Producer's Letter: August 2015 Updates

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by Windstalker, Aug 3, 2015.

  1. suka Well-Known Member

    first, we only offer suggestions, it is not up to us to find solutions. second, why would i, someone who is strictly pve, want to go to the pvp server or area anyhow? for better drops? or better harvests? no thanks. i keep my self at home where i belong. why would i go near a tower? i won't even be on a battlefield. what you are overlooking in your suggestions is that we don't want to be enticed to such a server. we want the drops and harvests to be the same on all servers. what we do think is that cross server grouping and the ability to jump servers at will would solve a lot of problems for those who do want to go there. but to think of enticing a pve player with extra harvests or loot is like trying to entice a mouse with a bunch of cheese pieces spread over the ground while a cat sits patiently on the other side waiting.

    for your information, in case you haven't been in arenas and things in a pve world where pvp arenas are set up, the minute you enter a pvp area you get an emote: you are now in a pvp area. what this means is hey, you are live bait. enter at your own risk.

    it is not about forcing anyone into combat. if you are in a pvp area that means you are willing to fight. if you are not, you need to stay home. so don't try to entice people who might not know better into a pvp world when they are not wearing pvp gear and don't have the skills to survive there. that should be their own choice with full knowledge of what they are choosing, not a thing of "ooo better rare harvests there so i guess i should take the bait and the risk"
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone and Belenos like this.
  2. Schmetterling Well-Known Member

    ok ok ok throws arms up in defeat
    we got battle grounds , and we got arenas
    Its not quite the same and who am I to promote pvp anyway lol I stink in pvp
    I don't know if you ever were on a pvp server but a lot of people don't wear pvp gear you need spezial tokens to buy those
    and only the good pvpers can get enough to get good gear.
    I don't have any that's probably why I stink at pvp and that's might be why people like the locked server there is no special gear for pvp.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  3. suka Well-Known Member

    sigh- kk this is probably not the best forum for this. but you seem to be totally unaware of a few things. first of all, you don't need special gear for pvp. it is already built into your gear. gear for pvp is terribly underpowered for a reason. i don't like pvp but that doesn't mean i have never tried it or never been on a pvp server. i believe in making intelligent, informed choices so of course to do that, i had to try it before knocking it. it is great for some people, just not for me. like raiding. not that i have never raided. i did, for awhile. but got burned out on it and now i only organize raids if i really need them to complete some insane quest that demands them.

    so before you get so carried away with needing special armor - take a look at some screenshots. especially, check out the specs on the bow. also please notice the pvp box you can check. this doesn't change a lot on armor, but notice the bow.

    [IMG]
    now check out the difference on the bow
    [IMG]
    you will notice that the damage on the bow has been decreased. that is not an accident. that is on purpose. when you are in a pvp area you can flag your armor accordingly. or choose not to but pvp carries restrictions. yeah you can get more powerful armor for pvp but most people just use the same armor and weapons everyone else uses. the people with the special armor sets usually got them from the battlegrounds with special tokens won there. that doesn't come from regular play.

    the pvp playstyle is very different from regular pve playstyle. it is more aggressive. you are against an opponent who can learn to change tactics as opposed to a scripted opponent. it is more challenging, more hard core. a lot of casual players are not really interested in learning that type of playstyle. those that do often decide it is not for them. they want to simply enjoy a form of relaxing entertainment. if they wanted hardcore, they would play a very different game - like eq1.or they will do heroic dungeons or maybe even choose to molo group dungeons (yeah i know someone who does that and they also go after every epic mob they can find and molo epic zones). they want to harvest in relative peace with a few scripted mobs they need to fight off, but not where someone lies in wait who might be like an epic mob to them waiting to get their pvp points on an unsuspecting newbie or crafter. and yeah that happens a lot. in eq1 they are void points. you can pvp in the pve world if someone is flagged pvp or are in an arena. but only on the pvp server can you find the vendors to spend those points. the loot from them is really nice, but the playstyle is not for me.

    perhaps you should get more informed before trying to recruit to a chosen playstyle?
  4. Lodrelhai Well-Known Member

