November News Roundup
by Loral on November 11, 2004
Everquest 2 hit the shelves on Tuesday and the world didn't end. Few people know exactly what will happen over the next six months but numbers in EQ will no doubt be low throughout the next few weeks. For the raiding guilds that require 54 people all night every night, this might end up causing a bit of trouble but for the single-group pickup hunters, life shouldn't be so bad. There will be less groups overall but each group still needs six members. Spots that were once over camped may open up. The great hoards of treasure falling out of the lands of Kuua should distribute to fewer people, giving each one a greater chance for a nice item or rune of power.
Not all communication methods are up and running yet between EQ and EQ2 but cross-game tells and EQ2 channel joining from EQ1 works. From within EQ you can send a tell to your EQ2 friend by typing "[tell eq2.antonia_bayle.pavlen hail" where antonia_bayle is the servername he or she is on and pavlen is his or her character name. You can send a tell from EQ2 to Everquest by typing "/tell eq.quellious.loral hello". I hoped that this would be a little easier. With all of the various / ; [ ways to send tells it is easy to get confused. One would think, with the various server names, that we wouldn't have to put the game title in front to send a tell. "/tell antonia_bayle.pavlen" has enough information to tell the vast self-aware machine farm at SOE that I want to send a tell to EQ2. "[tell eq2.antonia_bayle.pavlen" makes me feel like I'm writing my own email headers.
Moorgard announced that you can also send tells to Star Wars Galaxies characters using the same method: "/tell swg.servername.charname message". I don't know anyone playing SWG so I couldn't test it out.
Everquest 2 players cannot yet subscribe to EQ1 channels but you can subscribe to EQ2 channels within EQ1 by typing "[join eq2.servername.channel" (there's that stupid bracket again). Hopefully we'll see EQ1 channel subscribing from within EQ2 soon.
I plan to write a full review and comparison of Everquest 2 during a slow news week but I love it so far. It won't drag me off of EQLive any time soon, but the quest system is very rewarding and I hope we see a system like it in EQLive sometime soon.
SOE released the details of the backflagging solution this week. Some mobs, like those in Plane of Time, drop items that let previously unflagged players become flagged. Some zones require a single-group quest once an unflagged player acquired a quest piece from a raid-level mob inside the zone they wish to enter. Most zones will soon have an 85-15 rule, allowing 15% of a raid to enter a zone without needing a flag. There will be a variety of other quests to backflag people for lower-tier Planes of Power zones. Read the full backflagging report from my summit friend, Emil.
This is a fine solution for backflagging. It will not help unflagged groups get flags, however. At this point in the game's life, I don't know that that matters. Unflagged raiding organizations now have a wide range of unflagged raids to conquer. Gates and Omens offer a lot of unflagged raid-level content with rewards higher than Plane of Time. I still see many guilds or raiding groups banging their heads on the walls of Time and losing members in the process. With the probable drop in members due to EQ2, Grand Theft Auto, Halo 2, WoW, and the holidays in general, an enterprising raid force would be wise to try new targets with greater rewards. It is also a good time to open your doors a little bit and let some typical non-raiders into your raids.
Grumbuk, SOE's resident coder at the Fan Faire, wrote a lengthy report on some current collision changes. We can expect a few performance tweaks in areas that previously gave us a bit of trouble and getting out of that chilly water should finally come a bit easier.
A series of strange new spells, all available to level 20 priests and casters, hit the dark pages of Lucy on the 9th. These spells, called "blessings" each correspond to one of the known gods. When cast, these spells summon a strange unknown item. If I had to guess, and it is probably wishful thinking on my part, I would say they could summon a single-charge, no-rent gate device usable by typical non-gaters. If it isn't, well, it should be.
Caster's Realm, one of the more popular EQ websites, underwent a change of command. Baelish, the previous administrator, moved on to help SOE develop the Station Players website for EQ2. My friend Gemdiver, the previous administrator of the wizard community forum, Graffe's, now maintains Caster's Realm and plans to take it to all new levels. He recruited a few community writers to write content for the site including your favorite cleric who started with a Raidleader's Guide to Raiding posted late last week. Now if I can just convince Gemdiver not to burn Plane of Knowledge to the ground, I could make real progress.
It's been a slow couple of weeks since the Fan Faire but in December we can expect a patch or two with some exciting changes. In the mean time, help save the Dragorns from the plight of their Muramite overlords and get some fine armor in the process.
Loral Ciriclight
11 November 2004
loral@loralciriclight.com
Comment Posted by: Mage On Cazic on November 11, 2004 10:49 AM
New gate spells for all caster/priests? Yep great, it costs a mage plat to make a tailsman of return at 62? and you want a 20th level spell to replace it for all classes?
While i agree that some type of resonable gate for any class should be in game, dont you think that would be a bit of F-You to mages that had to wait till 62 to get the ability (not even going to talk about the cost).
Just my annoying Gnome 2 coppers
Comment Posted by: Redcloud on November 11, 2004 11:10 AM
Cross Game chat is nice, I wonder how it will affect the migration to EQ2 since people will be able to still be in touch without needing to change game to do so.
As some people (that can't be accused to be one-sided fanatic raiders) have pointed out on a previous thread, single-group hunters may be harshly impacted due to the lack of guild to rely on for grouping when the on-line population drops.
The class distribution for the holy trinity is not perfect at all times by a large margin. The less people around, the less chances to cover tanking, healing, support for pick-up groups. Even if better loot could be achievable by those who still play it won't make up for the lack of population as far as one could tell.
About "It is also a good time to open your doors a little bit and let some typical non-raiders into your raids."
This pretty much sound like a contradiction.
Non raiders aren't for a reason: Either they don't have the time or they don't enjoy it. In both cases it doesn't make much sense to forcefeed single-group hunters that play 90 minutes chunks into organizations that raid 4 to 6 hours a day.
After getting twinked and flagged, they may very well quit or get bored or do whatever else they enjoy doing but certainly not raiding on the long run.
This isn't about guilds being too selective on recruit material but the lack of time investment or interest from a part of the playerbase. Not all aspects of the game appeal in the same way to everyone. By now, we should be pretty much be aware of that.
What can happen is that guild may accept less geared, less flagged, less skilled players that may catch up more easily with the new flagging quests that are to be put in. It's in fact quite a pity that it isn't ready yet. It may be too late for some and the worst period is now, not in a month when people may be already gone to EQ2 or WoW.
Comment Posted by: Teremar on November 11, 2004 12:43 PM
Redcloud is right--my emphatically non-raiding guild is down to about one third the numbers we would normally have had online a couple of weeks ago. We never were a big guild, and for the last couple nights we haven't even been able to put together a "standard" group most of the time. And yes, it's frustrating.
We lost a few people to EQ2, but I think it's the WoW open beta that's really killing us right now. If people end up liking it our guild may be in serious trouble.
We'll see--I finished the download this morning.
