Community Letter: A Note from Jennifer Chan

Welcome!

Welcome. Please give us more transparency! Tell us what you're working on. Tell us if something goes wrong. Tell us the results of those surveys we keep taking. The more people are informed, the less the pitchforks will appear. A majority of the players are well over adulthood and can forgive mistakes if they are admitted. The majority of the staff that interact with the players here seem positive and understanding, and say when they can't make something happen. And please, please, please, assign someone permanently to the progression TLE.

Welcome to your new role. I am really hoping you will be able to get the game back on track. I have played this game from the beginning and have never quit or taken a break. I have always found something positive to do and enjoy in the game.

This update has changed that. I no longer look forward to adventuring. I am saddened that the BoL expac is a failure. I do not think I know anyone in my Norathian circle that actually likes the expac. It is incredibly underwhelming, with too many bugs to have been actually released. It feels like a we vs they situation where the people responsible for quality and inventiveness and product pride no longer care or have left the employ.

Everything is based on RNG and if your dice really suck all you can do is go to IoR and pay for transfers in order to buy the adorns you can never get or whatever else you need to be effective and be able to dawn the mobs and participate in a successful raid. This makes me feel like the developers are after cash grabs. I no longer trust the management of the company to have the players interest at heart.

All that is left is "buying" endless stuff to actually remain competitive. The blow dealt to mages and summoners in particular, feels like a planed undermine to force players to create a new class toon and spend more money to level ascension and spells and skills and the endless array of familiars and mercs and mounts.

I have all 9 crafting professions maxed and there is not much I can find to do that is useful. The "shadowed" idea is terrible. Having so many tiers of stuff to get to be able to make expert spells is ridiculous. The tailors, armorers and weaponsmiths are completely useless.

Every time I get my hopes up with promised greatness or fixes , I am disappointed. I imagine at this time most are wondering what game to play next. I feel sad because Everquest has been my world for so many years. I hope you can make a difference.

Grats on your new crown!

And thank you for this bit! Hrm... I hadn't considered tatertots as a side with this ;P

Stay sane, happy, healthy, flexible with ideas, and open with communication, please!

Edit: Bah, quoting your post hides your original italics.

Welcome JChan =) I hope your new position is fun and productive.

Ill reiterate many of the things said here already, if only for the sake of your knowing how many of us really do care about them...a lot.

-- put the level information back on harvests
-- stop adding busy work (we could do with a reduction, honestly) and just let us play already. Not everybody has 12 hours a day, every day, to remain relevant and effective. If I have to spend more of my precious, limited play time doing chores that enable me to do the fun things that I -want- to do, it's not a game anymore. It's just more work at the end of the day. We are at that point.
-- please take some time off from adding new content, or hire more folks, to fix the already existing content
-- crafting is all messed up. It is extremely difficult to get the recipe books we need and then the stuff is pretty much worthless.
-- related to the previous point, implement a way for people who cannot or do not want to raid to get comparable equipment and skills. I am a crafter/decorator and I just want to be able to get all the house items by myself. I still cant get many plunders n things from 3 expacs back.

There's more but these are the most important for me =) Again, welcome!!! I am looking forward to seeing what you're about!

Congratulations and Welcome!

I do not want to add to ALL the aforementioned issues and suggestions, which is why my first message was congrats and welcome. There have been plenty of suggestions and everyone has their own opinion about things. All I ask is you enjoy your new position and have fun! However, it would be nice if solo/molo players, decorators and crafters were not forgotten.

I prefer how it was in AoM (no offense) and we need a dedicated TS dev....

Welcome!
As others have mentioned, first, please put the levels back on harvests and fix the deplorable state of crafting. Secondly to quote Draidean , who phrased it very well, 'stop adding busy work (we could do with a reduction, honestly) and just let us play already. Not everybody has 12 hours a day, every day, to remain relevant and effective. If I have to spend more of my precious, limited play time doing chores that enable me to do the fun things that I -want- to do, it's not a game anymore. It's just more work at the end of the day'. And thirdly, all though some will disagree with me, please rethink heroic zones, we should not have to put in 'raider effort' to just run a group zone. There should be group content that is doable by most after finishing sig line etc. without jumping through all the hoops we need to now.

I must say I am surprised. This game does not need more of the same. If that really is darkpaw games strategy, this game will continue to bleed loyal customers that withstood both KA, PoP and CD.

The game needs to be flipped up side down, stripped apart, systems removed, and the rest reassembled in the spirit of eq2 pre ToV. Anyone that played since release knows that after ToV the game started to be come the bastard child of World of warcraft, the discount WoW and its only gotten worse and worse and especially the last three expansions have looked cheap and felt cheap.

I have not seen a single unique idea added to EQ2 since diety points, which is now rewarded to anyone for pretty much free. Pretty much all other features have been taken from other games. (The laggy PQs from WAR, the daily quest system from wow, the overseer system, the stream lining of stats) That is one of the only ways you will get players to return to this game, in my opinion. Add something unique again.

