So... Has anyone got anything good to say about Velious?

[Morghus]

SmokeJumper wrote:

Iskandar wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

We'd also very much like to bring back a resurgence of the Norrathian pantheon, and also bring true evil back to the game. But we'll see.

I think a lot of us would love to see that!

Personally, my puppy-kicking inner Necro soooooo wants to lay waste to some of those filthy lesser.. beasts.. who babble incessantly about "helping" people   And my benevolent inner Paladin wants to truly feel energized with the power of the gods she holds so dear as she wades into battle to help those in need once again

I think part of this desire to see Evil return started with me being so upset when my Troll Shadowknight finished Darklight Woods and then ended up using the Griffon to Butcherblock.

I was petrified to leave the dock area because I thought the guards would KOS me. Then I realized they thought I was cool and I became merely confused. And then I was *helping the dwarves reclaim Kaladim*. ARGH! heh. This was not what I signed on for when I became a paragon of evil.

I hope "evil" in this case isn't merely joining with the local "bad guys" and empowering them when we as players are eventually going to fight them anyways. Just because we are evil, doesn't mean all us evil folk are on the same side because of the "evil" tag. Personally, I want to be able to do things that would make giants rage, and dragons cry.

I also think, that there should be, a "grey" option whether you are good or evil for some situations.

[Andok]

Well, crap.  If this expansion isn't as disappointing as I thought it would be, it's going to be much more difficult to quit when Planetside Next is released.

[Brigh]

tkia wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

 We really want flying mounts to be a big reward for players that *do* play through the content and get to level 90 and a cool brag feature for having achieved that lofty status.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but given the continual dumbing down that's been going on the last year or so the level curve is now nothing more than a minor incline and there is absolutely nothing monumental about being level 90.  It has become the norm and can be achieved in a few scant weeks.  Worse than that, the player base is constantly bribed, cajoled, bullied and boosted into getting to level 90. You have to fight really, really hard to avoid being at that 'lofty status'.

These days if you want to find an exceptional player that is really making an effort to get the most out of the game you probably need to be looking at level lockers around 30 to 50, that are eating up quests and exploring every nook of zones that most level 90s haven't even seen in their mad dash to end game.

Yes it is a shocker and sad to hear comments from level 90s like this (all true experiences I have had):

(90 assassin in a SF instance after multiple askings in group chat about tracking for mobs) I don't know how to track (I wound up using my racial track).

Multiple level 90s not knowing how to get to KoS, much less any location within it.

etc.

[Aurorrae]

Brigh wrote:

tkia wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

 We really want flying mounts to be a big reward for players that *do* play through the content and get to level 90 and a cool brag feature for having achieved that lofty status.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but given the continual dumbing down that's been going on the last year or so the level curve is now nothing more than a minor incline and there is absolutely nothing monumental about being level 90.  It has become the norm and can be achieved in a few scant weeks.  Worse than that, the player base is constantly bribed, cajoled, bullied and boosted into getting to level 90. You have to fight really, really hard to avoid being at that 'lofty status'.

These days if you want to find an exceptional player that is really making an effort to get the most out of the game you probably need to be looking at level lockers around 30 to 50, that are eating up quests and exploring every nook of zones that most level 90s haven't even seen in their mad dash to end game.

Yes it is a shocker and sad to hear comments from level 90s like this (all true experiences I have had):

(90 assassin in a SF instance after multiple askings in group chat about tracking for mobs) I don't know how to track (I wound up using my racial track).

Multiple level 90s not knowing how to get to KoS, much less any location within it.

etc.

How about a level 90 bruiser that didn't know what crit mit was?  A 90/250 wizzy that didn't know where the vasty deep was?

[SmokeJumper]

Attomsk@Mistmoore wrote:

So now that there are flying mounts to help us travel through the world, are you guys thinking about removing some of the insta travel or requiring a wizrd in your group to use spires, and a druid to use portals?

Not yet. But there's no reason we can't bring that up as a discussion topic again and see what people think about it. In general, although there are immersive reasons to prolong travel, its not usually fun for most players (typically, they hate waiting), so we'll have to have real good reasons to add it back in.

[Mythicor]

Shot in the dark here but the new LoN mounts gonna be level 90 too?  Cuz they will prolly be flying mounts im guessin.