Loral's comment on opening the doors to non-raiders isn't totally off-base. I enjoy an occasional raid, say every week or two, and if I'm free to do it of course. So if I got a tell from someone in a raiding guild asking if I wanted to tag along on something there's a good chance I'd accept. Whether that would really benefit the raiding guild is another matter.
Comment Posted by: Talaen on November 11, 2004 01:02 PM
Redcloud hit the nail on the head, I think. Guilds that raid now won't get any benefit from guilding true non-raiders.
Like I said in my comments on the previous article, I think it's going to hit the mid-range raiding guilds worst of all. The high-end guilds either have the numbers or the passion to still be able to do it. Sure, things are going to be bumpy, but they'll continue - recruit to replace those they lost, and go on. Since a lot of players aspire to join these guilds, they won't really have to accept "lesser" quality players - they might just have to do a little more backflagging.
The problem is that the folks in the middle - or the raiding guilds that aren't high-end yet - are going to be hit from both sides. They're losing people to other games, and they're also going to be losing people to the high-end guilds. That's why I predict that quite a few of them will end up merging in order to survive, or folding entirely.
Omens is still too new to break the perception that flagged raids, and the gear they drop, are required for raiding guilds. Until people stop evaluating encounters in terms of whether they require "elemental" gear or not, the majority of players are going to still feel that they have to raid high-end PoP. So I don't think we'll see people shrugging these raids off anytime soon, even if there is at least a slight chance for alternative gear now. It will probably be at least another two expansions before flagged raiding becomes a niche again, like it was before PoP.
The single-group folks are hit the worst by EQ2. Again Redcloud hit the nail on the head - it doesn't matter how many rangers, druids, mages, wizards, rogues, and so on are still in EQ1 looking for single groups for whatever reason. They can't do much of anything if they don't have the clerics, tanks, and slowers there to back them up. The imbalance of population between "required" classes vs. "dps" classes has always been the bane of the single-group player, especially those without a guild or large group of friends to fall back on.
Loral, I'm really surprised that you haven't mentioned anything that's on test in this article, as there are several things there, like the new /autofire command, which are going to affect the game for many people. As you're fond of pointing out, the game isn't all about raiding, and people would probably like to know about core gameplay changes and content additions. If the problem is simply the time it takes to gather information (you have a real job and a life like eveyrone else), perhaps you might want to look into a couple of additional writers for this site to improve coverage.
I'll withhold judgement on the new spells until we know what they really are, but it seems a silly way to implement a gate ability across the board. Why not just make it an all-class discipline/skill, it would be easier. Everyone has access to that interface.
On CastersRealm, I'm happy to see more activity around the site and I'm glad Gemdiver is working on getting the spell lists and such back up to date. However, I'm find the articles/news that's getting posted to be relatively useless to me. Nothing against the writers, but most of the things that are posted seem more based in opinion than fact, and many of them don't go into near enough detail IMO. I'd rather see fewer postings and have the ones that do go up be more meaningful and detailed.
I read through the raid guide and it's helpful, but it seems more like a summary of "best practices" than an actual guide. I think it will help new raid leaders out somewhat though. For comparison, here is a document that I originally wrote 4 years ago. Parts of it got reposted in quite a few places, including on EQDruids.com for a while.
It says most of the same things, but from a raid member perspective. There's a companion document on the site for raid leaders. There used to be a third document that covered detailed strategies like CH/Rune loops, etc., but I pulled that because they change so often. I try to update the docs every six months or so - they're actually due for an update now.
Comment Posted by: Maev on November 11, 2004 01:07 PM
"If I had to guess, and it is probably wishful thinking on my part, I would say they could summon a single-charge, no-rent gate device usable by typical non-gaters. If it isn't, well, it should be."
Are you kidding me? There are already so many alternate port options out there, another one is completely unnecessary.
Not to mention it steps on the toes of Mages who already summon a 1-shot gate talisman anyways
Comment Posted by: Quesci on November 11, 2004 03:01 PM
Loral never said to GUILD the non-raiders into a raiding guild. That would indeed be silly. As was pointed out earlier, they are non-raiders for a reason.
However, there is no reason that you couldn't invite a non-raider along on a raid. If your raiding guild wants to do some content but you find yourselves short on some critical class (or even just short on raw numbers), maybe you could invite some "non-raider" guests along.
Now, of course there will be things to keep in mind. Non-raiders may be considerably underequipped compared to your guild members. I say "may" because frankly there are many opportunities for non-raiders to acquire quite good equipment nowadays, and even in an uber raiding guild you have new players and underquipped folks. Nevertheless, a guest is likely to require more heals during an AE mob, for example.
Also, you have to be very clear about loot rules. If it is a flagging raid then that would seem to be sufficient reward, but make it clear to your guest what the rules are. In fact, you should make sure that there is someone keeping the guest informed about all goings on (who to ask for buffs, when you need to shrink, when to move), since many times orders are given in a private channel or even in guild.
It can be more trouble than it is worth, but it is also a good way to meet people, maybe even recruit some into your guild. And at the very least you now have a chance to do some event that you didn't have the numbers for.
Comment Posted by: Talaen on November 11, 2004 03:10 PM
Quesci,
Very good point about how to bring "pickups" along on your raids without incident. We do this all the time to fill out our raiding parties for low-end stuff, and it's very true that explaining loot rules up front, and then making sure that the pickup folks know exactly what's going on, helps quite a bit.
Normally what I try to do is put any pickups I have with an experienced group leader. That's not always possible, but it's the goal.
Now my problem with your statement. MOST raiding guilds I know really don't like taking pickups - especially higher-end ones. I can understand why too. The efficiency of a raiding party is determined more by how well they mesh together than by anyone's individual stats. The minute you start taking pickups, you've probably just dropped your raid's efficiency by half, because you have to stop more often to explain things, to heal, to rebuff, or whatever. Now instead of having a group that's fought together and knows how to react, you have at least a portion of your raid which is more or less an unruly mob.
A lot of folks in raiding guilds are there because they want to raid efficiently - they want to get in, get the job done, and get out with the loot, flags, etc. This lets them not only take on bigger and harder things, it also keeps them from having to spend 8 hours on a raid that should only have taken 3.
Every so often a raid leader comes around who really does a good job with pickup raids, but they are few and far between in my experience. The Nameless, as old as it is, has maybe only had about a dozen in all the years I've been raiding there. And doing pickups all the time is such a high-stress proposition that most of them burn out on it after a while.
Comment Posted by: Tobalus on November 11, 2004 10:01 PM
Which server are you playing on loral? I was hoping to get as many of the old players together on an. Bayle so I could actually interact with them.
I'm nostalgic for the maker of www.eqatlas.com though. He did great work and his site really pulled me into the game. I guess people come and go. Sites like this one and http://www.eqtraders.com/ really make the everquest community more than a slashfest with added chatroom (tm).
I'm still waiting for my eq2 to be delivered (argh). In the meantime, did you notice they'd increased the droprate on spiderling silks? I dunno, I leave the game, and they finally fix something that had bugged me ever since they introduced the newbie armour quests and the droprate had changed (presumably to allow for the newbie ingredients).
