EQNext Unlimited Possibilities

I am excited for EQNext. With what Smedley said at SOE Live I am more excited than ever. I wanted to lay out my vision for the next gen sandbox MMO and hopefully we can have a discussion about everyone elses visions and ideas.
No Levels: This is a dated concept. EVE has it right. Power comes from ranked spells and prerequisites.
Ranked Spells: With prerequisites to gain more power.
Limited spell usage: 8 or 10 or 12, whatever, you cna only have so many spells memorized at one time, ala EQ.
No Classes: That's right, no classes. Sure there could be class trainers such as rogue, mage etc. But if you want to dual wield daggers while wearing plate and casting fireballs, so be it. Plate could have a casting penalty and a attack speed penalty and casting and using melee abilities from the same pool will limit both. Like dual or triple classing in DND or an expansion upon RIFT's multiple soul idea.
No AAs: Instead of grinding what is basically another xp bar have quests and more research to upgrade abilities the same way that AAs do.
Player made everything: There will have to be basic npcs and dungeons etc. But for the longevity of the game instead of for the most part making new content make new tool sets for the community to create their own content, their own quests their own dungeon crawls etc etc.
Limited time frame events: Have a monthly event where we can earn one time only never to be seen again gear and mounts and etc etc etc.
This is the core of what I personally want. What does everyone else want? I am excited because it looks like EQNext may be going pretty close to the above. What does everyone think?

I prefer levels and I absolutly hate the no class thing cause i like a chosen field when I log in, I hated this in Rift even though I played a priest which was a healer, 80 percent of the time when I join a group and it even happend to me when I made the group myself DUH!!!, I was made the tank or a dps class by force of other group members, cause you had a cry baby in group yelling I'm the Healer even though I put the group together or I made it clear in chat: Healer looking for group. Get in group they say me dps/tank switch your points to dps mode. I played Rift for 7 months, I quickly cancelled my account cause of this. I hate Jack all of Trades classes.
If my class says healer then I am healer. I prefer class roles. As for levels, again I disagree with you cause I like the feeling of that I am progressing somewhere. As for everything player made yes and no. At least have some already made dungeons in the game and things. In eq2 you do have player made dungeons and dungeons put in by the company itself which is okay. So its okay to have player made but also have Sony put some in themselves to and quest also.
No AAs: Instead of grinding what is basically another xp bar have quests and more research to upgrade abilities the same way that AAs do. It would still be an AAs system still then, cause in EQ2 AA has there own seperate xp bar. Which is okay with me, but as for grinding yes I agree with you there, just take away where you have to put the slider at 50/50 exp between adventure and AAs, have it they both get the same experience at the same time.

Limited time frame events: Have a monthly event where we can earn one time only never to be seen again gear and mounts and etc etc etc. This I liked, GW2 had events but they weren't one time only, but the event rarely should up only after a long period of time you had to catch it or didn't come for a week or so again. Have it a twice or once of month thing.
Sorry if I disagreed with on alot which I do, but please I hate the no class thing the most.

I hope they dont copy too much from Eve. I would be most displeased to have have to wait 3 months for a rank up just so I can get to another skill. While I know it prevents power levers from blowing away content and become allpower kill machines quickly, it also prevents new players from being able to get into certain aspects as well.

I wasn't playing eq2 at release, but I thought it was a good idea to start off as a broad class range and specialise later into archtype and subclass. I have no idea why they changed it. I want specialisation. What I don't want is reliability on a specialist to complete things (ie utility buffs). I'm kind of nervous about EQN. The only MMOs I've played have been eq1 and eq2. The majority of it I liked, hence playing one for 7 years and the other 4 years and counting. Any other game lasts me 6 months max (although I've not tried other MMOs), so I'm concerned that a formula I like might dissapear.

there's no way an mmorpg would be successful without levels, unless it was primarily pvp. People need something to hold their interest.
i dont understand 'dated concept' anyway, just because its an old idea (going back to the days of pen and paper rpgs) doesnt make it a bad one.
rpgs and levelling are like bread and butter.

