Future Content: A Letter from Director of Development Dave Georgeson

I'd be fine if you released no new content for an entire year, and just spent all those hours fixing current Class and Content bugs. Nothing is more important to the health and longevity of this game than the game working correctly. Class and Content bugs detract greatly from the enjoyment of EQ2.

Thanks.

Dreadtalon, a Freetard of Freeport

maybe one day i will have a healer merc that does more than 10% of my solo quest outfitted zerker self heals, and cures more than once a minute, and not have to listen to my gf moaning about the same thing, or have my pet die every 20 seconds in nexus heroic. but that's just what i would prefer to adding more versions of the same zones i already know..

I also hate it when I die and my merc, even though he's supposed to rez you, he just stands there looking at you expressionles. Stop your bleeping staring at me and get me back up so I can get back into the fight ya blooming idiot of a merc! Man, some days my merc is just completely useless!

"the issue I have is that. although older zones might have been fun when you did them..well older
but when the only thing you do is revamp the levels to max and change nothing else, it kinda kills what most people kept in their dreams of the place (atleast imo).
I see some people want starter islands.
you do realize that if you were to revamp everything on the starter isles just to make it end content that you could basically pull the whole isle in 1 pull and burn it all down with ease? cause the isle has nothing about it. sure it was "tough" back than but those were different times.
you can see that in the KoS zones now. room pull, room pull, room pull. it's trivial and boring
Ucala, Saturday at 7:18 PM "
The idea of the Starter Islands was to help new players learn something about how to play the game before they were released into the wilds on their own.
They had nothing to do with end game content.
You learned how to make transactions, how to use your weapon/s along with a little bit of strategy (when it came to taking on groups of mobs) and other basic functions of playing the game.
I think that the starter islands were a good pre-game warm-up.
There were so many basic functions covered there for newbies that it was valuable for those who were just
starting, and especially for those who had never played a MMORPG before.
There are still people who pick up a game who have never played any other game before.
The confusion, frustration, and second thoughts run high.
I know...I remember my first MMORPG...EverQuest.
I made a Vah Shir Warrior (figured I needed one to survive), and couldn't figure out how to get registered in
Shar Vahl for citizenship. A nice Beastlord walked by as I was logging out, totally frustrated, so I stopped to
avoid being rude, and told him that I couldn't get registered. He took me through the process, and we played
together for many years in EQ, Vanguard, and EQII.
If there had been starter islands there that had Citizen Registration or any other startup events that I would
soon face, it would have helped.

EQII started me with basic knowledge of how the game worked and I learned some basic fight strategies
before I had to go face the cold, cruel World.
The housing communities that we were shuttled to upon graduation from the Start Zones also helped us
learn more about the game and game mechanics with crafting, various mobs, harvesting, and cultural
quests based on your racial heritage. We learned in increments, and grew up in communities.
I honestly think that this was very valuable for players who transferred in from other games with other functionality, and for the brand spanking new player who had muddled through create character, and needed to know how to function with that character in various skills and situations.

I so wish I had that when starting out. did the trial of the isle thing for a week, years ago, but when I restarted in late summer of 2010, the Islands were gone and was dropped off in the noob zones. But I got to go back to the same island two summers ago when I went to kill Darathar there. Good times indeed!

Relatively certain at least the vast majority of those asking for the starter isles back aren't asking for high level versions, they just want the option to start there returned to people.

I would like to see the Isle of Refuge and Outpost of the Overlord re-installed for precisely this reason...training that gets
new players ready for the game...to see how you do things, what you can do, and what you cannot do.
If it is an option instead of an automatic starting place for new players, that would be fine.
Experienced gamers could skip it, or start their new characters there, if they chose.
Those new to gaming would benefit from having a start area that teaches you about the basics of the game and which
quests, through quest rewards, gets you geared up for the "Outside," before you "graduate" and take the boat to your new
home on the Mainland.

It also provided a sense of identity that I personally, feel is currently lacking. Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel at home
in a new home the way I felt "at home" in my Scale Yard or Baubelshire homes.

I don't think anyone who wants the starter islands back wants them reconfigured for high end or end game content.
Neither do I think that anyone who wants their old neighbourhood back (in Freeport or Qeynos), wants it to be all spruced
up to match the rest of the city. We lived in the slums (low rent.districts), but with a sense of Identity and of Home.
We had some quests to do right there in our own neighbourhood. The amenities of a community...crafting area,
banker, and broker, were all right there...conveniently located.
And the Troll (who was a lousy crafter), you learned to avoid because every time he crafted, even his impressive gear
did not save him when the station he was working at blew up. Crafting next to him and dying once was all it took to
learn the lesson of, "Find a crafting table away from other people."
Besides being educational, it was FUN.