I just hope they don't re-work the epics using flagging so that someone can solo them if they are persistent enough. That would just be rubbing it in ;-)
Comment Posted by: Loral on November 11, 2004 10:03 PM
Young Pavlen the rogue is on the Antonia Bayle server. That's my main right now in EQ2.
Comment Posted by: wombat on November 11, 2004 10:39 PM
The unofficial EQ2 ANZAC server is Najena for those who wish to know. For ANZAC players server chat is ANZAC channel.
My Guild has had to abandon some raid nights due to WoW and EQ2 betas. We are down to half attendance but are keeping numbers from really crashing by absorbing other off peak players from other servers and collapsed Guilds on our server.
Players are getting on and logging soon afterwards due to no slower/tank/healer LFG in guild or elsewhere. Having 4-5 DPS looking for a critical class isnt uncommon.
Wombat
Comment Posted by: Glamdrigg on November 12, 2004 02:46 AM
Gemdiver plays on Fennin right?
That's my server.
Comment Posted by: Redcloud on November 12, 2004 05:12 AM
There's one thing missing in Omens. Contrary to many previous expansion, there isn't a new armor set per class for groupers or raiders. SoE didn't foster nor provided the hype and interest that those armor created in the previous expansions. I think it lacks very much in that department since it doesn't set new goals for both populations within the game.
If anything, Omens has just new gear with bloated stats. There is an Omens armor but by far not in the shape nor form of ornate or EP armor the way we knew it and that alone detracts a lot to the activity around any new expansion. I hope that SoE will learn from it and think of that for the next one.
It's not against the principle of questing the armor as it is done in Omens but just that it isn't an entire viable path for guilds or groupers which in turn still doesn't rid them entirely of the necessity of older flags, like Time or Qvic. PoF/PoH, Kunark, Velious and POP did so, LDON to a lesser extent, GoD failed to do for many, Omens isn't quite there yet either.
Comment Posted by: Quesci on November 12, 2004 11:51 AM
Redcloud,
There are two tiers of quested armor sets for each class. There is information about them here:
http://www.misgnomer.org/omens/oowquests.html
http://www.thesafehouse.org/viewtopic.php?t=16043
http://www.therunes.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6295
http://www.thesteelwarrior.org/forum/showthread.php?t=9208
Comment Posted by: Zarros on November 12, 2004 12:02 PM
The current level 62 magician spell for producing a gate talisman was so poorly made an implementation as to boggle the imagination. Summoning a no rent item that has one charge and still requires a alchemy-produced reagent that costs almost as much as a single dose alchemy made gate potion made no sense. Why bother with two inventory slots on a no rent item when one could just use a marginally more expensive gate potion readily purchased in the bazaar with up to 10 doses for a single slot and none of the no-rent worries?
Honestly I hope this does go in, the ability to get to and from places of adventure and safe places to camp (bank/sell/bind/train, etc.) is excessive, particularly when combined with the ineffectiveness of invisibility and/or levitate in certain zones. But if it does go in the gate talisman conjured item needs to lose its reagent and quite possibly come in more options.
What I would like to see (or would have loved as an alternative to the Plane of Knowledge), was something like the wayfarer camps seeded throughout expansions/continents that provided places to bind, buy, sell, and bank. Add in a "for hire" translocator who would charge for the convenience provided (and make a handy cash sink) and you've got a nice way for adventurers to stay in the field longer and warrant travelling farther away from central commerce points.
Perhaps the gnomish pirates establish a base of operations in the West Wastes of Velious for instance. Along with them came a gnomish wizard with an eye towards making a bit of coin by providing binding and translocating services. The pirate base attracts a couple of shady merchants, and if not a bank perhaps a "money changer" who for a fee will turn low value coins into higher denominations.
Adventurers would have everything they need to support a longer time in the field. Access to binding, vendors, a bank/moneychanger to deal with excessive amounts of lower value coins, and even a way to and from. One might even see Dragon Necropolis used as a dungeon and place for adventure. ;)
Zarros (retired cleric of EQ1, Saryrn)
Kenros (high elven priest of EQ2, Antonia Bayle)
Dvaelix (dark elven mage of EQ2, Antonia Bayle)
Comment Posted by: Loral on November 12, 2004 01:28 PM
Yes, Redcloud, I made the same mistake in not thinking there were class armors. There are two tiers of class armor, one for non-raiders and one for raiders. Five of the seven pieces of the non-raider armor can be won in single-group hunts. The stats are elemental quality with focus 5 effects. The greaves and breastplate pieces of these armors come from 18 person "events" (SOE's term for smaller raids). This set of armor is meant to be like the Kunark and Velious armor sets.
The raid armor is an upgrade of Qvic armor with around 250 to 300 hitpoints and mana and some very nice effects. This armor comes from Anguish, I believe.
The hardest part about this armor is even getting the faction to get it. You need Dragorn Loyalist faction which requires the killing of many thousands of Muramites.
Comment Posted by: Loral on November 12, 2004 01:29 PM
I got limited confirmation that the level 20 spell is NOT a gate-type potion. That was a real shot in the dark for me, but I still don't know what it is. I plan to log into the test server tonight to find out. I have a feeling it will be pretty mundane.
Comment Posted by: Solistic on November 12, 2004 04:11 PM
Ok it was mentioned that the non raiding guilds might be hit hardest. I do not see it that way. I am leader of one, our membership has increase by at least 6 mains in the last 2 weeks. Most of the people in our guild are sticking around for one or more of the following reasons:
1. their computer equipment can not play the new games
2. they have spent so much time on their characters, they do not want to give them up
3. they know that they will get groups easly if they stay in the guild where their friends are
4. they are hoping that zones will finally be clear enough to enjoy, when a lot of other people leave.
Yes when some of us log on, we get "tells" asking either to join them or join us. Usually we have a full group of guildies with in half an hour of logging on, if not then non guildie friends but that has always been the way and it has not changed.
I have also heard the rumor that serveral higher, not highest, raiding guilds are going over to a paticular server on EQ2 in force, in hopes of taking over the controlling spots on that server. Just like when guilds move from one server to a new server hoping to be top dawg on that server.
I am looking forward to see what EQ1 will be like in a couple months.
Ahhhh I have room to stretch
Comment Posted by: Naladini on November 12, 2004 07:51 PM
More News that somehow got missed:
The top two remaining raiding Guilds (Township Rebellion and Precision Strike) on Stormhammer have decided to leave the Legends Service.
Read more here :http://www.stormhammer.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5243
And Here: http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board/message?board.id=Stormhammer&message.id=1164
(Note, to see full comments on the EQLive boards you'll need to set your account to view posts that have been perma-one-starred by the mods.)
Loral, any chance you might be able to write an article on the Legends Service and what might be planned for the future? I'm guessing that SOE's response might help indicate what kind of future staffing is planned for the EQ1 game as a whole for the next few months.
