Year of Darkpaw Ask Me Anything Responses

[Edelphia]

Q: How about a Heirloom Depot that is tied to one account, kinda like a shared bank, but only holds heirloom items, or even just heirloom gear, though I think the player made dungeons could be done away with if you had heirloom housing depots that would also hold pets and such that won't go in a regular depot? Or for that matter, a pet depot would be helpful too?
Caith: This is exactly what your shared bank is for.

For decorators, this is not enough space. We use the gear as appearance on our house actors, and house pets usually do not stack, so if you have a bunch of house pets, they can easily take up 3-5 bags all by themselves and leave no room for gear that may be needed for adventuring. Also, any account that has 3 or more toons on it just plain doesn't have enough space in the shared bank for heirloom gear needed, I have 23 toons on my main account and am always having to weed out gear that I later find I needed on another toon. it's just not enough space to use for strictly storage.


Q: Is there a way that we can get a house voucher back in our packs, maybe heirloom for purchased houses and no trade for expansion houses, when we relinquish a house?
Kander: We would like to create some form of way for people to get house vouchers back for relinquished houses. It’s being discussed.

YAY! Glory Hallelujah! I can't tell you how much money I've wasted over the years when I delete a toon, not realizing at the time they have a purchased prestige home I couldn't get back.


While I was disappointed by some of the replies, as I'm sure many are, I appreciate hearing the answers and all you do for us.

 

[Elricq]

It would be appreciate and fair to those who fought hard to earn it, that flow and his partner rune could be used on zimara items. Can you activate the possbility to make them purple as you did with the botanist item ?

 

[vlada]

I read through this. I am a 2004 original player of eq2, and I pay/sub for two accounts. I love this game. I don't want to call any dev specifically out, but many of these answers seem to be very tone deaf.
Commenting that a shared heirloom depot is the shared bank was cocky and arrogant and rude. The current problem with the shared bank is 48x8 is not a heck of a lot of slots. There are appearance clothes waiting for alts, there is heirloom gear, there is so much stuff that is needed to be in there and a finite number of slots.

You had a good idea with the overseer bag, but it's far, far, far too small. It was the right idea. Making something like that actually heirloom and useable by all the alts? That would be nice. I know it's a bloat and issue with the optimization for why not - it's why you said we can't have bigger bags.

But man, some of these answers are real tone deaf to the needs of your players. The ones that indirectly fund you. Well, *looks at the raiders* Fund you directly in their case. Please be more understanding to our needs. Some of this isn't a want or a wish. The sheer amount of Overseer crap for instance? It's an issue. I spend an hour each week pruning my main's inventory of junk.

here's how i handle overseers. i dont do them at all

 

[Sweety D]

Thank you for the responses. You can't please everyone, ignore the haters.

 

[Saw-Lau]

Q: Are there any plans to open up any parts of the game to the player community who also happen to be software developers, either in a full open source on GitHub with pull requests way, or via some sort of NDA?
Caith: There are many legal hurdles to such an endeavor, so it is exceedingly unlikely.

Chuffed that my question got answered, even if it wasn't the reply I was hoping for.

Let me ask another question, then: are you hiring for remote working from the UK?

 

[ttobey]

Chuffed that my question got answered, even if it wasn't the reply I was hoping for.

Let me ask another question, then: are you hiring for remote working from the UK?

There are a few spots open on the careers page but you need to be based in the US in Washington, California or Texas. Sorry!

 

[Moss]

Q: why do you allow meta class buff and items to stay in the game, allowing a few top guilds to burn through content in a few minutes while other guilds takes 40min to 1hour for the same kill, preventing them any chance on later kills due to dps check and limited timer.

Ex:
in solo my main character have : fervor = 1357 / crit bonus = 36850 / potency = 1,470M
in raid with temp buff in non meta group, some players get : fervor = 2700+ / crit bonus = 68000+ (could go higher) / potency = 1,900M+
of course with such stats difference no content is possible to be balanced

In my opinion rune like ready up should not exists in game, pw2 buff (from crates) should all have a revised equivalent available for everyone (-2% to -3% from paid version), and a hard cap should be in game on all overcap (something like overcap could not go higher than 10-20% of base max value)

 

[Angeliana]

There are a few spots open on the careers page but you need to be based in the US in Washington, California or Texas. Sorry!

And NY!

 

[Saw-Lau]

There are a few spots open on the careers page but you need to be based in the US in Washington, California or Texas. Sorry!

Yeah, I know it wasn't an option... Good to dream, though!

 

[Barwyn]

Finally I got a response from Darkpaw and that was to delete my post about flooding the economy with plat so you buy more Kronos and the answer to most of the serious questions is no or not considering.

Guess tough love isn't what they want to hear.