[LardLord]

Smokey, you should make a tradable flying mount drop deep in KD!  That way low level characters could learn to fly if they have high level friends.  It'd make KD even better.

EDIT: The mount shouldn't have stats or a level req, of course.

[TorrynWoodsrunner]

SmokeJumper wrote:

tkia wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

 We really want flying mounts to be a big reward for players that *do* play through the content and get to level 90 and a cool brag feature for having achieved that lofty status.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but given the continual dumbing down that's been going on the last year or so the level curve is now nothing more than a minor incline and there is absolutely nothing monumental about being level 90.  It has become the norm and can be achieved in a few scant weeks.  Worse than that, the player base is constantly bribed, cajoled, bullied and boosted into getting to level 90. You have to fight really, really hard to avoid being at that 'lofty status'.

These days if you want to find an exceptional player that is really making an effort to get the most out of the game you probably need to be looking at level lockers around 30 to 50, that are eating up quests and exploring every nook of zones that most level 90s haven't even seen in their mad dash to end game.

Well, if you're right, tkia, then it's not an issue because most players have a lvl 90 character. so...cool, everyone that wants a flying mount can have one.

If I'm right, and there are still sub-90 folks out there, then it *is* a bragging right feature for lvl 90 characters, and that is also cool.

So I don't see an issue, do you?

I can't speak for everyone on this one, since I haven't gotten a lot of feedback yet...but I think I can safely speak based on the feedback I -have- collected, and sum it up in a fairly well-spoken manner...so here goes:

A large portion of the EQ2 player community isn't about the end-game...as said in "Prime Mover" by Rush, 'the point of the journey, is not to arrive'. We're playing the game for the long-haul adventure, not the mad dash to the end...we're savoring the experience.

Yes, some of us have level 90 characters, and it's great that we'll be able to get them a flying mount or two. But the folks who don't, and the folks who consider each and every one of their characters a unique experience...the folks who are enjoying the journey, they're really not getting anything with any kind of 'WOW factor' with this expansion, and that's really not fair to them.

Level 90's get plenty of 'bragging rights' features already...hot armor and weapon looks, trophy heads from boss mobs...it's a pretty big list. Flying mounts were a selling point of DoV since the announcement at Fan Faire. So including a mid-level, lower-end flying mount such as a slower carpet or sokokar...that's just something that a lot of folks see as a fair means of making DoV immediately attractive as a purchase to -everyone-, not just the end-gamers.

Me personally? I have my 90 Ranger...took me a good long time to get him there, because I wasn't in a hurry. I have my trophy heads of Venril Sathir and Vulaan in my guild hall. I wear full Rime armor and ride an Ice Mare on the ground.

I have my bragging rights...I don't need flying mounts as yet another.

Give the other folks some flying mount love. I don't mind. A lot of other folks don't mind, either. And I'm pretty sure it'd get more people who aren't anywhere close to 86+ buying the expansion now, instead of waiting until further down the line, when the price inevitably comes down at retail.

Just my two coppers...hope I presented them fairly.

[Filly67]

SmokeJumper wrote:

Filly67 wrote:

Andok wrote:

As much as I'm disappointed in the expansion, there are still hours of fun to be had for a measly $40.  When I stop having fun or something I like better comes along, I'll quit.  Until then, I want the latest content. 

I agree completely.  This is our entertainment and even the price of the CE is well worth it to us.  When something better comes along and takes my attention away from eq2 I will at the very least go to a monthly subscription instead of a yearly one.  But until then I am sticking with this game.  I do group but my game play does not hinge on it and I have no interest in raiding.  I like my toons to be the well rounded and enjoy the other aspects of the game.  Things that other games don't offer.  I think that the expansion will offer enough new content for me to feel that it's worth the time and money. 

That being said, I can't until SWTOR comes out.  It seems to be everything I am looking for.