Comment Posted by: Wolfshead on November 12, 2004 10:17 PM
If you are looking for unbiased, objective news about EverQuest then you have come to the wrong place. Mobhunter may as well be owned by SOE as it's nothing more then another fluff site with propaganda "everthing's fine(tm)" type news. As long as the news is beneficial to SOE and EverQuest it is fit for Loral to post here.
SOE is now in the process of basically buying the influence of most of the major EQ and class related sites with all expense paid trips to Fan Faire and god knows what else. I exposed this questionable practice on the Druid's Grove with a post I made:
http://thedruidsgrove.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10127
Further examples of SOE controlling content on so-called other EQ news sites like the Vault is also discussed in detail at Gezak's website:
http://www.gezak.com/article103.html
The number of websites where you can find honest news about EQ that is not controlled by someone that feels beholden to SOE has dwindled. For the record I'd like to know if SOE paid for any of your expenses Loral for the Fan Faire and I'd like to know if you attended the VIP only lunch with the EQ Devs in New Orleans?
Mobhunter used to be a great website with fascinating news articles and opinion. Now it's just another propaganda outlet for SOE. Notice that the first postive review for Omens of War came from this website and was promptly touted by SOE on their "news". Loral bless his heart obviously loves EQ will like a brave captain go down with his ship.
I cancelled my 2 EQ accounts last week as my guild has moved lock stock and barrel to World of Warcraft. I wash my hands of the continuing debacle that is EverQuest and the callous, inept conduct of a company like SOE.
Farewell Norrath!
--Wolfshead
Comment Posted by: Loral on November 12, 2004 11:45 PM
SOE waived my fan faire registration fee and paid for a room. I paid for the flight (which came out to quite a bit more). Different community reps had different pieces paid for. No one that I know of got paid to come out there. Our gifty bag didn't come with solid gold Everquest tie-pins; we got the same gift bags that everyone at the fan faire got. I did not attend a Summit only lunch but I did have a few opportunities to sit with Brenlo and the devs to talk about the game.
Mobhunter is a free site with no advertisement. I write for free and Kohath hosts the site for free as they did with Moorgard.
Mobhunter isn't a news site, it's an editorial site. That's the way it was with Moorgard and the way it was for Coray. The articles always slanted to the opinions of the writer. No where have I ever claimed to be an objective writer. I try to keep my focus wide and cover topics that matter to the largest amount of the Everquest community, but I am obviously far from objective.
I love Everquest. If I didn't, I wouldn't write an article a week for it. I wouldn't have written over fifty chapters of bad fan fiction. I wouldn't have 340 hours of played time. I feel sorry for people who spent all of this time playing and then leave having hated the game. Time is the only commodity we can never get back and there is no greater loss than to waste it on something we don't enjoy.
I am not trying to get a job with SOE and I'm not doing this for a free t-shirt and keyboard. I do this because Everquest gave me a great source of entertainment and friendship for the last five years and I want to help it continue to do so.
I read your thread over on the Druid's Grove, Wolfshead, and I read back through some of your other postings. It saddened me to see that while you often had some great thoughts and positive feedback, you instead chose to make something out of nothing simply to get attention. I hope WoW gives you what you seek.
Comment Posted by: Glamdrigg on November 13, 2004 02:31 AM
Woh!
I didn't realize it was possible to pay for and also hate little points of light on a computer screen. I don't believe that everything is perfect with our game and SOE is obviously a company in a capitalist society trying to make as much money as they can..... but DUDE....!
Breathe or something. UNPLUG for a while. Drink a cold-boy, and play something you like. Your sword will be missed, but angst is best served in a moshpit.
/em Waves Goodbye
Comment Posted by: on November 13, 2004 09:11 AM
"No where have I ever claimed to be an objective writer." You campaigned to get Coray fired because he wasn't objective remember? Maybe you should get fired too.
Comment Posted by: Loral on November 13, 2004 09:55 AM
Ok, I'm not going to waste people's time defending myself from trolls. I didn't lobby to get Coray fired, he quit playing a year ago and quit writing for Mobhunter at the same time.
If you want to see someone tear apart every detail of a game they don't like, go visit the hundreds of pointlessly negative threads on the Live forums or any one of the class boards.
Comment Posted by: Solistic on November 13, 2004 12:44 PM
I certainly hope that flames do not drive you away Loral. I understand completely where you are coming from. You have inspired some great discussions like the last thread.
Even though I do not agree with you all the time, and other people also, it is a great site to see different points of view.
Yes I wish someone could magically go in and change all the programming code in order to make EQ just how I like it. But then that would be a pretty lonely game.
I usually scroll past the flames to get to the good posts. There are people that post with some really well thought out comments, and back up what they say with facts and examples.
Anyway I would like to get back on the subject, and ignore the flamers. Only reason I come to this site, is because I enjoy the game. Otherwise there would be no purpose to be here.
Though I do not understand how you, Loral, and some of the others have time to write such insiteful posts. I know some of the posters from in game and it still a wonder how they find time. I certainly do not.
So please keep it up, and thank you.
From someone that can only sneak quick peeks from work.
Comment Posted by: Loral on November 13, 2004 01:15 PM
Thank you for the re-railment, Solistic. I try to follow an unwritten rule that if I write something everyone agrees with, I shouldn't have written it. I don't seek out controvercy, but I do like healty dicussion from different sides of the issue (not the person).
By the way, I dug into those strange level 20 spells a little more. They are NOT gate-type spells; I sort of knew that was wishful thinking when I wrote it. They changed on Lucy and now they are some sort of buff with an unknown component cost. I still can't guess what they are but we will soon find out. I expect them to be a bit more mundane than I anticipated.
Comment Posted by: Redcloud on November 14, 2004 08:52 PM
Quesci, sorry for the late reply. Someone indent this thing someday, I hope.
I should have rephrased my comment about omens armor to make it clearer. I know of the two tiers of armors. The problem is not its absence but its lack of drop rate to make it a viable alternative to time or qvic, or ornate for that matter. You'd take way too much time to gear up through tier 1 or 2 as far as I can see.
PS: On another note, I'm glad that Loral finally aknowledges that his/her point of view is entirely one-sided, hence has nothing to do with EQ real situation or demographics. This place would be infinitely more healthy if there was a clearer distinction between propaganda, Loral's form of expression, and the people serious about discussing topics in good faith. Loral chose to disqualify him/herself with those one-sided opinions and could also skip derailing even sony hosted threads about high-end game. It's not to snob you, it's just that you don't know what you are talking about and are just being annoying on purpose. And pretty platantly at that. Pretty poor display for a game rep. Your lack of ethics and decency keep amazing me.
Comment Posted by: Naladini on November 14, 2004 10:50 PM
For the most part, I think Loral does a pretty good job with his commentary. However, it would be nice to see Loral take a step back, and rethink his position a bit more when it comes to "defending" some of SOE's design decisions.
