The Tattered Notebook 6/03: Post-Halas Reborn interview with producer Dave Georgeson [Archive]

Seccia_Ravenloft

06-03-2010, 06:01 PM

<img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.massively.com/media/2010/06/eq2halas.jpg" width="580" height="314" /><a href="http://www.massively.com/2010/06/03/the-tattered-notebook-post-halas-reborn-interview-with-producer/" target="_blank">Click here to read this week's Tattered Notebook!</a>The community had questions -- serious questions on Qeynos and Freeport, and Shader 3.0's difficulties -- and Dave Georgeson has answers. This week on the Tattered Notebook, Dave was nice enough to give us a bit of his time and offer some thoughts on the patching of Shader 3.0, the reasons behind the removal of the starting zones in Qeynos and Freeport, and a nice big (not-so) cryptic hint on the next expansion to grace our game.So, if you were wondering what the heck happened to Qeynos or Freeport, or if you really wanted to know just what's up their sleeve for the next expansion, this interview has both of that!~Seccia Ravenloft

Thunderthyze

06-04-2010, 08:52 AM

Could I suggest it was hardly an "in-depth" interview?Is there any intention for Mr Georgeson to produce a regular "Producer's Letter" to the community in the same way Brenlo did latterly? At the moment we the paying public have not really seen any "mission statement" beyone a generic "more of the same" shortly after his appointment. If that is going to result in yet more meaningless SC/LoN micro transactions introduced over well developed depth of gameplay, balanced content then I fear he will be presiding over the death of the game if server numbers are anything to go by.

SmokeJumper

06-04-2010, 01:20 PM

I'll be honest. I'm not one of those guys that creates a "mission statement".Online games are amorphous. We have two real purposes in life: a) To entertain as many people as we possibly can, and b) make some money along the way so that we can continue to create more entertainment.How we do that changes on a regular basis as we push forward based on lots of things like: Public expectations; the industry changing around us; what constitutes entertainment (yes, that changes slowly, but steadily); and many other elements.So for now, we're doing three things:<ol><li>We're developing the next big expansion (and a big update before that expansion comes out) so that we can keep new stuff rolling into the world of Norrath because new stuff is good entertainment. This includes new areas, new ways to play, new loot, balance changes and modifications to the current systems to make them more fun. NOTE: This is our primary focus at the moment and constitutes the bulk of our development resources and time.</li><li>We're working to make the game more easily entered by new folks so that we can keep the playerbase growing. Why? Because it's really obvious to us that new folks bounce pretty hard because of the learning curve of our game, and without new folks coming in, the game will eventually stagnate...which would suck for all us, devs and players alike.</li><li>We're analyzing the "empty world" situation in the mid-level zones and thinking about possible solutions to revitalize all the fantastic content in this game and fill it with players so everyone's not crowded into the end parts of the game.</li></ol>Now...these directions are not permanent. We will always be staying flexible with our goals. And that's why I will never issue a "mission statement". But that's what we're focused on right now.Fair enough?

illaria

06-04-2010, 01:50 PM

My own feedback on why we have an "empty world" situation at midlevel is because getting from level 1-80 is so fast people do not need to find groups and when groups are found it is primarily with guildies or other friends who are leveling up alts.

Vinyard

06-04-2010, 01:55 PM

Why not give certain zones EXP modifiers, like in EQ1? That would definately be a good incentive to go with a group.

Malacha

06-04-2010, 03:02 PM

I hope your new loot is far more impressive than your old loot, because so far this expansion, everything is a gigantic yawnfest when it comes to loot. Very vanilla, nothing cool or "MUST HAVE" ... just boring, watered down, weak procs.

Thantoes

06-04-2010, 03:03 PM

Rate of leveling is a good suggestion. For me its the gear, token/shard gear more specifically. Could we look at other means for a solo player that MAY have 2 hours 2 to 3 times a week to play to obtain the "token" used. Example, right now I am gearing up my 3 level 80 charactors. ( No, I don't have SF and may wait for the next expansion) with only One (1) daily shard mission, it takes about 2 days to get 6 tokens. That is 1 piece of gear with T1 gear going for 5-6 shards and 2 pieces for 10-12. 44 shards to gear one charactor. Not including Jewelry at 15 shards. THEN to upgrade to T2 it is another 15-20 shards per piece. I do not have that kind of time (NO I don't need to join a guild, I have my own little alt guild and pugs are non-existant if you don't have myth Plus)

SmokeJumper

06-04-2010, 03:05 PM

Malachni...you sound tough to satisfy, but we'll do our best. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Sydares

06-04-2010, 03:12 PM

Throwing in my two cents to concur that "Temporarily grants 5% ability casting speed for 8 seconds" and its ilk are probably the most boring and puzzling procs on the face of the earth.

Lader

06-04-2010, 03:34 PM

tough to satisfy? itemization at the launch of SF was by far the worst in the history of the game. it was absolute chaos. it has been cleaned up some, but still, there is much to be desired. Procs such as overloaded heal are absolutely unnecessary. as are procs that have a chance to give 5% cast speed. there is plenty of feedback on effects such as these and far more interesting and cool effects have been proposed.

Thunderthyze

06-04-2010, 04:00 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>We're developing the next big expansion (and a big update before that expansion comes out) so that we can keep new stuff rolling into the world of Norrath because new stuff is good entertainment. This includes new areas, new ways to play, new loot, balance changes and modifications to the current systems to make them more fun. NOTE: This is our primary focus at the moment and constitutes the bulk of our development resources and time.</blockquote>The word fun there disconcerts me a little. At least you didn't enclose it in parentheses. Thing is you can try and attract all the new players you like but if, in so doing, you drive away the old established ones the effort will be pointless. The folk who frequent these forums and the dudes over at Flames probably have a great deal of knowledge that would be valuable to the Dev team when it comes to focussing on change. Please make use of the community to bounce ideas off rather than going too far down dead ends. We tend not to receive "balance changes and modifications to the current systems" too well when they are foisted on us unannounced. We have an inherent interest in seeing the game succeed as it we are the ones that actually pay to play it. Please don't treat us as idiots and we'll do our best not to act like idiots in our remarks on these forums.

Mystfit

06-04-2010, 07:03 PM

**from the article: (But we really hope you all like snow and ice.)**I"m a bit worried about this. In an odd set of circustoances I have an alt in Everfrost and am running mymain thorugh Halas and I"m very ice overloaded and not at all looking foreward to an icey expansion. Don't get me wrong. I was pleased that Halas felt different teh nEverfrost. I didn't feel like I was in EF II. But, there is only so much you can do in that environemnt and I'm finding it hard to wrap my brain around more snow and ice.

NViDiaFReaK

06-04-2010, 07:37 PM

Heres my questions. These are questions in regards to the enchanter specifically illusionist class that have been asked since early beta. I shouldn't be surprised though.. Its not like we are going to get a straight forward answer from smokejumper or any other dev. The enchanter forums prove it.. we are ignored day in and day out.heres the questions i presented in another post.. What are the plans for the future of the Illusionist class? Can we do something about single target buffs persisting through death? Any plans to allow Illusionists to cast tc on themselves like they did with bards?<a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=480108" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=480108</a>Edited for spelling

kelvmor

06-04-2010, 07:50 PM

...Minotaur illusion. Make it happen, Smoke.