• Exploration-wise, this expansion is fantastic. Admittedly there are fewer overland zones than in Kunark, but the dungeons are plentiful, and quite frankly, very well done (many say they are better than Kunark). Kael Drakkal itself is as big, or bigger, than all the other zone content in the expansion combined. I mean...it's enormous.)
• There is more heroic dungeon content than usual in this expansion.
• The raids are clever, easy and hard modes are well done, they're not required in order to experience the full sig line, and players during Beta were enjoying them and saying good things.
• Flying mounts are just cool. You'll have to experience them to understand the different perspective they give you on the world you know so well now.
• The quests are well-written, the dialog much more engaging than usual, and the epic quest line (which, as usual, was not available during Beta so it's a surprise for you at launch) is far better than most.
• Even the graphics are improved. The zone artwork is great, we've added some nice bells and whistles (Sun Shafts, Ambient Occlusion, etc.), and the beleagured Shader 3.0 errors are getting chipped away also.

These are all reasons to check the expansion out, IMO. But, of course, I'm biased.

I am hopeful although I have guildmates that make fun of my optimisim.  Yes, I am one who may "occasionally" complain about the game but it's out of frustration that it's not all that it has the potential to be.  It's nice to see employees invested in their product you have to love what you do in this type of venue. 

[Iskandar]

SmokeJumper wrote:

Not yet. But there's no reason we can't bring that up as a discussion topic again and see what people think about it. In general, although there are immersive reasons to prolong travel, its not usually fun for most players (typically, they hate waiting), so we'll have to have real good reasons to add it back in.

Back when EQ2 first launched, there were two travel bells in the Harbors -- one took you straight from point A to point B (Qeynos Harbor to Zek, for example)... the other was cheaper (we had to pay a little silver to use the bells back then) and took you to a ship at the high seas, where you may or may not have been attacked (by orcs, pirates, undead, etc storming the ship) before you continued on your way (so, Qeynos Harbor, to the ship, to Zek, for example).

I LOVED option B... I always took the cheap ambush-prone route! And I was VERY disappointed when it was removed.   Sure, it took a few minutes more... but what difference does it make when it's MY CHOICE?

Personally, I think a choices should be an option for travel. If folks in a hurry want to teleport from A to Z and never lay eyes on B thru Y, let them have that option... and if folks like me want to go from A to B to C to D to E and so on till Z, then let us have that option too  It's not going to kill "that random guy over there" if I take the scenic route while he travels express -- more shinies for me to loot along the way with him out of the picture 

[tkia]

SmokeJumper wrote:

So I don't see an issue, do you?

Yes, actually, I do.  As it stands you're 'rewarding' the status quo while penalising the exceptional minority that are working hardest at playing the game.  And the whole thing just comes across as yet another bullying tactic to make people level up to 90.

If you're right, and everybody's mother's brother has at least one level 90 toon and a flying mount , what is there left to brag about?  You're just average Joe that did a six day quest.  Sure, go ahead and brag if it makes you feel 'cool'.  But I'm betting all the other average Joes that also did the six day quest aren't going to be overly impressed at your rather non exceptional achievement.

[Uris]

Iskandar wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

Not yet. But there's no reason we can't bring that up as a discussion topic again and see what people think about it. In general, although there are immersive reasons to prolong travel, its not usually fun for most players (typically, they hate waiting), so we'll have to have real good reasons to add it back in.

Back when EQ2 first launched, there were two travel bells in the Harbors -- one took you straight from point A to point B (Qeynos Harbor to Zek, for example)... the other was cheaper (we had to pay a little silver to use the bells back then) and took you to a ship at the high seas, where you may or may not have been attacked (by orcs, pirates, undead, etc storming the ship) before you continued on your way (so, Qeynos Harbor, to the ship, to Zek, for example).

I LOVED option B... I always took the cheap ambush-prone route! And I was VERY disappointed when it was removed.   Sure, it took a few minutes more... but what difference does it make when it's MY CHOICE?

Personally, I think a choices should be an option for travel. If folks in a hurry want to teleport from A to Z and never lay eyes on B thru Y, let them have that option... and if folks like me want to go from A to B to C to D to E and so on till Z, then let us have that option too  It's not going to kill "that random guy over there" if I take the scenic route while he travels express -- more shinies for me to loot along the way with him out of the picture 

Isk raises a good point.  Why not add both bits in?  I'm still the player who would sit around and wait for the every so buggy boats in EQ1 while everyone else would run by hailing the translocator.  Sure, if I HAVE to be somewhere, I'll fire up a portal, but being able to casually take the old routes would be nice as well.I was a wee dissapointed when I was taking an alt through KoS and noticed that you just teleport from pad to pad now.  It was always fun jumping off a cloud early and hoping you could aim towards that chain.

