EverQuest II - Dear Devs: Player Questions Answered
MMORPG.com's Adele Caelia recently submitted some questions from EverQuest II players to the game's developers. Today, we present three of the company's answers. Remember to check back next week for more.
Question One
Dear Devs,
I would like to know if there is any hope for graphical revamps for EQII. Specifically in regards to adding support for features like dual core, as well as upgrades to the graphics themselves. Unfortunately, it's been over three years now, some of the environment textures are not looking so hot and the sky could definitely use a revamp. [I] would just like to know if this is possible or not.
Thanks!
We’ve looked at several options for incorporating more “dual core support” features for EverQuest II, and in fact a couple of minor features have been pushed out live. Unfortunately, however, to do a ‘complete’ support for dual core machines would entail rewriting the entire game engine, as that type of processor wasn’t considered when the game was originally written. I don’t expect us to take the several months necessary for multiple developers to rewrite the game engine, but I do expect that we’ll continue to expand using that feature set with new code, or when we run into areas that have to be rewritten for another reason. Which is a long winded way to say that we’ll continue to add small amounts over time, but you won’t see us do an entire revamp just for that purpose.
Question Two
Dear Devs,
We know the game engine is getting on in age, and that maybe the development of the engine was made for a different type of hardware, but at this point many threads on the tech support forums exist about the many shortcomings of the engine with today’s latest hardware.
Whether it is the 8800 series video cards, no Dual Core support or even simple things like missing shadows, we as a community would like a final answer on if any of these issues will be addressed.
Myself, like many others I believe, would be happy without one or two "content" updates to let you strictly focus on performance instead. Can this be done? We would prefer to not hear "We are looking into it" and more of a “Yes, we plan to start fixing the engine within a [certain time frame].” or just, “No, we cannot fix it.”
Thank you,
Raymond
Raymond,
I’ve answered the dual core support issue in the previous question, and want to address the other issue you raised with the 8800 video cards. We’ve been working very closely with the video card companies and the engineers who develop the drivers for them to address the issue. We’ve already placed one fix in from our side, and are working diligently with them to address the issues from their side. Unfortunately, we don’t control when they release their drivers, so it is hard for us to give you a time frame. And we continue to look at ways of modifying our code as a work-around.
Question Three
Dear Devs,
Do you have any plans to revamp quest rewards in older zones?
Right now quest rewards in four of the 1-20 zones absolutely pale before what you can get in Timorous Deep. The quest rewards if you choose to start in Qeynos or Freeport are especially bad. Even normal crafted gear is [a lot] better. The rewards from 20-30 quests are also generally vendor trash if you have done everything in Timorous Deep. It really throws off the balance of the early part of the game.
I also wonder when or if you are going to make class channels work for neutral classes. For example, a Wizard that starts in Timorous Deep (and you'd be a bit crazed not to if you are a member of an eligible race) can't access the wizard advice channel.
Thanks
We certainly are hoping to find the time to revamp the quest rewards in all lower level zones. In fact, it is an ongoing process of analyzing data, planning how to make the changes, and then actually implementing the changes. However, as there are fewer people going through those zones than many of the higher level zones, we have to balance the amount of effort that we place in all areas. But yes, this is certainly on our plate.
