Bi-Weekly Q&A #7

Carolyn Koh Posted: Aug 2, 2006 7:46 AM ET
Category: Interviews 0


Our bi-weekly Q&A sessions continue here today Travis McGeathy, the Lead Designer of EverQuest, responds to five more questions as part of our bi-weekly Wednesday ritual.
MMORPG.com:	The zone graphic upgrades look good and are coming along nicely. How’s the progress going on the player character upgrades? What are the challenges involved there?
Travis McGeathy:	Part of the reason for this new race is to work on some cost effective methods for creating player characters in our current graphics engine. If this goes as planned then we will be in much better shape to see how we might be able to SLOWLY tackle the existing races. Let me make it clear that this is not a promise but we are working towards a possible solution.

MMORPG.com:	What plans are there for the revision of the death system or rather… we know it’s on the boards. The question really should be… how is it getting along? The idea for a ghost hovering over the corpse waiting for a ress to prevent double zoning for example.
Travis McGeathy:	The preliminary coding for the ability to hover over your corpse while waiting for a resurrection is complete and undergoing testing. We’ll be using the beta period for the next expansion launch to heavily test this new functionality before it goes live, likely at the same time as the next expansion.

MMORPG.com:	What’s happening with the community team? Since the launch of EQ, the number of live GM events went up, went down… are there spontaneous events anymore?
Travis McGeathy:	The Community Team is always working on new and exciting in-game activities. You can find examples and announcements of events being run in-game under the Event Gazette. The Guide Program assists our team in making sure that all servers see all different types of events being run. Keep an eye out for our next festival - the Festival of Might.
MMORPG.com:	How are your plans coming along for the cultural system? Can you share more with us at this time?
Travis McGeathy:	Ngreth is working on drop rate adjustments for the more problematic pieces with a goal of wrapping that up by the time the next expansion launches in September.
MMORPG.com:	In terms of long-range planning. Are there any concepts you’d like to or can share with us at this time? What do long-time or even new players have to look forward to?
Travis McGeathy:	We are happy with the overall direction we have been going with the game. Our mantra is going to add depth and complexity to the current game instead of just adding on top. This goes for storylines, expansions, zone revamps, new features…everything. We are also continuing to take all unnecessary frustrations out as well. This includes some changes to the death system and lessening the amount of downtime that some classes experience.
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Carolyn Koh

Carolyn Koh / Carolyn Koh has been writing for MMORPG.com since 2004 and about the MMO genre since 1999. These days she plays mobile RTS games more, but MMOs will always remain near and dear to her heart.