 

[Denmum]

Q: How about a Heirloom Depot that is tied to one account, kinda like a shared bank, but only holds heirloom items, or even just heirloom gear, though I think the player made dungeons could be done away with if you had heirloom housing depots that would also hold pets and such that won't go in a regular depot? Or for that matter, a pet depot would be helpful too?
Caith: This is exactly what your shared bank is for.

For decorators, this is not enough space. We use the gear as appearance on our house actors, and house pets usually do not stack, so if you have a bunch of house pets, they can easily take up 3-5 bags all by themselves and leave no room for gear that may be needed for adventuring. Also, any account that has 3 or more toons on it just plain doesn't have enough space in the shared bank for heirloom gear needed, I have 23 toons on my main account and am always having to weed out gear that I later find I needed on another toon. it's just not enough space to use for strictly storage.

Sadly, that IS the reason for shared bank. Thankfully, most of our decorators are creatively industrious, and set up a dungeon or a storage house that all their alts can access for the myriad of housepets and other heirloom items that they want to save to use "some day", and use their wardrobes for things they want to drop on house actors or mannequins at a later date.

I have two personal accounts with 10 characters each on both accounts, so I know that the heirloom gear thing is a constant juggling act. I shuffle things off to alts whenever possible to keep my shared bank space from overflowing, so I really do "get" it. It just isn't something that we can simply "make it so" for those who want/need to hoard things.

Heirloom depots in any form are an absolute nightmare from a development perspective because the depot code is set that ANY trustee can access them, and that means ways that players could exploit the heirloom tag and pass things from one account to another through the depot. Making heirloom-only depots when all of the house coding is based on Trustee and Visitor access lists would be a massively time-consuming nightmare to ensure that it would be exploit-proof. It would be a lot more recoding than one would think, and it isn't necessarily a direction we want to take on massively increasing the storage space for each character/account.

 

[Elostirion]

Seems to me there could be an Heirloom House... a house that can ONLY be accessed by toons on an account. No trustee, no visit, no nothing.

Then any depots that were placed there would serve the purpose of being able to receive deposited heirlooms of the appropriate types with a click, and to be retrieved by toons on that account. Make it a DBG-cash only house that comes with only enough item count to place DBG-cash purchased depots if you must.

This without the need for slowdowns at the bank, or rendering every furniture item by placing it as a furniture in the house itself which is the current solution for house items Surely an interface list is the least resource intensive way of storing the posessions?

 

[Barwyn]

Why did you add a ranged items to your Darkpaw Event Vendors for fighters and scouts purchased with Minted Celebration Tokens and not add a ranged item for mages and priests?

 

[Melime]

Q: Why does every zone not have a map?
Kaitheel: Ah, dungeons tend to be the zones without maps. My theory? I suspect it has to do with the challenge and excitement inherent to exploring the unknown. Yes, every zone becomes known and can have a map drawn for it, available to follow from external sources, but to have one given from the start, no matter if you’ve sought it out or not, removes some of that chance at the unknown and the thrill it holds.

<Buzzer noise> Sorry, this is a lame answer.

And I'm saying that as I posted the question about "can maps be made to work as they do in games like WoW?" - where yes, there IS a map for every zone ****BUT*** the map is hidden until you pass through that part of the zone, whether it's outdoor zones OR indoor zones. You still have to go out and get the "thrill" of exploring to uncover things like mount stations, etc.; there is no way to uncover the maps without doing so. (And of course, tied into that are achievements of '__(continent)_ explorer' and rewards like titles or mounts that can only be achieved by visiting every landmark in every zone.)

It is absolutely NO fun to have been through certain dungeons many, many times, and still forget or not know where you're going and get lost, especially in the more complex/larger dungeons.

Players shouldn't need external plug-in apps to have (at the bare minimum) very basic zone maps for every zone.

Also, external plug-ins already provide maps that show everything before you've explored a zone, and have all sorts of add-in data in them that EQ2's own maps *don't* provide (named mob locations, quest locations, etc) so being told that adding just BASIC zone maps to dungeons "takes away from the thrill of exploration" is some serious baloney, a lazy reply, and a very disappointing answer.

I wouldn't normally rip back at things like this, but this is something has has really super-irritated me as an EQ2 player ever since the game launched. Even the god-awful EQ1 line maps would be better than no maps at all.

 

[SunnyKitty]

I am saddened that nothing is being done to simplify the game. EQ2 really needs a stat/level squish, less spells/CAs, simplifyed AAs, the blue quest helpers, etc.

There also needs to be something done to encourage grouping at all levels.

EQ2 is very daunting for new players because of how overwhelming it is and how empty the world is.

I am excited for the Origins server because it will bring back simpleness and mandatory grouping. I do not like how EQ2 became a solo oriented game with stat bloat.

 

[Taled]

I am saddened that nothing is being done to simplify the game. EQ2 really needs a stat/level squish, less spells/CAs, simplifyed AAs, the blue quest helpers, etc.

There also needs to be something done to encourage grouping at all levels.