Dejablue wrote:

You mean WoW/Rift. 3-4 buttons and you win the game.
Dejablue wrote:

EQ2 has some of these, but they have been rather unpopular in a not insignificant percentage of the playerbase.
Dejablue wrote:

No game.

feldon30 wrote:

What number is a not insignificant percentage and during what time frame are you taking these stats from?

Player made content is by and large a mistake. There are too many people out there that will just make awful stuff with stupid names. Then, they get bored and they abandon the PoS that they created. Instead of a full-blown sandbox with almost all player created content, we need player influenced content. The developers need to create content, and this could include player content that has been looked at by the developers to make sure the quality is good. Then, that content needs to be arranged in a system that the players can interact with and influence. That way, if someone stops playing, what they have done doesn't take up space in the game world as a permanent eyesore, but instead just gets re-made by the next person to come along.

feldon30 wrote:

Actually I have about 70+ pages of a game idea very much like this fleshed out - except spells are not limited like ops request - one would limit themselves based on how they want to specialize. AA concept is in place to include Racial AA's. I have many playable races and in my game concept race is very important but can be worked around with hard work/additional choice/skills etc.
There is a rough class outline but everyone starts at level 0 and makes choices from armor, to various weapons, even jewelry. Some choices limit or exclude other choices (IE paladin/necromancer class combos not allowed). Stats are also exceeding important similiar to original D&D. I abhore the current 2 stat EQ2 concept. Put your mind to work and you can solve the class/level concept and have a very interesting game design.
Now anyone know some programers and artists looking to work for cookies? Give me your resources Smedly and I will give you what EQ Next^2 SHOULD be: One game to rule them all.

No idea why the moderator didn't just refer to the already existing thread here.

.

What we know about EQnext so far...

1) Focus on the PvP from the get-go.

2) Forgelight. Browser-based or Facebook mmo? Hmm still unsure

3) Spellweaving system using upgraded version of SOEmote tech.

4) Upgraded storytelling.

5) Destructible environment. Maybe 'Red Faction' in Norrath?

6) 99% possibility of F2P

7) Focus on AI never before seen in any MMO. AI in EQnext will make players feel they're in a living, breathing world.
+combat AI that not fit for the faint of hearts.




Well, of course you may not believe me and that's fine. =)

This:

excludes the possibility of this:

Don't believe every forum rumor.

feldon30 wrote:

Ah, sorry for my misleading line. No way for me to believe everything mmofringe lurkers say at face value. =)

And I've actually seen Smed mentioning about 'EQnext won't be facebook mmo' a few times. Personally, I don't have an idea of, into what EQnext will turn out to be...but can't wait for the next SOElive already!!

No classes would suck, I also feel the same way as the 2nd poster that I really want a defined role when I log into a specific character. However from a one on one conversation with smokejumper at SOE live this year I get the feeling that if we do have classes they'll be loosely structured and that we'll be able to create our own unique class type.
With that said though, as long as you can't just instantly respec to a totally differen structure whenever you want, then the issues the 2nd poster mentioned about the way Rift works, wouldn't exist.

My main concerns is that EQ3 ends up being very sandboxy. Thinking EQ2 mixed with VG mixed with Minecraft. But with what they said "this wont be like anything else" hopefuly that doesn't mean it'll be like everything else mixed together. I'm all for something completely unique. As long as it's fun, feels like an EverQuest game, and isn't easy. Oh and doesn't cator to children in the way these newer easy mmo's seem to.

Kram337 wrote:

Yeah, I agree...but do you think the team behind EQnext will be able to come up with an idea that's neither sandbox nor themepark? I mean, can they really come up with a legit 'third option'? Wow, that would be a breakthrough..

