One of the original features advertised for ToV was an "Overseer" system (mini-game). It has been removed from all references to the expansion. I am not sure if it was a marketing error, a possible future feature, or a dropped feature. I commend Daybreak if it was the latter. Overseer has received mixed reviews on EQ2. Please stick to the meat and potatoes - more missions and raids. Ship-to-ship combat lives on!
I dont think it was ever advertised as a feature for tov. It was mentioned in beta that there was a system in the works but that it was not even ready for beta yet. Likely it will be released sometime this year, but dont expect it real soon.
It was advertised in the pre-beta ToV letter but, on review, it was edited out. I honestly think we could do without Overseer and stick to more zones, raids, and missions for anniversary or the next expansion. I am not even sure EQ engine could work that feature. It would probably be a simple /random on a 1 week timer with a nifty UI.
People have compared it to Garrison on WoW or Minions on Rift. You have NPC agents do quests for you which opens up more quests and more agents. In EQ2, quest reward crate may drop trade-skill components, recipe books, and gear.
I don't know exactly what the overseer system is, but I'm really not enthused about it. In every game I've played with similar systems it amounts to some off-shoot minigame where you spend a few minutes clicking on a user interface and get some free stuff instead of actually playing the real game. The worst examples are ones where you spend a bunch of resources leveling up this minigame to allow you to avoid playing the real game even more. That being said, I'll let them publish whatever they're going to before judging it.
Yes, I would be worried if Overseer evolves into some kind of in-game loot crate (i.e. ToV chase loot: Ice Encrusted as a possible reward). Daybreak could put "advantages" (increase rares, lockout reducer, special agents/quests) on the marketplace for better odds. It would be Pay-to-Win at its finest and likely kill off the game...
FFXIV has something like that. People generally use it to farm TS mats so their character doesnt have to.
It was mentioned from day 1 of beta that it would not be ready for launch. It had a couple of updates while beta was available. Looked interesting, looking forward to seeing what they have done with it.
They also mentioned some kind of improvement to the Advanced Loot system. I have no idea what and when/if it will arrive.
I think overseer would be $$ for an alternate method to collecting TS materials. maybe using it to get a trickle of the ToV group gear wouldn't be bad either, considering how much of a joke the named are this expansion. Could tie it into achievements as well to unlock those types of overseer quests (and you know, make "progression" mean something other than exp)... or learned recipes for TS mats... could combine it with actual quests for you as well to get good / rare items, so that you have to use the overseer system for part of it and grind/farm for another part of the larger quest. lots of different directions they could go with it.
Further compound the shortage of new content by having npcs play the game for you? Sounds like nonsense to me.
In FFXIV, you can hire two Retainers as part of your base subscription. You can rent more, to the tune of adding $2/mo each, up to a total of 7 additional Retainers. In that game, they function in three ways : bank space, bazaar mule, and item retriever. The first two ways are not relevant. That third one is what has been mentioned above as a possible thing that DBG was doing with the Overseer thing. In FFXIV your character has many classes available, and you can switch at almost any time. Retainers can be given the same classes that your PC can. Sending them out on Ventures earns them experience, which allows them to level up (up to your level in that particular class). There are four specific groupings of Retainer class : combat, Miner, Fisher, Botanist. There are three types of Ventures they can go out on : Quick (1 hour, random something), Targeted (my term; 1 hour, come back with X number of something specific chosen when sending the Retainer out), and Exploration (18 hour, random something). Quick Ventures can return basically almost anything excluding stuff from the current expansion. Targeted Ventures retrieve something (say, 30 of some kind of ore) but the list of choices is dependent upon the Retainer’s level and class group. Exploration are random but a much smaller loot list than the Quick Ventures, and like the Targeted, these are based on the class grouping of the Retainer. How would this system work in EQ? We don’t need the first two uses of Retainers. Given the inflexibility of the class system in EQ I do not see them even venturing down the class grouping route for Retainers. Of course, it could be something like FFXIV’s Squadrons. “Recruit” NPC’s to your Squadron, and send them either for 1 hour Training (adds to their exp, limit of 3 times per day) or out on a mission (extremely limited rewards based on traits of the Squadron Members sent out, and one consumable buff item based on the mission they are sent on). When I first saw that blurb on the Overseer thing, Squadrons were my first thought, actually. Not Ventures. I’m just honestly not sure what benefit it would have towards the Everquest Experience ...
From what I read in the beta forums that's basically how it works, but that could largely be my assumption too. EQ has its own problems with player economy, but right now a player with modest lethality could make quite a bit of money by farming wolves/mammoths in EW and selling the pelts they get on the bazaar. If we had an overseer system that could just be used to give the player a pelt a day or whatever, it'd remove this component of the player economy and the game would be worse for it, in my opinion.
SWTOR had a feature like this, which used the in-game companions. Perhaps something similar for EverQuest that would gather tradeskill materials, collectibiles or some quest items with short medium & long durations would be a neat feature to run in the background, perhaps even the long duration ones could be running while your character was offline. I really liked the system SWTOR had so something akin to that in EQ would be great I think, though I wouldn't want it to impact other things like reducing expansion content, they are getting too small as it is.
So long as these minion are small and yellow and have an unhealthy fascination with bananas I'll be happy
Speaking of things that never quite happened, what happened to Nobles? Wasn't that supposed to be the solution to the currency limitation?
