Producer's Letter: July Update and What's Coming Up

It's really sad that this game, always but i'd say more so the last few years than ever, is just people crying about other classes. Even sadder that it usually comes from people who have never played the class they are crying about.

"I saw a <insert class> once and I am mad at them so I am automatically an expert on that class and here is how they SHOULD work!" - every EQ player ever

Nerfing one class into the ground doesn't improve your class. If you're upset at how mage pets tank l, for example, nerfing the pets will not make your class tank better. You should be asking for your class to get improvements. The Robin Hood style rarely applies to any real circumstance as a solution and this is no different. There is a reason this game has never truly been balanced among classes and it's because of the perpetual bickering between angry people who have never played a class, and people who do play that class that are afraid of power loss.

Start assessing the bug picture before you cry about stuff please. At this stage in EQ's life you cannot afford to alienate ANY classes. The different classes exist because there is supposed to be a synergy. Working together etc. So start doing that. Part of that means realizing different classes do different things and figuring out how your class and what it can or should do factors into the larger picture. And if your class is not at that point, trying to fix it. Not calling for every other class that can do something you can't to be torn to shreds until all classes are broken shards like yours.

I also like how one angry person replying to a simple question that still goes unanswered derailed this entire thread into bickering for 5 pages.

You, Holly and a bunch of other people are so ignorant over what [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] is, it makes me want to throw myself into the jaws of Innoruuk. There is NO, I repeat, NO automation involved in a program that copies your keypresses. Is it cheating to hook up 2 horses in a single harness? NO NO NO.

What are you all really trying to do, think about it? You want to stop someone from controlling 12 characters at once. WHY? Jealousy? Yeah. Are they bothering you? Maybe in a few cases. Let's be honest about your motivations here. Sure, I'm all for letting you have a single toon server. It's the only way you'll get it through your heads that your problem is with griefers, not boxers. Just wait til you want a port or clarity. Good luck waiting 4 hours for someone to buff you.

ONCE AGAIN- BOTTING AND BOXING ARE NOT THE SAME THINGS!

I Love the no bot no boxers server! I will make it my new home and never leave. Thank you.

^^ This post.. it says it all.. 99.999999% of you are clueless about what WinEQ & similar programs do for you. There is no; zero; zilch; none; nee; jo; la; voch'; deyil automation involved! (for those wondering, it's "none" in different languages) If you think otherwise, you need to learn what in hell you're talking about before you whine about it.

I use WinEQ2, and have been a vocal proponent for it on these forums (and the previous iteration) for years. And it is stated correctly, that it allows no automation at all. I initially used it because it forced the client to be far less of a resource hog, back in the day when just one client could run like crap on the machines we had available. Now, I only use it to swiftly swap between the two and occasionally three accounts I may run simultaneously.

I have never used the Boxer program. I did install it, attempt to set it up, and gave up in frustration, even though I was following a setup guide video to the letter. But, to clarify what the Boxer program does, is NOT automation per se, it does allow broadcasting of keystrokes, and setting up complex means of executing commands. You still have to hit a button to make it happen. Still, controlling a full group or even a full raid of characters, by one person, seems like an exploitation (not an ingame exploit, the word has some differing meanings based on context) of how the game was meant to be played, as well as removing ANY chance a normal person or even group has to compete.

Botting of course, relies on the OTHER program that shall not be named, but if you aren't using the Boxing program too, then it would probably be a lot harder to manage all those characters. And of course, botting is unattended gameplay.

I for one am glad to see DBG is taking the flat out disgust many players have for the use of 3rd party programs that allow you to steamroll other players. I can stick to one character at a time, and may very well play on it when it starts.

you must be a wizard or necro

Also pretty sure that poster is a TLPer that only has a negative opinion on Mages because... Mage armies (and really OP on those servers).

Wish they gave a better time frame of when the next info update might be,
April to July is 4 months , currently sounds like the new EQ update will be in the last quarter.

The cats out the bag now boys! You caught me I am a necrowizzard on Ragefire rolfstomping across the classical lands of EQ and the pet walls of glory.

