*** Official EverQuest Next Thread ***

[FoxEye]

can u imagine a game today with content like doing cleric epic with a 6 month waiting list or doing the VT key with some taking over a year and still not completing it, would be just LOL watching people rage in todays age

I don't think everything EQ did was always the best choice, despite my occasionally gushing praise

Quests which depended on a 2% drop from a mob that spawned every five hours were/ are a kick in the nuts. It's developer sadism

I mean, sure that's OK if it's a one-off optional quest for a non-essential prestige drop. But if that's in the middle of a class quest chain, and you can't progress without that drop, it's horrid.

And EQ did have a fair few of those. 2% drops from rare spawn mobs, where you could spend weeks camped in the same place, questioning your sanity I'm not putting that forward as good design at all.

There is room for a game with great lore, fleshed out world and NPCs, requiring cooperation from its players, without resorting to rare drops from rare mobs to progress.

In fact the presense of the lore, the fleshed out world, the cooperation between players - these help to take the player's mind off the mechanics of the game, potentially making a grindy game more palatable. But there is no requirement for the game to be ultra-grindy. I do question the merit of making a player sit for weeks in the same spot, fixated on one mob who has the drop he needs.

 

[Rroff]

^^ Albeit my experience with EQ is limited but in some ways those drops were good as it would get people playing together - several times I got into groups that I otherwise wouldn't because they wanted to fight their way to and camp for a drop.

 

[Cromulent]

I have been following this game, I was and still am a hardcore Everquest nut (1999-2008), but I fear McQuaid's best days are behind him.

He is about as reliable as a chocolate fireguard if the rumour mill holds true. Previous employees on the Pantheon game claim he pushed a third of the kickstarter money up his own nose and to pay 'bills' once the funds were released.

I was also someone that got stung with Vanguard....remember that one? The launch was a disaster.

The game does look interesting, and I will probably end up playing it, but an Everquest beater.......nah!

Yeah I played Vanguard through beta and from day one on launch. Frankly I thought it was the best MMO released since EverQuest was launched. Sure it had bugs but I never experienced the pain that some people complained of. I don't think I had any crash to desktops or anything like that and the game ran smoothly enough for me to enjoy it (although at the time I had just bought a new top of the range computer so that probably explains it).

I really think that Pantheon will bring back what I miss from current MMOs. Yeah I'm probably seeing things through rose tinted glasses but it has been too long since I played an MMO properly and I miss the community around it.

I don't trust Daybreak Games to release EQ Next any time soon and the fact that we have basically nothing from them for an extended period of time is worrying. So I'm going all in with Pantheon. Fingers crossed it is a success .

Edit: You'll be pleased to know that Brad McQuaid has said explicitly that they won't be catering to the MMO mass market and will be creating a niche game for fans of older style MMOs that has a lot more depth included in terms of questing, levelling and crafting. Don't expect to get to max level in a couple of days in Pantheon .

 

[BubbySoup]

/agree Rroff. It's been proven time & time again with every MMO since EQ that if you don't force people to group together (which is now considered bad game design and could be argued that it was never really good game design to begin with), the odds of people forming meaningful bonds in these type of games plummets.

 

[FoxEye]

^^ Albeit my experience with EQ is limited but in some ways those drops were good as it would get people playing together - several times I got into groups that I otherwise wouldn't because they wanted to fight their way to and camp for a drop.

/agree Rroff. It's been proven time & time again with every MMO since EQ that if you don't force people to group together (which is now considered bad game design and could be argued that it was never really good game design to begin with), the odds of people forming meaningful bonds in these type of games plummets.

Oh I am absolutely a fan of forced grouping. One of the things I hated most about WoW was how easily you could solo up to max level. That killed the community more than anything else, I imagine.

But in EQ you were just as likely to see a level 50 solo camping a level 20 rare mob for a rare drop as you were to find a level 20 group in there. Esp when a 2% drop from a mob you might see once in five hours was needed by more than one person in the group

The game's design was not perfect, and I'm pretty sure that forcing people to camp the same room in the same dungeon for weeks on end is not the only way to have a good community in an MMO

Yes things need to be hard and punishing to bring people together. But tedium is not exactly an essential ingredient in this formula.

Do I think all 2% drops from rare mobs should be abolished? Nope. I just don't think that should be the go-to design to keep players interested. That rewards a very select group of players, and puts off many others who would be in other respects good players to have.

 

[Rifte]

I see you played on Inny - what was your chars name if you don't mind me asking?

No worries.

