Producer's Letter -- February Update Coming!

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by Windstalker, Feb 5, 2013.

  1. Mohee Active Member

    This is true, but the few zones they have done were amazing, huge, and unique. Even the ones that weren't huge, I find were awesome. I think that is what made them such great raid zones. It was actually special, not just another heroic/solo zone except epic mobs inside... that is boring and just portrays laziness...

    Deathtoll
    Emerald Halls
    Veeshans Peak
    Shard of Hate
    Ward of Elements
    Clockwork Menace Factory
    Antechamber of Fate
    Crypt of Vox
    Djinn Masters Prism
    Fountain of Life
    Pedestal of Sky
    Tomb of Thuuga
    The Execution Throne Room

    and actually there is a lot more... lol wow I kind of forgot just how many special raid zones there actually is in this game.

    I too, am disappointed at the lack of communication the producers have with the community. I'd have more respect for a letter like this coming from Gninja, or any of the devs that actually make attempts to talk with the community, communicate with us, even replying to some threads and showing a sense of humor about things. I'm also a little weary that you plan on releasing new raid content, while current raid content still needs work and bug fixing. Quit just trying to sweep stuff under the rug, and fix things before release new broken stuff. Not to mention, the 26th is only 20 days away, which i'm sure as always, will not be enough time for people to beta test these new zones, and get them working properly before releasing them to live...

    A x2 zone of Wurmbone Crag? While I am in favor of a x2 raid zone, why did you guys pick this one? The skinny planks are already a pain for some players with just 6 people, now you are going to add 6 more? I hope there isn't going to be knockbacks in this zone, or random player teleports...

    And why the choice of the smallest zone in the new expansion being a x4? I don't know... it just doesn't make sense to me...

    Chelsith would have been a better option in my opinion. That zone is huge, and just feels like it should be a raid zone.
    Tylia, Kraeref and Kinya like this.
  2. Kraeref Well-Known Member

    With 24 people along with a crew we are going to sink the ship right at the beginning of the raid :D
    Tylia likes this.
  3. Feldon Well-Known Member

    Chains of Eternity has 7 solo dungeons and every single quest in the expansion is Solo. There are 0 group quests, 0 raid quests, and because there is no progression to the group zones, most people are just running the solo zones. Compare this to TSO or SF where once you finished the solo quest lines, that was it -- everything else was group/raid! What more could you possibly want? Now you have 7 dungeons you can run every day that award raid gear. I just don't understand people who are being given the moon and the stars yelling that it's not enough and threatening to quit.

    Not sure what mercs you're using, but I've found the Inquistor to be particularly useful. The Chains of Eternity CE ones have gotten better, and the Archons in Skyshrine are popular as well.
    For what reasons?

    EQ2 is not supposed to be a solo RPG with a chatroom bolted on. It's an MMO.
    Elostirion likes this.
  4. Kraeref Well-Known Member

    Hold on, Feldon. There is one raid quest: Melanie Everling's locker:)
  5. Koleg Active Member





    Maybe you should join a EU or Aussie centric server where people’s playtime more closely matches your own.



    Obols have a chance to drop from EVERY triple down non-heroic mob in the new COE zones (Jungle, Plains). As a matter of fact, I find I get twice the amount of Obols from solo trash than I do from raiding. The Shards would might need to find a group for, but its been my experience that I get 1 spirit shard for every 3 to 5 Obols and usually need to grind Obols more (on solo trash) to buy gears.




    Like Feldon said … 7 solo zones with each one having raid quality gear on their loot table. The Signature quest line is 57 quests and the total solo quests in COE probably number just under 200 available. That’s a lot of content to play thru and far more than raiders have.




    I tend to use Mercs for curing primarily and some spot healing I suppose. The Elite Mercs are still pretty good and that is true because they are still camped 24/7.

  6. Koleg Active Member

    That is a Raid Turn-In from a Solo quest. It is a Far cry from a Raid quest. And if it hasn't been "Fixed" yet, you don't even need to have the kill achievement to do the turn in. Nice try though.
  7. Estred Well-Known Member

    Not to this extent just from my head zones from previous expansions that reused Heroic Layouts for Raid-Zones.

    The Shadow Odyssey
    Palace of Fer'zhul and Palace of the Ancient One
    Befallen Necrotic Asylum/Tomb of the Mad Crusader
    Anathema/Miragul's Planar Shard
    Anchor of Bazzul/Munzok's Material Bastion

    Sentinels Fate
    Palace of Erudin/Palace of Rohen Theer
    Abandoned Labs/Abominable Labs
    ALL OF THE HOLE AND UNDERFOOT DEPTHS (this was a lazy one... cmon Veeshan's was unique)

    Destiny of Velious(long one)
    Kraytoc's Fortress of Rime/Rime Spire
    Throne of Storms/...ToS(Raid)
    Temple of Rallos Zek/... ToRZ(Raid)
    Drunder Update
    Spire of Rage/Sullon's Spire
    Strategists Stronghold/Tallon's Stronghold
    Tower of Tactics/Vallon's Tower
    Skyshrine Update
    Dracur Prime/Sevalak Awakened
    Sleepers Tomb: Awakening/Sleepers Tomb: Temporal Leap
    Underdepths/... Underdepths.

