If you could ask Darkpaw ONE question (For The EverQuest Show)...

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by Fading Illusion, Feb 5, 2023.

  1. Fading Illusion Active Member

    What would your one question be?

    I'm working on some upcoming content/interviews/episodes of The EverQuest Show...

    So, I wanted to see what the top concern/curiosity from the community was.

    If you were able to just ask ONE question of the developers/studio...

    What would you ask?

    Fading
    Sturmlocke likes this.
  2. Morukta The ORIGINAL Micro-Gnome

    Wow, this may get a LOT of entries running the gamut of good & bad.
    Me, I'll have to think on it a bit for a real, serious entry, but the first that pops to mind is:
    "WHY are the wants, needs & desires of the player community (ie, cash generating aspects of the game) ignored over & over again? And I'm not just talking about the difficulty of working in spaghetti code. PS - From all of the decorators & crafters who felt so ignored & reviled for literally YEARS, Thank You for hiring Denmum!!!"

    -Specifically, all the stupid* RNG crates on the marketplace is just one example. We want to buy the items directly, not whittle away our retirements hoping that the 10,000th one will finally give that elusive rare...... *personal opinion ;)
    -Specifically, we've asked for years (eons in Norrath) for the ability to buy older expansion CE packs, etc. JUST the goodies, not buying the actual expansion, to be clear. I'm still utterly failing to see what possible reason could explain why that has never happened. It could generate HUGE amounts of cash for DBG, just for the houses, house items & recipes, not to mention the other perks!! How hard or how much time would it really take to put that together and throw them on the marketplace?

    Anyhoww, /soapbox off :confused:

    Nanu-Nanu!!
  3. Kenn Well-Known Member

    There are obviously so many things that could be enhanced in the game, but behind the scenes, what is the team actually concerned about? I'm sure housing upgrades are way down the list. It seems like if something is changed in previous expansions, it is very minor. Is the team almost entirely focused on getting the next expansion out? It would be cool to tour around the office and see how many people are working on the project and what they are focusing on. Sometimes I feel like 5-6 people are working on the project, but then an expansion is made, seems like that would take more people.
  4. Cusashorn Well-Known Member

    For anyone who is going to complain about the business practices employed within the game like Heritage Crates and stuff-- please know and keep in mind that the developers just program the game. They often have no control over what the higher-up managing the company decide to be put into the game.

    Furthermore, devs are split into different departments and aspects of the game that only they can tackle. Don't scream at the art devs about class balance, or at the coders for marketing. It's not their forte.
    Breanna likes this.
  5. Heresford Active Member

    What is the organizational structure of the development team?

    I haven't yet seen the show, so I don't know if you've already covered this, but it would be interesting to know if design decisions are made by architects, project managers, business analysts, or someone else. Since Cusashorn has pointed this out, I'd also like to know what the individual duties are and how they are broken out. Perhaps this could illuminate more about the creative process, such as the genesis of the invention of the story and setting of each new expansion.
    rutro likes this.
  6. Tanto Done, finished, gone.

    Wouldn't you stand a better chance of making good design decisions if you were all playing the game? And I don't mean popping in to check if something works here and there, I mean PLAYING the game. It's the worst kept secret that practically none of the dev team plays the game, but some do play other MMOs. Hmm, why is that I wonder?
    AOE1, Quiarrah and Morukta like this.
  7. DENSER Well-Known Member

    that's exactly the question that comes to me .
    are they actively playing the game they produce?
    On the one hand I would understand that no, it's a job for them, would we want to play in a game WE work everyday, to rest? Maybe not.

