Kander's Candor Questions thread! [Always Open]

Ok my question is this... Do you all seriously just hate crafters in this game ? The drop rates on Shadow/Emp books is utterly horrible. The only classes that technically were not worth anything were outfitters, not even dead people would want their wares.

Then to drive the knife in a little deeper, then add that surprise twist at the end. You make people almost happy that they MIGHT be able to get the missing 16+ TS books off the new Overseer Merchant... then I seen the price per book, I totally give up crafting, since we got the short end of the shaft again... Thought maybe... just maybe... they will be reasonably priced, no bloody way...

Who ever thinks up these prices, needs to drink a loaded cup of alcohol, and rethink their lives.

Almost think every crafter is frustrated beyond belief at the moment. This change into BoL was the worst one ever.

Rant over.

The distinction between class balance and AA revamp - which is slated for the next expansion - was quite clear from the podcast. This ambiguity is not the first time we've had about class balance being touted as the next best thing in the works and only to be completely missing from updates. The mages being the first to get a pass was unclear to me on the podcast, perhaps i was over zealous in hoping that all classes are getting this first pass or may be it was not clear in the podcast.

Secondly, if class balance is to go hand in hand with AAs (which makes the most obvious sense) then why even bother with any class at this juncture? Not only that, from the updates we see they are not balances at all, at best, they are quick fixes to tide the classes over - so a far cry from being a balancing act.

Not completely certain that this is a difficult point to grasp especially when tattor tots seem to be a more contentious issue these days...

What baffles me is that just be clear on the roadmap and come out with what we should be realistically expecting rather than being obscure or out right misleading on what's in the works. It is not like we will go completely berserk over a post by the lead designer where they own up to the failure of the current expansion and what is being done to remediate the problems. Trust us! We have become resilient over the years regardless of the abject lack of communication. We will still stick by this game.

I trust this isn't the Tradeskill update we've been waiting with baited breath for, is it? The prices are nothing short of ridiculous.

You're wrong though, I fear they'd drunk more than a loaded cup of alcohol before they priced them.

My impression, and again, we all hear different things when people talk so I could be wrong, is that the pass on mages was to correct what devs (and certainly the classes impacted) considered to be "needed now" sort of fixing. It's easier to fix a group at a time then try for all 29 at one time. I'd expect we'll see more tweaks in other classes like scouts, etc. in future updates.

I see AAs as closely tied to the class balancing, but the reality is, you really have to have a firm idea of what you want these classes to be and more importantly, how they integrate together. That's first on the table. After that, a redesign of AAs makes sense. That said, one of Kander's remarks was disconcerting as I read it. He plays a brig and one of his comments about AA trees was having the ability to change from single target to multi-target damage. I don't know if he was using that as an example, but I hope that's not even on the discussion table as a possibility. While that sounds interesting, the implementation could be monumentally difficult. Why? Well, if you're gonna give that option to a brig, better be damned certain you offer it to all scout classes...assassin having choice from single target to multi and swashie going to want the same. True for wizards, warlocks, etc. Now try to take spells and CAs and align them. When I was in the Army, we had a term for the likely outcome...a "clusterf***k." It simply won't and can't work under the current system of spells, CAs, and then add in all the classes.

The only condition where that COULD work--and the idea has some appeal--is if you strip the classes down to an DPS mage, mage utility class, scout dps, scout utility class. Your AA tree gives you the option of building a group and if you have a specific need, any scout can change the AA spec and fulfill the need (more or less AOE, more or less single target).

Any rate, I digress. I think the central point is, it will be important to have a clear picture of the end result--before you start--and a plan on how to get there. You won't be able to slop your way through making changes on the fly. Best of luck on it, because a lot is riding on how successful it will be.

Additionally wands do not benefit from weapon damage bonus either, so its a double whammy.