Hanokh2010

06-04-2010, 08:30 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'll be honest. I'm not one of those guys that creates a "mission statement".Online games are amorphous. We have two real purposes in life: a) To entertain as many people as we possibly can, and b) make some money along the way so that we can continue to create more entertainment.How we do that changes on a regular basis as we push forward based on lots of things like: Public expectations; the industry changing around us; what constitutes entertainment (yes, that changes slowly, but steadily); and many other elements.So for now, we're doing three things:<ol><li>We're developing the next big expansion (and a big update before that expansion comes out) so that we can keep new stuff rolling into the world of Norrath because new stuff is good entertainment. This includes new areas, new ways to play, new loot, balance changes and modifications to the current systems to make them more fun. NOTE: This is our primary focus at the moment and constitutes the bulk of our development resources and time.</li><li>We're working to make the game more easily entered by new folks so that we can keep the playerbase growing. Why? Because it's really obvious to us that new folks bounce pretty hard because of the learning curve of our game, and without new folks coming in, the game will eventually stagnate...which would suck for all us, devs and players alike.</li><li>We're analyzing the "empty world" situation in the mid-level zones and thinking about possible solutions to revitalize all the fantastic content in this game and fill it with players so everyone's not crowded into the end parts of the game.</li></ol>Now...these directions are not permanent. We will always be staying flexible with our goals. And that's why I will never issue a "mission statement". But that's what we're focused on right now.Fair enough?</blockquote>1) Some of us don't want new areas, if it means deleting the old areas. Some of us don't want new ways to play (this is a rather cryptic and frightening statement to me), we like to play pretty much the way things are since everytime one of you other than Domino comes up with an idea it is usually a bad one. The new loot that I've seen in New Halas is so disorganized to be useless unless you make a new race with 3 necks, 8 ears, 10 fingers, 6 wrists, and 2 waists.2) SmokeJumper have you ever considered that many new players bounce so hard because they are led by the nose to level 20-25 in the new starting areas without ever learning how to play the game. I just leveled a warden in Timorous Deep to the early 20's by hitting 4 buttons! Pull with fire 2, auto attack with 1, start HO with mouse click, ice with 3, finish HO with fire 2, rinse and repeat HO until mob is dead. The Qeynos and Freeport starting experience that all the new devs so casually dismissed was a far better teacher than solo leveling someone to 90 along the Golden Path. Did you read the post recently in General Gameplay from a player who had reached a decent mid-level in the game and played in his first group and was basically lost at how to play his character? That is the result of all these new starting areas, no veterans want to group with someone who is say level 49 and needs to be taught how to play the game.3) The empty world is empty because of poor decisions made in the attempt to get everyone to 90 as quickly as possible. Qeynos, Freeport, Antonica, The Commonlands, Thundering Steppes and Nektulos Forest might as well have been deleted along with the Isles because anyone starting in your new areas has no reason to go there other than to grind AA.

NViDiaFReaK

06-04-2010, 10:05 PM

Wrong I actually prefer BB, WC, STORMHOLD, FALLEN GATE, Ruins of Varsoon, over any of the new stuff. I only go hit the new stuff once for AA. Iys the old world dungeons that keep me comin back with alts.

Purr

06-05-2010, 02:22 AM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote><ol><li>We're working to make the game more easily entered by new folks so that we can keep the playerbase growing. Why? Because it's really obvious to us that new folks bounce pretty hard because of the learning curve of our game, and without new folks coming in, the game will eventually stagnate...which would suck for all us, devs and players alike.</li><li>We're analyzing the "empty world" situation in the mid-level zones and thinking about possible solutions to revitalize all the fantastic content in this game and fill it with players so everyone's not crowded into the end parts of the game.</li></ol></blockquote>Whenever I see the term >easier< I'm getting a headache. A nasty one. How much easier can it get? Please don't take the last little bit of challenge out of that game or you have more people leaving than you will ever win new players who >easily< go from 1 to 90 in a month and then away because there is nothing left for them.Your empty world problem originates to a big part from exactly this >easy-ness< or should I call it >easy-mess<.How about re-newing the Recruit-a-Friend program? Updating it to a somewhat newer expac? Giving somewhat better rewards? Connecting it to the storyteller system? Just a thought...Thanks for reading.Purr~PS: And please give us the old 60+ Kaladim back!

Rheem

06-05-2010, 02:40 AM

I think what a lot of people are trying to say is that early to late mid-game there is absolutely no reason to group as the solo path has been made so appealing.What needs to be done is this:All dungeons (open or instanced) save for the T8 and T9 should be converted into scaling instances. The population should be reworked to provide linear progression through the zone, and be appropriate for smaller groups at the beginning and fuller groups at the end. They should scale from 10 to 70 and offer a weekly mission inside with a token as a reward. The missions should be similar to the quest inside Ward of Elements, where you have to go kill each named in a certain order. The token should give a class specific legendary equipment piece (at random but using smart loot) for the mission's level. Additionally, Smart loot should be set at 100% and the boss should always drop a usable master. These dungeons should have something like the BG window/matchmaking system couple with them (both choosing the dungeon and a first available options). It would also be nice if there was an option for higher level players to be able to help lower levels via mentoring (both when alone and when with a lower level friend.Also as far as the newbie experience goes, I notice when I rolled a new char in new halas I was greying quests out quicker than I can finish them, at least until I hit 10 and I can move my AA bar up to 90% to let them catch up in level. I think XP rates are out of control and while I don't want them to be super slow grinding, I do thing something slightly more reasonable needs to be put in place. I also think there needs to be more of an incentive for players to do things like use their AA bar and group more and such and I think the one thing the games don't do is train the players how to play the end game.For example maybe put a quest in somewhere that puts them in a group with 5 npc's who are being attacked by waves of enemies. Healers would have to keep all the NPC's alive while they fought off the enemies. Tanks would have to keep the enemies on them, and the dps classes would have to try to kill the enemies without pulling aggro. To make things a bit friendlier, start it off slow in difficulty and slowly work its way up to what a real group would be like.(edited for typos)

Ikke

06-05-2010, 05:31 AM

<cite>Tagwen@Mistmoore wrote:</cite><blockquote>Wrong I actually prefer BB, WC, STORMHOLD, FALLEN GATE, Ruins of Varsoon, over any of the new stuff. I only go hit the new stuff once for AA. Iys the old world dungeons that keep me comin back with alts.</blockquote>I can't agree more! These old world (contested) dungeons are beautiful examples of good dungeon design.cramped and twisting tunnels where there is a suprise around every corner.

NViDiaFReaK

06-05-2010, 08:32 AM

Exactly.. I remember doing the old AQ 20 quest in SH and FG.. shouting LFG for AQ4 etc.. and shard runs to get your corpse.. Having to make sure you positioned just right because if you pulled to many you'd wipe.. Ahh the golden days... I cant remember the last time i was worried about wiping. The new stuff is just to spread out inside.. plenty of room to fight with out worry of adds.. wheres the challenge.. STOP HOLDING MY HAND

Thunderthyze

06-05-2010, 12:52 PM

I have put alts through all the so-called new starter zones, Timorous Deep, Neriak, Greater Fey and now Halas. I got them to at least level 25 and not one of them have died once. There is the big problem. SOE has introduced EZ mode to the extent that a lot of players toss their toys out of the pram when they eventually do die. Fear of failure has made SOE develop zones of such mind numbing banality that it is driving the established playerbase away. When they eventually do have to ramp up the difficulty for raiding etc all they can think to do is introduce inane failure conditions rather than designing an inventive encounter script. I wonder what the designer of the original contested dungeons is doing these days (apart from spinning in his grave)?

