EQ2 Producer's Letter - December 2005

This is good news, Im glad they are getting rid of the silly archetype system, and this will allow them to easily add new classes in the future, I agree 100% with there reasons.

^^ quoted for emphasis

Also the betrayal quests for the new PVP servers should play out well, This might make them much more difficult. Ive always thought a Dark elf Paladin should be rare. This will hopefully make it so

Speaking of bonus stats...when you pick your classes, you're granted bonus stats (a total of three times, once at 3, once at 10, and once at 20). What's going to happen to these bonus stats?

Can you just ditch the whole 1-9 1-20 tradeskill nonsense aswell and jsut let us do the same thing while your at it? How bout being able to make stacks of combines ie 20 carbonite clusters+20 fuel= 20 carbonite bars but make it so the final combine ie to make a carbonite sai you can only make 1 at a time.

I do like the no more 20 levels thing though. Could care less what you do for PvP though as long as it is on it's own server and away from the original PvE servers.

Bonus stats at those levels remain intact. The same goes for health and power pool progression.

After reading the letter, I've weighed in with a few opinions (and questions) of my own. If you'd care to read the two articles I've written on the subject, check out EQ2 Caster's Realm

With the PVP leveling thing and friendly farming, do what Planetside did. If the enemy you kill hasn't been alive for more than a minute then the xp is extremely low (Spawn camping will net you max 50 xp [1 person is worth 1xp when they just spawn] when 1 guy who's been running around for 3 minutes could get you 50 to100 xp)

Does this apply to tradeskills as well?

WIll I finally be able to change my tradeskill on my main and actually get interested in it again?
IE: My TS level is 14, I chose a class I do not like, will I be able to set it differently once that goes live?

I do understand that there is no full PvP Server planned which made me sad :-(

Even if all the Goodies (qeynos) fight against so called Evil's (Freeport) i see no full PvP here.

I would miss the in city PvP dodging of guards, loosing faction in say one part of the town.

We have to make a decision which town we will be alligneght too once and only once and there is no way to turn/switch this around but there still could be someone from my hometown geting on my nerfs who i would prefer to hunt down and teach a lesson or two, unfortunatly i have to accept and love everyone in my town.
In a roleplaying way its a sad story with not much room to flourish.

I'd love everyone beeing able to kill everyone Server.

In memories of Rallos Zek ;-)

This is great news... those first 20 levels were a huge pain, especially if you just wanted to test the waters. It'll be interesting to see how drastically this changes the beginning of the game

Many apologies for not replying to much all day today and leaving the Betrayal question seeming to hang. It's been a day of near-constant not being at my desk.

Our plans for Betrayal work out like this.

1) The betrayal path and level range in which you can betray your home town remain the same as they are today.

2) The quest does change slightly at the end. If you are a non-native class in your new town, the end of the qust will also change your class to its opposite-aligned counterpart. At that point, you are a person of the new class with Apprentice I abilities.


Later, as we expand the definition and role of Factions in the cities, we may be exploring the idea of faction-based betrayal that supports city betrayal at all levels. However, we will definitely not be including that in this initial rollout of 1-20 class progression.

We want the class transition to go as smoothly as possible, so we want to introduce as few changes as we need to get there. Complicating betrayal immediately would introduce significant potential problems in what is already a complex piece of work.


- Scott

Coming from a PVE WOW server my thoughts were often that too much dev time was spent tweaking the PVP element to the detriment of the PVE players wanting more content You just have to visit the forums on WOW and see all the unhappy 60s with nothing to do that doesnt involve huge raids. Hopefully the PVP side of the game wont take too much Dev time away from getting us more content , items , quests , instances etc.

Keeping the PVP off normal servers will be good as you will get the griefers , PK's , schoolboy crowd. EQ2 is known for its mature player base but PVP seems to be bring the worst poeple out to the game - which is fine as long as they dont impact the pve poeple on the normal servers.

The only way Id look at PVP on normal servers would be in the form of contested zones / realms on the lines of DAOC. That way unless you go there you wont be bothered about PVP anywhere else.

Gallenite, I love these new changes. The faction thing and betrayal at all levels means more RP for me! I am very excited about these changes, so kudos to all of you at SOE!
I also posted a suggestion (no ranting or flaming or any of that!) in the Gameplay Discussion found here: http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=gameplay&message.id=312
(above is) Just an idea that I think should be implemented so that older players can experience this new content and redesigned zones.

I think these changes sound absolutely wonderful and I can't wait to see them implemented. I also love that PvP will be on different ruleset servers so no one feels forced into PvP.
GREAT JOB!!

Can that plan include a #3 being a serious look into making the betrayel more solo/small group friendly?

I ask this for one simple reason, and that is the fact that as this game has progressed it has shown that on many servers this quest becomes tedious and unbearable to new comers.

I am not asking for this to be made dumbed down and what not, because in the long run this quest could be revamped to be more challenging overall to a solo/small group than just making mobs easier, but at this point even one heroic mob that can't be solo'd can be a burden to finish the quest. I would rather do a more involved betrayel quest that could be finished solo/small group than just downtiering the mobs to solo ones.

While I would love to live in the fantasy world of Norrath where everyone helps with kindness from the bottom of their hearts we all know in MMO's that rarely happens, and a guild is not the solution to being able to finish it as many won't bother mentoring let alone worrying about old content.

There were only two times since launch on most servers that this quest was easy to finish without any issues. They were at launch and during the froglok frenzy. Since then not enough at one time are working on it to accomadate each other(whether this be different gaming hours, etc), and then the overall lack of helpful people. Friends are great to help, but new players really won't have the option right off so easily.

