Future Content: A Letter from Director of Development Dave Georgeson

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by RadarX, Jan 31, 2014.

  1. RadarX Community Manager

    Hail, Fellow Norrathians!

    We’d like to talk to you about how we’re delivering new adventures and new features into your worlds in both EQ and EQII.

    We’ve listened to you on the forums, across social media, and face-to-face at our many events. There have been some common topics that come up about the things you like and don’t like with what we’ve been doing, and we’re using that information to customize our new direction.

    Our approach so far:

    · Up until now, we’ve been focusing on major content releases all year round in both games.
    o Essentially we have planned four big updates a year, with one of those updates being super-sized as the expansion.
    o Plus, bunches of little updates scattered throughout the year.

    Your reaction to that approach:

    · Mostly “meh”. The quarterly updates were high quality and cool, but not big enough to really feel expansion-ish. Plus, casual players often fell behind and felt disconnected from their friends.

    · Generally negative on the consequence that had on expansion sizes. Because we were releasing large chunks of content quarterly, the expansion got compressed into a shorter time schedule, which meant that its features had to fit within a shorter cycle also. We were often able to create many, many hours of gameplay in those expansions, but that didn’t really substitute for the feeling of sheer zone quantity. (And zones take a loooong time to make, so they were a natural victim of the shorter expansion schedule.)
    o NOTE: This was a “good intentions” change. Lots of content spread around the year seemed like a really good idea. It even seemed that it was at first as players got excited with the big pushes. The negatives didn’t start to show until we’d been doing it for a year or so.

    So how are we fixing that? Basically, we’ve decided to release regular improvements every week, then every month we’ll push something cool to you. Beyond that, we’re focusing the rest of our efforts into making great expansions!

    Here’s a bit more detail:

    · What sorts of things will come out weekly?
    o These will be things like straight-up feature refinements, holiday events, short adventures, or pretty much anything that doesn’t merit being in the expansion or being a big monthly highlight. But something of this sort comes every week.
    · What sorts of things will you deliver monthly?
    o Each month, we’re going to do something interesting and fun, like aging a cool existing dungeon up to end-game levels and itemization, or adding a series of quests for players to find and explore. Maybe even a new zone sweeper or random world event, or that sort of thing. Something new and fun to experience with friends and guildies.
    · How will this impact the quality of the expansion?
    o We’re putting a huge emphasis on how important the expansion pack is to you. The feedback on that has been almost universal. “Make Our Expansion Matter.” So that’s what we intend to do.
    · Is SOE locked into this schedule? Do we mean EVERY week and EVERY month?
    o Answer: Yes, we mean it. We’re going to work hard to make it happen regularly and dependably.

    We like this new strategy as a whole. The EQ and EQII team Producers (Thom and Holly) have created detailed schedules of how the rhythm of this stuff will play out across the coming months. And my reaction, as a player of these games, is that it all sounds pretty fantastic.

    Again, this doesn’t reduce the amount of content we’re delivering to you. The EQ and EQII dev teams are robust in size and are constantly overhauling tools so that higher quality content can be created in even less time, so we can deliver even more. They work tirelessly throughout the year making our Norraths better because we (the dev teams and SOE) all love these worlds.

    But what do you think? Does this sound like fun to you too?

    · Weekly and monthly improvements and adventures
    · Major focus on the annual expansion content and story


    Let us know! Thanks!

    Dave Georgeson
    Director of Development
    EverQuest Franchise
    Belenos, Cyliena, Kurisutaru and 7 others like this.
  2. Xeos Well-Known Member

    As long as these updates don't only consist of fluff I am all for it. I would also like to see more attention paid to the PVP aspect - the only aspect I enjoy and partake in - of the game.
  3. Naudi Active Member

    " aging a cool existing dungeon up to end-game levels and itemization"

    Please let this mean in addition to it's original counterpart, WITH a twist on old mechanics.
    Katra, Belenos, flameweaver and 2 others like this.
  4. ITPalg Member

  5. Absyntheea Well-Known Member

    This sounds great! One thing I would like to ask for is to make sure there are new quests for the various holidays. Sure, we get pretty new stuff to make and sometimes earn from old quests.. but I really miss coming in to a holiday and there's interesting new things to DO! I barely play the holidays any more because it's all the same stuff. I appreciate the new content and zone we got from Frostfell, but NOTD had no new quests. Neither did Hero's Fest. I don't remember there being any new quests for Tinkerfest According to test server, there's no new quests for Erollisi day either. :-( I was really hoping for some new news about Errolisi's storyline!
    Katra, Bibbs, Sunnipaw and 8 others like this.
  6. Mystarra New Member

    Look forward to seeing a return to those large zone expansions! I've sorely missed continuing to see expansions like Faydwer and Kunark.
    Begonia, Bibbs, Sunnipaw and 8 others like this.
  7. Uncle Active Member

    What sorts of things will you deliver monthly?
    oEach month, we’re going to do something interesting and fun, like aging a cool existing dungeon up to end-game levels and itemization, or adding a series of quests for players to find and explore. Maybe even a new zone sweeper or random world event, or that sort of thing. Something new and fun to experience with friends and guildies



    so how is this content going to be tested to be bug free(example: fabled lab of lord vyemm crashing as you do trash while working from the first named to the second completely locks the zone up and yes it is a known issue) and itemization progression not going to get broken along the way.. I am all for more content but I also want content that not going to take weeks/months to fix after it has been put in the game as well.
    suka and Uwkete-of-Crushbone like this.
  8. Le Clown Active Member

    lol wat


    edit: Bizarre 'change', is this a copied schedule of another popular MMO?? a move to reallocate 1-2 extra people on that yearly 'big' expac?