Rick777

06-05-2010, 01:40 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'll be honest. I'm not one of those guys that creates a "mission statement".Online games are amorphous. We have two real purposes in life: a) To entertain as many people as we possibly can, and b) make some money along the way so that we can continue to create more entertainment.How we do that changes on a regular basis as we push forward based on lots of things like: Public expectations; the industry changing around us; what constitutes entertainment (yes, that changes slowly, but steadily); and many other elements.So for now, we're doing three things:<ol><li>We're developing the next big expansion (and a big update before that expansion comes out) so that we can keep new stuff rolling into the world of Norrath because new stuff is good entertainment. This includes new areas, new ways to play, new loot, balance changes and modifications to the current systems to make them more fun. NOTE: This is our primary focus at the moment and constitutes the bulk of our development resources and time.</li><li>We're working to make the game more easily entered by new folks so that we can keep the playerbase growing. Why? Because it's really obvious to us that new folks bounce pretty hard because of the learning curve of our game, and without new folks coming in, the game will eventually stagnate...which would suck for all us, devs and players alike.</li><li>We're analyzing the "empty world" situation in the mid-level zones and thinking about possible solutions to revitalize all the fantastic content in this game and fill it with players so everyone's not crowded into the end parts of the game.</li></ol>Now...these directions are not permanent. We will always be staying flexible with our goals. And that's why I will never issue a "mission statement". But that's what we're focused on right now.Fair enough?</blockquote>1. "This is our primary focus", that's a shame that so much has been left bugged and unfixed from the hurried but late release of SF.2. Doh! It just occurred to you that continuing to raise the level cap means overall less new players and more new players getting frustrated and leaving the game? The gap between the casual and the hardcore continues to split, and the casual is your bread and butter who pay the bills. Lateral expansion makes more sense, but I understand that lateral expansion hits some roadblocks with the hardcore crowd. It's a tough quandry, but in the end (as you did with BG's) you have to look to who is paying your bills.3. The "empty world" is quite easy to explain. You've made soloing the quickest and most efficient way to level up, you've made the focus of the game on the "end" game, and I don't mean necessarily raiding, but the mark zones are really where most of us rush to end up at. The vertical expansion model has killed anything below level 90, just as BG's is killing the 90's content. Not only the vertical content, but the lack of groups or incentive to stay and group at those levels. I understand the model of copying WoW is working out wonderfully in terms of ease of leveling, soloing, and PVP battlegrounds from a financial point of view. But just don't act surprised when you say the world is empty, MANY of us have been predicting this for a couple of years now.I really have high hopes for you, and I understand the difficulty you guys have. You have to traverse a huge multitude of player desires and play styles and consolidate those with the SOE beancounters who only see dollar signs. Personally I absolutely hate the direction the game has gone with the RMT, forcing us to PVP to get the best gear, focusing on soloing making grouping virtually obsolete until level 90, etc. etc. But I'm also smart enough to understand if you are doing all this it's because the majority of the player base wants it, is paying for it, and it's making SOE money and keeping your job. I just hope you find a little bit to give to us players who could care less about PVP or soloing.

Purr

06-05-2010, 05:04 PM

<cite>Rheem@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote>All dungeons (open or instanced) save for the T8 and T9 should be converted into scaling instances. The population should be reworked to provide linear progression through the zone, and be appropriate for smaller groups at the beginning and fuller groups at the end. They should scale from 10 to 70 and offer a weekly mission inside with a token as a reward. The missions should be similar to the quest inside Ward of Elements, where you have to go kill each named in a certain order. The token should give a class specific legendary equipment piece (at random but using smart loot) for the mission's level. Additionally, Smart loot should be set at 100% and the boss should always drop a usable master. These dungeons should have something like the BG window/matchmaking system couple with them (both choosing the dungeon and a first available options). It would also be nice if there was an option for higher level players to be able to help lower levels via mentoring (both when alone and when with a lower level friend.</blockquote>QFEThis has been suggested before and I am strongly in favor of it. I'd go one step further than Rheem and would make it scale up to t9. To scale correctly (taking into account how overpowered mentoring down characters are) the formula for the mob population of the instance would have to include a component that adds p.e. 0.7 levels per avarage tier above the avarage entering level (like 6 tier 9 chars doing a lvl 30 instance would add 4 levels to the mob avarage, which would result in having to fight mobs between 32 and 37 instead of the standart 28 - 33) or an increase of arrows up per mob.The mission system could be tied to the Chrono system already in place. It would have to be extended to allow several missions per day.People play this game NOT for it's easiness but for the challenge and depth it offers. You take that away and you have a watered down WoW that can't be handled by low end machines. Not a recipe for success. Let's make something unique and different!Instead of reading the questionaires exiting players leave, make some for veteran players to find out what makes them stay and/or come back and build on those strengths. And did I mention: make EQ2 visible! Comic book ads are not going to bring the crowds. Define or re-define EQ2s Target group and go for them.Purr~

Nuhus

06-05-2010, 06:41 PM

Dear SOE,I extremely dislike the starter islands being removed. Why you might ask?<ul><li>I dislike all the new starter zones (Neriak, Gfay, Halas, Timerous Deep), they are too large and difficult to navigate. I'm sorry that is the way I feel.</li><li>I like that the starter islands and their respective cities are quick and easy to navigate.</li><li>I don't care about the rewards, because really it doesn't take long at all to get to 30.</li><li>with such large zones, try running across from one end to the other with no mounts. ZZZzzzzzzzzz</li></ul>Yeah, I'd like to explain it's not an emotional attachment to them I darn well prefer them over what you all think is good for me. The more and more you don't listen to what players are saying and falling out of touch, the more and more we are heading for bad things.Thank you.

Rheem

06-05-2010, 11:27 PM

<cite>Purr wrote:</cite><blockquote>(taking into account how overpowered mentoring down characters are)</blockquote>Personally I think they need to fix the mentoring issue instead of raising difficulty because of it.

Thunderthyze

06-06-2010, 05:47 AM

<cite>Hanokh2010 wrote:</cite><blockquote>SmokeJumper have you ever considered that many new players bounce so hard because they are led by the nose to level 20-25 in the new starting areas without ever learning how to play the game. </blockquote>When I started playing the game you might have begun as a generic healer and played that for ten levels before being directed to the shaman trainer who saw your development to level 20 whereupon you got to choose to be a defiler or a mystic. You then tended to do your class Armour Quest series and by level 30 you were a fully fledged member of that class with an idea of how to play it in groups.Those days are gone, in the name of progress I guess, consigned to the dustbin of history by new members of the Dev team eager to make their mark on the game. Unfortunately over the years the Devs have lost sight of what made this game unique and attracted the majority of the playerbase in the first place. You seem to think that you should be trying to attract those that didn't come to EQ2 6 years ago. Rather, I think you should be looking for the next generation of prospective EQ2 players NOT the WoW castoffs, they're still out there.Sometimes I feel we are witnessing the last days of MMORPGs with games companies looking to market cheaper offline games played online to satisfy DRM. There will be those titles that remain true to their principles and the niche independents but overall I feel that WoW has killed MMOs. Too many established companies jumped on the Blizzard bandwagon in the chase for the bigger buck and in so doing converged the genre to the extent that you could barely insert a cigarette paper between any two games currently on the market. The only hope for longevity I believe is to remain apart from the herd and develop a quality product. In EQ2 you had that but unfortunately SOE chose the path of least resistance beaten down by WoW. You will never be as good at being WoW as WoW is. You, Mr Georgeson, should be seeking to make EQ2 the best EQ2 game it can be and if that means diverging from other games of the like then so be it.