EQ2 is very daunting for new players because of how overwhelming it is and how empty the world is.

I am excited for the Origins server because it will bring back simpleness and mandatory grouping. I do not like how EQ2 became a solo oriented game with stat bloat.

If you think the expanded stat values and forced grouping due to returning to a baseline of heroic mobs is simplifying the game we have entirely different ideas of simple.

The Origins server is literally doing the opposite of a stat squish and re-expanding the only stat squish the game *did* do. [Note - I dont think that is a bad thing, personally. I 100% believe different classes and archtypes should be trying to get different stats and thus different gear/drops, instead of all of us fighting over the exact same items; However, it is literally the exact opposite of what you're claiming to want - outside of 'encourage grouping']

 

[Kyen]

Q: Finally, when is DBG/DarkPaw going to seriously address tradeskilling. You know how long it has been since there has been new craftable bags or boxes, or totems? Not to mention, at one point in time we could craft the beginning gear and Jewelry needed and make a bit of change. Other than food/drink, spells, not much else anyone wants.
Caith: Bag space is a DB and systems issue, a ton of the functions in the game iterate over every single item that a player has in their inventory, including every bank slot, every house slot, etc. We are, and will remain, extremely stingy when it comes to increasing inventory space, because as soon as we do the next question becomes “when are you going to fix lag and decrease loading times”.

This answer was much more acceptable before I went on the marketplace and saw 66 slot bags for sale for 999 DBC. Is this a game or finance optimization issue? Seems like the latter, because players making 66 slot bags would remove the need to spend $10 per bag.

 

[Kattt]

This answer was much more acceptable before I went on the marketplace and saw 66 slot bags for sale for 999 DBC. Is this a game or finance optimization issue? Seems like the latter, because players making 66 slot bags would remove the need to spend $10 per bag.

If I could like this a million billion times I would. (Amount adjusted to be equivalent to the triad of stat bloat, inflation bloat, and unbelievable bag bloat. )

And I apologize to devs, but on the bag space---many who implement the various junk, deletables, or other things to sift and clean, especially with inventory space (think especially the new heirloom overseer pots,) do not seem considerate of the players. I love you all, but after 20 years, you are not realizing just how much we go through. Some days I cannot get around to doing anything more than bag cleaning. Makes us feel you don't recall what fun is anymore. We are getting tired...like just real fatigue.

 

[Avirodar]

Thank you for the responses. You can't please everyone, ignore the haters.

There are:
1) Haters who do nothing but bash the game at every opportunity, yet seem to stick around despite their disdain for the product.
and...
2) Those who truly wish for things to be better, for egregious design and gameplay issues to be rectified, and for the damage of past mismanagement to be corrected. People who may have become disenfranchised by a product they have sunk hundreds and/or thousands of hours into, and have been strung along by SOE & DPG for so long, that a nothingburger AMA isn't going to make them feel like the future is rainbows and sunshine.
and...
3) Desperate addicts who engage in mental gymnastics to excuse the flaws relating to the product/company of which they feel affinity, and latch on to any half-baked, tokenistic, ineffective platitude being offered, as if it actually means something of substance.
and...
4) People who poke around, play casually, simply don't care about or engage in any niche aspects such as forum discussions.

Chances are, the people you describe as haters, are actually #2.

 

[GrunEQ]

<Buzzer noise> Sorry, this is a lame answer.

And I'm saying that as I posted the question about "can maps be made to work as they do in games like WoW?" - where yes, there IS a map for every zone ****BUT*** the map is hidden until you pass through that part of the zone, whether it's outdoor zones OR indoor zones. You still have to go out and get the "thrill" of exploring to uncover things like mount stations, etc.; there is no way to uncover the maps without doing so. (And of course, tied into that are achievements of '__(continent)_ explorer' and rewards like titles or mounts that can only be achieved by visiting every landmark in every zone.)

It is absolutely NO fun to have been through certain dungeons many, many times, and still forget or not know where you're going and get lost, especially in the more complex/larger dungeons.

Players shouldn't need external plug-in apps to have (at the bare minimum) very basic zone maps for every zone.

Also, external plug-ins already provide maps that show everything before you've explored a zone, and have all sorts of add-in data in them that EQ2's own maps *don't* provide (named mob locations, quest locations, etc) so being told that adding just BASIC zone maps to dungeons "takes away from the thrill of exploration" is some serious baloney, a lazy reply, and a very disappointing answer.

I wouldn't normally rip back at things like this, but this is something has has really super-irritated me as an EQ2 player ever since the game launched. Even the god-awful EQ1 line maps would be better than no maps at all.

You know they used to have a Fog of War (what you call hidden until discovered) but got rid of it for broadband issues or something like that. The lack of good maps in the game is why so many people use EQ2Maps. Yes, it's shameful that one has to use 3rd party apps but apparently the devs are good with it that way.