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Producer's Letter July 2024

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by Angeliana, Jul 2, 2024.

  1. Angeliana Senior Community Manager

    [IMG]
    It’s time to stop brooding.

    Hail, Norrathians! We are smack dab in the middle of summertime, and so much has happened since I last touched base. The Year of Darkpaw has passed the halfway mark and is still going strong! Door number six has unlocked with door seven close to unlocking in The Anniversary Tower and there’s still time to catch up if you’ve missed a door or two! I can't forget to mention all the EverQuest music being released to streaming services as well as all the monthly item giveaways, and there is more to come.

    Our Extra Life fundraising page, along with the global Daybreak Games Super Team page, is up and ready for you to join and begin your yearly fundraising for The Children’s Miracle Network. Extra Life fundraising and donation incentives will be posted next month at the latest. If you want to ensure smooth delivery of your keys, make sure you're donating or creating your fundraising account under the Darkpaw Games team.

    We celebrated Rathe Day for the first time in EverQuest this year, and we debuted our new Name Reservation System, which allowed people to reserve their character name in preparation for the new TLPs. But that’s not all, Teek and Tormax servers went live, and Terror of Luclin went free to play. We also had a fun Free TLP Weekend, and a nice Memorial Day Bonus event in May. Level 50 Heroic Characters were also made available on TLP servers too! I’d be remiss in failing to mention the great new Server Selection window that came out last month too! Let’s check out what else has happened since my last Producer’s Letter.

    The social media puzzle event ended, and the winners were announced at Fippy Fest by our host Robb Ellis. A huge congratulations to the winners and thank you to all who participated. ICYMI, the big reveal was that the uncovered maps were drawn by Rick Schmitz, the artist who drew the original maps! Those maps are available in the Darkpaw Games Storefront in cloth form, if you haven’t gotten yours yet, don’t delay. Go grab them now!

    Speaking of Fippy Fest, I am thrilled to announce it was a huge success. I had such a great time hanging out with our Ambassadors, Robb Ellis of the EverQuest Show, and both game teams. A huge thank you to the San Diego Comic-Con Museum for allowing us to use their amazing facilities, both indoors and outside, for our two-day event! We had wonderful music provided by Courtly Noyse, who learned to play the EverQuest Theme. There was great food, amazing conversations, and tons of fun during the two-day event. A special thank you to The Prado at Balboa Park, for allowing us to have our “Fippy Feast” there to close out night one. The food was exquisite, the staff was exemplary, and the historic building was breathtaking. We can't forget to give a shoutout to Battlemage Brewing Company for the creation of the Corpse Run Beer (with our help) and for allowing us to hang out there as we closed out our second day. You can find the entire Livestream of day two on our YouTube channel and here is a shorter two-day recap video for you to watch.

    If you missed out on the in-person event, you will still be able to purchase the Fippy Fest digital packs through the end of the year! Each pack consists of the items for both games! There are some fantastic mounts, hats, paintings, and tons more!

    Here’s a quick look back at the roadmap from April through June.
    April:
    May:
    June:
    And now it’s time to tell you all about the great things coming up next! First, Thornblade players will be moving to a new home as the server is merged to Mischief this month. Never fear, however, if you do not wish to move to Mischief, you are welcome to use a free transfer to move to Firiona Vie prior to merge day.

    From now through September, we will have a number of your favorite events making a return, as well as more updates to the Anniversary Tower, more music released on streaming services, more giveaway items, monthly collections, limited-edition items, and much more.

    Speaking about more, we will have a panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, July 26, 2024, from 12:45 p.m. through 1:45 p.m.! Join a host of Daybreak Games developers as we each take the stage on the topic of Revolutionizing Legends: The Evolution of Iconic Online Games by sharing specific perspectives on the development of renowned long-running titles such as The Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online, DC Universe Online, Magic: The Gathering Online, and EverQuest. Come find out what keeps these games ticking year after year, and what the plans for their futures are! We will be in room 6BCF at the San Diego Convention Center!