Titigabe

06-06-2010, 09:09 AM

<cite>Hanokh2010 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'll be honest. I'm not one of those guys that creates a "mission statement".Online games are amorphous. We have two real purposes in life: a) To entertain as many people as we possibly can, and b) make some money along the way so that we can continue to create more entertainment.How we do that changes on a regular basis as we push forward based on lots of things like: Public expectations; the industry changing around us; what constitutes entertainment (yes, that changes slowly, but steadily); and many other elements.So for now, we're doing three things:<ol><li>We're developing the next big expansion (and a big update before that expansion comes out) so that we can keep new stuff rolling into the world of Norrath because new stuff is good entertainment. This includes new areas, new ways to play, new loot, balance changes and modifications to the current systems to make them more fun. NOTE: This is our primary focus at the moment and constitutes the bulk of our development resources and time.</li><li>We're working to make the game more easily entered by new folks so that we can keep the playerbase growing. Why? Because it's really obvious to us that new folks bounce pretty hard because of the learning curve of our game, and without new folks coming in, the game will eventually stagnate...which would suck for all us, devs and players alike.</li><li>We're analyzing the "empty world" situation in the mid-level zones and thinking about possible solutions to revitalize all the fantastic content in this game and fill it with players so everyone's not crowded into the end parts of the game.</li></ol>Now...these directions are not permanent. We will always be staying flexible with our goals. And that's why I will never issue a "mission statement". But that's what we're focused on right now.Fair enough?</blockquote>1) Some of us don't want new areas, if it means deleting the old areas. Some of us don't want new ways to play (this is a rather cryptic and frightening statement to me), we like to play pretty much the way things are since everytime one of you other than Domino comes up with an idea it is usually a bad one. The new loot that I've seen in New Halas is so disorganized to be useless unless you make a new race with 3 necks, 8 ears, 10 fingers, 6 wrists, and 2 waists.2) SmokeJumper have you ever considered that many new players bounce so hard because they are led by the nose to level 20-25 in the new starting areas without ever learning how to play the game. I just leveled a warden in Timorous Deep to the early 20's by hitting 4 buttons! Pull with fire 2, auto attack with 1, start HO with mouse click, ice with 3, finish HO with fire 2, rinse and repeat HO until mob is dead. The Qeynos and Freeport starting experience that all the new devs so casually dismissed was a far better teacher than solo leveling someone to 90 along the Golden Path. Did you read the post recently in General Gameplay from a player who had reached a decent mid-level in the game and played in his first group and was basically lost at how to play his character? That is the result of all these new starting areas, no veterans want to group with someone who is say level 49 and needs to be taught how to play the game.3) The empty world is empty because of poor decisions made in the attempt to get everyone to 90 as quickly as possible. Qeynos, Freeport, Antonica, The Commonlands, Thundering Steppes and Nektulos Forest might as well have been deleted along with the Isles because anyone starting in your new areas has no reason to go there other than to grind AA.</blockquote>Hanoki, your words are harsh, but I must admit you're right and this is a general feeling me and my Guildmates have.You devs, gave no worth to the leveling in EQ2. You'd better put all level 1-89 content away since you made everything for players to rush to 90. Experience gain in the lower levels has a flavour of quickness that disgust me.

Tashir79

06-06-2010, 12:47 PM

For the record, I imagine there are also alot of players that are happy with the direction the game is going. Those players aren't heard from as much on the forums because they are too busy actually enjoying the game. I also remember the "golden age" of this game and it was very punishing. Extreme debt, shard runs, and the like are not most people's idea of being entertained and I think that was reflected by how many people played and left. There are of course things that can be improved but that is always true. I also personally feel like you level too fast in the beginning BUT I am sure not everyone feels that way so we have the option to shift our AA bar if we want. You can never make everyone happy but there are alot more options for playstyle in the game now then there ever was and I for one am appreciative of that.

Fyranaer

06-06-2010, 04:05 PM

<cite>Tashir79 wrote:</cite><blockquote>For the record, I imagine there are also alot of players that are happy with the direction the game is going. Those players aren't heard from as much on the forums because they are too busy actually enjoying the game. I also remember the "golden age" of this game and it was very punishing. Extreme debt, shard runs, and the like are not most people's idea of being entertained and I think that was reflected by how many people played and left. There are of course things that can be improved but that is always true. I also personally feel like you level too fast in the beginning BUT I am sure not everyone feels that way so we have the option to shift our AA bar if we want. You can never make everyone happy but there are alot more options for playstyle in the game now then there ever was and I for one am appreciative of that.</blockquote>I agree. I just popped in real quick before heading into the game and play. I'm mostly happy with the game and how it plays, except that level cap and fun gear is mostly about raiding. I keep my slider between 50 - 100% depending on my level and how fast I'm moving through a storyline.I'm enjoying the Halas expansion. I had made a few test alts before and did enjoy the starter isle a bit, but I moved to GFay or TD after leaving because quest lines flow a bit more cohesively and the gear is better to get going. I really like the Halas housing and have moved my characters from South Q. to Halas. I like how I can craft, access my house, broker, bank, and services all near each other.The single one gripe I have about the game is how poorly the engine performs. I know the EQII team has worked hard on improving it, and it does run a little better than it used to, but still it's not up to snuff. I have a newer system (i7/920, 9GB tri-channel, GTX260-1.8GB) and should be able to run the game smoothly at top end settings. I do run on performance on extreme and can get 40 - 60 fps, but often I slog down to 15 - 20fps in certain zones (GFay, LFay, and others). It isn't a deal breaker for me, but it is my chief complaint with the game.The other request I would have for the future development of the game would be to make Marketplace items such as housing items, pets, appearance gear, and mounts work easily across the whole account. I would be much more inclined to spend money on the marketplace if my purchases made the whole game more fun and not just one character.I am really glad the game is much more solo and small group friendly than it used to be. There is a lot to do in the game and it has fun indepth subsystems. These factors are what influenced me to resub here (a couple months ago) when I cancelled my LotRO sub.

Sigtyr

06-07-2010, 07:37 AM

<cite>Rick777 wrote:</cite><blockquote>2. Doh! It just occurred to you that continuing to raise the level cap means overall less new players and more new players getting frustrated and leaving the game? The gap between the casual and the hardcore continues to split, and the casual is your bread and butter who pay the bills. Lateral expansion makes more sense, but I understand that lateral expansion hits some roadblocks with the hardcore crowd. It's a tough quandry, but in the end (as you did with BG's) you have to look to who is paying your bills.3. The "empty world" is quite easy to explain. You've made soloing the quickest and most efficient way to level up, you've made the focus of the game on the "end" game,</blockquote>This is a very true statement. SF was supposed to be the casual expansion but what we got was "Soloquest 2 to level cap" again and then "grind soloquests for gear" again. The much hyped The Hole for smaller groups got nerfed early. The game has almost no content that holds any interest for me as a casual anymore, nothing to do and no attainable goals except "solo to 90 and then you might get to do fun stuff if you have good enough gear, and enough AP and and and".I have already canceled my account and I am looking for a game where I can log in and get a group and at least feel that I am challenged and can do something on my playtime. This situation is of course player made to high degree as the elitism of TSO destroyed a lot of the fun in EQ2.

Malacha

06-07-2010, 04:04 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>Malachni...you sound tough to satisfy, but we'll do our best. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>That's more than a little condescending (and nice that you edited but still couldn't get my name right). But I waited to reply so I wouldn't come off as being snippy.The thing is, I'm not that tough to satisfy. What I want is gear that makes me go "WOW, I want that." Not EVERY piece needs to knock my socks off, but at this point in the game (ALREADY?!) I am not seeing anything that really makes me want to get out there and raid. I'm not even killing HM's yet, but when the upgrades from T1 to T2 are so laughably terrible (seriously, .1% more potency? How generous!) what incentive do I have to try for T3?What I want is not to hear my guild ask me to go back and kill T8 mobs for loot we can't get in T9. The things we want as players already exists, just not as current tier gear. Give me a reason to replace my cure-proc wrist... no, a wrist that procs an item that another player has to click to cure is not what I want. Give me an item that procs immunity to stuns/stifles/mezzes etc. Give me a proc that gives a buff to my group (adding crit mit to a raid force that is all 80% or higher is not a good buff). Give me ward procs... it doesn't even have to be regenerating! Give me a reason to replace an earring I got from a collection quest from RE2. Power proc gear that isn't horrible. Give me a BP effect that makes me WANT that BP, not one I laugh at because I barely see it do anything. Don't ever, ever use Overloaded Heal type procs again. They're absolutely horrible. Give me more fun (and useful) stuff, like star of malice (but don't forget us spell casting healers too). Balance out crit bonus and potency for shaman... potency is far better for us, but our gear is nearly 2:1 in favor of crit bonus.When nearly half of the "best" defiler gear currently in game is T8 and not T9, clearly there is an issue with itemization. I know it gets hard trying to come up with new and creative procs, and I commend the attempts at it this tier, but they fall short of what we can get from categorically easier mobs that are 10 levels lower.