I like the idea of weekly updates, as long as the dev team isn't being overworked, and that any bugs/glitches are fixed promptly.

the first time i went into the new vaults of el'arad and we rounded up the first group of mobs i knew the whole zone would be boring and have nothing to remind me of what the original vaults was. 8 minute fights of groups with massive HPs are all i know of the new version, enough to make me not want to bother going back.

the newer versions are just boring versions of the originals.

if this is what is to be expected with the new(or rather the old weekly updates) i would rather you just finish EQnext and let EQ2 die off. i was always against the idea of quarterly updates, now you see the results of people leaving for months at a time and coming back for a few days with each patch only to leave again. but please no, not the same zones with updated mob stats X10 health with the same drops with the same stat updates with no appearance upgrade to them.

if i want to do the old zones i enjoy it more by mentoring so the mobs are orange/red and solo the same zone. sure there's no upgrades but i enjoy it more than this.

if you want an idea for something new, try implementing scaling zones for multiple group sizes. you know, for the guilds that can't find new members that may only have 2-4 people at a time on(due to the above) who might want to try something 'heroic' but willing to accept lesser rewards.

or fix dungeon finder

or make dungeon finder work across multiple servers

or advertise more actively

or...

you get the idea, i'm done holding your hand.

I'm not sure why some feel the old starter zones prepared a new player better than the current starter areas like Darklight and Frostfang. The old starter zones didn't force you to remain there so it was skipped over by most in lieu of the newbie zones outside Freeport and Qeynos.....there is nothing preventing a player from exploring/questing in those old zones if that's the route they want to go....but from my own experience with starting up new toons I think Frostfang Sea and Darklight are perfectly suited and the quest progression up to the endline to earn your steed is a great way for both new and older players to learn the ropes with their new toons....FYI: I've never started a toon in Timourous Deep or Fairy Land so can't comment on the progression of those 2 newbie zones.

I can't imagine quality control will be able to keep up with that kind of release schedule. I mean it didn't before, which is part of the reason we have the current schedule.

Mr. Georgeson (spelling ? sorry) needs to take a moment to review EQ2 history since he is such a newcomer.

due to the cutbacks or reallocation of resources, whatever you want to call it, the bugs still make it in game at about the same rate they did back then. but at least we got more content on a more regular basis, however i have my doubts that the current crew can pull it off as well as they did then.

i just have a feeling we will be seeing more of this cut and paste 'content' due to the re-compression issue.

"I'm not sure why some feel the old starter zones prepared a new player better than the current starter areas like Darklight and Frostfang. The old starter zones didn't force you to remain there so it was skipped over by most in lieu of the newbie zones outside Freeport and Qeynos.....there is nothing preventing a player from exploring/questing in those old zones if that's the route they want to go....but from my own experience with starting up new toons I think Frostfang Sea and Darklight are perfectly suited and the quest progression up to the endline to earn your steed is a great way for both new and older players to learn the ropes with their new toons....FYI: I've never started a toon in Timourous Deep or Fairy Land so can't comment on the progression of those 2 newbie zones. "

The zones they are talking about are the original starter ISLANDS that were not connected to any city. They prepared new players quite well and even had a easy intro through crafting. IMO it had a much better flow than the current zones but others may disagree. Also the old racial sections of the cities can not be accessed anymore except for a random quest or two that send inside a special instance of one. Yes Oakmist, Peat Bog, The Sprawl, are all still there but I agree the are often skipped and don't do as good a job as the new zones because the zones that came before them and directed you there are now gone.

The Old starter isles gave players information on How to do things, what NPC's to see for various
services, and experience doing tasks or activities.
That was the main benefit of attending the Starter Isles...learning about how to play the game before
being sent to the Real Deal.
When you first start a game, it can be a confusing and sometimes frustrating experience.
I'm talking about newbies to gaming primarily, but also newbies to specific games.
If you have ever been brand spanking new to something, you can get rather confused, and then normal
logic (if the action is logical) may not break through the confusion. The more frustrated you get wondering
what to do or how to do it, the more mental blockage you get to keep you from understanding what someone
else may consider to be the most logical thing to do.
Once you get used to a job or an activity, it's hard to understand the confusion or incompetence of
someone who has just been introduced to the activity, and who is not yet competent with it.
You see that in jobs as well as in gaming. Training offers "safe" experience, and benefits the initiate.

Detailed information from a sequence of training is important..."Click on the gold, shiny question mark,
and take the item, then click on it in your inventory and put it in your collections, and when you have all of
the collection boxes for that particular collection filled, look for an NPC with the title, "Collector," to turn
in your collection for experience. If you don't know where to find a Collector, click on an NPC guard and
click Locate NPC and type in 'Collector.' The guard will point in the direction of the NPC you are looking for,
and a gold trail will appear. Follow it to the Collector and click on him to get a menu that gives you a
chance to turn in your collection for a reward of an item as well as a bit of class experience."

