Year of Darkpaw Ask Me Anything Responses

[SunnyKitty]

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']

Back then there was no insanely huge levels to grind, no AAs, no mercenarys and no familiars. We also grouped up and just defeated mobs for exp. It was much simpler and fun.

The old way the stats used to be are not such a big deal. Just pick a one role you want for your class, or collect different gear sets to be hybrid. Its not hard.

And its not only new players who are frustrated with the way the game is, but veterans too. I do not like leveling alts because of how daunting it is to get to max level. No quest helpers and too much of a grind. 130 is too high.

EQ2 really desperately needs a level/stat squish.

 

[Bekkr]

And its not only new players who are frustrated with the way the game is, but veterans too. I do not like leveling alts because of how daunting it is to get to max level. No quest helpers and too much of a grind. 130 is too high.

I have no idea how many people this is true for, but it certainly is for me. I wouldn't play on live servers if they paid me a monthly sub. The complexity, systems, and numbers are so over the top it doesn't even feel remotely like the game I used to love.

 

[Barwyn]

125+ people do the quests should be able to reap the same rewards at the same time. Why wouldn't it be? Ok lets say it's aimed to get you raid ready. Same applies to new and returning players. Mages and priests will be behind scouts and fighters all doing the same quests should receive the same reward.

Again, I would really love someone from the company to answer my question just like you did about your favorite color or foods or whatever it was.

 

[vlada]

The mage in particular will not be able to continue to advance as quickly as the fighter/scout.

you must not know a lot of mages.
and truth be told, there is one dev in charge of itemization. one. and in general he does not interact with players and does not explain his decisions. so there is a zero chance of you getting a response from him. and btw i'm a mage and i had no problems w/h1 and h2 and getting gear to run them

 

[Aaandi]

Thank you for this interesting read. I learned a lot and I love your snark!

 

[Beee]

Getting rid of a lot of overseer things is easy... they just have to make the potions NOT heirloom agin, so they ca be stored in the Roison, Potion, & Totem Depot again

And Overseers should be storeable there too

TNX for making Zimaran Potions of overseer season 6 storeable in the guildbox!

 

[Solid11]

Q: Are there any plans or discussions involving a game wide stat/number squish? Is it just too much work for the team you have now or is it something that may possibly happen in the future?
Caith: There has been much discussion, but there are no plans for a game wide stat reduction for a variety of reasons. One of the primary reasons it is unlikely to happen is how content is designed in the game. EverQuest 2 was designed in a way that gives developers a lot of freedom in how they implement content, which allows them to make the content more flexible and unique. The downside of this is that developers can implement things in innumerable ways, and any rebalance of that content would be a manual process. So in short, a stat reduction would require hand tuning of almost every encounter in the game.

I can see 5 years from now....
You buy [elm quarterstaff] from Gurtha McPherson for 60,000,000 platinum.

"Seems a bit high, but still not bad, glad I sold that krono beforehand for 500T."

"You hit a crutose defender for 87,934,493,222,924,242,085,054,043,111,499 of damage."
"Oh man, they nerfed the elm quarterstaff.....great."
"A crutose defender hits you for 352,255,767,732,727,295,929,419,141,950 of damage."
"You hit a crutose defender for 84,225,997,482,002,182,763,100,832,622,102 of damage."
"You killed a crutose defender."
You gain 882,923,993,898,295,757,266,224,566 XP plus 353,169,597,559,318,302,906,489,826 XP from bonuses!
You are now level 2!
You gain 9,389,290,129,235,329,199,019,473,399,201,220,234 health.
You gain 4,392,1927,599,083,767,234,947,664,503,777,992,889 power.
"Sigh...My HP is so low at this level..."
"Oops, I miss counted my digits. Thought I only saw 11 commas. Thank goodness....That would be embarrassing if that was only 9 Decillion instead of 9 Undecillion HP."

"Sure glad this game has commas or I'd be in real trouble."

 

[PhyreFey]

Man people have been asking for new hair, OR hair that is already in game but added to all races, since 2011 I feel like....... And the answer is always the same. :/
I just want the long hair from female freebloods on high elves and wood elves. As an example.

 

[Vokan]

Sorry if I missed it, but was there a question about their intent to use Jade coins and updating those NPCs to sell better versions of the mount, merc and familiar buffs?