[screenid]

Restricting flight is a bad Idea

[Nevao]

SmokeJumper wrote:

Honestly, I'd have to know more about what your class discussions were about before being able to respond to them, but I will say that at no point did we intend to make big sweeping changes in class balance in DoV, so I'm not sure what you expected.

I think a large part of the problem is that we've been making the same posts for years about specific class problems or concerns. It makes absolutely no difference to us if you 'avidly' read our posts if no one ever takes the time to do anything about it. There are alot of players, whether it's warranted or not, who feel that class balance and mechanics have gotten out of hand. It is our #1 item. Each expansion "a" class seems to get tocuhed and a few random spells get touched, but in many cases the complaints have been in place for years without even the courtesy of a "we don't feel the same, sorry"; much less an acknowledgement of the true issues. This leads to frustrated players.

While you may not have planned for class balance changes with DoV, history has shown us that short of nerfing balances that class balance/mechanic changes (like the attempts the past two expansions to fix pet classes) almost never happen OUTSIDE of an expansion. Changes are made in an expansion, you have to get the bugs fixes in the first GU and we have to see how that expansion emperically effected balance. Then we might see something but that 2nd GU is usually heavy content as opposed balance fixes and then the third has recently been bug fixes in prep for the next expansion. So seeing another one go buy where existing problems continue with no comment, and made worse by sweeping itemzation stat scaling, only gets us more riled up.

Fair to you and the dev team or not, that's where many of us are coming from and why we get so worked up about the issue. We care deeply, and while I'm sure the dev team does too we're just not seeing that care/concern turning into anything...

[Bremer]

SmokeJumper wrote:

I will say that at no point did we intend to make big sweeping changes in class balance in DoV, so I'm not sure what you expected.

If you don't want to make "big sweeping changes", then why does your class dev nerf Adreanline, the only good spell Berserkers have for raid tanking with the intention, to make it useless against raid mobs? And he justifies it by writing, that Berserkers aren't supposed to tank raid mobs and it would have the least impact on the class, because it would only become useless against raid mobs. This changes turns Berserkers from being an average raid tank to being by far the worst, without proper abilitys for raid tanking. Berserkers had to rely almost entirely on this single spell, because all other abilitys either suck or only work against heroic mobs and he made the spell crap.

Didn't you consult you devs? Or is it the official guide line of EQ2, that certain tanks aren't supposed to tank raid mobs and you just forgot to mention it in the last 6 years?

[Enox]

SmokeJumper wrote:

Iskandar wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

We'd also very much like to bring back a resurgence of the Norrathian pantheon, and also bring true evil back to the game. But we'll see.

I think a lot of us would love to see that!

Personally, my puppy-kicking inner Necro soooooo wants to lay waste to some of those filthy lesser.. beasts.. who babble incessantly about "helping" people   And my benevolent inner Paladin wants to truly feel energized with the power of the gods she holds so dear as she wades into battle to help those in need once again

I think part of this desire to see Evil return started with me being so upset when my Troll Shadowknight finished Darklight Woods and then ended up using the Griffon to Butcherblock.

I was petrified to leave the dock area because I thought the guards would KOS me. Then I realized they thought I was cool and I became merely confused. And then I was *helping the dwarves reclaim Kaladim*. ARGH! heh. This was not what I signed on for when I became a paragon of evil.

Perhaps if the starting isles were still around and you didn't force everyone away from and try hide the fact that Q/F, Antonica, the Commonlands, TS, and NEKTULOS FOREST even exist you might have found some evil.  You made the choice to speed level everyone to 90 regardless of race, class, or alignment.  You can't complain about it now.

[SmokeJumper]

Torryn@Antonia Bayle wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

tkia wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

 We really want flying mounts to be a big reward for players that *do* play through the content and get to level 90 and a cool brag feature for having achieved that lofty status.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but given the continual dumbing down that's been going on the last year or so the level curve is now nothing more than a minor incline and there is absolutely nothing monumental about being level 90.  It has become the norm and can be achieved in a few scant weeks.  Worse than that, the player base is constantly bribed, cajoled, bullied and boosted into getting to level 90. You have to fight really, really hard to avoid being at that 'lofty status'.

