So what do you think of the DarkPaw Games announcement?

To lighten the mood:

$300,000-$330,000 worth of virtual property was lost in a single battle on Eve in 2014. People choosing to blow cash.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodbath_of_B-R5RB

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidt...r-loses-a-spaceship-worth-approximately-9000/

https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/29/...-200000-dollars-worth-of-spaceships-destroyed

Well, corporate information will be confidential. (Just like private messages/chat on EQ2Wire - can I assume a conspiracy against me?). They do so to shield themselves from competitors and even investors (not just customers).

It's fine to speculate. But speculation has become gospel (truth) for some.

It's doubly annoying that these "true believers" (who foretold the end of EQ2/Daybreak last year) come to the forums to push their theories (in unqualified, even "because I love the game", language) in a way that can hurt players investigating the game and discourage current players. Some are so zealous that they want to create conditions for a self-fulfilling prophecy for that all too trivial idea: "I told you so."

I'm not talking about 'corporate information' information. I'm talking about 'how the game works' information.

Gaming information can be considered trade secrets (corporate) information. The information may entail new systems that they don't want competitors to copy (e.g. other games being first in for Overseer-like system) or a different transactional model (first to F2P).

I don't want to argue the minutiae. We live in a society of secrets. You would need to be naïve (not you) to expect high or full transparency from any individual or institution. You won't see Coca Cola reveal their recipe (secret sauce) much less break down the cost of each ingredient for you.

Additionally, you can have vaporware gaming companies who eagerly share information. Yes, Star Citizen shows off their latest ships! Oh, Pantheon is dropping their new combat system!

But what happens to the people who invest in overtly transparent vaporware companies when the chips fall?

Soooo mechanics changes like overcap attack speed not going into flurry is a secret that should be kept from the players? Up to the point that the in-game tool tips still reference the old mechanics?
Things happening in game that players don't know for sure if they're bugs or 'features'? Because there's no information in game or any other official location that tells us how things are SUPPOSED to work and questions/etc get zero reply?

Those are the types of things that have any value to 'hide' from other game companies..

We have unknowns for sure. But can we definitively attribute maliciousness (mens rea in law) to it (my points to Feldon and Gillymann)? Could those changes be intended for balance? Maybe.

Ask any player to remember a patch note from six years ago? I doubt they can regurgitate even the main points. The game is in constant flux and players adapt to it. What makes Daybreak or Darkpaw ultimately accountable? People will vote with their dollars and feet.

In juxtaposition, I will again bring up the "eagerly transparent/informative" vaporware company who alters game mechanics on a whim because they are 'in development' and not held to a "traditional standard"? (I am not justifying bad behavior because of other bad behavior. But this point illustrates that more information is not always better because - folks like vaporware - massage the process and not the information).

I would prefer patch notes that changed every week but had correct information when posted, to lack of communication and zero feedback on what is a bug and what is a feature.
I'd also love information about the 'whys' of some of the design choices this expac
Example: We have all this heroic and PQ currency.. and ALL of the gear they can buy is the same, or worse, than sig line gear.
Sure, there are the overpriced gamble crates... but you can only throw plat and status at those things... once every 5 HOURS..
I cannot conceive of a sensible (from a player or dev perspective) 'why' for those things... and yet they persist without change or explanation.
Design decisions such as those have made the expac stale already (as there is little to no reason to run solo or heroic content outside of shiny hunting) and the expac isn't even 2 months old yet. For the first time in my EQ2 experience, I'm finding it hard to find a reason to log in, as I have nothing I can work towards to improve my character. Nothing to earn currency to buy, nothing to craft (even if just to crush for infuser bits or adorning mats) to improve my gear...
These are the things that are the cause of much of the frustration many are experiencing this expac. And with nearly zero communication from the devs, it is hard to come to any conclustion other than that this design is the intent... and since the consequences are.. unfortunate... for player enjoyment, it's hard to figure what possible 'why' makes any sense.

Most of us WANT there to be reasons to log in beside sacrificing to the demons of RNG, but it's a struggle to find them right now

Valid questions. It is a far cry from conspiracy theories that some have offered. As long as crates are obtainable in game, I don't see tangible levels of "manipulation or coercion" that some have pushed.