It is inexcusable for SOE to have such a small staff working on EQ1. I don't care how much they claim its grown over the years, they shouldn't have to make all of the "hard" choices they have to make between fixing raid content, building decent casual content, class balancing, pvp revamps, fixing doors, and yes, even delivering on advertised services for Legends. These choices should never be mutually exclusive, yet somehow they seem to be. The fact that general communication from Brenlo and the Dev team has dropped off so much in recent months is a sign of people being overworked and even a bit disorganized.
This is where it might be nice to see Loral get a little more vocal. Its nothing against the current designers of the game, the problem is that there aren't enough of them to keep up with the changes necessary to make the majority of players happy.
Comment Posted by: Loral on November 14, 2004 11:30 PM
"It is inexcusable for SOE to have such a small staff working on EQ1."
How many EQ1 people does SOE have on staff? How many should I suggest they hire on?
I'm not a business major. I don't run a software company. I don't develop massive online games. Where would I even begin to tell them how to run their business?
What I can do is tell them when I see something wrong with the game that I believe effects a large anount of their customers. I don't think Tacvi content balance effects a large amount of their customers, just a loud amount.
I don't expect that this is the only website any EQ fan reads. It is one of many. People get that wider point of view by reading the hundreds of EQ news websites and message forums. They base their own opinions on that vast amount of data, not on any one site.
Any single writer that tells you he's objective is lying to you. Everyone has an agenda, everyone has a point of view. True objectivity cannot be achieved.
Now, lets stop all of this nonsense and talk about real problems. I've heard legends come up a couple of times but I do not play on Legends. Can someone tell me more about whats been going on? I understand that their exclusive content isn't so exclusive anymore, but I could use more details.
I can also tell you that some of the Summit folks who play on Legends have brought their concerns to SOE.
So, instead of worrying about some guy who plays EQ and writes about it, why not worry about the game itself. What are the top specific concerns these days?
Comment Posted by: Naladini on November 15, 2004 12:36 AM
Loral, I do enjoy reading your articles. One of the common themes I've seen you carry on in your writing is the futility of the Uber vs. Casual discussion. Have you considered that the root problem in that discussion is the fact that the dev team simply isn't large enough to promptly address both playergroup's issues at the same time? The reason that this discussion often turns ugly is that we're all fighting for the attention of the dev group.
Legends has a small laundry list of problems. The most notable, is that to address some of these issues, development resources will need to be diverted away from some of the "wider reaching" projects. Hence the need for EQ to have more development resources.
The "real" problem:
There is a rapidly declining player population (count me in on that decline). EQ is not a game that plays well on a very low population server. Little has been done to improve the quality of gameplay within that environment, and even less has been done to try and draw more people to the server to replace those who are leaving.
Contributing factors:
1) The Legends Website has not evolved with the game, features introduced with PoP & LoY are not visible (eg. stats past the old 255 cap, charm slot, expanded bank, etc), guild pages and forums don't work reliably, the map feature is missing zones, etc. To add insult to injury, EQ2Players.com is being charged as an "extra" fee to Legends subscribers. This is a profound insult because the people who were supposed to be fixing and keeping up the Legends website have been neatly tucked away building the EQ2 site for quite a while now.
2) A number of longtime Legends gm's were moved to EQ2 over the past few months, this caused:
A) GM response time and visibility is reported to be down significantly as of late.
B) High level events run during US primetime and latenight have dropped off considerably over the past few months.
3) Custom content: We really haven't seen anything in quite some time. SOE abandoned the idea of exclusive Legends content long ago, replacing it with previews of revamps and new zones. This was skipped completely when VP was revamped. (I think all servers are still looking for the Lost pyramid zone BTW :) )
4) Lore: There hasn't been much in the way of Lore or "legendary" events (or items). A prime example is the VP launch, there should have been a large event like there was back when ST was revamped. For a long time, GM events were frequently recycled, this has gotten a bit better as of late, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of time spent writing lore for events these days. Very few "storyline" updates are made to the legends website.
5) Communication - If you /petition or send an email to the Legends team, the GMs are quite helpful and responsive. The problem is, all they can do is report problems to their superiors. Many suggestions have been made over the past few months to help alleviate some of the issues on the server, most of these suggestions fall outside of the GM team's sphere of influence, and as a result most of these suggestions have been "passed on" and subsequently denied. The people responsible for denying these suggestions have refused to step forward and give reasoning, nor have they solicited input on what players would like to see happen within the service. (The quickest and cheapest change to make would be to allow the GM's to interact with the players on EQLive, tell stories, roleplay for upcoming events, etc.)
6) EQ2 - While I consider it an honor and a great priveledge to have participated in the EQ2 beta program, I think its an absolute shame that the chief benefit to being a long term subscriber to EQ1's flagship service was the right to play an entirely different game.
There are a bunch of great suggestions on how to improve the service that can be found on both the EQLive Stormhammer forums and Stormhammer.org.
To me, changes have to be made to make the Legends experience more stable in spite of the lower population, while adding incentives to stay on the server for a longer period of time. An example might be a "point" driven vendor, similar to what was recently implemented on the PvP servers. Players would get an allotment of points on a monthy basis to buy things like Rez Sticks and Summon Corpse potions (to help with the low population issue), as well as the ability to save up their points for some nicer Legendary items.
Comment Posted by: Naladini on November 15, 2004 12:49 AM
PS. I think we've all seen how great SOE can be when they're 100% committed to something. The issues with Legends can easily be summed up by saying SOE is less than 100% committed to the service. ;)
Comment Posted by: Redcloud on November 15, 2004 05:06 AM
"How many EQ1 people does SOE have on staff? How many should I suggest they hire on?"
The 85/15 rule impact a LARGE amount of people. Not just Tacvi by a wide margin, there are hundreds of guilds dealing with flags, that represent hundreds of players that represent often more than one account for a lot more than a year. Do your homework, find out why it isn't patch yet. It impacts the majority of the playerbase AT_SOME_POINT_IN_TIME.
About Tacvi and Anguish: it's a matter of domino effect. When top end guilds collapse, people loose their friends, the friends of their friends, their xp groups, etc. As much as raiding guilds draw players, collapsing ones make SOE loose plenty. That is a fact, not opinion. I've seen it happen multiple times first hand. Belittling these effects because it doesn't serve one's agenda is again very narrow minded. I hate to see skilled players, good friends and long standing on-line pals, quit because of SoE negligence. EQ1 looses customers first and foremost because of SoE. SoE is its own biggest competitor today, not WoW. If people would be confortable with the game and its future, they would probably consider staying a lot more than they do now. If you actually still cared about this game you'd log on low population servers these days and ask them. Not the invisible below 65 crowd that 3 online at prime time on some servers, bazaar crowd excluded.
As others have put it before me, this game is all about ties and trust. Trust that the next patch will fix problem xyz. Trust that the next zone will be worth all the time sinks endured. Trust that the next dungeon is more fun or challenging than the previous one. It's built on hope. If SoE removes hope, removes trust, removes the illusion of both, it's a death wish for the game. How long does it take to fix bugs or problems when they have no pressure to do so? Years. Why are people vocal? Because they need to create a momentum big enough to force SoE to do their job instead of fixing doors. Who does this? The playerbase driven by vocal players with exposure. Who has it? Very often people representing more than themselves, guild leaders, long standing players, dedicated gamers. Who is SoE loosing right now? Exactly that customers' segment. It's simple math that EQ1 is bleeding its life force for no good business reason and they need to be reminded that summits and game reps with personnal agendas aren't worth a copper if they don't do their homework, don't do their job by representing facts to them, not opinions or worse, agendas.