These days if you want to find an exceptional player that is really making an effort to get the most out of the game you probably need to be looking at level lockers around 30 to 50, that are eating up quests and exploring every nook of zones that most level 90s haven't even seen in their mad dash to end game.

Well, if you're right, tkia, then it's not an issue because most players have a lvl 90 character. so...cool, everyone that wants a flying mount can have one.

If I'm right, and there are still sub-90 folks out there, then it *is* a bragging right feature for lvl 90 characters, and that is also cool.

So I don't see an issue, do you?

I can't speak for everyone on this one, since I haven't gotten a lot of feedback yet...but I think I can safely speak based on the feedback I -have- collected, and sum it up in a fairly well-spoken manner...so here goes:

A large portion of the EQ2 player community isn't about the end-game...as said in "Prime Mover" by Rush, 'the point of the journey, is not to arrive'. We're playing the game for the long-haul adventure, not the mad dash to the end...we're savoring the experience.

Yes, some of us have level 90 characters, and it's great that we'll be able to get them a flying mount or two. But the folks who don't, and the folks who consider each and every one of their characters a unique experience...the folks who are enjoying the journey, they're really not getting anything with any kind of 'WOW factor' with this expansion, and that's really not fair to them.

Level 90's get plenty of 'bragging rights' features already...hot armor and weapon looks, trophy heads from boss mobs...it's a pretty big list. Flying mounts were a selling point of DoV since the announcement at Fan Faire. So including a mid-level, lower-end flying mount such as a slower carpet or sokokar...that's just something that a lot of folks see as a fair means of making DoV immediately attractive as a purchase to -everyone-, not just the end-gamers.

Me personally? I have my 90 Ranger...took me a good long time to get him there, because I wasn't in a hurry. I have my trophy heads of Venril Sathir and Vulaan in my guild hall. I wear full Rime armor and ride an Ice Mare on the ground.

I have my bragging rights...I don't need flying mounts as yet another.

Give the other folks some flying mount love. I don't mind. A lot of other folks don't mind, either. And I'm pretty sure it'd get more people who aren't anywhere close to 86+ buying the expansion now, instead of waiting until further down the line, when the price inevitably comes down at retail.

Just my two coppers...hope I presented them fairly.

Very well written, Torryn, and I agree with your points. What I said earlier was for the "immediate future". It's unlikely that we will leave things "as is" perpetually. We usually relax game restrictions as time goes on (e.g., removing time locks off older dungeons and other such things), so I'd expect us to relax on flying mount restrictions in the future.

[SmokeJumper]

Iskandar wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

Not yet. But there's no reason we can't bring that up as a discussion topic again and see what people think about it. In general, although there are immersive reasons to prolong travel, its not usually fun for most players (typically, they hate waiting), so we'll have to have real good reasons to add it back in.

Back when EQ2 first launched, there were two travel bells in the Harbors -- one took you straight from point A to point B (Qeynos Harbor to Zek, for example)... the other was cheaper (we had to pay a little silver to use the bells back then) and took you to a ship at the high seas, where you may or may not have been attacked (by orcs, pirates, undead, etc storming the ship) before you continued on your way (so, Qeynos Harbor, to the ship, to Zek, for example).

I LOVED option B... I always took the cheap ambush-prone route! And I was VERY disappointed when it was removed.   Sure, it took a few minutes more... but what difference does it make when it's MY CHOICE?

Personally, I think a choices should be an option for travel. If folks in a hurry want to teleport from A to Z and never lay eyes on B thru Y, let them have that option... and if folks like me want to go from A to B to C to D to E and so on till Z, then let us have that option too  It's not going to kill "that random guy over there" if I take the scenic route while he travels express -- more shinies for me to loot along the way with him out of the picture 

I hear you completely on this, Iskandar. For instance, it probably would have been better to add the tport portals in the Kingdom of Sky and left the cloud transports in also. We may end up going back and doing stuff like this. No guarantees of course, but the idea is sound and well-presented.

[dawy]

Gaige wrote:

The x4 raid content is great, for the most part.  KD is amazing.  Flying is pretty cool I guess.  Itemization sucks but was getting better when they abruptly closed beta.

