot 20 for that illusion (ie Froglok robe, etc). That way I get more choices w/out the game having to make new ones. It also gives me some bad nostalgia.
I am glad you are looking at adding items to the game that make things more convenient but things like gate items should be available via in-game means as well if they are going to be added to the store. In this case there is already the Brick of Knowledge that has this effect but it has a very long recast. If the station cash item is going to have a shorter recast then I think the brick should be adjusted as well so a cash item is not better than an item obtained via questing in the game. Other convenience items include: 1. Clicky invis and invis to undead items. 2. Clicky port to guild hall or guild lobby. 3. Clicky divine aura 4. Clicky rez 5. Clicky evac Some of these are available in-game in some fashion but not all are easily obtainable so adding a station cash item for those that don't want to quest/kill for them may be an option. Just don't make the cash items better than the items obtained in the game.
Instead of a gate to pok item, why not add an advanced version of the mages call of the hero spell that lets the mage summon a player from other zones. Or a wizard aa that when used before casting a port spell would leave behind a gateway that anyone could click on to port to that zone, for like 30 mins, the same way the gnome in the guild hall works. That way players would have to rely more on others again instead of doing it all solo or with merc and npcs/items, and players would tip the mage or wizard for the help. I also think pok books should be looked at again, and maybe changed so you must be level 60 or 61 to activate them. Also defiant armor and weapon stats need to be looked at, right now defiant is as good or better than most low to mid level gear from even raids. If you leave defiant in the game, you must rework the stats of all the old items to be comparable, and in the case of raid items better than defiant. Mercs are in the game and not likely to go away, so why not consider adding more if not all of the classes to the available mercs. You could even generate a series of quests to unlock each merc type beyond the basic four. I think you should allow players to temporarily lower their characters levels to match players of lower levels to group with, requiring the use of lower level gear. Say it works like shrouding, and you can be anything in increments of 5 levels under your current level, when you go lower level you use a sort of "armor/bandolier" so the first time you go lower level you are naked, and put items on, then when you go back to high level your normal items reappear. This would also let players get around the current 15 level spread that is part of most instancing now, and let them group with friends or new players instead of forcing them to get powerleveled or buy the heroic character levels. I think that the spells normally looted or researched previously, that are now on vendors in pok, should be weaker versions of the spells if they are purchased in pok. The same way that higher level spells in pok are rk1 instead of rk2 or rk3. There should also be more ancient quality spells found on raid bosses or from involved quests, across more levels. I think all items found as loot should be changed to be 70% to 100% of the current stats, as random levels of quality akin to the armor found off dragons in west wastes. This would lessen the feeling of, I create character in eq, I walk to the bazaar, and I walk out with magic plate mail, plus 5 sword etc. Feels too much like being born with the nobel prize and congressional medal of honor. That way the items with 100% stats would be only 1 to 5 percent drops, and sold for much greater amounts of plat than a new player could afford. But it would also mean that the 70% stat items that drop half the time would be that much cheaper than current prices, and also help the low level player. Also the raid drops that are already rare, would be even 95% rarer to be of perfect quality. And so very few if any on a server would have that perfect uber breastplate. And it would be impossible to have an entire guild with perfect armor in every slot, creating more diversity or uniqueness.
Just want to say to Holly and to the rest of the DayBreak team that I appreciate putting all the hard work into this game, and being able to communicate to the community about what interests us more, was awesome to see they'll even work with a new progression server to try please those who want to continue reliving that era that got this game going and please continue to do so, I'm not a person that likes to complain about things of any matter but I hope you make us more proud of what approach you take.
I agree with the many who want quick ports to different parts of the world. PoK has, according to FIND, 25 Zone Connections to places in the old world. Therefor PoK is "Full". The newer expansions do not have a "PoK like" area in the game for a transportation hub. I would suggest a new area in the game with portals to take players to the base zone-in spots in each of the newer expansions. Much like the guild portal. However, without it switching after players pay to go to different places. By mistake SoE pushed to live a version of the Guild Lobby that had a grassy area like the path to the neighborhoods. This shows there is an area that could be easily added for a porting area. Adding stones/portals in this area would allow those without guilds to travel around Norrath with ease. Yes I am suggesting putting poor old Zeflmin Werlikanin out of business. I'm tired of paying his high rates just to get somewhere.
Yeah, sure, the game that lost half its tiny dev team is going to spend a bunch of time switching the loot system over to a version that screws over players 95% of the time. Defiant armor was put in the game in 2008, it's 2015. Move on, you're obsessing over loot and items that only take a few days to level past.
limited yes, only has 5 charges. I might get back to pok 5 times one busy weekend. Its charges should be higher, or rechargable.
