EQ2 Producer’s Letter: Let’s Talk “Kunark Ascending” Expansion
From EverQuest2.com:
Greetings citizens of Norrath!
Fall is on the doorstep! What does that mean? Expansion news, of course!
We have some epic adventures in store this year as we delve into undiscovered areas of a familiar continent in our thirteenth expansion, EverQuest II: Kunark Ascending! Quite a bit of time has passed since we have explored Kunark’s secrets and there are some great stories to be told and adventures to be had. Danger awaits you in the Crypt of Dalnir, Kaesora, Warslik’s Wood and more!
Here’s a small peek of one of the new NPCs that will be in this expansion!
The launch of EverQuest II: Kunark Ascending is scheduled for November. We’ll have a lot more to share with you regarding EverQuest II: Kunark Ascending in October when we start talking about expansion features, open up pre-orders, and make beta available.
In addition to working on the expansion all year, launching Game Updates 100 and 101, Progression Servers, and event server updates, the team has also put together a beta for some new PvP Battlegrounds content that you’ll see in early September. More news coming next week on Battlegrounds!
And, to take the leap into the leaves of fall, we are running a series of promotions from September through to the expansion launch:
- This weekend, members get 40% off in-store purchases from September 1st 12PM PDT through September 6th 12PM PDT. At the same time we’ll be serving up Double XP for EVERYONE!
- EverQuest II: Terrors of Thalumbra will also be on sale at 50% off from September 1st 12PM PDT through October 5th 12PM PDT. Note that the option to purchase the Collector’s or Premium Edition of EverQuest II: Terrors of Thalumbra that comes with unique bonus items won’t be available after pre-orders forEverQuest II: Kunark Ascending begins in October.
- To help you get your characters prepared for our next expansion, we are going to run another weeks-long “Gear Up, Level Up” event this year. There will be bonuses each week in October through to expansion launch, like adventure, AA, tradeskill XP bonuses, status boosts, and more!
There is a lot to come in the coming weeks, so stay tuned! We are grateful to each and every one of our players and thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Holly “Windstalker” Longdale
Updates about Kunark Ascending from Kander:
It is new level 100 content, new quests, new overland zone, new dungeons, new features. There is no re-use.
One Overland zone larger than Thalumbra. We are going to be making close to the usual amount of heroic and raid content, maybe a bit more, but this expansion we will be making more Solo and Advanced Solo dungeons as well. So expect 8 to 12 solo dungeons, all in the 4 or 5 themes we are using.
We’ll be doing Gear Up, Level Up Starting in October, with double XP, double this, double that, every week up until the expansion launch! Plus… well… More later.
There will be some new character progression. But no, no “level” cap increase. It’s not AAs. It’s something different.
Domino is working on TS content.
The rumors have been swirling for months that we will see a return to Epic Weapons in this expansion. More details in October apparently!
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Comments (127)
Foodcity
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Maybe we’ll finally see all that unused space to the north of Jarsath Wastes?
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Lonsen
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I hate to admit it, but RoK was still new, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find the path to the woods up the before deciding that it just wasn’t accessible.
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Foodcity
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I also kinda want to know whats at the bottom of that huge area of trees with an invisible dome covering them is. The one in Fens, that is. And that rocky island you can see from Timorous Deeps.
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Lonsen
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Oh yeah I forgot all about those! Hopefully some of that stuff will be unlocked.
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madrat
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more heroic zones? No thanks I don’t even group anymore so that is wasted in me
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xpsync
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If that is the case i won’t be grabbing this xpac for quite awhile, I’ve gone 99.9% solo in this game, probably because its what made the game new to me. I’m freaking loving it, self survival through trade skills and what not, having a great time.
ToT already turned into a waste buy as i ended up starting an entire new life on Isle of Refuge server, nowhere close to any ToT material, and now it’s 50% off, lol.
Wait and see what else this xpac entails before i decide one way or another.
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GriffonLady
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I thought they made a solo/advanced version of every thing heroic? o.0 That was one of the best ideas they ever had!
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madrat
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I just hoping that we don’t redo the instances we already had back in the day. It is my worry were getting more reused instances.
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Rebelde
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Fabled Kurnark = 35 euros… No thank you
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Feldon
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Whole new overland zone. Epic 2.0 weapons. New Signature quest line. It’s a full expansion.
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Rebelde
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New overland zone or Jasarth reborn? Epic 2.0, another VP? New signature quest, new?…….. We’ll see the beta, but after 12 years, hear “Kunark” sounds like “your favourite expansion again, for more money”
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xephier
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Ya, that was my first thought when I heard “Kunark”. copy pasta strikes again…. I liked Kunark and all but if they’re going to copy pasta stuff, put it into an update, not paid content…
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EQ3orGoaway
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If they want to peel me away from BDO it’s going to have to be an incredible xpac. If it’s another currency and math (stat) expansion then I wouldn’t even consider it. Civilization 6 and BDO will keep me busy until a real sword and board game comes out.