    As someone eluded to already, you wish to produce "new" content monthly without current content working, which already requires WEEKLY updates to fix?

    tl;dr A lot of us are getting burnt out not because of content being 'fresh enough', but because it's broken as ___. Maybe this time table will force your employee's to stay focused on one thing 4 weeks at a time instead of what we see now.

    also, NEVER MAKE ANOTHER CONTESTED MOB EVER AGAIN KTY.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  9. Rred New Member

    As a worshipper and devotee of Erollisi I must second this! There was a brief time when the Shard of Love bloomed with beauty. Now I spend my days cleaning neglectful muck. I am disenchanted. Please expand this storyline and others in the world.
    Katra, Sunnipaw, IZELLIA and 7 others like this.
  10. Lightt Member

    as long as this doesn't mean "6-8 hour down time" every month, it sounds great to me
    Sunnipaw, Ranga, Bregdania and 2 others like this.
  11. Maltaros Active Member

    And PLEASE don't just make everything for end-of-game. Do some cool revamps and content at low- and mid-level too.
  12. Gaelmyst New Member

    Put me in the "I like it!" column. I'm a quest driven player who wants to take time and really explore areas, read the content in NPC offerings - not just click, click, click through it all - with a focus on enjoying the game rather than power-leveling through content as fast as one can. I have often felt that "left behind" feeling after being gone for a few weeks, or being completely lost when changes to user interface and such come up often. I like the idea of one big expansion a year and some fun things along the way. As mentioned by Absyntheea above, a new quest added to holiday content is always fun. Also, surprise mini quests now and then (such as one offered by a GM one day in Nerriak that resulted in a nifty house item) would be fun. Thanks for your responsiveness to player input and the dedication to continuing our long-running enjoyment in Norrath.
    Katra, Belenos, IZELLIA and 4 others like this.
  13. Lizabethan Active Member

    Guys, this is going to over-work your team.
  14. Crazycatlady Member

    I think this is a great idea. Hopefully you will still keep the casual/solo player in mind! It will give those of us the Gaelmyst and myself who like to do the quests and explore more time also!
    Cendres, Belenos, suka and 4 others like this.
  15. Hreysti Member


    Starter islands?
    ramblinrod, Bibbs, Zookeeper and 8 others like this.
  16. Ayeutia Member

    Plus, casual players often fell behind and felt disconnected from their friends.

    I hope to see more of that! Thats why I love EQ2 is i can solo, group or raid my choice. Would also like to see changes to Epics. Why does the Beastlord and Channeler have to wait for an epic that they still can use at 95 yet all the other classes dont or its not worth it. EQ did the same thing shortly afterwards, so why not down grade the level of beastlord and channeler and make the new Epic 2.0 for all to use at 95. Also, I need some changes done to crafting. Writs that are down below lvl 69-71 are 20, 24, 29, 30??? It should be more spaced out, why run 5 lvls of the same writ to get to the 9's of that tier. Could you space them better like 20, 24, 27, 30?
    suka and Uwkete-of-Crushbone like this.
  17. Ayeutia Member

    Oh and one more thing. Change the guild hall cookie cutter style. Pick the size prestige home for each tier and allow guilds to pick city and one of the houses. For instance, tier 3 hall, you could choose, freeport, qeynos halls or maybe darklight palace as a guild hall. So keep existing but add different styles to them. Of course tiers 1 and 2 would have different homes to choose from.
    Bibbs, daicia, IZELLIA and 4 others like this.
  18. Thlexian New Member

    I love the spirit of the idea, but as a RL software dev project manager, I worry about the implementation. I echo concerns of more broken content in trying to deliver new functions and features to the player community. I'm as Agile as the next Scrum Master, but I still question weekly drops. Things can go wonky fast on that delivery schedule.

    PS - another plea for a gnashing devourer (Skyfire Mountains model) petamorph. Oh please!
    Bibbs, Sambril, suka and 2 others like this.
  19. Yozilie Active Member

    This does sound fun, but .... I agree - I believe it will be very demanding to keep the pace. Also, it wont do much good to the players if the content release if focused on raid guilds / bots. From what I see, the average player has little chance to obtain raid gear thus keeping them from doing certain content. It would be great to see Adv Solo Fabled dungeons that actually drop raid gear. If you want players to group and raid, they need the gear to do so, and the current grind is a beast. If not that, then give something back to the crafters so they can actually craft gear that is the same, or comparable to raid gear, and able to hold the current adornments.

    I also agree that something needs done with guild size. Our guild is in Timorous Deep and its so small... It would be nice to be able to pick he size, and perhaps even "one click" change the floor and wall pattern without having to place tiles here and there. I see many level 95 guilds in small, cramped spaces.

    All-in-all, it sounds fun. But will there be a specific place for players to go each week to read what the changes are, or will it just be up to the players to discover?
    Katra, Bibbs, Gilasil and 3 others like this.
  20. Yozilie Active Member

    P.S.

    Will you guys please change the Elite Merc system? Yes, the locations are on EQ2Maps. Many members of our guild have tried "camping" them, and we are simply banging our heads on the wall. The true locations and spawn times are sold for plat, and that just ads insult to injury. Thanks.
    Katra, Belenos, suka and 2 others like this.