    The following is what is coming up between now and September.
    July:
    August:
    • The Year of Darkpaw
      • Monthly collection, giveaway, limited edition items
      • Anniversary Tower
        • August quest, Heroic Adventure, and merchant items added
      • Adding July giveaway item for purchase
    • Extra Life incentives announcement
    • Stone Cold Summer event returns 
    September:
    • The Year of Darkpaw
      • Monthly collection, giveaway, limited edition items
      • Anniversary Tower
        • September quest, Heroic Adventure, and merchant items added
      • Adding August giveaway item for purchase
    • Talk Like a Pirate Day event returns
    The Outer Brood ™ is the name of this year’s expansion, and we teased a big surprise in the form of a very large dragon at Fippy Fest. But what else can I tell you about the expansion? I can tell you that the beasts you will encounter speak a long-dead language which very few can understand. They will appear in droves in a seemingly unending assault on Norrath, but why? What could their grievance possibly be? It will be up to you to seek the answers to these questions and more. Will you answer the call?

    [IMG]
    What could this lead to?

    Tracking down this golden signal,
    Jenn Chan
    Head of Studio

    Be sure to follow us on social media: X, Facebook, Instagram, and Discord.
    Svann2, Sunawar, Hobs and 4 others like this.
  2. Hobs Elder

    My takeaway from this is that they really need more events during the summer to keep players engaged. The Year Of Darkpaw stuff is ok but it is way too easy and the other stuff is very old and not that interesting to the average top end player. Maybe consider revamping hot zones and daily hot zone quests and HAs and maybe add more higher level hardcore heritage zones and events.

    I know that Darkpaw focuses on TLP primarily during this time of year but there is a relatively large group of players who do not play on TLP and have no interest in TLP that could be generating money for the company while enjoying the game if given incentives to do so.
    Ozon, Thundersnake, Petalonyx and 2 others like this.
  3. Crystilla Augur

    The Outer Brood ™ is the name of this year’s expansion, and we teased a big surprise in the form of a very large dragon at Fippy Fest. But what else can I tell you about the expansion? I can tell you that the beasts you will encounter speak a long-dead language which very few can understand.

    --> Taking the bolded part - could this mean my "Dragon" or "Elder Dragon" language that I know will be useful?
    Winnowyl and EQGenericName like this.
  4. Hateborne New Member

    Thanks for the recap and updates to roadmap.

    Also, hire me! Let me continue to max out my Specialize C++ casting.
    Nennius likes this.
  5. EQGenericName theychangedmyname

    Joining in with what hobs said .. Yeah TLPs are bleh to me, the lack of content that I have not beaten like a dead horse behind the glue factory for years now is tiresome.
    That being said so is doing the same 2 missions every day as that is all you gave us which makes farming gear for 24 different toons 1 main squad and 3 alternates , minus the tedious tower events that factor little of a challenge, I truly feel like I was ripped off paying for this latest expansion 6x due to lack of non raid content (9 raids & 3 grp missions if you include the 25th anniversary missions.) Death death death and living legacy raids how about adding a cpl more tiers to them I mean you have 10+ years of content since DDD came out to reach through.
    Ozon, Marton, Petalonyx and 1 other person like this.
  6. Marton Augur

    I'm not a fan of having 2 missions for entire year ...

    I wish they would create more missions and also bring back Heroic Adventures.
    Ozon, Raccoo, Svann2 and 1 other person like this.
  7. Petalonyx Augur

    Love these updates, but have to agree with the other posters here. Feels like there is very little to do at the end of the group game. Players are becoming disengaged with just 2 group missions. A lot of folks aren't into tradeskills and personas. Hoping for some mix-up and something more in the next expansion.
  8. Xianzu_Monk_Tunare Augur

    People go on vacations in the Summer. No matter what events you have in the summer the online count is going to be the same.
    Iven likes this.
  9. Xanbar Augur

    I especially enjoyed the Heroic Adventures in COTF and LDoN adventures. Something along those lines again would be fun in my opinion.
    Hobs likes this.
  10. Old timer New Member

    Agree on more missions, but spare a thought for those of us who box and for various reasons do want want to group with others, the mission mechanics (Heroes are forged...) make it very very hard for those that box to win. It is very frustrating knowing your 1 mission away from winning the (group level) expansion, but can never do so, not from lack of trying..
  11. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    I think I'm at a crossroads in playing EQ.