I can offer the following suggestions & explanations:

• RNG is to diversify specialization and/or mastery with the added purpose of community interaction (trading).
• The max or higher echelons of the power curve is optional. The devs likely want to avoid cookie-cutter end-game archetypes.

You may also want some introspection on how you see the game. Some people see catharsis in content (even if "obsolete" for achievements, etc), perhaps you need to moderate your focus on the min-max aspect.

Some RNG makes sense. But when the only upgrades are from gamble crate... and they have a tiny chance of being awarded... it feels like there is no point to logging in except to poke the overseers to see if you've won the lotto and then log off

The only way besides blind luck to get upgrades this expac DOES feel like opening your wallet. There is no way to 'earn' your rewards with time and effort.

I am just glad there is an in-game alternative to obtain the items you want. I would be the first critic if they locked zones or raids behind the marketplace. I'm super grateful for the 'Familiars Wild' quest by the way.

If you are impatient with the Overseer system, there is no problem with "treating yourself." Set a budget though. People spend thousands on other games (Star Citizen), casinos, or vacations. Lots of people spent hundreds on Cobalt Crates and they seem happy.

If you feel otherwise compelled or pressured (which jeopardizes your financial health), I first would suggest some form of mindfulness meditation (refocus). You may also want to seek advice from family, friends, or a professional (financial advisor or psychologist - depending on the impulse).

Edit: You share many of the same concerns as Alarra on EQ2Wire so I am offering the same suggestions.

my 2 cents is sense they didn't announce anything new or Hey were putting more resources into the current games , that this was a move to separate there games probably someone has interest in buying one but didn't want the other ones. probably planet side IP with them shutting down planet side arena so fast like they did. who knows with them mostly quite about it just means to me were getting closer to these games shutting down sigh.

Whoah.

If people agree on many things, and they're honestly different people, then the "likes" are honest and valid. The eq2wire community has done tons to support SOE, Daybreak and now Darkpaw. If that support is sometimes served cold, that's not because they hate it. It's because they care about it. How many other businesses can say that their customers want them to succeed and are worried about their overall success? Do you ever say, "I worry that Toyota might be making a mistake and I think they should change (this) before they lose customers"? Well we say that about games all the time, because as much as we don't agree on how to make it better, we'd all be heartbroken if the game shut down.

I have no beef with Feldon beyond academic disagreements. I am referring to the set of individuals who joked on the EQ2Wire forums that Daybreak and/or EQ2 would fold long ago. These individuals have the audacity to come to the official forums with clean hands but the same negative message. Granted, their minds are probably polluted by the glorified social influencer blog known as Massively OP.

In regards to the cash shop argument I will say this:

I last played live EQ2 competitively around five years ago. I was in the top guild, there were tons of guilds, content was decent; and raiding the hardest content in game allowed me to get the best spells, gear, mounts, etc.

When Altar of Malice hit I was astounded at the pay wall just to get grandmaster/master spells, you built an entire system on players having masters drop in instances, that was it and they actually dropped. Having masters be semi-rare but offering the ability to research them in a decent amount of time if the master wasn't cheap/on the broker was the system in ToV/CoE. I quickly discovered the master drop rate was decimated, forcing players like myself who couldn't play all day, or ran a bot group; to go into the cash shop environment to actually play the came competitively. It just wasn't in the realm of possibility for me to play EQ2 enough to maximize my character anymore.

I recall when Sentinel's Fate came out, I could get a master from a heroic in about 1/2 the zones I would run and I could talk to the friendly guild on Blackburrow that had an entire system for trading masters. You would send a tell and say do you have a Wizard master, they would trade it for basically any master and rinse repeat the cycle. Masters were rare in Skyshrine and CoE/ToV but it was somewhat expected as we sat at 90 for 3 years and it only added a hand-full of spells, and some weren't upgraded; plus you got a grandmaster choice.

I then found upon Terrors of Thulumbria that pre-ordering expansions would give you bonuses which were additional buffs not obtainable in game. Incredibly predatory behavior.

