A Note from Kander

Sigh, I come back from a break had to deal with RL, then I read all 12 pages of replies. I'm torn between being happy that I can still craft and being upset that some of the working crafting ideas had to be dismantled. Some changes are good, some are great, but there is a handful that honestly never should've happened. LON should still work, but then again I shouldn't complain too much. If the current crafting system was taken down and rebuilt from ground up, leaving all completed projects together along with a small in game rebate for mats then maybe it would be worth doing. Then again it would cause an uproar so loud that EQ2 would likely collapse. I would recommend making better high level recipes, I tend to agree with the sentiment that once you're past 100 it's all the same items. Maybe at 100 jewelers {Like me} could make necklaces or rings, crowns that actually show up on the player. Maybe even make a set or three of bikinis for tailors, or something else. How about an automated harpoon launcher that actually damages the player when the harpoon is launched? Or maybe a tinkered trap door that kills the player and sends them back into EQ2 main from their house. Possibly a guild hall door that transports a player to a random guild hall. Just things to think about, have fun and play nice.

Breanna and I both loved the sub-combines as well. We get pelted with rotten fruit when we bring this up, but we still let people know that we loved it and that this portion of the original game is what started us on our paths to alt-o-holism. I am sure she will pop in here and agree!!

O yes There were 2 things, mainly crafting for sure, but the other one was the shard runs. I made alts so I could still play when my poor little dead body was to hard to get too. But you absolutely had to have all 9 crafters so you could make all the combines, it was great fun. And in my opinion a bit more realistic then what it has became.

Actually it was Beghn that removed the sub-combines in LU13. Domino took over at some point after that.

I haven't launched the game since Erollisi day began, because right now just thinking about this game disgusts and nauseates me. It's quite obvious now that the majority of the current group of developers dislike crafting and want it removed from the game. They are doing their best to disenfranchise their entire tradeskill player base.

I would suggest that this will have a blow back effect upon the raiding segment of the population, which is quite obviously the population they cater to. Who, after all, is going to make their food, their ammo, their poisons, their potions, if the tradeskillers are gone? Although maybe that's what the PTBs have in mind; Darkpaw will start selling those kinds of things on the marketplace, and make more on micro transactions.

Darkpaw seems to believe that we are a captive audience. What they forget is that there ARE other games out there. Until recently, I had felt that this was the best game out there. With what they're doing to it, not any more. Maybe I'm wrong about what percentage of the game population are crafters, but it has seemed to me that at least 2/3 of the players are tradeskillers primarily, and adventurers only secondarily.

And for those who don't think this is a deliberate disenfranchisement, come on. We have not had ONE REPLY from Kander or any other developer regarding this, even though we have tagged him repeatedly. All they have done is shut down any threads that discuss this, as though censoring us will make the problem disappear.

well people are lazy , they want to be top level right away , they want to create 100 000 arrows in one combine
they buy their materials and so on , so I am not surprised they were happy to see the early crafting go .
I play other games where you still have to harvest rare wood and than work that over and over depending on what grade of
wood you want to use for your project and the wood cutter is a different job from the person who refines the wood to the carpenter who makes the furniture and wood weapons.
I am surprised we still have to watch the crafting and react to events . I still died crafting , ouch , I have to tell you I can for sure do without the dying part.

No, don't kill the player character (killing the player is a bit extreme...); we have enough prestige houses that do that. X-P

Just boot them out... ;->

Uwk

No. Not even in the RL Middle Ages did you have to do absolutely EVERYTHING just to make a sandwich, let alone a potion or a shirt. You went to the bottle makers after you got your materials cooked up; you went to the tailors to perhaps even get a shirt made up for you, but you didn't have to necessarily spin the wool yourself, weave it yourself, dye it yourself, etc., etc., etc., etc., especially not if you lived in a city, like where 99% of our crafting is done (or in a house or guild hall), you could just perhaps buy the dyed materials and sew it up yourself, if need be; i.e., a lot fewer steps, which is sort of what we do now.

And definitely by the RL Renaissance, there were a LOT more specialist shops where you could get what you needed for even your own craft jobs, let alone day to day needs. In other words, far less steps.

Uwk

Awesome! Bully for Beghn!

Uwk

Correct, and that's one of the reasons we bought EQ2. Having to sit with a list every time I look at my box of adorning materials isn't much fun.

Amen. I fully consider EQ2 to be a better version of EQ1, but that may just be me. ;->

Uwk

Subcombines were the primary reason why I would very rarely do ANY crafting at all, and only then by being threatened ("You'll have to make your own gear at some point!" "NOOOOoooooOOOO..."). Seriously, I detested every minute of it, and think it royally sucked. Once those were removed, that's when I started buying more character slots so I could have at least one of each of every craft available on each of my servers.