Not going to spend a whole lot of time right now as it's just a few people who play mages for the most part posting now and quoting me throwing out some amazing speculation about me which makes me kinda chuckle, along with the arguments they are making about woe is me I'm a poor little magician in EQ circa 2015, I've been nerfed into the ground and not a single Dev can tell me why I went from Stupid OP to still being OP..

Baramos actually has a well written and thought out reply which I may go glance over again and think upon, though I'm not sure how the history of the mage class is relevent to the current rain nerfs or how powerful they have been fora few years now and still are at this moment as a whole. But the other usual suspects in the famed world of rabid mage forum posters have come to chit chat, yay!

Piemaster talking about how horrible xp rates are for mages, or something to that effect.. I sorta just glazed over his post to be honest after I read that. Rainbowdash I really couldn't tell what his point was, other than he wants all the nerfing to stop I think, and how angry of a person I am apparently.

From everything I've read though it seems mages just want to be wizzards now pretty much and do nothing but DPS through spells, and are mad when they can't top the parses. That is the only thing you guys seems to care about anymore, which is sad for the class as a whole. You guys should use these rain nerfs to open up discussion about the lack of utility your class has if that's how you feel. But I doubt that will happen, and all that will happen is just more mages coming here to whine and use some pretty poor and laughable arguments to try to retain thier power without thought for actual game balance.

Why would mages want or need more utility? As a DPS class they won't ever get any meaningful amount of utility. Especially given that in general the usefulness of utility and utility based classes has fallen by the wayside.

Almost all content can be steamrolled far easier by stacking damage then it can by having a balanced setup with a focus on support.

If they ever design Content that utility classed play an important role again. Maybe your argument would hold water.

Talk about problems. LOL. I finally got a Blackburrow Brew Barrel and then the servers get rolled back to before I got it! GRRR!!! I tell you, I'm not exactly looking forward to spending the next 27 years in BB waiting for it to drop again! Oh well. I knew something was up when I got Tin, Iron, and Defiant armor on the progression server! Sigh. Maybe I'll find a new BBBB sooner than 27 years....

Thanks for keeping us informed. I truly appreciate it.

I wonder if one of the things you might consider as a quality of life alteration might be adding the era of a quest to the quest information somewhere? At least that would be nice for Zam to address or the EQ database or something. I keep getting quest items I'm not sure are actually worth anything on Progression Servers. Looking them up on Zam or in other databases is not always all that informative.

"From everything I've read though it seems mages just want to be wizzards now pretty much and do nothing but DPS through spells, and are mad when they can't top the parses. That is the only thing you guys seems to care about anymore, which is sad for the class as a whole"

I've been on raids and I am not among the parses leaders because I do not think of my role as such. I think of it more as utility, as keeping the adds down and occupied while everyone else is doing their thing. And on those burn mobs then go all out nuke and DPS. Necros are usually at the top of the raid DPS parse on most of them.

I play a mage, and I also 3 box. We are definitely NOT OP, as I've seen guildmates solo mobs that I need my pet and merc healer to take out, and over time, not instant kills. I've seen necros, wizzes, chanters kite mobs easily. The thing is I'm NOT asking for more DPS, or complaining about what others think that this class can do. The thing is I ENJOY playing this class. I am sensitive to motion sickness, so ANY kiting class is out , or I start to get nauseous.

People need to stop complaining about other classes, and realize the potential and limits of their skills and class. Griping about another class just shows their disdain and hatred for that class. But really, we play certain classes for certain reasons. If I wanted to be more of a DPS, then i'd play the other classes. I have 3 accounts, and most of the classes, except tanks, have a paladin, but it's mostly because of the melee motions forward/back, up/down that start to make me feel nauseous.

So before cutting down some classes, need to realize that some people cannot play, because of health issues and restraints, doesn't mean they aren't good players, but they are limited in what they can or can't do.