    Chains of Eternity
    Sleepers Tomb (Again)
    Harrow's End: Baleful Dominion/Harrows End
    Temple of the Faceless/Altar of Abhorrence

    Now here are the same expansions with Unique Raid Zones (This includes X2's)

    The Shadow Odyssey
    Ykesha's Inner Stronghold
    Ward of Elements
    Zarrakon's Sanctum

    Sentinels Fate
    Toxxulia's Mound

    Destiny of Velious
    Plane of War

    Chains of Eternity
    ???

    Now how about Heroic Zone Diversity across the 9 zones? This does not include any Maps reused for Raid-Zones, copies of instances to Contested Zones do not quite count. SF/DoV/CoE all are culprits of "contested copies" with SF: The Hole, DoV: Kael Drakkel and Skyshrine, CoE: Sleepers Tomb.

    The Shadow Odyssey 10 non-raid copied zones
    Commonlands: 2 Unique Layouts with Necrotic Themes
    Moors of Ykesha: 4 Unique Layouts with Ruins Themes
    Everfrost: 2 Unique Layouts with Magic/Ice Themes
    Lavastorm: 2 Unique Layouts with Lava/Fire Temple Themes.

    Sentinels Fate 8 non-raid copies zones
    Moorse of Ykesha: 1 Layout with a Disease Theme
    Sundered Frontier: 3 Unique Layouts with a Dragon Theme (Tox) and Airship (Vigilant)
    Stonebrunt Highlands: 4 Unique Layouts (2 Vastlye Deep and 2 Erudin)

    Destiny of Velious 6 non-raid copied zones.
    Great Divide: 4 Unique Layouts (2 ToFS and 2 Hold of Rime)
    Eastern Wastes: 2 Unique Layout (Iceshard Keep and Crystal Caverns Collapse)
    Skyshrine: 2 Unique layouts

    Chains of Eternity 4 non-raid copied zones soon to be 2
    Edilon Jungle: 1 Unique Layout with a Temple Theme (Throne of Fear)
    Obol Plains: 1 Unique Layout with a Pirate Theme
    Jarsath Wastes: 2 Unique Layouts each with ancient Bone Themes

    TLDR
    As anyone can read even quickly by looking next to each Underlined Section... ever since TSO we have been getting fewer and fewer non-copied instances with Chains of Eternity soon to only have 2 instances... even then the 2 unique ones are copied for SOLO ZONES bringing CoE's total of "Unique Instances" to ZERO. Of course it seems like we are getting less and less content... we are. I of course am glossing over class-updates, itemization updates, quest updates, zone updates and collections.
    Kinya and Terein like this.
  8. Blissa Active Member

    When is the last time you ran one of those dungeons? I haven't gotten a single piece of decent gear since 3 weeks after release little alone raid gear. Also I don't know what class you play but I have a SK in crap gear and I can blast out 5 of the 7 zones in 10 minutes or less. Hardly what I would call quality content!

    Useful how? He stands there and looks at you stupid why you die.

    Times have changed my friend this isn't 2004 where every one and their brother wanted to get into a group. People want to log in and do their own thing. WOW excel's at this you don't even need to raid to get raid gear in WOW any more. You can solo quest it. Now lets do some math WOW = 11 million subscribers EQ2 = 60k players if were lucky. Whats the better formula here?
    Guiscard likes this.
  9. Kinya Active Member

    yeah... go inside, talk, get item... yay, great 'raid' quest ;)

    Dreadcutter as x4 zone? How 24 people are going to fight in those tiny corridors?

    I am pretty sure Holly thought she will get more excitement from players about her Producer letter, but honestly, I don't think there is enough info to show our excitement about "great future of eq2"...

    And now she will be dissapointed and she won't post anything on this forum until April and new Producer Letter :p
  10. Kraeref Well-Known Member

    Jeez, people. I was trying to joke. Did you see my smile? Ok. I am resigning from joking on this forum.