Its about par for the course I guess, maybe a little worse than SF was in beta.  Lots of stuff consolidated and a lot of stuff left "for further updates" (BGs, pvp, more than half of the zones) which just shows me the team is too small to get everything done on time.

It will be all about GUs this year.  If they get them out monthly (or close) and they actually have beefy content additions, DoV can end up okay.  If they do barely one every three months and have half of them be basically nothing, DoV will suck worse than any expansion so far.

So it all hinges on DoV's GU additions under SJ.  Here is to hoping they're not as bad as SF's were under Brenlo.

And the last time we had monthly LU's was when?

[SmokeJumper]

Enox wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

I think part of this desire to see Evil return started with me being so upset when my Troll Shadowknight finished Darklight Woods and then ended up using the Griffon to Butcherblock.

I was petrified to leave the dock area because I thought the guards would KOS me. Then I realized they thought I was cool and I became merely confused. And then I was *helping the dwarves reclaim Kaladim*. ARGH! heh. This was not what I signed on for when I became a paragon of evil.

Perhaps if the starting isles were still around and you didn't force everyone away from and try hide the fact that Q/F, Antonica, the Commonlands, TS, and NEKTULOS FOREST even exist you might have found some evil.  You made the choice to speed level everyone to 90 regardless of race, class, or alignment.  You can't complain about it now.

I made the choice? Really?

But seriously, I don't think the old starter isles would even touch what I'm speaking to here. There is no lack of places that are labeled as "evil", but on the other hand, there's very little to do in the world that's truly evil, and evil has no face in our current world. Freeport is currently on the level of "street gang evil" instead of iconic, big world-crushing evil. Big Evil is more fun.

Even Good is less fun if there is no big enemy to face. We need the forces of the world to be bigger and more important, so players have reasons to rally around them and square off against their opposing forces. (No, I'm not talking PvP here, but that's appropriate for PvP discussions also.)

I'm just woolgathering here. There are no concrete plans to change this currently. But these are some of the conversations we have internally and I'm pretty sure they'll be influencing the year-to-come.

[Dark_fairy]

SmokeJumper wrote:

Attomsk@Mistmoore wrote:

So now that there are flying mounts to help us travel through the world, are you guys thinking about removing some of the insta travel or requiring a wizrd in your group to use spires, and a druid to use portals?

Not yet. But there's no reason we can't bring that up as a discussion topic again and see what people think about it. In general, although there are immersive reasons to prolong travel, its not usually fun for most players (typically, they hate waiting), so we'll have to have real good reasons to add it back in.

no thank you. Please leave the travel alone. They just revamped it and made easier.

[LardLord]

Nevao wrote:

While you may not have planned for class balance changes with DoV, history has shown us that short of nerfing balances that class balance/mechanic changes (like the attempts the past two expansions to fix pet classes) almost never happen OUTSIDE of an expansion. Changes are made in an expansion, you have to get the bugs fixes in the first GU and we have to see how that expansion emperically effected balance. Then we might see something but that 2nd GU is usually heavy content as opposed balance fixes and then the third has recently been bug fixes in prep for the next expansion. So seeing another one go buy where existing problems continue with no comment, and made worse by sweeping itemzation stat scaling, only gets us more riled up.

On the bright side, they did a ton of class/mechanics stuff during SF.  Potency uncapped, auto-attack changes, Guardian revamp, Illusionist buff changes, Rogue WIS line, ect.

[Dark_fairy]

Bremer wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

I will say that at no point did we intend to make big sweeping changes in class balance in DoV, so I'm not sure what you expected.

If you don't want to make "big sweeping changes", then why does your class dev nerf Adreanline, the only good spell Berserkers have for raid tanking with the intention, to make it useless against raid mobs? And he justifies it by writing, that Berserkers aren't supposed to tank raid mobs and it would have the least impact on the class, because it would only become useless against raid mobs. This changes turns Berserkers from being an average raid tank to being by far the worst, without proper abilitys for raid tanking. Berserkers had to rely almost entirely on this single spell, because all other abilitys either suck or only work against heroic mobs and he made the spell crap.

Didn't you consult you devs? Or is it the official guide line of EQ2, that certain tanks aren't supposed to tank raid mobs and you just forgot to mention it in the last 6 years?