EQ2 devs – tell your boss to sell the EverQuest franchise so someone will make EQ3. Blizzard, Trion, Pearl Abyss, I dont care as long as we get a new EverCrack. K Thanks.
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Feldon
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Daybreak will try to do an EQ3. It will just take new money, since all the old money got burned up on Agency, EQNext, FreeRealms, etc. H1Z1 and DCUO are bringing in a mint so there’s a glimmer of hope.
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xpsync
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Yea so buy more stuff off the market. /jk 🙂
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Hoot
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DCUO is still a thing? Do people even play it?
And for H1Z1…best of luck for that. Most of the people who bought that game bought it from Steam (I think it’s the only place you can buy it prob) and since they did the split and made two games out of it (wtf?) it’s gotten grilled hard. http://store.steampowered.com/app/433850/ & http://store.steampowered.com/app/295110/ and take a look at the reviews for each.
I hope a miracle happens, but at this point SoE (yeah habit calling it that) is pretty much that Warrior in EQ1 trying to zone out of Estate of Unrest trickling down to 40%…33%…16%…9% health desperately hoping he can make it before he’s killed by the train. Plus, if the Everquest franchise is to be revived, it needs fresh blood (fanbase wise) ASAP! Get some singleplayer games made, make the franchise rekindle. The only people sticking around or care for it at this point are the faithfuls.
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Hoot
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OHHHH forgot, you forgot to mention Planetside 2. PS2 is perhaps DBG’s most valued franchise at this moment. Can’t say anything for DCUO, but PS2 still has a favorable reception from the community and has definitely made a rebound over past few years.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/218230/?snr=1_7_15__13
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Feldon
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H1Z1 and DCUO are making more money. PS2 has struggled due to lack of any gameplay other than Deathmatch. The original Planetside had a lot more gameplay depth. I think they’ve been working on this though, adding stuff to PS2.
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Malade
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I’ve downloaded DCUO and thinking of trying it. This new Crit Mit, er Resolve, is killing my game experience.
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Hoot
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“H1Z1 and DCUO are making more money.”
Can I get a source for this? I mean I can see H1Z1 making a decent profit, but DCUO?
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GriffonLady
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They are certainly more popular for streaming. o.0 0 streaming EQ2, 16 streaming DC universe (but almost no viewers), and H1Z1 is in the top 15 on twitch.
Gotta admit… I’d love to see them sell H1Z1 off while it’s popular for a big bag o’ money…. Mostly because the DDOS kiddies are so attracted to it… or rather, attracted to causing trouble directed at it, and that affects all of DBGs customers.
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Hoot
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http://steamspy.com/dev/Daybreak+Game+Company
Steamspy says otherwise. And Steam is the defacto place where people have download/subscribed to each game.
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thait
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I’m hoping that they can at least mitigate some of the money cost of a new game by reusing useful assets and engine stuff they would have used for EQNext.
Overall they have to make another game, or they will just slowly wither away as time passes.
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Feldon
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EQNext is voxel-based, so that’s right out. And most of the character art is this stylized crap that won’t fit with a proper EQ3 game. I think it’s a do-over.
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xpsync
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Totally agree, people upset that they deep six’d next, i looked at it this way, opened the door for a proper sequel.
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Anaogi
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They lost the plot with the Landmark development cycle. Probably the new bosses at Daybreak said, “You don’t know WTF you’re doing, knock it off and concentrate on something useful”.
Painful, but sadly needed.
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Feldon
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Landmark was never supposed to be game. That was Georgeson campaigning for that idea, at the expense of EQNext. Landmark was always ever supposed to be the dev kit for EQNext.
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Tarb
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The proper sequel is Pantheon in my opinion.
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Einelinea
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I am right there with you Tarb, and others, no more EQ2 for me– no more millions of different kinds of money in the game for me — enough already– I’ve already given my 100 $ in support to Pantheon — too little too late EQ2
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Momster
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I am a little gun-shy about investing in Pantheon because of Brad McQuaid’s involvement. Maybe his behavior has changed since his days making Vanguard.
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Tarb
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Momster, I highly recommend watching Boogie2988’s interview with Brad as i used to think the same thing then i saw that interview and read up on what actually happened and while I think he learned a lot from that experience i don’t blame him at all for what happened.
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Seriously
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He sure learned a lot, like spend the money quicker before it dries up!
http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2014/05/38081-pantheon-rise-fallen-lead-developer-accused-taking-35k-crowdfunding-campaign/
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Tarb
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Ditto Eileniea
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Hoot
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“The proper sequel is Pantheon in my opinion.”
No no no I’m pretty sure the proper sequel will be Vanguard!