    The raid version of a locker is sweet!
  11. Malleria Well-Known Member

    This baffled me as well. Wurmbone Crag is going to be a nightmare to get through with 12 people, especially if they have kb's. It's just too tight a space. Wurmbone's End at least has decent sized areas around each named mob. And Dreadcutter as a x4... oi >.<

    My sincerest hope is that these zones are fleshed out with interesting encounters. If they're just the exact same mobs as heroics, but with more hp, more damage output and a couple aoes, it's gonna be very disappointing. Especially in the x2 which I have a sad feeling is just going to end up being a single group zone.
  12. Xuma Member

    I have been looking for SOME kind of response or information on reaction and plans to address ISSUES brought up in those threads. The ONLY thing I would see as a decent February update would be fixes/solutions/actions to address MAJOR issues brought up in those threads. I could give a (*&^% less about the bells and whistles and APPEARANCE of improvement while these major problems get left unaddressed. And, I believe that lack of action on the developers part in this area would constitute a valid reason to think that the game is becoming less competitive and less attractive for people generally. Address the issues and fix classes YOU asked for input on!! Quit jerking the EQ2 community around with shinies whose only purpose is to distract and placate for a month or so.
  13. Avirodar Well-Known Member

    Although you were not replying to me, I will take the opportunity to respond. The last time I ran a solo zone was yesterday. My illusionist received a fabled upgrade. If you run several of the solo zones, you don't have a long delay until you can run them again.

    A mercenary is intentionally less effective than a skilled human player, but they can allow you to do things you otherwise could not. Perhaps it is your use of the Merc that needs improvement?

    You are right, it is not 2004, and just like it is not 2004, WoW did not build an 11 million user base because they let solo players get raid loot. For every person I hear say they love doing solo content to get raid loot in WoW, I hear many more say how terrible it is for the game.

    If you want an insurmountable volume solo player content, and a bit of chatter on the side, you may find that installing the various incarnations of the Elder Scrolls series, along side an IRC chat program, will provide a game play experience better suited to your needs. Or, if you adore the WoW formula so much, go and enjoy it.

    EQ2 is an MMO, and if you dislike having to deal with other people in order to achieve desirable goals on an MMO, you are only frustrating yourself by being here.
  14. Blissa Active Member

    All I have to say is if you and every other person in this thread think grouping is so great, then where are the players? Why do we keep loosing people? Why are the server's not bursting at the seems because EQ2 has more group content then 99% of the games out there.

    And the answer is its a old school way of thinking and people would rather solo. So they are playing WOW instead of this game.

    P.S. your also right WOW didn't start off as a solo game but they adapted and they still have 11 million subscribers.
    Guiscard likes this.
  15. Terein Active Member

    To be perfectly fair Stamper has stood there and watched me die several times, he seems to do it randomly for no reason. A couple times I've seen him spam heals on himself while he's at 100% HP while I slowly die.

    There's this really good game called Skyrim, you should check it out. It has a lot of the solo content you're looking for and no monthly fee! Seriously though they're probably just popping in raids that were delayed from the initial launch, I'm sure the next GU will have more solo content.
    Jrel likes this.
  16. Gilasil Active Member

    The raid content and PvP do nothing for me, but the improvement in inventory management sound good.
  17. Tylia Well-Known Member

    This is usually attributed to a line of sight issue for the merc. Any tiny little thing (a pebble, a blade of grass, a twig, sometimes even an invisible bit of geometry) can be a line of sight issue and cause the merc to fail to heal/cure/rez.

    As for the producer's letter, I'm excited about the prospect of a x2 raid, but like others have mentioned, I'm not so sure that WC was the best choice. As for the x4 on the DC, I can only hope that the raid actually takes place on a ship the size of the Titanic or something because the DC is a tight fight for 6 players. I can't even begin to imagine trying to fit 24 in there. :eek:
    Jrel likes this.
  18. Kinya Active Member

    I know you were joking, I was just continuing :D

    Answer to this question is simple - there is no hype about EQ2 on the internet. Neither Windstalker, Smokejumper or Smedley are talking about EQ2... Complete silence... Many people don't even realize EQ2 exists, which is sad.

    Producer letter didn't bring any new info about which people could be excited. I mean, I really wanted to be excited and was waiting for producer letter.
    Sorting bags? Common, we know about that feature since some time as we read forums.
    "Veteran Rewards" revamp, or new daily/weekly/monthly objectives as you call, it was mentioned several times last year.
    So the only new info we got is that we will see 2 raid versions of already existing zones and that GU66 will be our "next content update" somewhere during the Spring... You know that Spring lasts from 21 March until 20 of June?
    Guiscard likes this.
  19. Jalek Active Member

    That's about how they work in GW2, but it's more like 30 minutes since it involves finding different mob types and doing some harvesting.
  20. Chronus Active Member

    All other things aside, inb4 infusion from druids pulls all the trash in the Dreadcutter x4 and pathing through walls remains crazy.