MoiraesFate

06-07-2010, 05:13 PM

Personally, I like the focus on soloing. Frankly, I hate grouping. No, I loath it. I hardly ever group. I get my social thing from the VERY occasional grouping and from belonging to a guild where we can exchange items and chat. Why do I hate it? Because when I group I can't explore, can't harvest, can't slow down and back away from the group to look at something, all because if I do, I'm a liability. Every time I've done an instance with a group, I've come back at a later time to go over it again just so I can LOOK at what I went through the first time because there's so much going on in a group that its a severe distraction.The problem is that it isn't really a focus on soloing. Sure, you CAN solo (and are encouraged to do so), but you HAVE to group or PvP to get the best of anything.For example.. there's a bunch of stuff I want from the Shard of Love, but the very last thing I want to do is go with a group through there. What I've seen before I've been munched by the monsters, its a truly beautiful zone, but I can't explore it with a group because they don't want to wait for anything (and shouldn't have to). If you want to focus on soloing, then there needs to be a balance of who gets the best of what. That means, soloers should also be able to get the good armor, weapons and items that grouping and PvP are able to get. This game isn't well rounded at all and its rather aggravating.Why not do what DDO has done with instances (I can't believe I'm recommending that game for anything), and allow us to choose between easy, solo, and grouping modes on entrance?Honestly, this is my favorite game on the market. And I do mean my favorite (its the only one that I've played continually almost every single night for over five years), so I really hate saying anything bad about it. But I felt the need to say something about this. You are turning this game in to WoW where the only point in playing is to get to the highest level possible as quick as possible to do the high level instances with raiding groups where the big bad guys MIGHT drop items that you then have to run a loot counter on and hope you come up the winner and for PvP. Stop trying to turn this game in to WoW. If I wanted WoW, I'd be playing WoW, not EQ2. The very last thing I ever want to do in a game is have to run an instance over and over 100 times just to get a single piece of uber loot because I never win the lotto.

Fyranaer

06-07-2010, 07:11 PM

<cite>MoiraesFate wrote:</cite><blockquote>Personally, I like the focus on soloing. Frankly, I hate grouping. No, I loath it. I hardly ever group. I get my social thing from the VERY occasional grouping and from belonging to a guild where we can exchange items and chat. Why do I hate it? Because when I group I can't explore, can't harvest, can't slow down and back away from the group to look at something, all because if I do, I'm a liability. Every time I've done an instance with a group, I've come back at a later time to go over it again just so I can LOOK at what I went through the first time because there's so much going on in a group that its a severe distraction.The problem is that it isn't really a focus on soloing. Sure, you CAN solo (and are encouraged to do so), but you HAVE to group or PvP to get the best of anything.For example.. there's a bunch of stuff I want from the Shard of Love, but the very last thing I want to do is go with a group through there. What I've seen before I've been munched by the monsters, its a truly beautiful zone, but I can't explore it with a group because they don't want to wait for anything (and shouldn't have to). If you want to focus on soloing, then there needs to be a balance of who gets the best of what. That means, soloers should also be able to get the good armor, weapons and items that grouping and PvP are able to get. This game isn't well rounded at all and its rather aggravating.Why not do what DDO has done with instances (I can't believe I'm recommending that game for anything), and allow us to choose between easy, solo, and grouping modes on entrance?Honestly, this is my favorite game on the market. And I do mean my favorite (its the only one that I've played continually almost every single night for over five years), so I really hate saying anything bad about it. But I felt the need to say something about this. You are turning this game in to WoW where the only point in playing is to get to the highest level possible as quick as possible to do the high level instances with raiding groups where the big bad guys MIGHT drop items that you then have to run a loot counter on and hope you come up the winner and for PvP. Stop trying to turn this game in to WoW. If I wanted WoW, I'd be playing WoW, not EQ2. The very last thing I ever want to do in a game is have to run an instance over and over 100 times just to get a single piece of uber loot because I never win the lotto.</blockquote>Great post. You echo a lot of what I think and feel about playing MMOs now. I do like to group, a lot, but only with my friends and guildmates. I spend 95%, or more, of my time solo with the occasional group. I enjoy challenges and would appreciate a fun path to good gear whether I'm solo, duo, or grouped.I've enjoyed raiding in the past and it has its fun and challenging points, but that isn't what I only want to do in my game and certainly not the only path I want to follow for good gear.

Rick777

06-08-2010, 02:22 PM

<cite>MoiraesFate wrote:</cite><blockquote>That means, soloers should also be able to get the good armor, weapons and items that grouping and PvP are able to get.</blockquote>This would be terrible IMO. They have free realms and other carebear type games readily available out there. I honestly don't mean that in a negative way, but the everquest franchise has been built on grouping. You can see how soloquest has really hurt the grouping game if you sit there and try to get a group, it's very difficult and this is on AB the most packed server. Sadly though I think this is indeed the way SOE is going, as there seem to be more carebears who want to play Oblivion with a chat room than us old timers who want to defeat dungeons with a group and our skills. For you soloers, more power to you nothing wrong with what you want to do. But understand that the Everquest us old timers started with is rapidly slipping away from us and it just sucks.

CorpseGoddess

06-08-2010, 03:40 PM

<cite>Rick777 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>MoiraesFate wrote:</cite><blockquote>That means, soloers should also be able to get the good armor, weapons and items that grouping and PvP are able to get.</blockquote>This would be terrible IMO. They have free realms and other carebear type games readily available out there. I honestly don't mean that in a negative way, but the everquest franchise has been built on grouping. You can see how soloquest has really hurt the grouping game if you sit there and try to get a group, it's very difficult and this is on AB the most packed server. Sadly though I think this is indeed the way SOE is going, as there seem to be more carebears who want to play Oblivion with a chat room than us old timers who want to defeat dungeons with a group and our skills. For you soloers, more power to you nothing wrong with what you want to do. But understand that the Everquest us old timers started with is rapidly slipping away from us and it just sucks.</blockquote>Um...I'm an EQ "old timer" and I agree completely with the previous poster's sentiment. I solo'd a huge amount of EQ on my monk, and now EQ2 on my bruiser. It takes cunning and skill to successfully solo a dungeon, boss or mob - why shouldn't I be rewarded for that, rather than penalized because I chose to attempt something on my own?All playstyles are valid; just because they may not be yours does not mean that no time and effort has been put into them on the part of the player.

GrunEQ

06-08-2010, 03:47 PM

I like groups, I really do, but trying to find one at low levels is almost impossible. Raiding is ok. Frankly with all the exacting sequences that have to happen, I'm not so happy. Raiding is fine every so often, but a steady diet is off putting FOR ME. I solo at lot, mostly because a lot of content doesn't need a group, and groups for low dungeons are hard to find with low population. Till EQ2 decides to advertise itself, there will never be enough "new" people coming into the game. I think shards and RMTs ruined the game for the high levels. Give me the 1-70 game. I will say kudos to the Moonlight Enchantments and City Fairs and Druid Ring events that liven up the game. Holiday events have been fun. Special events, housing, tradeskilling and /voice are the winning features that keep me going.Yes, I've tried many other games and with it's flaws, this is still the best one out there IMO. Get some kinks out, ADVERTISE, and you could have a much better game.