    For all I hate pvp in general, I admit that even I will try it on rare occasion. Heck, before I quit WoW I'd started leveling a character on a PVP server solely by harvesting, since harvest nodes grant xp over there. That was my "I'm feeling masochistic" character - a walking gank-target. So I'm willing to admit that the ability to go into a PVP version of a zone - either with 2 versions of overland zones on all servers or with the ability to hop servers at will - would probably increase PVP play. Probably wouldn't draw additional dedicated players, but there'd be regular influxes of people willing to give it a whirl for a half-hour or so because they don't have to spend hours to months leveling new characters just to give it that quick whirl.

    Given the server architecture changes indicated by things like level-agnostic dungeons and cross-server dungeons, this might even be a possible option - maybe even one the devs are already considering. And as long as it doesn't become a case of "get these pve/crafting rewards for doing pvp" I'm fine with those options. Well, and as long as my friend and I deciding to try pvp won't suddenly make us unable to group because we're from different cities.
    suka likes this.
  5. Schmetterling Well-Known Member

    sorry but my highest level toon on Nagafen is only level 59 I cant get even close to that stuff
    and that's why my friends of my guild have 3 sets of armor one for pvp one for pve and one for harvesting
    And you know I am speaking for others so pardon my ignorance
    its really funny I don't think I saw a whole lot of real pvp ers post here
    I play on a pvp server but I am most of the time the victim
  6. Schmetterling Well-Known Member

    the problem with the cross server group finding is if I am not wrong about this it only works for dungeons I need groups for other things too
    And I know about the armor
    to bad also that those battlegrounds fare now only full at the highest level
    and I don't know about the arena.
    and believe me I been there for 4 years seen it all the good the bad and the ugly
    I am not the most knowledgeable true I been that crafter running around constantly watching my back
    but guess what I found ways to weasel out more than once till they changed the rules and you automatically
    were in combat as soon as you got attacked no more escape possible
    That's when people really left Nagafen even people that otherwise liked pvp.
    to me it just gave me this extra kick being in danger all the time
    Don't forget you can mentore down to level 5 so nobody player can attack you
    that's something the hardened pvp players did not like a bit.
    so yes I would go into such a parallel zone if the reward warrants it.
    and anyway I only suggested this setup for the one server that will absorb Nagafen
    the war fields could be in other servers too because those can be ignored by normal players
    I think I am not a programer
    I also play on 2 pve servers and I played another pvp game before EQ2 and I have to say in that game you lost nothing being killed so it was only your pride that suffered .
  7. suka Well-Known Member

    i agree with you on not trying to entice pve people with loot and harvests. not right, not fair, and harvests should be the same on all servers. no one should be going to the pvp server just for the rewards. it should be a matter of trying out the playstyle to see if they like it or liking the playstyle and staying.
    Lateana, Lodrelhai and Griffon Lady like this.
  8. Ratala Active Member

    How about Daybreak gives us a choice? We have seen that they can do a poll. Why not toss up a pop up when you log in that asks if you want this forced merger. If you are one of the people that wants this forced merger just click yes. If you are one of the people that doesn't want this forced merger you just click no.

    This would give Daybreak a good idea of how many really want this and not just those that come to the forums. The poll for the TLE servers must have worked so maybe it would for this idea too. I know it would push back the end of August timing but what is the rush after this many years?

    My 2cents....this forced merger isn't going to fix anything. I know it won't change my ideas or my husbands on grouping, raiding or pugs {{{SHUDDER}}}. We both play on Butcherblock and love the peace and quiet we have.

    Good luck to all and happy gaming.