Uwk

It would have been a lot better to release a roadmap of when we can expect X fix. We have gotten empty words in the past before. Especially the people playing on the various TLE servers have been lied to again and again. We have been promised class balance in PoP, didnt happen. We were promised class balance in CD plus an attempt at sorting the ability bloat by consolidating spells, didnt happen either. We were promised a class balance patch at the end of January 2020 and now we are almost through February.

So can we get a roadmap on when we can expect fixes and when we can expect new content because we are already running out of non raid content.

If this was any other MMO the game would have been gone and forgotten a long time ago, and you continue to think your loyal paying customer will just accept whatever you throw at them? This is the first expansion where I hear guildies openly talk about finding other games to enjoy their free time on. This is the first expansion where I see general is only filled with memes about how awful the game is, there isnt even a whiteknight trying to defend the game like you saw in PoP or CD. This expansion release might just be the final nail in the coffin.

LOL but Uwk let's take spells for instance if you want to make a spell/book whatever, you need paper, you need ink, you need a pen to write with right? If you are making leather armor you need a pattern, you need a chunk of leather. Yes you could buy all this stuff and do it yourself, but still someone has to make the pen that you write with. I loved it

Benny, you have got to quit with the EQ1 and EQ2 comparisons. It's not even close to being the same game. Never has been. Never should be

I noticed the crafting boost potion still requires some clicking on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 buttons for crafting over 50. It was gone until then.

Comparisons between EQ1 and EQ2 can be valid for the following reasons:

• EQ1 and EQ2 are housed and run by the same studio: Darkpaw Games. Holly Windstalker oversees both games as producer.
• EQ1 and EQ2 share game developers and coders. The games probably also share hardware, coding, and art resources. (i.e. EQ1's The Burning Lands and EQ2's Chaos Descending followed the same motifs and themes. Assets could have been shared). Dreamweaver is present on both game's forums.
• The financial success and failures of EQ1 will affect EQ2 and vice versa. There may be a shared strategic vision.
• EQ1 and EQ2 share concepts that can be applied to both games (i.e. I mentioned applying less No Trade/Heirloom tags and more Attuneable tags with an in-game Unattuner via loyalty tokens as modelled in EQ1).
• People play both games. All Access subscription covers both games (and PS2, DCUO). Krono can be accessed from both games.
• There are historical and cultural links to both games.

So some people may say there are manipulative mechanics (P2W, rigged RNG) in EQ2 but this claim is weakened with no analogous complaints in EQ1. EQ1's complaints for this expansion stem from XP grind. By and large, EQ1 is Darkpaw's cash cow.

I suspect the reason we don't get a road map or a PL that contains something other than nebulous assurances and exclamation points is because if customers knew what it was, too many would leave sooner than later.

It's pretty obvious that folks are being strung along for subs/shop sales purposes as the game increasingly shifts toward a p2w raiding game (well, that's my suspucion).

Each expansion, the pattern is the same:

(1) No concrete road map is communicated.

(2) Some player self-sufficiency component is removed or made incredibly expensive so that the shop becomes a better alternative.

(3) Some form of playstyle content is removed or greatly constrained. Overland content, heroics, and now crafting have all been reduced to bare minimums. The ONLY environment that has not been hit by the axe is the raiding environment.

IMO, Longdale SHOULD treat customers with more respect. She knows she's going to lose folks because of the game design changes she has mapped out, she's just stringing folks along so she can extract as much money as possible from them along the way.

Whatever changes Longdale has decided are needed is rightfully her call. I'd just prefer she not abuse the trust and loyalty of customers and own what the plan is. People might not like it, but they'll respect her for it. Sadly, up to this point, she's chosen to trade candor and customer welfare for money, which is too bad.

The EQ Franchise team is constrained by resources. You've admitted that you haven't played since Kunark Ascending when. while SOE/Daybreak was in flux, the tempo and momentum did not settle until recently. (Chaos Descending showing success). EQ2 will be forced to jettison resource-intensive mechanics and other content while focusing on brass tacks (sig lines).

Players in the "expand F2P" thread have said EQ2's F2P model is too generous. This had me thinking if too many players are F2P (especially after level increases) and the financial viability of EQ2 is possibly rooted in microtransactions (not necessarily P2W suspicions per se).

Edit: I don't believe Darkpaw should penalize or capitalize on hardcore players because casual F2P players are freeloading on content and server resources. But some will this argue this is a "win-win."

Hie yourself over to EQ2 Progression and you will see that there are only 52 guilds/alliances worldwide that are actually raiding, which is ~1300 people total.

Raiders might like to think they run the game, but it ain't so.

Most people probably solo, some group. A lot craft or do interior decorating. And I'm pretty sure that these categories comprise a lot more people than the raiders. I'd also wager that Norrathian Interior Decorators spend more money in the Marketplace than do raiders.