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Anaogi
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I’m guessing BDO’s slide into P2Wness doesn’t bother you much, then…
Seriously, BDO has some interesting ideas that any hypothetical EQ3 would do well to consider adding. And none of them involve the cash shop.
(Drunkenbear of Uno server, nice to meetcha!)
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EQ3orGoaway
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Sure it bothers me. I’ve already spent upwards of $1000 on BDO because I’m an altaholic. But I have not played since they released some of the p2w stuff (work, vacation, etc.). But it doesn’t seem TOO bad. They could have done worse.
Feldon – it takes money to make money. EQ3 would be a cash cow to create but it would generate more money than Sony/Daybreak has ever seen from a game. Timing of release will be key. The market is desperately waiting for it; it’s primed. BDO is great but it lacks a PVE end game and there is no class dependency (a tragic mistake they were going to make in EQN). I loved the voxel based engine but I believe they lost the contract for the technology.
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Feldon
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EQ and EQ2 produced plenty of money. Well over $100 million. It just got funneled into freewheeling nonproductive development.
The reason not to do voxels is, EQNext has even more elite hardware requirements than EQ2. You need a $300 graphics card to play it smoothly. The next EQ game needs to run on run-of-the-mill hardware. The EQNext team went around and around with 25 programmers looking at it and could not get the engine to work with the features that had been announced (fully destructible world). The cities would have had to be locked down 3D models. They announced a lot of stuff at SOE Live before they had a proof of concept.
As for timing, it took over 100 developers 3 years to make EQ2. If they start RIGHT NOW, it will be 2019.
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EQ3orGoaway
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Yes it would be time consuming and VERY expensive to recreate a destructible engine with an emergent AI. But there are times when a company (in any industry) can set a new precedent, this is one of them. Daybreak is in a position to set a new standard for gaming. The EQ franchise is the title to do it with.
Storybricks is out of business I believe. Which makes it easy to work around any patent(s) they may have filed for or have received. It’s going to take a massive development team (fresh blood, new eyes) to shake up the industry. But EQ3 has the potential to exceed the income potential of WoW. Such a game would have to appeal to all MMO players. Which means it has to be the largest MMO ever created. In other words your average base game plus 5 expansions worth of content at launch. On top of that this game would have to completely separate PVP and PVE. Allowing players the option to PVP is one thing, but forcing them (PVE focused players) into a sandbox PVP environment is a recipe for failure.
Short version – EQ3 has to be MASSIVE at launch (at least 1 years worth of entertainment before players get bored), have the most detailed and thorough tradeskill system ever seen, have class dependency, focus on alts and player retention and finally it needs to focus on PVE gameplay and PVP content/mechanics separately. MMO’s should never force any play style but encourage grouping, guilds, friendship forming and a sense of belonging. PVP integrated into PVE has the opposite effect. Should be an opt-in part of the gameplay though.
This project would cost 100 mil and take 2-3 years to develop. Daybreak is not the company to do this in my opinion. They just don’t have the cash on hand and the heart for it.
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EQ3orGoaway
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Oh and one more thing. AMD’s new Zen processors and Radeons new inexpensive video cards give devs a LOT more potential to develop a new high end MMO. AMD is coming out with new Zen server processors too. I believe they go up to 128ghz for each chip.
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Feldon
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So you’re another “The next game has to be DirectX 12 or it will fail” crowd. As if the game engine tech determines a good game.
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EQ3orGoaway
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Yes, I’m an advocate for DX12+. 🙂
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Laman
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I hope they take a lesson from GW2 in terms of graphics, concurrency and performance. It is one of the most breath-taking games I’ve ever played and runs extremely smooth. Even in WvW with 100+ people.
I hope they use at least Unreal 4 instead of the home-rolled engine they went with.
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GriffonLady
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Did you see the character creation in Aion? I loved it! I made an orangutang looking character and a toon that had a huge jack-in-the-box type head. XD Hoping more games allow as much freedom with character creation.
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Lucus
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If they do develop an everquest 3 then they need to focus on the quality of the game (i’m not talking about graphics) and pour money into it and not take too much of it’s revenue as profit/investment in other games.
if they want a sequel to succeed they need it to work on a range of system to appeal to the most number of players in many financial situations.
the way some go on about graphics is like they’ll condemn an old game they never played just because it doesn’t have the cutting edge graphics.
any sequel should have at least graphics a little better then EQ2’s at the moment. IMHO people that love cutting edge graphics will just play for a bit then find the next shiny game to play, you want players that will stay because the game is designed well.
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Raven
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Brad is working on Pantheon rise of the fallen, If your looking for more of an old school eq1 feel in a new mmo.
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Hoot
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I heard the same bullshit in 2007 with Vanguard. Is this going to be a reoccurring thing each decade where Brad comes out with a new MMO?