    Daybreak...I think you have a storm coming your way with this move but I really do hope it goes well if you do it.
  9. Schmetterling Well-Known Member

    the thing is it would be a choice anyway if you go over to the other place or not and that way the pvp guys would be able to get groups when they want to just do pve
    but why am I promoting this stuff anyway
    argh we will see what daybreak will do most likely we are just wasting our time arguing they might already have a really cool solution.
    I think I am going to go on Landmark now and build a castle in the sky for a piece loving princess in a pink too too.
    something else what are pugs ?
  10. suka Well-Known Member

    Can i please encourage guild leaders to come together on their servers and bring their guilds together for server meetings so you promote your servers and get ready for this move? even if your server doesn't get moved, doesn't it make sense to promote community on your server and begin helping each other? one of our people on Butcherblock has called a server meeting and we posted it on this thread https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/butcherblock-server-meeting-called.562583/

    if each server were to have major guilds working together and not competing with each other, we could all be ready for this and be able to keep our people together. and if we don't get moved, each server would be stronger for it. yeah i know, a lot of people think competition is the name of the game, but on pve servers we are fighting mobs, not each other. you could do a whole lot more if you work together for the good of all. not to mention eliminating some of the problems that people are having finding help and groups. larger guilds should be willing to help smaller guilds and all should be willing to help newcomers to their servers with needed things like backpacks.

    our guild received a major surprise and blessing recently. a new recruit was added by one of our members. (yeah in our guild any member can invite other people to the guild) i was surprised to come in and find that person hard at work with writs. i checked and she was high level. so were her alts - 4 of which were added to the guild. every alt had quite a bit of status in the guild window. she made full member quite quickly. as i explained things about the guild and how to pay the rent from the escrow if it came due and no one was on at the time, she told me "yeah i know, i am a guild leader in another guild. i just came here to help your guild." i was touched, and surprised. and grateful. how many others would do such a thing. yeah i lent a toon to a friend's guild to help, but how many would come to a guild they barely knew - or in our case probably knew only by reputation - and help them push those last 16 levels to 100?

    but that is working together and that is reaching out to other guilds. she impressed me and inspired me and all i can say is "wow - thank you so very much". and of course i will continue to pay this forward and help her if she ever needs me and help others.

    but this is a period where we are about to go through a big upheaval. the devs are trying to make things better for us, but any move can be hard on a server and on guilds. maybe it is time to reach out to one another on your servers.


    PS - i didn't call the server meeting but i am definitely going and encouraging my guild members to be there.
  11. Moonlit_Evening Well-Known Member


    This touched me, I am one of those players who like to rp and get close to my guildies and guild.I consider my home guild Truth & Order on Unrest, but when you want to LAD or someone else wants to LAD there are not enough people on. So I began joining other guilds Raindancers, and recently Forgotten Warriors and I came up with this idea of PST'ing your guildies from other guilds to see if anyone was looking to dungeon or LAD. So in someways it formed a network. I began doing this about 3-4 days ago, and since then it seems it's easier to dungeon. So I came up with the idea of networking with other Guilds and am currently working with Forgotten Warriors to help them reach level 100 status.
  12. Valkerie Member

    I am a guild leader on Guk and we would love to see some more people on the server, but i realize there are servers out there with a seemingly lower pop than ours. We have tried several things including a guild alliance with its own channel. We always encourage our guild members to look inside first, but then to look within the guild alliance channel. It hasn't been a cure-all but it has helped some.
  13. Schmetterling Well-Known Member

    I was in a guild that had allied guilds on Unrest and we would go do dungeons and even casual raids together so the idea is there , now we just need to rekindle this or spread it
    Maybe something like a guild leader chat should be created that leaders and officers of all guilds on on server can use to coordinate bigger quests I think personal contact works better than the dungeon finder .
    in another guild we had low level night when we would take out our lowest level player on line at that time and take them through any quests they needed.
  14. suka Well-Known Member

    it takes time to build a community and an alliance. i am glad you are working on that on your server. don't be discouraged by the no-sayers who prefer to sit back and poke at everyone rather than join in. hopefully we will still have some servers left after this month is over with and we should put more effort into uniting the people on them. there are guild leaders and even community leaders on each server that i am sure are trying their best to form alliances and help everyone they can
  15. Griffon Lady Well-Known Member

    My husband reminded me of yet another way a merger could be done while preserving people's names. Dark Age of Camelot combined their servers into clusters on one server, basically enabling people to go to different simulated servers on the one big server, added the original server tag when they went to another cluster/server. This brought group oriented people together without losing identities. This is also fantastic for people who don't like crowded zones, since it adds other simulated servers to move to if the one you are in gets too populated for comfort.