Ruyes - Halfling Druid

Originally in Legions of Darkness, Then Veil of Silence, then Iceni

 

[mcast]

No worries.

Ruyes - Halfling Druid

Originally in Legions of Darkness, Then Veil of Silence, then Iceni

That takes me back, I was in Iceni many moons ago.

/miss oldschool EQ

 

[BubbySoup]

No worries.

Ruyes - Halfling Druid

Originally in Legions of Darkness, Then Veil of Silence, then Iceni

I was a founding member of Iceni I left back in 2001-ish (back when LoD and AV ruled our server) to play on Test in The Pantheon. You might remember my sister, Darkpetal depending on when you were in Iceni.

 

[Rifte]

I was a founding member of Iceni I left back in 2001-ish (back when LoD and AV ruled our server) to play on Test in The Pantheon. You might remember my sister, Darkpetal depending on when you were in Iceni.

Haha yes I do. Dark Elf Cleric or SK if I remember correctly? I was with Iceni for a very short period of time before I quit to solo. My RL best friend was the GL back then. Becklyn (Gnome warrior)

I knew an officer in Iceni back when you were with them. Larellion. Wood Elf Druid I think, he also left the server but cant remember where he went.

 

[FoxEye]

OFFICIAL: EQ Next is cancelled.

https://www.daybreakgames.com/news/daybreak-president-community-letter-everquest-next-2016

 

[Sleepery]

Sounds like they're just going to milk the existing games into the ground. Gits

 

[FoxEye]

Sounds like they're just going to milk the existing games into the ground. Gits

Well, they were losing money, weren't they? Hence why Sony sold off SOE and washed its hands of them.

Ultimately, it doesn't sound like they have resources to do anything more than keep existing products on life support.

 

[Tombstone]

Its a shame, I guess now the name of Everquest , so instrumental a title in the history of the MMO genre, will go quietly into the night.

 

[Rifte]

I am a little gutted about this.

Ok I am sure that it could not match Everquest vanilla to Velious, but anything with the Everquest name is an insta purchase for me.

I assume that they will continue to release expansion after expansion and every now and again release another time lock server.

 

[FoxEye]

I am a little gutted about this.

Ok I am sure that it could not match Everquest vanilla to Velious, but anything with the Everquest name is an insta purchase for me.

I assume that they will continue to release expansion after expansion and every now and again release another time lock server.

EQ1 will never attract new players in the state it's in. Most zones are complete ghost towns, many quests are broken and will never be fixed, the engine is over a decade old... and all the players are max level and congregated in one or two zones.

From what I've read tho, the new expansions are just a couple zones and a handful of raids. And even then they're releasing them in two phases.

Let's face it, it's amazing that the game is still going, and it could probably go on forever like this. But I can't see any reason to play Live EQ over something like Project 99. Which I really must get round to trying

The TLP servers are only good for a couple months, once past Velious a % quit; once past PoP probably most have quit, but they stubbornly point blank refuse to luach a "Classic" server. So these TLP keep opening expansions, keep going with only a handful of raiders still playing, and then when they catch up to Live they're merged because the population is non-existent.

But then, very little that SOE ever did made much sense.

 

[Rifte]

EQ1 will never attract new players in the state it's in. Most zones are complete ghost towns, many quests are broken and will never be fixed, the engine is over a decade old... and all the players are max level and congregated in one or two zones.

From what I've read tho, the new expansions are just a couple zones and a handful of raids. And even then they're releasing them in two phases.

Let's face it, it's amazing that the game is still going, and it could probably go on forever like this. But I can't see any reason to play Live EQ over something like Project 99. Which I really must get round to trying

The TLP servers are only good for a couple months, once past Velious a % quit; once past PoP probably most have quit, but they stubbornly point blank refuse to luach a "Classic" server. So these TLP keep opening expansions, keep going with only a handful of raiders still playing, and then when they catch up to Live they're merged because the population is non-existent.

But then, very little that SOE ever did made much sense.

This is true, I have a SOE all access (or a daybreak all access account if thats the new term?), and despite being an avid EQ player back in the day I would never dream of going back.

I did enjoy P1999, but the issue I had was that I was competing against what I was back then (unemployed with zero commitments). I cannot just give EQ the time it really deserves and needs to play end game. P1999 also has issues with the fact that spawn cycles, mobs, quests, drop rates are pretty much nailed down now (Ancient Cyclops in Sro and Quillmane in S Karana being the obvious examples) that it seems a very sterile environment to me. Every thing is clinical and efficient. Great for raiders, but that initial discovery and wonder has gone.