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Feldon
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Brad developed a substance abuse problem one year out from the release of Vanguard. At this point, there was no game. Just a lot of ideas. He became unavailable and so the team had to scramble to release something. It’s rather amazing that any game got released at all. And for their trouble, the entire dev team got escorted to the parking lot at lunch and let go. Because the game was slapped together so quickly, maintenance was impossible. There were no tools to create content. The game was sunset with launch bugs still present.
Fast forward 9 years and it actually looks like Pantheon may be something. They aren’t trying to be the next revolution. In every way, it is the ideas of the original EverQuest with just shinier graphics. We’ll see what happens, but I’ve gone from extreme skeptic to wait-and-seer.
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EQ3orGoaway
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It’s unfortunate that his personal substance abuse problem got involved in this discussion. It’s nobodies business but his own in my opinion. We’ve all done dumb shit at one point or another. It shows a history sure, but Pantheon is coming many years after Vanguard. Brad and his team seem to be going the right direction. Let’s root for them instead of condemn them. That game doesn’t need negative attention if we want it to succeed.
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Feldon
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Vanguard’s total meltdown is directly tied to this issue. Brad represented himself to all investors as the spiritual leader and creative genius of the game and then he became unavailable for a huge chunk of its development. Millions of dollars lost not to mention careers affected, sudden layoffs. There was a big ripple effect.
Pantheon seems to be doing well, which is not something I expected. The first wave of it had an Indiegogo and Brad took $40k out of that to pay himself a salary which shocked fans and infuriated developers. The current dev team for Pantheon is a new team. As an interesting footnote, Brad came back to SOE for a short time before heading off to, presumably, start Pantheon.
If it succeeds, it will be on the merits. I’m not “rooting” for anyone.
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Hoot
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Nobodies business? If you’re steering the wheel of the ship, then I have every right to know whether or not you’re responsible enough to be in the position of a leader. I don’t want the cruise to end with it crashing and sinking to the bottom of the ocean because you decided to pass out from a drug overdose. Brad was the Captain of the USS Sigil and happened to be getting high in an empty turnip crate on the lower deck causing what Feldon mentioned in his post.
So yes, it’s everyone’s business to those involved, including those who were looking forward to the game. You have to be trying really hard if you’re attempting to defend this unacceptable behavior by him.
Also, I was one of those people extremely hyped for Vanguard in 05-06, but even I was starting to feel nervous and skeptical by mid 06 when the rumors and events started piling up at the time I was in 11th grade. Yet I continued to have hope and boy was I disappointed with the open beta. Still gave them the benefit of the doubt by keeping my preorder of the Collectors Edition. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
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Griffonlady
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Always good to have examples of how substance abbuse ruins lives and any thing else it touches. Who knows which example will make an impression on some one and possibly make a differance.
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Hoot
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Isn’t it also true that most were also newcomers to the game industry that were working in the development team? I remember before 2006 there was barely any screenshots of the game and I assumed at the time that it was because of bad PR. I do remember that the concept art of Thestra wasn’t used in the final product and that they hadn’t updated the website at all to show it. I can’t believe I remember this, but I remember around mid 2007 talking to a friend that said they weren’t even using the Unreal 2’s script editor (https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Blueprints/) which meant that all the programming was spaghetti code.
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EQ3orGoaway
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When I was 12 I stole a car. When I was 14 I was charged with 4 counts of assault. I had a rap sheet a mile thick before I turned 17. I ended up becoming a city cop, federal police officer and later a business owner with 80 employees. I’m directly responsible for making a pretty major impact on some events that I can’t say here. I was a young bonehead, but a bonehead none the less. I was destined for failure. But someone saw potential in me. That opened up doors which led to great things.
All I’m saying is that time and events change people. Do you honestly think Brads team would have worked with him for the past few years if he was incapable of leading them? I’m defending him because everyone screws up and everyone deserves a second chance. Besides, we need as many games in this genre as possible. We need to throw money at it and show the industry we want more!
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Hoot
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Brad wasn’t a ‘young bonehead’ when the game was in development, you’re grasping for straws. And no, I’m going to wait until the game comes out before I give that man another chance. If I hear it’s good, I’ll take a peak at it.
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xephier
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Blizzard, no… That company has enough on it’s plate with it’s cash-baby WoW and even if they bothered with Eq3, it’d end up being cartoonie or top-down game, Bliz don’t do good grfx.
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Mermut
| #
Apparently they’re not going to put annoucements like the new expacs, producers letters, etc in the forums any more.. just on the official eq2 site and the launchpad… even deleted a thread asking why they aren’t going to post that information to their forums any more…
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Seriously
| #
I loathe RadarX with the burning intensity of a thousand suns. I’ve never come across a more inept forum moderator.
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Quelaag
| #
Honestly only a handful of people have ran the forums with any kind of logic. I’m not sure who makes the rules but they definitely haven’t been enforced properly by most of the community managers.
