Covid-19

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by Frostii, Aug 2, 2020.

  1. Frostii Member

    Generally, expansions tend to come out every November. Will Covid affect the release of the next expasion? Not complaining if it will, I, want all to be safe. I'm just curious, and may help me decide who gets what gear as I have many alts. For example I won't give my main some 120 Fabled gear in shared bank if Xpac is coming on schedule and give it to a lesser played toon instead.
    Cassta likes this.
  2. Mermut Well-Known Member

    They've already said the next panda quest won't come out until September (it usually comes out in July or August).
    Fabled zones haven't come out yet, they usually come out in July
    Even ethereals started late this year.

    Based on that, I'd guess the expac will come out 'later' than has been 'normal' in the past.
    Breanna, Dude and Cassta like this.
  3. Redlight Well-Known Member

    They are making the final touches for current expansion.
    Arclite likes this.
  4. Sigrdrifa EQ2 Wiki Author

    The intrepid Dev Team have been working from home, so COVID on its own won't kill the expansion. As many of us have discovered, working remotely with meetings by phone/Zoom/etc. isn't the best method of collaboration, but programming is by its nature kind of a solitary pursuit once you have the parameters of what you're supposed to deliver laid out... always assuming that the devs responsible for whatever code feeds into yours have done their thing and when you test it all plays together nicely.

    Personally, I'm very happy to have them delay the expac until it is thoroughly tested and all the bugs fixed. I suspect that all too often, marketing sets a release date and then the devs scramble to try to get everything done in time, even if that's not the best thing for the game.
    AOE1 and Breanna like this.
  5. Benito Ancient EQ2 Player: Lavastorm Server 2004.

    Data miners on EQ1 have found new zone and NPC model files for their next expansion.

    I think many of us are just glad Darkpaw is churning out new content (compared to vaporware or games in maintenance mode).
  6. Arclite Well-Known Member

    100%
  7. Frostii Member

    I am OK if Xpac is delayed a bit this year. Just gives me more time to level alts. I just want the developers and creators and their families to be safe. I just want a "heads up" so i can plan accordingly.
    Breanna likes this.
  8. parissa Well-Known Member

    Seriously... what was the point of your last part about kander, other than to be utterly rude? Let me guess you are perfect in your job and never make mistakes... or don't take time to find out who did it and just blame the top dog? There's enough rudeness in the world right now, that was really not called for... and people wonder why devs don't interact with us on the forums... hmm makes you think... well except in look and feel forum... Ttobey has a way of making the day with his little snippets
  9. Bhayar Well-Known Member

    Marketing setting the date for release of work they contribute nothing to doing is the quintessential definition of the tail wagging the dog. Granted, deadlines have to be set, but marketing shouldn't even be in the same building when that decision is discussed and reached.
    Sigrdrifa likes this.
  10. Sigrdrifa EQ2 Wiki Author

    When I worked for a very large government agency, I was in charge of both writing technical specifications and documentation. The front office would come to us and tell us the equivalent of, "We want you to install an Olympic sized swimming pool in this Winnebago". Part of what I did was to patiently and politely explain to the front office that there was no way to fit that size pool in a motor home, and if we did, the thing would be too heavy to drive, etc.

    The front office could and did override the dev team objections at times. The non-tech-types always have the final word, no matter how much pain that causes the dev team, alas. This being the guv'mint, I maintained a conspicuous paper trail of meetings in which the problems were communicated and then willfully ignored, because without fail whenever we could not deliver what they wanted, the priority became to assign blame.

    My most satisfying achievement in the big agency (and my only major victory over the front office) was when we had to arrange a one-time payment to a reasonably limited group of people in the period between February and April 1 (it wasn't a joke...). The front office was all a-dither about how to change the massive amount of code that regulated paying everyone (which couldn't have been accomplished in three years, nevermind three months). I asked, "Why don't we just do this is an Excel spreadsheet and leave the main code alone, Excel can export a file in the format that Treasury needs to cut checks?" Flabbergasted silence. But the Biggest Bosses loved it. My best achievement was taking thousands of lines of spaghetti code that had probably originally been machine-ported from COBOL packed with dozens of GOTO loops just to parse an address, and replacing it with one elegant line of REGEX.
    Bhayar likes this.