Ironcleaver

06-08-2010, 03:58 PM

<cite>Lader wrote:</cite><blockquote>itemization at the launch of SF was by far the worst in the history of the game.</blockquote>I don't know, I think Kunark holds that title. At least as far as Plate healers are concerned. heh. Yes, we "can" use leather, but plate is part of our class.

Andok

06-08-2010, 04:57 PM

<cite>Malachani wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>Malachni...you sound tough to satisfy, but we'll do our best. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>That's more than a little condescending (and nice that you edited but still couldn't get my name right). But I waited to reply so I wouldn't come off as being snippy.The thing is, I'm not that tough to satisfy.</blockquote>Yeah, because you never complained before <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" />

MoiraesFate

06-08-2010, 06:22 PM

<cite>Rick777 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>MoiraesFate wrote:</cite><blockquote>That means, soloers should also be able to get the good armor, weapons and items that grouping and PvP are able to get.</blockquote>This would be terrible IMO. They have free realms and other carebear type games readily available out there. I honestly don't mean that in a negative way, but the everquest franchise has been built on grouping. You can see how soloquest has really hurt the grouping game if you sit there and try to get a group, it's very difficult and this is on AB the most packed server. Sadly though I think this is indeed the way SOE is going, as there seem to be more carebears who want to play Oblivion with a chat room than us old timers who want to defeat dungeons with a group and our skills. For you soloers, more power to you nothing wrong with what you want to do. But understand that the Everquest us old timers started with is rapidly slipping away from us and it just sucks.</blockquote>Please don't use the term care-bear. Would you like to be called griefer? No, its insulting. We are PvE'rs and PvP'rs nothing more. If you start showing respect to others, you might get some back in return, and since I said nothing insulting toward you, your attitude problem is unwarranted and not appreciated.Thank you.

Malacha

06-08-2010, 10:29 PM

<cite>Andok wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Malachani wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>Malachni...you sound tough to satisfy, but we'll do our best. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>That's more than a little condescending (and nice that you edited but still couldn't get my name right). But I waited to reply so I wouldn't come off as being snippy.The thing is, I'm not that tough to satisfy.</blockquote>Yeah, because you never complained before <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>What does that have to do with anything? I complain because I care about the game and I want to see it live on. Giving us boring, vanilla, bland gear choices is only going to cause people to say "Why am I doing this again?"

Rick777

06-09-2010, 09:50 AM

<cite>MoiraesFate wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Rick777 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>MoiraesFate wrote:</cite><blockquote>That means, soloers should also be able to get the good armor, weapons and items that grouping and PvP are able to get.</blockquote>This would be terrible IMO. They have free realms and other carebear type games readily available out there. I honestly don't mean that in a negative way, but the everquest franchise has been built on grouping. You can see how soloquest has really hurt the grouping game if you sit there and try to get a group, it's very difficult and this is on AB the most packed server. Sadly though I think this is indeed the way SOE is going, as there seem to be more carebears who want to play Oblivion with a chat room than us old timers who want to defeat dungeons with a group and our skills. For you soloers, more power to you nothing wrong with what you want to do. But understand that the Everquest us old timers started with is rapidly slipping away from us and it just sucks.</blockquote>Please don't use the term care-bear. Would you like to be called griefer? No, its insulting. We are PvE'rs and PvP'rs nothing more. If you start showing respect to others, you might get some back in return, and since I said nothing insulting toward you, your attitude problem is unwarranted and not appreciated.Thank you.</blockquote>Actually griefer is for a PVP player so it wouldn't apply to me as I despise PVP. But I don't have an attitude and think my post was highly respectful of solo players, which is what I was responding to, if you chose to interpret it as insulting that's your bad.Just as the solo players have put their opinion here, I'm also entitled to my opinion that I believe the game should be mostly group content with a little bit of solo content. If I wanted to play a solo game I'd pick up Oblivion or any of the other tons of single player RPG's out there. If I wanted to chat with my friends I'd fire up my chat client. In fact I can actually do both of these at the same time.Once again it's MY opinion of what I would do. SOE can take my opinion and file it in the circular file, or they can put it next to the other opinions and make their decisions based on that. I respect the solo players, but wish soloing wasn't such a large part of this game, that's not a disrespectful thing to say, it's just my opinion.

Rick777

06-09-2010, 10:00 AM

<cite>Ironcleaver wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Lader wrote:</cite><blockquote>itemization at the launch of SF was by far the worst in the history of the game.</blockquote>I don't know, I think Kunark holds that title. At least as far as Plate healers are concerned. heh. Yes, we "can" use leather, but plate is part of our class.</blockquote>Has there ever been an expansion that had good plate healer drops? SF sure ranks as one of the worst as I see leather items drop all the time, but rarely see plate healer items.

MoiraesFate

06-09-2010, 10:50 AM

<cite>Rick777 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>MoiraesFate wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Rick777 wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>MoiraesFate wrote:</cite><blockquote>That means, soloers should also be able to get the good armor, weapons and items that grouping and PvP are able to get.</blockquote>This would be terrible IMO. They have free realms and other carebear type games readily available out there. I honestly don't mean that in a negative way, but the everquest franchise has been built on grouping. You can see how soloquest has really hurt the grouping game if you sit there and try to get a group, it's very difficult and this is on AB the most packed server. Sadly though I think this is indeed the way SOE is going, as there seem to be more carebears who want to play Oblivion with a chat room than us old timers who want to defeat dungeons with a group and our skills. For you soloers, more power to you nothing wrong with what you want to do. But understand that the Everquest us old timers started with is rapidly slipping away from us and it just sucks.</blockquote>Please don't use the term care-bear. Would you like to be called griefer? No, its insulting. We are PvE'rs and PvP'rs nothing more. If you start showing respect to others, you might get some back in return, and since I said nothing insulting toward you, your attitude problem is unwarranted and not appreciated.Thank you.</blockquote>Actually griefer is for a PVP player so it wouldn't apply to me as I despise PVP. But I don't have an attitude and think my post was highly respectful of solo players, which is what I was responding to, if you chose to interpret it as insulting that's your bad.Just as the solo players have put their opinion here, I'm also entitled to my opinion that I believe the game should be mostly group content with a little bit of solo content. If I wanted to play a solo game I'd pick up Oblivion or any of the other tons of single player RPG's out there. If I wanted to chat with my friends I'd fire up my chat client. In fact I can actually do both of these at the same time.Once again it's MY opinion of what I would do. SOE can take my opinion and file it in the circular file, or they can put it next to the other opinions and make their decisions based on that. I respect the solo players, but wish soloing wasn't such a large part of this game, that's not a disrespectful thing to say, it's just my opinion.</blockquote>Then what purpose does it serve to insult people by calling them carebear other than to make you feel superior? I don't really care what SOE does with your post, that wasn't the purpose of what I said. The purpose of what I said is to tell you to stop insulting people since I didn't insult you. You didn't reply to what I said about soloing, you started calling me (and others) names for no reason.You like grouping? Thats fine, but my opinion is just as valid as yours, and I didn't deserve to have you call me names.