Thank god Smokejumper is gone though, anything that was even remotely critical of anything was just instantly removed when he was around. I’m not sure who was at fault but the forums were a nightmare back then. I also got banned during that time which was undone when SoE switched to Daybreak for some reason, not that I’m complaining.
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EQ3orGoaway
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The problem wasn’t Dave, it was Smed. He destroyed SOE because he had no foresight and refused to listen to the community.
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Feldon
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What actual industry knowledge do you have that leads you to that conclusion?
Hint: The University of Pulling Things Out of my Ass is not accredited.
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EQ3orGoaway
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I grouped with a guy once that knew a guy who’s sister worked for some lady that had a house keeper that cleaned Smeds house once. She told me at the booth she was cleaning at E3.
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GriffonLady
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That’s the university politicians come from? 0.0
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Kander
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https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/producers-letter-discussion-thread.572061/
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Foodcity
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Interesting. Any hints on where said Pre-Expansion event begins? Or are we doing it the more fun way where we find things ourselves and theres no straight path? 🙂
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Anaogi
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Hah! I miss those…
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Mermut
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The thread stating that these types of things won’t be posted in the future
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/announcements-from-main-eq2-page.572059/
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Cyliena
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Those of us who no longer play daily and have no reason to look at the website, but do frequent the forums, surely appreciate slick moves like that. /eyeroll
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Griffonlady
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That would make it easier though, wouldn’t it? Looking at the website from anywhere rather than launching the game or reading/replying on forums?
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xpsync
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Glad i’m back!
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Ardur
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whats after this? Velious Revised?
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Mizgamer62
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Good one lololol :p
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Cyliena
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Only if it’s then released over a two-year span, of course. 😉
I actually think they don’t have any part of Velious left untouched in some fashion. What about Ykesha, though?
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xephier
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No thx, ugly ass Xpac… I’d rather see more of SF, that xpac had unique art style with zone’s like the vigilant and some cool weapons and such.
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Mizgamer62
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Thanks Feldon for keep us updated! 🙂
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Treat
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Kinda weird that both EQ1 and EQ2 expacs are the same thing.
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Anaogi
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There’s been a lot of thematic linkage between the two, what with all the traffic back and forth…
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Wirewhisker
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Just as EQ1 announces their new expac as well, which will be in…Kunark.
So are both games being brainstormed and developed by the same people now, or is this just “coincidence”? Do we have a ‘merging’ event in the future, where EQ1 + EQ2 = EQ3? 😆
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Feldon
| #
EQ and EQ2 have shared designers, environment artists, character artists, and animators for the last four expansions.
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thait
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I just get the crushing feeling i’m never going to get my moon adventure. I mean don’t get me wrong i loved the Kunark expansion and would probably love more of it. But I’ve been wishing for the moon for quite a while.
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xpsync
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Damn that’d be cool, never even thought of that but omg that would be an awesome adventure.
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GriffonLady
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I’m surprised there wasn’t an xpac where we cross into the void all the void beasts came from. Or an underwater expansion. Or an expansion where we backtrack Veshan to the origin of dragons.
Or an expansion where we went back in time, screwed something up, “heros’ never happened, so we have to go back and “reinvent” ourselves and rescue everyone all over again (like in Ragnarok, you hit lvl 99 and have the option of going back to lvl 1 with a much higher stat base and get some new skills in the end, making you a much more powerful toon when you are done.)
But yah, I’ve wanted a moon based expansion for a decade or so?
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Archangel
| #
“Or an expansion where we went back in time”
GriffonLady
The original Wizardry I (1981) sequel IV(?) had a pseudo-character converter. You could sorta use a Wizardry legacy character, and sorta convert it for IV use.
IF there’s ever an EQ3, this could be an EQ1/EQ2 subscriber bonus. Where an existing character is run through an EQ3 converter*, and starts the EverQuest 3 Chrono Moon1999 (youtube.com/watch?v=09BzitMkUCw) Saga.
* Of course an imperfect conversion.**
** But one way to reserve a name.
Don’t you want to know what really happened to that gnome who went back in time and visited the moon?
When the mythical quest is completed, the character would be fully prepped for EQ3 play.
And likely found to be the villainous sod who caused the moon to explode …
And likely sentenced to put it back together …
/*
“EverQuest is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released on March 16, 1999.”
“IT’S NOT OUR FAULT!”
Dirty Pair/Lovely Angels
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GriffonLady
| #
Time travel to the time between EQ1 and EQ2 could be fun too, unless EQ1’s time line is already heading in that direction. Wouldn’t that be odd to have a convergence in timelines and merge the two games? o.0 Horrible idea, probably. XD I used to have dreams where different games would crossover on specially made servers. XD (And it was looong BEFORE I saw Wreck-It Ralph. =P)
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EQ3orGoaway
| #
If I was on the EQ3 dev team and had to build a new engine I would integrate access to multiple games, in the game itself. In other words, you would see doors and portals around the perimeter of the map that allow you to zone directly into other games.