In 2020 servers are more laggy than ever. Server crashes almost daily. People cant log in. People that wants to swap characters have to go through several loops to even attempt to logon.

I dont understand how Darkpaw now 3 months after release dont give everyone a free month of game time. Or at least an apology for releasing an expansion so broken. Crafting is still useless, raid encounters still get completely rewamped now 3 months after release, hardly any non raid content other than META collection. How can you release an expansion without balancing classes is another mystery, especially with a 10 level increase. So much stuff just wasnt ready and I dont see anyone at darkpaw actually feeling any sort of remorse that this happen.

I wish you good luck Jennifer, but if the strategy is more of the same, I fear for the game I play (well logon) to every day and still raid 3 times a week in.

Thanks for introducing yourself, JChan; I'm happy that an experienced, steady hand is at the wheel of EQ2.

I look forward to bug fixes and patches, and I hope 2020 is a great year both in-game and out for all of us.

*cheers!*

Merry meet, Jennifer Chan!
I shall only say that I agree with all that has been mentioned previously. I truly wouldn't wish to be in your position. I know you must feel like the screaming damsel as the knife thrower ties on her blindfold, especially if you have never seen her do so before. I still have a lot of love for the game, but I find myself doing older content with my multitude of characters rather than focusing on BoL. In fact, I've only gotten one toon thru the Crafting Timeline, so, she's the only one that can fly there out of 43. Yeah, kind of a letdown for me at least. And since I am doing lower level older content, like getting the Earring of the Solstice, or the Containment items from ToT, or the Grandmaster Cloak from OF, it would help to know the level of the harvests besides having to go to GH or Personal Depots to look.
Anyway, Gratz on the Promotion, and best of luck!
Merry part, for now.

Welcome to your new position, Jennifer Chan!

Like others, I have my "wants", but I really do wish you the best. I've played EQ2 since about 4 months after launch (I was playing EQ before that, since 2000) with a break due to finances

• I enjoy the recent holiday house items very much, as well as most of the BoL house items, though why name the rolling pin "Hornbeam SPRUCE" when it uses "Wracked Wood Wedges"? Very much looking forward to the rest of the holidays/events, particularly Oceansfull and Scorched Sky.
• Like many others, there have been recent changes, mostly associated with BoL that are extremely frustrating. BoL is the first expac that I am SORRY I purchased, to a fair extent. I LOVE the zone art, particularly in The Blinding and Aurelian Coast. And I am very pleased with MANY of the house items (though there need to be a LOT FEWER of the crates, crate lids and bones).
• PLEASE put back the harvest item levels; there are so many that it's annoying to have to remember levels for what's in your bag. If some items are used for multiple tier, then perhaps designate THOSE with a "Special" for level.
• BoL: I don't bother with any mob, because I KNOW that there's NO chance for a drop SPELL/CA/recipe book. At max level, there is NO POINT in adventuring for the sake of adventuring (while harvesting or doing actual quests) since almost NOTHING drops anything worthwhile and seldom even small change, status items or drop quests. The few drop quests are OK, but reward only substandard items, potions or infusers and a shiny. The ONLY TS books that I've gotten (and few and far between) are from Overseer Quests. My Sage is STILL missing Shadow Sage 17, 18, 19 and 20; the ONLY one on the brokers costs a HUGE 22 MILLION plat.
• I feel that we are being FORCED into doing instances (particularly Heroic and PQs/Raids) in order to get ANY Master spells or TS books higher than 13. I play EQ2 for relaxation (a lot) and I don't consider those to be relaxing); particularly Solo instances, since the rewards are (again) substandard gear and maybe infusers or potions.
• I like tradeskilling, decorating AND adventuring, but BoL seems to want to totally disregard the tradeskiller. For example, the rewards include 2 utterly useless appearance items: a hand rake (??) and a blah looking appearance outfit. The final reward is the Shadow Staff which is REQUIRED to harvest shadow harvest, but will only give 30 seconds after harvesting the first shadow harvest, then you have a long cool-down. What???
• Periodic communication as to reported bugs (those reported in quantity by several different players) as in progress, known bug, resolved, etc.
• There are other things, such as "empty" Overseer Quest rewards occurring and things others have mentioned, but you've been hit with plenty, most of which I'm sure you've already noted.

Anyway back to WELCOME Looking forward to seeing what will come.

Hail and well met, Jennifer Chan! I can't say Welcome to EQ/EQ2 since you've been here for so long, but welcome to your new position. I wish you the best of everything and hope for positive changes.

I've been with EQ since launch and EQ2 since shortly after launch, subscribing the entire time, and love the game ("EverCrack" is an appropriate nickname). I must say that Luclin...well, I agree with a lot of what's already posted and am hoping for improvements.