I also 3 box because of necessity, ever since the EQ II days, when it was hard to get buffs, or even people to play with. I am a guild leader so use mine mostly to help other guildmates move forward or to help them with quests. I will take my toons out of task so that 5 others can do task if need be. My alts are there only to help my guild with buffs, tasks, leveling. I think people complaining about boxing and bots need to ask the question why? If they are doing it for monetary reasons, camping items and selling them, then that's wrong. If it's for progression to help someone where otherwise they would not be able to do it by themselves, then I don't think that's wrong.

The game has many old timer players and many new players.The game has evolved so much that the middle levels cannot get ahead by themselves, they will lose interest and hope in the game. My guild helps them so they keep playing, so that they can eventually hold their own, as well as group with higher guildmates. The main thing is , they are still playing. Isn't that what DBG should be looking at?

Part of the problem is some people (seemingly) don't know: 1. the difference between botters vs. boxers or 2. the fact that some griefers are boxers, but not all griefers are boxers.

I think there will be an unpleasant surprise for some people on a new no-boxing server when they realize that irredeemable a-holes will always be irredeemable a-holes (training, ksing, name monopolization, etc, will all still occur), and there will still be RMT-ing, and etc.

That being said, I still think it may be a worthy experiment, because it does sound like things are out of control on RF and LJ. I am a little skeptical, however - will there be enough population to support all three in the long term? I guess we'll all see.

Think that the rules for no bot/no box can be simply resolved by using getmac or arp -a or other command as part of the login - this could be used on all servers

you would use your

login name - password - they then could either pull the mac address automatically or program a button you press that calls the mac address and fills in the box with the info as you login

- if someone wanted to run a full group that could mean up to 6 computers 6 keyboards and 6 monitors - if not using a KVB switch - if someone want to go to that much trouble more power to them - during a big fight it would be somewhat difficult to switch between all the computers and do the spell casting/fighting when group health is dropping like a rock

If they allowed 2 account per mac address - which I like as I sometime log on second account if I can't find any buffers to buff my main player them camp the second account - this would be a nice option too

I know I've been critical of DBG and it's employes but I am glad that someone is working on a bot free server. I believe the folks that are upset with this are upset they can't act like big shots by killing everything with their bot armies. Would be nice if they grew up. It's a game. It should be fun. Cheating ruins the game.

Are you folks really still playing this game, OMG Really? First they go the way of EQ2 and talk about Campaigns, instead of full blown expansions; then they allow box teams and mage pets to own the “Original EQ Experience.” Please, all 15 of my accounts are dead to me… Netflix rules, screw the developmentaly challenged folks running this game now…

Seriously we're still arguing about boxers vs botters? People know the difference, but that's not why many people are anti-box.

Get over it - boxing is a *choice* and if you choose to box then you choose one of the other 2 progression servers. No one if forcing you to stop boxing. If you choose not to then you still get a choice - whether to play on a server with people boxing or without them. I think it's an interesting idea that may give more community feel, or may just fall flat on its face. Hard to say, but worth a punt.

Stop wasting ressources on progressions servers of any kind, and focus on live servers content, aka next campaign / expansion.
You waste time atm on doing the police on TLP servers, you waste time again on putting in place a new progression server, and all of this hurts the live servers.

Nah, you can't swing a dead Vah Shir in the TLP forums without hitting the many daily posts where people show they don't know the difference between them.

But I still think a no-boxing server is a good idea for many reasons.

So no new expansions and now no boxing servers...? WTF are you people thinking?? I know major part of the income you get from EQ is from boxers.. They are the most hardcore players.. Bottom line. That's why you should have a true player with an actual high IQ running the show at EQ. Not some part time player BS. New expansions with levels, races, spells, zones... gets them coming back, seems simple.. But I guess My IQ is a lot higher then most.. Does Holly even Fin play EQ?? And when I ask that I mean when she was not getting paid to work for daybreak or SOE? I don't want to play old content!! you can play it on any server just start a new toon are people dumb? Camps are over run by people trying to get cash and kronos.. lame... I won't come back till there is a new expansion.. Middle finger up.. Glad that Smed is gone btw. Jerk thought he was tooooo cool. You could tell that kids ego was bigger then his enormous fat head already was..