Doing this would not only allow a multigame quest system but it would allow for the players guilds to recruit and have a presence on every game connected. Your time travel idea could be a long questline that actually forces you into EQ1 and EQ2. 💡
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Feldon
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One of the major design goals of EQ3 would be that it runs on any computer rather than requiring a heavy duty CPU and graphics card. Having you access EQ2 zones (which would of course require the EQ3 game download to include all 20GB of EQ2 content) would completely eliminate that benefit.
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EQ3orGoaway
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Not true bud. First, EQ3 will more than likely use DX11 or DX12. It would be silly for them not to do that. So it won’t just run on any computer. You have to modernize hardware to stay competitive.
Second, it’s actually very possible to circumvent having to close a game and reopen a game via your desktop icons. You buy a game, you download the game, so it’s already on your computer. There is no need to force the user to download 500 gb of games with one EQ3 download. Think outside of the box.
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Feldon
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Show me one successful game that marketed the fact that the game is built to a specific DirectX spec or requires a specific version of Windows. I’ll wait.
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EQ3orGoaway
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There are hundreds of them. Pretty much every game made since 2011. There are not many games still alive that suport dx9. BDO tried it an most dx9 players experience constant disconnects. It’s time to put a bullet in dx9 and dx10. RIP
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Feldon
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Try again. Show me one successful game that marketed the fact that the game is built to a specific DirectX spec or requires a specific version of Windows. I’ll wait.
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EQ3orGoaway
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Oh marketed. Ya sorry. I’m still drinking coffee. Umm, I can’t think of any game that intentionally advertises Direct X. It’s been my experience that NVIDIA and Radeon seem to be the promoters of APIs, for obvious reasons.
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EQ3orGoaway
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I should add something. Development kits, Autodesk and many drawing and animation software companies are not even including lesser versions of Direct X from here on out. Microsoft has halted its regular update support of old versions as well. All new platforms will be designed to be compatible with bot PC and console games. In order to achieve that they will be using the most up to date version of everything.
Supporting old infrastructure only hinders the development potential of a game. But even if Daybreak wanted to support DX9-10, etc. they may not have a choice due to other contributing factors. Keep that in mind.
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Lucus
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The only way i could see a merged EQ1 – EQ2 in an EQ3 game is if they are all the same game itself with the same art assets but separate starting and leveling zones with end game being in EQ3 and occasionally additions to the EQ1&2 areas for quests etc.
It would be kind of cool to have an EQ3 game where you can start out in ether EQ1 or EQ2 timeline then you cross over to EQ3 for higher level content.
you start out immersed in the reality of your choice and as you level up you get directed more and more to EQ3’s timeline, because something very, very bad is happening in EQ3 that affects other realities (EQ1, EQ2).
EQ1 and EQ2 in it could basically be like the asymmetrical class balance like good and evil in EQ2.
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Gary
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When I buy EQ3, it’ll be to play EQ3, not EQ1 or EQ2.
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Moose
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Kunark is my favorite expansion after KoS and knowing we are going back, is huge!
So many areas to explore and faction to grind! I was going to bypass the next expansion but they said Kunark! Curse you DBG, I will have to grind up another SK on IOR for my return to Kunark. Good thing they have double XP this weekend.
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Cyliena
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I’ll hold my full opinion until we get more details, but my initial knee-jerk reaction is that only one overland zone and multiple dungeons sounds like other expansion descriptions from the past several years.
What I’d love to see is some live server one-time events leading up to the xpack release. The old void storm events were what really pulled me back into playing EQ2.
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Katz
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I loved those void storm events! Such fun.
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Necromancer
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Still waiting for the return to the planes…
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EQ3orGoaway
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The Plane of Time is long overdue! Remember flagging everyone for that in EQ1? ZOMG.
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Zhaan
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I loved Kunark so I’m excited to see this, however I wish there was more than one overland zone. I’m tired of instances. I like the feel of an expansive world to explore (keep dreaming I know).
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Taranes
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First up, thanks to Feldon for keeping us in the know. Secondly, I’m glad to see that Kander continues to check the comments, and actually answers things too. It’s nice that a dev actually takes time out of his day to visit forums. This means that he, and the rest of the team, can get a feel for where the community is at.
Okay, now for the EQ3 discussion… I don’t get the fuss, EQNext is dead, and one of the original developers of EverQuest I & II is developing the spiritual successor to the EQ franchise. Brad McQuaid, you know the other guy who developed EQ1, EQ2, Vanguard, Galaxies, etc etc; well, he’s working on an MMO named Pantheon. (Google Pantheon MMO) Well, they’re in alpha and have a financial need to further develop that project. EverQuest, the franchise, needs the next entry of this franchise available post-haste. Daybreak should step in and provide that funding, slap EverQuest III on the project, and call it a win.
