EverQuest II - Dear Devs Part Two
MMORPG.com's Adele Caelia recently submitted some questions from EverQuest II players to the game's developers. Today, we present three more of the company's answers. Remember to check back next week for more.
To whom this may concern-
As boasted on the website:
"EverQuest® II is the next generation of massively multiplayer gaming, a huge online world where friends have come together for adventure and community. Featuring breathtaking graphics and vast, beautiful and dangerous game world to explore, EverQuest II sets the standard for graphical realism as players are immersed in the game’s exciting locales and mysterious lands."
The people of Norrath could say [on] one accord that the 'final frontier' of discovery is the castle resting in Qeynos itself!
For years, this grand palace has been just an addition to the landscape of the towns around Qeynos and as [of] yet lacked any significant function! With the release of The Rise of Kunark came many fun and exciting [elements] to expand game play; level cap raises for adventurers and guilds alike, [and] new raid zones, with adventure zones for the less hardcore players. [Along] with all this whisperings of guildhalls, a centralized place where a guild can craft, relax from a day of adventure and gear up for the next quest! But where is the implementation of this grand idea?
Dear devs, the castle!! If the castle were to be opened it would offer the space and the zone capacity needed for such a task. As far as actual development I think Adele Caelia of Kithicor has a wonderful idea which she has posted on her blog at http://adelecaelia.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/i-had-an-EQII-dream-guild-halls/#more-155
Happy questing, and many master chests to all!!
-Narkah Isnot'Forsale Monk of Valor
Narkah,
Thanks for the input! We think that you will be quite intrigued and excited when we reveal our goals for the Guild Halls.
Dear Devs,
I have enjoyed your game for the past four years, and have many fond memories from the beginning. I recall the knight who used to stand in front of the castle and tell us that we were not yet good enough to enter the castle. We all assumed this would come later, but it did not. Finally after years went by the knight just vanished. What happened to him? Were the gates attacked and he killed in an epic battle? Did he retire? Perhaps he was sent out on a quest for the queen herself! My question is if he will one day return to open the doors of the castle to the most prominent citizens of Qeynos? Perhaps we will have to endure a quest to save him and bring him back safely and he will reward us by allowing us entrance? Another question I have is about the fun spells. A long time ago every 10 levels players received a spell that did nothing really but create a little immersion and fun. I think the players really enjoyed these spells. Is there a chance that these might one day return? Also after spending all the years in Norrath my legs are very tired and I don’t even know how I have made it so long without a chair to sit upon. Might we one day have the ability to sit in the chairs throughout Norrath?
Thanks, Gavins
Gavins,
There are a lot of untold stories, and unused spaces left in Norrath which are still on the huge list of things we want to do. Often it is just a matter of finding the necessary amount of time, and fitting it into a schedule to make these things happen. The castle in Qeynos has long been on our list of things we’d love to expand on, and it wouldn’t surprise me in any way if that appears at sometime in the future.
As for chairs, there would be quite a bit of work involved to make that happen. We discussed it a month or two before launch, but haven’t been able to find the time to implement it yet, what with all of the different animations necessary, new chairs and sofas, and figuring out how to make a ogre fit into a gnome’s chair. I’m not going to say it is impossible, but it’s not near the top of the list.
Dear EQII Developers
With the fast-approaching game update 44 on the horizon, we're receiving a number of excellent changes to Everquest II, including upgrades [to] items in Veeshan's Peak, fixed ammunition, fixed mount actions (regarding water and climbable walls, which may seem small but I've been waiting for this for years!), and fixed melee hit rates (possibly the best change!).
Given the fact that our voices seem to be heard, finally, I must ask...is there any hope of seeing epic weapons balanced? I'm a Brigand, and [I] am very disappointed with the mythical version of our epic. I don't have it yet, but I'm not really that concerned, since it's obviously sub-par to many mythical epics. I know other epics have similar issues as well, such as Swashbuckler and Defiler weapons. There's a massive thread on EQIIFlames (I know there's been some issues between EQIIFlames and the official EQII site, but it's there.) [that] has a detailed list of ideas which the Brigand community would like to see implemented on our Mythical weapon.
Let's face the facts here; haste mods aren't useful at all in raid situations (and these are obviously weapons intended for raiding), as it's far too easy to reach the hard cap on haste. As well, the +30% damage mod to our back attacks is less than desirable, as it only pertains to 4 Combat Arts (Not CAs tag’s with "Flanking or behind..."). And of course, the 10% increase for debuffs, also not very good, as a target's mitigation hard cap of 200% can easily be reached.
I'll wrap this up soon, as I know you guys have plenty to do, but I implore you to read into the suggestions for changes to our epic weapons and at least take them under serious consideration. I'm starting to regain some faith in the development team, now that many issues put forth by the player base have been addressed. I only hope that this is a continuing trend. It's not that our weapon is bad, per se; it's just sub-par to most of the other weapons. Oh, and I'm certainly not asking for other mythical weapons to be nerfed, they're fine, we just want ours (and others) upgrades to fall in line with the better mythical weapons out there.
Sincerely, Varuna - Brigand of Mistmoore
Varuna,
I certainly appreciate your comments, and yes, we’re certainly continuing to evaluate the epic weapons. We’ve also read the feedback, in multiple venues, and are continuing to process that feedback along with what we’re seeing in game through our various data gathering mechanisms. The one thing we’re trying to be careful about is knee-jerk reactions, which usually just end up making us look like jerks, without any knees involved. But we’re aware that some portion of the population out there is looking for different things, and we’ll consider everything we can before we decide if we’re ready to make any significant changes.