Did my raid NEED these items/spells/buffs to clear all the content? No. But it absolutely dissolves any idea of playing in a competitive environment, because those who pay are the only people who can actually get the best spells and will always "win" no matter what. We had one player who harvested for over 600 in game hours to get every spell from master to grandmaster, this was just harvesting the material needed to upgrade spells from Master to Grandmaster, not the actual masters. This was in Altar of Malice when you had one step above master, I can't even imagine how much time would go into getting all your spells celestial, or if it's even possible to play 24/7 until new level cap and do it.

That's what I found killed the live game for me.

Jumping over to Fallen Gate/TLE you reach incredibly harder pay-to-win walls.

Imagine all your spells on live hitting for 30% harder. Yes, imagine that. One player who actually pays $1k can just be 30% better than you just because they paid to have a familiar at level 10. Then, add on grandmasters which aren't in game other than marketplace transactions/researching them(which you can research maybe 2-3 abilities before a level cap increase), then add another layer on top of that with the introduction of ancients. This now means someone who has a level 10 familiar, ancients, and the pre-order collectors edition snail can outparse you by double even though you're pressing the same buttons.

How can anyone think this is okay?

It gets even worse when you start to realize that they then started to tune raid content around these kind of things. I'm not saying that we started to take matters into our own hands to start killing content tuned around insane paywalls. But we did, we came up with ways to make our characters more powerful through "unconventional" ways just to kill content that we didn't want to pay $1k per raider just to go and kill.

I think that other games like Guild Wars 2 are a good example of how a cash shop should run, it's purely cosmetic and a few ease of life tools. Unlimited harvesting kits, unlimited salvage kits, etc. Things you don't need, but are nice. I don't mind giving Arena-net $5 if it keeps a non subscription based game alive and makes the game easier/nicer to play. But a game i'm already paying $15/month for? Forget it.

What does this have to do with Darkpaw you might ask? A opportunity to recognize behavior that gave Daybreak such a bad name after rebranding from SoE; and having a opportunity to fix it. I know lots of people who loved this game, and would still play it if it wasn't treated like a leech in their wallet. It's coupled with other design issues which have been beaten to death and subsequently ignored as well; but that's for another thread.

There’s literally no PVP. You don’t need the every spell upgrade to enjoy the game.

You clearly don't understand the raiding community and the idea of being competitive in an MMO.

Please do not respond to another one of my posts until you better understand the game, and raiding.

Thank you.

If you want to top your parses, that’s your problem.

Seek professional help.

People who don’t want to top the parse are either just bad in general or beta af. In most cases I find it to be both. Competition on the parse with friends/other guilds is what makes this game fun for me and most people I know.

The idea that any other gaming company is looking to copy EverQuest II combat mechanics, itemization, and gameplay systems is preposterous. The team have made it clear that they consider explanations to be an ineffective use of their time. Having accurate or even vaguely adequate spell tooltips has been deemed an extravagance. Call the devs overworked. But it's not because the lawyers told them to keep it all close to the vest.

Kander told me "as a casual player (which I was at the time) you don't need to understand every stat or mechanic and if you do there are players who have figured it out". Either we're not meant to know, or players will spend hundreds of hours with a training dummy and figure it out and then share that information. Spoiler alert: Nobody is doing that anymore. The "trade secrets" defense for why I can't trust what the EQ2 UI is telling me is absurd. EQ2 is not Coca-Cola. Otherwise there would be a bunch of clones out there. Rift definitely tried to woo EQ2 players with a similar housing system. That's the only real example I can think of anyone looking to EQ2 for inspiration to such a degree that it could be called copying. The new Overseer system is
Inspired from another game.

I wrote extensively about EQ2's Black Box problem. This was prevalent in the lead up to Blood of Luclin. There was almost zero information released prior to or after its release.
https://eq2wire.com/2017/07/02/everquest-iis-black-box-problem/

"The ability to be skillful about the game has been taken away from the average player."

Also to respond to your statement that "you don't need spell upgrades to enjoy the game", you don't get to decide what people enjoy. EQ2 used to be a completionists paradise. Players could reasonably expect to upgrade all their gear or all their spells or complete specific sets of achievements in a reasonable amount of gameplay. Even in the year between expansions. But no more. Player checklists used to be extremely popular. Nowadays with RNG and the Marketplace holding the real power, few people do those checklists anymore.