Without such a move, both Pantheon and the EverQuest franchise will compete with each other, and possibly create a rift in the community. It has the potential to get ugly, and I’ve seen this playout elsewhere (neither side ever truly wins). What Daybreak needs to do is open up their investors, pay whatever the cost is (even if it means control!) to get the deal made and done. Brad McQuaid, and his team, would need to accept that this is the best for the MMO gamers, the best chance at the funding levels needed, and the best way to support community that he helped to create.
Before anyone says anything too heated, keep in mind there isn’t a single person on the EQ team(s) that isn’t passionately involved. They all want the franchise to continue. It’s just time for something big. Besides, Kander deserves a shot at playing with that code too (LOL)
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Katz
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Does it have the lore of Everquest? If not, they couldn’t really call it by the Everquest name without causing confusion.
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EQ3orGoaway
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Okay, so after I read your comment I went and pulled up Pantheon. They have some great ideas. But to be honest it looks just like EQ1 to me. The characters, animations, mobs and particle effects look absolutely horrible. I like the class and race variety. Other than that I cant think of anything good to say about the youtube video I watched. The fonts and characters are a copy/paste of EQ1 in my opinion. Even the crappy weapon swing animation that I had on my Paladin in EQ1, it’s in Pantheon.
How could you compare that to an “EQ3”? Gameplay is important. But looks are of equal importance to most players. It’s 2016, not 1999.
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EQ3orGoaway
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Ok I can confirm the characters and animations are only placeholders in Pantheon. Brad McQuaid said that on Twitter.
Now I’m interested! Looking forward to beta.
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Cedia
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I don’t think they will compete. Forced-grouping isn’t really what EQ is about anymore.
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Moose
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Bleh on dx12 … I’m in the Windows 10 can die in a fire crowd!
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Quelaag
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I dunno I love Windows 10.
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Desius
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I wonder…
Is the expansion going to be more than another couple lackluster “hub” overland zones, each one sporting 2-3 instanced zones which have a Solo/AdvSolo/Heroic content? You know, like the last few phoned-in cut/paste jobs.
Or is the next expansion actually going to be worth buying?
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Quelaag
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I have to say that as someone who hated CoE and ToV, getting AoM for free has shown me that the developers are capable of releasing content that doesn’t suck. So far I’ve really enjoyed AoM with the exception of all the NPCs calling me male when my character is female.
I’m actually considering buying the new expansion to get access to ToT and KR, which is something I never thought I would do again after ToV. So great job whoever made AoM, it was DEFINITELY a step in the right direction from the previous two expansions.
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Feldon
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The irony is, it was mostly the same team. I think the big difference was not raising the level cap.
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zzzzzzzz's
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Raising level caps just mean 3-4 days of grinding to max level and then what? Back to the same old same old. Level increase isn’t the answer. Solid content with decent reward that doesn’t depend on RNG would be a HUGE help to reviving the game. Many players are frustrated with seeing the same people win all the time just because they got luckier dice on NBG rolls in groups. There is no rhyme or reason to why some toons win almost everything on a heroic run while other toons come up empty handed. Also – No trade content (especially shiny rewards is just lame). Why make armor rewards no trade? At least make them heirloom so you can put them on a toon that can use the item. It makes no sense at all to have a no trade plate piece go to the mage wearing cloth or vice versa. I also think the game needs to add hard mode to regular heroics/adv solos about mid point into an xpac to give the current content new life with a challenge.
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Dano
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The whole year the devs said that they don’t want to add any new content (as in new never seen before content) for the Thalumbra expansion in order to create a bigger expansion
Than i saw Kander’s post about the size of the upcoming expansion the forum. It is a slap in the face…….
Another ToV/ToT Solo Festival size expansion…………….
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EQ3orGoaway
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This surprises you? Look at their history of SOE under Smed, “All Access” that stopped being “all access” the second they launched a new game, EQL affiliation to EQN to generate preorders and then changing the name after the high priced preorders stopped rolling in, Canceling EQN because “it isn’t fun”, I can go on and on but those are the big ones.
Expect to be disappointed and you’ll be on par with the rest of the gaming community. That’s why I wish they would sell the EverQuest franchise.
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Malade
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If it’s more of ‘log in run these dailies and log out’, and there is basically nothing else to do in the downtime, but the dailies are required ‘work’, it’s not going anywhere fast.
EQDaily is basically what we have now.
The whole ‘your facial expressions on your character’ are worthless in the treadmill environment we have. And voxels were more playstation than MMORPG IMO.
They’ve lost their way, the RPG is almost gone. A return to that is what is needed.
Make Norrath great again? haha
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Chris
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Once again I have returned to EQ2, a truely great MMO. Just playing for the fun of the adventure, doing whatever I feel like, running quests, collecting shinies, a bit of harvesting (harvester cloak here I come!) and some crafting and decorating on the side. It’s nice to be back home 🙂
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xpsync
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I’m recently back too. Such a variety of stuff to do is refreshing.