Celline-Layonaire wrote:

My resource system I briefly outlined here is an example of 'post/neo-sandpark' gameplay. Themeparks give a world urgency and players goals, and sandboxes give a world freedom and players a sense of value. Imagine the theme-park style of the beautiful new zones (found underwater, and in caves, etc.) set between: semi-automated trade-routes, which must be influenced and protected by players or NPCs (an evolution of the EQ2 merc system); persistent regions between cities, factions, and guilds (PS2); cities, populated by dynamic world-affecting AI; roads to open instances of neighborhoods or guildhalls, including player and guild-built houses and dungeons (SWG, Vanguard, Dragon's Prophet, Dungeon Maker, Player Studio); procedurally-generated dungeons accessed through randomized objects or locations -- sharable with others via the cartography system -- and aesthetically based on the large dungeon of the region (upgraded Dungeon Maker); the fluid animations of DCUO; the strategy of the card games (including diplomacy of VG) translated into direct, animated gameplay; SWG-style crafting; and so on; and I think we the players will have a winning game! I hope this is what we get to see -- the systems have already been developed and implemented (other than the trade-routes and the AI).
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...=399389#5760327

Player created content has been tried and tested in games such as neverwinter Nights, which had entire persistent worlds, Starcraft and Warcraft series. Word gets around and players can rank and the game designers can moderate what gets put in etc.
As for no classes, think of the current research system only with more ability slots so you can research say 3 or 5 spells/abilities at a time. Similar to EVE they can be researched as fast as 3 minutes to 25 minutes and gradually progress to 4 days or more, as we are used to already in EQ2.
As I stated there could easily be default "trainers" that set yopu down typical paths, swash, assassin, guardian, mage, inquisitor, shadowknight, whatever, that show you plans, much like RIFTS preplanned talents settings. So, you cna jump right in and set your Assassin plan, hit research and go. To others that master planning their own way the sky is the limit, only limited by time.
Ther are PLENTY of other ways to implement an XP bar. Have these trainers have really high end spells that you can only get through high levels of faction standing. There is an xp bar to grind right there. Only isntead of working on boring levels you are working for a really cool ability, not just the next rank of an ability you ahve, let the research get those boring next ranks.
Players would not be able to swap from healer to DPS to tank to support, unles they had played for a long time and researched, leveled faction in all of those areas. By and large players would set down a general path and make it up as they went along, or plan detail by detail, but general roles would still be pretty set.
If you want to be a cloth wearing Paladin that does Monk kicks and casts fireballs that may take some planning and time to flesh out learning those skills.
And there would ultimately be restrictions of course, no Paladins casting necro spells etc. lest they become a Shadowknight.

Celline-Layonaire wrote:

Sorry but I got to point out that the F2P MMO Vindictus has destructible environments. You can throw mobs around, use objects around you as a weapon (stones, vases, barrels, etc) and "hulk smash!" I'm not trying to sell the game to anyone, just pointing out that EQ Next won't be the first game to do this.

While I like to play a jack of all trades type class my self ... I dont want to play in a game world where class blending is the name of the game. So a strong specialization structure set up , but with the latitude to explore the nuances of the system and find different ways to get things done.
However , I think haveing all skills available to advance in at any time could be a good thing. Each skill could have its affinity to a class , and the further you move from it , the harder it is to advance.
Another thing is specialization=grouping and class blending=solo. So there should be content only available through grouping and content only available through solo(class blend) ... stealth mission content comes to mind for this , but other senarios where 1-2 players is preferable are certainly possible.
I dont know how you would take away leveling though ... the name of the game is progression. But maybe you mean just taking away definitive points of becoming more powerful ? Wich I could see working to some extent , but do we really expect the game to be calculating our progression and effectiveness 100% of the time. IMO that would just put undue stress on the game engine and take away from needed performance other places.
I do think that progression should be more in the character and not their equipment though. Meaning equipment shouldnt be giveing you all your stats , they should be more relative to a realworld application ... example=Heavy plate armour shouldnt be making you stronger , but ofcourse this is a world of magical enhancements , they just shouldnt be the norm.
Also I think Items should have a life expectency period. Hence you should be useing your raid gear for raids and not grinding trivial content. I think this one concept could really help the player market , but also make every peice of gear worth something.
And equipment maybe should no longer be locked to level and class ... but have effectiveness locked to skill levels and maybe even have a time sink for gaining familiarity with each new peice of equipment?