It would be nice to see this more challenging overall, but more geared to the fact the game has aged and as new players come they can finish it during rough times without having to beg for help.

New Lore and quests in Newbie towns sounds Great!! Sure hope "loyal" players who have maxed out their toon slots with toons they dont want to delete.. (have a 55 main and 5 crafters all over level 20 in tradeskills).. will have an opportunity to experience this new content.. ie. more char slots or a way to go back and do these even though at a higher level...

Also Appreciate Scott Hartsman replying on this thread..

Sciari

Message Edited by Sciari on 12-16-2005 05:55 PM

:smileysurprised:Wow, uhm geez that was a big surprise new class choices, new zones, I really don't know what to make of it only been playing for 2 months or so makes me wonder if I should continue to lvl my characters or wait and roll new ones to experience the new system....:smileyindifferent:.

ok finally read 3 pages, now to add my opinion.
I seriously do not like the change of eliminating the Archetype System. First of all it was part of the games design. When I first heard that EQ2 was being developed and one had to choose between archetypes I didnt like it but eventually when you sit down and play the game even though you know what class you truly want to be, it seriously was fun to attempt these. I have:
41 Necromancer--21 Conjurer--26 Assassin--22 Paladin--12 Druid (Omw to Warden)--3 Scout (Omw to Troubadour) and 1 Mage (Omw to Illusionist).
Youre right I bet you 90% of the people who start up have already decided that they wanted such and such character but youre also eliminating the fun out of the game. I enjoyed taking part of the subclass quests, thats one of the reasons why I have so many alts is because I seriously admire to take part in it. If you were to ask me whats my favorite quest of the entire game. I would say "Class Quests" Plain and Simple!! By having a mage and getting to level 10 you had 3 choices: Summoner/Enchanter/Coercer, a NPC told you to seek out various other NPCs for you to decide which class you wanted and each NPC actually had a liable example of what your true profession is to come.
How can you change the basis of the game?? It was already done when DoF went live now that another expansion will be talked sometime after January you've already decided to change the way that EQ2 begins as well? Wasnt the archetype system the main core for EQ2......think about everyone who has designed a webpage or created strategy guides based on EQ2, they now have to revamp, cancel or re-create an entirely new strategy guide based on your "supposed" new system where you can select archetype up front.
Now lets talk Spells, I'm gonna go by two examples so I dont eat much text.
Mages will have 10 spells between levels 1-10 (based on Primas Official Strategy Guide Dec 2004)
Enchanters will have 14 spells between levels 10-19.6
Illusionists will have 9 spells between 20 and 25
So SOE I decided to play along and choose my final archetype...please tell me youre gonna incorporate all those spells accordingly? Theres about 33 spells between levels 1-25 choosing the Illusionist, if you said those that choose illusionist will get their appropriate skill a lot faster with this new system then I sincerly hope all 33 spells will be given before level 20, otherwise whats the point? It would be the same if we keep our Archesystem Tree. Therefore some levels need to have up to 5 spells at once, where you'll be getting enchanter spells at level 8?? And some of your illusionisist spells by level 13 or something.
Scouts will have 11 spells/arts between levels 1-10 (based on Primas Official Strategy Guide Dec 2004)
Bards will have 14 spells between levels 10-19.6
Troubadours will have 9 spells between 20 and 25
So once again if I decided at level 1 I wanted to be a Troubaour I sincerely hope I will be getting some Scout and Bard spells/arts by level 9/10 and around 13-14 I hope to be getting my true Troubaour spells as if I were really level 21.
I hope you understand what I'm trying to say here but to summarize
A.) Keeping the Archesystem will truly keep how EQ2 was born, and to have fun while questing to experience each class before making your final decision, it may be that 10% of the Subscribers made a diff decision when questing who knows.
B.) If you have plans to incorporate their true class' spells at extremely low levels then I have no problem here.....if by the old system I'd be getting "Luckblade" at level 21.6 I sincerely hope with this new system I'd be getting "Luckblade" around level 14 cause again....whats the point of keeping the spells at the same level if we cant get the true class spells at the lower levels.
Message Edited by Darkmortis on 12-16-2005 06:07 PM

This is one thing I personally want to see implemented(and im sure most of Norrath). While I can understand it is a request that may take time I do not see it as being an unreasonable one.
In EQ1 you had the ability to work any and all trades(minus a few that came due to your class) at any time. So if you found you weren't liking cooking so much you could try your hand at sewing, etc.
Sony's competitors also have/had options to recertify your profession(some even allowed you to have two main professions at once...this i rather liked) and start any new choice at a big old ZERO, and as a result you lost all past effort in the previous profession so going back to that you would be at a big old ZERO.
I continue to point out my views and opinions on wanting to see this implemented(as do a large part of the players), because for me my main motive is that we were told that while we could be both a 40 Necromancer and a 50 Sage at the same time for the character they were still independent from each other.
The way the game is now that is a half truth. In order for us to truely be both an Artisan and Adventurer at the same time yet independent from each other then we need the ability to give up either of those without having to give up both. So the day we can be a 60 Armorer and a 60 Swashbuckler and be able to just reroll the 60 Swashbuckler part of our character while remaining a 60 Armorer then the past Dev statements won't be a half truth.
Afterall they are independent from each other as Sony stated, and having to delete both just to delete one is just plain wrong.

I love the changes to classes, the whole class/AT/subclass thing was fun(ish) once - but that was enough.

Nice.

With this, they could actualy implement a system where you can betray back and forth. You would "just" loose a lot of adept 1/3 spells that would be changed into their app 1 counterparts. I guess you might need some extra cost on "neutral" classes that need not be changed upon betrayal to make things even.