Andok

06-09-2010, 12:04 PM

<cite>Malachani wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Andok wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Malachani wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>Malachni...you sound tough to satisfy, but we'll do our best. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>That's more than a little condescending (and nice that you edited but still couldn't get my name right). But I waited to reply so I wouldn't come off as being snippy.The thing is, I'm not that tough to satisfy.</blockquote>Yeah, because you never complained before <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>What does that have to do with anything? I complain because I care about the game and I want to see it live on. Giving us boring, vanilla, bland gear choices is only going to cause people to say "Why am I doing this again?"</blockquote>That's fine, but then you may not be "not that tough to satisfy" as you think. Not like there’s anything wrong with that…

Rick777

06-09-2010, 01:46 PM

<cite>MoiraesFate wrote:</cite><blockquote>Then what purpose does it serve to insult people by calling them carebear other than to make you feel superior? I don't really care what SOE does with your post, that wasn't the purpose of what I said. The purpose of what I said is to tell you to stop insulting people since I didn't insult you. You didn't reply to what I said about soloing, you started calling me (and others) names for no reason.You like grouping? Thats fine, but my opinion is just as valid as yours, and I didn't deserve to have you call me names. </blockquote>Carebear is not an insult or meant to be, but if you took it that way then I'm not sure what to tell you other than to try and be less sensitive to a term describing behaviour in a video game. At the end of the day it's a video game and an internet forum and you shouldn't take them so personally as there are many more things in "real" life to get upset about I'm sure. Step away from the keyboard, it's all going to be ok.

Yimway

06-09-2010, 01:46 PM

When evaluation of a new raid drop is best done via a spreadsheet, you've removed the fun.I recognize what we have is a direct result of players screaming for consistent itemization, it is no longer fun.Maelani is asking for the return of the rare, exciting to get stuff that was clearly something you _wanted_ from raiding. Refference the rare SoH drops when they were new as potential examples.There aren't any rare zomg I need that drops in the progression raiding of SF, so its all turning into a droll grind for fraction of percentage point upgrades on my itemization spreadsheets.These 'upgrades' are often as exciting as balancing my checkbook and finding an extra 45 cents. While I like finding the 45 cents, I don't want to balance my checkbook everynight to find another 45 cents.

Brook

06-09-2010, 03:25 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'll be honest. I'm not one of those guys that creates a "mission statement".Online games are amorphous. We have two real purposes in life: a) To entertain as many people as we possibly can, and b) make some money along the way so that we can continue to create more entertainment.How we do that changes on a regular basis as we push forward based on lots of things like: Public expectations; the industry changing around us; what constitutes entertainment (yes, that changes slowly, but steadily); and many other elements.So for now, we're doing three things:<ol><li>We're developing the next big expansion (and a big update before that expansion comes out) so that we can keep new stuff rolling into the world of Norrath because new stuff is good entertainment. This includes new areas, new ways to play, new loot, balance changes and modifications to the current systems to make them more fun. NOTE: This is our primary focus at the moment and constitutes the bulk of our development resources and time.</li><li>We're working to make the game more easily entered by new folks so that we can keep the playerbase growing. Why? Because it's really obvious to us that new folks bounce pretty hard because of the learning curve of our game, and without new folks coming in, the game will eventually stagnate...which would suck for all us, devs and players alike.</li><li>We're analyzing the "empty world" situation in the mid-level zones and thinking about possible solutions to revitalize all the fantastic content in this game and fill it with players so everyone's not crowded into the end parts of the game.</li></ol>Now...these directions are not permanent. We will always be staying flexible with our goals. And that's why I will never issue a "mission statement". But that's what we're focused on right now.Fair enough?</blockquote>I'll be honest. I doubt if I could really care any less if you posted a "mission statement" or not. I have been with the game for a number of years and this game is no longer what I would call entertainment, when I first started the game had challenge, there were penalties for dying, we had to recover our shards, crafting could kill you, etc... I cant bring myself to bother with logging in but for more than a few minutes anymore, I may be burned out, or it could be that I am not happy with the overall direction the game has taken. It holds hardly any interest anymore, there are no goals except to get to max level. There is nothing that makes me go WoW. The graphics are gorgeous and this game has more detail than anything on the market, but even with all the wonderful eyecandy it lacks in challenge. When I started you needed a group for just about everything, now you can solo to max level and never have to speak to another soul. Thats entertainment? If I wanted that I would play a console.I went to pvp to try and get some of the challenge back and was having a good time till the BG's opened up, then it died, then I held out for warfields and that was nothing but a broken disappointment. I cant believe you guys actually pushed that buggy crap to a live server. That did make me go WoW, but it wasn't exactly the kind of WoW factor I was looking for.The problem as I see it, "and this could be just the way I alone feel" is that you are adopting to am amorphous industry standard and following the other guys lead instead of setting the standard for others to follow. This was once a solid game with the potential to be the top dog in the gaming industry, but it has been so watered down now that I can no longer call it fun and whats even sadder is that many of the changes made can never be undone.It has been said that for every sub you loose to someone who is unhappy with the changes made to a game like this you gain 10 so I will do you all favor and bring you 10 new customers to enjoy whatever you guys make the game into. I have enjoyed many hours of entertainment from this game and for that I thank you.If you guys ever get around to releasing the old origional content pre DoF with all the old gameplay in it I will come back and play that.Laters

Malacha

06-09-2010, 03:44 PM

<cite>Atan@Unrest wrote:</cite><blockquote>When evaluation of a new raid drop is best done via a spreadsheet, you've removed the fun.I recognize what we have is a direct result of players screaming for consistent itemization, it is no longer fun.Maelani is asking for the return of the rare, exciting to get stuff that was clearly something you _wanted_ from raiding. Refference the rare SoH drops when they were new as potential examples.There aren't any rare zomg I need that drops in the progression raiding of SF, so its all turning into a droll grind for fraction of percentage point upgrades on my itemization spreadsheets.These 'upgrades' are often as exciting as balancing my checkbook and finding an extra 45 cents. While I like finding the 45 cents, I don't want to balance my checkbook everynight to find another 45 cents.</blockquote>This, exactly!!! I am not asking for every piece to knock my socks off. But it would be nice to have something more to aim for than a 0.1% extra potency and crit bonus on a nearly identical piece to what I'm already wearing. Heck at this point, the only thing I'm looking forward to is a T2 bp so that all my gear matches, cuz I actually kind of like the appearance of shaman T2 gear.

Seablade

06-30-2010, 06:15 PM

<cite>MoiraesFate wrote:</cite><blockquote>Personally, I like the focus on soloing. Frankly, I hate grouping. No, I loath it. I hardly ever group. I get my social thing from the VERY occasional grouping and from belonging to a guild where we can exchange items and chat. Why do I hate it? Because when I group I can't explore, can't harvest, can't slow down and back away from the group to look at something, all because if I do, I'm a liability. Every time I've done an instance with a group, I've come back at a later time to go over it again just so I can LOOK at what I went through the first time because there's so much going on in a group that its a severe distraction.The problem is that it isn't really a focus on soloing. Sure, you CAN solo (and are encouraged to do so), but you HAVE to group or PvP to get the best of anything.For example.. there's a bunch of stuff I want from the Shard of Love, but the very last thing I want to do is go with a group through there. What I've seen before I've been munched by the monsters, its a truly beautiful zone, but I can't explore it with a group because they don't want to wait for anything (and shouldn't have to). If you want to focus on soloing, then there needs to be a balance of who gets the best of what. That means, soloers should also be able to get the good armor, weapons and items that grouping and PvP are able to get. This game isn't well rounded at all and its rather aggravating.Why not do what DDO has done with instances (I can't believe I'm recommending that game for anything), and allow us to choose between easy, solo, and grouping modes on entrance?Honestly, this is my favorite game on the market. And I do mean my favorite (its the only one that I've played continually almost every single night for over five years), so I really hate saying anything bad about it. But I felt the need to say something about this. You are turning this game in to WoW where the only point in playing is to get to the highest level possible as quick as possible to do the high level instances with raiding groups where the big bad guys MIGHT drop items that you then have to run a loot counter on and hope you come up the winner and for PvP. Stop trying to turn this game in to WoW. If I wanted WoW, I'd be playing WoW, not EQ2. The very last thing I ever want to do in a game is have to run an instance over and over 100 times just to get a single piece of uber loot because I never win the lotto.</blockquote>I can't agree more! I've been a loyal EQ2 player since it's release all those many years ago and I love it. I've tried other MMO's, but nothing has ever compared to this one. Nevertheless, I agree that there is no "solo" path for those of us that have lives outside of this game. I can't play continually because I do have other obligations that consume my time. I don't loathe group play, but I'm not as fond of it, but I do like it from time to time. However, here's the problem I ran into when TSO came out: Shards! Yes, Shards! Because of my schedule and when I can and can't play, I lagged severely behind "the core" grouping players so I missed out "grouping" all the shard runs to get those ever-lovin' shards to buy the best and brightest armor. By the time I was ready to try, no one wanted to group with me because I didn't have enough of the "good" armor to even try and no one group was willing to put up with a less than steller player for a shard run; one "must" group is one is to get anything decent in this game. I was booted several times from groups and told that I was a detriment to the group; I left groups on many occasions simply because I was in-game to have fun, not there to stir the pot and throw a tantraum about my lot in EQ2 game life. So, I have relegated myself to "solo" game play and using the chronomage to "solo" play older content that I have missed along the way. It's fun, but truthfully, I'll never be able to get up to the level of some group players and never be able to have the "good" armor and weapons so that if the time came when I could group more, someone will let me join the party.