Smoke ya might want to talk to Xel then. Cause he nerfed the Fu^k out of fighters this xpac so much so 7 of my friends quit already. We also lost 3 maybe 4 people (4th undecided) from our guild.

I am waiting to see how it goes, I know things chance and get fixed after release but from the last day of beta im sorry but Xel bent over tanks and had his way....

[Vinyard]

Hey Smokejumper, since you're in this thread responding...

Now that Velious is ready to be launched next week, what would you say about focusing a bit of dev time to beef up some of the older world content?

By beef up, I mean make those zones that are NOT on the "Golden path" heroic again. Make stuff a challenge for the lower players. Some of us prefer old-style grinding, to questing. It would be a great option imo! Going out, meeting the people of your server, grouping at low levels...oh the adventure!

[Eridu]

I gotta say I like just about everything I'd seen in the Beta.  Besides my ridiculously 1000+ roses fanbois crush on anything Domino does (blush), the Tradeskill stuff was inspired.  Public quests are woot fun.  I liked the questlines I did and appreciated the lore. I've been critical quite alot over my time playing, heck I quit for a year over TSO, but Velious looks like a bunch of fun.  I didn't get to do any of the heroic instances/raid zones but those had good feedback from people.

I do hope that the heroic and raid zones keep up with the accessiblity for casual people that SF brought about.  Lot more pick up raids and people able to do them in that expansion.  Was a good time for more people.

That said given the bonus XP announcement, does Smokejumper really expect anyone to tune in tomorrow?

[Eridu]

SmokeJumper wrote:

Enox wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

I think part of this desire to see Evil return started with me being so upset when my Troll Shadowknight finished Darklight Woods and then ended up using the Griffon to Butcherblock.

I was petrified to leave the dock area because I thought the guards would KOS me. Then I realized they thought I was cool and I became merely confused. And then I was *helping the dwarves reclaim Kaladim*. ARGH! heh. This was not what I signed on for when I became a paragon of evil.

Perhaps if the starting isles were still around and you didn't force everyone away from and try hide the fact that Q/F, Antonica, the Commonlands, TS, and NEKTULOS FOREST even exist you might have found some evil.  You made the choice to speed level everyone to 90 regardless of race, class, or alignment.  You can't complain about it now.

I made the choice? Really?

But seriously, I don't think the old starter isles would even touch what I'm speaking to here. There is no lack of places that are labeled as "evil", but on the other hand, there's very little to do in the world that's truly evil, and evil has no face in our current world.

DUDE! NERIAK!

Do something with Neriak, let it unfocus it's hatred so that it spill out across and smite the world

Freeport is currently on the level of "street gang evil" instead of iconic, big world-crushing evil. Big Evil is more fun.

Even Good is less fun if there is no big enemy to face. We need the forces of the world to be bigger and more important, so players have reasons to rally around them and square off against their opposing forces. (No, I'm not talking PvP here, but that's appropriate for PvP discussions also.)

I'm just woolgathering here. There are no concrete plans to change this currently. But these are some of the conversations we have internally and I'm pretty sure they'll be influencing the year-to-come.

[Horgana]

Dark_fairy wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

Attomsk@Mistmoore wrote:

So now that there are flying mounts to help us travel through the world, are you guys thinking about removing some of the insta travel or requiring a wizrd in your group to use spires, and a druid to use portals?

Not yet. But there's no reason we can't bring that up as a discussion topic again and see what people think about it. In general, although there are immersive reasons to prolong travel, its not usually fun for most players (typically, they hate waiting), so we'll have to have real good reasons to add it back in.

no thank you. Please leave the travel alone. They just revamped it and made easier.

Removing the insta-travel would only even be viable if the zones were knitted together without "zoning", just as pretty much all the other MMO's people play these days are. Having to go via a 2nd zone to get where you want to go is already excruciating due to the slow zoning times; being forced to go through many would a poinless timesink that would just drive people away.

In games where the zones are mostly massive continents with no zone boundaries (i.e. zoning screens), flying from A to B is possible as you can just point in the right direction and fly - drinking your coffee or whatever as the world rolls by below you. In EQ2 this would be utterly frustrating as you would have bizarre zone ceilings, finding the tiny areas where you can actually pass from zone to zone, plus the zoning times and the fact that the zone geometries were never meant to fit together to contend with.