That is the kind of basic training information that newbies to the game need.
The Starter Isles used to give a lot of good starter information that made players more competent when
they "graduated" to Mainland.
New players who do not get a good background in how to play the game need guidance. Many players
who are adept do not have much patience with newbies. Once you know how to do something and have
long practice in it, it's easy to think that it is just "obvious" what to do...forgetting the insecurity and the
confusion you may have felt when you first began.

Giving people a good start with full explanations of how to do things...[make collections to turn in, or change
out your gear (and choose gear based on your class stats), or how to choose and apply adornments, and other
basics]..is beneficial to not only the new players, but also to anyone who will eventually be playing with them.

Furthermore, you do not know what the age of the new player is, or what their life circumstances are, and those
factors may affect their ability to learn new information.
For some people, gaming is therapy that may help with language, developing the ability to remember and carry
out instructions, and have the opportunity to socialize in a "safe environment."
Been there after an accident causing severe physical and head trauma.
It was four years before I could play sitting up the entire time without ending up fallen over sideways.
Gaming...with the help of the Beastlord I met as I was frustratedly logging out of EQ, helped me gain more
memory. He would take me to a place and then to a landmark...rock or whatever, on the path to the goal
destination. He'd take me there and back several times, and then I would have to take him. If I was not
successful, he would do it all over again until I "got it," and could take him to the first "waypoint" he set.
Then, we'd go from there. He would take me in increments to the goal destination and eventually I would
have to take him to the goal destination and back to that first waypoint where we started.
it was a very tedious experience, but eventually, I improved. I got used to noting landmarks. Now, I'm a
great harvester, running nodes like waypoint landmarks.

I'm telling you this because those of you who have no mental or physical problems from accidents or birth
defects don't usually think about the fact that not everyone in game has quick reflexes, immediate and complete
understanding of instructions, or a good memory for first time information, especially that which is sequential in
content.
Some of us can improve quite a bit with the patience and sometimes help from others. I ended up raiding in EQ.

Gaming can be important to personal growth, mentally, psychologically, and socially, as well as being fun,
and it is an activity that allows you to get your mind off of Real Life for a short time.
Basic training helps if you get a good start and learn in increments the basics of the game before you get involved
with the main activities of the game so that you are more capable and understand what you are doing, why, and
how to do it properly in a correct sequence.

The Starter Islands were a great start for Newbies.
They would be a good option for new players to start there to learn game mechanics, and if there was an option
to go straight to Main Game, that would be good for regular players making new characters, or for gamers with
experience with other games who could easily catch on to the game mechanics.

i miss nettleville hovel and the starter isles. i still don't fully understand why they needed to be omitted where other zones that haven't been touched in years are still taking up space in the world. i can only imagine the intent was to push everyone into the city zones to interact with one another, which still hasn't had a great reception.

the extent of my interaction hanging out with people in general is in vesspyr isles, watching some ADHD kid pounce on all the merchants as he circles for the 30 thousandth time, wishing the /ignore function would also remove him from my screen.

I really wish I had the benefit of more exposure to the starter islands. When I started this toon in Darklight wood, I knew absolutely nothing. That was august of 2010, but for a year , I knew nothing about factions and how it affects things. It took two years to figure out what kind of equipment to look for, and as a result, I had some equipment with Wisdom Stats and being absolutely useless. also that legendary and fabled equipment had better stats than treasured. My toon is a berserker, but even now I seldom get an actual tanking position in a group, probably because I am not so good at tanking. I could go on, but I'll get to the point: The Starter Islands would have been a great place to work off a healthy amount of noobness, so please, bring them back, and give us the ability to send even a higher ended chronoed down toon there to make sure we have the basics completely covered

I want and advanced filtered search for the recipe book, the same advanced item search you get on the broker window

Can we please stop talking about starter islands? Keep it up and they are likely to think that this is what we want them to focus on. Please, reminisce in another thread. There are approximately 10 new players in this game. I don't think we need a starter island just for them. Just, enough already. Let's move on to something else that could actually be useful. Please?

Dreadtalon, a Freetard of Freeport

How about this: We talk about it as often as we feel concerned about the starter islands, however, we start a new thread on it, and keep to upcoming changes we would like to see in this thread. There could be alot more than just 10 new players for all we know, but regardless, their voices should be treated with equal weight as well.

LOL, I meet at least 10 new players every week, but then, I like to spend time in the lower level zones, and I help people when others ignore them in chat. Also like to give the 46 slot bags to players in the starter zones once in a while. You'd be surprised how many people are playing this game for the first time.