My sincere question is... what happened to questing? The last few expansions have consisted of one main sig line and a handful of unique quests, and the rest are repeatable missions or for faction. What happened to expansions like Pillar of Flames and Kunark with a ton of unique solo and group quests. The game is called Everquest, afterall This past expansion I finished every unique quest within the first week and I am a casual player. Can we expect more unique quest lines in the future?

Didn't they say in the podcast that the Overseer system was intended as a replacement for questing, since it was too labor intensive with the number of people available to work on new questlines?

I thought that was one of the reasons behind launching a "season 2" and introducing leveling the Overseer and such, but my impression could be skewed (probably by hatred towards the locking of recipe books behind the Overseer RNG system).

I know its been said many times, but as a player from launch i want to emphasize that the recipe/book drop rate system is the worst its ever been. Missing so many regular books as a crafter sucks (never have I needed regular expert sage books at this point in any expac), and the RNG for runes is even worse.

So question - what are the plans for this system? Will we see any change, or is this the way it will be for the expac?

In addition, experience from discos and killing mobs has been nerfed so XP primarily comes from quests. SMH

Among many other legitimate concerns regarding class balance, questing, crafting ( you know the core of the game) and yet we see another feature thrusted upon us like ascensions and familiars in the form of overseers. No one asked for them and here we are again in the endless loop where the core game is neglected and another metagame is added. The new content although appreciated has made the challenge heroics completely obsolete. The gear from raids is now free for all provided you are able to unlock a pattern. I do not see this a positive change but rather "hey we really do not know what to do with the expansion, so take this and be quiet".

Seriously, why we even bother.

Lets see if dreamweaver is able to bring these points up in the next podcast.

Do you think Kandyor actually reads the posts here?

With the AA rewamp coming with the next expansion, can we expect that the original idea of T1/T2/T2.5 DPS ranks will return? How sure are we that its coming because ability consolidation was supposed to be a major part of PoP and was scrapped publicly just a week before it launched.

Any ideas amongst the developers on how to improve character power outside of raiding? An example could be wow with mythic+ where you can improve your character at max level outside of raiding by simply playing the game and the better you are at the game, the better rewards you can obtain. Currently endgame in EQ2 is very raid heavy and something to do on non raid evenings would be welcome.

Doesn't matter if Kander reads it or not -- Dreamweaver reads it, and he's conducting the interviews.

maybe, maybe not but dreamweaver does and he's the one asking questions in the podcast

Just the important ones, like Tater Tots =P Not the ones that actually matter to some unfortunately, and I enjoy the podcasts =)

settle down, we are only up to episode 4.

When can we expect a TL-PvP beta server to go up?

Will it be factional with Exiles this time (I hope I hope I hope)?

FFA in reality just breaks up an already small population even more: Freeps stay Freep side, and less people roll Qeynos so we're stuck with even less targets.

Separate factions with Exiles for those that truly want FFA works better. With factions, you have a "side" and you can do drive-by heals, jump in and help people, etc. Allowing betrayals while keeping your class (for SK, Pally, and other faction-locked classes) adds to the fun, too.

FFA confuses and upsets people, because you team and then suddenly they're attacking you the minute you break team. Or you're crafting for people in town, then they're ganking you the minute you zone out. You don't even feel like you want to help anyone with drops or crafted gear or spells because they're just going to gank you all the better with it 5 minutes later.

Also, FFA AoEs can hit and kill guildies by accident, which is anti-community as well. (Doing it intentionally is just dev-approved griefing.) MMORPGs are about building community and friendships, not killing them off.

There seem to be a LOT of patches being done on new content.

What procedure does the dev team go thru to test and debug stuff before it is released to live servers?

I realize particle effects are probably low on the pecking order but any chance we could get some of the old spell effects back? They were so good looking and made combat more exciting!

Are there any plans to reconsider the options that free players have in communications? The new player experience seems overly unfriendly with being unable to chat in channels where most players will be around to offer advice until they buy something.

Planetside 2 doesn't have any chat restrictions for new/free players to my knowledge though I'm not sure about EQ1. Anything to help retain new players is a plus!