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Daplanesdaplanes
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Is it wrong that I wish I could die crafting like in the old days?
I found an exceptional poison vial the other day and I got all nostalgic 🙂
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GriffonLady
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XD you could always start a dual with some one and then start crafting. =P
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Maachilie
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Its a joke, isnt it ?!?!?
Daybreak only needed some month to kill my Guild/Raidforce/Server
Hundreds of german people left Valor and Thurgadin befor and after the merge…
Thousands of People in other countrys in the world done the same.
Many Raidfroces died after the Merge….
For WHO exactly Daybreak want to make a new addon ?
maybe only for themselves…?
Does Daybreak realy think we are coming back after this desaster ????
First April or something like that ??????
👿
Daybreak NEVER get only one cent from us again !!!!
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Rebelde
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If it costs 35 € I won’t get it, and yes, Kurnark was my favourite expansion, but after 12 years I’ll say “stop”, it’s too expensive.
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Griffonlady
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I know, right? I’ve always wondered why the retail collector’s editions I used to buy were so much cheaper than a downloaded CE nowadays. They had manufacturing, packaging, shipping, a pewter figure someone had to sculpt an original, make molds, pour molten mettal (or coins to stamp), maps to print, retail stores to deal with, and that was just the IRL stuff that came with the game! (I miss those goodies!)
How is a downloaded copy of the program so much more expensive? Even the one expansion I remember both retail and DL being available, the digital version was more expensive. O.o Selling digital coppies should be cheaper, should it not? Makeing it affordable would make it more accessable to potential new and returning players, wouldn’t it? (That and some how enableing it to play on lower end PCs?) And maybe I’m wrong here, but if you sell 10,000 copies for $1,400,000.00 ($140.00 each), there’s no difference/loss in selling 100,000 for $1,400,000.00 ($14.00 each), particularly when each of those 100,000 people (well, ok… multiboxers, so probably 4,000 people? =p) can potentially spend $100 or more that same year? And since expansions become free in 2 years, selling more when they are the new shiny thing = more people to socially interact and potentialy stick around to support the game/buy stuff and/or subscribe, makeing more resources for the next update and expansion.
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Tomatoh
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Yeah I still have my EQ1 EVERQUEST MINIATURES – ‘FIRIONA VIE’ & DRAGON 2” TALL METAL FIGURINES (2001) but I can’t remember where I got this guy holding a pistol (SWG I think) and the riding Warboar in armour
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xephier
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Ya, you mentioned all the IRL stuff. The Vanilla game also came with voice acting and at least one big name on the voice actor list, something there’s hardly any of that’s not recycled(if any at all) these days. Not to mention original content, not rehashes of old xpacs like the upcoming Kunark xpac. They put out 10% of the work and want more money for it, stupid company is stupid and that’s why it’s DB now. If you’re going to buy out a game company, ya’d think of making improvements on the top selling games that ultimately failed instead of scraping the bottom of the barrel for what SOE left behind.
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Fullbuster
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I as a child grew up on SOE. Everquest was the start for me. The world was amazing everything seemed to be so magical. I still remember Rivervale being the upbeat little town with the trumpet like music. I miss the magic that SOE used to give not just me but every EQ player. I started playing EQ when I was 6 now I’m 24 years old… That’s 18 years of Eq1 and Eq2 I can proudly say that words can not express my passion for these games. Its a huge shame that EQN was a flop but its time to pick up the pieces and start rebuilding EQ needs to be the number one MMO title that it deserves. WOW has nothing on the pure Epicness that EQ brings to the table. Everyone has been wanting a good team who loves EQ a much as we all do. We all want that magic and sense of brotherhood and family that we received in these games. So someone pick up the smoldering embers of our beloved game and rekindle the franchise and make it the #1 mmo that it is!!
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Feldon
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I imagine there will be an EverQuest 3. It will be a long time before we hear anything.
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Saveyourmoney
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The new xpac, with their theme of “lets have players blither their way around aimlessly, mousing over every inch of a dungeon without a clue as to why they are wasting their time” is retarded. Complete and utter waste of time, and more frustrating than fun.
Fix your artwork at least so you don’t have to zoom all the way in to see what you’re f**king looking for half the time.
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Wurm
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I agree, I wasted over an hour last night trying to find a scroll or book to click in the spire. I got fed up and went to bed. Woke up this morning tried again before going to work, same thing.
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Zanba
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I have to say guys. I been playing all weekend. This is the first expansion since probably ROK that just reaches out and grabs me. I love the new overland mobs and layout. All the way from the art to the story-lines. I see a very bright future if you guys stay on this path. Well, except for that Nye’ faction…LOL! Kudos to the whole Dev team and everyone on the EQ2 team. HOMERUN!
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