guillero

07-01-2010, 03:50 AM

<cite>illaria wrote:</cite><blockquote>My own feedback on why we have an "empty world" situation at midlevel is because getting from level 1-80 is so fast people do not need to find groups and when groups are found it is primarily with guildies or other friends who are leveling up alts.</blockquote>When dou "Elitish" big mouths get it to your heads that NOT everyone races to the cap! /facepalmMe and my gf and plenty others are in our mid levels for a looong time and just take our time.Going to level30 goes pretty fast yes. But after that it slows down considerably. If you just enjoy the quests, do HQ's. Spend time harvesting and crafting. Etc.Me and my gf are now enjoying the KoS zones. And yes! It would be great if SOE manages to revitalise the old KoS and EoF zones. As these zones have some really great and awesome designed dungeons that "scream" to be re-used again!

BChizzle

07-01-2010, 06:10 AM

<cite>Jerokane@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>illaria wrote:</cite><blockquote>My own feedback on why we have an "empty world" situation at midlevel is because getting from level 1-80 is so fast people do not need to find groups and when groups are found it is primarily with guildies or other friends who are leveling up alts.</blockquote>When dou "Elitish" big mouths get it to your heads that NOT everyone races to the cap! /facepalmMe and my gf and plenty others are in our mid levels for a looong time and just take our time.Going to level30 goes pretty fast yes. But after that it slows down considerably. If you just enjoy the quests, do HQ's. Spend time harvesting and crafting. Etc.Me and my gf are now enjoying the KoS zones. And yes! It would be great if SOE manages to revitalise the old KoS and EoF zones. As these zones have some really great and awesome designed dungeons that "scream" to be re-used again!</blockquote>You sound like an elitist in your own right.

guillero

07-02-2010, 05:48 AM

<cite>BChizzle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Jerokane@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>illaria wrote:</cite><blockquote>My own feedback on why we have an "empty world" situation at midlevel is because getting from level 1-80 is so fast people do not need to find groups and when groups are found it is primarily with guildies or other friends who are leveling up alts.</blockquote>When dou "Elitish" big mouths get it to your heads that NOT everyone races to the cap! /facepalmMe and my gf and plenty others are in our mid levels for a looong time and just take our time.Going to level30 goes pretty fast yes. But after that it slows down considerably. If you just enjoy the quests, do HQ's. Spend time harvesting and crafting. Etc.Me and my gf are now enjoying the KoS zones. And yes! It would be great if SOE manages to revitalise the old KoS and EoF zones. As these zones have some really great and awesome designed dungeons that "scream" to be re-used again!</blockquote>You sound like an elitist in your own right.</blockquote>I am just getting fed up with all these people screaming that Devs should only work on end cap content, as the rest doesn't matter anymore. And that everyone just races to cap anyway!Wich is just absolutely not true. As with that kind of attitude (wich also constantly shows in the 1-9 chats) you will never ever get any new player retention and people will continue to drop the game before the trial is even over!---------------------I have characters in the 30-39, 40-49 and 60-69 range and BG's pretty much instantly pop up all the time in those level ranges on any time of the day. Just clearly showing there are still plenty of people playing in those level ranges.How many people of the entire population actually RAID? You will be shocked how low the percentage is!Most people enjoy rolling ALT's and replay the old/new content. It's like that in pretty much every other MMO, that other game we should not name included.So why should the devs not try revamp / revitilize the old lower level zones and it's content, when a large portion of the playerbase enjoys rolling ALT's and the journey to the cap?

Enna

07-02-2010, 07:28 AM

There are perhaps hundreds of different "play styles" in EQII. Perhaps thousands. Perhaps tens of thousands... perhaps even as many different playstyles as there are players.For the most part, Norrath has adequate variety to accomodate all of them, to some extent. Often not perfect accomodation, admittedly, but at least most options are available. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I would never want to see the game tuned to optimize one play-style at the expense of making any of the others invalid.I'm ok with grouping being encouraged, as long as soloing also remains a possibility. (Please note that I don't ask for soloing to be easy - just possible! <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ) I'm glad that there are soloing options. I do not think that soloing should replace other options, but that it should be provided alongside those other options for folk with weird schedules, or whatever other reason(s), who find that soloing works best for their own personal playstyle (at least, at times).Constant soloing over lenghthy periods of time can have the drawback of making one a bit "rusty" on how their character's class functions most efficiently in groups. This can also lead to frustration, both on the part of the soloist and on the part of their group-mates.I was in a top raiding guild in the original EverQuest for nearly two years. In that time, I learned that raiding is definitely not my "cup of tea." I'm glad it's available for those who want it, but I hope it won't take over here like it did there.That seems to be where they myth of the "end-game" comes from. The name of this game is EVERQuest... as in it keeps going ever on and on, and does not have an end. It's also EverQUEST, not EverRaid. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Folk can play it the other way if they want to, but it's certainly not the only way to play!By the way -- Elitism is a player [culture] problem, and not something SOE built into the game.Just because a better piece of gear is out there, it does *not* mean that characters without said item are incompetent. Excluding folks from groups because they don't have the very latest or best weapons and gear is not anything SOE dictated. It is a choice on the part of the players involved. In many cases, a non-optimal choice.Sometimes folk who are less perfectly geared are equally skilled - or better - than the folk who just stand around and then jump when a raid leader says to jump.On the other hand, some folk really hone their character-running skills through raiding and grouping (or soloing).Results are as varied as the people involved. Every new face is an unknown quantity, and there's absolutely no knowing till you try a group or similar activity with that individual.Some days the learning of "unknowns" is an interesting challenge. Other days, I'd rather solo than try to learn what someone else is or is not capable of accomplishing if we group together.While someone who is a tier behind in their gear is definitely overdue for an upgrade, there are very few grouping situations where the difference between current-tier mastercrafted or same-tier raiding gear will determine the win or loss of the group's goal(s).I have personally participated in groups, wearing mastercrafted or first-tier shard armor, that took down epic x4 trash and lesser named of roughly the same level as the adventurers. So I know that skill, and moving slowly so as to deal with only a few enemies at a time (and not get overwhelmed), can accomplish a great deal.Tradeskillers seem considerably less elitist than adventurers, when it comes to who has what gear. I can join a daily tradeskill task group whether my character has her tradeskill epic or not. Adventuring groups, however, may not want me for lack of the current favorite weapon or armor type.Both adventuring and tradeskilling work best if the players involved are paying attention to the game, instead of watching TV and only paying attention during commercials. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />I hope that folk (in general) will grow more tolerant of different playstyles, instead of forever trying to be elite and look down their noses at those who play differently from themselves.