Hint: if you aren't up to it, Loral, find a replacement for mobhunter. It's a good site. There a worthwhile discussions but you lost the interest apparently. Find someone that has it.
Comment Posted by: Kephra on November 15, 2004 10:09 AM
Just a little piece of news I found disturbing, though it may/may not warrant any 'real' attention stateside: SOE pulled back what little comitment they had to a "UK Recommended" or Euro server for english speakers (they do have localized servers for French and German). They apparently pulled the UK suggested tag off of Runnyeye when the server filled up too fast (they apparently sold a lot to the UK and were surprised... despite the percentage of preorders, I guess), and plan to just have the english speaking Euros distribute across the american servers.
There's a lot of heat on this from english speaking Europeans of course.
Anyway, if you hear of any adjustments to this policy, toss up a comment? I find it kinda sad that the Europeans got sold a bunch of 'You're just as important as American customers' and 'simultaneous release with localization' and 'yea, we plan to have an English based server in Amsterdam' devolve to 'no, you're not going to have servers where you're the primary population during YOUR peak hours, with full support at your peak hours, and just as much chance for peak hour events or whatnot. And no, we're not going to adjust our 3am pacific patch time that falls in your afternoon towards peak, so you just deal with the primetime loss of playtime'.
Comment Posted by: Daehron on November 15, 2004 10:25 AM
Redcloud, you are espousing the same opinion and agenda that you try to slam Loral with.
Guilds come and guilds go. The game didn't come to an end months ago when the two 'biggest, uberest most nasty and oh-we-all-want-to-be-them' guilds stopped whining and 'decamped'. You know... I don't even remember their names.
Know why?
Because the issues of the 'hard-core' raiders are irrelevant to the majority of the players.
Game companies have seen the folly of EQ. They have seen that developing content for raiders is futile and a waste of resources. The vain attempt to provide over-stimulation to a pack of rabid gamers who chew through content in a third of the time it takes to develop it detracts from the rest of the game.
Other game companies / development teams seem to have worked this into their game designs. The EQLive team may be trying to phase it in. Good for them.
Fixing the raid script / loot tables whatever you complain about this phase of the moon requires more time to develop / tweak / balance than fixing doors, developing engaging content for lower level players who will be replacing you and your comerades when you leave.
Anyway - long and short Redcloud - don't throw stones at Loral for not claiming to be objective. You are far from sin-less yourself, in that regard.
Comment Posted by: Bahlzaq on November 15, 2004 12:09 PM
Hey hey, it is not fair to Loral to say that since he isn't yelling for SOE to change this and that in their development/support schemes that he isn't doing his "job."
It is also not fair to say that since SOE isn't fixing everything you want with the priority you want it fixed they need more people or whatever. I am in agreement with what Loral has said about this 100 percent. And even though I think he made some factual errors in his opinion writing about class balance issues, I think he does a good job. The idea that because you don't like the way something is going, Loral should "expose" it and campaign for change is ridiculous. Loral is a player who has opinions and writes about them. He composes his writings well, and as near as I can tell that, and being a fan of the game are the only two things he is trying to do.
All that being said, I do think it is spurious that SOE seems to have an elite group of players, fansite devotees, and "press" that they try to shmooze, but welcome to the gaming industry. I have never been involved in it but you are constantly hearing about this type of stuff across the industry. I believe Loral would write what he is writing without the shmoozing. If the shmoozing allows him to see a little more and hear a little more than he would have otherwise, that is good for all of us...
As to whether SOE is trying to make anyone beholden to them, well journalistic integrity should win out, if it doesn't then that is the website's (real news sites not necessarily mobhunter) fault and not SOE's and we would need some new websites. Frankly I don't think I would like to read any shocking, or bitter exposés on why three people in your raid keep getting teleported out of a dungeon I'll never see, but if you want it, just make enough noise and someone will write it for you...
I have already said my piece on raiding guilds leaving and the soothsayers that predict the dire consequences of that, however I will expound just a little more. Whenever anyone leaves it hurts the game. Someone more social hurts the game more, someone less social or connected hurts the game less. In my opinion, people in raiding guilds are no more or less likely to have individual impact than anyone else. The main difference I see is that you have a whole group of people leave all at once. So if the fallout of five people leaving is one person leaving, then if a guild of 200 leaves that is a lot more noticeable impact than if 5 do.
However, I still think your level of pompous jackassness can not go much higher than to believe you and others like you single handedly keep the game going by giving people something to aspire to. The idea is asinine. People aspire to a certain place in the game. As an example of that people might say… “Man I’d like to have a sword like that guy is holding” Now here is the part that you may have a hard time getting your mind around… That doesn’t mean they love you and want to be like you and would quit playing if you weren’t there to model the sword they want. Nope they would just read about it in alla’s or lucy, and aspire to get it from there. The mania that leads to this “reverse hero worship” is insane. It reminds me of high school. If you think you are cool then you are cool. Everyone in high-end guilds think the kissing up in the app process and the begging they get means people think they are great… WRONG. It means people are trying to use YOU to achieve THEIR goals… and if every uber guild in the game quit tomorrow they would be replaced by guilds started by those same people who are begging to get into your guild now. The first uber guilds started by getting together non ubers and making them uber together… that would happen again.
In short, if you have ever thought you are the reason anything keeps going, I hate you.
-Thanks,
Bahlzaq
Comment Posted by: on November 15, 2004 12:16 PM
Broken and/or unbalanced content should be fixed regardless of what zone or teir it's aimed at.
Comment Posted by: Bahlzaq on November 15, 2004 12:32 PM
Broken and unbalanced content should be fixed. The idea I was trying to espouse was threefold,
1) we don't know what SOE is currently up against with the software, and therefor have no idea how they should allocate their resources or what a resonable time for bug fixes should be.
2) The battle cry of raiders has always been "we are more important to the game so fix our stuff now" This in perticular aggravates me.
3) It isn't loral's "job" to make sure SOE does anything. Unless one of you disgruntleds is paying him for something I am unaware of.
I agree everything should be fixed, it is second guessing schedules and certain people demanding priority for self important crazy reasons that I have a problem with.
Comment Posted by: Redcloud on November 15, 2004 08:33 PM
EQ in its current form supports raid and guilds at different level of gameplay. You want your share of the game fixed, other people want theirs.
MOST of the time, everyone will be glad when one group content is balanced and fun. Everyone will be glad when new expansions are mostly bug free.
Let's stick to facts for a change.
It's SoE problem to provide an usable content at every level of gameplay. Not the players'.