    It's basically multiple instances of the entire game, but under the names of the old servers, and characters just get tagged like when they go to Battle Grounds when they zone to one of the others.
  16. suka Well-Known Member

    what an awesome way to do it
  17. Gramma Active Member


    No one is redfaced stomping. Or even capslock- oh.

    Pardon me, I see you capslocked.
    I didn't mean any disrespect by implying that capslock was an inappropriate emotional response to a discussion on the internet.

    By all means, please, capslock away.

    I post here when I am off from work. But when I inquired with my employer* about potentially just popping in to reclaim a name which I previously had carefully selected and become accustomed to...you know just a day or two off work at the whim of the video game company, so I could secure it; the poor man nearly choked on his coffee. You see, unfortunately, my employer could not wrap his head around the intricacies of a server merge, despite my best attempts to describe it. He did not feel moved to send me home to sit and wait for Daybreak to get around to telling us exactly when they would take away the one thing that gave my character...character. So, it seems that some schoolchild or some housewife will be using my character's name because it wasn't convenient to my employer to put business on hold until a character's name could be secured.*

    Since I have had the experience previously, I can tell you that I will not be as interested in playing a game where my creative work is erased and awarded to someone else simply by benefit of who was sitting home at the particular time Daybreak decided to give it away. It happened before and it isn't an idle empty threat. I quit playing the game when it happened. The game lost all its appeal. I'm sure you have plenty of time to choose all the names you like. That's grand. Some of us only get a few minutes here and there to enjoy playing and can't sit around waiting all day. We have bills to pay and families to attend to.

    If Daybreak makes this game inconvenient, people will go somewhere else more accommodating to enjoy themselves. This game will cease to be a pleasant diversion and become more like work. And EQ2 was someplace that was supposed to be the opposite of work. Who's going to compensate my employer for lost work? Who's going to compensate me for lost hours?* I've invested enough money into this hobby to feel cheated that Daybreak would demand I invest even more time and effort into trying to secure a vital part of the identity of a character I enjoyed playing for years.

    This issue is divisive because it exposes the two different types of gamers that play MMORPGs. Some gamers enjoy the race to the end, racking up points and gear and whatnot. Some are here for the RP aspects as MMORPGs are the natural evolution of tabletop games and an imaginative theater in which to immerse yourself in an enchanting environment for a few precious minutes once in a while. Both sides tend to view each other with hostility and think themselves the player base. The player base is comprised of both elements, in actuality. Let's try to accommodate both sides, Daybreak, instead of caving in to the dollars and cents of it. Did Smedley bite you?* Did you catch whatever it was he had?

    Take away the fun and replace it with work and you will lose player loyalty.

    *Conversation with employer is for illustrative purposes only and not an actual event. A person would have to be insane to try to convince their boss to give them a day off for a videogame...or very comfortable in their position in the company... or maybe they work in the mythical land of unions and their boss leaves a mint on their pillow at night after drawing their bath for them and reading them a bedtime story.
    * Schoolchildren and housewives are not in any way meant to be denigrating terms. They are two important functioning parts of a thriving society with many beneficial contributions.
    *Commentator does not expect financial compensation for lost anything but is merely drawing an argument out to its logical conclusion.
    *Commentator actually does not dislike Smedley, but does believe he should never be allowed to speak publicly.
  18. Tatll New Member

    I hope i get to keep my name. I'd be devastated if i had to tack on a THIRD l at the end:(
  19. Losadunai Active Member

    My only concern with names is the potential to end up with an ugly X. If we got into the new server and were offered a one time, one use per character name change ONLY on the new server, I'd be good with that. I wouldn't be good with having to pay for one because someone else got my name and I was stuck with a derpy X.
  20. Foretold Well-Known Member


    All server merger name changes in the past - the dreaded x - have come with a free name change. They don't force you to keep the x :D
    Losadunai, suka and HaphazardAllure like this.