    After the lack of content in LS, the change of graphic style to be more like EQ2. I'm starting to think I'd be happier turning left and focusing 100% on TLP servers.
    Cidran likes this.
  12. Iven Suggestions Bard

    Start new alts/personas and you will be more than busy. There are already five events going on during the summer as you can see here. In addition to this year, you can do YoD collections each month, the tower key quests, and the tower missions ... for each PC ! The game does not lack events, instead it has way to many events. For nearly 365 days a year it is event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event, event.
  13. Iven Suggestions Bard

    Sooner or later we will all meet again on TLP servers. ;)
  14. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    While there are events these are mostly old events. The new events we do have aren't the same quality of the old events and give rewards that the majority of players will not use....what is the point of yet another familiar with no stats that auto leaves when you cast it?

    EQ quest rewards are lacking in imagination.
    Hobs likes this.
  15. Iven Suggestions Bard

    I do not like familiars as they are, even that a few ones do look nice and have a proper size. Some could be increased in size or receive a bonus, but that's about it. More interesting would be to revamp all familiars into metamorph/petamorph totems. It was a bad idea to add them to the game, as there is to much of all that does add up to a very chaotic appearance and possible graphics lag. Pets+mercs+familiars+nimbus+illusions+ornaments (animated, oversized). All that does get multiplied by the amount of players in the group.

    Some of the new events and quests are good, but I have to agree that some are not that good. YoD event is just bleh. Good base idea but not being tested, designed, and attuned properly. The tower rooms do look loveless are are much to small. The only nice thing there is the outdoor view tapestry. Well done on that. The lack of devs is noticeable there. To many bugs and to much stress for the players with their short release intervalls and time limits. Anybody does hate time limits I think. And the collections are way to much of a time sink with their slow collectible respawn rate, and all those cheaters around. Collections generally have zero immersion with their current ground spawn appearance. They should look like flowers, fungi, animated or dead mots instead, and not like bling bling.

    The rewards do lack some creativity as there are to many familiar rewards which might belong to the kid game concept. My impression is that it is related to unexperienced devs, which created those quests to train their skills, and were not skilled enough to work on other stuff. Item rewards are generally a problem because they do all rival with each others, and there is to much stuff around already. And they to rival with the marketplace and other shops, so often the less good stuff does get used for rewards. The yeti is just bleh and I never saw a player using it as a familiar.

    Dear Daybreak management: Hire more experienced devs and do pay them more money ! Stop being cheap, because if you are cheap, you are getting cheap devs and cheap customers, which will directly cut into your revenue. This is one of the seven universal laws: The law of attraction.
  16. Velisaris_MS Augur

    This.

    Rewards from time limited events (Scorched Skies, Anniversary stuff, whatever) should be useful and desirable enough that players actually WANT to do them. Handing out a couple of pieces of stat food for slogging through tiresome, boring tasks that rely on the RNG for drops or kills is NOT worth anyone's time.

    I would say that 90% of quest/mission rewards from these time limited events are absolute garbage...especially stuff put out in recent years. There might 1 in any group of event tasks that's at least mildly useful. The rest are an absolute waste of time.
    Hobs likes this.
  17. Iven Suggestions Bard

    Stat food are fake rewards and I instantly do destroy them. I do the quests for the stories and to get them done. The rewards are not important to me, but if there is a reward, it can be a nice addition. If only achievement points would be worth anything.
    -> Achievement Score Shop
  18. Nennius Curmudgeon

    Agreed. But then the folks who don't have a lot would start whining about fairness. Much like the "Veteran" awards became available to everyone instead of being a reward for long-time customers. You know...veterans. But I digress.
  19. Iven Suggestions Bard

    I don't know why the veteran rewards got unlocked to everyone, but I assume that it was to puzzling and difficult to synchronize with alts, so it got simplified. While the same argument could be used against an achievement shop, the situation is a bit different there.
  20. Nennius Curmudgeon

    I am feeling cantankerous today. What? Who is that on my lawn? Anyway, it's hot here and I have a kid who is acting up. Best to ignore me sometimes.

    P.S. When I was teaching I got real tired of having fairness thrown at me. A pet peeve I need to let go.