Kander's Candor Questions thread! [Always Open]

I apologize if these questions have been asked already somewhere.

1. What do you think are the core things that make a game fun?
Does the excitement of a brand new server have a different feel than a brand new expansion? What is the exact reason for that, and it is possible to put into a new expansion? The best time that I ever had playing Everquest 2 was in the first few expansions. I spent countless hours in ROV and SOS and it was fun, but the new zones don't hold that same weight. Other players were part of the fun, but I also played it solo. I'm sure there are several factors. If we could identify exactly what those are and bottle it for future expansions, that would be great.

2. Are there any plans in the future to update the house builder UI?
I would like to select the item to drop from a window popup. The popup would list every house item in the game, with a filter to narrow my selection down. I would be able to click the item slot, and if I have it in my box, then it would appear on my cursor to drop. The item slot in the window would also have a number telling me how many I have.

3. Is it possible to make a pure solo server?
Some solo players, such as myself, love to complete quest lines and collections. It would be so much more fun for me if I was able to, but my completions get stuck behind heroics and raid mobs. So I'm forever missing that no-trade shiny, or not completing a sig line or what ever. A leader board that shows all the achievements, collections, quests etc, would add to the fun as well. It would also be cool if the next expansion doesn't become available to port into until all the signatures, main questlines and creatures have been killed.

4. Can we have a server that lets us play multiple toons at once?
I would select up to 6 toons, log in to form a group. The active toon would play like normal and the other toons would play like mercs. Then I could easily switch my active toon in game, and my ui and spells would update.

5. Could we have server unique items?
Lets say a player loots an item from a special box. They are the only one on the server that gets that item. They can have a new item upon looting another box, but before they get to see what the item is, they have to destroy their current item. Which goes back into the pool. These items are not tradable, and one toon can only have 1 item at a time.

6. Everquest 2 offline app?
Okay, I'm probably going overboard here. Back in the day, some people loved to play D&D sitting around a table. Everyone pull out their phone and open the app. The dungeon master get access to all the mobs and stats, plus player stats that join the game. The other players get to roll a character on their app. Then the dungeon master starts telling the story, 3 players encounter 2 creatures, the dm selects the creatures and the players in the group, then the players get to select how they will fight on their app and roll the die. The app keeps track of all the nitty gritty calculations and stats. One player does something stupid and steps in lava, and dm can send a request to roll a die along with amount of damage and the character rolls a die on the app and the saves etc are all calculate in order to keep the story rolling and fun. Anyway, you get the idea.

"I don't agree with everything you say, but I'll defend your right to say it. " --paraphrase of Evelyn Beatrice Hall (apparently not Voltaire?)

1. Yep! Agree with 100%; since everyone will have a favorite playing style, I think the things that make a game fun are various options. The more options, the merrier, imho. For the required timelines, adventuring and crafting, make them using the regular mechanics, but experiment along the way in other, varied instances off the main line (see the heated "discussion" in the thread about arcade game-style mechanics, for example). Have every instance, though, have Solo, Advanced Solo, Heroic, etc. versions. I recall my profound unhappiness with the Hedge Maze in Nights of the Dead in 2022 when they changed it DRASTICALLY from what we were used to for the past several years, essentially making it only fun for the level-capped folks (maybe) instead of all the rest of us, as per usual in the old days. :-/ That's one where, if they want to keep the capped folks interested, have a Heroic version just for them and the regular old one for the rest of us. I hoped they saved that bit o' code. ;->

2. Intriguing! The main thing I would like would be for, when we go to click on the Search button on our character sheet, we get the actual numbers of said items in the response. It's gratifying to know that I do actually have [a pristine Flying Left-Handed Family Credenza] in Bag 1, Slot 1 in the shared bank, have it in the House Vault, and have it in my inventory bags somewhere, but how many in each?? :-/

3. Please yes, o devs? (Though I'm not entirely sure about that last bit.)

4. That -- would probably be very, very tricky. I'm not sure of an MMO out there that can do this, but that could be why the Overseer thing was implemented?

5. Hmm...we have (had? haven't returned in years, so I dunno) that in WoW, to an extent; we have(/had) the typical Fabled, Mythical, Legendary, etc. type categories for items, usually color-coded, so if you saw someone with something immensely cool on their person (even if it was just a visible Belt that was actually made by a Tailor or Smith as a piece of armor ;->) and went to Examine it, if the name of it was like in puce or something, you just knew that person got the only one available anywhere on that server. It's cool for bragging rights, I guess, but I dunno...I've never been fond of "elitist" stuff in either game, and I get hives thinking about Destroying anything. :-/ And that idea might even eliminate the item as something in the Wardrobe forever?

6. If the folks are sitting around the same table in person, why would they need the app? Just pull out the books, dice, and minis and there you go. ;-> If they're sitting around their own tables in their own homes due to whatever (group members moved too far away; group members too sick with the latest horrible illness to go around or studiously avoiding the same; nasty, horrible surprise weather fronts [/raising_paw]; etc.), then I could see where the app would be very useful, like the Virtual Table Top programs out there.

Iirc, didn't the EQniverse try that sort of thing out at least once? Whatever became of it? :-/

Uwk

Thank you for replying! You could open the beast books and pass around character sheet, try and keep track of all the stats, but the app would eliminate the tedious stuff so players can focus on the story and role playing.

Meh, call me old-fashioned then, I guess. Though it seems the OGL 1.1 or 2.0 or whatever they're calling it could render all of that moot, Dead Tree Form or otherwise. :-/

I just hope it won't affect this game... :-/

Uwk