You can't even fly over the hills from Enchanted Lands into Rivervale for god sake. You have to go thru the tunnel and thru the door.

You can't fly up and soar above the highest mountain peaks even in the new zones designed for flight - there are the usual invisible force fields which just remind you that you are modifying you xyz co-ordinates inside a bounded volume.

Just for immersion sake it would be better to start suffocating just like you drown in water if you fly too high rather than just bumping into an invisible ceiling, or have you die of exhuastion of you try to fly too far way from land.

As it's implemented at the moment it just reminds you that you are interacting with a computer program and not in any way adventuring in fantasy land.

That said, I have something good to say ... I like it that the flying mounts bank as you turn.

[Eridu]

Please don't revoke the easing of Travel.  I LIKE that I don't have to risk playing "Waiting for Zone Server" lotto as much as before. 

[Dark_fairy]

Dark_fairy wrote:

Bremer wrote:

SmokeJumper wrote:

I will say that at no point did we intend to make big sweeping changes in class balance in DoV, so I'm not sure what you expected.

If you don't want to make "big sweeping changes", then why does your class dev nerf Adreanline, the only good spell Berserkers have for raid tanking with the intention, to make it useless against raid mobs? And he justifies it by writing, that Berserkers aren't supposed to tank raid mobs and it would have the least impact on the class, because it would only become useless against raid mobs. This changes turns Berserkers from being an average raid tank to being by far the worst, without proper abilitys for raid tanking. Berserkers had to rely almost entirely on this single spell, because all other abilitys either suck or only work against heroic mobs and he made the spell crap.

Didn't you consult you devs? Or is it the official guide line of EQ2, that certain tanks aren't supposed to tank raid mobs and you just forgot to mention it in the last 6 years?

Smoke ya might want to talk to Xel then. Cause he nerfed the Fu^k out of fighters this xpac so much so 7 of my friends quit already. We also lost 3 maybe 4 people (4th undecided) from our guild.

I am waiting to see how it goes, I know things chance and get fixed after release but from the last day of beta im sorry but Xel bent over tanks and had his way....

Wait let me correct this it is unfair to blame Xel alone.

Mechanics guy making it so tanks have like 30% hit rate totally ripping thier dps away and aggro.

Sil - totaly overvalue to mit and block chance so much so rips us a new one with lack of DA. Pulling teeth to get the dull bland items to get procs on em, thankfully you corrected that.

Xel - telling zerkers they are not even meant to tank big bad mobs, more of a go get this little add over there type of tank...lol after dev's kept saying they wanted balance and each tank to be able to. Giving paly's a 8-10k ward on a 60 second timer from a 5k ward on a 14 second timer...lol

I mean the total screw you to tanks had to come from a team meeting/huddle so ya had to come into this xpac with nerf in mind.

[dawy]

Rick777 wrote:

Banditman wrote:

Taemien@Lucan DLere wrote:

The interesting thing is despite not liking Velious, these complaining players will still buy/pre-order it.

This invalidates alot of what they say. Either they actually like it enough to purchase it, thus lied. Or are buying something they don't like, which means they have a lack of sense which makes me question their argument there.

Absolutely wrong.

Many folks who are unimpressed with or flat dislike the Velious expansion will still buy it, simply because there is nothing better out there.  That's not an endorsement of EQ2, but an indictment of the industry as a whole.

Being the best of a sorry lot doesn't make you good.

I'll bet that a lot of hard and medium core players are in fact leaving for other games.  But what keeps getting overlooked is the plethora of players who do like the casualness, who do like the SC items, who do like the free servers.  SOE is making money with them and as they bleed the dying cow that is eq2 I don't think they care very much who leaves as long as it is the least amount possible until eq2 live is dead or completely assimilated into the free servers.

As a hardcore player I'll readily admit that I will probably end up buying DOV exactly for the reason you mentioned, there really is nothing else out there, Rift sucks and wow is, well wow.  But it seems like what I love about EQ2 is more and more built upon the past rather than the future and it really feels like I'm hanging on to something that was done long ago, kind of like that ex-girlfriend you keep visiting long after the love is gone.

A fantastic post which pretty much sums my feeling for the game the only difference is i wont buy the xpac i can live without it a bit of a shame really.