Loosing customers for a poor service is bad business. Novel concept. That's all it boils down to
This is not about demanding priority, it's about breaking the 1 meter thick concrete wall between the players and SoE. It's extremely hard to get clear answers and any if ever dead-lines. SoE track record is abysmal. Players know it and act accordingly.
In this very thread people have pointed out omissions from Loral or other subjects where I would use the term job in the sense of doing a poor job as a game rep. You don't have to be paid to have a poor performance at something.
Comment Posted by: Wyldrose on November 16, 2004 02:25 AM
IMHO: EQ is a wonderfully written game that I enjoyed for many hours. It is complex and there is lots of content. With that complexity there is bound to be a few bug, and every 'fix' has often causes more problems than they fix.
If you look for friends and fun things to do in EQ, you can find it. If you want to pick at every bug, there are lots of those to be found too.
EQ is basically the same game it was 6 years ago.. I am sure those that are frustated now were frustrated back then. I am sure none of you remember waiting for boats, camping endless hours for a mob to spawn, or to have your mob KS'd after waiting 12 hours. But you know what? I made some damn good friends and no amount of programing will match the good times I had with them (and the bad times too).
EQ is far from a perfect game, but IMHO it was better than any other game to come out that I tried so far. Well I am having fun in Toontown atm with my son, at least until I get a new video card then I will try EQ2.
So Loral chooses to look at what is right with the game..what the hell is wrong with that? More power to him. The old saying is 'You'll find what you looking for'.
Comment Posted by: Redcloud on November 16, 2004 03:35 AM
Fanboism isn't the subject here.
Some people wish for a diverse playerbase, some don't.
Since the later detracts to the richness of the game and looks to some extent biased, shallow and narrow-minded, people will point out the shortcomings of such reasonning. It shouldn't a surprise.
Comment Posted by: Talaen on November 16, 2004 07:35 AM
I logged into EQ last night after spending all of last week in EQ2.
I was there primarily to coordinate a guild merger, and didn't actually play, but I was struck by something.
Running through various zones in Old Norrath, Kunark, Luclin, and Omens of War, I noticed that because of the lower population, the game "feels" more like it did 3 years ago. Places seem wilder, more dangerous. When you see another adventurer out in the wilderness, you know they're out there for a reason.
This is a good thing....the immersion factor of the game seems to have gone back up as overcrowding has decreased. However, players need to capitalize on this. Folks still in EQ1 have a historic opportunity to band together and really get to play the game that, for years, they haven't been able to play because there were just too many of them trying to all at once.
They just have to get over some of the stigmas that have come with overcrowding, such as not taking random groups, or grouping with people outside of their guild.
The population problems aren't really an SOE problem - they're a player community problem. Nothing SOE can do at this point will magically fix them. It's up to the players to bring the game back, this time.
I only play EQ1 two days a week now. It will be interesting to watch and see how things go.
Comment Posted by: Bahlzaq on November 16, 2004 08:36 AM
"In this very thread people have pointed out omissions from Loral or other subjects where I would use the term job in the sense of doing a poor job as a game rep. You don't have to be paid to have a poor performance at something."
I agree with you about not having to be paid to do a good job, however the reason I put the "job" in quotes is because Loral gets to define what his "job" is in mobhunter. The reason he gets to decide, is because he does it for free. If he purported to be an advocate of all gamers and all game issues, or an unbiased observer and reporter then I would say you have a leg to stand on. I don't think he ever has, and even if you believe that he has inferred that by supporting various changes in the game that would support gamers, which changes he supports are clearly at his own whim.
It seems funny to me that you would say every facet that is broken needs fixed but you are worried about the changes that affect you... clearly Loral is going to write about the changes that are closest to his heart, and unless he gets hired by the consortium of uber guilds to rabidly advocate their agenda, then his "job" is whatever the hell he wants it to be.
Comment Posted by: Dvaelix on November 16, 2004 12:01 PM
Note: I will be posting under the name of my EQ2 primary character from now on. A dark elven sorcerer on the Antonia Bayle server.
The primary problem with "fixing" EQ1 in any meaningful sense, even if we could agree on which direction said fix should go, is that the older a piece of code is and the more times its been modified, the harder it becomes to modify it at all. The more modular/componentized you make it, the less efficient it can be in some respects, and the more you risk side effects from seamingly inncuous changes. In a six year old game, the amount of "spaghetti code" that has likely resulted makes this a very trying process.
The next thing that has to be considered is marketing. EQ1 has a loyal playerbase, make too many changes and/or unpopular ones and you start losing them to competitors. The double bind here is that its pretty clear the existing MMO marketplace is no longer easily satisfied with a game designed and implemented like EQ1.
So you need to make the changes you believe are game improving, won't alienate even more of your customers but will help retain "on the fence" ones, and are pragmatically doable while producing new content/expansions.
It doesn't suprise me they are having problems.
It also doesn't suprise me how much nicer EQ2 is to play in comparison, even as a rank newbie at it (though not to MMOs). Its clear they know and understand what works and doesn't for this genre of MMO, at least in terms of commercial success (artistic success is in the eye of the beholder of course.)
Common adventure areas are instanced, so if the Commonlands gets overcrowded another instance is generated and those zoning to the Commonlands can choose which instance to go to. Instances can be full and not allow others to join (not sure if groups are an exception or not), and instances who have populations below a threshold no longer register as an option.
Gear and money sufficient for "getting by" at a minimum are readily acquired in the normal course of adventuring, without a need to camp.
Everyone has the ability to gate back to their home district of their chosen city once per game day. Its very slow casting and easily interrupted and thus useless as an escape, but great for a "I'm done, I wanna go home!"
Groups are definitely superior to soloing, and yet soloing is possible and doable regardless of archetype/class/subclass. Have a few minutes to play, log in and whack a few mobs, do some crafting, or maybe finish a quest.
Quests are everywhere. NPCs will call out to you, some will wave you over, others you can talk to and find. The rewards in bonus experience and gear/treasure have all been nice, and when combined with the experience gained in the course of questing are a very nice "no grinding here" manner of levelling. The quest journal shows your next step, summarizes what you've done/learned, and lays out what you know of the upcoming steps (no more scraps of paper or spoiler sites!)
They aren't perfect, some are annoying as heck like trying to find pelts for my tradeskill society wholesaler (resource nodes get tapped fast) and while everyone in a group can get "drop credit" if a quest item is "dropped" (they're really flags of a sort) some of the "drop rates" are very low.
There are some multi-group raid-type encounters that are nice.
All priests share a common line of direct heals and can rez, so all can function as main healers. But they are not all the same, they all have additional healing techniques that are unique, and additional ways to be differant. The other archetypes are similar. Point being that you don't try to balance "rogues" against "wizards" for DPS, you instead make sure "rogues" are balanced in terms of their capabilities (though differant in means) with other "scouts" and "wizards" are balanced in terms of their capabilities (again differant in means) with other "mages."
Too soon to tell for sure if it will work out as advertised, but so far it certainly seems to living up to its PR.