Be well and, again, welcome!

welcome and congrats Jennifer!

but personally i am not looking forward to leveling something else (overseer)....sorry but ourselves, mercenaries, familars, mounts, spells and such is enough already....all of this crap and yes i said crap takes numerous RL days, weeks and even months to complete.....only to rinse and repeat......unless you are willing to fork over tons of money.....spell drops are pretty much non existent....you gotta have this level spell in order to learn that one and so on and so on....when is enough enough.....if you all would convert it to in game time that be at least something.....for example instead of 30 RL game days, make it 30 in game days.
if a person is not high end geared they cannot do heroics, even full groups struggle.....make it so the average joe can enjoy it all too......not every one has 6 people (especially high geared) available
and yes trade skilling is also a pain in the butt.....either the rares are so rare or hard to come by that we can't make it.....or worse they only drop in places where only elite geared can go.
i just renewed my yearly subscription.....had this been posted before it was due i would have switched to monthly til the changes are done and if there is more changes like that drop it all together.....so i am stuck with it for now......but if things don't start being geared more for the average player and easier leveling where spells etc etc is concerned i won't buy the next XPAC or renew next year....
also please start using the forums and such again to tell us news/game stuff, not just discord.....not everyone likes/uses that program.
another thing....make it so people still get decent experience from older expansions so people are willing to revisit them not just when they must......adornments.....omg enough with that already.....the yellow/orange ones were nice, now useless....red ones are rare.....it gets old every expansion another damn color, which is no good when the next expansion comes around....stick with them and just upgrade em.....if you want to have different tiers like treasured, fabled etc etc....ok but at least let us poor average peeps use our yellow/orange adornments.
as to class balancing.....that's nice if you beef some classes that need it up (some very much need it) but mostly it means nerf others that are having fun....which is so not cool.....i probably forgot a few things, but oh well....

sorry for the complaints, but i think they are dead on

It should be pretty obvious by the detailed posts in this thread alone that most of us are eager for some much needed improvement to the game. There are some things that could be improved upon that would result in a huge benefit to the overall gameplay:
1. Communication between the devs/eq2 team and the user base has been virtually non-existent, any suggestions to improve one of the endless bugs or game play is heard on deaf ears. I can guarantee you that many of us are sick of "new" expansions that offer nothing but to further inflate the economy or add even more bloat to the market while core parts of the game remain unfixed. Maybe take a hint from the fact that TLE servers are so successful: less is more. Work on perfecting the original content before making more broken trash. One way you could guarantee favorable changes is by setting up a voting system (in game or otherwise, think osrs), and learn what it is that we want to see changed.
2. Speaking of game play changes, the amount of problems with the current game is downright insulting for the amount of money you have made off of us. Almost every aspect of the game is bloated, unoptimized, bugged, or ignored in some form. Damage numbers, the economy, crafting, pve balance, haveyouguysheardofpvpb4?, AAs, travel. It's all whack. Pay to win microtransactions on top of a monthly subscription fee? Paying for new classes? EXP boosts for RL $? ???? How is this game any better than a mobile app cash grab?
3. If these things are too difficult to implement, please consider releasing the original game code so we can create our own servers. If P99 is allowed to exist in the original EQ I don't see why we emulate servers for EQ2. There is still so much missing data within the private servers we do have, fixing this problem would take the least amount of effort on your end. Allowing us to emulate the game in its entirety can push the boundaries of EQ2 in ways that Daybreak wouldn't care to try. Also maybe try rebuilding the original clients? (these inaccurate TLEs are so bad).

I really hope that you read through these comments and realize that the most important objective is fixing what we already have. I think that applying any of the above would greatly enhance the health and longevity of the game. The reason you see posts on this thread giving suggestions and requesting more info is because there are still many passionate players that want to see this game succeed. Taking a new path towards changes that respect the player base may not be profitable short term, but there is a great opportunity in improving the long term. I wish you luck as you take on the responsibilities that we trust in you!

Welcome!!

All I ask is for the darn harvestables/crafting items to have levels re-attached to them and for shrubs to not give me rare roots...

Thanks in advance

Surely it's time to turn this game around from being a cash grab, to what customers want and enjoy again.
I just hope you can make that happen.

Fix crafting before you destroy it completely, and start listening to your customers before they're all lost on your watch.

Welcome to being the Head Honcho...

Sorry but you get the headaches as well.

Crafting in the new Expansion It needs to be fixed. (Especially the weird fuel that you need now). Should be an easier way to get it.

I started EQ2 when you needed components to even (riviets etc) make armor etc. And this new Expansion for crafting is worse than that.

The overseer stuff is interesting, but it still needs fixes. One thing that would make EQ2 more enjoyable if you could somehow use the multithreaded capabilities of the Newer processors (that were introduced since EQ2 began). The Frame rate would skyrocket, (we could run at a higher quality) and EQ2 could look like the piece of art that it is. That may attract back those that like the look of WoW.

Thanks for listening, and Good luck with the New position!

Yes, good gawd the lag. And the loading times. And the crashing. I would expect all of this to keep improving over time but it's gone backwards. We'll be at dial-up performance before too much longer. Yes, I was around for that LOL