EQ2 Producer's Letter - December 2005

Is this a prep for new classes maybe?
By defining the classes earlier now they have the chance to add classes that were once too unique to fit into the current archetype system (aka:Battle-Mages and Beastlords from EQ). I love the idea of both PvP servers and redeveloping the class progression. I'll admit starting an alt can sometimes be very boring if you are in the same archetype. I have a Warlock but would love to see how a Wizard felt and I'd rather not spend 20 levels doing everything the same as my Warlock.

:smileyvery-happy: I'm Happy about the up and coming changes as long as it is done right.

I'm also interested in how you plan on reconciling choosing your Subclass (if that term will even be used anymore) at character creation with betraying. Will Dark Elf Conjurors keep their level 3 undead rat pet spell or whatever it is you come up with? Will Iksar Paladins keep their Harm Touch? Please, please don't say you're getting rid of betraying.
Personally, I'd prefer you just modify the existing branched system, but then I don't get to decide how SOE changes their games (as SWG proved so very well).
Message Edited by troodon311 on 12-16-2005 01:44 PM

I have been waiting and waiting for PvP servers in this game, and the talk about it all is what made me reinstate my dead account (that and I wanted to see the combat changes first hand). I just hope that there will be XP loss or SOMETHING negative that happens in pvp if you lose. That's what sets pvp games apart, instead of them being a random mass gankfest, as Jez mentioned.

The pvp stuf I don't much care about but THANK GOD you are finally allowing people to pick their final classes. I agree with the thought process behind how things have worked up to now for brand new players. But for people who have played a lot of mmrpg you know what you want right away and making alts and having to level them to 20 before you are what you want to be always annoyed me.

I played a conj and I would love to try a necro but the thought of playing basically the exact same stuff from 1 to 20 twice with the exact same powers did not appeal to me.

Sounds like eq2 is deffinatly moving in the right directions.


kaid

Your right, it is going to take money away. And maybe that's going to eventually end up being one less person to fix bugs. But I guess because I'm an illusionist, only our spells should be fixed, right? I mean, it's not like I care about anybody else with a different class, because, well, they're just taking away time that could be used to work on mine.
What I'm trying to say here is that different people have a different priority. While you don't want PvP, other people do, the devs do, and it would add something to the game. So your going to have to realize that people aren't always going to agree with you, and when they don't, you need to either respect the direction the game is going, try to change it in a more polite manner, or leave. It's really that simple.
P.S. I couldn't care less about PvP, other than the effect it will have on the population. I won't be playing on the server at all with a main, and I doubt I will with a side character either. Just wanted to say this before I got flamed.

Excellent, I'm over 5 years old, too. I'm also a Project Manager tasked with 45 different implementation projects I'm tracking right now. Each project has its own independant budget. That's right - different projects can have different budgets. What's really great is the fact that each of the projects brings in independant income.
Now, note that there's a segment of players that enjoy full on PVP. Understand that currently this is a service that is not offered by Everquest 2. By offering full on PVP, Everquest 2 actually then stands to gain - not lose - but gain potential income. Couple this with the fact that Everquest 2 will be offering one of the two PVP servers as a stand alone Exchange server and you've got even more independent income for the project.
So yes, it's possible to be over 5 years old and still understand the concept of independent budgets for separate projects. :smileyhappy:

Guardians are still broken compared to other fighters and your diverting resourses and money to removing the arch type system and adding PVP? Thanks. Maybe people that start playing now will be able to see that Guardians are broken before they waste 19 levels and have no acceptable choices. I guess this is a form of customer service that I never would have thought of.

Wow, they trying something new?

We will be talking more about the betrayal system as more information on these changes is revealed.

I will miss the branching class system, but I understand why they are changing it. Now maybe they can make classes a bit more unique from the get-go.
Message Edited by Atmosphear1993 on 12-16-2005 03:17 PM

Out of the eight Project/Channel Managers at my firm, there's only two who live alone...and they're two of the three PM's who don't game. Out of the six of us who are married or live with our significant others, 5 of us game online more than 20 hours a week.

Blackguard (or Scott) please can we get some assurances about PvP never coming to all PvE servers?
For my sins I lead a guild of 300+ characters on splitpaw. It's a mixed guild of good and evil characters. If you introduce rulesets that set us against each other and we can't opt out of them, it would destroy our guild. I'm sure we're not alone in worrying about this.

Thats crazy, where do you find the time to game so often? I suppose its more of a hobby. I only have time to play EQ2 at night since my days are so busy. Oh and I edited my statement because it sounded a bit rude after I posted it.

I agree! I hate PvP and dont want to see it come to PvE servers... I also am in a Guild that has both Good and Evil Characters and I dont want to see it torn apart.

I like what I'm reading. I only hope the new starting out experience won't be totally taken away. It's definately good to learn your class, and the low levels is the time to learn.

Ah well, I trust you guys with doing a good job, I guess I'm just fearing too much change at once.

The PvP stuff is interesting, maybe I'll check it out when it eventualy goes live. I'm glad they're keeping it seperate from the other servers however (Maybe have something like in EQ1 where some servers you could get a PvP flag but not everyone had to be PvP?)

Shades of EQ1 start appearing by selecting the class at startup... I wonder, just to add even more diversity, if we could distribute a few bonus stats at that time at our discretion? Whatever the class may determine in stats as they level after that (big assumption) it would be good if we could have just a little bit more influence. Identical classes, created by different players, would then have some variation from the beginning...

This is the single BEST decision you guys have made, IMHO.

I am one of the admitted "alt-aholics" ... i LOVE to try out new class / race combinations. However, previously ... it jsut wasn't worth it. 20 levels to get to where I can then start to try out my class? Just was no fun at all.

I am REALLY happy to see you are changing this aspect of the game and I think it will have a hugely positive impact on new and returning players - and of course veterans like me who roll alts. 8 )

I am also Extremely Excited to hear about the planned changes to starting zones. PARTICULARLY I HOPE you will re-do some of the Freeport areas ... which currently all look more or less alike with no difference for races ... Temple Street looks a lot like Scale Yard looks a lot like Longshadow Alley looks exactly like ... and so on. I hope that you will be adding some graphical changes to represent the racial villages much better - as they are in Qeynos.






Message Edited by Vicontessa on 12-16-2005 03:49 PM
Message Edited by Vicontessa on 12-16-2005 03:50 PM

Another thing I wanted to add. I definately value the "newbie" or "begining" experience, but I definately think it should be more involved with other people or to the rest of the world.

The class thing at level 1 is a good idea....but only if they still keep the mind set of the archetypal system alive.

Please, do not make a "main tank choice" or a "main healer choice" like eq1 had.

Keep the core roles balance, i would be completely sick if my Warden was demoted to the "backup healer with ok nukes and ports" like the eq1 druids, especially since we cant kite :smileywink:

Toodles!

To the people worried about PvP on normaly servers, you shouldn't be. In the past they have been saying how any form of PvP would be completely optional, by either moving to a new server, dueling, the arena, etc.