Anyway, sorry for the long "EQ2 Rocks!" post, but its meant to illustrate my opening point. EQ1 is getting harder and harder to change in terms of its underlying design and operating principles. Short of a massive rewriteof the underlying game engine, that's not likely to change, nor do I see it happening with EQ2 in existance. SOE will keep EQ1 around for as long as it is profitable, and its primary profits are going to come from those satisfied with its current state.
Dvaelix, Dark Elf Sorcerer on the Antonia Bayle Server of EQ2
aka: Kenros, High Elf Druid on Antonia Bayle
aka: Zarros, High Elf Cleric on Saryrn (EQ1, retired)
Comment Posted by: Glamdrigg on November 17, 2004 03:44 AM
Talaen,
Your last post struck a chord with me. I had a similar experience last weekend when I logged in. It was like I finally got the bed to myself and could strectch out a little. It indeed reminded me of the game a few years back.
What's that old saying about absence making the heart grow fonder...or those few in numbers needing to band together against a bigger wilder world? Well, Norrath felt a little bigger last weekend.
What's more...those random strangers I ran into out there were much hungrier for groups then they were before. I went to an LDON camp (GHOST TOWNS of late) and started sending random tells to strangers asking if they wanted to group up. I totally ignored the LFG Filter as it was thin. A couple of weeks ago it would have taken an hour or so to get a group started. I had a group in less then 10 mins. We cranked out a NRO and then to my surprise no one wanted to disband. I took them all over to Natimbi, as one of the group expressed interest in the Focused Flame mace quest. We had a blast owning the zone and working on the restless souls til late into the night.
I have my own guildies and friends I play with and we are a pretty tight click. Luckily for me they are all staying for the most part, so my hunting parties are safe for now. However, I think that you are right about people and their reservations of random groups. If last weekend was any indication of how things will be I see new friendships being formed, new guilds will rise where old ones fell off, and this will all be out of necessity.
Does that mean that EQ is safe? That its decline has not begun? In short: NO. But it does remind those of us who are sticking it out what the game is really about: The Players. Meeting, hunting, questing, adventuring with others...strangers for that matter. If we wanted to remain insular and play solo we wouldn't be online.
I'm gonna ride this one out. This game still holds my interest and imagination. It still offers good interaction with my established friends, and the changing times will make for interesting interactions for a while.
Most of all, I am curious to watch what will happen to our game as these changes occur. As you say yourself: "It will be interesting to watch and see how things go."
/LFG
Comment Posted by: Glamdrigg on November 17, 2004 03:55 AM
BTW,
Loral,
I think you are doing your job fine. I mean, this site is about conversation, right?
You post a report and bring up issues and then people respond. Slanted views or not...there are certainly enough opposing viewpoints in this thread alone to ensure we are all getting a well rounded picture here.
And if you disagree with that, post an opinion!
/Chuckle...between you and Redcloud and company I get a very balanced picture of EQ and its issues.
Thanx all, I am enjoying reading this site..
Comment Posted by: Redcloud on November 17, 2004 05:10 AM
Same here, Glamdrigg P))
But to strike a note of positivity, in spite all that, SoE did a terrific job with Omens.
The reintroduced factions, travel, CRs, epics, fun and variety in many trials, much improved graphics, more immersive instanced content, a plethore of other things that are just fun and kudos to those who worked on Omens.
I haven't had as much fun in a long time and regret in fact that EQ2 and WoW come at a wrong time for EQ1.
Comment Posted by: Loral on November 17, 2004 08:00 AM
FANBOI!
Just kidding =D
Comment Posted by: Redcloud on November 17, 2004 09:07 AM
Matter of fact, yes, true fanboy in the sense that I wish EQ1 to be as good an option than EQ2 or WOW and that's not an easy task regarding new players. I'd love to.
On another topic, putting back some events or true PVP with special rules for kicks:
We were many pondering with some friends the many fun aspects of true PVP. The past experiences of each other on other games. The shortcomings of EQ1 PVP and what would have been fun doing with the current frame in which it could happen.
In scope and style that would ressemble Planetside but one could imagine a 3 or 4 week cycle of PVP events within even PVE servers at fixed hours and fixed date and evolving levels with template gear for each class open to everyone to create a toon and buff him up. Only beta characters are allowed with a closed number per class and per camp.
Mobs have positive faction with their players but since its full PVP, you AE, cast, hit a friendly target, they turn on you... (it's just an idea, AE class player please don't freak out.)
Week 0 day 1: Rallos orders his minions to plan the invasion of Hall of Honor. People get each a website and a forum for each camp: Rallos vs MMarr. It takes some time but at last they get organized and put a battle plan and split task by groups of players or guilds.
Week 1 day 8 level 50: At a given hour, Rallos poors his minions on HoHa. Groups of mobs fight each other in help or against groups of players. Live GM influencing what groups of mobs may flee or surprise attack depending of the players actions. Mobs are weak but plentiful. 2 hours later the event ends and a official page gives the total PVP kills per person, the progress of each camp, the consequences issued.
A week passes were everyone gets back to work for the next event depending of the outlook in HoHa. Tactics are drawn, jobs are dispatched.
Week 2 day 15 level 60: Same concept as week 1. Possible intervention of another god or whatever else the GMs can come up with to mess with the battleplans.
Same debrief and preparation.
Week 3 day 22 level 70: Assuming that week 1 and 2 have succeeded for Rallos, it's the all out war on Hall of Honors B. Mid fight Rallos shows up to go and get personnal with MMarr. Waves of mobs both sides make it cahotic enough to keep whatever amount of surviving participants busy and hedging the fight in whichever direction depending of their actions in the field. God x or y dies. Winner get a soulmark, a title, whatever. Doesn't matter really since it won't migrate as a bonus into the next event.
All these words to say, I miss the good old events even if they didn't look remotely like this.
Comment Posted by: Chris on November 17, 2004 07:39 PM
The new spells may be an analogue of the "feather" spell in EQ2. This is a summoned no-rent item with an activatable effect of rez which *only* works on the healer.
Comment Posted by: Moorgard on November 18, 2004 01:18 AM
"Mobhunter used to be a great website with fascinating news articles and opinion."
Where were you back when I needed you?
Comment Posted by: Gemdiver on November 18, 2004 09:36 AM
Plane of Knowledge will never be safe. Death to the Port stones!
Comment Posted by: Bahlzaq on November 18, 2004 09:52 AM
"Where were you back when I needed you?"
Back in your cage Moorgard, I have some EQ2 issues I need spun :)
j/k I think it's great, except I thought rangers actually got a pet...
for sale lvl 14 Iksar predator, nearly housebroke... stupid misleading spell descriptions.
Comment Posted by: Solistic on November 18, 2004 11:26 AM
Hey Gemdiver, I can't seem to help you, everytime I target the port stones, they sucker me in like a Used Car Salesman
Comment Posted by: Merkava on November 20, 2004 03:26 AM
Redcloud,
Your idea is neat, but PvP isn't the main focus of EQ. I suggest trying Planetside. That sounds more like what you're looking for.
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