 

[Vokan]

Someone asked about new “packs” and the response was they are added all the time. I believe the question was referring to the packs you purchase from the website that contains the speed increase, 100% crate, the forge, and other stuff which has been unchanged for years.

Someone also asked about increasing the level of tradeskill and char level. The answer was that it will increase to 130 once we go up to 135. They seem to be unaware that it is currently purchasable at 120 vice 125 on the market if the intent is to be 5 levels below max.

 

[Rhynoch]

Many of us are vain. We like our toons to look good. And EQ2 has a lot of cool armors and outfits.

We are grateful for the expanded Wardrobe limits added a while ago. But other than helping to clear out the bank bags it is difficult to actually use them easily.
It would be really great to have an option to increase the number of set items for appearance armor. I don't need 10 version of combat gear setup but could easily use a bunch more appearance set slots. (Quick fix: Could you make it so I have 20 sets total shared between adventure and appearance?)

I mean you can imagine when I have 50 sets of items in my wardrobe and only ten I can load quickly it is frustrating. When you multiply this out by seven armor slots and three weapons I have over three hundred items to preview to put on the matching sets for most of the appearance armor I have. This takes 10mins or more to click through every item from every group to find the seven pieces of matching armor the cloak and the weapons etc.
I respect the issues the game faces with load times and character data bloat. But we could have a wardrobe in our houses where we can save extra presets and we just delete a saved set we aren't using and load in a set we have saved previously.

Or even simpler, working with a house item we already have: Put an option on a mannequin that allows us to import the appearance set shown and name it. So if you cannot increase the total number of saved outfits at least give us an easy way to delete and add outfits presets from a house item. Then you don't have extra data to carry around with you as you play but the amazing art that goes into all the content we have is easier to access.

Oh and I also want appearance mercenaries when you can make it happen. There are so many good ones that we never see because we all want the best buff we can get.

 

[Aywin]

you guys really should think about reducing the number of spells. Hardcore players and players who have been playing EQ2 forever will be okay with the current number of spells, if your intention is just to keep these people happy and never trying to appeal more the new players then keep it like that... but 6 rows of skills/spells is simply unacceptable. People already complain that WoW is very hard imagine introducing them to EQ2 spells... Besides, at the end people are just doing macros to cast everything at the same time so I don't understand the need of 4 spells when people are grouping these on a single button... it's just bad design.

I hope you rethink this. less spells doesn't mean less depth or less fun, specially when we have SO many already.

I would also like to add that the strategy of always making expansions for the endgame content, instead of, for example, making new up to day levelling content, is not a good one. If levelling experience is not good, no one (new) will get to endgame expansions.

 

[Kaviertex]

To long a list. Did anyone ask for the ability to use any mount as appearance regardless of flying? The art team spends and has spent so much time developing beautiful mounts just to simply be unusable.

Wait, what did I miss, you can use appearance mounts on top of your standard mount for stats. Or did I misunderstand you?

 

[Cusashorn]

Wait, what did I miss, you can use appearance mounts on top of your standard mount for stats. Or did I misunderstand you?

You've always been able to set an appearance to your mount-- you just can't use a land mount, leaper, or glider for a flying mount appearance due to animation restrictions.

 

[Barwyn]

I'd love to be able to fly around on my large dino mount

 

[Cusashorn]

I'd love to be able to fly around on my large dino mount

The T-Rex mount from the Velious Pack flies around by flaggelating its tail.

 

[Barwyn]

That sounds cool but it would be really cool to be able to fly around on my Stomposaurous Thunderstrider.

I'd settle for making the older carpets and cloud quest mounts usable in the flying mount appearance window.

 

[Audric]

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.

Exactly what I was talking about in another post. The Fog of War was a great feature that I liked. I like to not know what I'm getting myself into when I explore and solve everything I can. Not saying I never look anything up, but for me it's one of the reasons I play. I enjoy a good puzzle. It's too bad the Fog of War can't be brought back because I would certainly be for it!! ... and yes, the Darkpaw Warrens are mapped now, thanks to jeffjl!! That dungeon is enough to make anyone !

 

[Avianna]

My question would be what if anything can be done about the broken economies and flood of plat in the game. would it be possible to eliminate 99% of all plat? which would in turn bring market prices down and bring the cost of things down.

 

[Barwyn]

I can't agree more.