    Allocated a post in this sense would be a plus .
    Much more than an Arc, whose power of implication remains very vague to me.
  8. Heresford Active Member


    That's another good question. What is the UAT (User Acceptance Testing) process? Is there a dedicated environment for it and someone whose responsibilities include playing the game? Now this could be split out as Development/QA/Production, but the process should include someone playing the game, and playing the game through different scenarios. I think a good strategy would be to assign every new hire to some time learning and playing the game to provide feedback on the new user experience.
  9. Nodlef Active Member

    (I can't ask on the EQ forums as I'm not a "veteran")

    The back end work necessary to support the Census API was completed for the original EverQuest several years ago so that players could create their own websites and tools that use this data instead of relying on Magelo. Do we have any idea if this functionality will be finished and switched on in the near future?
  10. Morukta The ORIGINAL Micro-Gnome

    Well, thanks for using 'anyone' instead of my name specifically. LOL
    However, the OP proposition was about to DBG as a whole, as a game studio company along with the developers. Not just the developers, not just one dept or another, not the only executives holding all the leashes behind the scenes, but ALL of DBG.

    So to re-butt, I am still 100% sure that my question is the exact question I would pose, they can decide who it would be best handled by.

    o_O
    Avirodar and Dude like this.
  11. Pixistik Don't like it? You're not alone!

    The art team did a great job on VoV, it was one of the best expansions as far as art goes that I have seen.
    Sturmlocke likes this.
  12. Sturmlocke Linux enthusiast playing EQ2 via Proton.

    Just one question?

    Hm, that's a difficult one, but here it goes (typing from my phone so gotta keep it short):

    Now that we're doing DirectX11, are more visual upgrades in the cards / works for EQ 1 and 2?

    By visual upgrades I mean (long-term):

    - upgrades to our character models

    - upgrades to our game world: less loading screens, true open world (get rid of the zoning and allow ppl to seamlessly sail from continent to continent by ship in real-time - no loading), better flora, better shadows, updated assets and textures, better lighting, animations, ... etc.

    - enhanced weather effects

    - better and more beautiful underwater visuals

    - are complete underwater zones like Vashjir possible technically / graphically

    - new engine maybe (forgelight) ?

    - official 4k support (UI)

    Short-term:

    - fixed water refraction, reflection and ripples (as promised some time ago, see bug report in my signature), fixed shadow glitches

    Generally more info on what the plans are when it comes to the graphics of these worlds would be great and very much appreciated. I'd love to see a little bit of refurbishing going on. See my signature for more info on this topic. Btw, the most popular YT comment on our new RoR expac is asking the very same thing and is very close to reaching 50 likes so far.
    Sweety D likes this.
  13. Londoner Member

    For myself it would be why can't the offer a simple explanation on game changes ?
    Examples why limit Rare's, why the changes on the broker ect
    They must sit around in meetings to discuss these changes it would not be hard to include them in game update notes
    Twyla likes this.
  14. FuRiouSOne Well-Known Member

    When will we have proper multi-core support?

    That full thread is all EQ2, has been like this since 2004.

    [IMG]
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  15. Sweety D Well-Known Member

    This line of questioning has my vote!
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  16. Priority Well-Known Member

    I would ask when we're going to get a mechanics dev that actually wants to be here and put out a well balanced product.
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  17. Smashey Well-Known Member

    I would ask them who they gather player feedback from and what timeframe they are aiming to implement that player feedback in.

    Looking at the bug report section there are bugs that have been confirmed for 2 years now and not fixed, so just wondering I guess.

    Looking at the feedback section there are suggestions with 10+ likes completely ignored and no dev response or interaction in 99% of the posts, so just wondering I guess..
    Tanto, Twyla, Breanna and 1 other person like this.
  18. Jonsu New Member

    If you were given unlimited resources and time and could add or change one feature but in exchange you also have to remove one feature.

    1) What would you change or add?
    2) What would you remove?
    rutro likes this.
  19. rutro Well-Known Member


    Ascensions, and Fast Travel.
  20. AOE1 Well-Known Member

    My one questions would be:

    Why are questions or things that are important enough to be discussed by the devs done on Discord and not put on the Forums.

    There are some of us who do not use Discord for various reasons. We are totally left out of this loop yet we pay every month/by-month/every 6 months/per year and we buy every expansion, usually not the most expensive but not the cheapest. MANY questions asked here could be answered very simply by letting us ALL in on the vast knowlege that is put on Discord.
    Morukta likes this.