EQ2 ZAM Chat concludes

And that concludes the EQ2 ZAM Chat.

Guests were:

• Alan <Brenlo> – EQ2 Producer
• Brett <timetravelling> – Dungeons/Content
• Nathan <Kaitheel> – Live Events/Quests
• <Gninja> – Quests, Zone Design, Live Events
• Greg <Rothgar> – Lead Programmer
• Paul C. <Frizznik> – Mechanics
• Paul M. <Cronyn> – Lore, Content, Quests
• Emily <Domino> – Tradeskills

Rough Chat Logs of this event are now available at EQ2 ZAM.

Some of the topics that stuck out to me:

• Brenlo: At the moment we have no plans to (have) LON cards (drop from mobs). That is why we went to giving each active player 5 packs a month.  We like the current delivery method as it gives every player the cards regularly.
• In response to the idea of changing Adventure class (for example, a high level tradeskiller not satisfied with the adventure class they chose), Rothgar replied with: This is something we’ve talked about and understand that it would be a desired feature. However, we don’t have a timeframe on it and haven’t worked out the details.  We’ll have some more discussion on it and see if we can work it in soon ™.
• In response to a question about more PvP options on PVE servers and giving casual PvP battlegrounds, Brenlo replied with: I would look for a big announcement in the very near future.
• With regards to Shaders, Rothgar advised us: We are still working hard on the Shader 3.0 system.  This is a huge amount of work to convert all of our thousands of existing shaders into the new model.  We still have some challenges to overcome and we’re still tweaking performance.  We don’t have a date yet as to when we will push it to Test, but as soon as we feel comfortable with the final product, we will let you know.
• Winwin chimed in with this question which I’m sure many of you would like to know the answer: Do you guys have a tentative date for the race change service on station cash? The answer? Tentatively scheduled for October 20th.
• And for those of you who might have heard about the EverQuest II Complete Collection box coming out on the 19th, note that it does not have an in-game item. It is meant to get boxes on the retail shelf and attract more new players. New players would get 60 days of free gameplay.

Regarding Class Balance, Aeralik chimed in with these answers:

• Summoners will see some signifcant changes to reduce the number of pet lines.  Summoners will have one fighter pet line and one dps pet line in the summoner tree. The dps pet line will work on scout/mage pets. The int line will then transform into something like the summoner version of the rogue strength line.
• Rogues will see the wisdom line changed to be more inline with current itemization.
• The (priests) cure lines are all seeing a number of changes.  We are also looking at individual abilities make sure they are desirable.

and one of my questions:

• What role (if any) will Armor and Weaponsmiths have in the expansion? Mastercrafted items would have to be incredible to be desirable at their classic level of 82.  Will we see level 90 mastercrafted gear become important, as other games are doing?

got the reply from Domino:

• We’re not planning a *completely* different direction for mastercrafted gear at this point, however we’re definitely aware that it’s going to have to  be balanced assuming that many people will be wearing at least some shard gear.  It’s something I’ve been working with Fyreflyte to balance, and we’ll probably need to continue the balancing based on feedback during beta.
• Both armor and weapons will definitely be seeing a lot more nice blue stats, for one thing.  And I know I can count on you and others in here for honest and helpful feedback!

and in relation to Item Degradation:

• Fendy:  Can we have any more details on how item degradation is going to work?  When can we expect to hear more?
• Frizznik: We are looking at the system now. It is a work in progress so we can’t give exact details of what it is right now because we are still working them out.  We are trying really hard to make sure that you don’t lose overall power from one level to the next, and will want to get items that provide better power gains for you.  We will definitely be providing information in advance so will have notice of what it is. When we know, you will know.  🙂

Here’s another cool question that got answered only in #EQ2FFA:

• Artemiz: Should we expect more raid style scripted encounters in the heroic zones for Sentinels Fate like the ones in the Shard zones for TSO or something more casual players will find fun as well?
• timetravelling:  Yes and Yes? The scripted encounters have actually been quite popular. One of the big pieces of feedback we received though was the desire for more ‘casual’ content, and we’ve created quite a bit of that as well!

and about Antonia Bayle:

• Rothgar: As soon as we get the Venekor merge behind us we will be looking at upgrading the DB hardware for AB.

Again, this is just questions I picked out that I thought would appeal to EQ2Wire readers. I will be doing a Survey soon to find out just who my audience is.

Where do the Questions Come From?

The questions asked in the EQ2 Dev Chats come from user submissions. Developers who participate in the chat see the COMPLETE LIST of UNFILTERED questions that ZAM submits. They see the best and the worst. The fluff and the hard, controversial questions. They go through and decide what questions they can answer. Generally these are not “When are you going to fix Brawlers?” or “When are raids not going to suck so much?” or questions that will get a “we are still looking into that”.

I know there were a lot of complaints in the #EQ2FFA (free for all) chatroom saying that controversial questions weren’t asked or answered.  They receive a ton of questions in advance, and they usually get through all of these, and then start trying to get through the questions asked during the chat. You have a much better chance of getting your question in if you submit it a few days in advance. They may also be able to get you a better answer. If you want your question to get asked, submit your question in advance. I do.

I do not work for EQ2 ZAM. I do not work for SoE either. It’s helpful to be independent sometimes. 🙂 I do hang out sometimes in ZAM’s EQ2 chat channel just to shoot the breeze. I do submit questions to Calthine as they come to my mind. I also try to think of questions that the developers can answer. ANYONE can submit questions to Calthine @ ZAM.

If folks think I’m getting favoritism or think that my questions have a better chance, then by all means post your question to me as a Comment, or send it to me using the new Contact Us form. I’ll save em up, clean them up so they might get answered, and submit them. If I already know the answer, I’ll send you a reply. 🙂